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Railroad Newsline for Thursday, March 01, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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Rail News

DM&E FACES DECISIONS AFTER LOAN APPLICATION IS TURNED DOWN

OMAHA, NE -- Hundreds of millions of tons of coal are hauled from northeast Wyoming each year as fast as the nation's two largest railroads can carry it away.

But the Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway Company haven't been quick enough to satisfy utilities in the past few years, and America's appetite for coal is expected only to grow.

That's why the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern railroad had hoped federal officials would approve its $2.3 billion loan request, but the Federal Rail Administration denied the loan Monday.

The regional railroad still wants to vault into the big leagues and compete against Union Pacific and BNSF for coal customers. But without the federal loan, it's not clear whether DM&E will be able to reach Wyoming's coal-rich Powder River Basin.

The railroad will have to find other ways to cover the estimated $6 billion cost of the project or adjust its plans. DM&E officials had promised that their coal project would lower energy prices, improve railroad reliability and spur economic development all along the company's tracks.

Utilities have generally supported the project because of the potential for better coal delivery prices and more reliable deliveries, both of which could help lower electricity bills for consumers.

But the DM&E project has faced concerns about coal traffic in Rochester, Minn., and Dubuque, Iowa, and at least one of the railroad's competitors actively lobbied against the federal loan.

DM&E President Kevin Schieffer said the project was too important to abandon, because of the strong support from utilities and the coal mines' plans to increase production.

"This line will be built," Schieffer said before the loan decision. "It's a project that makes too much sense not to happen."

On Tuesday, after the loan decision, he said: "This is not something that changes our focus on getting this project built or our confidence that it will be built."

The railroad will explore other options for financing the $2.3 billion, but "it's not something we're going be announcing today," Schieffer said.

And, Schieffer said, there was little chance that his railroad would scale back the project.

"I think it pretty much needs to be the entire project," he said. "You can't build a part of the railroad and skip over a few miles."

DM&E's project plans are unusual for the industry because they call for building about 260 miles of a new rail line in Wyoming and South Dakota. Most rail construction today adds capacity to existing rail lines -- usually by building a line parallel to the old one -- rather than building a new line, American Association of Railroads spokesman Tom White said.

"This would be the largest new rail construction in this country since well before World War II," White said.

DM&E also plans to upgrade its 600-mile line through Minnesota and South Dakota so it could transport coal to power plants further east. And the company plans to carry coal across Iowa, Missouri and Illinois on its sister line, the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern railroad.

Skeptical industry

Railroad industry analyst Don Broughton with A.G. Edwards & Sons said before the loan decision that he wasn't sure how much of a difference DM&E could make in the coal trade because the amount of coal it would be able to haul would be considerably less than what BNSF and Union Pacific already haul.

"It's like trying to drain a swimming pool with a soda straw," Broughton said.

Schieffer counters that his railroad could serve as an important relief valve for the Powder River Basin because annual coal production is expected to continue growing to 500 million tons a year, and he predicted that DM&E could eventually carry 100 million tons of coal a year within six years of when it could start.

Broughton questioned the viability of the DM&E project because Schieffer hasn't attracted much private investment. He said Wall Street will invest in nearly anything if investors think there will be a return.

Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman said in his loan decision that the risk that DM&E would be unable to repay the loan remained too high. He said DM&E's highly leveraged financial position worried him.

"I have concluded that there is an unacceptable degree of uncertainty with regard to the project and too high a risk concerning whether the obligation can reasonably be repaid," Boardman wrote in his rejection letter.

Schieffer said before the decision that he felt pretty good about the investors his railroad has been able to attract, but he declined to identify any investors or say how much has been committed to the project. Schieffer has also said DM&E might go public and sell stock to raise money.

Utility yearning

The utility industry is in a building phase, according to a trade group that represents nearly three quarters of all U.S. utilities. The group, the Edison Electric Institute, says most of the proposed new power plants are coal plants.

If all those coal plants were built, the existing rail lines out of the Powder River Basin would quickly become clogged, said Chuck Linderman, director of energy supply policy for the trade group.

The Edison Electric Institute backs the DM&E project and has been critical of BNSF and Union Pacific for their past coal delivery problems.

Utilities look at the DM&E project as a way to help ensure more reliable deliveries because there would be an option if problems arose on the BNSF and Union Pacific lines.

Utilities already make sure they have multiple ways to deliver power over their lines in case of an emergency, so it makes sense to them.

"Competition begets better service and lower rates," Linderman said. "That's why we're for the DM&E."

Critical competitors

Burlington Northern and Union Pacific have responded differently to the DM&E plans, but neither railroad appears thrilled about the idea of a new competitor in the coal business.

BNSF officials lobbied against the federal loan.

Matt Rose, BNSF's chairman, president and chief executive, has said lending DM&E money for its coal line would have been bad public policy because those tax dollars would have subsidized DM&E and discouraged private investment in other railroads.

BNSF has also suggested in formal written comments to the Surface Transportation Board that DM&E's plans to haul coal could cause "potentially serious disruptions" on its own heavily trafficked lines in Illinois, where railroads cross.

Union Pacific's chairman, chief executive and president Jim Young declined to answer questions about DM&E and how its plans might affect the Omaha, NE-based railroad except to say: "We will compete."

An old agreement that was rumored to give Union Pacific the first chance to buy DM&E's lines if the railroad were to fail recently stirred up new criticism of DM&E's plans. The United Transportation Union that represents rail workers had argued the federal loan should be denied, because if Union Pacific bought DM&E, the taxpayer money would end up benefiting Union Pacific.

Officials at Union Pacific and Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern railroads said the old agreement was not likely to mean what the union and other DM&E critics say it will.

Union Pacific spokesman James Barnes said the agreement was between Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern and the Chicago & North Western railroads, and it was created in 1993 when the C&NW sold some of its lines to DM&E. He said it gave the C&NW "first right of refusal" to buy DM&E's rails. Union Pacific acquired Chicago and North Western in 1995.

The agreement ensured that "C&NW would have an avenue to collect the significant financial concessions given to the DM&E and that the owners could not sell the company and not reimburse the C&NW," Barnes said. Provisions like these are common in railroad sale agreements. This could not be exercised without Surface Transportation Board authorization, he said.

"UP has met with the DM&E to ensure that the provision does not impair DM&E's current financing efforts," Barnes said.

Schieffer said the old agreement involved different railroads and different circumstances, and it could not lead to a sale of DM&E to Union Pacific.

"This railroad is not going to be sold to UP. Period," Schieffer said.

But exactly what the future holds for DM&E won't be clear until its financing questions are resolved. - Josh Funk, The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette

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RAIL PROJECT BACKERS MULL NEXT MOVE

WASHINGTON, DC -- It's too soon to say whether the Federal Railroad Administration's denial of a $2.3 billion federal loan for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's planned coal train expansion has doomed the project, DM&E President Kevin Schieffer said Monday.

The 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 Mayo Clinic and the city of Rochester, Minn., strongly opposed the project, arguing the increased high-speed train traffic through the city could threaten the safety of patients at the clinic, which lies a few hundred yards from the tracks.

Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman said in his decision that "there remained too high a risk" that the railroad could not repay the massive loan.
Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Trumail said there would be no appeal process.

Schieffer said the company is reviewing the decision.

"It's obviously a disappointment, but not the first we've had in the last nine years, and I'm sure it's not the last," he said. "We will continue to develop the project, and we obviously wouldn't be doing that if we didn't think it would be able to happen."

He declined to say what the company will do next. In the past, he has said DM&E could look for private investors or even go public.

The Sioux Falls, S.D.-based railroad says it could haul 100 million tons of coal a year from Wyoming to eastern power plants.

A statement released by the Federal Railroad Administration said Boardman was concerned by several factors, "including the DM&E's current highly leveraged financial position, the size of the loan relative to the limited scale of existing DM&E operations, and the possibility that the railroad may not be able to ship the projected amounts of coal needed to generate enough revenue to pay back the loan."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, called the decision "really good news."

"We wanted to find a compromise between some real concerns of the Mayo Clinic and the Rochester community, and the DM&E, and that wasn't achieved, so I'm glad the loan was denied," he said.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, also a Republican, was not immediately available for comment.

An American Association of Railroads spokesman has said it would be the largest new rail construction in the United States since well before World War II.

The DM&E also wants to carry coal across Iowa, Missouri and Illinois on its sister line, the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern railroad. The federal loan would have covered only a little more than one-third of the total cost.

The loan would come from a little-used program that Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., had amended to be tailored to the DM&E's needs. Thune was a lobbyist for the railroad before his election to the Senate.

In a statement Monday, Thune said the South Dakota congressional delegation saw the project "as an opportunity that only comes around once in a lifetime" for small agricultural communities that could benefit.

"This is a major setback for our agriculture, ethanol, and energy industries and small towns struggling to survive," he said.

Thune criticized intense lobbying efforts from the Mayo Clinic.

"Simply put, there was a huge amount of money spent to sabotage this project by powerful special interests and their hired guns," he said. "This is a case of special interests beating the little guy."

The Mayo clinic spent more than $200,000 lobbying Congress and the federal government on the issue.

Minnesota Sens. Norm Coleman, a Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, praised the decision.

Coleman said he applauded the Department of Transportation "for the effort that they made to really look at this, and do the right thing, protect the interests of American taxpayers."

A taxpayer group opposed to the loan also lauded the administration's denial.

"Today's announcement marks a huge victory in the battle against wasteful spending," said Tom Schatz, president of The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste. - Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press, The Casper Star-Tribune

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IF DM&E REASSESSES ITS PROPOSAL, WALZ SAYS HE COULD BECOME RAILROAD'S ALLY

WASHINGTON, DC -- Rep. Tim Walz said he could support a railroad expansion in southern Minnesota if the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern (DM&E) Railroad re-evaluates the $6 billion project that was denied a federal loan on Monday.

"We need expanded rail travel, whether that's a coal-based railroad or not, I'm not sure. But I can guarantee that we need an agricultural railroad," Walz, D-Minn., said Tuesday. "I said if they change their focus, if they came about this thing a little differently, they would sure find an ally with me."

The railroad company has planned to build about 280 miles of new line to Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal mines and rebuild 600 miles of track in South Dakota and southern Minnesota. It had hoped for a $2.3 billion federal loan to help pay for it, but the Federal Railroad Administration denied the request on Monday, partly out of concern over DM&E's ability to repay it.

Walz, whose district would have been crossed by the project and who opposed the loan, said that DM&E's approach needs to be less confrontational and it should reconsider its proposal to haul coal from the Powder River Basin. He said there's a need to transport commodities like corn and soybeans.

Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar, who criticized the loan, also have said they support expanded rail in southern Minnesota.

"There's nothing that would prohibit an applicant that's been rejected from reapplying," said Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Turmail.

Without disclosing details, DM&E President and CEO Kevin Schieffer said he expects "to move forward and will spend some time assessing alternatives [to obtain financing]. This project is too important to the future of our company, regional rail transportation and the many supporters in the agriculture and energy sectors, the communities we serve, and beyond who are relying on it."

The Mayo Clinic and the Rochester Coalition, loud opponents of DM&E, won't quiet down if the project proceeds.

"We will continue to remain diligent as we assess next steps in this entire process to ensure that moving forward, whatever alternatives are explored, that our patients, staff and community are protected," said Chris Gade, a spokesman for the Mayo Clinic and the Rochester Coalition.

The coalition believed there would be increased train traffic through Rochester at faster speeds.

"Whatever decisions they make, we're hopeful that ... we can work out some things, some solutions that will meet the needs of our community," he said.

Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau and a corn and soybean farmer in Blue Earth County, said he believes too much time and energy have been invested in the project for DM&E to abandon its plans.

"I would certainly believe that agricultural support is no different today than it was yesterday or in 1998 when we started this project. Transportation is so important to agriculture," he said. "Anything we can do to help with that transportation infrastructure, we're going to continue to work about."

The loan decision came as a blow to the Minnesota Grain and Feed Association, said executive director Bob Zelenka. Three grain elevators along the corridor in Minnesota had already invested millions in upgrades in preparation for the project, he said. Others were planning on improvements but have put those on hold, he said.

"I don't think it's over, by any means," Zelenka said. - Brady Averill, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

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RAIL LOAN DENIAL LEAVES STATE UTILITIES AT A LOSS

MADISON, WI -- Two Wisconsin utility companies say they are disappointed a federal loan was denied for a massive project that would add a third rail carrier to bring coal from the huge Powder River Basin fields in Wyoming.

The Federal Railroad Administration denied the $2.3 billion federal loan for the $6 billion project planned by the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern railroad.

The DM&E wants to build 260 miles of new track to the Powder River fields and upgrade 600 miles of its existing line in South Dakota and Minnesota, which would be the largest new rail construction in the U.S. since well before World War II.

Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman said in his decision that "there remained too high a risk" that the railroad could not repay the massive loan. Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Trumail said there would be no appeal process.

DM&E president Kevin Schieffer said the company is reviewing the decision and it is too soon to say whether the decision permanently dooms the project, which was strongly opposed by the Mayo Clinic and the city of Rochester, Minn. Mayo and Rochester argued that the increased high-speed train traffic through the city could threaten the safety of patients at the clinic, which is located a few hundred yards from the tracks.

"It's obviously a disappointment, but not the first we've had in the last nine years and I'm sure it's not the last," Schieffer said. "This is not something that changes our focus on getting this project built or our confidence that it will be built."

The railroad will be exploring various other options for financing the $2.3 billion, but "it's not something we're going be announcing today." In the past, he has said DM&E could look for private investors or even go public.

And, Schieffer said, there was little chance that his railroad would scale back the project.
"I think it pretty much needs to be the entire project," he said. "You can't build a part of the railroad and skip over a few miles."

If the track isn't upgraded, it could mean additional problems with coal supplies and higher prices for Wisconsin, where new coal plants continue to be built and proposed. That includes the plants under construction in Oak Creek and Alliant's proposed plant in Cassville.

"We are disappointed," Alliant spokeswoman Erin Dammen said of the loan denial. "Anytime that you can add infrastructure it does improve reliability. And the train traffic is critical to getting the coal where it needs to go."

Dammen said that if the track project does not go through it could "definitely have an impact" on supplies and prices, although the exact impact is "hard to say."

"I think we would have to look at our transportation schedule and maybe make some adjustments and try to improve coal stores wherever we can," she said. "Not having it there definitely doesn't improve things; having it there definitely would."

Dammen said Alliant CEO William Harvey likely would release a statement expressing the company's disappointment but she wasn't sure what else Alliant or any other company could do.

A series of derailments in the Powder River area in the spring of 2005 led to paralyzing bottlenecks that dramatically delayed coal shipments from the Powder River Basin. The delays cut into fuel supplies at many coal-fired power plants around the country, including Wisconsin.

The state Public Service Commission estimated that the coal problems in 2005 cost Wisconsin utilities nearly $50 million.

La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative, which serves 25 municipal utilities in Wisconsin and three other states, last year experienced a 93 percent rate increase from the two rail carriers it contracts with for the 3.2 million tons of coal it uses annually -- the vast majority from Powder River. That led to a 20 percent rate increase for its customers, Dairyland spokesman Brian Rude said.

Dairyland sees the addition of a third Powder River railroad as competition for Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. that would help hold down future rates.

"We're obviously disappointed by the decision," Rude said. "It represented for us a viable competitive alternative that would make it much easier to keep our costs under control and our members' rates down."

Rude said it is projected that Power River shipments will go from 325 million tons of coal in 2005 to 497 million tons in 2012 and "capacity is pretty full now with two existing railroads."

Renewable energy and conservation can help but coal will be a "critical part" of the state's power infrastructure for the foreseeable future, Rude said.

"The demand is real and it's going to be with us," he said.

Railroad industry analyst Don Broughton with A.G. Edwards & Sons said before the loan decision that he wasn't sure how much of a difference DM&E could make in the coal trade because the amount of coal it would be able to haul would be considerably less than what BNSF and Union Pacific already haul.

"It's like trying to drain a swimming pool with a soda straw," Broughton said. - Jeff Richgels, The Madison Capital Times

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DRIVER WHO CAUSED BLAST TO ENTER DEAL

PROVO, UT -- An Idaho truck driver who rolled an explosives-laden semitrailer truck in Spanish Fork Canyon two years ago, causing a huge explosion, will resolve the case next week with a plea deal, his attorney said Tuesday.

Travis Stewart, 32, of Rexburg, Idaho, is charged in Provo's 4th District Court with misdemeanor counts of causing a catastrophe, reckless endangerment and reckless driving.

The Aug. 10, 2005, blast blew a 30-foot-deep-by-70-foot-wide crater in U.S. Highway 6 and sent at least 20 people to the hospital with shrapnel wounds and eardrum injuries.

The explosion also started more than a dozen wildfires and displaced the Union Pacific rail line by about 50 feet.

Defense attorney Greg Skordas told The Tribune that Stewart will enter a plea on March 5 before Judge Claudia Laycock.

Skordas declined to elaborate on the details of the resolution.

The semitrailer truck, which was hauling 18 tons of explosives from a Spanish Fork manufacturer to Oklahoma, overturned after Stewart lost control on a curve. A Utah Highway Patrol officer said Stewart was speeding and driving recklessly. - Stephen Hunt, The Salt Lake Tribune

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WYOMING COAL FACES GREENER FUTURE

GILLETTE, WY -- Wyoming's coal industry just saw its future turn a shade greener over the weekend -- and the Oscars had little to do with it.

On Friday, Texas Utility Corp. agreed to a buyout by a group of private equity firms that vow to slash the number of the utility's planned pulverized coal-fired power plants from 11 to three as part of a commitment to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Cutting those eight power plants effectively erases about 38 million annual tons of potential sales for Powder River Basin coal producers.

In addition to the loss of future sales is the sobering message the deal sends: Investors may be ready to wean themselves from pulverized coal-fired power generation and take on cleaner technologies that don't yet have the same profitability track record -- coal-gasification, for instance.

That technology has yet to be proven on a commercial scale with Powder River Basin coal.
That's OK, according to Evergreen Energy Inc. The company launched its prototype K-Fuel coal benefaction plant in Gillette last year. Evergreen recently signed a letter of intent with Texas Utility Corp. to potentially deploy its patented K-Direct process at each of the new planned power plants.

Though it seems Evergreen has much to lose in the TXU buyout, the company said it actually supports the new direction of slashing eight of the planned pulverized coal-fired units.

"I think it's more good than bad, for a couple of reasons," said Evergreen spokesman Paul Jacobson.

Jacobson said his company's technology strips many of the impurities out of the coal and increases its heating value before combustion. Although it doesn't eliminate carbon dioxide -- the greenhouse gas that's blamed for global warming -- it does provide a bridge technology for utilities that must meet growing demand for cleaner energy.

In fact, the process may even the playing field between Western and Eastern coal for the coal gasification process.

"Wyoming could really benefit toward a greener emphasis. It bodes well for lower-sulfur content coal, as long as we can increase the (heating values)," Jacobson said.

Ron Harper has a somewhat similar view on the TXU buyout. Harper is CEO and general manager of Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which is one of the few power producers that has coal-gasification and carbon sequestration facilities in operation in the United States. Yet it still plans to build a new pulverized coal-fired power plant near Gillette.

Coal gasification technology simply isn't ready to meet immediate demand for baseload growth, Harper said. For now, electrical demand must be met using a combination of renewables, efficiency and -- yes -- coal-based generation.

"How will they meet that demand for electricity?" Harper asked of the TXU deal.

Harper spoke to a chamber of commerce gathering in Gillette Tuesday and said its planned 375-megawatt net-output Dry Fork Station power plant must begin construction by October, or it will not go online in time to meet a significant increase in demand.

The biggest growing electrical user in Basin's service territory happens to be the natural gas and oil extraction industries that are pumping serious revenues into Wyoming's economy.

"These things have to happen or we'll see a slow down in some of these developments," Harper told the gathering.

Giving a nod to the greening mood of Americans, Basin Electric announced on Tuesday that it has committed to the "25 by 25" initiative that calls for 25 percent of electricity to come from clean, renewable energy by 2025.

Harper noted that about a year ago when Basin committed to a 10 percent renewable portfolio by 2010, it needed to add about 75 megawatts of wind or some other renewable resource. Given in the increasing demand for electricity, however, the cooperative will need to add about 300 megawatts of green energy.

Whenever the nation does begin to move to a coal-gasification power plant scheme, Wyoming will be a player, according to Marion Loomis, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association. Loomis noted that one of the major concerns about deploying the technology in Wyoming is the added expense of producing electricity at high elevations.

But just as the state ships its coal to distant power plants, Wyoming could also gasify its coal in-state then ship the synthetic gas to electrical generation plants at lower elevations.

"I just think Wyoming has too much going for it to suggest we won't be able to compete," Loomis said. - Dustin Bleizeffer, The Casper Star-Tribune

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TIETEK DOUBLES COMPOSITE RAILROAD TIE PRODUCTION CAPACITY

HOUSTON, TX -- TieTek, a manufacturer of composite crossties for rail applications, has opened a new 50,000-ft2 production plant in Houston, Texas. The new facility complements the company's flagship manufacturing facility in nearby Marshall.

TieTek expects the facility to increase the production of its composite crossties by 50 percent. Reportedly, the new plant's manufacturing flexibility permits production of crossties and switch-ties up to 22 ft/6.7m long. TieTek says these new, longer ties are required to meet the need for track maintenance and new construction.

With three lines in production, TieTek expects to consume 500 tons of recycled plastic and rubber each week, sourced from more than 15,000 used automobile tires. - Composites Technology Magazine

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ON THE RIGHT TRACK: UNION PACIFIC ROLLS OUT EFFICIENT LOCOMOTIVE

Photo here:

[www.granitebaypt.com]

ROSEVILLE, CA -- Touting its commitment to the environment, Union Pacific unveiled its newest fuel-efficient locomotive Thursday in Roseville's rail yard.

The General Electric Co. Evolution Series locomotive is a 12-cylinder engine generating the same 4,400 horsepower as the older 16-cylinder engine, while producing 60 percent fewer nitrogen oxide emissions.

Facing tightening environmental regulations, Omaha, NE-based Union Pacific, the largest railroad in North America, has spent $5 billion in technology of this type since 2000, said Scott Moore, a company spokesperson.

"We know we have to grow our business in an environmentally friendly way," Moore said. "We're here to showcase how that happens."

Photo here:

[www.granitebaypt.com]

Caption reads: Jon Eric Jensen of Union Pacific demonstrates how engineers train by using simulation programs. The GE Evolution Series locomotive, top, was on tour in Roseville's J. R. Davis Rail Yard last week. (Photo by Andrew Nixon/The Press-Tribune)

Union Pacific leaders said trains, even before the new technology, already produced one-third the pollution of trucks carrying the same amount of goods, according to statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Some people may still have an image of locomotives spewing pollutants," Moore said.

But in fact, one train hauls the equivalent of 280 trucks. Each new GE Evolution locomotive will consume 89,000 fewer gallons of fuel than those built as recently as 2004.

The GE Evolution is a high horsepower locomotive, which hauls 5,000-ton loads over long distances.

Locomotive engines produced today must meet emission requirements set in 1997 by the EPA. The current limit is 5.5 grams of nitrogen oxide per horsepower per hour's operation and the EPA is considering a limit of 1.3 grams, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 13. GE is hoping for a 1.9 limit. New regulations might take effect between 2011 and 2017.

The Wall Street Journal reported closed-door negotiations between the EPA and GE on new regulations.

EPA press officer John Millett said he was unaware of such negotiations.

"In a preliminary move, it's customary to get comments on proposed regulations from affected industries," Millett said.

GE is in "technical discussions" with the EPA, said GE spokesperson Shaunda Parks. She said the company wants to achieve set standards, not for just certain pollutants, but for overall output while maintaining costs for customers. Fuel is the second highest cost for customers, Parks said.

Union Pacific's seven-city Green Locomotive Technology Tour included Roseville because it has the largest rail yard on the West Coast.

About 50 trains roll through town each day. UP is Roseville's fourth-largest employer with 1,328 employees.

A 2004 study by the Placer County Air Pollution Control District found an increased risk of cancer due to released diesel particulates for residents who live near Roseville's Union Pacific J.R. Davis Yard. County health officials said the risk was based on an assumed constant exposure over a 70-year period.

Other recent UP innovations include Green Goat hybrid switchers, used exclusively in rail yards and introduced in 2002, which utilize fuel-efficient technology like that of a Toyota Prius.

Other fuel-efficient measures include state-of-the-art engineer training. Jon Eric Jensen, UP information technology principal consultant, gave a hands-on demonstration on how operators now train with simulated environments, like in video games.

"A simulated environment is better than the traditional pencil-and-paper classroom," Jensen said.

Trainees are given a joystick and a control panel, Jensen said. He demonstrated how locomotive engineers couple cars together with a control pack that hangs from a vest.

The new locomotive was built in Erie, PA, and sent from the factory 11 days earlier, said GE engineer Richard Kolkman.

About 1,000 locomotives are produced nationwide annually compared to 320,000 trucks.

After showing the inside of the locomotive cab, Kolkman pointed to a train on a nearby track that he thought was about 30 years old.

"Those are pretty long in the tooth," Kolkman said. UP is testing filters on its existing locomotives before they are updated with newer technology.

"It's impossible to replace them all at once," Kolkman said of UP's 8,500 fleet. - Ansel Oliver, The Granite Bay Press Tribune

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SEATTLE - L.A. TRAIN NATION'S WORST FOR ON-TIME ARRIVALS

Photo here: [seattlepi.nwsource.com]

SEATTLE, WA -- It was 20:45 Tuesday night at King Street Station, and the Coast Starlight, the Amtrak run from Los Angeles, was right on schedule ... hours late.

The scheduled arrival of 20:45 came and went with nary a whistle. Midnight, an Amtrak ticket clerk said, was more like it for the train almost never on time.

The Coast Starlight is not the only engine that can't.

Last year, Amtrak was late more often in the worst showing in a generation.

The Coast Starlight was on time a pitiful 4 percent of the time.

"I can't remember the last time it actually got here at 20:45," an Amtrak ticket clerk at King Street Station said Tuesday.

"And nobody expects it to be here then."

The main reason: In most of the country, the national passenger railroad operates on tracks owned by freight railroads, and the tracks are badly congested. That happens to the Coast Starlight.

With freight traffic soaring in recent years, Amtrak's never-stellar on-time performance declined to an average of 68 percent last year, its worst showing since the 1970s. When the routes where Amtrak owns the tracks are excluded, the on-time performance last year fell to 61 percent.

Even the lawmakers who vote on Amtrak's subsidies of more than $1 billion annually have gotten caught in the holdups. Earlier this month, House Democrats traveling to a retreat in Williamsburg, VA, arrived two hours late after getting stuck behind a CSX freight train with engine trouble.

Alex Kummant, who took over as Amtrak's president in September, has made improving on-time performance a priority. A former executive at Union Pacific Corp. -- a freight railroad long considered hostile to Amtrak -- Kummant says the relationship between Amtrak and the freight railroads is inherently complicated.

"It is an intersection of a subsidized structure with a truly private-sector structure, so how do you coexist?" he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Kummant doesn't blame the freight railroads for most delays, saying they need government help to make the capital investments necessary to cope with soaring volumes.

But passenger advocates and others accuse the freight railroads of failing to live up to their end of a bargain struck in 1970, when Congress agreed to let the railroads unload the passenger service they said was dragging them down. In exchange, the railroads were required to give priority on their tracks to trains run by a new national passenger railroad. Amtrak pays modest fees to use the tracks.

Amtrak performs far better on the Northeast corridor, where it owns the tracks. Last year, 85 percent of its high-speed Acela Express trains between Boston and Washington arrived within 10 minutes of their scheduled time.

But where Amtrak depends on the freight railroads, the picture is far gloomier.

The California Zephyr, connecting Chicago and San Francisco, was on schedule 7 percent of the time last year. In the current fiscal year, the California Zephyr has not once arrived on time.
Then there is the Coast Starlight, which has established a new high in tardiness.

"It's pretty good about departing on time," said the Amtrak ticket clerk at King Street Station, who asked to remain anonymous.

"But it never arrives on time."

"We try to warn people when we book them, because it's never on time," the clerk said. "Every night it's scheduled, we have people waiting here for hours. It's awful."

Monday, the Coast Starlight arrived about 22:30 Sunday's train arrived at King Street Station at 00:53 Monday, and the train was more than two hours late on Friday and Saturday, according to the clerk's records. Last Thursday, the train scheduled in Seattle at 20:45 arrived at 02:58 Friday.

It's not that King Street Station is full of surly passengers. People who ride the short runs to Portland and back were full of praise Tuesday.

Tim Kerr, a car broker from Denver, rode from Portland to Seattle on Tuesday afternoon and thought the service was "perfect."

""I've only ridden it twice, but it was on time. I left Portland at 12:15 and arrived here at about 16:00, just like they said I would. My ticket was $28, and I would have easily paid that much in gas. I'm surprised more people weren't on the train."

Customers on the Coast Starlight are rarely so happy.

Though passengers are continually frustrated by the delays, only rarely does one demand a full refund, the clerk said. Even then, they are typically given Amtrak vouchers.
"Most of them are so sick of waiting, they just want to go home," the clerk said. "They're so tired, they want to go to bed."

Amtrak understands this reputation is bad for business.

"The resulting damage to Amtrak's brand, reputation and repeat business is potentially devastating," Amtrak's former acting president, David Hughes, wrote in a letter last summer to the federal Surface Transportation Board.

SLOW GOING ON THE COAST STAR-LATE

Amtrak's long-haul train from Los Angeles is scheduled to arrive at King Street Station at 20:45 hours, but it rarely comes close. Recent arrival times:

DAY ARRIVAL LATE BY
Feb. 22 02:58 6 hours, 13 minutes
Friday 23:18 2 hours, 33 minutes
Saturday 23:07 2 hours, 22 minutes
Sunday 00:53 4 hours, 8 minutes
Monday 22:33 1 hour, 48 minutes

Source: Amtrak.com

- Casey McNerthney, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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INTERSTATE 22 AND THE RAILROAD

TUPELO, MS -- The upgrade work on Interstate Corridor 22-U.S. 78, which will serve the Toyota plant near Blue Springs, Mississippi, is moving forward and will be finished before the new interstate connects with I-65 in Alabama, U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Tupelo, said Tuesday.

Wicker said $21 million has been approved to upgrade the work and more could be approved in a general appropriation and reauthorizations as the 2010 Toyota operating date approaches. Interstate 22 work is scheduled for completion by 2012.

Wicker was the primary sponsor of legislation designating the I-22 corridor.

He also said Toyota's announcement of a plant making 150,000 Highlander SUVs per year presses the issue of railroad rerouting around the center of Tupelo.

"Those Highlanders have to be shipped and most of them will be shipped on trains, and that gives every reason to make a push for action," Wicker said.

A study paid by federal funds has proposed several relocation alternatives for the BNSF Railway Company tracks that dissect the city, with an increasing number of trains daily blocking traffic at multiple grade crossings. - Joe Rutherford, The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

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THE DAWN OF THE RAILROAD

Photo here:

[www.americanheritage.com]

Caption reads: Theodore Roosevelt on the back platform of a B&O car in Chicago, 1912. (Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.)

"It is with no ordinary feelings we announce the fact -- that a plan for making a railroad from the city of Baltimore to some point on the Ohio River, has been considered and adopted." These words in a Baltimore newspaper, Niles' Weekly Register, told the world that a group of businessmen had gotten a charter, 180 years ago today, to build the first public railroad in America. The Baltimore & Ohio was born as an innovative entry into the vital race to tap the riches of the American West.

In the 1820s the country was undergoing both an unprecedented expansion and a transportation revolution. Three eastern port cities, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, were vying to establish the most effective link to the West. New York took the lead in 1825 with the opening of the Erie Canal. Philadelphians worked at digging their own canal, the Main Line, toward Pittsburgh. That project, with inclined planes to haul cargo up the steep intervening mountains, would be completed in 1830.

Baltimore was already profiting from its connection to the National Road, a turnpike that reached the Ohio River at Wheeling, Virginia (West Virginia had yet to split off), in 1818. But wagon transport was far too costly to compete with canal traffic.

Baltimore entrepreneurs led by Philip E. Thomas, who would serve as the company's president during its formative years, looked at the options and decided to take their chances with rail, which had yet to prove itself. They received their charter from the Maryland legislature on February 28, 1827. The next Fourth of July they enlisted Charles Carroll, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence and a B&O stockholder, to lay the cornerstone of the project.

President John Quincy Adams had already decided that canals were the way of the future, and he broke ground the same day for the competing Chesapeake & Ohio canal. The federal government favored the canal, giving it first dibs on the best route west.

A year and a half later, the first passengers were riding the B&O. In May 1830 they could travel as far as Ellicott's Mills, about 10 miles west of the city. The cars, which resembled stagecoaches, were initially pulled by horses over wooden rails capped with iron. Those searching for a better means of propulsion suggested cars driven by the wind or powered by a horse on a treadmill. Both ideas were soon superseded by a more revolutionary concept. In 1830 Peter Cooper's one-ton locomotive Tom Thumb proved the viability of steam power, and before long the B&O began carrying both passengers and freight in steam-driven trains of cars. To support the weight, cast-iron rails replaced the wooden ones.

Andrew Jackson became the first U.S. President to ride on a railroad, taking a short trip on the B&O in 1833. Two years later, the company opened a line connecting Washington and Baltimore. It was along that route that Samuel F. B. Morse sent the words "What hath God wrought!" 40 miles over wires in 1844. They were the first telecommunication in history.

For a time the two industries developed what proved a natural synergy. The railroads provided a convenient route for telegraph wires, and the telegraph allowed more efficient use of single-track lines by sending information about traffic to oncoming trains.

The main thrust of the B&O was the race to reach the Ohio River and tap into the enormous freight market to and from the West. By the early 1850s rail lines had already been laid to Lake Erie. The Pennsylvania Railroad had reached Pittsburgh. The skilled B&O engineer Benjamin Latrobe, Jr., oversaw the completion of the 11 tunnels and 113 bridges needed to connect the final stretch of his line to Wheeling. The arrival of the first B&O train in that city on New Year's Day 1853 brought a big boost in revenues.

Because it snaked through both Maryland and Virginia, the B&O became a source of contention during the Civil War. Confederate Col. Thomas J. Jackson, later known as Stonewall, regretted destroying the efforts of so much labor in 1861, writing, "It was a sad work; but I had my orders." The Southerners confiscated locomotives and tore up tracks. Steel rails and prefabricated bridges speeded repairs as the line suffered repeated attacks throughout the conflict.

After the war, the company pushed the B&O across the Ohio. The first bridge, begun 1868, took more than three years to complete. About the same time, the B&O, already a major mover of coal, established a line to Pittsburgh and began to share in the bonanza of the burgeoning coke and iron industry there.

The line connected to Chicago in 1874, and the firm took over other lines to reach St. Louis by 1893. Like other major trunk lines, the B&O became noted for its luxurious passenger trains. Its Capitol Limited, from Chicago to Washington, carried notables from the Midwest to the nation's capital for years.

By the end of the century, the B&O had laid or acquired 5,800 miles of track -- and had gone bankrupt. The frenzy of railroad building in the second half of the nineteenth century had created a surplus of capacity that plagued the industry for decades. The company was reorganized and continued to operate.

In 1925 the B&O introduced its first diesel locomotive, and by the end of the 1940s steam engines were obsolete. Searching for economies during the 1950s, lines began a series of mergers. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad bought a controlling interest in the B&O in the early 1960s but continued to operate it as an independent line. Additional mergers produced the Chessie System in the 1970s and the CSX Corporation in the 1980s. In 1986 the B&O was absorbed into CSX, and its history ended. Many miles of B&O track were abandoned.

Over 180 years, the railroads have made a tremendous contribution to the national prosperity, and they remain today one of the most critical parts of our infrastructure. Though the B&O has disappeared (except on the Monopoly board) its historical importance cannot be diminished. It began it all. - Jack Kelly, American Heritage Magazine

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TRAIN MISHAPS TO BE EXAMINED

VANCOUVER, BC -- The rash of derailments in British Columbia over the last five years, including a runaway train last July that killed two men and injured a third, has sparked a federal review of the Railway Safety Act.

Last week Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Lawrence Cannon appointed a four-member panel to examine whether the act, which is nearly two decades old, needs to be toughened up in light of a number of serious accidents in B.C., Alberta and Quebec.

One of those appointed is Gary Moser, the former chief executive officer of the Health Employers Association of British Columbia and a former deputy minister.

Cannon ordered the review last December shortly after taking office, but didn't appoint the panel until last week. The review came after Transport Canada took "significant" safety enforcement action because of an increase in the number of accidents and derailments in B.C., including fatal accidents near Lillooet last year and McBride in 2003, and the derailment into the Cheakamus River of a train loaded with chemicals in 2005.

The panel will meet with railway companies, unions and the public to determine what changes are needed to the act. The panel's deadline is October.

There is no question in the minds of B.C.'s railway workers what needs to be done, according to John Holliday, the chairman of Local 1778 of the United Transportation Workers.

"We expect railway companies in Canada to provide a safer working environment as a result of the inquiry," Holliday said Monday.

His union covers conductors between North Vancouver and 100 Mile House on the former BC Rail line now operated by CN. It was on that line that railroad employees Don Faulkner and Tom Dodd were killed last July when their locomotive went out of control on one of the steepest and longest grades in North America.

That accident also highlighted the lack of crashworthiness of so-called black box "event recorders". The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has lobbied Transport Canada for more than 10 years to order railway companies to increase the survivability of the data recorders. Unlike the airline industry, railway recorders have been lost in a number of significant accidents, including the one at Lillooet.

Jim Feeny of CN said the company has worked hard to reduce the number of main-track derailments. In 2005, it recorded 20 reportable accidents in B.C. By 2006, it cut the number to 11, although one of those was the Lillooet fatality.

"We've made a lot of progress at CN in 2006 following the surge, the spike in derailments in 2005," he said. "We've had a 26 per-cent reduction in number of main-track accidents compared to 2005."

Feeny said CN will make recommendations to the review panel, although he couldn't say yet what they will be.

"We're going to be an active participant in that review," he said.

"We believe that CN and the other stakeholders in this process can advance the cause of transportation safety in Canada. Safety is an ongoing process."

The Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the Lillooet accident and isn't expected to release its report until next year.

Holliday said the union blames deregulation for the spike in accidents in recent years, and says similar problems have emerged in the trucking and airline industries.

"We believe this is happening as a result of deregulation of railways, trucking and airlines," he said. "Before, the federal and provincial governments enforced the rules. Now, railways, trucks and airlines police themselves."

He believes railway companies have cut back on maintenance and safety to improve the bottom line.
"Our job is hazardous enough without the railways gambling and kowtowing to shareholders.

Before, it used to be that the customer was king. Now it's the shareholders."

The panel will look at minimum safety requirements, whether enforcement powers are tough enough, and if "a complete legislative authority that applies to all railway companies within Canada's constitutional authority" should be established, Cannon's office said. - Jeff Lee, The Vancouver Sun

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FOUR KILLED IN CHINA TRAIN DERAILMENT

Photo here: [www.foxnews.com]

BEIJING, CHINA -- A sandstorm with hurricane-strength wind gusts derailed a train in China's far west on Wednesday, killing at least four people and injuring another 30, state media said.

The 11-car train had just left a station in Turpan, in the Xinjiang region's east, when it was hit by wind at 02:00, the Xinhua News Agency said.

"A strong sandstorm cracked window panes soon after the train left Turpan, and blew some of the cars off the rail when we were trying to plug up the windows," Xinhua quoted passenger Su Chuanyi as saying.

Sandstorms fed by the deserts of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia blow toward Beijing and the eastern seaboard each spring powered by vigorous winds. Sometimes, the dust blows out across the Pacific, clouding the skies of South Korea and occasionally drifting as far as the western coast of the United States.

At least 100 rescue workers, doctors and police were at the scene of the derailment, which disrupted operations of the Southern Xinjiang Railway, it said.

The train had been running between the capital city of Urumqi and Aksu, in the west. - The Associated Press, FoxNews.com

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TRANSIT NEWS

RAIL RIDERS AN HONORABLE BUNCH

Photo here: [mas.scripps.com]

Caption reads: Jacob Clark shows his student ID to RTD security guard Danny Kenney on Monday, the first day of expanded fare checking on light-rail routes. Until Monday, RTD had just six fare checkers to cover more than 820 daily trips. There are now 37 additional checkers on duty. (Rocky Mountain News photo by Ken Papaleo)

DENVER, CO -- Pat yourselves on the back, metro light-rail riders. You're an overwhelmingly honest lot.

On the first day of beefed-up fare enforcement on the 34-mile light-rail network, RTD security guards encountered only a handful among the thousands of riders who hadn't paid their fares.
Until Monday, RTD had six fare checkers to cover more than 820 daily train trips.

But it worked out an agreement with its union to add the task to the duties of private Wackenhut Security guards under contract to RTD.

Some passengers said they rarely have been checked to see if they've paid their fares.

"Last semester, I didn't get checked at all," said Forrest Pruett, 35, a student from Littleton.
That should change.

Now there are 37 additional checkers - still not nearly enough to staff every train but sufficient to increase sixfold the chances of finding scofflaws.

The Rocky rode along Monday with Wackenhut's Vince Iovinella and Dan Kenney, who are part of the new detail, accompanied by their supervisors and an RTD security team observing on the first day.

Only six of the roughly 400 passengers who were asked to show proof of payment during a two- hour period hadn't followed the rules.

Here are some snapshots of what the fare checkers encountered Monday.

RTD security specialist John Perry politely offered to let a young woman board a light-rail train ahead of him.

After all, she had been waiting at the boarding platform when the security guards walked up. But the woman declined.

After the security crew got on, Perry turned to see if the woman was boarding. She looked up and said, "No ticket."

RTD will sometimes issue citations to people waiting for trains without a paid fare, such as the woman. But they typically will wait until the person gets on the train.

"I ride a ton," said a Denver man, who boarded at Littleton Mineral Station.

"I'm definitely an avid rider."

But after spending several minutes rooting through his backpack filled with spare clothing to look for a ticket, he admitted he didn't have one this time.

He got a warning from Iovinella.

Iovinella came upon a teen in goth attire with no fare and no sense of cooperation.

The young man, black makeup encircling both eyes, had no identification with him. He gave a name but no address and seemed unsure of his birthday.

Iovinella escorted him off the train at the Colorado Station - knowing that the teen was probably going to get on the next train.

Three of the six who didn't have proof of payment were entitled to ride but hadn't taken the proper steps.

Two were students at Metropolitan State College of Denver. All Metro students pay a fee that entitles them to RTD passes.

The two hadn't obtained a required RTD sticker to put on their student ID cards before riding.

The third was a new RTD rider who had bought a 10-ride fare book but didn't know you're supposed to insert a ticket into a validating machine at the station before boarding.

All three were allowed to continue riding.

Light-rail fares and fines

RTD's light rail operates on a modified version of the honor system - you're supposed to pay, but you have to prove it only if you're asked.

Knowing what to pay can be complicated because RTD operates a four-zone system.

. Travel in one or two zones: 1.50; in three zones: $2.75 ; in four zones: $3.75

. Monthly passes are available for all three fare levels.

Get caught without the right fare, and the first time you get a warning and your name is entered into a database. Get caught after that, and you get a summons to county court for theft of transit services.

. First offense: $51 fine; $36 if paid early

. Second offense: $81 fine; $66 if paid early

. Third offense: $111 fine; $96 if paid early

- Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

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LIGHT-RAIL PLANNERS ARE WRONG TO SEEK MORE FUNDING BEFORE FIRST PHASE IS COMPLETE

The Valley agency building 20 miles of light rail in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa is making a brazen attempt to more than triple the size of its empire before we have any indication this form of mass transit will work in Arizona.

Valley METRO is answering Gov. Janet Napolitano's call for the Arizona Department of Transportation to quickly develop a plan to slow the growth of motor vehicle traffic as part of an effort to affect climate change. ADOT says it's open to all possibilities, but many people assumed Napolitano was referring to the establishment of commuter rail, which would have its own corridors with fewer stops than light rail, or a rapid passenger train linking the Valley with Tucson and eventually Prescott.

However, light rail planners are suggesting their system should figure prominently in any statewide proposal. As Tribune writer Garin Groff reported Friday, Metro executive director Rick Simonetta is asking for $1.7 billion to speed up the construction schedule from 2025 to 2020 for a second phase of 34 miles of light rail, plus add another 23 miles to the system by 2027.

The first set of tracks is expected to start conducting regular passenger service in December 2008, but only after years of acrimonious debate about the huge expense and unknown efficiency of a street-level system forced to travel at lower speeds and desired as much for its economic redevelopment potential as for any ability to get commuters out of their autos.

METRO officials point out the next phase of light-rail construction was approved by voters when Maricopa County's half-cent sales tax for transportation was renewed in 2004. But they knows quite well the state legislation authorizing that 2004 election includes a requirement that METRO reach certain benchmarks before it can seek any more state or federal funding.

Until that first segment opens, all we really know about Valley light rail is that it's quite effective at disrupting traffic on the streets in its path at a price tag of $70 million a mile.

An environmental impact study conducted before the first segment qualified for federal funding showed it would have only a small impact on air pollution (the air immediately surrounding some spots could become even dirtier because of more auto congestion). For that reason alone, light rail shouldn't be considered for any statewide plan intended to reduce greenhouse gases.

METRO should focus on completing its first project on time and within budget, which aren't guaranteed at this point, and delay talk about further expansions until we have some real experience with light-rail cars moving from west Mesa to Tempe and Phoenix. - Editorial Opinion, The East Valley Tribune

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A RESPONSE THAT DOES NOTHING TO SAVE TRANSIT

MILWAUKEE, WI -- Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who hates even the hint of light rail, has a dream of a metro area more reliant on cars and less reliant on mass transit.

It's a shocking dream, opposing as it does just about all current thinking among students of cities.

No wonder Milwaukee is so backward transit-wise. Denizens of a growing number of metro areas speed to work in sleek, roomy, convenient trams. Here, in contrast, mass transit patrons continue for the most part to crawl along in slowpoke buses.

Walker's narrow vision abets the downward spiral of the county bus system, with its continuous cutbacks in service and drop-offs in the number of passengers. In cities with more farsighted leaders, light rail has boosted the number of transit customers, spurring a resurgence in bus use, as riders transfer from rail to rubber wheels and vice versa.

The county exec's dream aligns with an ideology too long in vogue. D.C. economist Jared Bernstein coined it YOYO (you're on your own), as I noted in a previous column. What better symbolizes the YOYO's individualistic approach than does the automobile, where each driver steers his or her own fate? The opposite philosophy is WITT (we're in this together), which, by bringing people together in one conveyance, mass transit represents.

Thus, Walker's vision sheds light on the cranky tirades against light rail on talk radio.

Walker shared his dream last week with the Editorial Board, which was exploring his stance on Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's proposal to use $91.5 million in federal transit aid for a system of rapid buses from outlying areas to the city's center and a system of modern streetcars that would loop downtown.

Walker gave a tentative "yea" to the buses and a flat "nay" to the streetcars. Smacks too much of light rail, he said. Besides, the streetcars would consume half the funds and just to serve visitors and white-collar downtown workers, whereas the bus system serves populations dependent on mass transit.

"Every dollar that goes to a downtown rail system is a dollar that goes away from the bus system," he added.

What about the worth of upping the number of transit passengers?

This'll be a stunning statement here, he said, accurately. "I want to have a system that serves the needs of people who are dependent on mass transit. But ideally, I'd like to build an economy in this county and this city that means that fewer people are dependent on mass transit."

In other words, transit is welfare, which government provides for the poor souls who lack cars.
Transit's also a zero-sum game, in which the middle class benefits only at the expense of the needy.

Transit wasn't always welfare. The middle class and the poor rode the streetcars of yore shoulder to shoulder. In other cities - Minneapolis-St. Paul being a recent example - light rail has proved to be one way to return to those days.

As for the downtown streetcar, why wouldn't the bus-dependent benefit? After all, downtown development sells partly on the basis that it would put the poor and non-whites to work. Is that a lie?

If so, making that promise true would help better than squashing a people-mover downtown.

Don't forget, too, that Walker's vision carries huge hidden costs. A metro area in which everyone drives would intensify traffic congestion - which would have to be relieved by either a public transit system or road construction.

The $810 million price tag for rebuilding the Marquette Interchange ought to put to rest forever the notion that the automobile carries no public costs. - Commentary, Gregory Stanford, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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THE END