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Railroad Newsline for Monday, April 16, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

BNSF RAILWAY CLOSER TO NEW YARD OPENING

DALLAS, TX -- The BNSF Railway Company moved a step closer Friday to building a second intermodal rail yard in North Texas, this one in southern Dallas County near competitor Union Pacific Railroad Company's $90 million facility.

Matt Rose, chairman and CEO of Fort Worth-based BNSF (NYSE: BNI), signed an agreement Friday that ensures the railroad the right to buy from 387 acres to 490 acres of land from The Allen Group for a new yard, according to Edward Romanov Jr., president and COO of The Allen Group.

The move is not "the final step," but rather "a major step," said Romanov, noting it would be the second such railyard for Allen Group's 6,000-acre master planned Dallas Logistics Hub, which sits adjacent to UP.

"We're just thrilled with this development," said Romanov. "We'll be the talk of the logistics industry by Monday morning."

BNSF confirmed in a statement Friday that it had purchased an option to buy land.

Romanov announced the latest development in the company's talks with BNSF at a grand opening ceremony at Lancaster Municipal Airport for the logistics hub. Romanov also announced construction will start in 60 days on the hub's first buildings, two state-of-the-art, speculative industrial facilities, one of them 630,000 square feet and the other 207,000 square feet.

While the boundaries of the logistics hub extend into several cities and counties, the first buildings will be located in Dallas.

"That's in recognition of the city support we got," Romanov told a crowd of several hundred, including numerous city, state and national dignitaries on hand for the occasion.

A $1.35 billion bond package recently approved by the voters of the city of Dallas included $33 million to develop everything from roads to water and sewer lines in the logistics hub.

Citing that kind of city contribution as "unprecedented," Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said she believes the Dallas Logistics Hub project is as significant to the city's economy as the development as Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport 30 years ago. - The Dallas Business Journal

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TRAIN DERAILS NEAR NEBRASKA-WYOMING BORDER

A BNSF Railway Company train carrying coal derailed Saturday afternoon near the Nebraska-Wyoming border.

Railroad spokesman Steve Forsberg says 24 cars near the end of the train derailed in the Henry area about 16:30 hours Mountain Time.

The 128-car train was traveling east from Powder River Basin, Wyoming.

No injuries were reported.

Forsberg says a cause has not been determined.

This is the second derailment involving a BNSF train in Nebraska in recent days.

On Thursday night, two cars and two locomotives on another coal train derailed in Lincoln. - WOWT-TV6, Omaha, NE

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OCEANSIDE 'QUIET ZONE' FOR TRAIN CROSSINGS WOULD COME WITH STEEP PRICE

OCEANSIDE, CA -- Silencing train horns in coastal Oceanside, California will cost $7 million to $9 million, three to four times more than expected, according to a study commissioned by the city.

The City Council will review a preliminary "quiet zone" report at its meeting on Wednesday. The report states that all five railroad crossings in the city would need significant improvements in order to make them safe enough for trains to stop sounding their warning horns when they cruise down the coastal rail corridor at speeds of up to 90 mph.

Peter Weiss, Oceanside's interim city manager, said Friday he was surprised that the cost estimate by Irvine-based Railpros Inc. was so much more than the $2.5 million that the city had estimated as recently as 2006 that the project would cost.

"I think we went with the information we had at the time," Weiss said. "My personal opinion is that the numbers are high. But, even if the real number is $4 million or $5 million, it's still the same question: 'How do you pay for this?' "

A new federal rule allows cities to establish quiet zones where passing trains can't blow their warning horns, provided that they install more protective equipment to ensure that pedestrians and motorists are not put at additional risk.

The study by Railpros Inc. estimates that additional drop-down gates, new sidewalks and special automatic swing gates for pedestrians would need to be installed at the five railroad crossing intersections to establish quiet zones.

The estimate includes $5 million to $6 million in construction costs, plus $1.6 million to $2 million in "nonconstruction costs," which include environmental work, permits, project and construction management, and city administration. Finally, the estimate assumes a 4.5 percent cost escalation over the next two years while the project winds its way through the bureaucratic approval process, adding $622,000 to $747,000 to the cost.

To pay for the quiet zone, city staffers recommend three possibilities: A grant, city road-repair money, or funds from the creation of a special assessment district. A rough estimate included in the report estimates that a 20-year special assessment bond, levied on 1,000 properties within a few blocks of the tracks, would cost between $570 to $725 for each property every year. The range would drop to between $320 and $475 per property per year if the city contributed $250,000 of its estimated $3.5 million in road improvement money each year.

Weiss stressed that the cost estimates for a special assessment district were "not real numbers" and were included to give the public and the council a simple rough estimate.

"We would have to go out there and hire someone who is a benefit assessment engineer," Weiss said. "You would have to assess people based on the benefit they derive."

Carlsbad has received similar interest in a quiet zone for its four public railroad crossings. Based on conversations with the North County Transit District, Carlsbad officials estimated a quiet zone would cost $2.7 million.

Bob Johnson, acting city engineer in Carlsbad, said Oceanside's estimate could foreshadow a similar study his city will soon undertake.

"I have notified our city manager that this is something we really need to keep an eye on," Johnson said. "It appears that the quiet zones are much more expensive than we all originally anticipated."

Johnson noted that San Diego's Center City Development Corporation, which is undertaking the county's first quiet zone in downtown San Diego, has seen similar sticker shock. Published reports indicate that the corporation's quiet zone project was budgeted to cost $3.5 million but has now ballooned to $16.7 million.

Lee Pryor, who has lived near the tracks in Oceanside for 3.5 years, said Friday that $7 million to $9 million seemed "way too high." He said he did not think that property owners near the tracks would vote for a special assessment. - Paul Sisson, The North County Times

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CN, UTU REMAIN APART ON ISSUES; CONDUCTORS' STRIKE CONTINUES

MONTREAL, QC -- The Canadian National Railway and the United Transportation Union (UTU) met for five hours Saturday for discussions but emerged with no settlement, so the UTU strike that began Feb. 10, 2007, continues.

The UTU demanded that CN improve its offer in light of the rejection of the memorandum of settlement, and was unwilling to address issues CN previously raised during negotiations.

CN is available for further discussions but no future meeting dates have been scheduled.

CN on April 11 locked out UTU members at various terminals in Canada where union members had withdrawn their services. The UTU represents 2,800 conductors and yard-service employees at CN in Canada.

CN continues to serve its customers with management personnel performing the duties of locked out UTU members.

The UTU launched renewed strike activity April 10 after it announced its members’ rejection of a tentative settlement agreement with the company signed on Feb. 24, 2007.

UTU members in Canada have been on strike at CN since Feb. 10, 2007, but suspended strike action and returned to work during the ratification process for the tentative settlement.

CN said the UTU has given the company verbal assurances that it will continue to protect commuter rail services in Toronto and Montreal. - Mark Hallman, CN News Release

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CN REDEFINES THE TERM 'FLUID'

Canadian National Railway’s PR machine was on full throttle last week.

It cranked out its latest “state of the railroad” update which insisted “CN’s network remains fluid,” and the management personnel who are manning the trains are “successfully maintaining regular scheduled mainline service.”

But in the very next line, the railway spin doctors revealed they had “imposed a lockout” on yards at Vancouver, North Vancouver, Lilooet, Kamloops, Aldershot, Oakville and Brantford.

Meanwhile the trainmen and women at the Edmonton United Transportation Union local were holding a crucial vote yesterday and today to determine if they will join other CN conductors on the picket lines.

Meanwhile, talks -– after rank and file railroaders gave their American Union masters from Cleveland, Ohio, a serious attitude adjustment and voted down the proposed settlement -– started again in Montreal yesterday.

UTU lawyer Brian Shell didn’t appear too optimistic, however, when he complained in a letter to CN’s negotiating team he was “disappointed by the tone and contents of your letter.”

Clearly CN CEO E. Hunter Harrison is counting on Stephen Harper to do his dirty work again and legislate the railroaders back to work.

But CN’s allegations that the railroad is fluid is nothing new. Similar claims were made in February when the railroad was shut down for 15 days when the conductors originally walked off the job.

Last week, after the February trade stats came out, the big banks’ economics departments showed just how bogus CN’s reassuring words were.

“Trains rained mainly on exports,” crowed the Bank of Montreal’s EconoFacts document.

It noted if you take energy out of the mix -- which mostly moves in pipelines -- exports crashed from a $1.8-billion surplus in January to a $597-million deficit in February.

CIBC World Markets Economic Flash called it a “massive dent.” And it would have been far worse if it wasn’t for a 16.3% spike in energy exports.

It described Harrisons’s powerplay as “the largest monthly setback in three years.”

Exports of industrial goods slumped 9%, auto shipments tumbled by 5.1% and the already battered forest products sector “suffered the single largest monthly decline.”

So much for “fluid.”

Things didn’t get any better when Environment Canada’s pollution police showed up at CN offices in Edmonton, Surrey and Prince George, BC, last week with search warrants to seize documents related to the 41,000 litres of caustic soda CN spilled into the Cheakamus River in 2005 that decimated salmon stocks. - Commentary, Neil Waugh, The Edmonton Sun

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RAILROAD PLAN TO ADD DOUBLE TRACK ACROSS SOUTHERN ARIZONA HAS ITS CRITICS

PHOENIX, AZ -- State regulators are saying "not so fast" to Union Pacific's plan to add a second track to its main line across southern Arizona, a project that the railroad says would allow more trains to use a route with burgeoning traffic from California ports.

Officials of Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific said they plan to ask the Arizona Corporation Commission for permission to modify 50 existing road grade-crossings to accommodate the double-track project along the Arizona portion of its "Sunset Route" main line between Los Angeles and El Paso, Texas.

Commissioners acknowledged that the double-track project could help the state's economic development and possibly relieve traffic-clogged Interstate 10, a cross-country highway that parallels much of the Sunset Route, by putting more freight on trains instead of trucks.

However, several commissioners also suggested that Union Pacific isn't taking Arizona's rapid population growth and safety concerns into account and that some of the lights-and-gates grade crossings should be converted into overpasses or underpasses as part of the project.

Waiting for individual communities to work out cost-sharing deals with the railroad to build new bridges doesn't make sense because costs likely would be inflated in the meantime, Commissioner Kris Mayes said at a hearing Thursday. "By that point, it's too late."

The commission doesn't have jurisdiction over the double-track project itself, but the five-member, elected commission's duties include oversight of railroad safety, including road and rail crossings.

Though the 50 crossings are located from Bowie on the east to Yuma on the west, the outcome probably could be felt most keenly in fast-developing communities between Phoenix and Tucson, such as Casa Grande, Marana and Maricopa.

Underpasses and overpasses eliminate automobile-train collisions that can happen at grade-level crossings, and they also allow road traffic to flow without regard for passing trains.

"I have to believe that one or two of the 50 would benefit from grade separation," said Commissioner Jeff Hatch-Miller.

However, the so-called "grade separation" crossings -- the overpasses or underpasses -- are significantly more expensive.

Union Pacific says it plans to spend $18.4 million rebuilding the 50 crossings and on related work, an average of $368,000 apiece.

A railroad official said underpasses or overpasses can cost $10 million to $30 million each.

Chris Peterson, Union Pacific director of government affairs, said the double-tracking is needed for trains hauling containers and trailers full of goods offloaded from ships at Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The Sunset Route can accommodate 45-50 trains daily. Double-tracking across Arizona would allow it to add an additional 60-70 trains.

Union Pacific's main competitor, BNSF Railway Company, already has a double-track main line across northern Arizona.

Union Pacific contends the 50 crossings would be safe if they're fitted with lights, gates and appropriate road signs -- and if motorists obey the law by stopping for trains.

"The public receives the vast majority of the benefit" from conversions to underpasses and overpasses, Peterson said. "The railroad receives a marginal benefit."

Any need for underpasses or overpasses should be considered when local communities are ready with road traffic projections and money to help pay for them, Peterson said.

"The desire for grade separations at those locations is not driven by the double-track project . . . but it's driven by the increase in motor vehicle traffic and the number of citizens and residents of the community," he said.

Mayes said the railroad's argument that the public should bear most of the cost of underpasses or overpasses because it gets most of the benefit "makes no sense whatsoever." It's the railroad that plans to double the number of trains and likely clog road traffic at crossings, she said. - The Associated Press, The Tucson Citizen

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A ROLE IN RULING THE RAILS

Two Union Pacific projects are chugging into Arizona and a third is in the station, building steam.

The railroad giant is double-tracking its east-west route across the state, providing far more capacity than the current single track. It wants to build an enormous switching yard on a proposed site near Picacho Peak. And it's preparing to bid on a new rail line that would run through Yuma.

The scope of the projects: mammoth.

The role of state and local communities in how they proceed: far too tiny.

Railroads were given broad power in the 19th century, when America was eager to propel the construction of a modern transportation network. That includes the authority to acquire land through eminent domain. Because they deal in interstate commerce, railroads are mostly regulated by the federal government.

The Arizona Corporation Commission does some oversight, but it's mostly limited to the safety of railroad crossings.

The Legislature is considering a bill that is designed to give the community more of a voice in rail projects. House Bill 2020 would require the Arizona Corporation Commission to review any railroad proposal to acquire land or materials by eminent domain or at auction. The commission would have to hold a public hearing, take comments and ensure that alternatives are examined and potential impacts are minimized.

There are no real teeth. Otherwise, the bill could be challenged for usurping federal authority.

Union Pacific argues that it already holds community meetings, and the bill would just add time-consuming red tape.

We disagree. Increasing the opportunities to discuss a project, even if the only authority is the Corporation Commission's bully pulpit, is positive.

The experience of Willcox shows the value of dialogue. The town's worries included drainage, road crossings and which side of the track would get the new rails. Local representatives spoke with the railroad, and the Corporation Commission held a meeting.

Union Pacific acted as a responsible corporate citizen, adjusting its plans to meet local concerns.

That's a fine model for these three complex projects.

• Double-tracking. Union Pacific has already started adding a second track to its Sunset route, which goes from Los Angeles to El Paso, and aims to finish the job across Arizona in the next three years. The Corporation Commission is concerned that some of the 50 road crossings that will be affected are in rapidly urbanizing areas. If the level of danger and traffic flow justify it, the best solution is to build an overpass or underpass. But the cost runs several million dollars, and the railroad is required to pay just 5 percent.

• The new switching yard. The proposed location is right alongside one of Arizona's prize landmarks, Picacho Peak, and above an important aquifer. A rail yard would alter the landscape forever and set a pattern for heavy, industrial development in an area that's a mix of agriculture and scenic desert.

• Yuma rail line. Union Pacific plans to be the rail partner in a bid for Mexico's deep-water port project in Baja California. The railroad says the most practical line would go through Yuma. Local residents are determined to keep the tracks from splitting the city or the fertile Yuma Valley. In this case, the federal Surface Transportation Board must approve the siting, and the public will get a chance to comment.

Much of the framework for federal oversight rests on the idea that railroads have little responsibility for their impact on the community.

That attitude is as dated as a wood-powered locomotive. It's time for Congress to bring railroad rules into the 21st century.

In the meantime, Arizona must use what clout we can muster.

Union Pacific has shown a willingness to work with local communities. The Corporation Commission has stepped in to schedule local hearings. The Arizona Legislature should approve a bill that ensures the public at least has a forum. - Editorial Opinion, The Arizona Republic

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ALASKA RAILROAD HURT BY FUEL, HELPED BY SPILL

Photo here:

[www.alaskajournal.com]

Caption reads: An Alaska Railroad train prepares to depart Seward in this file photo. An increase in passengers last year helped dull the sting caused by reduced fuel shipments from the Flint Hills refinery in North Pole. That reduction was the main culprit in the railroad's 17 percent decrease in revenue between 2005 and 2006.

There are no trains to the North Slope, but events related to the state's largest oil patch had major impacts -- both helpful and painful -- on the financial bottom line at the Alaska Railroad Corp.

The railroad released its 2006 financial statements late last month, and reported a net income of $10.4 million, a 17 percent decrease compared to the year before.

The railroad attributed the decline to a drop in business from its main customer, Flint Hills Resources, which operates a refinery near Fairbanks. The company has faced a $250 million liability relating to tariffs on North Slope oil purchased for the refinery.

As a result of the uncertainty, the company bought less oil for refining, a move that resulted in fewer fuel shipments by the railroad. The railroad had projected a $7 million decline in profits.

But after last summer's oil spill, and the discovery of major corrosion in the gathering station pipelines on the Slope, the railroad saw an unexpected boost in revenues. The railroad was tasked to oversee three rail-barge sailings to transport replacement pipe.

Overall, freight service revenues reached $89.6 million, a 5 percent decline compared to the previous year. The railroad transported 4 million tons of gravel, the third highest volume ever.
A recent purchase of 26 new flat cars is expected to increase trailer and container transports.

A slight increase in passenger service also helped lessen the sting. Passenger service revenue hit $21 million in 2006, attributed in part to changes that allow easier Internet bookings and the ability to purchase first-class upgrades online. More than half a million people rode the rails last year.

Total assets hit $714 million, a 24 percent increase over 2005. Assets increased due to the corporation's capital improvement plan that includes replacing track, straightening curves along the line and building new passenger depots.

The Alaska Railroad for the first time took on public debt in 2006, after issuing $76.4 million in tax-exempt bonds. Money was used to expedite track rehabilitation work, buy new passenger coaches and to fund the next phase of its collision avoidance system. The Legislature approved the sale of up to $165 million in bonds.

Real estate earnings remained steady, netting more than $6.5 million to the corporation. The railroad said it anticipates strong property development interest on holdings in the coming years.

The railroad had its safest year ever, it said. Reportable injuries came in below the goal of 2.5 per 200,000 work hours. The corporation saw fewer cases of derailments, vehicle accidents and employee injuries.

For 2007, freight revenues are projected to reach $92.3 million while passenger revenues should hit $23.6 million. - Melissa Campbell, Alaska Journal of Commerce

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MONTANA'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION SUPPORTS PASSENGER RAIL SERVICE IDEA

BILLINGS, MT -- Railroad advocates who met in Billings on Friday learned that Montana's congressional delegation is on board with efforts to restore passenger train service through southern Montana.

Representatives of Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg all pledged their bosses' support for re-establishing a second rail passenger line through the state.

At a meeting in Helena earlier this week, officials from Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration promoted the idea of reviving an Amtrak route that would connect Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, Livingston and Billings to Chicago and eventually the East Coast.

Jim Green, president of the Montana/Wyoming Association of Rail Passengers, said the meeting in Helena will help raise awareness of an issue that he has been working on for many years.

But the idea of running passenger trains between Billings and Chicago gave Green reason for pause.

"They have about 65 coal trains going through there every day," Green told a gathering of 30 people. "There aren't enough tracks for passenger trains to go through efficiently."

Green said he still supports the idea of corridor trains, which operate on shorter routes such as Billings to Spokane, Wash., or Billings to Shelby. On a Billings-to-Shelby route, passengers would be able to pick up Amtrak's Empire Builder, which crosses the Montana Hi-Line, he said.

Amtrak passenger service through southern Montana ended in 1979. Green said a southern route could be restored within five years.

Green said he has held preliminary discussions with officials from Montana Rail Link about running passenger trains over MRL tracks, but so far there have been no commitments.

"Montana Rail Link hasn't closed the door on us," he said.

Ray Lang, Amtrak's senior director of governmental affairs in Chicago, told Schweitzer administration officials earlier this week that up to $340 million in matching grants may become available for states looking to expand rail service.

At the state level, Sen. Lane Larson, D-Billings, is trying to set aside money to study the feasibility of restoring southern-route passenger service. Green urged other rail travel advocates to push for the idea at the state and federal level.

Some issues need to be resolved, Green said. For example, train tracks between Missoula and Spokane feature at least 22 curves that are considered too sharp for passenger trains. - Tom Howard, The Billings Gazette

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ROTTING LEGACY: LEGISLATURE MUST GIVE STATE PARKS ENOUGH MONEY FOR REPAIRS AND EXPANSION

All politicians claim to support public parks, but in reality many are indifferent or outright hostile to these important hallmarks of civilization. For decades, working majorities in the Texas Legislature -- both Democratic and Republican -- have underfunded the state park system, with destructive results.

Members of the Texas Coalition for Conservation, an organization of cities, counties and civic organizations, told the Chronicle editorial board that state parks need hundreds of millions of dollars for deferred maintenance. Ned Holmes, who recently resigned from the state Parks and Wildlife Commission to join the Texas Transportation Commission, noted that the cost of construction, fuel and energy is rising rapidly. The longer the Legislature puts off adequate funding, the higher the invoice will be. The alternative is to continue to let park facilities rot away, spoiling what should be Texas' greatest legacy.

Bills passed by the Texas Senate and House would increase funding for the Parks and Wildlife Department. However, the proposed increases would be nowhere near enough to reverse decades of decline or pay for the system's expansion, which a growing population requires.

The Texas State Parks Advisory Committee reports that, even in their deteriorated condition, Texas state parks annually account for 10 million visitors. These visits generate $793 million in sales and 11,928 jobs.

When conference committee members meet to resolve the House and Senate bills, they will have another chance to avert the loss and spoilage of Texas' state parks and put them on a path to attain the minimum standards expected of a proud state.

The final bill must reflect the advisory committee's recommendation that the parks receive $106 million annually for 10 years. This should include $16.8 million for operating expenses, $15 million for land acquisition and development and $25 million for local park grants. The grants should be awarded according to the proposals' merits, not according to the whim of the legislators earmarking the bill.

Unfortunately, rather than concentrating on giving the parks system adequate revenue, legislators are squabbling over whether to transfer some of the park system's historic sites to the Texas Historical Commission. The transfer proposals are a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

The issue is the chronic underfunding of the parks. Should some historic sites be transferred, they would still need adequate money to maintain them and have to be staffed by many of the same people staffing them now. What exactly would the transfer accomplish, save to give THC Commissioner John Nau a victory in a turf battle only he wants to fight?

Legislators need to keep their focus on the problem and give the parks the money they need. Failure will brand this as the Legislature that did too little, too late. - Editorial Opinion, The Houston Chronicle

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MUSEUM ANNUAL MEETING WILL INCLUDE TALK ON RAILROAD HISTORY

HAYDEN LAKE, ID -- John Wood will discuss "Railroads of Idaho's Panhandle" at the Museum of North Idaho's annual meeting and banquet Tuesday at the Hayden Lake Country Club, 1800 Bozanta Drive. Wood will present an overall history of railroad development in the Panhandle with the main emphasis on the lines in the Coeur d'Alene region.

Wood's 8 p.m. presentation is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. The banquet is at 7 and costs $30, with a social hour beginning at 6. Call 664-3448 for reservations.

When the Northern Pacific completed its mainline through the area in 1883, the race was on with other major lines to control the region and garner the profits to be made from the resulting development. Other transcontinental lines involved were the Union Pacific (through the Oregon Railway & Navigation), the Great Northern, and the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul (known as the Milwaukee). Smaller railroads such as the Coeur d'Alene & Spokane (known as the electric line), Spokane International, the Idaho & Washington Northern, the Idaho Northern, and the Washington Idaho & Montana were also involved. These lines played a huge role, not to be forgotten, in the history of the area.

Wood was raised in Coeur d'Alene in a family whose ancestors first settled there in 1889. He graduated from Coeur d'Alene High and the University of Idaho. He married another Coeur d'Alene native, Linda Neider, and they moved to the Corvallis, Oregon, area, where John started a 30-year public school teaching career. He wrote the book "Railroads Through the Coeur d'Alenes," which was published in 1983. He is now retired and continues to do research and writing.

Museum director Dorothy Dahlgren said the museum's theme of railroads this year coincides with the publication of the new book "The Milwaukee Road's Western Extension: The Construction of a Transcontinental Railroad" by Stan Johnson. - The Spokane Spokesman-Review

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FEDERAL AGENCY INVESTIGATES YAKIMA DERAILMENT

YAKIMA, WA -- It's likely to take at least several weeks before the Federal Railroad Administration finishes an investigation of Sunday's derailment of four propane-filled rail cars in Yakima, a spokesman for the agency said Friday.

"It is open and ongoing," said Warren Flatau, who is based in the agency's Washington, DC headquarters. "We're investigating for probable cause, and there's quite a bit of variability on the length of our investigations."

Railroads must submit reports to the federal agency for all derailments, but it does not investigate all of them, he said. Factors that can lead to an investigation include significant monetary loss, injuries or fatalities, the potential for hazardous materials to spill and interest from the public.

Sunday's crash happened when a 37-car train apparently rolled backward on a sidetrack for about a mile then hit the end of the track near Washington Avenue close to an S.S. Steiner hop warehouse. Four cars, each loaded with 33,000 gallons of liquid propane, left the track. The train was unmanned.

Crews worked throughout the day and night Monday to right the cars. No leaks of the highly flammable liquid were found.

According to Federal Railroad Administration statistics, it was the 17th reported accident in Yakima County since 1996. It was the 11th BNSF Railway Company accident in the county in that period. Eight of the previous 10 BNSF accidents in the county were determined to have been caused by human error, including two out of three derailments reported in that period.

Those statistics do not include what the agency calls "trespasser casualties," incidents in which pedestrians or vehicles are struck at railway crossings. Those are recorded in a separate category.

BNSF must file its post-accident report on the derailment by May 31. That along with the agency's conclusions will be released after the investigation ends, Flatau said. - The Yakima Herald-Republic

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TRAIN RIDE HELPS PROMOTE SAFETY NEAR RAILROAD LINES

Photo here:

[www.billingsgazette.net]

PINE BLUFFS, WY -- From the inside of the main car, it sounded like a jet taking off.

Men with steel-toed boots were wearing earplugs and sunglasses. Nothing but miles of steel ribbon rested underneath the belly of the 400,000-pound machine.

For the approximately 150 passengers riding the train Tuesday afternoon, the round trip from Pine Bluffs, Wyoming to Bushnell, Nebraska, was a learning experience.

Wade Hall, co-presenter for Operation Lifesaver, said the point of the train ride was to teach the passengers three simple things when it comes to railroads -- look, listen and live.

Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending collisions and deaths at railroad crossings, started in 1975 in Idaho and has since become a national organization with representatives all over the nation.

"It's such a great program," Hall said. "We really travel all over the place promoting this program, which is promoting rail safety."

Muffled horns from the back of the train echoed into the air. The sounding of every horn was a message from a conductor in the rear of the locomotive to an engineer in the front.

Passengers gasped when a train traveling on the opposite side of the tracks blew by them, slightly shaking the car they were seated in.

According to preliminary statistics from last year, at least 365 people were killed and 1,005 were seriously injured in 2,903 highway rail crossing collisions in the United States, said Shelly Harshaw, executive director with Nebraska's Operation Lifesaver program.

Trains cannot stop quickly, she said. Nearly half of all highway rail accidents happen when a train is moving no faster than 30 mph.

Up in the main car, engineer Terry Hansen kept his gaze directed out the two horizontal windows of the train. His job was to make sure the passengers riding along had a smooth and enjoyable time.

Hansen's friends and fellow employees -- Jim Coker, a conductor for the last 36 years, and Phil Cardenas, train manager and operator for the last five years -- were seated to his left.

"These types of safety programs are always important," Cardenas said. "Everyone needs to know what to look for and what to pay attention to when they are around a moving train."

Every two hours, a vehicle or pedestrian is involved in a collision with a train, according to Operation Lifesaver statistics.

Hall said the best way to avoid a collision with a train is to always expect a train. This means never driving under lowered gates, never attempting to race a train to the crossing and always keeping a safe distance away when walking around railroad tracks.

While the majority of Tuesday's adventure was educational in nature, passengers remained surprisingly quiet.

Wind occasionally beat against the windows, and the slow hum of steel against steel put a few children to sleep. Three horns blasted into the air, letting Hansen know the train needed to stop. In the end, Operation Lifesaver was about savings lives, as well as giving 150 Wyomingites quite the ride.

"The more people we reach, the more people we'll save," said Harshaw. "Hopefully we can get more people to ride next year, without all this wind." - The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette

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HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Photo here:

[www.hattiesburgamerican.com]

Caption reads: Illinois Central 2-8-0 #723 is seen on the Southern Railway interchange track in downtown Hattiesburg on July 23, 1936. (William H.B. Jones/Submitted photo)

HATTIESBURG, MS -- To many Pine Belt residents, the reopening of a historic train depot in downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi this week is more than just a fancy new building or anchor for downtown revitalization.

It is a living commitment to the history that is inseparable from Hattiesburg's very origin and a symbol of the things that most fascinate the human intellect.

"I really don't know what the allure of the railroad is," the Rev. David Price said as he fired up a replica steam engine he spent 10 years building from scratch.

"I think the fascination is tied in with the creative spirit of all humans," the railroad buff and historian said. "Meaning has to center around creation of some sort."

While creating for some can be as simple as building models, for others, like the pioneers of southeast Mississippi, the story can be much more complicated, Price said.

"Until the railroad came here, there was nothing here," he said as he highlighted the accomplishments of pioneers such as Col. William H. Hardy, John Kamper, the J.J. Newman Lumber Co. and W.S.F. Tatum.

"I don't think a lot of people know what an amazingly giant industry the timber industry was or that Gulfport was the largest timber port in the world for a time," he said.

From Hardy's first plan to build a town at the site where two future railroads would cross to the heyday of the steam engine and passenger train era to the modern diesel engines that transport freight, the railroad has been an integral part of the city's history, said Ken Smith, who lives on the site of the former Newman Lumber Co. at the end of Newman Street.

He and his wife, Pat, take pride in maintaining the vacant lot that separates their historic home from the Norfolk-Southern switching yard, spending time outside the intact concrete lumber company vault or whiling away hours in the upstairs room that is dominated by a model train yard.

"Both of us enjoy the same things -- the old house, history and the railroad," Pat Smith said.

Like Price, Ken Smith said the mystique of the railroads is an inexplicable enigma that captures a young mind and never lets go.

"I never did work for the railroad, but when I grew up (in Tupelo) the back of our lot abutted the tracks," he said. "I do have a lot of friends that worked for the railroad, and I like to sit around and hear their stories."

And whenever conversation turns to railroad history, one name always arises -- the late Charles Harrington, the clerk to the superintendent of Norfolk-Southern's Hattiesburg operation.

"He loved it. He loved to share it and talk about it," Harrington's niece, Patsy Gladden, said. "He was a recipient of the Purple Heart but he didn't talk about that that much; it was always the railroad."

An avid photographer and collector of all things rail, Harrington amassed more than 2,500 photographs, documents, artifacts and memorabilia that will be the basis of the new Hattiesburg Historic Depot Intermodal Center's museum display.

"He really wanted to live long enough to see (the depot) completed," Gladden said. "But he also wanted his collection to be preserved, especially for the children who cannot see what he got to see in those days."

Harrington's co-worker Alex Powe of Petal remembers the days the depot was in full swing from his hectic dispatcher's office in the north wing of the building.

"It was nerve-wracking when you are trying to cover 600 miles of railroad," Powe said. "With microwave towers all along the line and everyone on the railroad could call you, you had someone screaming at you all the time. You kept busy eight hours a day, that's for sure."

Powe, a 41-year-employee, was able to retire from Norfolk-Southern the same day the company moved its dispatching operations from the depot to Birmingham in 1989.

"You never forget it," he said. "I won't say I miss my job, but I do miss my friends."

Although Powe said he will not likely be able to attend Friday's gala grand opening of the depot, he said he is excited to see it returned to its former glory.

"I'd like to go and see what it's like now," he said.

The Smiths, who have been active on the committee planning the event, echoed those sentiments.

"It will be a real jewel for this neighborhood," Ken Smith said. "This one by far is the best one I've seen." - Reuben Mees, The Hattiesburg American

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RAILROAD PARK TRAINS FAMILY IN FUN

Photo here:

[www.eastvalleytribune.com]

Caption reads: ALL ABOARD: Park visitors ride the train Friday around McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. (Laura Segall, For the Tribune)

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- We first heard about the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park from a friend.
The park is a wonderful combination of rides for children, picnic spots, playgrounds, and much more.

The park has a large playground with multiple play sets for children of different ages. There is a model train room, where children can watch elaborate model trains running.

The park has two trains for children and families to ride, plus a carousel -- all for $1 per person to ride. There is also a historic train that serves as a museum. Families can bring their own lunch or eat at two different kid-friendly lunch places at the park.

The park has special Christmas events, but our favorite time to go is spring. We pack a picnic and enjoy watching the other families, especially the many birthday parties.

My son loves riding the “choo choo” the best, and my daughter loves choosing her ice cream from the sweet shop.

If you go:

McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, 7301 E. Indian Bend Road, Scottsdale, (480) 312-2312, www.therailroadpark.com. - Hayley Ringle, The East Valley Tribune

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TRANSIT NEWS

LAWSUIT THREATENS METRO EXPANSION

HOUSTON, TX -- A lawsuit now threatens to derail Metro's plans for light rail expansion in Houston. If it is successful, the entire process may have to start from scratch.

Getting the light rail cars on the track has been a battle from the start.

The 2003 referendum allows Metro to fund its share of the expanded transit plan known as Metro Solutions passed by a razor thin 51 to 49 percent.

Now it is the ballot measure itself and how Metro has put it to use that is coming under fire.

Daphne Scarbrough says she been asking Metro questions about the rail plans for two and a half years.

"I have no answers. I am tired of asking the questions. And now Andy will get to ask the questions,” said Scarbrough.

“Andy” is attorney Andy Taylor who representing Scarbrough.

"Metro's day of reckoning has come. It's time for the citizen's of Houston to know once and for all the truth,” said Young.

Ideally, they would like to use a lawsuit to shut the plan down completely. The filing seeks to force Metro officials to testify under oath, look at finances and the technology and routes claimed in the ballot measure.

"They are in Bait and Switch. They won't agree and how long does it take Metro officials to stand up and confess that they can't get the job done with what the voters approved,” said Taylor.

For its part, Metro said it has been anticipating legal action; the only real surprise is that it is coming so late in the process.

“It is a fishing expedition. They've said we want to come in and see if you have done anything wrong,” said Metro Chairman David Wolfe.

The fine print of the Ballot measure will be the major issue. Can Metro change routes, even change technology from rail to bus rapid transit?

Is that a violation of the letter or spirit of the referendum?

"The spirit is to get it built. Not to go through motions the way we have in the past. We are terribly behind other cities... We are working very hard to get this build. That is the spirit.
Get it built,” said Wolfe.

If you look closely at the ballot measure, you'll find specific route and mileage for new rail lines, but you will also find language that says nothing is set in stone except for the amount of money Metro can spend.

Time is of the essence at least for Metro opponents. That is because Metro is set to approve $1 billion in contracts at this month’s board meeting in two weeks. - Jeremy Desel, KHOU-TV11, Houston, TX

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SUPERVISOR SAYS HE'LL SEEK VOTE ON MUNI REFORM

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Using the reliability problems that plagued Municipal Railway streetcar service in San Francisco this past week as a catapult, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin disclosed Saturday that he is launching a ballot measure he hopes will help fix the ailing transit system.

He said his proposal would pump more money into the city's public transit agency and give management a key negotiating tool to get better performance out of the system's unionized drivers.

He told The Chronicle of his plan the same day that city officials held an official ribbon-cutting ceremony in South of Market and hosted a community celebration in the Bayview for the start of the new T-Third line -- a 5.1-mile rail extension that began full-time service Monday and set off a series of irksome delays throughout the Muni Metro streetcar system.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, fresh from a trip to Syria trying to open diplomatic relations, was in town Saturday to partake in the festivities in the Bayview and South of Market.

She called the rail project -- which was nearly two years in the making and required the cooperation of local, state and federal governments and community leaders -- a good investment in the city's transit system. She also said it will help spark economic vitality in a part of the city that desperately needs it.

But she cautioned the crowd, "With all the great minds and all the great work that went into it, we really cannot fully celebrate until people who use the system are celebrating, too.''

The $648 million T-Third project connects San Francisco's oft-neglected southeastern neighborhoods to downtown.

"While ribbon cuttings and celebrating successes are important -- and the kinks in the Third Street light rail will be worked out soon enough -- none of these things address the systematic problems that Muni faces: structural budget deficits, huge capital backlogs, staffing issues, efficiencies,'' Peskin said.

Peskin, who said he already has the backing of three of his colleagues, plans to formally present a skeletal version of his proposed charter amendment to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. Charter amendments require support from at least six of the 11 board members to be put before voters. Peskin is aiming for the November ballot.

On the financial front, Peskin envisions steering more money from parking meter and parking garage revenue into the transit system and giving Muni officials more time to craft their budgets.

The more controversial element, however, involves labor. Peskin wants to abolish the existing charter provision that automatically makes San Francisco's transit operators among the highest-paid in the nation.

Currently, their salaries are based on the average of what operators make in the two transit agencies in the country that pay the most -- in recent years, Santa Clara County and Boston. The base pay for drivers in San Francisco is $26.77 an hour.

Peskin said he wants management to be able to use pay as leverage during contract negotiations. He believes management would have more flexibility in scheduling and route assignments, and in setting work rules.

"At the end of the day, if the union is smart, they'll be willing to trade money for performance,'' said Peskin.

Taking on the drivers union is politically risky in a pro-labor town.

On one hand, the transit-riding public in San Francisco, which wields considerable clout given that Muni provides close to 700,000 trips a day, is demanding that service improve, particularly when it comes to the issues of on-time performance, crowding and reliability.

On the other hand, driver cooperation is essential to keep the system functioning. A work slowdown or sickout, for example, could further hamper Muni operations.

Irwin Lum, president of the transport workers union local, said he doesn't see a need for the change and at first blush views Peskin's plan as an attack on his members.

"I feel the system works now,'' Lum said Saturday. "The drivers have been stepping up and working with management to improve the system.''

When asked about the proposed charter amendment, Municipal Transportation Agency chief Nathaniel Ford offered a measured response.

"For any management team, the more flexibility you have, the more opportunity you have to change things,'' he said, adding, "Our relationship with the union is very good at this point, and I'd like that to continue.''

Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is running for re-election this year, withheld comment on the proposed charter change, wanting time to look at the details, a spokesman said Saturday.

A force behind the charter amendment is the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, a civic think tank that has long been agitating to reform Muni. The organization, known as SPUR, was an instrumental player behind Proposition E, a ballot measure approved by voters in 1999 that helped stabilize funding for Muni, gave the agency more autonomy from City Hall and set a series of service standards, many of which have yet to be met.

While Prop. E was a good start, said SPUR Executive Director Gabriel Metcalf, it didn't go far enough to cement a reliable operation.

"The goal here is to No. 1, fix the work rules; No. 2, get Muni more money; and No. 3, clear away some of the bureaucracy. If we can achieve all three, we hit a home run. Right now I think Muni is trying to fix things with both hands tied behind its back,'' he said.

The need to fix things roared to the forefront over the past week when the new T-Third streetcar line began weekday service. Trains throughout the entire Muni Metro system got backed up in the Market Street tunnel and at other pressure points, causing delays and angering riders. While some of the problems were smoothed out midweek, grumbling grew anew Saturday with more backups on the system.

What should have been a celebratory week with the addition of the new T-Third turned into heartache and headache for officials. Nevertheless, Newsom and Muni bosses say they are confident the problems will be resolved. - Rachel Gordon, The San Francisco Chronicle

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NO STELLA, NO STANLEY, BUT A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE VISITS NEW YORK CITY

Photo here:

[graphics8.nytimes.com]

Caption reads: Parked in Times Square, a streetcar named Desire promotes New Orleans. (Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times)

NEW YORK, NY -- Wednesday, on a street in Times Square, there were no azaleas or Spanish moss, no hot and fetid air, no maligned wives in slips or coarse husbands in torn T-shirts, no New Orleans of the imagination at all.

But there was, on windy West 44th Street, parked outside the television studios of “Good Morning America,” a streetcar named Desire.

Almost the length of a modern subway car, it was a green beauty of polished wooden benches and clanging bells, designed to look circa 1948, the period of the Tennessee Williams play. The front of the car reads, “Desire.” Inside, vintage advertisements span the car. “Romance Never Starts From Scratch,” reads a Burma Shave ad.

Photo here:

[www.nytimes.com]

The entire car, which arrived from New Jersey on Monday evening and will remain in place today, was a promotional ploy by a tourist board to get more people to visit New Orleans, where there are few streetcars running and few neighborhoods rebuilt since the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“It’s almost a tale of two cities,” said J. Stephen Perry, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, as he sat in the streetcar. “We have some outlying post-World War II neighborhoods that suffered damage that is incomprehensible. But the original city that the tourists come to -- the French Quarter, the Garden District and the Arts District -- are not only intact, but look better than they did before the storm.”

Tourism is vital to New Orleans, Mr. Perry said. It is the city’s largest business, he said, worth billions of dollars, supplying nearly a third of the city budget and employing some 85,000 residents.

But the city’s streetcar system is struggling. Before Katrina, some two million passengers a year hopped onto as many as 30 streetcars at rush hour, said Rosalind Blanco Cook, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority.

Now, as few as six cars are running on a system that will not be fully restored until spring 2008. On a good day, Ms. Cook said, several hundred tourists take the streetcars on the riverfront line.

As for the streetcar in Times Square yesterday, with its many parts and pieces added over the years, its provenance is as mixed as that of any old New Orleans family. Built in 1922, the 800 series car ran in New Orleans until 1964, when streetcar service was sharply reduced.

Like other vintage streetcars donated to museums, the car was sent to the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, Conn., where it was mothballed for decades. Finally, it came out of storage in 1995 and was restored, off and on, over five years.

Much of it is new. The restoration cost for materials alone was $100,000. The labor could have cost more than $500,000, but most of it was volunteer, according to Richard Slinsky, an electronics consultant and one of the Trolley Museum volunteers involved in the project.

The reason it was restored to the 1948 era, rather than the 1922 era, was the scarcity of spare parts and documentation from the earlier period, Mr. Slinsky said.

Is it really one of the streetcars named Desire on the French Quarter line that inspired Tennessee Williams’s play title?

Mr. Slinsky is careful. It’s likely, he said. One of the original roll signs that arrived with the car includes the name Desire, as well as Bourbon, Esplanade, Decatur, Elysian Fields, Chartres, Tonti, France and Royal.

As for the car in Times Square yesterday, visitors, many of them youngsters, seemed less fascinated by its history than by the smallness of the wooden benches.

Shaquanna Squalls, 16, a high school student from the Bronx, said, “How did they put their legs in? I guess people were a lot shorter back then.” - Anthony Ramirez, The New York Times

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THE END