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Railroad Newsline for Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952-2006

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RAIL NEWS

GOLDEN SPIKE MOVING AHEAD

NORTH PLATTE, NE -- The location for a North Platte railroad observatory and monument has been chosen.

The 90-foot-tall Golden Spike tower will promote the city's railroad heritage and provide a panoramic view of the rail yard. Promoters say the tower could attract 50,000 visitors a year.

Originally, the tower was to be built at a site west of the current Union Pacific observation platform on railroad property. But that fell through because of a dispute over a lease agreement between Union Pacific Railroad and the US Department of Agriculture.

The new location will be just north of the yard at what is now the home of Hideo and Helen Kamino. The Kaminos sold their house, land and outbuildings for $250,000 to the Golden Spike Tower and Visitors Center. - The Associated Press, KHGI/KWNB/WSWS, Nebraska TV

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TRAIN-BASED CARGO TRANSPORT GROWING

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- Buy a winter coat made in China, and chances are good it was shipped on a freighter to Los Angeles, loaded on a train for Chicago, then trucked to Indianapolis.

Now Indianapolis' logistic experts are trying to figure out how to get those coats and plenty of other railroad freight to come directly here instead of passing through Chicago.

Hundreds and possibly thousands of new logistics jobs could emerge if they succeed.
Quieted years ago by heavy trucks, freight railroads finally are roaring again, hauling ocean-going containers full of Asian imports to inland cities.

This year alone, railroads have committed $8 billion for track and yard upgrades, one of the biggest expenditures since World War II. The trend already has spilled into Indiana.

Indianapolis developer Duke Realty's new AllPoints Midwest industrial park, located just west of Indianapolis, could get a special truck road. Trucks on it would haul extra-heavy containers from the nearby CSX Avon railyard.

And in Northwest Indiana, CSX and Norfolk Southern, the largest Eastern railroads, are separately scouting sites for new rail yards.

Known as intermodal terminals, these new yards would have cranes able to quickly lift containers from rail cars and stack the containers on highway trailers pulled by big cargo trucks.

Indianapolis for years has discussed cargo logistics as a growth industry. While warehouses have proliferated in the area in recent years, the region has remained mostly reliant on trucks. It never has quite latched on to the railroad boom.

"Indiana has been a little bit slow to embrace the rail renaissance," said William Friedman, railroad expert at Duke Realty.

CSX's Avon yard already operates an intermodal facility, Friedman noted, capable of lifting about 40,000 containers a year.

It's one of the nation's 275 intermodal terminals, and tends to be on the small side. The nation's heavyweight, the Chicago area, has 20 intermodal terminals with a total yearly lift capacity of 13 million containers.

Indianapolis is the second-largest destination for that Chicago container freight, after Chicago itself. In past years, being close to the Chicago yards was a decided cost advantage in that shipping through Chicago was closer than, say, going through St. Louis.

In an era when container traffic is proliferating, though, Chicago accounts for 40 percent of the nation's intermodal container shipments, which can mean getting a container out of a congested Chicago railyard can take most of two days.

Indianapolis could get its own intermodal train directly from a West Coast port if there were enough customers here to justify the cost of creating a train for just one city.

The Ports of Indiana developed the Lake Michigan seaport at Portage in 1970 and barge ports on the Ohio River in 1976 at Mount Vernon and 1985 at Jeffersonville. It now is turning its attention to cultivating what it calls inland ports purely for rail and truck lines.

Ports spokesman Jody Peacock said discussions have been under way to identify companies throughout the state that could make use of a new intermodal terminal if it were available.

"This is sort of the next evolution for the ports. We developed the facilities on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River. Now we're looking at our fourth port," Peacock said.

"You look at the congestion on the highways, the shortage of truck drivers. We think there are opportunities here and all over the state."

So far, though, Indiana hasn't seen much railroad muscle. Norfolk Southern is creating a $250 million container rail service running from its seaport at Norfolk, Va., to Columbus, Ohio. Now Duke is developing an industrial park alongside the area where the Columbus intermodal terminal will be built.

And in the Southeast, the BNSF Railway Company is moving ahead with a $400 million container corridor connecting the Southwest and Southeastern states. - Ted Evanoff, The Indianapolis Star

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AG GROUPS AIM FOR EMINENT DOMAIN REFORMS

GILLETTE, WY -- The Wyoming Stock Growers and Wool Growers associations have agreed to lobby for six specific changes to Wyoming's eminent domain laws in order to protect agriculture interests amid booming energy development.

The recommendations are a country mile away from a compromise bill that agriculture leaders drafted with the oil and gas industry last month, representing a stark contrast on the issues of damage payments, right to a jury trial and a "public benefit" test for eminent domain, to name a few.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said the compromise bill submitted to a joint legislative committee last month represented what he and other leadership members believed would be politically palatable in the upcoming legislative session. The joint resolutions adopted by the associations this week represent the groups' "ideal" desires for eminent domain reform, he said.

"Ideally, these are what we'd like, and we are going to work through any number of mechanisms to get what we can," Magagna said. "Our goal will be to get, to some degree, every one of those recommendations. But we're going to have to make some judgment calls and some strategy calls along the way."
In a general sense, eminent domain involves the taking of land deemed necessary for the public good, such as a public-works project or, in this case, energy development.

Magagna admitted he was in a bit of hot water with some of the membership this week for what they believed was too much of a compromise with the energy industry on draft legislation. But agriculture and industry did find some common ground in the effort, Magagna said, such as a "good-faith" negotiation requirement, advance notice to landowners and reclamation.

"Clearly, there are areas we are not going to find common ground with industry," Magagna said.

Chief among those areas are the agriculture community's wish to gain the same rights as federal and state agencies in negotiating time-limited easements rather than in perpetuity. The stock- and wool-growers also agreed they want a "public benefit" test to determine whether an industrial project should be allowed to invoke the powers of eminent domain, "which should not include minimizing corporate cost or streamlining permitting," according to the joint resolution.

The latter is a point that the oil and gas industry has argued against.

Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said he expected that the membership of the Stock Growers and Wool Growers associations would want eminent domain reforms to go much further than what is in the compromise draft.

"And I'm not surprised, because again you've got just a few people screaming," Hinchey said, suggesting that the actual number of people in favor of reforming Wyoming's eminent domain laws is very small.

Hinchey said eminent domain isn't just a tool of the oil and gas industry. It's also used by municipalities, telecommunication companies, state agencies, counties, sewer districts, water conservation districts, mining companies, railroads, pipelines, utilities and hospital boards.

Eminent domain is most commonly used in Wyoming by the Department of Transportation to create public rights-of-way on highways and roads.

"I don't think anyone is trying to abuse it," said Hinchey. "I think our companies and municipalities do a good job."

Hinchey and others opposed to major reformations often tout the "squeaky wheel" theory behind the recent push for eminent domain. Even if that's true, folks such as Ogden Driskill argue that the issue of private property rights ought not be marginalized.

"Eminent domain is just an incredibly personal issue to ranchers because it can be life or death," said Driskill, who serves as the Stock Growers Association's regional vice president for Northeast Wyoming.

Driskill said there are few of his ranching friends who will likely be crossed by the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad. Unlike pipelines that can buried, or power lines strung overhead, a railroad is extremely disruptive to agricultural operations. Driskill said the prospect of being forced to accept a railroad has a tremendous impact on his ranching friends.

"That's leaving them with having to decide whether or not to keep ranching," Driskill said. "I'm a big believer that there's a public good for those things and they need to happen. But sometimes it needs to happen at a higher cost." - Dustin Bleizeffer, The Casper Star-Tribune

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CROWDS TURN OUT FOR KCSR'S HOLIDAY EXPRESS, DESPITE FRIGID TEMPERATURES

The temperature dipped down to ten degrees Fahrenheit Thursday night in Pittsburg, Kansas where the Kansas City Southern Railway's 2006 Holiday Express greeted 337 visitors.

After the December 1 release of the KCS News, the train saw 2,140 visitors in DeQuincy, LA, 2,170 in DeRidder, LA, 1,377 in Vicksburg, MS, 2,127 in Heavener, OK, 1,545 in Stilwell, OK and 2,188 in Noel, MO for a grand total for stops to date of 26,066 visitors.

Friday night, the train will greet visitors in Amsterdam, MO.

Remaining stops include:

· Dec. 9, 16:00, Grain Valley, MO, Main Street

· Dec. 10, 16:00, Slater, MO, Depot

· Dec. 11, 16:00, Roodhouse, IL, Depot

· Dec. 12, 16:00, Godfrey, IL, Pearl Street

· Dec. 13, 16:00, Pearl, IL, Main Street

· Dec. 14, 16:00, Mexico, MO, 326 South Jefferson Street

· Dec. 15, 16:00, Higginsville, MO, Depot

· Dec. 16, 16:00, Blue Springs, MO, Main Street

· Dec. 17, 16:00, Kansas City, MO, Union Station

With the exception of Union Station, the train will remain open until all children in line have an opportunity to visit with Santa Claus. - KCS NEWS

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DICK DORN'S TRAIN-ED EYE

YUBA CITY, CA -- Some people slog through the snow to bag an elk, or score the perfect ski run.

Dick Dorn treks through the winter Sierra Nevada to snap the right train photo.

The 60-year-old retired Yuba City Unified School District teacher is known for the thousands of train photos he's taken.

He has spent years stalking trains across Northern California, including Yuba City, where the 1970s saw plenty of action on rail lines here.

Dorn is an all-around train buff whose property is a veritable rail yard, with several pole signals that were once used to direct train traffic. He has so much stuff that he is building a full-scale train station to store it all.

A tour of the Dorn property is like a trip back to the era when trains were the speediest way to get from point A to point B, leaving upstart automobiles far behind.

But his real forte may be taking pictures of trains with snowy Sierra backdrops.

"They really like my snow pictures," said Dorn. "When people want good snow pictures, they come talk to me, especially snow pictures in California. There's not very many people who like that ultimate challenge, because it's tough, you know. Sometimes it's cold out there, it's not always easy."

In a recent article, Dorn notes the difficulty of keeping the trains running through the average 450 inches of "Sierra cement" that falls on Donner Pass.
Getting to where he can take the shot isn't easy either. But that's part of the attraction for Dorn.

"It's a challenge getting there, it's a challenge taking pictures, it's the challenge of nature," said Dorn.

To get to wilderness sites such as Donner Pass, Dorn recently bought a van and had it jacked up and converted to four-wheel drive.

Once he gets there, he dons winter trekking gear, a heavy down parka and a pack for his cameras. He makes sure he has another person with him if he's going to do any hiking farther than a few hundred yards from his vehicle. Winter in the Sierras is a bad time to be lost and alone.

"You plop the snowshoes on, and away you go. You go out there and hang out and wait for the trains to go by," said Dorn. "Sometimes it's not too bad, and sometimes it's storming like crazy."

While he's never been lost or stuck in an avalanche, Dorn recalls one situation in the 1970s that got a bit hairy when he was searching for the right shot of a rotary snowplow - a kind of giant snow thrower for railroads.

He had wedged himself in a crack in a wall where the snowplow was about to emerge from a snow tunnel near Norden. He figured they were not going to shoot snow at a wall. But they did, burying Dorn up to his shoulders. Then they lowered the plow blades, which came within a foot of his face. He waited for the snowplow to go by, then dug himself out.

"I learned my lesson the first time I took a picture of a rotary snowplow - you better know what's going on," said Dorn.

Going where few others brave to go in winter gets Dorn the kind of shots that make train calendars - winter months, of course - and most recently, the December issue of Trains magazine. He also co-authored a book, "Diesels over Donner," and has been published in a number of magazines.

Dorn's 10-page photo essay in the December 2006 issue of Trains magazine featured not only the Donner Pass trains, but short-line railways like the McCloud Railway, up by Mount Shasta; and the Modoc Northern Railroad.

This year, Dorn's winter photography earned him an award from the Winterail 2006 Hall of Fame.

"It's the biggest gathering of rail fans interested in rail photography in the country," said Dorn. - John Dickey, The Appeal-Democrat (Marysville-Yuba City, CA)

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CPR HOLIDAY TRAIN DRAWS THOUSANDS DURING PORTAGE STOP

PORTAGE, WI -- Thousands flocked to the Oneida Street train depot in Portage Sunday evening to get a glimpse of Santa and bask in the light of some fast-moving lights.

The Canadian Pacific Railway's Holiday train stopped in Portage Sunday evening as part of its Midwest and Canadian tour. Decked in hundreds of thousands of festive lights and hosting popular rock and country musicians, the train will visit about 100 communities and help collect supplies for local food banks in six states and Canada.

"We went to it in Watertown last year," said Mandy Steies of Madison, who attended the event with her husband and three-year-old son, Austin. "It's all our son has talked about for the last year. We were really happy to find that it was coming here to Portage. He just loves it."

In Portage, the event collected food for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. Since 1999, the program has raised more than $2 million and donated almost 1.3 million pounds of food for North American food banks.

All of the food collected stays in local communities.

The tour began in Gurnee, Illinois on Dec. 9 and will end in Weyburn, Saskatchewan on Dec. 17.
"It's about making better holidays," folk-rocker Willy Porter told the crowd after a holiday-themed performance from a modified boxcar. "Let's hope this catches on." - Mary Marie Ames, The Portage Daily Register

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STUDENT SENATE SPEAKS OUT ON DM&E

WINONA, MN -- The Rochester community has been battling the DM&E expansion for eight years and now a Minnesota college's student government is speaking out against the project.

The Winona State Student Senate voted to oppose DM&E's proposed expansion along with its 2.3 billion dollar loan from the Federal Railroad Administration.

University Senate members say that students have always disliked the trains that come through the middle of campus.

And with residence halls and student apartments that are one block away from the tracks they say the safety of the railroad is their major concern.

"It would be just an inconvenience just to deal with the trains going through the campus. That and the safety issue that has been brought up so many times and the safety record with regards to derailments," said WSU Senator DJ Danielson.

"We are not exactly against DM&E, but if they are going to come out in their current state, then this is not the way they should do it," said WSU Senator Jason Bauman.

The student senators say the next step is to increase awareness about the issue and to try and work with the Rochester Coalition and Mayo Clinic. - KTTC-NBCTV, Rochester, MN

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RAILROAD CROSSING CLOSURES WORRY RESIDENTS

SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- Dozens of Utah county homeowners have been put on alert: Their driveways that include private railroad crossings are closing. That has a lot of those people worried. It's the only way in and out of their property.

Many of the crossings haven't been used in years and residents rarely even see a train on the track, but notices were still posted at several homes where people have lived for decades, leaving the residents wondering if their driveway is about to be closed for good.

John Abbott, Homeowner: "It's an event when we see a train come through. Everybody stops and watches it go by because you don't see them too often anymore."

John Abbott has used the small crossing to get in and out of his home for years, but in October a sign was posted saying his crossing would be closed on December 22nd. He's been calling an 800 number for weeks, but got no assurance if his crossing would stay open.

John Abbott, Homeowner: "They are basically there just to take your name and number and give it to the people that make the decisions; and I have yet to hear anything from anyone who makes the decisions."

The railroad sees the small private crossings as a safety hazard and Union Pacific is in the middle of a national campaign to close as many of these crossings as it can. Union Pacific hired an out of state company to post the signs and help get the crossings closed. But while doing this story, we discovered Union Pacific doesn't even own this line anymore. The railroad sold it to UTA in 2002.

Justin Jones, UTA Spokesman: "We are going to take care of this and make sure Union Pacific doesn't close crossings on UTA's railroad."

UTA bought the line and right of way for future expansion of public transportation, but still allows Union Pacific to use it.

Justin Jones, UTA Spokesman: "We are going to work with them to make sure they understand the limits to their contractual agreement with UTA and make sure these crossings stay open."

So now dozens of people wondering if the crossing to their property is going to be closed in another twelve days won't have to worry anymore.

John Abbott, Homeowner: "You don't know how many times I've driven into our driveway the last month and a half and looked at that sign, wondering if I'm not going to be able to get into my driveway anymore. This is just wonderful news."

UTA plans to hold a conference call with Union Pacific tomorrow morning to try and sort all this out. UTA says it could be another 20 or 30 years before they plan to put this particular line into use for public transportation. - Sam Penrod, KSL-NBCTV5, Salt Lake City, UT

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PLANNED RUMBLE OF GRAVEL TRUCKS TRIGGERS GRUMBLES

BREMERTON, WA -- The thought of gravel trucks driving on a quiet residential road west of Kitsap Lake has created concern among some area residents, but they're also expressing a rare appreciation for the developer.

More than 30 people attended a meeting Saturday to discuss the future of 1,700 acres of forestland purchased by Craig Ueland two years ago from Port Blakely Tree Farms. Mark Mauren, who is working on a management plan for the property, said he was glad to have a chance to talk to people in the early stages of planning.

The first significant project on the property probably will be a gravel mine off Leber Lane, which intersects with Northlake Way, Mauren said.

The gravel operation was sited with respect to ecological values elsewhere on the property, he said, "and people will be part of the design work as we go along."

Darcie Totemeier, who lives on Leber, said she was concerned that up to four gravel trucks per hour could be driving back and forth on her quiet road.

"Our kids ride their bikes on the road all the time," Totemeier said. "It has always been a play area."

But Totemeier commended Ueland and Mauren for their willingness to keep the vast majority of the property in forestry and to set aside sensitive areas for protection. She said she appreciated the willingness to discuss neighbors' concerns.

Mauren said he has met with most people who live on the road and is trying to accommodate their concerns. One idea is clearing a plot of land to create a play area. Other ideas include improving the road, installing sidewalks or trails, creating a turn-out for school buses and building a bus shelter. Mauren said the ideas seemed reasonable.

With seven homes on Leber, Mauren said he and Ueland are talking about buying out people who wish to sell now and compensating owners for lost value if they choose to sell later.

One owner seems willing to sell his house and build a better one on view property that Ueland would sell him, Mauren said.

"We want to do justice for people in the neighborhood," he said.

Elizabeth and Steve Delazerda, who live on nearby Grover Lane, said they are concerned about safety in the whole neighborhood, but they also are pleased that the developers are willing to consider their opinions.

Existing gravel operations in Kitsap County are expected to play out in five to seven years, Mauren said. Ueland's operation could take over and supply local gravel needs about that time.

Being close to the Puget Sound & Pacific railroad line, there is some talk that the operation could involve rail shipment, which would use up the gravel quicker. Mauren said the number of years of operation has not yet been estimated.

During Saturday's meeting, Mauren said most of the 1,700 acres is planned for long-term forestry. But commercial logging operations, other than thinning, may be 15 to 20 years away.
Ecologically sensitive areas, including buffers along Chico and Dickerson creeks as well as bogs and wetlands, would remain untouched under a conservation easement.

One area at the north end of the property contains extensive gravel resources, but extracting the material would cause environmental damage, Mauren said. Consequently, Ueland is proposing to donate a conservation easement on the site and claim the value as a tax deduction.

About 120 acres at the south end of the property -- far from any roads -- could be developed in 1-acre or larger lots, Mauren said. But access depends on development of Port Blakely's mixed industrial/residential project, which remains uncertain.

"The land really does dictate the right thing to do out here," he said.

Mauren said he is amazed at the number of people who use the forestland for walking and hunting. The plan is to keep the area open for nonmotorized use and possibly build a new trailhead off David Road, he said. Outside funding could create a new access to the extensive trail system in Green Mountain State Forest, he said.

Parametrix has been hired to develop a sub-basin plan that would consider surface and underground water flows, species that live in the area and historical land use. So-called best management practices would be written to protect resources, including salmon in Chico Creek and shellfish in Chico Bay.

Mauren said he would hold another meeting in February. - Christopher Dunagan, The Kitsap Sun

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BOXCAR PLUNGES OFF RAIL BRIDGE

BUFFALO, NY -- A CSX freight train carrying cans of mixed vegetables - derailed in Cheektowaga on Sunday morning, sending one boxcar tottering over the edge of a railroad bridge and sending a second onto Union Road, authorities reported.

A Charles Lewis photo here:

[www.buffalonews.com]

Cheektowaga police and CSX officials said there were no injuries, but the boxcar that fell dropped about 30 feet onto the street below, breaking open and spilling cans of mixed vegetables onto the street.

The accident closed a section of Union Road between Broadway and Walden Avenue for several hours Sunday while crews cleaned up the roadway.

"Fortunately, this occurred on a Sunday when there is little traffic, and no one was hurt," said Cheektowaga police Capt. James Morath.

Meg Sacks, a spokeswoman for CSX in Jacksonville, Florida, said the 64-car train was heading from Buffalo to Rotterdam, west of Albany. The train was traveling east on the railroad bridge at 08:05 when four boxcars veered off the tracks. Two remained on the bridge, a third was hanging over the edge, and a fourth left the bridge.

Morath said state Department of Transportation officials responded to the scene and were analyzing the street for damage. The derailment also caused damage to the railroad bridge, he said.

Sacks said CSX workers are trying to determine the reason for the derailment by analyzing the tracks, investigating the way the train was being operated, looking at the cars and locomotive and by downloading the train's "black box."

"We do not expect Amtrak service to be affected," said Sacks, who noted two of the four sets of tracks in the area remained open.

"We appreciate the public's patience. We are out there trying to clean this up as safely and as quickly as possible ... " - Vanessa Thomas, The Buffalo News

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TRANSIT NEWS

TOO FEW CHILD SEATS IN VAN HIT BY COMMUTER TRAIN, COPS SAY

ELGIN, IL -- Five children under the age of 5 were in the Dodge Caravan hit by a Metra commuter train Friday, but just two child-safety seats were in the vehicle, Elgin Police said Sunday.

Three people -- two adults and an 8-month-old boy -- were killed in the accident, which happened about 15:00 at the Kimball Street railroad crossing between Illinois 31 and the Fox River.

Neither the Kane County coroner's office nor Elgin Police have officially identified the victims in the crash or released the name of the driver.

The driver, identified by media reports as Epfino Alvarez, was the only adult in the minivan to survive the crash, an Elgin Police source said.

Media reports have identified those killed as sisters Antonia Alejos, 28, and Raquel Martinez, 35, and Martinez's infant son Fernando, all of Carpentersville.

Crossing tests likely

Elgin Police have confirmed that the driver of the minivan had attempted to go around lowered gates at the Kimball Street railroad crossing, based on statements from witnesses.

An investigation into the cause of the accident by the Elgin Police Department Traffic Division, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Illinois Commerce Commission and Metra Police is under way.

There likely will be testing of lights and gates at the crossing, including the lighted signs on State Street (Illinois 31) that prohibit turning east onto Kimball Street when a train is approaching, said Elgin Police spokesman Sean Rafferty.

Law requires booster seats

Rafferty said there were just two child restraint seats in the minivan, but he would not confirm whether the seats were properly fastened or if anyone else in the minivan was wearing seat belts.

According to a January 2004 Illinois law, children ages 8 and younger who weigh as much as 40 pounds or stand 4 feet, 9 inches or shorter must use a booster seat while riding in a car.

Any criminal charges against the driver -- based on going around lowered crossing arms or having unrestrained children in the vehicle -- would come from the Kane County state's attorney's office, Rafferty said. - Janelle Walker, The Courier News, The Sun-Times News Group

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CHANGES DELAY eBART'S ARRIVAL

Inflation and project add-ons are the reasons that eBART's price tag has soared to more than three times the original estimate and that planners now are talking about tackling the project in stages, transportation officials said.

Reactions ranged from dismay and frustration to resignation when backers of the commuter rail system proposed for East County learned this fall that the project initially pegged at roughly $377 million now will cost upward of $1.3 billion.

"This is one of those calls where you tell a person to sit down and take a deep breath," said outgoing Brentwood City, California Councilwoman Annette Beckstrand of the heads-up she received shortly before Bay Area Rapid Transit went public with the news in October.

Beckstrand and other members of the advisory board had been studying eBART as a less-costly way to expand passenger train service in East County and thereby spare commuters the daily purgatory on Highway 4.

The diesel-powered trains are smaller than BART's conventional electric trains, which currently go only as far as the Pittsburg/Bay Point station.

The original plan was to have eBART operate along the 21 miles between Byron and that BART terminus, where passengers could transfer to or from a BART train.

Now, however, BART officials have decided to do the project in two stages, with the first, 12-mile segment ending at the Antioch/Oakley border.

BART director Joel Keller admits he winced when he discovered just how costly this proposed alternative to conventional BART service had become.

Although he knew costs were escalating, "when I saw the numbers, I wanted to take a month-long vacation," said Keller, who represents East County on the agency's board.

But Brad Nix, an Oakley city councilman and member of BART's advisory board, took news of the price increase in stride.

"I always expected it," he said. "This is basic reality. I'm not saying this is the best news in the world, but it's not terrible."

The initial estimate didn't factor in inflation, Nix said, yet land values have shot up in recent years, as has the cost of construction materials.

Concrete and steel now are much more expensive, agreed Bob McCleary, executive director of the funding agency Contra Costa Transportation Authority.

What's more, the project has become considerably more elaborate since it first was conceived, he said.

Even when BART bumped up its estimate in 2004 to $390 million, the vision for eBART didn't include the features that are now part of the package, McCleary said.

At first, eBART stations were to be no-frills structures without platforms or parking stalls, he said. Trains would run along a single track with turnouts for passing.

As BART and East County elected officials fleshed out their ideas of what the mass transit system should look like, however, McCleary said the list of amenities grew longer.

Five stations became six and their design was more complicated. A corporation yard was added to the mix, and instead of one track there were now two.

In addition, Oakley last month asked BART to consider adding a fourth overcrossing or undercrossing to separate the trains from road traffic.

And with each new element, the tab got bigger.

In hindsight, Keller acknowledged that BART might have avoided surprising eBART advisory board members with a 10-figure sum by revising its estimates more often.

But Nix and others said BART simply didn't have the money to do the more detailed engineering needed to come up with more-accurate projections.

For nearly 21/2 years, a state budget crisis brought the preliminary engineering and environmental assessments to a standstill, Smith said.

Only when voters approved a bridge toll increase and the continuation of a countywide half-cent sales tax did BART finally get the money to undertake a detailed analysis of what it would cost to build each facet of the project.

The number-crunching began in April 2005, and by this summer BART engineers had designed enough of the project to have a realistic figure -- one that for the first time took inflation into account, Smith said.

The revelation that, assuming construction starts in 2009, bringing eBART to Byron would run about $1.3 billion-- and that doesn't include the millions more it will cost to buy the Union Pacific tracks needed to operate the trains -- prompted advisory board members at their November meeting to divide the work into two phases as the feasibility study had suggested four years earlier.

The first stretch of eBART track would run from the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station to Empire Avenue and Neroly Road in Oakley. Excluding right-of-way purchases, the segment would cost an estimated $578 million.

Along that corridor, there would be a station allowing passengers to transfer to BART trains, as well as one at Highway 4 and Railroad Avenue in Pittsburg, and a third near the intersection of Highway 4 and Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch.

The second phase would provide service from Oakley to Byron.

Because of the project's now-enormous cost, it has become more uncertain when eBART might materialize.

BART is certain it will receive $424 million from various state and local sources that it has earmarked for eBART, according to senior planner Walter Gonzales.

The project might receive $13 million from another source, but there's no guarantee, he said, and it's too soon to know how much might come from the $20 billion transportation bond California voters approved last month.

BART officials are drafting the environmental assessments that the state and federal government must approve.

Cities here still must decide how to develop the areas surrounding proposed station sites so they will generate enough potential riders to justify building a mass-transit system.

And, after that, the agency's board of directors still must decide whether to proceed with the project before construction can begin.

Until now, BART has been predicting eBART trains would start running in 2010, but now officials concede that target date probably will change.

"It's not impossible, but I think it will be a great challenge," McCleary of the transportation authority said. - Rowena Coetsee, The Contra Costa Times

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LOCAL TRANSIT, OAKLAND A's TEAM UP TO HASH OUT TRAFFIC ISSUES

FREMONT, CA -- Oakland A's owners and Fremont officials, aware that traffic and public transportation top the list of concerns surrounding the planned Cisco Field ballpark, have held joint meetings in recent months with Bay Area transit agency leaders in a quest to solve those issues.

At least three "roundtable meetings" beginning in late August brought leaders from BART, Capitol Corridor, Altamont Commuter Express and AC Transit with officials from the ballclub and the city of Fremont, said David Kutrosay, deputy director of Capitol Corridor, a 15-year-old commuter train system.

All parties acknowledged that the Fremont ballpark site near Pacific Commons shopping center has none of the myriad public transportation options enjoyed by San Francisco's AT&T Park or Oakland's McAfee Coliseum. But a slew of ideas were discussed - from the construction of a new ACE/Capitol Corridor station near the stadium to a monorail line or A's-run shuttles to carry fans from local BART and other train stations, Kutrosay said.

"We talked about access and the level of service that could be provided if the ballpark was built in the next three to five years," he said. "We started looking at how many people we can capture."

"It was about exploring ideas to provide some form of mass transit to the ballpark," Fremont City Manager Fred Diaz said of the meetings. The meetings were called by the city of Fremont, said AC Transit spokesman Clarence Johnson, who declined to specify what was discussed.

"Our understanding was that (the meetings) were to be confidential," Johnson said. "That was the idea that was expressed to us. You might want to talk to folks at the city."

"I don't recall that," Diaz said.

No meetings with transportation agencies have been scheduled in the near future, Diaz said.

But the A's and Fremont officials will meet again next week - their first sit-down since the team announced its land and stadium sponsorship deal with Cisco Systems Inc. last month.

The San Jose tech giant bought the ballpark naming rights for $4 million per year over 30 years, and the A's acquired the rights to control the 143-acre Fremont property. The land adjacent to Interstate 880 and the Pacific Commons shopping center would house a new 30,000- to 34,000-seat ballpark, estimated to cost between $400 million and $500 million.

A's co-owner Lew Wolff also plans to use the site for his ballpark village concept, a mixed-use development of housing, retail, shops, eateries and a hotel adjacent to the stadium. The village is supposed to pay for the ballpark's construction costs.

The stadium and village could mean millions of dollars added to the county's tax coffers, said Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who has led the charge in wooing the A's to Fremont.
As for getting fans to a game in Fremont, Haggerty suggested a monorail or a "people-mover" connecting BART to the ballpark village.

"Yes, there are challenges, but challenges are opportunities for solutions," he said. "In the long run, this will be a destination spot. This will put Fremont in the international spotlight."

BART Director Tom Blalock said he met earlier this year with Keith Wolff, the son of Lew Wolff. "I asked him about access (to Cisco Field) and he told me they were working on using a shuttle to and from the ballpark," Blalock said.

The Fremont BART station is five miles from the proposed stadium, and when the proposed Warm Springs BART station is built, it would be roughly one and a half miles from Cisco Field.

"That will be 'challenging' - that's the politically correct word," Kutrosay said. "But having said that, we've started on finding solutions. I'm cautiously optimistic."

When will the Warm Springs BART station be built?

"How good is your crystal ball? Mine is kind of cloudy," said Blalock, a Fremont resident since 1960 and a former city employee. "When we have the money lined up, we can build it in about five years."

Currently, the Warm Springs station's funding gap is $145 million, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said.

Capitol Corridor and ACE trains stop at one Fremont station, in the city's Centerville neighborhood. A shuttle transporting rail passengers to the proposed ballpark would travel nearly six miles on city streets to Cisco Field.

Preliminary discussions have begun for a possible Capitol Corridor/ACE train station west of Pacific Commons, where Auto Mall Parkway dead-ends by the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

"Ridership on those trains (is) growing," said Blalock, who also sits on the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission that operates service for ACE, the 8-year-old train system based in Stockton.

But Blalock added that to construct a new station at the site, it will take some heavy lifting from the A's or Fremont officials or both. "The city is awfully strapped right now, but they might come up with a grant or some construction money to build facilities there," he said. "We can work together with the A's and Fremont there. At the same time, we're not going to build a station out in the tules if there's no there there yet."

For their part, the A's have been tight-lipped on specifics related to the ballpark since the Cisco deal announcement.

"In all discussions regarding sites for a new ballpark for the A's, Mr. Wolff has been a big proponent of the utilization of public transportation," said A's spokesman Jim Young, to whom Lew Wolff has referred media inquiries since the announcement last month.

But Wolff suggested in an interview with The Argus, a sister-paper of The Daily Review, several months ago that A's owners would be working hard to address the challenges posed by the site.

"There are lots of issues, and we'll deal with all of them," Wolff said in April. "I don't have all the answers this minute."

The A's have not yet filed a development application with city staff, which would kick-start an environmental and planning review process that would take 18 months to two years to complete.

Until then, local excitement over the prospect of Major League Baseball coming to Fremont - and perhaps some nagging questions that the review process might answer - will continue to buzz.

"It's the thing that almost everyone asks me," Blalock said of possible transit concerns. "I tell them, 'I don't know, I haven't seen the solutions yet.'" - Chris De Benedetti, The Daily Review, InsideBayArea.com

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