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Re: I dont see how UP would ever even discuss this
Author: Jason Kuehn
Date: 03-22-2007 - 04:18
If I were a railroad, I would NEVER provide public access across or on my property in the current litigious environment. RTD in Denver is having to get a new Colorado law passed to absolve UP and BNSF of any liability before allowing light rail to use any part of their rights-of-way. UP recently lost a huge judgement on a grade crossing accident where the victims boy friend tried to use his car to push her stalled car out of the way of an empty coal train and instead pushed it smack dad into the middle of the tracks. The jury thought the train should have stopped in time to not hit the car.
These types of laws are modeled on the laws that govern Amtrak also exempting freight carriers from liability. Remember when Ricky Gates drove a light engine on Conrail into the path of an Amtrak train? Conrail did not have to pay a dime. Even though it was clearly Conrail employee negligence. So when you get ridiculousness taken to one extreme, to compensate the railroads take it to the other extreme - and that is aside from the EIR/EIS requirements that would be necessary.
Anyway, the public makes it very difficult for large corporations to help them in reasonable ways. The only time letting the public willingly use or cross your right-of-way makes sense is if you are going to cease to use it completely - which is what BNSF is going to do in Renton.
Anyway, the real breaking point in Renton, was not public pressure to make the line a trail, but governmental pressure. I-405 is going to be expanded, and the railroad bridge over the line was going to have to be replaced. To save the cost of replacing this line on a bridge, the local governments worked out a three-way deal between two of the counties and BNSF which saved the cost of replacing the bridge as part of the highway construction. Instead the counties get a trail, the public loses the Dinner train, and the taxpayers save the difference between building a heavy expensive little used rail bridge with a much cheaper bicycle trail bridge. It seems to me every one, but the dinner train operator and patrons win on this one. Hopefully they will succeed in finding a new route in the area on which to run the dinner train, although again, public liability makes it tough to find an active rail line for this type of activity.
Jason Kuehn
These types of laws are modeled on the laws that govern Amtrak also exempting freight carriers from liability. Remember when Ricky Gates drove a light engine on Conrail into the path of an Amtrak train? Conrail did not have to pay a dime. Even though it was clearly Conrail employee negligence. So when you get ridiculousness taken to one extreme, to compensate the railroads take it to the other extreme - and that is aside from the EIR/EIS requirements that would be necessary.
Anyway, the public makes it very difficult for large corporations to help them in reasonable ways. The only time letting the public willingly use or cross your right-of-way makes sense is if you are going to cease to use it completely - which is what BNSF is going to do in Renton.
Anyway, the real breaking point in Renton, was not public pressure to make the line a trail, but governmental pressure. I-405 is going to be expanded, and the railroad bridge over the line was going to have to be replaced. To save the cost of replacing this line on a bridge, the local governments worked out a three-way deal between two of the counties and BNSF which saved the cost of replacing the bridge as part of the highway construction. Instead the counties get a trail, the public loses the Dinner train, and the taxpayers save the difference between building a heavy expensive little used rail bridge with a much cheaper bicycle trail bridge. It seems to me every one, but the dinner train operator and patrons win on this one. Hopefully they will succeed in finding a new route in the area on which to run the dinner train, although again, public liability makes it tough to find an active rail line for this type of activity.
Jason Kuehn
