 |
Railroad Newsline for Wednesday, 03/21/07
Author: Larry W. Grant
Date: 03-21-2007 - 02:51
Railroad Newsline for Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Compiled by Larry W. Grant
In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006
RAIL NEWS
KCS' NEW HERITAGE LOCOMOTIVE PAINT SCHEME CELEBRATES BRIGHT FUTURE WHILE KEEPING AN EYE ON THE PAST
Photos here: [www.businesswire.com]
KANSAS CITY, MO -- KCSM 4650, the first locomotive to be painted with the Kansas City Southern's (KCS) (NYSE: KSU) new, heritage paint scheme, made an appearance at an event on Friday in San Luis Potosi. The new locomotive's presence at the event accentuated the company's commitment to investing in Mexico, while illustrating KCS and its subsidiaries' bright future and reverence for its rich and colorful history. A formal unveiling event and photo opportunity will take place in Kansas City in April.
As part of an aggressive capital investment program in the U.S. and Mexico, the KCS subsidiaries have committed to purchase 30 Electro Motive Diesel SD70ACe locomotives and 30 General Electric Transportation System (GETS) ES44AC locomotives. The first 30 ES44ACs were delivered to Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. (KCSM) in primer in December 2006 and January 2007.
KCS' subsidiaries have signed letters of intent to purchase an additional 70 locomotives from Electro Motive Diesel and an additional 80 locomotives from GETS, all of which would receive the heritage paint scheme.
KCSM 4650 was painted by GETS in San Luis Potosi. A second unit, KCSM 4679, is being painted by Metro East Industries in East St. Louis, Ill. KCS 3997, an SD70ACe, will be the first U.S. unit bearing the new paint scheme. It is also being painted in East St. Louis. The remaining new locomotives will be delivered to KCS' subsidiaries throughout 2007 and 2008.
The heritage paint scheme of vibrant yellow, red and Brunswick green (that appears to be black) is based upon that of the Southern Belle passenger trains that ran on The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) between 1940 and 1969. The only difference between the newly painted units in the U.S. and Mexico will be the logo on the side of the locomotives' nose and the added "de Mexico" on the side of the KCSM units. A similar scheme appears on the Panama Canal Railway Company's (PCRC) freight and passenger locomotives.
KCS has also committed to purchase 1,050 covered hopper rail cars and 150 covered coil rail cars, which will receive a paint scheme complementary to the heritage theme. The first of 150 covered hoppers will be released on March 22 from American Railcar Industries in Paragould, Arkansas. The covered hoppers will be subleased to KCSM.
Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, KCS is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holding is KCSR, serving the central and south central U.S. Its international holdings include KCSM, serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port cities of Lázaro Cárdenas, Tampico and Veracruz, and a 50 percent interest in PCRC, providing ocean-to-ocean freight and passenger service along the Panama Canal. KCS' North American rail holdings and strategic alliances are primary components of a NAFTA Railway system, linking the commercial and industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. - BusinessWire.com, Source: C. Doniele Kane, KCS Railway
TRAIL ADVOCATES SEE OPPORTUNITY AS UP REBUILDS TRESTLE: RAILROAD SCRAMBLES TO GET TRAINS MOVING ON KEY LINE
Bicyclists and runners in Sacramento are asking Union Pacific to include a bike trail on a new railroad trestle now under construction after the old elevated trestle near Cal Expo burned down last week.
Proponents of the plan said adding a trail on the trestle and bridge over the American River could connect the existing American River Parkway on the north side of the river with the River Park neighborhood on the south side of the river.
The old trestle, located parallel to the Capital City Freeway, was designed only for trains.
"There's a railroad bridge and there's a freeway that crosses the American River in this ideal spot right across from Cal Expo, right across from east Sacramento and midtown Sacramento," said Mark Murray, a trail advocate. "We need to have a pedestrian bridge that provides that same access."
Backers of the idea said they understand that the railroad is busy just trying to rebuild the trestle but added that they would just like to talk to UP about the idea sometime in the future.
The trestle, which was made of wood, burned to the ground last Thursday. Crews removed the remnants over the weekend and are now driving piles for a new steel and concrete structure that will soon be constructed. - KCRA-TV3, Sacramento, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr
FINDINGS IN FATAL COLLISION OF TRAINS: CREW ERROR BLAMED
Diagram of derailment:
[www.clarionledger.com]
WASHINGTON, DC -- By failing to stop at a signal, a northbound CN train may have caused the fatal, head-on collision with another CN freight train traveling south near Yazoo City, Mississippi in 2005, according to documents in a federal investigation.
That crash in Anding on July 10, 2005, killed four crew members who were operating the trains and touched off a massive fire fueled by 24,000 gallons of spilled diesel. About 50 residents were evacuated from Anding as a precaution.
The National Transportation Safety Board plans to release the findings of its investigation today.
"The probable cause of the accident was the failure of the crew members (of the northbound train) to comply with the stop signal indicator," said one report.
CN spokesman Jim Kvedaras said the company would not comment on the crash until the results of the final investigation are released. CN is the U.S. subsidiary of Canadian National Railways.
The northbound train involved in the crash consisted of four locomotives and 137 cars, most of them empty. It was traveling at 45 mph when it hit the southbound train.
The southbound train, composed of two locomotives and 107 cars, was traveling at 23 mph when it approached the site of the accident. About half the cars carried cargo, some of which was hazardous material, including four cars of hydrogen cyanide.
The crash resulted in more than $10 million in losses, mostly to the railroad. The NTSB has spent more than 18 months investigating the crash, interviewing dozens of witnesses and collecting information on the trains and their crew members.
Information collected by the agency included cell phone records of the conductor of the southbound train's engineer, Mark Cain, 51, of Purvis. NTSB investigators also extensively interviewed railroad workers about the state of mind and physical condition of the northbound train's engineer, Buddy Irby, 58, of Sandhill.
The crash occurred about 04:15 in a curve. "The dispatching plan called for the northbound train to hold the main track at Anding siding while the southbound train passed through the siding," according to documents.
William Berry, a CN dispatcher, said he had warned Cain he would meet a northbound train but failed to tell him where.
Berry also said he was unable to contact either train by radio when he realized that they were on a collision course.
Berry resorted to trying to call the crew's cell phones but reached only their voice mailboxes.
In a desperate attempt to get a message to the trains, the CN employees tried to call the Flora Police Department. But before they could dial the Police Department's number, they received a report the trains were derailed and on fire, Berry said.
Killed were Cain, Irby, Shannon Purvis, 21, of Puckett and Sam Jones Sr., 58, of Jackson, both of whom were conductors. Cain, initially hired as a brakeman, had worked for CN since 1973.
Irby, hired in 1969, had worked as an engineer for more than 30 years. Purvis was hired in June 2002, and Jones had worked for CN since 1968.
Toxicological testing for drugs and alcohol was not possible on the two northbound train crew members because of the subsequent fire. No illegal drugs or alcohol were found in the two southbound crew members' tests.
Interviews with several CN employees who had some contact with one or both of the accident crews before the accident revealed nothing out of the ordinary, according to the documents.
In its report to the NTSB, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen also said they believed the cause of the crash was the northbound train's failure to stop at a red signal minutes before the collision.
"Because the only two people in the cab of the northbound locomotive did not survive the accident, we have no way of knowing why they passed the stop signal," the union's report said.
"Therefore the reasons for this accident will never be known." - Ana Radelat, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
CN RAIL UNION EXTENDS VOTING ON CONTRACT DEAL
VANCOUVER, BC -- The union representing 2,800 workers who struck Canadian National Railway Co. for more than two weeks in February has extended the vote on a proposed contract that has split the labor organization.
The United Transportation Union (UTU) will count ballots in the mail-in vote on April 10 instead of March 26 as had originally been scheduled, according to a note to members posted on the union's Web site on Tuesday.
Union officials said the deadline was pushed back because some workers had not received ballots.
The UTU, which represents CN's conductors, brakemen and switching crews in Canada, is officially still on strike, but most workers returned to their jobs in late February at the union's request while the deal was being voted on.
UTU leaders have warned the labor disruption could resume if workers reject the tentative contract deal, which is actively being lobbied against by a dissident faction that wants the workers to join the rival Teamsters union.
The 15-day strike in February significantly slowed freight service on the largest of Canada's two national railways, forcing layoffs in the forestry and auto industries.
UTU leaders say rejection of the deal will prompt the federal government to intervene and impose a contract more favorable to the railroad, but opponents of the deal have accused its supporters of waging a scare campaign.
The one-year contract includes a 3 percent wage hike and C$1,000 ($860) ratification bonus.
UTU negotiators have said they had no choice but to settle for a one-year deal because the government was already poised to legislate an end to the strike, and the union needed to settle its internal fight before contract talks resumed.
The Teamsters, who already represent CN's locomotive engineers, have asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to allow UTU members to vote on which union they want to represent them.
The strike did not involve Canadian National's crews in the United States or on some of its lines in northern Alberta and northern Quebec. - Allan Dowd, Reuters
PROPOSED VICTORVILLE-TO-LAS VEGAS HIGH-SPEED TRAIN GETS TRACTION
VICTORVILLE, CA -- Transportation leaders in California and Nevada seem to be embracing the idea of a privately funded high-speed Victorville-to-Las Vegas train.
Plans for a magnetically levitated bullet train ferrying passengers between Anaheim and Nevada in two hours have been discussed for decades, but nothing has been built.
Now, a private group's 125 mph Victorville-to-Vegas train has the attention of transportation officials.
"There's still work to be done. But Caltrans thinks it's a very realistic proposal," said William A. Mosby, a district deputy director for planning and public transportation with the California Department of Transportation.
"It doesn't look like it's pie-in-the-sky thinking at all. If any of the projects move forward, I think it will be this one," Mosby said.
Thomas Stone said his Las Vegas-based DesertXpress Enterprises is counting on Los Angeles and Orange County residents to drive some 80 miles to Victorville to hop on the train.
Stone said the proposal calls for electric-diesel hybrid trains to make the 190-mile trip every 20 minutes. The trip would take about 1-hour, 45-minutes each way.
Private funds would cover the estimated $3 billion cost.
"Millions of people use Interstate 15 to get to Vegas, and it is getting too congested," Stone said. "We will have trains to carry that demand every 20 minutes."
Per-passenger costs could be an issue. Early estimates have round-trip tickets costing about $110, a price competitive with airline flights from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
A Victorville terminus may also be a problem.
"That's one of the concerns of ours," said Kent Cooper, Nevada Department of Transportation's assistant director of planning. "Typically, one of the major congested areas is Victorville to the Los Angeles Basin."
Victorville officials envision Las Vegas-bound visitors arriving in a 10,000-vehicle parking lot in Victorville.
"Victorville has flown under the radar for quite a long time," city development director Bill Webb said. "Most people would think Victorville is just a place people go through on their way to Vegas, but we are the powerhouse of the high desert. We are ready and willing to take on all the responsibilities of being a full-fledged city."
The project is still in the environmental-impact stage. Officials said groundbreaking could come as soon as next year with trains operating by 2012.
"If you've ever seen Interstate 15 on a Friday going north to Las Vegas, it's a parking lot," Mayor Terry E. Caldwell said. "The volume of traffic is unbearable. We look at the impact this will have, and we are seeing all positive." - KABC-TV7, Los Angeles, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr
THE TRUCKEE RIVER WENT WILD 100 YEARS AGO
TRUCKEE, CA -- The winter of 1907 was a roller-coaster ride for Truckee River residents, alternating rain and snow with sunny warm periods. Winter's fury started in December 1906 when a storm dropped 9 feet of snow on Donner Pass in 24 hours. The Central Pacific Railroad couldn't keep up with the greatest snowfall since the great blockade of 1890, leading to train delays.
Storms continued through January, leaving Truckee residents to deal with 15 feet of ice and snow. The snow piles next to buildings were so high, they couldn't shovel snow off of the roofs anymore. They thought about digging tunnels from Front Street across the Plaza to the Railroad Depot, but that was too much work.
Reno welcomed the water supply in the mountains, but also was greatly impacted when a firewood shortage created a health and safety crisis in late January and February.
Special trainloads of wood were brought down from the Floriston Paper Mill. Truckee's lumber mills were so snowed in, no firewood could be moved around Truckee, let alone supply wood for Reno.
At the end of January, the weather warmed up, causing huge icicles to crash down from along the eaves of Truckee buildings. As the icicles broke off and roofs slid, damage mounted to the old wooden buildings and covered sidewalks. A welcome rain settled the pack greatly and washed the last of the ice off of the roofs, but left hundreds of leaky roofs and wet interiors.
Deep snow, then bare ground
February continued to have a high snow level, with additional snow falling up in the mountains, but not at 6,000 feet. By late February it looked like an early spring.
Stage coaches traded their skis for wheels again, and even a few autos were spotted on Truckee streets. Old-timers and the Washoe elders remarked they had never seen such a mid-winter warm spell.
In the higher elevations, dense snow built up to 18 feet deep at Meadow Lake, where a few hardy men watched over the nearly abandoned mining works. Drifts up to 40 feet were common in the higher mountains of the Sierra.
The Truckee ice industry was only able to harvest a fraction of its usual crop, due to heavy snow on the rain-soaked ice pack.
Most years, as it has so far this year, the snowpack melted slowly, but not in 1907. On March 19, a very warm wind descended on the Tahoe Truckee area. At first, most people welcomed the sure sign of spring, until the wind got stronger and the temperatures even warmer. It rose to the middle 60s in the mountains, and higher down in Reno.
For a day and a half, the south wind brought destruction to the dense mountain snowpack, which resulted in a disastrous flood downstream on the Truckee River.
Following the wind was a subtropical rainstorm that hit the mountains and melted even more snow. This became the greatest flooding the Truckee River had seen since settlers arrived in the 1850s.
Getting deeper
Starting at Lake Tahoe, the waters rose. Since the lake was close to the top of the dam, little was held back. Even with the floodgates wide open, the shoreline began to flood, and the creeks of the west and north shores flooded large areas near the lake.
Fortunately, there were few people around, so no one was injured, and damage minor.
The old wooden dam at Tahoe City, built in 1870, was threatened with destruction. But the stout dam held back the waters of Lake Tahoe. Downstream, bridges on the wagon road were undermined and partially collapsed. The Lake Tahoe Railway's steel bridge near Goose Meadow floated off of its foundation. It required several locomotives and a large crew to hoist it back up and secure it again.
Despite receiving over 14 inches of rain, downtown Truckee was saved from flooding by a new 24-inch clay pipe storm drain that the Southern Pacific Railroad had installed under the tracks the year before. The riverbanks were swept clean, but that was a blessing, as for decades the residents had dumped refuse and garbage along the river.
The Southern Pacific tracks on the Summit were blocked for over two days when an avalanche knocked down 350 feet of snow sheds near Eder. Other sheds were in danger of collapsing from the heavy snowdrifts.
Hundreds of men worked around the clock to shovel the dense snow off, preventing even more damage. Freight trains were backed up over the Sierra for more than a week as a result of the blockade.
A battering ram
At Boca, the ice company dam on the Little Truckee River was overtopped by the deluge. Trees blocked the spillway causing the dirt fill to partially wash away from one side, but the concrete structure held. Thousands of leftover logs and treetops from decades of logging joined together in the torrent at Boca, creating a huge battering ram of debris that ran amok in the canyon below.
When this mass of water came to Iceland, at the bottom of Gray Creek, it ripped out dams, levees and a 1,000-foot log bulwark that protected the National Ice Company ponds. Downstream, the Floriston ice pond washed out in two places.
The Floriston paper mill, employing 150 men, was put out of commission for a month. The 9-foot diameter redwood water pipes that fed the plant washed away. The concrete dam caved in after the earth washed out underneath it. The mill was flooded, and thousands of cords of wood were washed into the river, most ending up as firewood in Reno.
Nearby the railroad tracks were under water for half a mile. The embankment was washed out completely for 300 feet, and as deep as 15 feet. Temporary tracks had to built downstream to keep trains moving, though at a snail's pace. Rock slides plagued the canyon route and water rushed over the tracks from overloaded culverts.
The county bridge at Floriston disappeared, and the railroad section house floated downstream. Two men had to be rescued by rafts after being caught in the flood.
Just on the lower side of Floriston was the diversion dam for the Farad power plant flume. The water was backing up at this dam, flooding Floriston. The paper company dynamited the dam to save the mill. The blast and subsequent flooding destroyed portions of the wooden flume, then smashed into the Farad power plant, puncturing the generator and flooding the building.
At the Fleish and Washoe power houses, power was out due to flooding and debris damage. At Verdi the dirt fill at either end of the new steel railroad bridge washed away, adding to the blockade. At Lawton, the wagon bridge floated away crashing into another bridge downstream, then going to pieces.
An inland sea
When the Truckee River reached Reno, the flood waters spread out. Anything near the river had water problems and minor flooding. Dozens of homes were flooded, many beyond repair. When the masses of logs and debris hit the bridges in Reno, it threatened to tear them out. Just below the new railroad town of Sparks, at the Vista reef, the river backed up and began flooding thousands of acres of farmland on both sides of the river.
From the ranching community of Glendale south to Steamboat Springs. Water was everywhere.
Two people drowned in Reno, and there were countless close calls. People were stranded on isolated islands and all of the high points were crowded with temporary refugees. Rather than flee, unaffected Renoites and stranded train passengers crowded the edges of the river to view the devastation and flood waters.
Rumors were rampant, with the most prevailing one being that the Lake Tahoe Dam had washed out, and a deluge was coming. Reports of various bridges being demolished often turned out to be false.
The Virginia and Truckee Railroad was blocked by flood waters and washouts near Steamboat Springs. Houses and cottages were washed away on the south side of Reno.
Electric service was out for long periods as the river flows overwhelmed the Truckee River General Electric Company power plants along the river. Poles and wires were down.
To top off the rain, the next storm was a blizzard that dumped five feet of snow in 48 hours, breaking electric and phone wires, and bringing down thousands of trees in the Sierra. The weather finally cleared a week later, and spring arrived with a flourish.
This flood saw the third highest river flows the river has seen in modern man's history. The debris line along the riverbanks could still be seen until the flood of January 1997 washed the last evidence of the 1907 flood away. Even with flood control measures in place, the mountain snow pack is always a threat to those living downstream near it banks, even in March. - Gordon Richards, The Truckee Sierra Sun
CSXT TO TRACK EMISSIONS AS PART OF EPA PROGRAM
CSX Transportation is the first railroad to join an Environmental Protection Agency program to track and report its greenhouse gas emissions and set a goal for reducing them.
The EPA created its Climate Leaders program in 2002 to encourage companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
"We've made significant improvements in our environmental performance even as the nation's reliance on freight rail transportation has increased," said CSXT CEO Michael J. Ward.
CSXT has invested more than $1 billion in the past five years to upgrade its fleet with more efficient, low-emission locomotives.
CSX Transportation is a subsidiary of Jacksonville-based CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX), which has a 21,000-mile railroad network with service to 23 eastern states and the District of Columbia. - Jacksonville Business Journal
FIRST CAME THE FARMER, THEN THE ELEVATOR
ST. PAUL, MN -- First came the farmer, then came the elevator.
The relationship has changed over 130 years, but the two are still intertwined.
In the 19th century, the elevator was the link between the farmer and the railroad. The railroad provided a vital transportation outlet for grain grown on the Minnesota prairie.
In the 21st century, the grain elevator may no longer be the link. Farmers can bypass the local grain elevator and haul directly to the terminal, said Bob Zelenka, executive director of the Minnesota Grain and Feed Association.
But grain elevators have diversified and changed. They may sell seed, provide risk management education or offer custom spraying.
Others have turned to niche markets. They may handle identity preserved grains and load containers.
"It's not every elevator geared to handle speciality grain," Zelenka said, but it's an option for some in an era where customers are demanding more accountability and traceability.
Elevators must continue to change in order to stay in business, Zelenka said, but change is nothing new to the industry. Elevators have handled coal, lumber, farm implements, farm supplies, gasoline, oil, fencing and other products through the years, changing and adjusting to growers' needs.
In 1907, representatives from 17 farmers' elevator cooperatives gathered in Minneapolis to discuss forming a state organization, Zelenka wrote in a magazine he prepared in honor of the organization's 100th anniversary. The organization was formed in December 1907. It had 39 members in 1908.
When it started, the Minnesota Farmers' Elevator Association represented only cooperatives, Zelenka said, later it opened membership to private elevators. Some of those founding cooperatives still exist, though they aren't necessarily owned by the same company.
"There's been a lot of changes over time -- mergers, consolidations," Zelenka said.
At first, grain elevators were located every seven to nine miles. Today's growers don't need an elevator every seven to 10 miles. Increased mobility is only one storm elevators have weathered.
The Conservation Reserve Program took land out of production, so grain elevators were no longer selling seed, fertilizer or herbicide for those acres. No grain was harvested from those acres, so elevators handled less grain.
There was the farm crisis of the 1980s, scab in the Red River Valley and the hedge-to-arrive contract challenges of the 1990s.
Federal government programs to encourage the building of on-farm storage have reduced grain storage at elevators, cutting income.
Grain elevators used to be where farmers dried and stored their grain, Zelenka said. Now, 75 percent of Minnesota's grain storage is located on farms.
Unit trains, which are filled at one destination and shipped to one destination, have become more common, he said. Mexico, Canada and the western United States are unit train destinations.
The year 1988 brought a double whammy to the industry, Zelenka said. It was the year the Commodity Credit Corporation decided to stop storing grain in elevators. The year also brought a drought-cutting yield, bringing less grain to town.
Two years earlier, Minnesota began its ethanol program. The ethanol industry started small, but now consumes 200 million bushels of grain annually, Zelenka said.
The amount of grain shipped to ethanol plants has increased dramatically over the past five years. Tension exists between grain elevators and ethanol plants, Zelenka said, and the relationship between the two industries is in flux.
On one hand, ethanol plants have become a new market for grain elevators. On the other hand, ethanol plants handle grain that once moved through elevators.
Elevators operate with slim margins, Zelenka said, and the industry has consolidated more in the last 25 years than at any time in history.
The number of elevators in the state peaked in the 1920s when there were about 1,600, Today there are about 600 locations owned by 400 companies.
The country elevator is still a significant economic force, though often taken for granted, Zelenka said. There are 11,000 grain elevator employees in Minnesota.
Grain elevators are a major employer and taxpayer in many small communities. Elevators bring people to town and supply the ethanol plant when farmers are busy in the field.
"To expect us to be there tomorrow, people need to use us today," Zelenka said. - Janet Kubat Willette, Argi News
THE VISION THING: SHORTCHANGING AMTRAK, CODDLING THE OIL PATCH, BUILDING A STEALTH SUPERHIGHWAY NIGHTMARE
Last month, President Bush signed a $464 billion spending bill, but he made it clear that he wasn't entirely happy with the document, given the fact that Congress shifted funds to domestic programs not of his liking and ignored some of his requests for budget cuts.
Specifically, lawmakers refused to slash $400 million from Amtrak's $1.3 billion budget.
We are addicted to oil as the President clearly acknowledges. So let's take steps to undermine our mass transportation, of which Amtrak is a key component. Make sense? Not to me but perhaps it would be fair to ask, given our addiction to oil, given the instability of our oil supply and its suppliers, given the environmental damage caused by driving cars and trucks, why maintaining and building up our mass transportation capabilities is not as great a national priority as say, increasing our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The doubling of our SPR from 727 million barrels to 1.45 billion barrels was announced by the President during his State of the Union address. The estimated cost is some $60 billion -- that's today's purchase price, plus the cost of financing, administration, transport, and storage.
And oh yes . . . by taking all that oil off the market, expect to pay higher prices at the pump.
The doubling of the SPR, while enhancing transportation and energy security only marginally given the vast reserves already in place, becomes a major windfall for the President's favorite constituents, the oil industry.
Just think what $60 billion could do for the infrastructure of our passenger railroad system. It could overcome years of neglect and reduce our ever growing dependence on cars, highways, and airlines (think JetBlue) as well as our oil imports.
While shortchanging Amtrak, the administration has surreptitiously been planning a gargantuan 10 lane international superhighway linking the west coast ports of Mexico to the plains of Canada through the heart of the United States. Effectively it would end up bifurcating the country at a cost of $184 billion (see post "Hooray, We're Building a New 4,000 Mile 10-Lane Intercontinental Highway" 07.31.06).
While we literally ride the rails backwards, England's high-speed rail link will open within a year's time, connecting London to the center of Paris center in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
According to Eurostar's Chief Executive Richard Brown, "It will mark the start of a new era in travel between the UK and mainland Europe, making high speed even faster, more reliable, and less environmentally damaging as the alternative to flying."
Not to be outdone, France only this week, opened its fastest rail line to date, connecting Paris to Strasbourg. Traveling at 200 miles per hour, transit time is a mere 2 hours and 20 minutes versus 4 hours previously.
To grasp the impact of the European achievement, by November 2003, the TGV service carried its 1 billionth passenger, and the 2 billion mark is expected to be reached in 2010. On a test run February 13,2007 the TGV's latest model achieved speeds of 344.4 miles an hour.
Of particular note, the trains are all electrified. In France, 80 percent of the electric power comes from fossil-fuel free, pollutant-free nuclear power plants.
So why not here? Well, you see, Amtrak doesn't have a heavily funded foothold in Washington's K Street lobbying club comparable to, you guessed it, the oil industry, which is forever squeezing out tax breaks, depreciation credits, and royalty holidays. Ditto construction and road building concerns, who are forever urging their friends in Congress to pave over our fields of grain with asphalt.
There's no big money pushing Amtrak. It can't even fend for itself. The entire board of directors, with one or two exceptions, are Bush appointees loyal to the administration and its values. There are a handful of politicians on Capitol Hill partisan to Amtrak, such as Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Trent Lott (R.-MIss), egged on no doubt by constituents in their districts using Amtrak's services. But hey, those people take the train, what do you expect.
In their highly successful intervention in TXU Corporation's (the Texas power utility) leveraged buyout negotiations (the largest LBO ever) obtaining TXU's commitment for major reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from their coal-fired power plants and in limiting their construction altogether, The Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council have shown what an engaged environmental community can do to offset the influence of vested interests.
Amtrak needs help. It's time for all of us to get "All Aboard!" - Commentary, Raymond J. Learsy, The Huffington Post
TRAIN QUITE ZONE A NICE IDEA, BUT...
BISMARCK, ND -- Hank Williams sang about the whistle of the midnight train. Since he was having a fit of the lonelies at the time, he likely wasn't sleeping at midnight anyway. It was no skin off his nose or botheration to his ears.
Anyone urban or rural who lives near the tracks, especially of a main line, may be less sentimental over what are no longer steam whistles but air horns.
There has been an idea floated to come to the aid of residents of central Bismarck who live near the heavily used line of the BNSF Railway Company. Trains would pass through much of the city center in a "quiet zone."
That means that street crossings of the track at grade would be safety enhanced so as to allow discontinuation of the air horn crossing warning.
(Washington Street and Seventh and Ninth streets aren't a problem because of their "grade separations," in other words, underpasses.)
There aren't that many at-grade crossings in central Bismarck.
It would be a kindness to residents of dwellings anywhere near the tracks to spare them hearing locomotive horns. But it would come at a not inconsiderable cost.
To outfit crossings at Third Street and Fifth Street -- and possibly at Fraine Barracks Road and 12th Street -- with various kinds of safety gear, including substantial multiple gate systems and concrete medians, the cost could range from about $824,000 to $1.65 million.
The city of Bismarck would have to secure the funding, from its treasury or from a combination of sources.
But not from the BNSF. The irony is that although the railroad company owns the actual property of the crossings, the company doesn't bear the responsibility for constructing safety equipment to prevent motorists (and possibly pedestrians) from doing foolish or unwitting things and getting into a collision with a train.
A bulky locomotive -- more likely more than one of them in tandem -- pulling a long string of cars loaded with an ungodly number of tons of coal is not an equal adversary for a car or a person at a crossing.
A train air horn adds to but doesn't guarantee crossing safety. But it's not like BNSF or any other rail line is blowing horns because it wants to disrupt people's lives and general peace and quiet. It's a federal rule. The only way that the rail company is excused is if they're going through a quiet zone with greatly beefed-up safety.
It certainly would be nice for current residents and further the goal of making central Bismarck a Renaissance zone with new people living and working downtown.
But housing development may not happen to the degree that would justify a $1.65 million price tag to the city.
Fargo, endeavoring a much larger project with more crossings and two main railroad lines going through the heart of the city, is about two-thirds of the way done with its two-year quiet zone construction effort. Obviously the cost was worthwhile to Fargo.
But it's for the Bismarck City Commission to say whether that's the case here.
It doesn't have to be decided so coldheartedly as to tell people who live within earshot of railroad tracks, "You'll get used to it." Some do.
Others never can manage that.
It's the old dilemma of weighing cost against benefit, a pile of money against peace and quiet. Also it's a matter of living with history. The train was in Bismarck before any current or future resident. Trains are a fact of life here. - Editorial Opinion, The Bismarck Tribune
FEDS BEGIN INSPECITON OF CSXT NEW YORK RAILS
ALBANY, NY -- A top federal railroad official Monday launched an inspection of tracks from Albany to Buffalo to improve safety in the wake of three derailments in the last three months.
Federal railroad administrator Joseph Boardman told reporters here that a specially designed train will inspect 1,300 miles of track owned by the CSX Corp. to check whether the two rails are level and whether the width between the tracks is acceptable.
"A safe railroad begins with safe track, but it doesn't end there,'' said Boardman, who lives in Rome, Oneida County, and is a former state Department of Transportation commissioner. "Railroads needs to embrace a 'culture of safety' and find new ways to prevent the kind of accidents that have disrupted lives and commerce and shaken our confidence in the safety of tracks.''
The inspection follows the derailment of cars carrying propane gas near Oneida, Madison County, between Utica and Syracuse, last Monday. The cars exploded, causing the evacuation of homes and businesses in the city of about 10,000. There were no injuries reported.
On Jan. 16, 13 cars on a CSX train left the tracks in East Rochester. No one was injured. The week before, 20,000 gallons of methanol caught fire at a CSX rail yard in Selkirk, near Albany. And on Dec. 10, a CSX train carrying cans of mixed vegetables derailed on an overpass in Cheektowaga, Erie County, leaving one boxcar teetering on the edge of a bridge.
Boardman said the track inspection by the federal government was scheduled for next month, but he moved it up after the Oneida derailment.
He said that the federal government has done an extensive review of safety procedures of CSX. He said results aren't yet ready to be released, but that the review found the situation "is improving.''
After the Oneida incident, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-Brooklyn, issued a report showing 527 train accidents over the past seven years in upstate New York. He announced he's pushing a bill that would direct millions of dollars to improve rail infrastructure. It would also toughen regulations on rail companies and increase penalties for negligence.
"Federal regulators haven't done enough to crack down,'' Schumer said. - Jay Gallagher, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
FOR SALE: MODEST RANCH WITH 10 TRAIN TRACKS
METHUEN, MA -- Three bedrooms. One full bathroom. And 2,000 feet of train track.
So reads the real estate listing for Jim and Sally Besemer's 38 Deborah Ave. home. From one side, it looks like a modest, yellow, single-family ranch.
But from the East Capitol Street side, the life-size railroad crossing sign from Pelham, NH, complete with a blinking red light, gives prospective buyers an idea of what they're in for.
"There's a couple of (buyers) who came in, looked out the door and left," said Besemer, 63.
And if you aren't a train enthusiast or planning to become one, you'd probably leave, too.
Besemer's backyard is monopolized by the train set he and two friends -- Charlie Pagano and Joe Pellegrino -- have spent the last 15 years building.
Operations are down for the winter (though the trains can be equipped with snowplows) but the majesty of terraced-tracks encircling a mountain village that sits above a working waterfall remains.
There are tunnels, too, including one that passes through Besemer's basement and another that runs the toy trains through a work shack heated by a wood-burning stove. Ten trains run the tracks, which are decorated with model houses that cost hundreds of dollars and children's toys brought by grandchildren and the neighborhood kids.
The railroad set is astounding, with each piece sparking a story. For example, there are the gold deposits that Besemer picked up while working in Utah. And one of the model houses is a mock-up of the Portsmouth, NH, Moe's sandwich shop, once owned by Pagano.
Besemer, Pagano and Pellegrino began constructing the railroad in 1992 by burying a foot of crushed stone to form the ground the rails would ride on. A swimming pool pump pushes 4,300 gallons of water through a series of pools, streams and waterfalls. A 1,200-gallon water tank is buried underground. Additions have since slowed, but maintenance remains a time-consuming task.
Besemer struggled with his decision to move to New Hampshire, leaving behind the estimated $45,000 of work on display in the backyard.
"That was real hard, but we couldn't afford the gas to go back and forth," said the former employee of Guilford Rail System.
Once he moves, Besemer hopes to begin building another backyard train set and do repair work on the Flying Yankee, a train that was introduced in 1935 to run between Boston and Portland, Maine.
So far, he has had one prospective buyer for the house, which is listed at $269,900. The man was enticed by the train set and is looking forward to meeting Pellegrino and Pagano.
Asked if his bride of 27 years enjoys the lavish display, Besemer took a moment, carefully choosing his words.
"She kind of supports it," he eventually settled on. The low point of the experience was when Besemer blasted out a portion of the basement to create a tunnel opening. The sudden noise caused Sally Besemer to drop a Faberg. egg she was working with, shattering it.
"That was the first time in years she called me James," Besemer recalled, standing in his basement. "I knew I was in trouble."
But the high point -- 15 years of fun for hundreds of different children and the three adult conductors -- outweighs a single egg. Besemer is used to strangers knocking at his door, wanting a look at the tracks in action.
On Halloween, the yard serves as a rest stop, where tired adults can relax while their children watch the trains. More than 300 people stopped by last Oct. 31, Besemer said.
But that could continue, especially if the new buyer sees value is in the backyard.
"That's for the layout," Pagano joked about the sale price. "The house is free." - Zach Church, The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, MA)
CENTURY-OLD TRAIN DEPOT TO BE RESTORED
Photo here:
[www.hattiesburgamerican.com]
COLLINS, MS -- First it was a train depot. Then an auto parts supply store. Then a church.
Now, Collins, Mississippi city officials are planning to restore the more than century-old structure on East Main Street to its original form and turn it into what officials are saying is much needed office space near the heart of downtown. Collins Mayor V.O. Smith got the final OK from the Mississippi Department of Transportation last week, and the city now will gather bids for project administration, architectural design and construction work.
Funds for the $785,000 depot renovation will come from a $628,000 federal transportation grant and a city match for the balance.
Timing is right for sprucing up the building.
"We just revitalized the downtown area the last two years," Smith said. "New sidewalks, lights and landscaping, the depot joins it."
Collins City Clerk Peggy Stanford added: "Everybody is excited about it. We don't have a lot of meeting rooms."
But having the new meeting places in town is not all that's thrilling Stanford. She remembers watching freight trains roll into town years ago when the depot was used by Illinois Central Railroad.
An old photograph from 1907 shows how the building - named Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Depot back then - once looked and how it will appear after the facelift.
Community groups and civic organizations will be able to use the meeting rooms in about a year, when the renovation work is expected to be completed.
A church currently is using the city-owned building, and Smith said that group will have to move.
Attempts to get in touch with Milton Chambers, director of Metropolitan Ministries whose sign still hangs on a part of the depot that will be removed, were unsuccessful. - Susan Lakes, The Hattiesburg American
TRANSIT NEWS
RAIL RUNNER OFFICIALS ADDRESS NOISE CONCERNS
Map here: [www.freenewmexican.com]
SANTA FE, NM -- Transportation officials promised Santa Feans who live near the route of planned commuter trains that the state will take steps to keep down the noise.
Blasting train horns will be a rare sound, and track improvements will cut down on noise from passing trains, a crowd of about 70 people was told during a Monday night forum.
Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught said she knows Santa Fe residents are worried about train noise, but repeatedly assured the audience that despite up to 18 passing trains per day, noise levels aren't expected to increase significantly.
Since plans call for rebuilding tracks within the city of Santa Fe -- replacing aging segmented track with a smooth, welded version -- even Santa Fe Southern excursion trains that now make a ruckus will be quieter.
"The clickety-clump, clickety-clump, clickety-clump that you hear now will be gone," Faught said.
Planners working on the state's Rail Runner Express trains hope to start service between Santa Fe and Albuquerque by the end of next year. Train service already extends between Belen and Bernalillo. Now details are starting to become more clear about the logistics of the Santa Fe leg.
Thirteen intersections within city limits will need lighted signals and safety improvements such as medians and gates to get trains to population and employment centers without disrupting street traffic.
Trains will take no more than 45 seconds at each crossing, causing about four minutes of delay during the peak traffic period if about five trains run during each morning and evening rush hour, according to a December report by the Mid-Region Council of Governments, which the state contracted to implement the train project.
People who attended Monday's meeting, sponsored by the Neighborhood Network, submitted written questions. One asked: "Is not this system obsolete before it starts?"
Building a traditional commuter-rail system with new train cars and locomotives on mostly existing track will cost much less per mile than technologies such as high-speed "bullet trains," said Lawrence Rael, executive director for the council of governments. The estimated cost for the entire Rail Runner project now stands at about $400 million.
The state announced last month that new tracks will be built in the median of Interstate 25 -- from roughly the La Cienega interchange to the St. Francis Drive exit -- and connect to existing state-owned tracks.
Construction on the interstate section is expected to begin this fall. The state bought the existing railroad right of way through Santa Fe and plans to replace old tracks, a project that has already begun in concert with the city's Railyard redevelopment near downtown. The portion of track between the Railyard and the edge of the city should be replaced starting next year, Faught said.
Meanwhile, the city is preparing to hire a firm to study ideas for an additional train station. Katherine Mortimer, the city's long-range planner, said ideas under consideration include a transit-oriented, mixed-use development.
Among other promises planners have made about the train:
· Travel to Albuquerque will take about an hour and 15 minutes.
· Trains will stop at the Railyard and at the state Transportation Department headquarters, where a major redevelopment is proposed.
· New tracks and planned intersection improvements will eliminate the need for regular horn blowing.
Questions that remain include:
· Where might any other stations be located? Possible locations include Second Street, Zia Road, Cerrillos and I-25 and N.M. 599, Faught said.
· How many trains will travel through the city and at what times? Up to 18 "train events" are called for in the early stage of service. Faught said frequency could increase with demand.
. How much will it cost to ride between Albuquerque and Santa Fe? Fares will be determined after an initial free period.
- Julie Ann Grimm, The Santa Fe New Mexican
ALL ABOARD? CHANDLER PREPARES TO JOIN LIGHT-RAIL PANEL
CHANDLER, AZ -- Chandler will decide this week whether it wants to become the fifth member of the Valley Metro Rail board. But don't expect to see rail cars anytime soon.
The City Council appears ready to join the board, whose membership fees cost about $50,000 a year but will give Chandler a say in future light-rail planning.
Mike Normand, the city's assistant public works director, said even though light rail is decades away for Chandler, these types of systems require years and years of advanced planning, and the city needs to be involved in that process soon.
Norman guesses it will be 15 to 20 years before light rail comes to town.
If the council approves the proposal to join the board, Mayor Boyd Dunn will be the city's board representative.
The expectation that light rail will be in Chandler stems from a previous transportation study that identified rail corridors along Rural Road, Arizona Avenue and Chandler Boulevard.
The study also called for improvements in Chandler's portions of existing rapid bus lines.
Right now, board members include Mesa, Tempe, Phoenix and Glendale, where the initial light-rail system is under construction.
Cars are likely to be running by December 2008.
Board rules dictate that $50,000 is the smallest contribution available to members. The annual fees are calculated according to each member's investment in the overall system and are recalculated each year. - Chris Markham, The East Valley Tribune
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION RIDERSHIP UP AS GAS PRICES RISE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- The skyrocketing cost of gasoline is creating a surge in ridership on public transportation.
Passenger loads for this monthly are up 7.3 percent over March of last year, according to Linton Johnson, spokesman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. Linton said it's more expensive to commute thanks partly to the increased cost of gasoline, higher bridge tolls, parking fees, and overall traffic congestion. An average of 340,000 passengers ride BART each weekday.
At the Pittsburg/Bay Point station, even midday trains show substantial passenger loads. Antioch rider Breal Bosworth who was taking the train to catch a flight out of San Francisco International Airport said the cost of commuting has driven him to BART. "Three dollars plus a gallon is ridiculous," said Bosworth. "So I'm in the process of taking BART. I think I'll take it more often now."
Steven Becker of San Jose agreed. "It has become prohibitive to travel by vehicle because of the cost of gasoline."
BART officials said they have also noticed more riders from the Central Valley and the Mother Lode. One BART policeman said he has talked with commuters from as far away as Valley Springs in Calaveras County and Los Banos in Merced County who arrive in the parking lots at Pleasanton and Pittsburg early each morning to catch the first trains into San Francisco. - KCTV-TV10, Sacramento, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr
THE END
Railroad Newsline for Wednesday, 03/21/07