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Railroad Newsline for Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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Rail News

RAILROAD'S DREAMS CLASH WITH ECONOMIC REALITIES

In the end, it was about vision.

Dakota Minnesota & Eastern President and CEO Kevin Schieffer saw a future state-of-the-art railroad hauling Wyoming coal to power plants and agricultural and manufactured products from South Dakota and Minnesota to rail metropolises such as Chicago. It would mean thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars of economic development.

Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Boardman saw a railroad with annual revenues of about $200 million that might not be able to repay the $2.3 billion loan that would make the grand dream possible.
Now, Boardman's vision threatens Schieffer's.

As the DM&E's vision unfolded, political titans clashed. Former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., added fuel to the debate.
But Monday's decision came down to the money.

The Federal Railroad Administration on Monday denied a loan DM&E officials hoped would be the cornerstone of financing a $6 billion reconstruction of the railroad across Minnesota and South Dakota and extending it more than 200 miles to Wyoming's Powder River basin coalfields. It also would repair existing lines.

Vows to continue

As the project developed since its proposal in 1998, Schieffer's tone has generally been optimistic, frequently jaunty when discussing it, despite political opposition to the project. On Monday, his sentences trailed off, his voice was flat. It was not a good day for the DM&E. But he insists the new railroad will be built.

"The question going forward is not whether to continue, but the scope and pace," he said.
The federal agency's decision, however, highlights the DM&E's fundamental problem.

Schieffer's bold assertion notwithstanding -- "There are always ways to address things like those funding and structural issues. It boils down to numbers" -- the DM&E did not receive financing for its project.

This despite DM&E's regulatory approval in 2002 and ability to withstand legal challenges to that approval.

Through the past decade, particularly the past year, a buzzing hornet's nest of political opposition has assailed the DM&E's project and its federal loan application. The Bush administration twice tried to eliminate the Federal Railroad Administration loan program. But economics sealed the DM&E's doom.

Frank Wilner cast a speculative eye on the the project last year when Schieffer announced he was seeking the federal loan.

"An economist looks at this project and says, 'If it's as good as everyone asserts it is, why can't they get private sector funding?' " Wilner said.

"If this is so essential to electrical utilities, why aren't electrical utilities investing in it?"

Wilner is former chief of staff of the federal Surface Transportation Board, the agency that approved the DM&E project.

During its history, the DM&E has been rumored to be a stalking horse for anonymous investors. Without flatly denying the railroad was developing the Powder River Basin project for behind-the-scenes investors who would take it over, Schieffer has indicated his goal is to build the DM&E as an entity in its own right. Speculation involves the Union Pacific buying the DM&E. Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe are the existing coal haulers in the Powder River Basin.

The loan denial revives questions about a huge equity partner like Union Pacific stepping in and acquiring the DM&E to build the new railroad.

The project was conceived as a revenue source to enable the DM&E to resolve a dilemma that threatens its future. The railroad was built on some of the most decrepit rail line in the country, some more than a century old, that had been abandoned by the Chicago and Northwestern in the 1980s. But the DM&E as it exists now cannot carry enough traffic to pay for rebuilding that line. Without new rail, the DM&E would slowly go out of business, Schieffer contended when he sought approval for the Powder River Basin project.

Mayo Clinic money

The DM&E has done what it can to grow and attract investors.

In 2002, within a month of gaining Surface Transportation Board approval for the basin project, the DM&E announced it was buying a neighboring railroad it renamed the IC&E. This doubled the DM&E's size and gave it access to railroading's Mecca, Chicago. A Federal Railroad Administration loan allowed the DM&E to refinance debt from that acquisition and replace 100 miles of line.

Ironically, the outstanding loan might have convinced the federal agency the railroad was too far leveraged to take on another $6 billion in debt, including $2.3 billion to the FRA.

Until 2005, prospects of major federal financial help in building the Powder River Basin project were limited. That year, Thune introduced changes to the transportation bill highly favorable to the DM&E. The FRA's loan authority skyrocketed from $3.5 billion to $35 billion. Rail projects that purported to solve energy and rail capacity shortages moved to the front of the line for loans. Even so, the DM&E could not sway the FRA.

Because the DM&E would not give up its dedicated rail corridor through Rochester, Minnesota, when it appeared the DM&E might gain federal financing for its new railroad, the Rochester Coalition put on a late-game full-court press to derail the project. Bankrolled by the Mayo Clinic, the coalition of Mayo, local government and other entities hammered relentlessly on safety concerns if trains hauling coal and hazardous farm chemicals within blocks of Mayo disrupted sensitive medical equipment or jumped the tracks and threatened bed-bound patients.

The opponents hired Janklow, who has a long and acrimonious history with Schieffer where the Powder River Basin project is concerned, and Mayo appointed former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle to its board of directors.

Thune on Monday said the efforts of the group certainly were not helpful to the DM&E. Schieffer declined to speculate about whether the political pressure was effective.

"I'll leave that to the Secretary of Transportation. I will not try to pick apart the decision-making process," he said.

Rail industry analysts Wilner and Luther Miller, senior editor of Railway Age magazine, discount the effect of such tactics. They say the Federal Railroad Administration is highly resistant to political pressure.

Trains will still run

Without the loan, the DM&E is in no danger of going out of business tomorrow, even though it expended millions of dollars in anticipation of getting the federal loan. Those were calculated risks, according to Schieffer, and the DM&E can deal with the consequences.

Railroad officials will consider their options now: other funding sources, equity partners, dividing the project into smaller increments.

But in the wake of the denial, the DM&E is left with the formidable conundrum that prompted it to set out on this journey.

"Do we have a longterm plan to deal with the sections of line that need to be replaced?" Schieffer asked.

"The answer is no." - Peter Harriman, The Sioux Falls Argus Leader

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ANALYST SAYS DENIAL WON'T NECESSARILY STOP RAILROAD PROJECT

ROCHESTER, MN -- With its federal loan application denied, is this curtains for the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad?

Not hardly, says Tony Hatch, a railroad industry analyst based in New York.

Hatch got an idea of the railroad's staying power, he said, when he saw DM&E President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Schieffer speak at a professional conference last fall.

After Schieffer's speech, Hatch said, "the scrum of investment bankers and commercial lenders to hand him their business cards was tremendous. There'll be tremendous interest" among lenders to weigh lending money to DM&E.

"The idea that there's been no interest from the private sector is false," Hatch said. "I've seen that with my own eyes."

Still, make no bones about it: The Federal Railroad Administration's decision, announced on Monday, dealt a huge blow to DM&E. The $2.3 billion the railroad sought amounted to nearly 40 percent of a proposed $6 billion upgrade and expansion project, what would be the largest railroad construction effort in a century.

The railroad wants to upgrade its entire 600-mile line through Minnesota and South Dakota and extend it west to coal fields in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. DM&E would haul coal from there to eastern markets.

Mark Glaess, general manager of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association, said the economic case for the DM&E project still exists, at least from a customer's point of view.

"DM&E, from our perspective, offered a critical, competitive alternative" to other railroads and shipping methods, Glaess said. "Our concern has always been a lack of competition."

Rumors have long persisted that DM&E would be sold, either before or after construction, to one of the large Class 1 railroads. Schieffer has always denied having such an intention, and Hatch said he doesn't believe a DM&E sale is in the cards for now.

"I think they still think there's a project for them," he said. - Jeffrey Peters, The Rochester Post-Bulletin

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FAMILY ALONG RAIL LINE IS ELATED

ROCHESTER, MN -- Few families have had their personal destinies more intimately wrapped up in the saga over the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad expansion plans than Debbie and Greg Dukart.

The Rochester couple, who live within yards of the DM&E rail line, often found their home at 106 14th Ave. N.E. representing ground zero in an emotional, decade-long debate that divided communities into pro and con factions and along rural and urban lines.

DM&E CEO Kevin Schieffer held a town-hall-style meeting in the Dukart's garage in the late 1990s to champion the $6 billion project. Mayo Clinic CEO Glenn Forbes spoke at the Dukart's home to denounce the project. U.S. Rep. Tim Walz campaigned in their backyard and was elected to Congress, partly because of public dissatisfaction with his opponent GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht's support for the project.

The Dukarts picketed along the rail line and testified before the Surface Transportation Board against the project, and they experienced having a DM&E train derail blocks from their house.

Now a debate that never seemed to end appears to be over, at least as far as the $2.3 billion loan request is concerned. The Department of Transportation Credit Council rejected DM&E's application on Monday -- and Debbie and Greg Dukart were elated.

"I'm very happy. We're going to have a party," Debbie Dukart said.

Their feelings were shared by many who live along the train route. Emery Bremer, a Rochester resident who lives 70 feet from the rail line, was still having a hard time digesting the news.

"They'll probably try to attack it from a different angle, sneak it through some other way," Bremer said.

Several Rochester residents saw the credit council's decision as a huge defeat for DM&E, but perhaps not fatal.

"I don't know what the future holds, but this is really good news," said Mike LaPlante, president of the East Side Pioneers Neighborhood Association, an organization that has included some of the staunchest opponents of the rail line.

But U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a Mankato Democrat, said the federal government's role as it relates to the loan is finished.

"It's been a long nine years, but it's definitive. This loan process is done. It's ended," he said.

Others speculated that if the federal government decided against underwriting parts of the expansion, why would the private sector?

"If the government believes this cannot be repaid, I find it really hard to believe that somebody in the private sector would take on the loan, take on this kind of risk," said John Wade, president of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce.

Asked if there would be a celebration, Wade declined to gloat.

"I think most of us would just like to move on to something else," Wade said. - Matthew Stolle, The Rochester Post-Bulletin

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OFFICIALS SURPRISED BY FRA DECISION

PIERRE, SD - Many local officials were surprised by Monday's announcement that Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad was not approved for a $2.3 billion loan.

"A loan application doesn't get this far if it has the kind of financial problems that the (Department of Transportation) alleged were at work here," said U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. "It seems to me, at least, that they were moving forward with it in a way that sort of led a lot of us to believe that we were going to get a favorable decision, but that wasn't the case."

State Rep. Tim Rounds, R-Pierre, said the project would have been great for economic development in the area.

"Pierre has an interest in it because the trains are coming through Pierre," he said. "Having the loan denied, I think it'll hurt the state.

State Rep. Ryan Olson, R-Onida, said he doesn't think it is out of the realm of possibility for DM&E to ask some of the states and local communities involved for money.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they asked for a part of certain projects that they were going to do," Olson said. "Maybe there'd be just some kind of help or interest buy down or something."

DM&E wanted to add track to the Powder River Basin coal fields in Wyoming and upgrade its existing line in South Dakota and Minnesota. The $6 billion project would involve building about 280 miles of new track and upgrading 600 miles of existing track so trains could haul coal for power plants. The project would have gone through Pierre and Fort Pierre.

One of the concerns many people in Pierre had about the project was whether or not the railroad would be able to build a bypass around the city. Pierre mayor Dennis Eisnach said the area already had money approved from the federal government to help fund such a bypass.

"During this time I have gotten about $6 million of an appropriation from Congress that we have sitting in the bank here at the South Dakota DOT that we could use either for bypass or mitigating coming through Pierre, which means grade separations where trains go under or cars go over."

Fort Pierre Mayor Sam Tidball said it will be interesting to see what the Sioux Falls-based railroad does next.

"DM&E indicated they would do a lot of improvements to the tracks regardless of whether they got that loan," he said. "We'll have to see their reaction. It's kind of wait and see, I guess."

U.S. Rep Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., said she was disappointed in the decision.

"As captive grain and ethanol shippers in South Dakota and across the Great Plains will tell you, there is a serious and harmful shortage of rail infrastructure in this country and I am disappointed that the administration failed to recognize the potential of this loan to help alleviate this serious situation," Herseth said.

Thune said he does not think the company has a way to appeal the decision.

"It's awfully difficult to envision a case where this decision gets overturned. I think it's pretty final in terms of any kind of federal financing assistance," he said.

He added that although the Federal Railroad Administration said they based the decision on the company's credit history and ability to repay, he believes there might have been more behind it.

"There was an awful lot of political meddling on this," Thune said. "I don't know how ultimately determinative that was, but it was unfortunate that in the end there was just so much of some of the special interest groups."

Eisnach said he thought the whole time that there was about a 50/50 chance DM&E would get the money.

"As far as the impact on our community, I think we need to wait until the DM&E assess where they're going to go from here," he said.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds was unavailable for comment Monday night. - Crystal Lindell, The Pierre Capital Journal

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BNSF ISSUES WEEKLY PRB COAL UPDATE FOR FEBRUARY 27, 2007

PRB Average Daily Train Loadings at New 2007 High

Average BNSF Railway Company daily train loadings for the Powder River Basin (PRB), including Wyoming and Montana mines, totaled 52.7 trains per day the week ended February 25, 2007, the highest average daily loadings of any week this year. Last week’s average daily loadings were up from an average of 46.1 trains per day loaded during the week ended February 26, 2006.

Planned and unplanned mine outages resulted in an average of 2.6 missed loading opportunities per day for the week ended February 25, 2007.

Year-to-date through February 25, 2007, BNSF has loaded a total daily average of 49.4 trains in the PRB, up 5 percent from the 47.2 trains loaded through the same period in 2006.

Construction Projects Update

Three additional yard tracks at the Donkey Creek Yard are expected to go into service late this week, with the completion of turnout installation and track surfacing. The first six tracks of the yard were completed last year. The three new tracks will provide significant additional staging capacity to the Campbell Subdivision as well as backup for the north end of the Joint Line.

Seven miles of new second main track between Angora and Northport, Nebraska, were placed in service late last week after completion of signal work. Seven more miles of second main between Angora and Northport are scheduled to go into service in the fourth quarter of this year. - BNSF Service Advisory

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BNSF TRAIN DERAILS AT LUCERNE, WYOMING

We have a preliminary report that BNSF Railway Company manifest train H LINLAU1 23 has been involved in a service interruption at Lucerne, Wyoming.

The purpose of this email is to inform customers that BNSF personnel are enroute to the location to determine the impact and how this may affect shipments on trains moving through this area.

No further information is available at this time. Customers will receive a separate advisory as soon as we receive additional updates, outlining the anticipated impact to shipments and the estimated time of the track opening. - BNSF Service Advisory (ED. NOTE: Lucerne is some 7 miles west of Thermopolis, Wyoming on BNSF's Casper Subdivision which runs through the Wind River Canyon to the east of Thermop. This service advisory will most likely be updated Wednesday and we will report it here. - lwg)

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THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE TRACKS: GLENWOOD RAILROAD MUSEUM ATTRACTS KIDS OF ALL AGES

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, CO -- Some people just have trains running through their veins.

Take, for example, Scott and Celynn McClarrinon, two Eagle County residents who recently took their young nephews to the Glenwood Railroad Museum to view the model trains and watch real ones roar by.

Photo here:

[www.postindependent.com]

Caption reads: Hayden Krueger, 2 1/2, left, and his brother, Davis, 4 1/2, admire the model trains as they move around the track Feb. 16 at the Glenwood Springs Railroad Museum. (Post Independent/Kara K. Pearson)

Or how about Roger Kocian, who lives near Chicago and stopped into the museum on the same day as the McClarrinons to look around while waiting to catch the Amtrak train to Denver.

And then there are people like Jan Girardot, Dick Helmke and Oscar McCollum, train aficionados who all were working at the museum that day and sharing their love of railroading with others.

The museum is chock-full of railroad memorabilia, but enthusiasts also love that the museum is in the historic depot adjacent to the tracks where Union Pacific and Amtrak trains run.

"We're hoping to see a real one so we can feel the rumble," Celynn McClarrinon said.

For Scott, the feeling would be a reminder of his childhood. He's partly deaf, and his dad liked to take him down to the tracks when he was young, to feel the power of machines he couldn't fully hear.

Soon enough, the McClarrinons were able to share the same feeling with their nephews, cousins Davis and Hayden Krueger, ages 4-1/2 and 2-1/2, as a UP freight train passed, heading west.

"That was a bunch of empties heading back to the North Fork to pick up more coal," Girardot said, his eyes peering from below the bill of his railroad cap.

The cars were headed to the North Fork Valley near Paonia, to fill up on newly mined coal. Within the hour, Girardot would point out another train that had come back from there and was headed east.

Celynn McClarinnon lived in Glenwood for three years and loved hearing the trains go by. Now she and her husband enjoy chasing them by car and indulging Scott's twin hobbies of trains and photography.

"I put them together, and they become quite addictive," Scott said.

The model trains proved entrancing to his nephews.

"Anytime anybody walks in that door I start the trains," Girardot said.

Watching them run draws in even adults who aren't interested in trains, he said.

"And of course, for kids it's like a magnet."

There's so much else in the museum to attract the senses as well. Helmke points to some sections of rail on the floor, shows where so many train wheels wore away at one side of them, has you feel the ridge that has formed below the top of a rail compressed by the weight of the cars.

Photo here:

[www.postindependent.com]

Caption reads: This 0-4-0 steam locomotive, built by Dave Richie, is full of small, intricate details and can be seen at the Glenwood Springs Railroad Museum. (Post Independent/Kara K. Pearson)

Here there is a telegraph exhibit; there, wall signs with text and photos depicting the history of local railroads such as the Colorado Midland. A gingerbread-house version of the train depot is on display, courtesy of Jeanne Bottroff of New Castle, who built it in 2004.

Various model trains built for track gauges ranging from about a fingernail to more than half a foot in width inhabit the museum. A 1935 electric train given to McCollum's wife, Lois, as a child sits behind glass, along with a windup version that was her brother's.

Under the model railroad tracks, other trains in their original boxes wait to be set up someday. Girardot said the museum could use involvement by more people for such tasks.

"We're kind of in a bind in terms of getting some of these projects done," he said.

The museum is run by the Western Colorado Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Girardot, the chapter's president, said it has about 35 or 40 members but few active volunteers.

In a second room, a green miniature train big enough to sit on and ride, and powered by a steam engine, awaits someone with the time to arrange a state boiler inspection so it can be operated. It was built by former Carbondale resident Lester Vallett, who died in retirement in Seattle before ever having the chance to fire it up.

In the same room a motorcar sits in the home it has occupied for decades, in grooves that enabled railroad workers to wheel it out and lift it onto the main tracks with the help of attached handles. The car was used for track maintenance, such as clearing rockfall from Glenwood Canyon, and UP later donated it to the museum.

The UP leases the depot space to the museum at a discounted rate, with Amtrak also leasing part of the depot. The railroad also has donated items such as a signal that it removed from the canyon last summer after it had been in service since the 1920s.

The museum opened in late 2003, just before the 100th birthday of the depot, which was built in 1904.

A shop with books, shirts, wooden train whistles and other gifts helps keep the museum going. So, it's safe to say, does the love of railroads shared by the museum's staff and visitors. After talking to Girardot, Kocian was able to return home to Chicago with a tip on where to get help rebuilding his old Lionel model train.

"I used to play with my train from morning to night when I was a kid down in the basement," Kocian reminisced.

For people like Kocian, Scott McClarrinon and those involved with the Glenwood Railroad Museum, growing up doesn't mean having to outgrow their love of trains. Clearly, as with any true love, it's only deepened over the years. - Dennis Web, The Glenwood Springs Post Independent

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$169 MILLION TAG ON AIRPORT, TRAIL SWAP

SEATTLE, WA -- King County and the Port of Seattle now know the cost of the 33-mile trail and airport they want to swap: $169 million.

Executives of those jurisdictions and the BNSF Railway Company signed a preliminary deal Monday under which the Port would buy the underused Renton-to-Snohomish rail line, then give it to the county in exchange for county-owned Boeing Field.

After buying the 40-mile corridor from the railroad for $103 million, the Port would give King County $66 million to remove some rail tracks and build a trail on the King County portion of the corridor. The corridor could also accommodate a high-capacity passenger-rail line sometime in the future, said one of the architects of the deal, County Executive Ron Sims.

Map here: [seattletimes.nwsource.com]

Freight trains would continue to run between Woodinville and Snohomish.

It could take months to complete the three-way deal, which would require approval of the County Council and the Port Commission. "This starts the tough negotiations," said the Port's CEO, Mic Dinsmore, who welcomes his replacement, former Oakland port director Tay Yoshitani, on Thursday.

"It allows a region that cares deeply about competing in a global society to do things that have been unparalleled," Dinsmore said.

News of the agreement drew mixed reaction from local decision-makers concerned with mass transit, air traffic, urban sprawl and freight lines.

"I have a two-word response: Start over," said King County Councilman Larry Phillips. He predicted a Port takeover of the county airport south of downtown Seattle would eventually lead to commercial airliners flying in and out of the airport -- even though the Port fought Southwest Airlines' failed 2005 effort to move its operations from Sea-Tac Airport to Boeing Field, officially known as King County International Airport.

Two dozen members of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce executive board unanimously endorsed the land swap Friday. "We thought this was a textbook case of good-government coordination and out-of-the-box thinking to advance a lot of goals that are regional and Chamber goals," said attorney and board member Tayloe Washburn.

The Cascadia Center for Regional Development, affiliated with the free-market think-tank Discovery Institute, wrote to the Port Commission on Monday that tearing out BNSF's existing rails to make way for a hiking and biking trail "is a luxury we believe this region ... cannot afford" on the traffic-congested Eastside. It suggested putting "diesel multiple unit" trains on the existing track.

Port Commissioner Patricia Davis said the proposed deal "seems to be a truly favorable swap all the way around," while her colleague Alec Fisken said it "seems like an awful lot of taxpayer money to tear up a railroad."

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who watched Sims, Dinsmore and BNSF CEO Matt Rose sign the tentative deal, praised them for their "great creativity" in keeping the rail corridor intact. "We're not just going to sit back and watch while part of an important corridor is sold off piecemeal," Murray said.

If King County and the Port hadn't come up with a proposal to buy the little-used Eastside rail line, Rose said, BNSF would have sold the corridor to developers and "you would have seen high-rise condos and expensive houses."

"Let's get 'er done now," Rose said after inking the preliminary deal.

A second agreement calls for projects intended to move more cargo by rail from Puget Sound ports to markets in the Midwest.

The county, the railroad and the Port agreed to support expansion of the Stampede Pass rail tunnel to handle higher-volume freight trains and to find a site for a large freight yard where cargo could be moved between trucks and trains. After a site is acquired, King County would sell a 13-acre Harbor Island property it owns to the Port.

If the region doesn't improve its capacity to move freight quickly, Seattle and Tacoma are at risk of losing much of their Pacific Rim trade to Canada, Rose said.

"This project is crucial to the economic vibrancy of our region," Sims said.

Al Runte of the pro-rail group All Aboard Washington called the plan "a colossal mistake. It's the dumbest idea this region has had."

Runte said he had walked the entire length of the proposed trail and found, "It's not a dilapidated rail line. It's a beautiful track."

Dinsmore said turning the 116-plus-year-old rail line into a trail is "the right thing. ... But we can never, ever, ever forget the fact that it's a rail system first and a trail system second." - Kevin Ervin, The Seattle Times

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CHELATCHIE RAILROAD GAINS STEAM

YACOLT, WA -- The train-loving volunteers who run the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad think their newly restored steam locomotive will be the ticket to drawing lots of new riders this year.

The club has struggled with sporadic schedules and a track-rights dispute in recent years.

But the 1929 ALCO 2-8-2T locomotive will bring excitement and greater demand throughout the year, the group's new president predicted Monday.

Photo here: [www.columbian.com]

Caption reads: The Chelatchie Prairie Railroad steam locomotive chugs over the East Fork of the Lewis River in January near Yacolt. (Files/The Columbian)

One weekend each month in 2007, except November, the group has scheduled at least four of their 90-minute round trips from Yacolt south to Lucia Falls Park and back. Most weekends coincide with holidays such as St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day or Halloween.

"Trains will be added as demand dictates," said Bill Young, the new president.

Young was elected in January, the month the club unveiled its restored engine. Now, they're restoring two railroad cars to expand the train beyond its current capacity of about 140 passengers.

The group earns about $19,000 annually, mostly through firework sales in July and a Santa Claus-Christmas tree event in December. Money goes toward track and train restoration, rental fees and insurance.

Each trip in the new locomotive burns about $500 worth of used motor oil. Oil donations are accepted.

Young hopes increased ticket sales will help the group support increased services.

"I really believe the steamer is going to be the third leg of our revenue," said Young. "And if not, we'll make it on what we've got."

If you go

What: Family-oriented train rides on the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad.

When: 12:00 and 14:00 Saturday and Sunday -- one weekend during most months this year.
Next month, it's March 17-18.

Where: 207 N. Railroad Ave., Yacolt.

Cost: Adults $15, seniors $14, children 5-12 $12, children 2-4 $8, children younger than 2 free.

- Michael Andersen, The Columbian

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ENGINEERS TO REMOVE CONCRETE RAILROAD BRIDGE THAT COLLAPSED IN THE PORT OF CORPUS CHRISTI

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX -- A concrete railroad bridge that collapsed in the Port of Corpus Christi's inner harbor decades ago is finally being removed - chunk by chunk.

Engineer David Krams says the submerged trestle is a safety hazard that also has affected the port's ability to support large-scale military deployments.

"Not having two fully capable berths on this side of the channel has limited our ability to take advantage of the more efficient rail infrastructure and larger staging areas adjacent to the north side cargo docks," Krams said.

The span collapsed in 1970, about six months after it was built. Authorities believe some pre-drilled holes decreased the strength of the bridge and contributed to its failure.

Divers and other personnel from Houston-based Orion Marine Group are cutting up the submerged concrete structure for removal by a crane.

The work should be done by the end of April, officials said.

The trestle runs about 50 feet into the harbor at depths ranging from 6 to 30 feet, according to Krams.

Orion project manager Kenny Statham says workers are cutting the concrete structure with an industrial saw into 200- to 300-ton pieces, for disposal.

"The biggest obstacle is its size," Statham said. "We won't know what's holding it down until we go picking things up. We don't know what all is buried under the mud."

The last effort to remove the trestle was in 1998. - The Associated Press, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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$280,000 GRANT TO HELP RENOVATE DEPOT

FORT MADISON, IA -- The relocation of the Amtrak depot -- complete with a renovated passenger and freight office -- is all but a done deal, thanks to a $280,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation Statewide Enhancement Program.

"This, with the other grants we have received, amounts to more than $1 million," Mayor Steve Ireland said.

City officials have been working to obtain funding - as well as the necessary agreements and cooperation from Burlington Northern officials and Amtrak - to move Fort Madison's Amtrak depot from its current site near the city water plant to Riverview Park. The local Amtrak station serves about 8,000 passengers and officials have wanted to move the station closer to the downtown area to entice Amtrak patrons to frequent the local stores and restaurants.

"The end result of the restored depot area will help leverage new activity in the downtown and enhance the use and enjoyment of an important part of Fort Madison history," Ireland said.

The $280,000 IDOT grant will require a 30 percent match of city funds, which has been included in the city's 2007-08 budget.

Ireland said engineering plans for the platform expansion portion of the project are in the hands of IDOT officials and that he expects renovation to begin early next fall.

"The restored complex will also enhance a current partnership with Fort Madison and the North Lee County Historical Society," Ireland said. "The historical society will gain a restored area to display historical artifacts and also benefit from the passenger traffic," Ireland added.

Ireland said there are still formal agreements which must be drafted and signed to satisfy all of the parties involved, such as Burlington Northern Railroad and Amtrak officials.

"Congress requires the railroad to guarantee to always provide space for Amtrak. The city will have to have an agreement basically promising to always allow the same for Amtrak," Ireland said.

Ireland said city officials are also applying for a $300,000 Scenic Byways grant which could complete the project and renovate the current flood museum. - Robin Delaney, The Fort Madison Daily Democrat

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LAW ENFORCEMENT KEEPS BUSY IN THE BLIZZARD

WINONA, MN -- When a train barreled into a stuck car Monday morning with the occupants looking on from a safe distance, the wreck became an easy analogy for the weekend Winona area residents had -- everyone saw the storm coming, but almost all were powerless to stop its two-day onslaught.

The accident occurred near Winona County Road 3 and U.S. Highway 61 when the vehicle became stuck on the railroad tracks, near

Pelican Lane. The incident happened about 04:45, according to Winona County Sheriff's Office. All four passengers in the vehicle were able to get out and the driver, Russell Rothman, 19, of Lakeville, Minnesota, called dispatchers.

Meanwhile, dispatchers at the Law Enforcement Center tried contacting the railroad, which notified an oncoming train. However, the notification came too late as the train plowed into the car as the passengers looked on, said Winona County Sheriff David Brand.

No one was injured in the accident.

Area law enforcement was also kept busy this weekend with traffic accidents and checking on motorists who slid off the road, Brand said.

Winona Police had 11 reported accidents, but none with major injuries, assistant chief Paul Bostrack said.

Winona County Sheriff's Department had all four of its four-wheel drive vehicles checking roads during the winter storm. At one point at about 01:00 Saturday, Brand said all the deputies came back to the station because of white-out conditions.

"We didn't want the deputies to get into accidents themselves," Brand said.

Over the weekend, the Sheriff's office answered more than 50 calls for motorists stuck in the ditch.

In Winona, 33 people were ticketed and towed over the weekend as snow plows tried to keep up with the snow. Those who had their cars ticketed will pay $25 for the ticket and usually from $75 to $80 for the tow, police said.

The Minnesota Highway Patrol reported no major crashes in the Winona area; however, it did report responding to 469 accidents statewide Saturday. - Darrell Ehrlick, The Winona Daily News

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OFFICERS TO TRACK DOWN TRAIN TRAFFIC THIS WEEK

FREMONT, CA -- Drivers and pedestrians in Fremont and Newark may notice a slight increase in train traffic this week as railroad police go out to promote safety.

A special five-car train will be traveling back and forth in Fremont and Newark from 10:00 to 14:00 Thursday as Union Pacific police look to cite anyone dodging the safety gates when a train approaches a crossing or people found loitering on railroad property.

"The goal is to inform drivers and pedestrians that it is against the law," said railroad police spokesman Blair Geddes. "Drivers are putting themselves in jeopardy (when they go around lowered gates)."

He also noted that it is extremely dangerous for people walking along the tracks or crossing in front of a train.

The train will run between Shinn Street in Fremont and Cedar Boulevard in Newark. Railroad officers on the train will spot violators and notify supporting city police who will be patrolling the areas. - Ben Aguirre, Jr., The Fremont Argus

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ROSE TAKES PART IN NSTPRC IN CALIFORNIA

You don’t have to live in Southern California to know about highway gridlock; the congestion Californians know all too well is being felt elsewhere in the nation due to infrastructure constraints.

In Southern California, much of the freeway tie-ups are caused by trucks hauling containerized imports from the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports – the busiest container port complex in the United States. Unfortunately, the drive-time headaches are going to get worse. According to Global Insights, freight imports into the California ports are projected to double in the next 10 years, and double again 10 years after that.

Relieving the capacity problem is a key issue for California and one of the reasons the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission (NSTPRC) hosted a two-day field hearing in Los Angeles last week. BNSF Chairman, President and CEO Matt Rose is one of the 12 commissioners and the Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters serves as chairperson of the Commission.

The Commission was created to examine the condition and future needs of the nation’s surface transportation system, as well as short- and long-term alternatives to replace or supplement the fuel tax as the principal revenue source to support the Highway Trust Fund over the next 30 years.

On Wednesday, Feb. 21, the commissioners and other participants in the field hearing had a chance to see firsthand the freight mobility issues facing the Los Angeles area. Either from helicopters for a bird’s-eye view or on board buses, the tours they took were designed to coincide with morning rush hour.

Their briefings also included a firsthand look at the major freeways during rush hour, the busy ports as well as the local rail system, courtesy of a train trip and lunch onboard BNSF business cars. BNSF operated the train from the Port of Long Beach through the Alameda Corridor.

During the tour of the LA basin train ride, Rose provided an overview of BNSF’s major facilities in the region and discussed some of the investments BNSF has made to accommodate the growth. He also spoke about the need to create an integrated infrastructure that has the capacity to meet goods movement needs, address highway congestion and improve passenger mobility on a continuous basis.

More NSTPRC hearings will be held throughout the year in other major metropolitan areas.

"Given the fact that it takes time and significant amounts of private capital and federal and state dollars to build capacity, I think America and California, in particular, are at the turning point at which key policy decisions must be made," Rose said. "This is the second hearing that I’ve participated in and, inevitably, the discussion always turns to freight rail transportation because of the vital part rail transportation plays in goods movement and alleviating highway congestion."

Key issues he asked commissioners to consider were:

· How to encourage investment in freight railroad infrastructure;

· The roles local, state and federal governments can play to implement more public-private partnerships for freight railroad infrastructure where the project provides public benefits;

· Suggestions on how to reduce or remove statutory, regulatory and institutional barriers to make freight rail infrastructure construction and operations more efficient; and

· Address how security mandates can strike a proper balance between security and providing for the free flow of commerce.

Commission hearings will be hosted in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, and Chicago in April. - BNSF Today

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CROSSING A CONTINENT IN 57 MINUTES ON THE PANAMA RAILROAD

Every day after 17:00, thousands of cars snake from Colon, on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, to Panama City, on the Pacific.

Many people who work in the Colon Free Trade Zone or at one of the big container terminals prefer to live in the Panamanian capital. So they shuttle the 80 kilometers, on the country's only toll road, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

People have always used the Isthmus of Panama, the narrowest part of North America, to get from one ocean to the other -- first on foot, then on horseback and with horse-drawn carriages. A railway line was completed in 1855, allowing the transit of bulkier goods from ships on one side to ships on the other.

Much of the line, the original Panama Railroad, is now underwater. The big seafaring ships sail over it as they proceed through the Panama Canal and Lake Gatun, which was created by damming the Chagres River.

The 19th century headquarters of the Panama Railroad, which directed interoceanic rail traffic across the Isthmus of Panama (then governed by Bolivia), were in a building that today is the Hotel Washington. The fastest and most convenient route linking San Francisco and New York in those days was via Panama.

The Panama Railroad proved so successful that at one time it was the highest-priced stock on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1913, a year before the Panama Canal began operations, it transported nearly 3 million passengers and more than 2 million tons of freight. Without the railway and its transport capacity the canal could never have been built.

Passenger service on a modest scale resumed just six years ago. A single train, luxuriously outfitted, travels from Panama City to Colon in the morning and returns in the evening. Travel time is 57 minutes -- the quickest way to get from one ocean to the other.

Driving the distance can take two hours or more as the road is perpetually congested. And ships using the Panama Canal need about eight hours, after waiting for days to enter the waterway.

As soon as the train leaves the station, laptop computers are flipped open. For traders from the Colon Free Trade Zone, the air-conditioned coaches are an ideal place to work out final details with buyers and partners, to compare prices, and to make offers.

Through large windows they can enjoy the picturesque tropical rainforest, which continually opens up to reveal Lake Gatun and the big ships gliding on it. In some places the train seems to glide through the middle of the lake as it passes along an embankment just above the water's surface.

INFO BOX: Interoceanic journey by rail

PRICE: The train has first-class coaches only, all of which have bar and snack service. There is also a restaurant coach. Open-air viewing decks allow passengers to get a feel for the tropical heat and humidity. A one-way trip costs 22 dollars (about 17 euros). - Frank Smets, playfuls.com

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TRANSIT NEWS

MONTI'S PIONEERS USE OF LIGHT-RAIL LOAN PROGRAM

TEMPE, AZ -- Mom-and-pop businesses have spent years dreading how much their businesses would suffer when Metro light-rail construction tore up Tempe, yet those merchants have all but ignored a low-interest loan program created for them.

The Tempe Chamber of Commerce unveiled a financial assistance program in September 2005 for 134 independently owned businesses along the construction corridor, in a kind of assistance no other community has done to help during light-rail construction. But the program went unused until now.

The first business to get a loan is Monti's La Casa Vieja, the vulnerable restaurant that Tempe founder Charles Trumbull Hayden built as his home in 1871.

Owner Michael Monti has tapped into the funds to buy radio ads because several street closures have scared away some customers. The ads feature him talking about how his historic building has always been a center of Tempe and how light rail will continue that tradition. His ads didn't mention the actual construction of the line, however.

"I didn't think it would be a bright idea to publicize the negative," Monti said. "I always try to put a positive spin on things."

Monti's is a block from the tracks and business slowed with every restriction and closure there, he said.

Chamber President Mary Ann Miller said she was surprised it's taken so long for anybody to borrow money through the organization. Other businesses have asked previously, but they didn't qualify. Or in other cases, the chamber helped with a business plan or found another source for a loan that was more fitting for that merchant, she said.

Miller expects more businesses will turn to the chamber because the length of construction could just now have pushed some merchants to need help. And Monti's could boost awareness, she said.

"We hope it kind of breaks the dam and gives it more visibility," Miller said.

The chamber offers a line of credit of up to $20,000. Only independently owned businesses can get the money, and they must work with consultants from a nonprofit group called the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Tempe has about 370 businesses along the rail line, and about 143 of them are eligible for the line of credit, through Tempe Schools Credit Union.

No other community has a program like this. Some, like Portland, Ore., offered loans during rail construction. But the Portland plan flopped because the rates were so high that no businesses wanted to take on debt that way.

Monti said he suspects no other businesses have tapped into a line of credit because they don't know about it.

"Probably many people just aren't fully aware of what's happening," Monti said. "You have to pay attention and know what's going on." - Garin Groff, The East Valley Tribune

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ST. PAUL LIGHT RAIL LOOP ROUTE LOSES A KEY VOTE; BENNETT SAYS UNION DEPOT SERVICE A MUST

ST. PAUL, MN -- A key Metropolitan Council committee on Monday rejected a proposal to run the east end of the Twin Cities' next light-rail line around downtown St. Paul, rather than right through it.

The loop is a detour from the downtown route the Met Council selected last summer, but it addresses some continuing difficulties with the Central Corridor as it is now planned -- running down Cedar and Fourth streets in the central business district.

The loop guarantees service to Union Station, runs light rail onto the historic rail concourse there and serves some of the city's key amenities, such as Xcel Energy Center. But Ramsey County's own study says it would tack $49 million onto the cost of the project and could cut downtown St. Paul ridership by more than half.

The Met Council's transportation committee rejected the loop on a 7-3 vote, likely sinking the proposal both for the entire 17-member council on Wednesday and for any earnest consideration in the detailed engineering of what the Central Corridor will look like.

"If this goes down, I can walk away," said Tony Bennett, the Ramsey County commissioner who has championed the plan. But he told committee members they need to come up with an alternative to bring light rail to Union Depot, which is being planned as a local, regional and long-distance rail hub.

"It is your charge to figure out how to get to the concourse of that depot," Bennett said during a 90-minute hearing on the matter, "because if you don't, we have a problem. . If it doesn't come to the depot, we won't support it."

Both the county, which serves as a regional rail authority, and the city are insistent on reviving the historic Lowertown depot. It sits just blocks from the riverboat landing that once made the city a transportation center for the entire Midwest, and officials think rail transport to the defunct depot could put St. Paul back on the map.

"This is a hard thing when family members disagree, and we in St. Paul and Ramsey County are family," said Nancy Homans, senior aide to Mayor Chris Coleman, as she spoke against the loop option before the committee. "We all believe that Central Corridor should begin at the Union Depot multimodal transit hub, whether it is at the front door (on Fourth Street) or at the concourse level."

That connection, though, is in doubt.

The project's costs have risen to nearly $930 million, and a key cost index is still about 8 percent higher than the cutoff to qualify for federal funding. Met Council officials, who will build and run the line linking downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, have been considering cutting some of its most expensive features. They include a tunnel in front of the University of Minnesota's Coffman Union, the reconstruction of University Avenue along the route and the easternmost four blocks of the route in St. Paul - from Cedar Street to the Union Depot.

On Monday, Met Council members expressed concern about having the train run through downtown St. Paul on any route, noting Bennett's warnings the existing plan would make several streets virtually impassable for vehicle traffic.

"We're getting very nervous about Cedar Street and would like further assurances that it will work," committee member Brian McDaniel said.

He was one of seven members to vote in support of a staff report critical of the loop plan. Those members do not constitute a majority of the full council, but chairman Peter Bell has also indicated he opposes the route, so passage would require the support of all other nine members.

That would be only one of many project decisions left to be made. Construction isn't slated to begin until 2010 at the earliest, with service opening in 2014. - Tim Nelson, The St. Paul Pioneer Press

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LIGHT RAIL COMMUTERS FEND OFF GERMS

"Bless you," someone called out to an elderly sick man as the light rail reached its stop at Paseo de San Antonio.

A dozen students disembarked, unaware they may have gotten off with a little more than their iPods and books.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu season peaks in February and may spread until May. Reported influenza cases have risen by 12 percent in California this month.

The CDC recommends avoiding close contact with people who are sick, but some don't have the choice.

"I have had the flu twice this year, so riding the light rail is a nightmare," said Jamie Freitas, a senior majoring in history and a light rail commuter. "It's my obsessive compulsive disorder, I try and ignore the coughing and hacking but I can't, so I cringe the whole way to campus."

Photo here: [media.collegepublisher.com]

Caption reads: VTA passenger's ride the Winchester line north passed the San Jose State stop at Paseo del San Antonio on Sunday afternoon. Recently there has been some concern about germs passed through the railings and supports. (Photo by Ali Sajjadi)

Bacterial and viral infections are most commonly caught through the air we breathe, said John Boothby, a professor of biological sciences at San Jose State University.

Boothby said sneezes and coughs produce particles that once evaporated will turn into a dried residue called, droplet nuclei.

This residue, which can last in the air for hours, may then transfer infection through the respiratory tract.

Photo here: [media.collegepublisher.com]

Caption reads: The handle straps on the VTA trains are a central to a concern regarding the spread of disease and germs. (Photo by Ali Sajjadi)

"When I'm on an airplane and I hear somebody sneezing in the back of the plane I know within hours I'm going to be breathing whatever that person had," Boothby said.

In the past year, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has seen an increase in commuters, said VTA Communications Manager, Jayme Kunz.

She said that on an average weekday roughly 33,000 people use the light rail.

The influx in riders will force cramped conditions, which Dr. Kamila Shekhar said is a perfect place to catch illnesses.

"Avoiding infectious viruses is difficult," said Shekhar, a physician at Kaiser Permanente. "Humans are breeding grounds for germs. Unfortunately, stopping the spread is not so easy - especially in poorly ventilated and crowded places."

Kunz said the VTA is concerned for the health of the riders and that the trains are cleaned once in the evening for garbage and visible dirt.

"I don't think they boil the train," Kunz said. "But the trains are very clean in comparison to other public transportation in the country."

But Boothby said the transmission of infections through surfaces is possible but not as prevalent as transmission through aerosols.

Living in a microbe-infested world can be unbearable for some people but they learn to adapt.

"I'm a freak about germs, some people call me a germ-a-phobe," said German Toledo, a radio, television and film major. "If someone is coughing near me I ask them to cough into their sleeve or I, simply, move." - Carla Mancebo, The Spartan Daily (Student newspaper of San Jose State University)

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THE END