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Railroad Newsline for Monday, February 26, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

RAILROAD FIRM SEES GREAT OPPORTUNITIES WITH TSRR

PALESTINE, TX -- When Al Harper explains his ideas for the Texas State Railroad, it’s quickly apparent that the 25-mile tourist train represents more than just another business venture.

Harper’s company, American Heritage Railways of Coral Gables, Florida, was selected Thursday by the TSRR Operating Agency as the top choice out of four companies to take over operations of the historic state park, should the state agree to let control shift from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department to a private operator.

“We’re excited to be coming,” Harper said Friday. “We’re very confident and thrilled about the potential of the Texas State Railroad.”

American Heritage operates a pair of successful tourist trains in Colorado and North Carolina -- the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The company also holds the license for the Polar Express® and Thomas the Tank Engine® specialty trains.

Paul Schranck, company vice president and general manager, said those two specialty trains in particular tend to draw large crowds whenever they run because of the attraction to children.

“Special events are big,” Schranck said. “They draw families with young kids. You’re going to see a whole new demographic (brought) to the area.

“The Polar Express® probably carried nationwide 250,000 riders. There’s no reason we can’t get 30,000 riders (on the TSRR) the first couple of times we run. Thomas the Tank Engine® is phenomenal with families with children.”

Ridership also stands to increase with the addition of an advertising budget to promote the railroad to potential visitors in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and other large cities within driving distance, something that the TP&WD has not had for its state parks.

In addition, Harper said that his company wants to promote the history surrounding rail travel, as well as the local area.

“We’re believers in history,” Harper said. “We’re absolutely committed to saving the Texas State Railroad’s history and we believe the best way is to make it profitable.”

Spending an afternoon riding the rails and experiencing a piece of history helps provide a greater appreciation of the events that shaped America’s growth, Harper said.

“History is important,” Harper said. “It tells us what the character of the nation is. It’s how we understand why we are the way we are. It’s the roadmap of the future.”

Couple the history and specialty events to the area’s rolling hills, pine trees and dogwoods, as well as the railroad’s facilities and equipment, and the potential for growth is tremendous, company officials said.

“We could not be more excited,” Harper said. “The Texas State Railroad is absolutely a diamond in the rough. It’s going to be a great thing for the company and a fantastic venture for Palestine and Rusk.

“There’s every ingredient for great success. With the kinds of things that we can do, the special events (such as the Polar Express® trains and Thomas the Tank Engine®), we feel very confident that we can double ridership.”

One of the most important ingredients to the railroad’s success, Schranck said, has been the employees who have kept the trains and facilities running and in as good condition as possible under budget constraints.

“I think that one of the keys to success is the employee base who feel committed to the railroad and the community,” Schranck said. “We’re not going to try to bring in a bunch of people to take money out of the area. Our goal is to retain employees.” - Beth Foley, The Palestine Herald

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BNSF COAL TRAIN DERAILS AT BROKEN BOW, NEBRASKA

At approximately 18:45 CT, Saturday, February 24, 2007 BNSF Railway Company coal train C NAMMHS0-39 derailed 13 cars blocking both main tracks at Broken Bow, Nebraska. This location is approximately 48 miles west of Ravenna, Nebraska.

Officials with BNSF said there were no injuries.

They say the derailment did block several road crossings.

While it is still under investigation, officials say it looks like it was caused by a broken wheel.

Main track two was returned to service at 19:30 CT, Sunday, February 25, 2007. Main track two is estimated to be returned to service at 21:00 CT, Monday, February 26, 2007.

Customers may experience delays between 36 and 48 hours on traffic moving through the corridor. - BNSF Service Advisiory and KHAS-TV5, Hastings/Kearney/Grand Island/Lincoln, NE

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RIDING THE RAILS OF THE FUTURE: MOMENTUM GATHERS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHT SPEED TRAIN CORRIDOR

TEXARKANA, TX -- The dream to develop a higher-speed passenger and shipping corridor on rail lines in this region could be one railroad tie closer to reality.

A loose group of regional and industry groups, including both the public and private sectors, is starting to come together and discuss options for the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor.

Texarkana sits right on one of those corridor links designated by the Federal Railroad Administration in October 2000. One link goes from Little Rock to Fort Worth while another spokes up to Oklahoma City and Tulsa from Fort Worth with the corridor also continuing down to San Antonio.

Peter LeCody is president of Texas Rail Advocates, one of the groups spearheading the effort to get more done on the high performance rail project.

“This is kind of the first baby step in a long process,” said LeCody about getting groups together and working across state lines.

In late January, his group held the South Central High Performance Rail Conference. Interested parties like the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Texas Department of Transportation, Union Pacific, Amtrak and the Port of Houston Authority all attended.

“The importance is that the freight traffic and passenger rail traffic is already established,” said LeCody.

Among improvements needed to covert the line between Fort Worth and Little Rock are better signaling, some double track and possibly eliminating some dangerous highway rail crossings, he said.

That link of the corridor would be along the Union Pacific line, generally following Interstate 20 and then up to Texarkana and the Arkansas capitol.

The East Texas Corridor Council, a separate organization from the Texas Rail Advocates working on a similar mission, recently held a meeting that brought out lots of support, said chairman Celia Boswell of Mineola, Texas.

“Our mission is real specific. We want higher speed rail along the traditional route ... through Texarkana and then along the I-20 corridor to Dallas/Fort Worth. That is our express purpose,” said Boswell.

She said the organization first got active back in the mid-1990s when Amtrak considered cutting the Texas Eagle line.

She said interest for higher speed rail has been shown in their group both from Arkansans and Shreveport residents.

“If we’re able to do what needs to be done, which is to have the higher speed rail along this corridor, then we’ll be able to have much greater freight capacity ... moving the freight faster and more efficiently,” Boswell said, noting more capacity is needed.

About the Texas Rail Advocates’ effort to put higher speed rail in the spotlight, she said, “We align with them and we hope they support the I-20 corridor as avidly as we do.”

In Texarkana, developing a high speed rail corridor strikes Texarkana Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Sandford as a good idea.

“The chamber is cautiously optimistic about the potential availability of high speed rail in our area,” said Sandford. “It has proven to be an added benefit in other regions who have this type of rail service. Much is still to be done, as it is anytime there is a public-private partnership, but the chamber will be following and investigating this effort as more information becomes available.”

Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak, said ridership growth has been seen systemwide with the public wanting more choices beyond flying and driving.

He said Amtrak has been partnering for a while with groups like Texas Rail Advocates to get a service increase, the primary impediment being a lack of a federal funding partner.

“We see partnerships with states and regional entities as a key part of our growth strategy,” said Magliari.

He said a funding mechanism to bring service expansion through a federal capital partnership has been proposed in the U.S. Senate.

“If there is a federal partnership created for capital expenses for this kind of service increase, that would be a landmark,” said Magliari. He said that kind of funding partnership has existed for other forms of transportation but not for rail.

During January’s conference, Mike Sims, a senior program manager for NCTCOG, spoke about that group’s interest in promoting high speed rail, saying it connects to the overall health of transportation.

“One of the reasons that the North Central Texas Council of Governments is so excited about stepping in and helping out to support this cause is that we’ve always believed from a long-term standpoint it’s the interconnections between different areas that make for the synergy you’ve got to have to have a long-lasting, strong economic region,” Sims said in January.

And the capacity is needed, said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. He said freight volume nationally is expected to double between now and 2035.

“If you look at the challenge of serving, meeting the mobility needs of this country, it’s absolutely clear you can’t do it with highways alone. And I think that’s a growing consensus around the country,” said Horsley, noting that’s true for passengers as well as freight on the rail lines.

LeCody said right now, though, no funds are available to develop these high speed rail lines here.

“If funding was available today, you could start to see improvements in the next five years,” he said. This plan wouldn’t require taking out large amounts of property like the Trans-Texas Corridor would.

He said though the organization hasn’t taken a formal stance on the Trans-Texas Corridor, the way rail fits into that mega-project is unclear. And he said gridlock will probably be seen at most major rail junctions in the next five to 10 years.

LeCody proposes a different way to look at funding rail, as well.

“One of the biggest problems is that everybody thinks that passenger rail service should be profitable, but let’s put it this way, when was the last time the interstate made a profit?” he said.

LeCody said the next step is to coordinate the councils of governments, municipal planning organizations and rail coalitions to determine the best course of action to seek federal and state funding or appropriations for a corridor study. - Aaron Brand, The Texarkana Gazette

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CN AND UTU REACH TENTATIVE SETTLEMENT

MONTREAL, QC -- The Canadian National Railway is pleased to announce Saturday that it has reached a tentative settlement with the United Transportation Union (UTU).

Details of the settlement will be released at a later date.

The UTU’s 2,800 conductors and yard-service employees remain on strike at CN pending ratification.

CN continues to offer freight service across its network in Canada with management personnel filling in for striking UTU members.

CN’s other unionized employees remain on the job in Canada and the United States. Excluded from strike action are UTU members employed on CN’s Northern Quebec Internal Short Line, Algoma Central Railway in northern Ontario, and Mackenzie Northern Railway in northern Alberta. - Mark Hallman, CN News Release

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FREIGHT SLOWDOWN SPURS U.P. LAYOFFS

OMAHA, NE -- Union Pacific Railroad laid off 124 train-service workers and placed 455 more workers on part-time status due to weakened freight demand.

No Nebraska or Iowa workers were affected by the layoffs or schedule reductions, which took place in January, a spokeswoman for the Omaha-based railroad said Friday.

The layoffs were caused by a slowdown in freight from the construction, domestic auto manufacturing and industrial sectors, said Shannon Sherman.

"These layoffs are in regions of the country where the company relies on construction-related business, chemicals or the big-three domestic automakers in Detroit," she said. "There's been a slowdown in freight volumes."

More layoffs might be ahead, but the company does not expect them to be widespread, she said. There is no timeline for additional layoffs, she said.

The laid-off workers could be called back to work, she said. "But it depends on when the economy picks up."

The areas where the layoffs occurred were: Kansas City; North Little Rock, AR; Lavonia, LA; Houston; San Antonio; Tucson, AZ; Utah; Portland, OR; Roseville, CA.

Workers were placed on reduced schedules in the same locations, as well as in Fort Worth, Texas, and Denver.

Despite the layoffs, the company plans to hire between 3,000 and 4,000 people this year to offset attrition as older workers retire, Sherman said. The hiring will be in areas where freight demand remains strong, she said.

The layoffs follow a year in which U.P. reported stronger earnings.

The company reported net income for 2006 of about $1.61 billion, or $5.91 per share. That's an increase of about 57 percent from 2005 net income of about $1.03 billion, or $3.85 per share.

Fourth-quarter net income totaled $485 million, or $1.78 per share, a 64 percent increase over $296 million, or $1.10 per share, for the same period in 2005.

The company's performance in 2006 was its second year in a row of earnings growth after several years of struggling to overcome slowed service, congestion and record demand that coincided with a shortage of train-service workers.

The company has projected 2007 revenue will grow between 6 percent and 7 percent, with earnings of $6.50 to $6.80 per share. - Stacie Hamel, The Omaha World Herald

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LEGISLATION TO HALT DM&E EXPANSION FACES LONG ODDS

WASHINGTON, DC -- Minnesota lawmakers return to Washington next week hoping to advance legislation to stop the pending $2.3 billion federal loan to the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad, yet there are no clear indications that they will get the bill enacted into law.

The Federal Railroad Administration, an agency within the Transportation Department, is currently within a 90-day review of the company's financial condition, and is to make its decision on the loan by early May.

The loan is key to the privately held company's plans to finance a combined $6 billion extension into Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal fields, along with upgrades to its Midwest rail network.
The Mayo Clinic, with the city of Rochester, Olmsted County and the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, have long sought to kill the project because of fears of increased downtown train traffic, and the groups have mounted a public campaign against the loan.

The new bill would require congressional approval of any Transportation Department loan of $1 billion or more. Rep. Tim Walz, the freshman Democrat from Mankato, on Feb. 16 introduced the House version, and Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced a Senate companion.

Walz's bill has been sent to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., while the Senate bill has been sent to the Senate Commerce Committee. It must be signed into law before the loan is approved, putting lawmakers on very tight timetable.

Walz said he intends to use his seat on the transportation committee to push for quick consideration, but acknowledged he has yet to win Oberstar's support. He also acknowledged that the Senate bill could be killed by a filibuster, if need be, by DM&E-backer Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who lobbied for the railroad before winning his seat in 2004. In 2005 Thune pushed through a provision to expand and change the FRA's railroad construction loan program to help DM&E.

"Can he kill this thing? He very well could," Walz said. "But I can guarantee you that it will be very, very, scrutinized for him to do such a thing now."

The bill had not spurred strong reaction as of Friday. Thune had yet to respond publicly, despite requests for comment, nor had Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D. She previously sought to stop a move by Walz to get the House to conduct oversight hearings into the loan.

DM&E President and chief executive Kevin V. Schieffer downplayed the threat posed by the bill to the loan. Schieffer said in an interview that the company will respond to legislative action if the need arises, but would not comment further.

He went on to reject claims that the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Program, to which the railroad has applied, needs additional scrutiny or that it is a giveaway of taxpayer dollars. Walz, Mayo and other critics contend the program is too secretive and does not allow for adequate public input.

"Anybody who has spent any time on this sees through the weakness of the arguments on the other side. I have a lot of faith that people who spend time on this and are charged with administering this will do it and do it in good faith," Schieffer said, referring to officials at the FRA and the Transportation Department.

He said the RRIF program, including its predecessor, has "an extraordinarily good track record," and that Mayo does not have the facts to back up its claims that the loan will be a boondoggle.

"These are things that gets PR (public relations) firms excited and lawyers excited and media guys excited, but when you get down to the core of it, there's just no traction there on the merits. I have some faith in the merits,"

Schieffer said approval of the loan, if it comes, will entail numerous conditions, including proof that the railroad will have enough business to repay the loan. He also said the loan approval would not close the door to a mitigation agreement with Mayo and Rochester, although he said he can't say what that agreement might entail because the opponents have yet to prove new risks to federal regulators and in court.

"It's not too late for mitigation, ever," he said. - Edward Felker, The Rochester Post-Bulletin

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GROWERS SAY PROPOSED RAIL ROUTE TO MEXICO A THREAT

PHOENIX, AZ -- A proposed new Mexican seaport could provide Union Pacific Railroad with a major business opportunity -- trainloads of shipping containers of imported goods to haul to points across the United States.

But southwestern Arizona farmers say that opportunity for Union Pacific could spell trouble for them.

After rumors had Yuma-area residents wondering last year what Union Pacific was up to, the Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad is shedding light on its possible involvement in a multicompany project to build and operate a seaport at Punta Colonet in Baja California.

Union Pacific says plans for the project are still under development but that it has started acquiring options to buy property for the U.S. portion of a 200-mile (322-kilometer) spur that container trains could travel between UP's east-west "Sunset Route" main line near Yuma and the proposed seaport.

With U.S. ports on the West Coast congested, Mexico has several projects in the works to expand existing ports or establish new ones to offload Asian imports. Meanwhile, in the U.S., UP already is upgrading the Sunset Route, adding a second track through Arizona to increase its capacity to move trains. The Sunset Route main line runs from Louisiana to California.

The U.S. portion of the proposed new line would need up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) of track in Yuma County in an area where farmers now grow lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and other crops on irrigated fields between the city of Yuma and a Marine Corps base on the west and a sprawling military bombing range to the east.

Farmers and their supporters acknowledge the railroad lately has started providing some information, but they say they still are troubled. The contemplated new line would take some farm land and trains traveling the route would disrupt their agricultural operations and pose environmental and safety risks, growers said.

"All we see now is downsides for us," said Paul Muthart, general manager of a family owned produce company.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said UP expects the Mexican government to solicit proposals for Punta Colonet this spring and to pick successful bidders later this year, with port operations starting in 2012.

Davis said he could not provide specifics about property options being acquired in the Yuma area, the company's potential partners in the Punta Colonet project group or a total price tag.

Yuma growers and their supporters drew support at the Arizona Legislature when they complained about the project and Union Pacific's handling of it.

A House committee endorsed a bill sponsored by a Yuma lawmaker to make railroads disclose any land acquisitions or option purchases for rights of way, and to hold a public hearing on a project's impact.

"We need to get this out in the open. I see this bill at least being a good start," said grower Robert Barkley.

Yuma has a tradition of embracing new projects but Union Pacific did not reciprocate by being open and frank about its intentions, said Ken Rosevear, Yuma County Chamber of Commerce executive director.

And the stakes are high, going beyond not-in-my-backyard objections, Rosevear told legislators. "This is an issue of an attack on our No. 1. industry, which is agriculture."

Davis said UP estimates it initially would run six trains daily on the new line if it is built. The Sunset Route's daily average is 45, he said.

Critics such as Muthart say their calculations, based on freight projections for the proposes seaport, put the spur line's traffic at 90 trains at day.

With farm equipment to move between fields and trucks making numerous runs to drop off harvested crops, "this isn't a minor inconvenience," Muthart said. "It's pray to God there's a break in the train traffic so you can" cross the tracks.

And with crops along the tracks, "I can imagine when I see smoke and exhaust coming out of a diesel engine, it's got to fall to the ground somewhere," Muthart said.

Davis said UP's locomotive fleet is increasingly environmentally friendly, with more than 50 percent meeting current federal air-quality standards. Those that don't have to come into compliance at certain major maintenance points or be phased out, he said.

Davis and an attorney for UP said the Yuma area could benefit from the project. There could be additional jobs from the rail line itself, and the connection to a new Mexican seaport could attract economic development, they said.

"To some businesses, that's very attractive," Davis said.

Also, farmers who depend on transportation to move their goods to market should help accommodate those systems, said Steve Hirsch, an attorney for UP.

Another concern for property owners is that Arizona law lets railroads use eminent domain to compel land sales for rights of way.

"Those are the threats being used," Barkley said.

Davis said eminent domain would be "the last resort" for the railroad. "We go to great lengths not to use it because it is better to work with the community because we're going to be there for a long time. You don't want to get off on adversarial foot." - The Associated Press, The International Herald Tribune

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COMPUTER GLITCH HALTED AMTRAK

The widespread power failure that shut down passenger rail service between New York and Washington last year occurred because a computer failed to execute a single command, Amtrak announced Friday.

Many state lawmakers rushed to blame the May 25 outage on Amtrak's aging infrastructure, which includes power converters built in 1915. But the computer was only four years old, and its failure reduced power capacity when Amtrak needed it most -- during morning rush hour on the nation's busiest passenger railroad.

"It is a small piece of equipment, similar to a motherboard, that sits on a rack," said Karina Romero, an Amtrak spokeswoman. "It is nothing huge, but it certainly had an effect on our service."

The system actually functioned with reduced power for 36 hours, according to an investigation by an outside authority, the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

But the system reached its breaking point at 8:10 a.m., when several power substations shut down. The blackout stranded about 2,000 passengers on NJ Transit trains inside the Hudson River rail tunnels.

NJ Transit officials said Friday that they were satisfied with the findings.

"Amtrak has assured us that they have taken the appropriate steps to prevent a reoccurrence," NJ Transit said in a statement.

In its own statement, Amtrak acknowledged the May 25 outage was "the first rush-hour incident of this magnitude in U.S. railroad history."

Amtrak characterized the finding as a vindication of its capital program under former President David Gunn, who focused on improving Amtrak's infrastructure during his four-year tenure.

"We do have some systems that certainly go back to the 1920s, but we maintain them on a regular basis to make sure they are able to handle that capacity," Romero said.

Commuter railroads such as NJ Transit also rely on Amtrak's power-supply system, where frequency converters step down commercially provided power to a level that is used by the railroad.

For several days before the outage, Amtrak had reduced the output of one of the converters, known as Richmond, as workers performed maintenance on it.

The computer that failed was supposed to increase Richmond's power to normal levels.

When that didn't happen, the load was shifted to five other substations that provide power to the Northeast Corridor. Three of them sensed an overload and shut down.

"It was a domino effect," Romero said.

Amtrak officials have since discovered that they do not have to restrict power output during maintenance. They also requested that the computer's manufacturer add a feature to alert officials if it does not perform a command, she said. - David A. Michaels, The Herald, North Jersey Media Group

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MAN DIES AFTER FALLING OFF TRAIN

LARAMIE, WY -- A man fell off a train and died about a mile south of Rock River, in southeastern Wyoming, the Albany County sheriff's department said.

Union Pacific Railroad employees reported finding a man's body near the railroad tracks at about 22:40 Monday.

An autopsy determined the man died from injuries he sustained after falling off an eastbound train. He was identified by his fingerprints, with the assistance of the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation crime lab.

Authorities believe the man may have been a Mexican national and not a Wyoming resident.

The death is still under investigation. His name will not be released until his family is notified, the sheriff's office said.

Anyone with information about the man's death is asked to call the sheriff office at 307-721-2526 or 800-821-3711. - The Billings Gazette

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'GREEN' TRAINS STOP IN OAKLAND

OAKLAND, CA -- A different kind of train tour stops in Oakland, California Friday. Union Pacific and GE are teaming up to show off the latest in green technology when it comes to reduce pollution from locomotives.

Union Pacific says it has five of the latest, up-to-date locomotives. Two of the five are experimental. One of them is a yard locomotive -- it reduces emissions by 80-percent and it uses 60-percent less fuel. UP has ordered 60 of these locomotives so they can actually start using them in California.

For now, these locomotives are on tour around California to show them off. They've shown them to federal and local officials, and that's what they plan to do in Oakland on Friday.

Mark Davis, spokesman, Union Pacific: "It's fun to show -- not only elected officials, but regulators -- what the rail industry is doing in reducing emissions in an industry that's already one of the most environmentally-friendly when you move bulk materials."

This tour will go all around California -- it came in from Sacramento to Oakland on Thursday night. It will wrap up in Long Beach. - KGO-TV7, San Francisco, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr

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MAN DIES AFTER TRAIN HITS CAR STUCK BETWEEN GATES

SUISUN CITY, CA -- An 82-year-old man was killed Friday after his car was struck by a passenger train.

The car driven by Van Smith of Suisun City apparently was trapped between railroad closing gates, said David Curl, a Solano County deputy sheriff-coroner. Witnesses said Smith momentarily stepped out of the car, a Saturn, before trying to get it out of the train's path.

There were no injuries to the 164 passengers or two crew members on the Coast Starlight, Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said. The 10-car train left Seattle on Thursday en route to Los Angeles.

Graham said she did not know how fast the train was traveling but said the permitted speed is 79 mph on the section of track a mile north of the Fairfield-Suisun station.

Tracks were closed in both directions about two hours after the 10:00 collision, delaying the Coast Starlight and two northbound trains, she said. - The Associated Press, The Monterey County Herald, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr

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BILLBOARDS AROUND ILLINOIS TOUT GALESBURG

Photo here: [www.register-mail.com]

Caption reads: Galesburg tourism officials Diane Bruening, left, and Jean Jacob hold up a small-scale version of the new billboard promoting Galesburg on Friday afternoon at the Galesburg Welcome Center. (Photo by Bill Gaither/The Register-Mail)

GALESBURG, IL - Tourism is a growing industry in Galesburg, Illinois, one expected to expand even more over the next few years. The Galesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau is hoping billboards across the state will help attract even more visitors.

Diane Bruening, executive director of the local CVB, said billboards touting visits to Galesburg are in place on U.S. 67, north of Macomb; on U.S. 34 and Carman Road, just east of Burlington, Iowa; and on Interstate 80 in LaSalle-Peru. Plans call for a billboard on Interstate 74, near Peoria, on April 1, and others near Springfield and the Quad Cities set for later dates.

Local tourism officials hope a steam engine used on the billboards will become something travelers will automatically associate with Galesburg. Bruening said the steam engine represents the city's past, present and future. The city grew when the railroad first came here, the BNSF Railway Company remains one of the largest employers here, and the National Railroad Hall of Fame, which is planned for the east side of the city, will be an important part of Galesburg's future.

"That is our symbol, that is our eye-catcher," Bruening said of the steam engine. "That is what we want people to identify Galesburg with."

The billboards also include the words, "Galesburg loves company," while below that are the simple words, "Play-Eat-Shop-Sleep."

"Those words describe what there is to do in Galesburg," Bruening said.

The state Bureau of Tourism reported last summer that the economic impact of tourism in Knox County in 2005 was up 6.4 percent from the year before. Local tax receipts from tourists also grew by 4.7 percent to nearly $1.3 million.

Bruening said the cost of the billboards is coming from the city's hotel/motel tax.

"Our hotel/motel tax has been up over the past couple of years," she said. "I have been putting the money in savings."

She said receipts from the tax were up 11 percent in 2006 compared to the year before.

There is a strategy to the placement of the Galesburg billboards.

"As for the Highway 67 and 34, one of the reasons we put billboards at those locations is there are tens of thousands of people that go to Nauvoo each year and we want to attract some of those people to Galesburg," she said.

According to the Nauvoo Web site, 300,000 people visit the historic Mississippi River town each year.

Hall of Fame organizers also hope that once the Railroad Hall of Fame opens, many of the visitors to Springfield's Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will make their way to Galesburg. Much of the same holographic, cutting-edge technology used at the Lincoln museum will be used at the Hall of Fame.

"Here at the Welcome Center, the No. 1 thing that brings people into the city, billboards are the No. 1 thing," Bruening said. "The Packinghouse Restaurant, that and the Antiques Mall, we get the most questions about."

Bruening said the most expensive billboard they have costs $4,800 per year, with the cheapest at $3,200. She said they have two-year contract for the billboard space.

She said it is not easy to obtain billboard space on the state's highways, as fewer and fewer are allowed as part of Illinois' highway beautification efforts.

"One reason we have embarked upon this campaign is to benefit the National Railroad Hall of Fame," Bruening said. Although the Hall of Fame is not expected to open for anywhere from two to four years, Bruening said attracting visitors to Galesburg now is important.

"We're kind of a stepping-stone to getting people to come here," she said.

As of last summer, the National Railroad Hall of Fame had raised $600,000 locally of its projected $60 million cost. Hall of Fame officials have declined all interview requests over the past few months. - John R. Pulliam, The Galesburg Register-Mail

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WOMAN FOUND DEAD ALONG BENICIA TRAIN TRACKS

BENICIA, CA -- A 21-year-old woman who was found dead along railroad tracks in rural Benicia Wednesday is believed to have drowned after she fell from the train into a shallow pool of water.

An autopsy performed Thursday on Tiffany Tyrrell, who investigators believe was a transient with ties to the Portland area, determined her death to be the result of drowning and blunt force trauma, the Solano County coroner's office reported.

Coroners determined she fell into an area of one-foot deep water in marshland located by railroad tracks that run through unincorporated Solano County near Benicia, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Paula Toynbee reported.

Toxicology tests are pending, Toynbee said.

A deputy and a volunteer came upon Tyrrell's body around 16:15. Wednesday, about 500 feet south of Morrow Lane, just west of the railroad tracks, according to Toynbee.

Tyrrell's female white Rottweiler was guarding her body and county animal control officers removed the dog because she would not allow anyone near her body, Toynbee said.

The sheriff's office received a call from a cell phone at 03:16 Wednesday from a man stating his girlfriend fell from a boxcar on the train. The man stayed on the train after the woman fell and he was vague about his location, Toynbee said.

Deputies were unable to locate Tyrrell's boyfriend until 07:30 in Vacaville. He was identified as 24-year-old Joseph Michael Davies, a transient believed to be from Sacramento. The sheriff's office believes he got off the train at the Elmira station, Toynbee said.

Davies was taken into custody on suspicion of trespassing on a railroad train. He was released after posting $1,600 bail, Toynbee said. The case remains under investigation. - KPIX-TV5, San Francisco, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr

TRANSIT NEWS

UTA SHOWS ENGINE FOR COMMUTER RAIL SYSTEM

SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- The Utah Transit Authority displays the first of its FrontRunner locomotives on Friday at its commuter rail maintenance facility in Salt Lake City.

The locomotive, built by MotivePower in Boise, is the first of 11 for UTA's high-speed commuter rail system. When FrontRunner begins operating in mid-2008, the locomotives will pull up to 10 cars.

The project is currently about 65 percent completed. - Photo by Laura Seitz, The Deseret Morning News

Photo here: [deseretnews.com]

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TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY FAUGHT SELECTS RAIL RUNNER ROUTE TO SANTA FE

SANTA FE, NM -- State Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught has announced that Interstate 25 median will be used to bring Rail Runner Express Commuter Train from Bernalillo to Santa Fe, New Mexico, concurring with the Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization recommendation.

"This route was selected after extensive public comment and community input,” Faught said. “This route will have the least impact on communities while serving a majority of residents in and around Santa Fe area.”

The Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization last week recommended building tracks for Rail Runner in the Interstate median over a second alternative route that goes through the Santa Fe Community College District east of I-25.

“We will work closely with city, county and planning officials on identifying train stations along the I-25 corridor as we move forward on this project,” Faught said.

“This decision is a critical step in the development of passenger rail service for citizens of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County”, says Lawrence Rael, Executive Director for the Mid-Region Council of Governments. “This helps us continue to move the project forward in a timely manner so that we can stay on course to get Rail Runner service into Santa Fe by the end of 2008.”

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express began serving commuters between Albuquerque and Bernalillo July 14 last year. The 50-mile corridor between Bernalillo and Belen is now fully open with five stations operating: the Town of Bernalillo, Los Ranchos/Journal Center, Downtown Albuquerque, the Village of Los Lunas, and most recently -- the City of Belen. Currently there is an average of approximately 1,800 people a day riding the New Mexico Rail Runner Express.

Rail Runner is part of Governor Richardson’s Investment Partnership (GRIP). GRIP is a $1.6 billion transportation and infrastructure initiative that is improving highways in New Mexico, creating new modes of transportation like commuter rail and creating high-wage jobs. - nmrailrunner.com, News Release, courtesy Marc Pearsall

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POWER OUTAGE STRANDS BART

OAKLAND, CA -- Passengers were stuck for up to two hours on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train that stalled on overhead track near the Oakland Coliseum station after a power outage Thursday, transit officials and witnesses said.

The train stalled about a half-mile south of the Coliseum station after a small fire at a nearby electrical substation resulted in a loss of power to trains in the area around 10:15.

Nobody was injured by the fire and full train service was restored at 12:22, according to BART spokesman Linton Johnson.

After the outage, over 200 passengers on the five-car train, which was traveling northbound on the Fremont line, were evacuated off the train, Johnson said. The passengers, led by rescue workers, walked from the stalled train to the Coliseum station on a catwalk between the elevated tracks.

Passengers who made the roughly 15-minute trek said that the evacuation was calm and orderly.

"Everyone was taking turns getting off the train, like you learned in kindergarten," said Alison Lewis of Hayward, who was on her way to work at the county building in Oakland.

Lewis said some passengers were afraid of the heights because they could see the ground below the tracks -- and she added that sections of the catwalk appeared to be only about two feet wide.

Lewis, who is married to former BART Director Sherman Lewis, said passengers sat on the stalled train for nearly an hour before they were escorted off in groups of about 25 to 30 people at a time.

Fire officials decided it was safer not to evacuate about a dozen passengers who were elderly, disabled or had limited mobility and didn't feel up to making the walk to the Coliseum Station.

Johnson said those remaining on the train were "well taken care of" by BART personnel and paramedics. After power was restored, those remaining passengers were transported safely to their destinations, he said.

The power outage shut down service between the Bay Fair and Fruitvale stations for several hours and a bus bridge was set in place to ferry passengers between affected stations. The disruption also created significant delays throughout the BART system during the outage. - KPIX-TV5. San Francisco, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr

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RAILS LIGHTEN OUTLOOK FOR DEEP ELLUM

DALLAS, TX -- Once I had a sweet girl, meant the world and all to me. But she went down in Deep Ellum, now she ain't what she used to be.

That 1930s tune called "Deep Ellum Blues" could have been written for the new millennium. That's because the old business district on the east side of downtown Dallas is singing a sad song these days.

After recent bad publicity about high crime and a retreat by retailers, Deep Ellum's plight has grown worse during the last few months.

Just last week, one of the neighborhood's biggest employers – Yahoo Inc. – said it was hightailing it to the Telecom Corridor. And recent closings of several of Deep Ellum's iconic nightspots have left the area reeling.

There's even talk that speculators might knock the whole district down and start anew.

All this doom and gloom would ring true if the future of Deep Ellum wasn't already looking brighter in the form of DART's new light-rail line.

If you want to see the future of Deep Ellum, go to the corner of Malcom X Boulevard at Junius Street where construction is under way on the first of two light-rail stations that will serve Deep Ellum.

Across the street from the new train station, developer Alliance Residential has already broken ground on a retail and apartment complex that will replace a vacant lot.

Farther south near Exposition Avenue, plans are in the works for a mixed-use complex that would restore the old Dr. Pepper building.

And more new developments and retail tenants are likely to pop up around the other DART station at Good Latimer and Swiss Avenue.

While the first train won't roll into Deep Ellum for two years, developers are already making their moves.

And maybe Deep Ellum won't be so blue soon. - Steve Brown, The Dallas Morning News

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ESTIMATES ON eBART COSTS, TIME TAKE A LEAP

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA -- Estimates of the time and money it will take to bring a proposed light-rail system to beleaguered East Contra Costa County commuters have gone up again.

The diesel-powered trains known as eBART -- a project that ultimately might not even materialize -- is planned to be built in two phases, the first of which will take three years longer and at least $18 million more than was projected in December, according to BART officials.

The targeted completion date for the first phase now has been pushed back to 2013 instead of 2010, and its price has risen by 3 percent, to $596 million, said Walter Gonzales, a senior planner for eBART.

And even that figure is likely to change because it does not account for inflation between now and 2013. Nor does it include the millions it will cost to acquire access to Union Pacific's railroad tracks if eBART trains use that route to transport passengers between the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station and points farther east.

"The information just keeps on getting worse and worse and worse," said Antioch Mayor Donald Freitas, who serves on an advisory committee for the project.

"In the foreseeable future, a decision really needs to be made whether to continue down this path or to choose a different direction," he said. "We need to make a decision very quickly because inflation keeps on eroding the dollars that we have."

BART officials broke the news to Freitas and his colleagues earlier this month at a meeting of the eBART Partnership Policy Advisory Committee.

At the request of that group's Oakley representative, BART had added an over-or undercrossing at the station planned for the intersection of Empire Avenue and Neroly Road. That increased the project's cost by $18 million, Gonzales said.

As for why East County residents will have to wait several more years for the train service, assuming that BART approves the project, Gonzales said agency officials have been discussing more ways of designing and building the transit system than they originally conceived.

At first, they envisioned having trains run along a corridor in the Highway 4 median to Loveridge Road, then cross the lanes of traffic on a bridge to connect with Union Pacific's tracks.

BART officials now are mulling the possibility of having eBART trains remain on the Highway 4 median, Gonzales said.

He added that BART plans to calculate an approximate cost and timeline for that option so that the advisory committee can discuss it at its March 8 meeting.

The delay also is a result of BART's decision that the $130 million transfer station planned so passengers could continue their journey on BART trains simply cost too much. Engineers had to return to the drawing board to come up with a less expensive design, Gonzales said.

In addition, BART is analyzing the project's effect on the environment for two government agencies, even though only the state document is required.

BART decided to do an environmental report for the U.S. Transportation Administration in case it needs federal money down the road, Gonzales said. But submitting two documents means it will take government officials that much longer to review them, Gonzales said.

The eBART price has ballooned since the project was first conceived.

Agency officials originally pegged the cost at $377 million, but they did not factor in inflation because no one had a good idea of how long the project would take, said eBART project manager Ellen Smith.

By 2004, that figure had crept up to $390 million. And last year it skyrocketed to $1.3 billion -- excluding right-of-way costs -- because engineers had designed enough of the project to come up with a realistic number that took inflation into account for the first time, Smith said.

The compounding costs prompted advisory board members in November to divide the project into two phases, as an earlier feasibility study had recommended.

Officials expect to have a draft of the environmental documents done by the end of this year, Smith said. BART's board of directors must approve the documents and decide whether to go forward with eBART or to scrub the project. That milestone is scheduled for late 2008. - Rowena Coetsee, The Contra Costa Times

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RAIL SWITCHES INSPECTED AFTER U.K. CRASH

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LAMBRIGG, ENGLAND -- Authorities examined railroad switches Saturday as they tried to determine what caused a high-speed commuter train to derail in northwestern England, sending carriages hurtling down an embankment and killing one passenger.

Safety inspectors were investigating whether the switches had been left in the wrong position, throwing the carriages off the track, said Chief Superintendent Martyn Ripley of the British Transport Police.

Officials were focusing on one set of switches in particular, said Thomas Edwards, lead inspector for the Rail Accident Investigation Board.

The Glasgow-bound Virgin train, carrying 120 passengers and staff, crashed Friday night in countryside near the town of Lambrigg, 270 miles northwest of London. A total of 77 passengers were injured, five seriously.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, said Saturday lives were probably spared because the train -- a new model introduced in 2003 - was "built like a tank."

"If it had been any of the old trains the injuries and fatalities would have been horrendous," he said.

Rescue workers had to search along muddy country lanes to locate the scene of the accident in the remote area. Local farmers had arrived ahead of them to help evacuate the injured. They were transported to hospitals by Royal Air Force helicopters.

"We are amazed that we didn't have more fatalities on the scene -- we have been very fortunate. It is little short of a miracle," Ripley said.

Cumbria police said an 84-year-old woman died of her injuries in the hospital.

The front two carriages of the Pendolino train, which has a tilting mechanism that enables it to reach speeds of 125 mph, had been hurled off the track and down the embankment. Seven other carriages snaked behind, with one on its side.

Virgin Trains spokesman Lee West said the train was traveling at 95 mph at the time of the accident. - Rob Harris, The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette

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