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Railroad Newsline for Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

PRB BILZZARD REDUCES COAL TRAIN LOADINGS ON BNSF

Blizzard conditions in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming and Montana resulted in the loss of about 170 coal train loadings for the BNSF Railway Company March 27-April 4. Daily BNSF trains originating in the PRB bottomed out on March 30 at three, approximately 5 percent of the usual daily total. Throughout that period, BNSF had empty trains available, but mines were unable to load due to the blizzard's effect on mine employee availability and mine pit conditions.

Train loadings have been increasing since then as mines continue to work toward normal operations, although moisture in the mine pits continues to reduce loadings at some Wyoming mines. BNSF has been informed that mines believe they will be able to resume normal operations by the beginning of this week.

Thanks to the cooperation of utilities and connecting railroads, BNSF has been able to balance loaded and empty trains while maintaining a steady flow of empty trains back toward the PRB. BNSF will have empty trains available for loading as mines resume normal loading levels. - BNSF Today

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BERKSHIRE BUYS STAKES IN THREE RAILROADS

OMAHA, NE -- Warren Buffett's company recently invested in three railroads, and in the process, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. became the largest shareholder in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., according to a company filing and a media report that the company confirmed.

The disclosure sent BNSF shares up more than 7 percent in midday trading Monday.

Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it owned 39 million shares of BNSF as of last Thursday. The cable network CNBC reported Buffett said Berkshire had also invested in two other railroads that he declined to name.

Buffett's assistant Debbie Bosanek said no one at Berkshire was available Monday to discuss the company's investments. But she said the CNBC report about Berkshire investing in two railroads besides Burlington Northern Santa Fe was accurate.

Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire had invested about $700 million in one North American railroad and slightly less than that in another railroad.

Berkshire's investment in BNSF represents 10.9 percent of the nation's second-largest railroad.
The next largest BNSF shareholder, Marsico Capital Management, holds about 32 million shares.

Buffett hinted at two major new investments as he described the performance of Berkshire's $61.5 billion investment portfolio in his annual letter to shareholders that was released March 1. He said then that two investments with a market value of more $700 million at the end of 2006 were not named.

"We don't itemize the two securities referred to, which have a market value of $1.9 billion, because we continue to buy them," Buffett said in his letter. "I could, of course, tell you their names. But then I would have to kill you."

Aside from his annual letter, Buffett rarely discusses Berkshire's investments, so it's not clear whether the railroad investments are the two investments he referred to.

Bear, Stearns & Co. analyst Edward M. Wolfe said in a research note that Berkshire's investment in BNSF should be a positive sign for all the major freight railroads.

Wolfe said BNSF has several advantages because it is seeing better volumes than its competitors, strong pricing and easing fuel prices. He has an $88 target price on the stock.

Shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe rose $6 per share, or 7.3 percent, to $88.72 in midday trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange after rising to a 52-week high of $97.39 earlier in the day. That's already more than the $81.18 Berkshire paid for 1.2 million shares last Thursday.

Berkshire's Class B shares fell $1 to $3,625 and its Class A shares fell $149 to $108,700 in midday trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Berkshire owns furniture, insurance, jewelry and candy companies, restaurants, natural gas and corporate jet firms and has major investments in such companies as The Coca-Cola Company and Anheuser-Busch. - Josh Funk, The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette

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CN ANNOUNCES CREATION OF CN WORLDWIDE NORTH AMERICA

MONTREAL, QC -- The Canadian National Railway announced Monday the creation of CN WorldWide North America, a new operating entity to more effectively introduce and manage integrated transportation solutions for customers and grow its rail business.

CN WorldWide North America is implementing plans to expand the scope and scale of CN's existing non-rail capabilities, such as warehousing and distribution, customs services, truck brokerage and supply chain visibility tools across North America. A key focus in 2007 will be increasing CN's material handling ability, with a number of new and existing facilities strategically located across its network.

CN WorldWide North America also plans to introduce a number of new offerings to its service portfolio, including retail intermodal trucking services in the United States and freight forwarding within North America. The expansion of these non-rail transportation services, in combination with its world-class rail service, gives CN the opportunity to strengthen its transportation service offering and provide more seamless solutions to its customers.

CN WorldWide North America has assembled a new leadership team -- a group of experienced individuals -- to develop a coordinated operating plan and a new "go-to-market" strategy.

A new marketing and sales team led by Keith Reardon, who has just been appointed managing director of CN WorldWide North America, will actively market these transportation services on a standalone basis or as part of a rail-integrated transportation solution.

Reardon brings extensive operating and sales experience in rail and rail-related businesses to his new position, as well as a proven track record of quickly expanding the businesses in which he's been involved. "Keith knows what customers want and how to get things done -- that will be a key differentiator in this business," says James M. Foote, CN's executive vice-president, Sales and Marketing. "Another big plus is his real life experience with CN's highly precise, disciplined operating philosophy. He's definitely the right person for the job."

CN -- Canadian National Railway Company -- spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, BC, Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, AL, and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, MN/Superior, WI, Green Bay, WI, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson, MS, with connections to all points in between.

CN WorldWide North America offers a complete portfolio of transportation services, including ground transportation with intermodal and trucking, warehousing and distribution, transportation management, customs services, and bulk handling, on a single-source/integrated or standalone basis to customers in the United States and Canada. - Mark Hallman, CN News Release

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FOUR RAILROAD CARS TUMBLE INTO S.S. STEINER BUILDING

YAKIMA, WA -- Police and fire investigators are looking into what caused four railroad cars containing propane to derail and crash into a warehouse Sunday.

The derailment happened about 16:30 hours next to an S.S. Steiner Inc. warehouse at 1 West Washington Ave.

Washington State Patrol troopers said the BNSF Railway Company train appeared to have been moving when it went off the tracks; however, as of Sunday evening, they had still not located the train's operator.

"The brake's released on the train, but no one is around," said Sgt. Ethan Reavis of the state patrol. "We're still trying to get it all figured out."

Authorities have notified the railroad of the accident.

Besides the state patrol, Yakima police and fire departments along with paramedics arrived at the scene in case hazardous materials leaked from the derailed storage tanks. Reavis said initial checks showed that no such leaks had occurred, although emergency workers cordoned off the area as a precaution.

About a half-dozen workers at the Steiner warehouse were evacuated.

One of the train cars did cause some property damage to a Steiner pump room it struck when it derailed. Warehouse workers said the crash damaged the outside wall of the room and an air compressor. The crash did not cause any injuries. - The Yakaima Herald-Republic

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LAST COMPLETE ROUNDHOUSE LEFT ON UP LINE

GREEN RIVER, WY -- Evanston, Wyoming's historic railroad roundhouse has been a vital part of this city's growth and development from the very beginning. It literally saved Evanston from becoming just another "end of the tracks" town.

Used primarily to service steam locomotives, Evanston's roundhouse is the last complete roundhouse complex remaining on the Union Pacific line.

Like the steam engine locomotives of old they served, railroad roundhouses like Evanston's have all but disappeared from the nation's rail lines. Only their legacy and historical value remain.

Evanston's unique roundhouse has one of the few turntables in the country that still operates. A roundhouse is a building with a rotating track used to change the direction of train cars.
Construction on the Union Pacific Railroad began in 1863. By 1868, the first cars of the new rail line reached the fledging town, according to area historical accounts.

By July 1871, UP officials decided to locate its roundhouse and machine shops in the small Uinta County town. The move assured the town a permanency denied some other early railroad towns in Wyoming.

The original stone roundhouse was built in 1871. The present brick, 28-stall roundhouse was constructed in 1912 after locomotives became too large to fit into the first roundhouse.

The facility soon grew to be Evanston's major employer, But by 1925, the development of diesel engines made the Evanston facility obsolete and UP officials closed down operations at the complex.

But after a delegation of city officials traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to plead with the company to keep operating the facility, UP officials reopened the roundhouse and rail yards as a repair and reclamation plant, serving the entire UP line. The plant employed over 300 workers, making it Evanston's largest employer once again.

The roundhouse served as a repair facility until it was permanently closed in 1971. UP officials later donated the property and buildings to the city of Evanston in 1974.

That year, the plant was leased by the Wyoming Railway Car Corp. for the purpose of preventive maintenance, painting and designing of railroad cars. More than 17 railway companies sent cars to Evanston for repairs.

The roundhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. - Jeff Gerrino, The Casper Star-Tribune

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VANDALS SPRAY GRAFFITI ON MUSEUM RAIL CARS

MUKWONAGO, WI -- Vandals break into a storage barn at Mukwonago, Wisconsin and spray graffiti across four railroad cars owned by the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum.

Museum president Dick Cecil says the damage was discovered during the weekend by a volunteer at a barn where several of the museum's train cars are stored during the winter.

He says the vandals apparently broke into the barn sometime between Wednesday and Saturday.

Cecil says they scrawled several large areas of graffiti on the sides of cars from Toronto, Philadelphia and the South Shore Railroad.

He says it could take several days to repaint the cars, some of which are scheduled to be in a May fifth trolley parade at the museum. - The Associated Press, The Racine Journal-Times

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FINDING MINNESOTA: 100 YEARS OF IRON HORSES

ST. PAUL, MN -- Take a trip back through time to the late 1880s.

It was an age of "iron horses," those coal puffing steam locomotives, running ribbons of steel. Railroad barons like James J. Hill were expanding their empires westward, to bring people, wheat and freight to a growing nation.

Sitting on a bench at the old Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul, Tony Becker recalls the era of those old engines, saying simply, "It was a lot of fun!"

The 93-year-old retired train engineer is among the last of the steam locomotive operators.

When asked if he remembered his first day on the job, Becker quickly blurted out the exact date: Aug. 16, 1937.

That's the day he began work for the Great Northern and started making the daily trek to the Jackson Street Roundhouse.

"The engineer had a book that he put everything down that was wrong with the engine. And they'd repair it here if there was anything wrong with it," Becker recalled.

Today, the brick roundhouse holds the Minnesota Transportation Museum. Its goal is to keep railroad nostalgia and artifacts of Minnesota's early transportation modes alive.

"It's 100 years old, finished in 1907, replaced a building that started here in about the 1880s. So this been a railroad site as long as railroads have been in Minnesota," said Nick Modders, museum board chairman.

Part of what makes the museum unique and interesting to kids is that it's interactive. They can sit at the controls of a locomotive and feel what it's like to operate the giant engines. They can run the throttle, sound the horn and ring the bell.

Visitors to the museum can marvel at the luxury of a wood paneled private coach and the site of a working turntable that spins the giant engines around.

"The function of railroad maintenance now no longer requires a roundhouse because diesel locomotives can go in either direction," Modders said.

Step into its shop and you'll see the steel skeleton of Engine 2156, famous to a certain generation of kids who grew up watching Casey Jones over lunch.

Volunteers are working to restore the coal chugging engine back to life and back to an era when iron horses ran wild.

"Is this going to run someday?" asked Bill Hudson. "We hope so, we hope so. Where's the donation can?" responded Modders. - Bill Hudson, WCCO-TV4, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN

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NCRA MAY GET FUNDS FROM BILL SCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY HEARING

EUREKA, CA -- The North Coast Railroad Authority could get a $5.5 million boost for environmental cleanup and other costs if a bill scheduled for a Tuesday hearing in the state Senate is approved.

SB 861, introduced by Sen. Pat Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa), would reallocate a portion of federal Transportation Congestion Relief Program funds currently reserved for repayment of a federal loan - a loan which has since been forgiven.

The NCRA received $60 million in TCRP funds to repair and upgrade the rail tracks, but $5.5 million of that was required to be set aside for loan repayment.

In 1999, the NCRA, which is responsible for 316 miles of right-of-way of the former Northwestern Pacific Railroad, was ordered to clean up nine rail yards between Hopland and Eureka.

Wiggins introduced the legislation - which mirrors the language of a bill introduced by her predecessor Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) and vetoed by the governor last year - to redirect the set-aside funds and allow the authority to meet its cleanup and maintenance obligations.

Environmental cleanup would receive $4 million under SB 861, with the remainder set aside to manage administrative expenses.

"In recent years, the railroad has suffered serious storm damage, encountered environmental problems, been slapped with federal safety sanctions and generally declined operationally and financially," Wiggins said in a prepared statement. "The NCRA now finds itself in a kind of catch-22 situation, where it has funds available to address several of its most pressing needs but is currently prevented from accessing those funds."

The bulk of the funding, if approved, will be focused on efforts on the southern portion of the rail line.

"It still makes a lot of sense for us to reallocate those funds," Humboldt County 3rd District Supervisor and NCRA board member John Woolley said. "From what would have been used to repay a loan, they can now be used for something more productive, including the environmental cleanup that needs to be done."

There appears to be more support from the governor's office for the bill this time around, he said.

He praised Wiggins for keeping the issue in front of the Legislature.

"Being the new senator that she is, she stepped up quite quickly on this," he said. "We have a good partner there."

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and Eureka City Council both expressed their support for SB 861 last week. - The Eureka Reporter

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CANADIAN NATIONAL TO USE MANAGERS IF CONDUCTORS RESUME STRIKE

Canadian National Railway Co., the biggest railroad in Canada, said it plans to use managers to keep its freight trains moving if 2,800 conductors and yard workers resume a strike tomorrow (Tuesday).

"We'll be prepared with management personnel to fill in'' if the employees vote against a tentative contract that ended a 15-day walkout in February, Canadian National spokesman Mark Hallman said in a telephone interview. Commuter rail operations won't be affected, a union spokesman said.

A second strike may cut profits at Canadian National and disrupt Canada's C$75 billion ($65 billion) in exports of auto parts, grain and lumber. The Montreal-based company said on March 29 that the combined effects of the February strike and bad weather will cut first-quarter profits as much as 10 percent from the same period last year.

The United Transportation Union will announce the results of the vote tomorrow at 17:00 hours New York time.

The conductors and yard workers, whose three-year contract expired Dec. 31, reached a one-year accord with the company on Feb. 25, ending the first strike.

The conductors, responsible for managing a train's movement, and the yard workers, who handle switching duties in rail yards, are the only labor group in Canada still in contract talks with the company.

The union includes 109 conductors who work for Ontario's GO Transit, the biggest Toronto-area commuter service.

Targeting Freight

"We will resume strike activity if it's a no-vote,'' Frank Wilner, a spokesman for the Cleveland-based United Transportation Union, said in a telephone interview. "The idea is to put pressure on CN to improve the agreement. It's not going to affect GO service; the target is going to be freight operations.''

GO Transit spokeswoman Stephanie Sorensen said the transit system didn't anticipate problems.

"At this time we expect to run regular service,'' she said in an interview. "We remain optimistic.''

Canadian Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn introduced legislation on Feb. 23 that would force striking Canadian National employees back to work. The government will take action if rail service is again disrupted, Blackburn said in Canada's House of Commons on March 29.

Canadian National's efforts to have managers replace striking workers in February failed to avert service interruptions. Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, idled an Ontario plant producing Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis sedans because of delayed parts shipments, Ford spokeswoman Lauren More said during the strike.

Cargo Held Up

February's strike also delayed shipments of coal, grains and lumber and held up cargo going to and from Canada's largest port, Vancouver.

The country's railroads shipped 33 million tons of coal and 30 million tons of grain in 2005, the most recent year for which data are available. - Rob Delaney, Bloomberg News

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TRUCKEE'S DOWNTOWN RAILYARD PLAN GETS A FACELIFT

TRUCKEE, CA -- The look of Truckee's proposed Railyard development has changed significantly since its last public review in October, as plans for the key downtown property have gone through the planning process.

The new vision for the 62-acre site divides the project into three characteristic areas: a downtown extension, a warehouse district and a Trout Creek neighborhood. Other planning elements for the former lumber mill site include open space, a civic building, and "event streets" that could be closed for public activities.

The first section, the downtown extension area, would contain a hotel block and a theater block, said Town Associate Planner Denyelle Nishimori at Thursday's town council meeting.

"The first phase will be an extension of downtown -- feathering development from the existing downtown," Nishimori said.

The second section, called the warehouse character area, will feature larger structures east of the downtown extension, she said.

"Despite it's name, it wouldn't be industrial, it would most likely be live-work areas with more retail," Nishimori said.

Currently known as the Trout Creek Neighborhood area, the third section will be residential development along Trout Creek, north of the warehouse area, she said.

Nishimori said other major changes that will come with the project include moving the balloon track east (the loop of railroad that allows snowplow trains to turn around), realignments of Donner Pass Road, Glenshire Drive and potentially Trout Creek. - Greyson Howard, The Truckee Sierra Sun

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'FINDING ANOTHER BELEN'

BARSTOW, CA -- Sixty years ago, people from Belen and other New Mexico towns in search of jobs trekked to a hot plot in the Mojave Desert called Barstow. Their search and journey ended with many finding employment.

On Saturday, 60 years after the Barstow migration, people from Belen, a small town just southwest of Albuquerque, once again trekked to Barstow, this time finding a little bit of their home town in their sister city 700 miles away.

"It's kind of like finding another Belen here," Belen Mayor Ronnie Torres said. "Which is kind of weird."

Torres, Barstow residents and others from New Mexico towns with a cross-desert connection to Barstow packed Dana Park on Saturday for the third annual Fiestas de Belen and chili cook-off to honor the contributions of Barstow Hispanics and celebrate the history Barstow and Belen share.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the lure of jobs in Barstow -- at the Marine Corps Logistics Base, Fort Irwin and Santa Fe railroad -- brought many unemployed and starving middle-aged men and their families to the desert, said Felix Gomez, uncle of City Council member Joe Gomez.

"They settled down, and consequently it grew," Felix Gomez said about Barstow in the 1950s.

Gomez likes to take a portion of the credit for starting the migration of Hispanics from New Mexico to Barstow. When he was recovering from a World War II injury in Los Angeles, a doctor told him if he wanted to have use of his fingers later in life, he would have to move some place dry and hot. Gomez said he knew a friend who drove a bus at the Marine Corp Logistics Base and decided to give Barstow a try. He arrived in Barstow on July 4 and had a job the next day.

Eventually, Gomez became the first Hispanic supervisor at the base, and he began hiring other Hispanics looking for work. He first brought out his brothers, sisters, mother and father. Then he hired middle-aged men from the Belen area with families to support who eventually brought their families to Barstow.

Now, according to Gomez, 50 to 60 percent of the Hispanics in Barstow trace their roots back to the Belen area. Torres said the strong connection between Belen and Barstow make the two vacation destinations.

"I was telling people I was coming to Barstow, and everyone had a story about someone they knew or saw there," he said.

Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale presented Torres with a key to Barstow, and City Council member Joe Gomez read a proclamation passed by the Council establishing April 7, 2007, Belen Day" and entering the cities of Belen and Barstow into a sister-city relationship. Torres also donated two books about Belen on New Mexico history to the Barstow library. - Aaron Aupperlee, The Barstow Desert Dispatch

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THE ETHANOL HOAX

The other day the French, who we Americans know cannot do anything right, sent one of their trains hurtling down a railroad track at 357 miles per hour. France has more than 1,000 miles of high-speed railroad track. The United States does not have one inch.

The United States sticks with its climate-warming, congested and inefficient Eisenhower-era transportation system. It was back then that the modern federal highway was begun and it was decided--perhaps by default--that cars and airplanes would be the nation's people carriers and choo-choos would chug off to the nearest transportation museum.

Americans, who seem to spend an ever greater percentage of their waking hours bragging about how much better they are than everybody else, have not noticed they are falling behind. It is, for example, the French, the Japanese and the Germans who are competing to sell a high-speed railroad system to the Chinese. Visiting American tourists will enjoy the ride.

Fewer of them are enjoying domestic air flight. Air travel in the United States has become a slow, exasperating, sometimes humiliating, sometimes painful and always uncomfortable experience. Even Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would classify what the airlines put children and older people through as torture.

Personal miseries aside, consider the contribution our transportation chaos makes to global warming. Actually, it is something we try not to consider or act on at all. Here we are after thirty years of warnings about what carbon dioxide is doing to life on the planet and the United States has no plan or program for curtailing its own magnificent donation to what Al Gore calls earth's "fever."

Hey, no Al Gore, please. Do not listen to that man. He's a politician. He's doing it to get elected even if he is not saying so. Listen to George Bush, who has gotten himself elected and is running the country on the premise that carbon dioxide is nothing but the bubbles in the beer he no longer drinks.

The Bush position is: Why should we do something if the Chinese are not doing anything? As long as they are ruining the earth, we must do it first and bigger. Bush is hardly by himself on this one. It seems almost every major industrial group in the country is as committed to inaction as he.

The global-warming naysayers would have us believe there is a one-shot, magic cure that will preserve the earth in a coolly livable form without our having to do anything or change our ways or spend any money. For the time being the magic cure is ethanol. Ethanol will stop global warming, and as an added plus, it will make the agribusiness interests richer and insure that the GOP carries the corn-growing states of the Midwest. Talk about living happily ever after!

In a few years the articles and books about the ethanol hoax will begin to appear, and we will learn who got rich while the earth got warmer and almost nobody--at least nobody important, nobody with influence and power--took note. The effects of global warming are all around us. Anybody with a backyard garden knows about them, but the garden lobby does not swing a heavy club.

So here we are, like the polar bear marooned on his little melting iceberg, snuffling here and there, looking out across the warming sea, hoping to God somebody throws him a fish. Well, bless us all, but are we truly too dumb and too selfish to save ourselves and our children? - Commentary, Nicholas Von Hoffman, The Nation (Nicholas von Hoffman is the author of A @#$%&'s Dictionary of Business, now in paperback. He is a Pulitzer Prize losing author of thirteen books, including Citizen Cohn, and a columnist for the New York Observer.)

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MAN WAGES WAR ON RACIST GRAFFITI

Photo here:

[www.tdn.com]

KELSO WA -- Chuck Wallace was shocked when he noticed racist graffiti in the Kelso Train Depot -- but he said his blood really started to boil when city crews failed to clean it up.

Wallace, a Longview resident, said he called Kelso City Hall several times in the past three months about the racist graffiti as well as general graffiti in the men's restroom. He was assured it was being taken care of, but said each time he returned it was still there.
City officials said Friday that they checked each time but were unable to find the graffiti in question.

Thursday, fed up with what he considered the run-around, Wallace took matters into his own hands. A two-foot by two-foot square of white paint now covers the Nazi SS and White Power symbols Wallace says were scrawled on the depot's notice board.

Did he technically vandalize the building as well?

Sure, but Wallace said it's worth it remove to the black mark on Kelso's reputation.

"That building represents Kelso and this region," said Wallace, a meter reader who visits the station from time to time to dream of taking a long train trip. "And if someone comes in here and gets off the train and sees that crap on the wall, what are they going to think? "It certainly isn't an emergency or a life-threatening thing, but you'd think there'd be some kind of sense of urgency to get this taken care of," added Wallace, who ran unsuccessfully last year for Cowlitz County commissioner.

David Sypher, the city's public works director said the city did just that.

Crews regularly check the train depot and were specifically dispatched each time Wallace called, Sypher said Friday afternoon.

The problem? They couldn't find anything.

They finally discovered and sanded over a tiny swastika and white power symbol carved in a windowsill. But Sypher said the damage was so small it was next to impossible for crews to find. He knew nothing about the symbols Wallace said were on the notice board, but he added he has faith in his crew.

"They're good, honorable people and they told me they went over and didn't find anything," he said.

Mayor Don Gregory didn't know about the issue Friday, but added he'd be disturbed to hear any graffiti may have been allowed to stay up on city property.

Burlington Northern railroad deeded the depot to Kelso in the mid-1990s. The circa-1911 building then underwent a $3 million renovation to restore the historic character as well as create a regional transportation hub. "We want all graffiti cleaned up right away," Gregory said, adding he would have seen to it if he'd been called about the situation. "We certainly don't want people visiting the community and looking over and seeing that." - Barbara LaBoe, The Longview Daily News

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OLD RAIL LINE MAY GET NEW LIFE

South Dakota officials have decided to sell an old rail line that's been idle for nearly two decades. The state Railroad Board plans to sell the line from Wagner to Napa junction, which is near Yankton.

Wagner Native Energy, which plans to open an ethanol plant in 2009, wants to use the rail line to ship its ethanol.

The purchase price for the tracks is 1.5 million dollars. But officials believe it'll cost another 20 million dollars to rebuild the line.

The state will retain ownership of the line from Wagner to Ravinia.

State Senator Frank Kloucek of Scotland says the sale of the rail line looks like a good deal, but the thinks the state should hold public hearings in the affected area before going finalizing the transaction. - The Associated Press, KELO-TV Sioux Falls, SD

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A NEW PUSH FOR HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Listen here:

[www.publicradio.org]

ST PAUL, MN -- Buying a train ticket is a straight dollars-and-cents deal for University of North Dakota Student Don Schuette. He's just stepped off Amtrak's Empire Builder after a six-hour ride from Grand Forks to the Amtrak station in St. Paul.

"If you can't find another ride then you're pretty much out of luck, unless you want to spend a few hundred dollars for plane ticket," Schuette says.

Schuette's $112 roundrip Amtrak ticket from Grand Forks to the Twin Cities compares to $500 for a Northwest airlines flight.

The Minneapolis Amtrak station is filled with people of all ages -- college students, mothers carrying babies, old folks wearing spring coats a bit too light for the chilly early morning temperature.

Passengers move quickly through check in as the conductor tells everyone the train is full. And the train leaves for Chicago on time.

Ridership on the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle and Portland is up 14 percent.
Nationally, Amtrak's ridership is up 11 percent and has set records the last four years.

If included among U.S. airlines, Amtrak would rank eighth in the number of passengers served, with a market share of nearly 5 percent.

Trains magazine columnist Don Phillips, a former Washington Post transportation reporter, says despite repeated attempts to kill passenger rail service in this country, it survives.

"People insist on riding it, even in the days when it was really really bad," Phillips says.

The bad old days for passenger rail in this country began in 1971. That's when the nation's largest railroads begged Congress to be released from their money-losing passenger routes, so they could concentrate on more profitable freight hauling.

Congress agreed, and railroad deregulation took hold with a vengenace. Almost overnight, nearly half the country's passenger rail service disappeared.

Several presidents, including most recently George W. Bush, have tried to pound the last nail in passenger rail's coffin by zeroing out Amtrak's federal subsidy.

But some members of Congress are having second thoughts. David Johnson, a spokesman for the National Association of Rail Passengers, says elected officials have begun paying attention to increasing ridership numbers.

"Politicians see this, and politicians realize that these passengers are the ones pulling the ballot lever on Election Day," Johnson says.

Does passenger rail pose a real competitive threat to airline service? Yes and no.

If you really need to get to Seattle in a hurry, you'll probably pop for a $240 roundtrip airline ticket that gets you there in just under four hours. The Amtrak ticket costs $282, and the trip is about 40 hours.

Laura Kliewer, the executive director of the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission, says if you want to go to Chicago, the equation changes.

To get from the Twin Cities to Chicago, a Northwest Airlines roundtrip fare is $164 and 90 minutes flying time. Amtrak is $143 and eight hours travel time. Doesn't sound like a fair fight at first glance.

But Kliewer says think about a high-speed rail service that gets you to Chicago in five and a half hours. Suddenly, she says, riding the rails stacks up pretty well against the pain and agony of air travel -- including the drive to the airport, and the long waits and delays of air travel.

"Last time I came from Minneapolis we had to circle O'Hare forever to be able to land, and we don't have any of those issues with trains," Kliewer says.

High-speed rail service to Chicago would not be like the 357 mph record set recently in France by one of their trains. The train would more likely travel about 110 mph, to make the five-and-a-half hour trip.

High-speed train service won't happen soon, though, according to State Sen. Katie Sieben, DFL-Newport, in part because there's no federal or state money immediately available.

Sieben's represents the state on the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission, and she says her goal on that panel is to give Minnesota a voice in the planning.

"Minnesota has not put any resources into that effort yet, and I'm afraid that if we don't get on board, so to speak, we're not going to be at the table when there's an expansion of route," Sieben says.

Sieben is asking fellow Minnesota lawmakers this session to approve spending $2 million to help begin planning for a high-speed rail link to Chicago. - Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio

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TRANSIT NEWS

CALIFORNIA CRASH TIES UP RTD RAIL PLANS: RAILROADS WANT LEGAL PROTECTION ON FASTRACKS LINES

Photo here:

[mas.scripps.com]

Caption reads: Investigators examine the wreckage of a commuter train crash on Jan. 26, 2005, in Glendale, California. An SUV parked on the tracks caused the crash, which killed 11 people. (Chris Carlson/The Associated Press)

DENVER, CO -- The desperate and tragic act of one despondent person in Southern California changed the course of the metro area's planned rapid transit system.

In November 2004, when voters approved FasTracks, railroads serving the Denver area were generally open to talks about letting the Regional Transportation District use their tracks for commuter lines.

That changed less than three months later, when a commuter train smashed into an SUV parked on railroad tracks in Glendale, California.

What happened there caused railroads nationwide to ban light- rail trains from routes used by heavy freights.

In Colorado, one railroad also is demanding that it be shielded from lawsuits arising from accidents involving RTD trains using its tracks.

On Wednesday, the state House Judiciary Committee will consider a bill that would do just that.
The legislature got involved because state law currently doesn't allow RTD to pay damages on behalf of railroads.

Several lawmakers already have made it clear they don't like the idea. But they also acknowledge that unless they go along, FasTracks would be stalled in the four corridors where RTD wants to use freight tracks.

Transit tragedy

Nearly an hour before sunrise on Jan. 26, 2005, Juan Manuel Alvarez drove his Jeep Cherokee to the Chevy Chase Drive crossing of the Metrolink line in Glendale. A speeding commuter train soon would be coming inbound to downtown Los Angeles.

According to witnesses, the SUV driver entered the crossing, then but turned down the track bed itself, going a short distance in the rock ballast.

Investigators said Alvarez got out and doused the vehicle with gasoline. But instead of staying in the SUV as the train neared, Alvarez allegedly got out and left it on the track.

Metrolink conductor Thomas Ormiston saw the Jeep and hit the emergency brake. Witnesses said he then jumped from the control panel and darted toward the rear of the car, yelling at passengers to "Hang on."

Metrolink train No. 100 slammed into the Jeep, careening forward, shoving the Jeep aside and plowing toward a siding where a Union Pacific freight train was parked.

No. 100's cab slammed into the Union Pacific locomotive. Its rear swung out and clipped a passing commuter train bound for Burbank.

Eleven people, including Ormiston, were killed. One hundred eighty people were injured and damages totaled millions of dollars. More than 100 crash-related lawsuits were filed against Metrolink and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Union Pacific initially was named as a co-defendant in one of the suits, but was later dropped from the case. Because Metrolink had purchased the Glendale tracks outright years before, it was determined there was no basis to sue the railroad.

Alvarez was arrested and is facing a death penalty trial on a charge of first-degree murder. A member of Alvarez's family told news agencies after the crash that Alvarez was troubled over a separation from his wife and had been suicidal.

Railroads balk

RTD had long planned to use four existing railroad corridors for its FasTracks program, and the railroad owners had been cooperative about discussing an arrangement. The BNSF Railway Company controls the Gold Line and Northwest rail corridors. Union Pacific owns the East and North Metro corridors.

But fallout from the Glendale tragedy made railroads jittery.

The first ripple hit Denver in fall 2005. Union Pacific told RTD it would not permit light rail to operate along its Smith Road tracks, which RTD wanted for the train to Denver International Airport. RTD would have to use heavier commuter-rail cars, which would hold up better in a collision.

Then late last year, BNSF said no transit lines -- light rail or commuter rail -- could operate on its tracks unless RTD got the legislature to grant the railroad immunity from transit-related lawsuits.

Union Pacific has not taken a position, but it doesn't need to. It has a me-too agreement with RTD that says whatever the agency gives BNSF applies to Union Pacific, too.

The railroad argues that it would have zero exposure to such lawsuits if it simply doesn't allow transit in the first place.

The demand didn't sit well with Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon. She opposes granting the immunity and instead is sponsoring a bill that would limit railroads' liability in future accidents involving RTD operations.

"I literally had to gag to do it, but there were so few options on the table. RTD has to move along on some of these corridors, and this issue of immunity was not explored prior to that Glendale accident," she said.

Fitz-Gerald's bill shields railroads from liability for punitive, exemplary and outrageous-conduct damages in accidents that result from RTD operations.

The shield wouldn't apply to the operation and maintenance of the railroad's own equipment, said the bill's co-sponsor, Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder.

"It does not apply to Burlington Northern Santa Fe's switcher throwing the wrong switch, or their engineer running down passengers with a freight train," Levy said. "It is completely reasonable to interpret that language to limit damages only when the railroad gets pulled into an action that involves the transit service."

The railroads are reluctant to comment on Senate Bill 219, which passed the Senate unanimously, with one absence.

BNSF spokesman Steven Forsberg said it's up to the legislature how best to address the issue.

For RTD, the most apparent added cost is an estimated $2 million more per year to buy additional insurance coverage to handle the railroads' risks. - Kevin Flynn, The Rocky Mountain News

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SOONER IS BETTER FOR LIGHT RAIL

Officials are working to bring a commuter rail to northern Colorado, and instead of saying it's about time, we'll settle for the sooner, the better.

We've already waited too many years to get the train chugging on this. Anyone who has driven Interstate 25 in the past few years would probably agree. The highway is a mess. Cars cause pollution. Gas is expensive.

That's why we hope the city of Greeley pitches in for a feasibility study as the first step to bringing rail service here.

We're rarely in favor of studies, especially those that cost $10,000 a year for two years (and that's just what is being asked of Greeley), but we like this move for many reasons.

Quite frankly, we should have started looking into a commuter line many years ago. Weld County continues to grow at a rapid rate -- it ranks second in the country in growth, according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- and at least a quarter of its workers commute. Those two reasons alone should convince anyone the need is there.

If you're not convinced, go for a drive down I-25 for a day. Good luck keeping your hairline intact.

Another reason, however, is we believe northern Colorado needs a light rail. But maybe we're wrong. Maybe the population of northern Colorado won't support one yet. A study will answer those questions pretty easily.

Greeley won't be paying for the study all by itself. At least 20 other cities and counties have signed on to donate money, including Weld County's government. It's only fair that we do our fair share.

That's true also in reducing the number of cars on an overcrowded I-25 and the particles of pollution in the air that come from our cars. We should do our part, and the only way to do that is by embracing solutions to transportation gridlock. A light rail is a wonderful way to give alternative transportation a chance.

This is something that needed to be done at least five years ago. We can't put it off any longer. Let's convince Greeley officials to pony up the money for a study that should show us the need for a light rail.

Greeley needs to hop on this train soon before we get left behind for good. - Editorial Opinion, The Greeley Tribune

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