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Railroad Newsline for Monday, 04/23/07
Author: Larry W. Grant
Date: 04-23-2007 - 00:00
Railroad Newsline for Monday, April 23, 2007
Compiled by Larry W. Grant
In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006
RAIL NEWS
PRELIMINARY REPORT - BNSF BRIDGE FIRE AT BELIN, NEW MEXICO
The BNSF Railway Company has issued a preliminary report that train operations have been stopped due to a bridge fire at Belen, New Mexico.
The purpose of this email is to inform customers that BNSF personnel are enroute to the location to determine the impact and how this may affect shipments on trains moving through this area.
An additional advisory will be published as soon as detailed information becomes available. - BNSF Service Advisory
ED. NOTE: The following link will take you to the web site of television station KOB, Channel 4 out of Alberquerque. They have a short story about the fire and a related video clip:
[kob.com]
GANG MEMBERS AMONG SUSPECTS IN TRAIN ATTACK
WEST SACRAMENTO, CA -- An Amtrak train engineer remained in the hospital Friday after a group of youths, including members of the West Sacramento gang the Broderick Boys, viciously beat him five days ago, a Yolo County prosecutor said.
"One of them hit him over the head with a fire extinguisher," said Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden. "One of them hit him with a bottle."
The attack occurred at 22:15 hours Monday as the Capital Corridor passenger train approached the I Street Bridge, traveling slowly because of reports of trespassers on the tracks.
The name of the engineer has not been released. But new details of the violent incident emerged Friday, as railroad police prepared to make additional arrests in the case.
Linden said he met with detectives from Amtrak police, the West Sacramento Police Department and Union Pacific on Friday afternoon and received an update on their investigation.
The prosecutor said the attackers had thrown either rocks or bottles at the train, some of which struck the engineer inside. The engineer came out of the cab, and a verbal confrontation escalated into a physical attack, the prosecutor said.
One teen allegedly involved in the beating already is in custody and police are "working to identify four other suspects," he said.
The sole suspect arrested so far is a 17-year-old who prosecutors have said will be tried as an adult. They have filed at least 14 felony counts, including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
One of the charges is train robbery, a crime rarely prosecuted in modern times.
"The individuals who were involved forced the train to a stop and they attempted to rob the engineer," Linden said. "After they had pulled him from the train, they told him to give up his wallet and cell phone."
At least one suspect climbed aboard the train, but it wasn't clear what he had done there, the prosecutor said.
Linden said he didn't know if robbery was the motive for the attack.
"It's more of a crime of opportunity," he said. "You have known gang members. They were there. The train was there."
An Amtrak spokeswoman said there were still eight passengers on the train, but they were not involved in the incident.
"The train got word from dispatch that there were people on the tracks," said Vernae Graham. "It slowed down and stopped. The conductor was the first one out of the train. He tried to get them to move."
The engineer intervened and that's when the attack occurred, she said.
After the attack a student conductor guided the train into the Sacramento station, she said.
West Sacramento Police Lt. Dave Farmer said Amtrak police were leading the investigation.
"We are assisting Amtrak and have detectives assigned to help them," Farmer said.
Investigators from Union Pacific, which owns the railroad tracks, also were involved.
Mark Davis, a Union Pacific spokesman, said the train was slowing for a signal when rocks were thrown at it. Union Pacific's investigation stopped at that point, he said, and Amtrak's took over.
Prosecutors say at least two of the group of attackers were members of the Broderick Boys, a gang against whom Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Jeff Reisig has used a stringent and controversial gang injunction.
"I can confidently say that there was more than one gang member in this," said Linden.
"There will be more information coming out in the next couple of days," he said. - Hudson Sangree, The Sacramento Bee
BILL TO PRIVATIZE TEXAS STATE RAILROAD PASSES OUT OF HOUSE COMMITTEE
AUSTIN, TX -- The House Bill that could pave the way for a private operator to run the Texas State Railroad passed out of a Texas House committee this week.
HB 3113, authored by state Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, passed out of the House Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism on Thursday. The vote was unanimous among the committee members present, according to Cook's office.
Cook said by phone Friday he is pleased with the bill's passage out of the committee.
"I'm very confident that we've taken the steps necessary to ensure the long-term viability and success of the railroad," Cook said.
HB 3113 has an identical bill in the Texas Senate, SB 1659, which passed out of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources April 12. State Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, authored the Senate bill.
The legislation would create the Texas State Railroad Operating Authority and make way for the transfer of the tourist train, currently operated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, to the operating authority to lease to a private entity to operate.
The financially-strapped railroad, which runs between Rusk and Palestine, is currently slated to become a static display come September unless other steps are taken to save it as a moving attraction.
Supporters and opponents of the legislation attended Senate and House committee hearings April 10 in Austin to voice their opinions.
Cook testified before the House Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism that the bill would "ensure the long-term success of the railroad."
Supporters of the bill, including those with the current Texas State Railroad Operating Agency, which was formed to evaluate the option of finding a private operator to run the train, testified about the benefits of transferring the train to an "authority" to lease out operations of the train.
The current locally-created "operating agency," which would be replaced by the state-created "operating authority," as is laid out in the legislation, has chosen American Heritage Railways to operate the train if the state approves that idea.
American Heritage operates the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in North Carolina.
Steve Presley, president of the operating agency and a Palestine city councilman, told House committee members during the committee meeting that the legislation would save the railroad "once and for all."
Opponents of the bill, including Dr. Michael Banks of Jacksonville, president of Save Texas Parks, expressed concerns about the bill.
Banks has said the railroad could be funded and operated for the next two years with $7.6 million attached to House Bill 1 by state Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville.
"Parks and Wildlife wants to keep the railroad ... to me this is the solution. Why give the railroad away?" he said.
The legislation still needs approval by the full Senate and House.
Cook said Friday the next steps in the process include the bill going to the calendars committee and then to the House floor. - Megan Middleton, The Tyler Morning Telegraph
TP&W COMMISSIONER HOLDS OUT HOPE FOR FUNDING RELIEF FOR STATE PARKS
AUSTIN, TX -- The fight to adequately fund state parks and historic sites isn't over yet, says one Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioner.
"I believe that legislators are well aware of the critical needs in state parks, and we are confident they will come through with the funding we need to bring Texas state parks to a state to which all Texans can be proud," Commissioner John Parker, of Lufkin, said Friday.
So far, the Legislature has appropriated $33 million to fund state parks for the next biennium, according to state Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin. That's $1 million more than what they had to work with until the last biennium, when the Legislature reduced funding to $27 million.
Park supporters have not given up hope for funding relief offered in House Bill 12, according to Parker.
This bill would lift a cap placed on the sporting good tax authorizing funding access to an average $100 million in revenue from general sales tax items related to outdoor activities. Legislators set the cap at $32 million more than a decade ago.
While nearly all East Texas state parks have demonstrated a need for additional funding, the Texas State Railroad Park in Palestine and Rusk is in greatest jeopardy, as park officials plan to shut down the steam driven trains by September, based on the $2.1 million budgeted for operation of the Rusk and Palestine parks, according to McReynolds.
"Texas Parks and Wildlife has requested the necessary funding for the state to continue operating the railroad as part of the legislative appropriations request," Parker said.
The likelihood of state funding for repairs to the tracks is increasingly lessening, said Alicia Phillips, representing Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville.
This fact isn't lost on the employees of Texas State Railroad State Park, according to operations superintendent Mark Price.
"We are still in a holding pattern, the same one we have been in for the past 18 months, and it is wearing heavily on all of us and our families," Price said. "It is a concern that I deal with very day, concern for my own family and concern for my employees' families. Some of our best employees have left us because they needed state insurance for their children."
Nichols supports legislation to transfer management of historic parks into the hands of Rusk and Palestine residents by creating a Texas Railroad Authority comprised of seven locally appointed members. The group would oversee a private operator.
"Someone has to oversee the process of leasing it out," Phillips said. "Who is going to administer that process? The local people who see how it is run and are most affected by its operation are the best to do that."
Should the operator fail to meet state and local expectations, the contract would be canceled and a new operator appointed. Phillips said park management would revert back to the state should the proposed local authority violate state expectations.
This safeguard is addressed in the bill, she said.
Opponents of the effort to regionalize and privatize park management, like Michael Banks of Jacksonville, say the state would do a better job of keeping the trains on track.
This sentiment is reflected by the 80 percent of voters in favor of keeping the Texas State Railroad in the state park system, according to an online newspaper poll by the Cherokean Herald, Parker said. The poll allows one voter per computer, he said.
Parker, who repeatedly criticized legislators in the past for underfunding state parks, said Friday that he is confident the Legislature will ultimately make the decision that is best for Texas.
"I must stand with the people of not only East Texas, but all of Texas!" Parker said. "And, the vast majority of Texans want the (train) to continue running under the ownership of Texas Parks and Wildlife."
Parker called for state leaders to decide if they want a clean, well-operated park system as Texas voters have repeatedly supported.
"The time of back-biting and criticism must end -- and end quickly," he said. "Now is the time for total leadership and cooperation by all state leaders to come to the front!" - Christine S. Diamond, The Lufkin Daily News
TRAIN TALK ADDS HISTORICAL CONTEXT TO DM&E'S QUEST
SIOUX FALLS, SD -- The Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's effort to carry out one of the biggest rail building projects since the Civil War has the feel of a historical icon lifted off the page of a textbook.
Faint echoes of manifest destiny, 19th century boosterism and a Horatio Alger rise from low estate to prominence resonate about the DM&E's goal to reach more than 200 miles to Wyoming coal mines and become the nation's newest Class I carrier.
Augustana College's annual Dakota Conference wants to make that resonance louder by providing the backdrop of historical context to the DM&E's ambitious scheme.
Friday and Saturday, the 39th annual conference -- with its theme of Railroading the Plains -- examines the role of railroads in South Dakota from their appearance in the 1880s. The conference concludes with a panel on the DM&E Powder River Basin project Saturday at 13:30 hours.
Because the DM&E has spun a storm of controversy with its plans to run high speed coal trains near the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and its unsuccessful attempt to secure a $2.3 billion federal loan to build new track, railroad issues are in the air in South Dakota.
"It's appropriate this year" for the conference to deal with railroads "and the whole cultural context for railroads," says Harry Thompson, Augustana's director of Research Collections and Publications and the Dakota Conference organizer.
"The railroad is the way most people came to South Dakota after the first influx of European immigration," Thompson says, and railroads run deep in South Dakota's collective memory.
About 75 participants Friday attended sessions with topics including how railroads and the telegraphs that followed rail lines revved up the pace of life on the prairie and how South Dakota's population tripled in the decade after railroads arrived from 80,000 to 225,000.
Don Hofsommer, a history professor and railroad historian at South Dakota State University, says "the impact of railroads is so great it is why we were called 'the steam car civilization.' "
"Railroads are not at the frontal lobe of the public anymore, unless they are blocking the crossing," he says. However, such inattention obscures a robust freight rail industry that is a key component of international commerce. Along comes the DM&E to underscore that prominence.
"I'm an enthusiastic proponent of rehabilitating existing railroads and adding more capacity," he says.
"We have no political position on the DM&E loan," Thompson says. "We simply want to provide some historical context to look at the issue. Our goal is to get as many voices as we can to be heard." - Peter Harriman, The Sioux Falls Argus Leader
BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK
The enchantment of the past, the promise of the future and the magic of the moment merged Friday evening as a wide spectrum of the Hattiesburg, Mississippi community gathered to christen the city's newly restored 1910 train depot as the Hattiesburg Intermodal Facility.
"This station is so beautiful it actually made me cry," said Gil Carmichael, a Meridian businessman and a federal railroad administrator under former President George Bush.
Carmichael, who said he's seen about 60 of the approximately 130 restored train depots throughout the United States, rated the Hattiesburg depot at the top.
"It is a real treasure," he said. "It is going to be one of the major train stations in the U.S."
Photo gallery here:
[www.hattiesburgamerican.com]
The building, a 1,400-square-foot layout in Italian Renaissance architecture, contains a grand hall where those attending the event mingled and danced into the night, a small but well-decorated museum and a transportation waiting area that will serve as a warm welcome to new visitors to the city.
Architect Larry Albert, whose design was the basis of the historic restoration project, said he has always dreamed of seeing the building restored.
"I remember as a child driving by here, looking out the back window and I asked, 'Why doesn't anybody care about that old building?'" he said.
"When I came back to Hattiesburg in 1986, it was one of the first places I came to and it had shipping containers stacked to the ceilings. The next time I saw it in 1997, the containers were gone and I could see how badly cracked the floors were," Albert said.
"It's very satisfying to see it today."
But to get to this point, it took a lot of hard work that spanned 23 years of cooperation among city, state and federal officials.
"A lot of people had their hand in this," Mayor Johnny DuPree said after he assembled a group of probably 50 people to lead a toast. "A project like this tends to make Hattiesburg better. We can see what we can do when we work together."
"From one administration to another, we passed the baton on," DuPree's predecessor, State Sen. Ed Morgan, said. "That's something we can all be proud of."
While the U.S. Congress members who made the bulk of the funding for the $9 million project available could not be present for the event, they said in e-mails earlier this week they were proud to see Hattiesburg unveiling the new depot.
"I join the City of Hattiesburg in its excitement over the debut of the Hattiesburg Intermodal Center," Sen. Thad Cochran said. "In addition to bolstering the city's position as an important transportation center, this facility will serve as a catalyst for downtown revitalization as well as economic development throughout South Mississippi."
But Sen. Trent Lott said it also marks a turning point in transportation that is affecting the nation.
""While the restored Hattiesburg depot will surely be a reminder of Hattiesburg's rich rail history, it also reveals the future, and the beginning of a new chapter in America's continuing railroad tradition," Lott said.
State Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, agreed.
"As gas prices continue to climb, a lot of people are already starting to look at trains as a cheaper means of transportation," he said.
But the depot could have a significant impact on private businesses' decision to locate in downtown.
Four-term Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith, who oversaw the opening of the restored depot there in 1997, said it has already spurred $145 million in private development in Meridian.
"They did it right," he said. "They could have done it more cheaply, but it wouldn't have had the same economic impact."
Hattiesburg Historic Downtown Association Executive Director Bernice Linton was excited by that prospect.
"People will be drawn to this and when they see what is already going on in downtown, they are going to say, 'Wow. Downtown is back.'" - Reuben Mees, The Hattiesburg American
CN RESUMES RAIL OPERATIONS IN TORONTO-MONTREAL CORRIDOR
MONTREAL, QC -- The Canadian National Railway Saturday restored rail service in its Toronto-Montreal corridor after the end of an illegal blockade of its tracks by First Nation protestors.
Friday CN shut down corridor operations, embargoing all freight and passenger traffic in the interest of safety, after some members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation, without the support of the elected Chief in council, blocked the company’s double-track main line west of Napanee, Ontario.
The blockade disrupted CN freight and VIA Rail Canada Inc. passenger services in the busiest rail corridor on CN’s system.
CN customers can expect some delay in the delivery of their shipments as a result of the illegal incident. - Mark Hallman, CN News Release
KCSR SUPPORTS PRE-PROM MOCK GRADE CROSSING COLLISION EVENT
BOSSIER CITY, LA -- On April 17, the Kansas City Southern Railway and Louisiana Operation Lifesaver supported Parkway High School and the Fire Department in Bossier City, Louisiana in a mock grade crossing collision. The event began with a student briefing in the auditorium, followed by the mock collision at a grade crossing near the school. Emergency responders from the railroad, fire, police and coroner's office were involved in the mock response effort, with a real train, fire and rescue equipment, multiple police units, a local Medevac helicopter and a body bag. Students watched the scene unfold.
"A real grade crossing collision is the tragic result of a bad decision," said Allen Pepper, KCSR director public safety. "We hope that the mock collision will make students think before making a bad decision at a crossing, especially as they approach prom season. Special thanks to the System Transportation Center and the Midwest Division for managing KCSR's role in the event."
- KCS News
KCSR'S MIDWEST DIVISION CONDUCTS 'OFFICER ON A TRAIN' EVENTS
On April 12, in cooperation with local police, the Kansas City Southern Railway conducted a multi-jurisdictional Officer on a Train event through Independence, Kansas City, Bates City, Grain Valley, Oak Grove, Odessa, Higginsville and Marshall, Missouri. A total of 14 citations were issued.
On April 17, a similar event was conducted with local police in Pittsburg, Kansas, resulting in nine citations. Despite the fact that multiple police units and railroad officials were involved, there were so many violators, that all could not be cited. Local police have expressed an interest in conducting more events like this one.
In these events, a police officer rides in the locomotive with the train and engine crew. When a motorist ignores the warning at a crossing and attempts to beat the train, the officer on the train radios other officers on the ground to issue citations. The objective of these events is to generate public awareness of crossing safety and reduce opportunities for a collision. - KCS News
SAN MARCOS TIED TO THE RAILROAD TRACKS
SAN MARCOS, CA -- Local histories often tell the story of when the railroad came to a particular town. In the case of San Marcos, the town literally came to the railroad.
In the late 1880s, in the midst of a land boom, Jacob Gruendyke, a banker, rancher and founder of the Escondido Land and Town Co., joined with Worden Grove Jacobs and others and founded the San Marcos Land Co.
In March 1887, the company purchased the former ranch lands of Cave Couts and put together parcels for a town site near Grand Avenue and C Street (now Rancho Santa Fe Road).
The land company was anticipating the coming of the Santa Fe Railroad. “A large hotel was erected, several stores and houses built, and a post office established,” wrote Philip Rush in a 1956 article in California Rancher. An irrigation system was set up, “and it looked like the new town would rival Escondido and other boom cities of the Southland,” Rush wrote.
The railroad branch line connecting Escondido with Oceanside, with a stop at San Marcos, officially opened Dec. 31, 1887, according to William Carroll's book, “San Marcos: A Brief History.” Unfortunately, the line ran 2 miles east of the new town, roughly parallel to Mission Road.
“The railroads were independent in those days,” said Roy Haskins, former vice president of the San Marcos Historical Society and a current board member. “The railroad laid out the best route for them. They took the easiest way. The San Marcos Land Co. didn't have any influence with them.”
In 1895, a railroad depot was erected at Mission and Las Posas, roughly a mile from downtown, a considerable distance at a time when the main forms of transportation were walking and horses.
Photo here:
[www.signonsandiego.com]
Caption reads: The San Marcos railroad depot was originally built at Mission and Las Posas in 1895, but a steam engine dragged it to the southeast corner of Mission and Pico in 1906. In this photo supplied by the San Marcos Historical Society, the building is shown about 1915.
The town's distance from the tracks, combined with an uncertain water supply, caused some businesses to close, according to accounts in the San Marcos Historical Society's archives. A short article in the Sept. 5, 1901, edition of The San Diego Union gave some insight into the situation and the town's response.
On account of the precarious nature of the water supply, the town of San Marcos would be moved two miles east of its old site, the article said. Jacob Gruendyke, who owned most of the buildings in the town, had sold the big hotel to William Myer and his son, who would convert it to a grain warehouse.
The move wasn't actually made until 1903, according to Carroll's book, and was limited to four buildings. “Because railroad land near the depot, located at Las Posas, was too expensive,” wrote Carroll, the buildings were instead moved to “what is now the north side of Mission Road, in the block west of Pico.”
The four buildings were moved using ropes and chains attached to horses and mules, Haskins said.
While such an operation might be unusual, it was by no means rare. In his book, “Vignettes of San Marcos History,” Haskins wrote that early San Marcos settlers “routinely moved buildings from one location to another.”
Carroll's book identifies the four buildings that were relocated: One was a land office operated by Gruendyke's partner, Jacobs, that had a sign reading: “A large list of improved and unimproved lands for sale – no water tax.” East of Jacobs' office on Mission was the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Gailey. The next building over was the Holmes Cottage Cafe, followed by a store owned by A. McCall.
In 1906, according to “Vignettes of San Marcos History,” the railroad depot was “dragged by steam engine to Pico Road across Mission from the 'new' town of San Marcos.” Thus was formed what became the historic heart of the future city.
In 1956, water from the Colorado River ensured a steady supply. On Jan. 15, 1963, on a vote of 431 to 145, San Marcos became the county's 13th city, hours after Vista. - Vincent Nicholas Rossi, The San Diego Union Tribune
HIGH-SPEED RAIL IDEA GAINS MOMENTUM
CHEYENNE, WY -- Cheyenne to Denver by rail in an hour? High-speed rail across Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park?
Both are possibilities if the RangerXpress, the train planned to ply the proposed Rocky Mountain High Speed Rail Corridor, becomes a reality.
Though the idea has been kicking around for years, it seems to finally be gathering steam, and Wyoming officials this spring approved the ante that will buy a place at the table.
The Wyoming Legislature passed a supplementary budget request for $300,000 to help fund a study of the possibility of a Rocky Mountain High Speed Rail Corridor, which would stretch from Casper, Wyoming, to Belen, New Mexico. The cities of Casper and Cheyenne each gave $50,000.
The money will be pooled with funds collected in Colorado and New Mexico to help pay for a study of the proposed route. Congress requires local matching funds before it will approve a designated High Speed Rail Corridor.
"The only people in the United States that have local funding to study the 11th High Speed Rail Corridor is us," said Bob Briggs, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority. "(And) we think we're in a great position to get the designation once the study is completed."
Congress originally approved funds for 11 High Speed Rail Corridors, and 10 have been created. The designation would bring the chance for more federal money to help complete a commuter rail project.
The Rocky Mountain Rail Authority, the quasi-governmental organization overseeing the effort, is preparing to begin a feasibility study of its five-phase plan to complete the commuter rail system in August. The study will take six months, and designation of the rail corridor could come in 2008. If that happens, Colorado voters will be asked to tax themselves to help pay for the project.
If all goes according to plan, a commuter rail linking Belen and Casper could be a reality by 2016.
It's a future that could include commuters and travelers zipping along the foot of the Rockies at speeds of up to 125 mph while reading, studying, chatting or otherwise not stressing over congestion, traffic jams or crazy drivers on Interstate 25.
The currently proposed route through Colorado would pass through Trinidad, Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver before splitting to go to Boulder and Greeley. The main lines would rejoin in Fort Collins, then run north through Cheyenne and on up to Casper on Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks.
Only six stops would separate Cheyenne and Denver via either northern Colorado route, according to current plans. A spur would connect Denver to Denver International Airport, and the line also has been proposed to travel west over the Rockies through Colorado's ski country, and perhaps even to Salt Lake City.
The system's hub would be Denver's historic Union Station.
If the route were designated a high-speed corridor, by law, train speed must average 90 mph over 70 percent of its route. That would mean travel to Denver from Cheyenne would take an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters, Briggs said.
But the trains could go faster, and whether they do may depend on Wyoming.
When Briggs originally approached the state, officials said they would like the train to go to Yellowstone. If they decide to do that, he said, they may invest the extra money to build high-speed rail that could travel at 125 mph all the way across Wyoming.
And if Wyoming invested in these speeds, Colorado would join, he said.
This type of train, he said, could probably deliver Cheyenne residents to Denver in an hour, and if built, he said, would make the Front Range the only rail system in the United States that could reach such speeds.
Wyoming had compelling reasons to get involved this year, said Randy Bruns, CEO of Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County.
"Decisions are going to get made about rail that will affect us," Bruns said.
Rerouting freight trains to accommodate passenger trains in Colorado will affect shipments of Wyoming coal, he said, so it was essential that Wyoming have a voice.
But passenger rail could well be in Wyoming's best interests as well, he said. It ties Wyoming to the Front Range economy and could boost Wyoming business as a result.
And Wyomingites seem to want it very much, he said.
"I have been amazed at how positive everybody has been," he said. "People are talking about it like, 'That'd be so good and so necessary.' " - The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette
AMTRAK TRAIN KILLS MAN IN HAYWARD, CALIFORNIA
HAYWARD, CA -- An unidentified man was hit and killed by an Amtrak train at 10:47 hours Friday on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks near Harder Road and Huntwood Avenue, police said.
The train, Amtrak's Pacific Coast Starlight, was traveling from Oakland toward San Jose at 79 mph through a eucalyptus grove in a residential area that is unfenced, making it relatively easy for people to go onto the tracks.
A report from Hayward police Lt. Gary Branson said the train engineer saw a young man walking on the tracks about 500 feet ahead, with his back to the train. The engineer sounded the horn, then saw the man turn around as if acknowledging the approaching train.
The report said the man then stopped and put his chin against his chest and waited for the train. The engineer applied emergency braking but was unable to halt the train in time.
Branson said police had recovered the man's wallet, but it did not contain any identification.
The man was described only as white and in his late teens to mid-20s. Police were unable to say whether the death was a suicide.
Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said the Seattle-to-Los Angeles train, with two engines and 13 cars, was carrying 140 passengers and some 12 crew members at the time of the accident. No injuries aboard the train were reported.
The passengers waited on board for three hours and 16 minutes as investigators surveyed the scene, and the train departed at 13:29 hours. Two Capitol Corridor trains also were delayed.
The area is known for train deaths. There is an at-grade track crossing at least 200 yards south, near the back of Tennyson High School and Sorensdale Park.
"Railroad tracks are not public thoroughfares, except for where it is a marked crossing with signs or signals," Black said.
In February 2005, Celedonia Jasmin Castro, a 14-year-old Tennyson High School student, was struck by a train and killed at that crossing when she ran onto the tracks to push a boy out of the way.
Investigators think Jake Henry, a 13-year-old Hayward boy, committed suicide by standing on the tracks along Huntwood Avenue at West Tennyson Road in July 2005. His mother told The Daily Review, a sister paper of the Oakland Tribune, that he was being treated for depression.
In May 2006, Enoel Ramos Cortez, 42, died when he was run over while lying on the tracks in the same area. It wasn't clear whether he had fallen or was on the tracks for some other reason, Branson said at the time.
"Trains stay in their own environments, and avoiding the tracks means avoiding a fatality," Black said. "We would like to get that message out, because these tragedies are so avoidable."
Union Pacific Railroad police, with assistance from the Hayward Police Department, are investigating Friday's death. Anyone with information about what happened or the identity of the victim is asked to call Union Pacific at (888) 877-7276 or the Hayward Police Department at (510) 293-7000. - Rachel Cohen, The Oakland Tribune
DNR ATTORNEY CLAIMS RAILS AND TRAILS WRITERS WERE 'MAKING IT UP'
KANSAS CITY, MO -- In the spring of 2005, Missouri Attorney Jay Nixon sued the Department of Natural Resources and Union Pacific, claiming DNR Director Doyle Childers did not have the legal authority to allow Union Pacific to dismantle the bridge.
At 09:00 hours Thursday morning, Karen Mitchell from the Attorney General's office presented their case to the Western District Court at the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City.
Mitchell started by explaining the Rails and Trails act created in 1987 which allowed the railroad bridge to be used for other forms of transportation, although not in railroad use. She explained the clauses which make an exception for the MKT Bridge in the Rails to Trails Act and the attorney general's position.
“It creates an unusual situation,” remarked Presiding Judge Harold Lowenstein.
Mitchell agreed and concluded that the attorney general is still within his rights.
During rebuttal, DNR attorney J. Kent Lowry of Jefferson City, MO said, “This is not about a contract breech, it is about breached authority; a contract right only at the very most.”
Judge Joseph Ellis asked Lowry, “Why on earth would they (contract writers) put that paragraph in the agreement?”
Lowry answered Ellis, saying, “Everybody in 1987 just kind of made it up as they went along.”
He also made the court aware of liability issues. “Union Pacific holds all liability for the bridge, the state has nothing.”
Attorney Mary Bonacorsi of St. Louis, representing Union Pacific, continued the liability argument. “The state has no intention to take on liability for this bridge as required by the rails and trails act.” She addressed the court with concerns expressed by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers. She said they were claiming the bridge to be a “hazard to navigation.”
Before she concluded, she stated there was no consistent language in the contract.
Before court adjourned, Mitchell was allowed to respond to the defendant's arguments. She began with the hazardous claims.
“They're (the Corps) not saying that the bridge is about to fall down,” she explained. “Their definition of a hazard (comes into play) if a structure is not in use.” But she reminded the court that the bridge can be used for future transportation use -- which is the reason for the MKT exception in the contract created in 1987.
She acknowledged that the situation holds two federal overlays and that more communication needs to be delivered to the Coast Guard.
After court adjourned, Save the Bridge Coalition Chairman Paula Shannon and Boonville City Counselor Megan McGuire said they were pleased with the appeal.
“Time is on our side,” said Shannon. “The longer it takes for their decision, the longer we have our bridge.”
“I thought it went very well especially with the questions the judges asked,” said McGuire. “That told me they understood everything.
Both sides now await a response from the three judge panel which could take anywhere from six weeks to possibly six months. - Emily Getzloff, Boonville Daily News
RAIL-OVER BUDGET OFF TRACK: PROJECT TO ELEVATE TRAINS OVER ROAD WILL COST $500,000 MORE THAN EXPECTED
Olathe, Kansas project manager Phil Estes wishes he had a crystal ball when it came to the city’s efforts to elevate nearly 8,000 feet of railroad tracks though downtown.
Then, he said, he might have foreseen the $500,000 setback that was dealt to the $39 million project this week.
“When the design was under way we knew we were going to do some excavations very, very near to the track,” Estes said. “We had to ask, ‘How much of the slope can we dig out before we have the train roll over?’”
That’s required crews to dig deep trenches near the current railroad tracks to lay a foundation for the new elevated bridge that will carry trains though downtown, without causing traffic delays.
And it’s been expensive.
The work resulted in the additional costs approved by the council on Tuesday. It will cover construction of a retaining wall along the active railroad tracks as construction crews continue prepare the ground for the bridge that will elevate the tracks over four intersections on the east side of downtown.
Originally, city officials and engineers did not think a retaining wall was needed and Estes said he decided to leave it out of the original plans and estimates that went out for bidding.
But as crews began digging the trenches to lay the base of the future railroad bridge, it was decided that the extra retention would be needed after all.
The soil, engineers found, was not stable enough to support the construction trench and the 40 trains a day that fly by the site where crews are working.
“It was dangerous to the people in the trench and dangerous to the railroad,” Estes said.
Council members were not pleased with price increase, but approved the change to keep the project on track.
Councilman Bob Montgomery said that having the price increase midway though the project reflected a serious flaw in the city’s ability to estimate capital-project costs. In light of several other major price increases in the past, Montgomery asked City Auditor John Curran to review how Olathe’s engineers and project manager estimate what a major city project will cost.
“You may not be able to predict everything there is in a project, but there are a lot of those costs we need to be much more specific on so we don’t have to cut future projects,” Montgomery said. “Staff is aware that the council is concerned and we are looking for a way to find a better method.”
At one point in Tuesday’s meeting, Councilwoman Marge Vogt even asked if it were possible to eliminate price increases, also called change orders, for future projects.
Estes said eliminating all change orders could significantly increase the cost of some major improvements in the long run.
“I think that is the wrong attitude for all public officials,” Estes said. “If you said, ‘What ever we do, we do not want any change orders.’ It would double the cost of engineering and add 20 percent onto construction costs.”
The change orders, even ones as large as the one on Tuesday, allow for some flexibility in projects to save money at times, he said. With the railroad, it was a matter of finding out how much the soil could hold, which engineers couldn’t know until crews started digging on the site.
But Montgomery said he still would have preferred to have the retaining wall included in the original price.
The added retaining wall will not delay construction and, as long as weather remains calm this summer, crews will continue their work without much delay.
“I still have great concerns for this project,” Estes said. “There are many things that have to come together, but I have every reason to believe that we should see train running on the new track either before or after the New Year.” - Mike Ekey, The Kansas City Star
RAILROAD CROSSINGS DISCUSSED: UNION PACIFIC CITES NEED FOR 28 MORE IN PINAL COUNTY; SAFETY FEARS VOICED
PINAL COUNTY, AZ -- Concerns over a proposed 28 new rail crossings throughout Pinal County, Arizona have officials worried about traffic safety and congestion.
The Arizona Corporation Commission, which has jurisdiction over railroad safety matters, hosted a Town Hall meeting Thursday at Santa Cruz Valley Union High School in Eloy. The public was able to speak and raise concerns about the proposed crossings that will be required because of Union Pacific's plans to add a second track.
Commissioner Kris Mayes said that because of rapid growth in Pinal County, traffic count studies are needed to determine where overpasses and underpasses are necessary.
"What we're finding is a number of communities have very real concerns with the fact that Union Pacific is only proposing to build lights and gates at the crossings," Mayes said. "There are communities that need underpasses or overpasses at certain crossings, and the commission thinks Union Pacific has a duty to listen to concerns of the public.
"Casa Grande will clearly need underpasses and overpasses at some point, and the question for the commission is whether to order the railroad to put in underpasses and overpasses."
However, in a letter to Mayes, Union Pacific spokesman Chris Peterson said the company proposed only at-grade crossings for 50 new crossings in Arizona.
"Safety at these already existing at-grade crossings will be enhanced by the improvements to be undertaken in connection with the double-track project," Peterson wrote. "For example, all public crossings affected either are or will be improved according to the most currently accepted standards in the industry for at-grade crossing safety. Every public crossing will have gates and lights. Circuitry will be upgraded for every crossing in Arizona to be double-tracked, at a total anticipated cost of $15.9 million. Where needed, additional concrete crossing surfaces will be installed, at a total anticipated cost of $2.5 million."
Union Pacific officials have told cities throughout Pinal County the company will pay for 5 percent of the road improvements -- the other 95 percent should be paid by the cities.
Mayes, and other area elected officials present at the meeting, expressed frustration about the railroad company not bearing more of the improvement costs.
"The railroad has traditionally attempted to require cities, towns and counties to pay 95 percent of the expense related to building these crossings, where underpasses or overpasses can be very expensive. I've always thought it was completely unfair that taxpayers have to foot that bill," she said. "It makes no sense, quite frankly. Especially in this situation, where we are talking about a new track that will greatly benefit the railroad."
Union Pacific is proposing 14 railroad crossings in Casa Grande; six in Eloy; two each in Picacho and Red Rock; and four in Maricopa.
Casa Grande Mayor Chuck Walton said that with 30,000 homes expected to be built south of the tracks, access by police and fire personnel could be a problem.
Casa Grande Administrative Services Director Scott Barber said the need for overpasses and underpasses will just increase in the coming years.
"In the next one to three years, some overpasses will be needed. In three to five years, definitely overpasses will be needed, and in five to 10 years we will be need underpasses and overpasses at all these crossings," Barber said.
Eloy Mayor Byron Jackson said three streets will need an overpass or underpass. He said the crossing along Main Street was the most needed right now.
Mayes stressed the need for all entities involved to work together to find the best possible solution.
"It's important to slow this train down and take into consideration the needs of the community, and to see where overpasses and underpasses are needed. Once the track is laid down it's much more expensive to do that after the fact.
"All of these places are seeing huge growth and it's reasonable to think that all the stops in Pinal County may need an overpass or underpass. This has been an interesting and eye-opening process. Our next step will be to get data and traffic counts from the cities and see what the numbers are." - Kris Walkinshaw, Casa Grande Valley Newspapers
TRANSIT NEWS
RAIL MIGHT ONE DAY LINK RIO GRANDE VALLEY CITIES
AUSTIN, TX -- The string of cities that make up the Rio Grande Valley may one day be linked by commuter rail that would bring public transportation to the border region's expanding slate of universities, shopping centers, and tourist spots.
State Rep. Armando Martinez, D-Weslaco, who is sponsoring a bill for the rail, said he got the idea after riding on Dallas's light rail.
"I started thinking about the doctors' visits for people without cars, the congestion on freeways, the fact that we can no longer expand our highway system in the Valley," he said.
The Valley could be the next in a list of places that are building or have recently built commuter rail systems.
The bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen; Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, and Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, allows counties to create rail districts to find funding for light rail projects.
While the bill uses the term "light rail," Martinez's vision is actually for a traditional, and less expensive, rail. Light rail refers to street level cars that tend to run on overhead electric lines and make frequent starts and stops within city limits. Martinez wants passenger trains running on existing freight track that parallels U.S. 83 east and west across the Valley.
The bill does not call for any state funding or allow municipalities to tax for the rail without voter approval.
Pat Carlson, of Texas Eagle Forum, was the only person to testify against the bill during a March 27 hearing. She said she opposed creating new government "bureaucracies" and wondered whether there would be questions of eminent domain to acquire rights of way for the rail.
"As a Texan reading this bill ... it's a bureaucracy that's being given a lot of authority," she said.
It was voted unanimously out of the House Transportation Committee earlier this month. A spokeswoman for McAllen Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa said Hinojosa plans to carry the bill in the Senate.
"It allows us to get this going, to provide the counties with an alternative means of transportation," Martinez said. "There is so much vision in the Valley for future progress."
Gonzales said she and other officials in Hidalgo County saw strong need for the idea.
Rush hour traffic in McAllen, population 106,000, is often at a standstill, she said, and from her district office window she sees more and more people waiting to board the bus.
There is little in the way of public transportation between Valley cities.
"We're growing so fast, with more jobs, more companies coming in," she said. "We also have many people who do not have a vehicle."
She added that the thousands of Mexicans who cross to shop, visit, or conduct business each day would a way of getting around that doesn't involve driving in a foreign country.
Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said the Valley's roadways were not going to be enough for its population growth.
About 1.4 million people are expected to be living in the Valley by 2010, a 40 percent increase since the 2000 Census.
"We just can't sit idly ... This is the type of project we need to start planning for," Salinas said.
The New Mexico Rail Runner Express debuted last July and now averages about 2,000 riders a day.
When finished, the $393 million project is slated to run from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.
Seattle is seeking $750 million in federal grants to expand its light rail line from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington.
Dallas is planning a $2.5 billion expansion of its light rail system that will double its size. Usage went from 1.4 million passengers in 1996 to 17.5 million in 2005, making it the fifth largest light rail system after Los Angeles, Newark, NJ, San Diego and Portland, OR.
In the middle of the state, efforts are under way for a $612 million, 112-mile, commuter rail running from Georgetown to San Antonio.
Expansion of Houston's light rail line, which now runs along one major street, has been stymied by political opposition about where to place the new track.
Sid Covington, chairman of the board of the Austin-San Antonio Intermunicipal Commuter Rail District, said that project would use existing Union Pacific track.
While service isn't targeted to begin for that rail until 2011 or 2012, he said rail projects can be completed quickly.
"The New Mexico Rail Runner System went from the governor of New Mexico standing up and announcing he wanted commuter rail in two years, and they had it up and running in two years," he said. "If the political will is there, if funding is there, it can happen very quickly."
"There's this kind of concept you can't get Texans out of their cars," he said, "But what I'm seeing and what statistics are showing is that people are looking for alternative ways of traveling. Particularly as gas prices are going up." - Lynn Brezosky, The Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News
ZONING BOARD: NO TO MESA RAIL VILLAGE
MESA, AZ -- Mesa's first attempt at redevelopment to take advantage of light rail took an unexpected turn off track when the Planning and Zoning Board voted to recommend that the City Council reject zoning for the project.
In doing so, the board rejected the advice of developers brought in by the city in January for advice on taking advantage of light rail. They warned planners then not to get hung up on high residential densities or the number of parking spaces when considering redevelopment projects. Their advice: don't fear change.
"Please don't think of density as a four-letter word," Reid Butler, with Butler Housing Company, told the crowd of developers and investors. "I personally think sprawl is a four-letter word.
"But a shortage of parking spaces was among the reasons board members cited Thursday for voting to recommend that the City Council reject the first town house project aimed at capitalizing on Mesa's one-mile stretch of light rail along West Main Street.
Board members said they like the concept of West Main Station Village, but are worried the project was being rushed through the zoning process without enough attention to some details.
Members cited parking, the impact on the nearby neighborhood and the abandonment of part of a nearby street, Standage. The project features two-car garages for 57 townhouses and up to three parking spaces for each of 13 storefront business, located on the ground floor.
"I'm excited and supportive of this type of design," said board member Pat Esparza, who voted against the development. "I have some concern about the parking and the two-car design."
Residents said they want redevelopment, citing prostitution and drug dealing in the area, but also were concerned about the lack of parking or the abandonment of Standage.
Board chairman Rich Adams and board member Frank Mizner, a former Mesa planning director, said they doubt residents would walk the half-mile to the Metro light rail line, scheduled to end at Main Street and Sycamore during the summer, although there is a bus stop in front of the proposed project site.
Mizner also said he believes there needs to be more of a buffer zone between the townhouses and the Pepper Place neighborhood to the south.
The board's 3-2 vote to recommend denial disappointed Dan Randall, the property's owner. Randall and architect Fred Woods said they plan to still seek approval from the City Council, despite the board's recommendation.
In an associated case, the board voted unanimously to support an amendment to Mesa's General Plan to allow a higher density of residential development on the site.
Randall said the city's planning department guided him to seek approval for the project, making the board's vote especially surprising.
Planners supported the general plan amendment but sought a continuance on the zoning request, a move the developers believe would doom the project.
"We feel we are ready to go," Woods said. "This is exactly what West Main Street needs."
Woods said Randall has $12 million in financing arranged to build the project, which features a duplication of a ramada featured on the city's original train station, which opened in the 1930s and burned to the ground in the 1980s.
For the project to succeed, it's vital that the townhouses are available for sale when the 20-mile Metro line opens in December 2008, Woods said.
Randall said the townhouses would cost $250,000 to $300,000. They are aimed at commuters who would use the light rail. - Jim Walsh, The Arizona Republic
A RAIL LINE DRIVES DEVELOPMENT IN UTAH
Photo here:
[graphics8.nytimes.com]
Caption reads: Transit Access -- Keith Snarr helped negotiate a deal between Murray City, a Salt Lake City suburb, and Hamlet Homes to build Birkhill at Fireclay. (Tom Smart/The New York Times)
MURRAY CITY, UT -- Two years ago, this Salt Lake City suburb began collaborating with a local developer to turn industrial land into a neighborhood of town homes, condominiums and offices. Now the project, known as Birkhill at Fireclay, is finally being built.
The 30-acre $140 million development by Hamlet Homes, one of this region’s largest builders, will have 420 units of housing and 200,000 square feet of retail and office space; the company expects to begin construction in a month. The idea is to give homeowners easier access to their jobs or to stores.
Murray City and Hamlet Homes are taking advantage of growing buyer interest in living and working near the regional TRAX light rail system, which has operated in the Salt Lake Valley since 1999. The Murray North station, one of three TRAX stops in Murray City -- population, 50,000 -- serves as the centerpiece of Birkhill at Fireclay.
“People can go where they want and won’t have to get in a car,” said Keith Snarr, the director of Murray City’s economic development office, who helped negotiate the agreement with Hamlet Homes. “It may not be the lifestyle for everybody, but there are a lot of people around here now that understand what it means to be urban and find this attractive.”
Salt Lake City and its closest suburbs built the $520 million, 19-mile, 23-station TRAX system, which carries more than 55,000 riders a day, well ahead of ridership projections. Voters have also repeatedly passed sales tax increases, including one approved last November, to spend $2.5 billion more in the next decade to complete 26 additional miles of light rail, 88 miles of heavy commuter rail line and nearly 40 extra station stops. The only American metropolitan area that is building more regional rapid transit capacity is Denver, which is constructing a 151-mile system.
Birkhill at Fireclay is the first development in a 97-acre district that Murray City has established around the Murray North station. And it is one of a growing number of transit-oriented developments in the Wasatch Front, an urban area with a population of more than two million that is looking for new ways to get around — less by car, and especially by rail. A host of other metropolitan regions, among them Minneapolis, Denver, Dallas, Sacramento, St. Louis, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and Portland, OR, have invested billions of dollars over the last decade to pursue the same idea.
Mr. Snarr says he is convinced that the confluence of fast-rising energy and land costs, static incomes and the region’s swift population growth are producing the market conditions for a successful new neighborhood on land along Fireclay Avenue that has served as his city’s industrial backyard.
The existing and planned rail stations offer developers dozens of opportunities to design and build transit-focused home and business districts at the center of the Salt Lake Valley’s towns and cities.
“The basic reason that transit-oriented development is working in Utah and other places is largely demographic,” said Gloria Ohland, vice president for communications at Reconnecting America, a national transit research group based in Oakland, CA.
“American households are older, smaller and more diverse,” Ms. Ohland said. “Singles are 41 percent of the population. People who are single and couples that have no children -- those are the people who gravitate to cities.”
Even with a new tide of people heading their way, transit-focused builders say there are plenty of impediments. Assembling parcels large enough to be attractive requires considerable work in city and town centers. It took Hamlet Homes more than two years to amass the 30 acres for Birkhill at Fireclay.
And in most communities, including Murray City, the zoning regulations that directed homes and businesses to be spread far apart have to be rewritten. Murray City passed a transit development ordinance in 2005 that allows narrower streets, encourages trees and pocket parks, and is designed to produce a new district that is not too densely built, but also won’t look or feel anything like a typical single-use suburban subdivision.
Photo here:
[www.nytimes.com]
Michael Brodsky, the chairman of Hamlet Homes, which he founded in 1995, said the market response has compensated for the difficulties involved in developing around the Salt Lake region’s transit stops. Along with Birkhill at Fireclay, the company is constructing two more housing and business developments near the TRAX stations immediately north and south of the Murray North stop.
The first is Inverness Square, a $24 million, 120-unit project a half-mile from the 53rd South TRAX station. The development, started in 2005, is nearly completed, and the two- and three-bedroom town houses, with prices starting at around $170,000, are sold out, Mr. Brodsky said.
Last October, the company began developing Waverly Station, on 10 acres alongside the Meadowbrook TRAX station. The $42 million project includes 47 condos, 131 town homes and 14,000 square feet of retail and office space. Hamlet just completed the first phase -- 41 two- and three-bedroom town homes of 1,500 to 1,900 square feet. All have been sold, Mr. Brodsky said.
“The fact that we are building close to the light rail station is an important amenity,” he said. “It is part of the package that also includes a combination of affordability and accessibility to a more urban setting.”
Mary Ann Downs, 22, an interior designer, moved into her $193,000 three-bedroom home at Waverly Station in February. Ms. Downs is happy to be near the TRAX system -- she plans to use it this spring when the light rail connects to the new commuter line -- and she also likes her neighbors.
One of them is David Bailey, 28, who works for a jewelry dealer. He bought a two-bedroom home for $205,000. He said access to the TRAX line, which he rides to basketball and football games downtown, played a part in his decision to buy. “I really feel as gas prices go up, homes near public transportation will increase in value,” he said.
Thirteen miles north of Salt Lake City, CenterCal Properties just closed on a $2.13 million purchase of 70 acres near the new commuter rail station in Farmington, a bedroom community of 14,000 residents and one of nine stops on a 44-mile, $611 million line to Pleasant View that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2008.
CenterCal, based in Portland, OR, earned a national reputation in transit-oriented design with its Gresham Station, a 130-acre, $400 million, mixed-use district that it began in 1999 along the MAX light rail line east of Portland.
Fred Bruning, the company’s president, said CenterCal planned to bring the same principles of compact, transit-focused design to its new project, called Station Park, which will be just across the Farmington rail station’s parking lot. It will consist of 700,000 square feet of retailing, 300,000 square feet of office space and 250 residential units in rental apartments and town homes.
A rendering of Station Park on the company’s Web site (centercal.com) shows a district designed with three-story buildings, with shops on the ground floor and offices and homes on the floors above, surrounding a large public square with a fountain, broad sidewalks and a garden. The project’s design is a mix of European urbanism and outdoor suburban lifestyle malls.
“Compared to what is already there in Farmington, this is a lot of density,” Mr. Bruning said. “You have to take it in steps and develop density as the market becomes available. We design our projects in such a way that density can increase over time. If it’s designed well, it has a shelf life for decades.”
The design is intended to mimic urban spaces in which buildings change uses -- open spaces can be filled, or buildings can become open space.
Mr. Snarr, Murray City’s development director, has similar plans for the Birkhill at Fireclay, which is priced comparably with the Waverly Station development, and for other projects he is recruiting for the city’s transit-oriented district.
“People want to live in a place that’s a little more cosmopolitan,” he said. “They gain a lot. They save money on gas and housing costs. They reduce their stress because they don’t have to drive as much. And they get a chance to know their neighbors. It adds up for me.” - Keith Schneider, The New York Times
THE END
| Subject | Written By | Date/Time (PST) |
|---|---|---|
 Railroad Newsline for Monday, 04/23/07 |
Larry W. Grant | 04-23-2007 - 00:00 |