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Railroad Newsline for Thursday, December 14, 2006

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

THE BNSF SANTA CLAUS EXPRESS BRINGS HOLIDAY CHEERS

Photos here:

[www.bnsf.com]

Last week, Santa Claus and his merry helpers rode the rails and distributed gifts to hundreds of deserving children on board the BNSF Railway Company's Santa Claus Express train in Southern California.

Children were selected for the free rides by the Shriners' Hospital for Crippled Children, Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, Scottish Rite, Comprehensive Childhood Development, Down's Syndrome Association, United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs and the City of Hope Hospital, among other organizations.

BNSF employee volunteers hosted the children and helped Santa Claus deliver gifts and refreshments during each of the how many trips.

About 1,000 invited children and adults rode the special BNSF train consisting of two locomotives and seven passenger cars as it traveled through the Southern California region. - BNSF Today

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SMALL FIRE AT MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

CHICAGO, IL -- A fire in an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry filled part of the main floor with smoke this morning.

Museum spokeswoman Lisa Miner says a short in the electrical system of the track in the Great Train Story exhibit caused the fire about 11:20 Wednesday morning.

Miner says the fire department responded. She says no one was injured and the museum was not evacuated, but that the area of the museum that filled with smoke is being closed for awhile to air it out.

Miner says every other part of the museum, including the popular coal mine, is open.

The Great Train Story was installed four years ago to replace the museum's 60-year-old model railroad. It depicts a journey between Chicago and Seattle.

Miner says the 35-hundred square foot layout of the Great Train Story has more than 14-hundred feet of track. - WBBM, NewsRadio 780, Chicago, IL

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OLD DEPOT IN DEMING UNVEILED AS LEARNING ANNEX

DEMING, NM -- The spring semester will be the start of something new for Deming's train depot, as some students enrolled at the Mimbres Valley Learning Center head a little further along North Country Club Road to attend class.

The more than a century-old building will be celebrated Thursday as the MVLC Depot Annex, which will soon house students of both Western New Mexico University Deming Branch and Doņa Ana Branch Community College. Its grand opening will be from 16:30-17:30 at the annex located at 1313 N. Country Club Rd.

"We are pleased to be able to use it for the spring term. We will keep an eye on enrollments, and look seriously at putting larger classes there," said Dr. Andy Hernandez, WNMU director. "We'll use it for general ed courses, survey courses. Maybe a large history class."

Marjorie Kimball, program coordinator for the Doņa Ana Branch, said one class from its school will be held at the annex during the spring semester.

"Creative Writing: The Memoir, and other forms of fiction and non-fiction, will be held in room 109 at the historic train depot location," Kimball said. "That class begins the 10th of January and ends April 18th. It will be a medium-sized class."

Kimball said the depot gives an historic setting for a class dealing with creative writing, in both fiction and non-fiction.

"Further down the line we'd like to have the same instructor who does intro to filmmaking and the screenwriting class, hold a class in the auditorium (at depot annex). It's ideally set up for plays," she said.

Rheganne Vaughn, project administrator for the county, said the railroad, including the depot, is integral to Deming's history.

"Deming was founded by the railroad. The residents were so very much involved in saving the depot from the demolition, and throughout the moving process," Vaughn said. "We just would like them to come now and see the end result of the renovation. It's a beautiful building, and will serve the community for years to come."

The train depot received some fire damage in 1928, as it was the west wing to the Harvey House north of Deming by the railroad tracks, when much of it was destroyed in the blaze. It's recorded that five U.S. presidents and the Liberty Bell visited the Harvey House and depot.

The depot was moved from its original location by the tracks in September of 2004. Its relocation of two miles east was the cause in not receiving recognition under state and national registers for historical sites. The move was necessitated by the threat of demolition as it sat on Union Pacific Railroad property, in turn impelling the county to undertake the depot relocation project.

The City of Deming's Web site states the city "was founded in November of 1881. Named for Mary Deming Crocker - wife of a railroad magnate of the Southern Pacific Railway system - the town was the result of railroad expansion to the West. The Southern Pacific, building toward the Pacific coast, reached this point in late 1881, and made preparations for construction of a round house and repair shops. This activity furnished the incentive for the erection of a city of tents and shanties. Six months later, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, completed its junction with the Southern Pacific at Deming, thus assuring Deming a prominence in the Southern part of New Mexico." - Desma Montellano, The Las Cruces Sun-News

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TUPELO'S TRACKS GET A NEW TAKE

TUPELO, MS -- One man has such a simple solution to the city's pesky railroad traffic problem, he says, that it's almost incomprehensible engineers didn't consider it in their $2 million rail relocation study.

Move the BNSF Railway Company tracks, which currently slice through town, to the north so they hug U.S. 78 from the city limits at Belden to North Gloster Street. Then take them south so they follow U.S. 45 into southeast Tupelo's limits and rejoin the existing route.

The state highway department owns the land and wouldn't need to buy rights of way, and the tracks would be raised on a trestle - like the famous Chicago "L" train - most of the way so they wouldn't intersect a single city street.

"It's shorter, cheaper and more practical" than any of the several alternatives proposed by the study's engineers, said the plan's originator, Jim High, assistant director of the Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association and longtime advocate of solving the train problem.

A spokesman for the firm conducting the study says High's plan is impractical from an engineering standpoint and would create a new set of problems. But U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Tupelo, thinks it should be considered, and it will be on the table as the study moves forward.

The train study started in August 2005 and is scheduled to last nearly two more years. The alternatives include five plans to completely relocate the tracks, two plans to build bridges at Crosstown and a plan to move the switching station near Crosstown to a less populated area. Costs of the plans range from $70.7 million to more than $747 million.

Engineers will hold a second public meeting next summer to refine their alternatives for relocating the BNSF tracks, which carry 26 trains a day. The first public meeting was held in August.

Although High's idea is not part of the engineers' planning, it is picking up supporters. Among them is Wicker, who had helped find federal dollars to finance the rail relocation study.

"Roger met with Jim and discussed the plan, and at first blush, he thought the project had merit and wanted the engineers to consider it as one of the options," said Wicker's spokesman Kyle Steward.

Chad Luedke, vice president of HDR Engineering, the Omaha-based firm heading the study, said he got the proposal from Wicker and will examine it - along with others submitted by people like state Department of Transportation engineer Bill Jamison.

But High, who is not an engineer and couldn't estimate his route's cost, said his plan isn't just another proposal. It's the only one that makes sense.

"Why would you go way out in the county and spend all that money when you can do this?" he asked. "You tell me."

'Politics and money'

So, if it's that good, why wasn't High's route included in the three-year study's preliminary roundup of alternatives?

High blamed politics and money. Luedke blamed common sense and "geometric criteria."

Trains don't travel like cars and trucks, he said. They have different geometric criteria and need greater distances to maneuver curves, hills and valleys. For this reason, the tracks can't perfectly hug the highway.

And "to be honest, you're moving the problem from one place to another" with High's route, Luedke said. "There is plenty of development along 78 and 45. The main issue is that we wanted to try to move it out of the urbanized area, because as soon as growth occurs, you'll be in the same scenario you are in today - not with Main and Gloster, but a little to the north. Then, what have you accomplished?"

High countered that because his route doesn't intersect a single city street it wouldn't impede development. The only place he foresees trouble is at a bridge the Major Thoroughfare Committee plans to build over U.S. 78 when it extends Coley Road to the Barnes Crossing area. The bridge might need to be higher so the train trestle could pass underneath.

Thoroughfare involvement

So, High took his plan to members of the Major Thoroughfare Committee on Monday. He asked them to delay building the bridge until he learns the fate of his proposal.

Committee members seemed impressed with High's presentation and casually agreed to work with him if his plan gains credence.

"We need to know within five years, and probably sooner than that," said committee chairman Greg Pirkle, referring to the length of the upcoming five-year, road-work phase, which starts Jan. 1. - Emily Le Coz, The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

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RAIL SPUR PROJECT FUELED BY COAL AMBITIONS

WASILLA, AK -- The last time the Alaska Railroad Corp. built a spur was 1942, World War II was under way, and the nation needed a way to get supplies to and from the deep-water port at Whittier.

Now the possibility that Healy coal could power Agrium Corp.'s Nikiski fertilizer plant has re-energized talk of building a $200 million rail spur from Willow to Port MacKenzie.

The coal, initially mined at the Usibelli coal mine at Healy, would replace dwindling natural gas supplies as the fuel source for the plant. To feed the project, 3 million metric tons of coal a year would ride rail cars from Healy, then transfer to barges to cross Cook Inlet, according to Steve Denton, Usibelli's vice president for business development.

Usibelli and Agrium are considering both Port MacKenzie and the Port of Anchorage for the barge connection, Denton said.

Each comes with strengths and weaknesses, he said.

Anchorage has rail service, but the container-oriented port lacks the facilities -- receiving equipment, storage -- necessary to move coal or other natural resources to barges.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough's port lacks rail service, but shipping bulk commodities is its lifeblood, in the form of piles of wood chips shipped to Asian markets by NPI LLC.

A spur from Willow to the port is also 30 rail miles shorter compared with Anchorage, according to Bruce Carr, director of strategic planning for the Alaska Railroad Corp.

"From our standpoint, it's a good option for us. We're not sure at this point it's the lower-cost option, but I think there are some logistical issues relative to the Port of Anchorage," Denton said.

Initially, Usibelli assumed that Anchorage was the only option, he said.

But a visit with borough officials a few months ago revealed some potential for speeding up the timeline on a spur, particularly in establishing a right-of-way for the rail line.

Under normal circumstances, it takes two to three years to get all the permits necessary for a project like a spur, Carr said. It would take another two seasons to build the track.

In February 2005, the borough Assembly approved a 40-mile rail corridor for a future spur.

The corridor crosses the Little Susitna River and runs west of Red Shirt Lake to connect with the existing line near Willow Creek.

"In order to make the port a real success story, you've got to have the rail connection," Borough Manager John Duffy said. "Now we've learned Agrium is trying to do a coal gasification plant. If they did, they would need one train set of coal every 16 to 18 hours. That's a lot of coal."

Still unanswered, though, is the question of who would pay to build the new track.

Right now, there's little federal funding available through most loan programs, Carr said.
Duffy said the borough would investigate state and federal funding sources.

Agrium is currently in the engineering, financing and permitting phase of the coal gasification plant, spokeswoman Lisa Parker said.

A decision on which port will handle the coal should be made in 2008, with plant startup in 2001 or 2012, Parker said.

If Port MacKenzie is selected, Agrium would help with financing the rail spur, she said. - Zaz Hollander, The Anchorage News

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COMPANY FACES OFF WITH ILLINOIS TOWN OVER RAILROAD TRACKS

BEMENT, IL -- Officials at an East Central Illinois grain cooperative said they plan to begin construction of a new railroad siding at its elevator in Bement within the next few months- with or without village permission.

The Topflight Grain Company is a farmer-owned cooperative that serves Piatt, Macon, Douglas and Moultrie counties.

A Norfolk Southern Railroad line passes by Topflight's facility on the west edge of Bement, where 15 freight trains per year are loaded with grain grown by local farmers. The facility has 13 full-time employees.

According to Topflight General Manager Scott Docherty, the railroad is requiring many of the rural grain elevators on its line, including Topflight's, to use side track.

Docherty said the requirement was made for safety reasons and to allow the other trains that move through Bement during grain loading periods to do so without stopping and waiting behind a train being loaded with grain.

For example, Docherty noted that his employees have seen children crawling under parked rail cars from time to time.

Since Topflight has owned the 11.62-acre site of its Bement facility since 1995, the company asked for - and received- approval from the Piatt County Board in November 2005 to add a new side track on the site of an old railroad bed.

In March, the Bement Village Board notified Topflight that the company also needed village permission to build the side track because it believed that a half-acre of the property is within the village limits.

Docherty said that notice came as a surprise to his company because Topflight has never received a real estate tax bill with village taxes on it.

"We have not been paying taxes to the village so we believed we were outside the village limits," Docherty said. "You would think, if our property were in the village, we would have been billed to pay village property taxes each year."

Docherty said he has seen some maps that show all of the property being outside the village limits and other maps that indicate a portion of the property may be inside the village limits.

Topflight then went to the Bement Zoning Commission to get approval to rezone the property from residential to industrial so the side track could be built.

On April 10, 2006, the zoning commission voted 4-2 with one abstention to reject the rezoning request. Commission members John Shumard, Betty Slagle, Sandy Goodman and Paul Clack voted against Topflight's request. Members Ruth High and Sharon Zindars voted in favor of the request, and member Jackie Fisher abstained from the vote.

"Comments were made about noise, odor and traffic," Docherty said. "We're already in operation. How can simply moving the freight cars to a side track cause more noise, odor or traffic?"

Bement village board members referred all questions regarding the issue to its attorney, Andrew Bequette of Urbana.

"The village is taking a no-comment position on this matter," Bequette said on Monday.

The village board was scheduled to discuss the issue at its June meeting, but the topic was removed from the agenda before the meeting began.

"After getting a negative response from the village, we felt we did not need to pursue this again to the full board," Docherty said.

The Bement Area Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution in August to support Topflight's proposal.

Docherty said the village board has been ignoring Topflight's requests for face-to-face meetings with the village board, but Bequette said those meetings would have been illegal.

"We have had a vigorous dialogue between myself and their attorney," Bequette said. "They have made us an offer that the village did not accept. I communicated to their attorney that the village was not going to accept that offer."

Bequette declined so say what Topflight's offer was.

"Topflight has never brought this issue to the village board as either an appeal of the zoning board or to try to discuss it in public," Bequette said. "There was a suggestion that there be a meeting between Topflight and the village board at another location outside of Bement. But I advised the board that such a meeting would be a violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act."

Meanwhile, the Norfolk Southern Railroad has begun to assert penalties against Topflight for failing to build the side tracks.

Docherty said the railroad has charged Topflight an additional 3.5 cents per bushel to use its tracks as long as there are no side tracks. Docherty said the charge comes to about $6,000 per trainload. With 15 trainloads per year, Topflight paid $90,000 in extra fees in 2006.

Docherty said the fees will increase to $7,000 per trainload in 2007, meaning Topflight will pay an additional $105,000 in penalties to the railroad.

"This isn't simply a cost of doing business," Docherty said. "This is a loss to the farmers who own Topflight -hard working farmers who deliver their corn and beans to the elevator," Docherty said.

Topflight has waited long enough and is planning on proceeding with construction of the additional rail siding. Docherty said he expects work to begin early next spring.

"We feel we can go ahead with the project because we have the county's approval and because we have a map that shows our property is outside the village limits," Docherty said. - Tim Mitchell, The Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette

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COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST RAILROAD IN KNOCKDOWN OF ARKANSAS BRIDGE

LOCKESBURG, AR -- A complaint was filed Tuesday with the Arkansas Highway Commission as a preliminary action to a possible lawsuit over a train derailment which destroyed a bridge.

Texarkana, Texas, attorney Trey Schroeder sent the formal complaint to Dan Flowers, director of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department.

The complaint stems from a June 15, 2005, derailment involving a 75-car train owned and operated by the De Queen & Eastern Railroad Co. (D&E).

The derailment destroyed the North Azalea Street overpass bridge, on the east side of Lockesburg at one of the primary vehicle and pedestrian crossings.

"Prior to its destruction, the bridge was safe, in good working condition and used by the citizens of Lockesburg on a daily basis. For 18 months now, the citizens of Lockesburg have been unable to use the bridge as a means of crossing the railroad tracks at that location," said Schroeder, who is a lawyer for the law firm of Patton, Tidwell & Schroeder, representing the City of Lockesburg.

"The railroad's failure to replace the bridge has created an extremely dangerous situation in Lockesburg, especially for its children who walk to school.

"Children who previously used the North Azalea Street must now cross the railroad tracks via the Highway 71 bridge, a two-lane bridge where thousands of vehicles travel each day on the principal north-south artery in southwest Arkansas," said the complaint.

"Although it is discouraged, other school children who previously used the North Azalea Street bridge have been seen climbing down the steep embankments and crossing the railroad tracks where there is no crossing.

"Since the bridge's destruction, there is simply not a safe way for children who live on the northeast side of the city to walk to and from school," said the complaint.

"There is no dispute concerning the railroad's fault, and the city has engaged in a good-faith effort to resolve this matter amicably and without litigation," the complaint says.

"City officials met with representatives of the railroad in August 2005 and January 2006 to no avail. Despite its public statements, D&E, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Corporation, has not replaced the bridge."

The City of Lockesburg invokes a provision in state law making the letter become a formal complaint against D&E with the highway commission.

Former Mayor Ulyses Sowell wrote a letter to D&E dated May 11 "in an effort, once again, to resolve this matter without litigation."

D&E never responded to Sowell's letter.

Schroeder asked Flowers to forward the complaint to the members of the Arkansas State Highway Commission.

He also requested a hearing before the highway commission within 60 days.

Copies of the complaint were sent to the railroad and Weyerhaeuser.

Officials with the railroad company were unavailable for comment.

If the hearing is unable to resolve the dispute, a lawsuit will be filed, said Schroeder. - Jim Williamson, The Texarkana Gazette

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DNR OFFERS TO SETTLE WITH AMEREN OVER RESERVOIR COLLAPSE

ST. LOUIS, MO -- Nearly a year after Ameren Corp.'s Taum Sauk reservoir burst, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has offered a settlement proposal to the St. Louis-based utility company, DNR officials said Tuesday.

As part of the proposal, Ameren would either give to the state or allow the state to use a mountain it owns near the site of the collapse and a stretch of railroad right of way the company owns in western Missouri.

Financial details were not released, but DNR officials said terms of the settlement would include civil penalties for water quality violations that resulted from the breach; compensation to the state for damage to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park; compensation for recreational use losses and assurances that Ameren will take steps to protect water quality and pay for continued restoration efforts.

"The department felt it was important to let the public know where we're at in this process," said Kurt Schaefer, DNR's deputy director. "We've been getting a lot of inquiry because it's coming up on the one-year anniversary."

Ameren spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said in a statement, "We did receive the settlement proposal and are interested in resolving these matters with all state parties."

The reservoir at Ameren's Taum Sauk hydroelectric plant, which sits atop Profitt Mountain in southeast Missouri, breached on Dec. 14, 2005, causing more than 1 billion gallons of water to engulf Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park.

The park superintendent and his family were knocked out of their home by the raging water but survived. No one else was hurt, but the park was badly damaged, as were thousands of acres in the region, including parts of the Black River.

In the spring, Gov. Blunt directed DNR to consider "creative" ways that Ameren could compensate the state. As part of the proposal, Ameren would either give up or share two properties that DNR officials believe could provide ample recreation - the old Rock Island Railroad corridor and Church Mountain, both of which are owned by Ameren.

The rail corridor covers 47 miles and runs from the west-central Missouri town Windsor west to Pleasant Hills, near Kansas City.

Church Mountain sits next to Profitt Mountain. Ameren owns the entire mountain and has considered building another hydroelectric plant on top of it, though those plans have been withdrawn, Gallagher said. - The Associated Press, The Columbia Daily Tribune

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OREGON GOVERNOR MAKES FEDERAL DISASTER REQUEST

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has asked President Bush for a presidential disaster declaration for Oregon counties affected by November's massive flooding.

"Given the amount of damage, we need the federal government to partner with us so our communities can begin to rebuild their homes, businesses and roads, and to help us mitigate damage from future flooding or other natural disasters," Kulongoski said.

The request went in Monday and included Hood River as well as Lincoln, Tillamook, and Clatsop counties under it.

The total amount of damage assessment for all four counties was $6 million. Hood River County had initially submitted $27 million in damages with an additional $22 million in potential losses for the agricultural industry.

Part of the reduction came from damages being excluded because they were covered by insurance, or damages that were the responsibility of another agency.

For Hood River County, the majority of damage occurred Nov. 6 and 7 when the county had record rainstorms resulting in debris flows and high water from its southern edge near Mount Hood to the Columbia River.

"We're glad to see that Hood River County was included and that will enable the public entities to get some relief for damages and mitigation efforts," said Dave Meriwether, the county's administrator.

He said that unfortunately the declaration did not include funding for private properties and businesses in Hood River County. Mt. Hood Railroad had reported damages of more than $1.2 million. Tillamook County was the only county that had a high enough damage level for the governor to also request a Physical Disaster Declaration from the Small Business Administration. That could make low interest loans available for homeowners and businesses.

"The level of damage and loss here do not rise to a level to make that an eligible declaration here. We'll continue to work with those businesses to help them find relief," Meriwether said.

Federal Public Law 93-288 requires that public entities filing applications for disaster relief must accept responsibility for 25 percent of the loss.

For Hood River County, multiple sites suffered damages. Among those are the Ice Fountain Water District, the Farmers Irrigation District, and the Middle Fork Irrigation District.

Floodwaters deposited 15 feet of debris in the Ice Fountain district. Its other damages included an exposed wall that was eroded by the Hood River and its spring's capacity being reduced.

The Farmers Irrigation District main canal inlet facility sustained heavy structural damage during the flood and its access road was washed away. Both control gates were damaged and up to 300 feet of canal was filled in with silt and rock.

The Middle Fork Irrigation District lost Penstock line (steel pipe) from Laurance Lake to the settling basin. The flood and debris torrent also took out the Eliot Branch Diversion and lost roadway to the Coe Branch diversion.

The decision on whether or not the federal government will award disaster relief should come from FEMA within the next few weeks. - Sue Ryan, The Hood River News

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SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL APPROVES PURCHASE OF RAILYARDS LAND AND HISTORIC TRAIN STATION

SACRAMENTO, CA -- The Sacramento City Council has approved spending up to $95 million for a new intermodal transportation facility. The deal includes the purchase of the 81-year-old Amtrak station.

On an 8-1 vote Tuesday afternoon, the city council approved the purchase of 33 acres in the Union Pacific railyards, which includes the historic station. The council authorized an outlay of $55 million, with the actual purchase price to be determined through an appraisal and negotiation process.

The city will be negotiating with Thomas Enterprises, which is in the process of buying the entire 240-acre railyards site from Union Pacific.

The city will spend up to $40 million to move the existing railroad tracks 300 feet to the north to facilitate development of the entire 240 acres.

Part of the $40 million would be spent on interim passenger facilities until the historic station could be moved or a new one built.

The city council vote came on the same day rail service in Sacramento marked an important milestone. The Capitol Corridor train service celebrated its 15th anniversary with a cake-cutting ceremony inside the Amtrak station.

The Capitol Corridor is the third busiest commuter train route in the United States, carrying 1.3 million passengers a year between Auburn and San Jose. - George Warren, KXTV Channel 10, Sacramento, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr

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TRANSIT NEWS

TENTATIVE RAIL PROGRESS: BUT NORTH TEXAS NEEDS FULL SPEED FOR TRAFFIC FIX

The Dallas-Fort Worth legislative delegation took positive - albeit tentative - steps this week toward joining the fight in Austin to help nontransit cities attract rail service.

We would have preferred a headlong dive, but progress is progress.

The most significant sign was strong sentiment among lawmakers that the region's traffic nightmare requires action in next year's Legislature, not a later one.

Another significant sign was the position enunciated by Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano, who has been highly skeptical of the plan on the table - local-option elections so nontransit cities could bump up their sales taxes and link up to the region's rail network.

Said Ms. Shapiro, a co-chair of Monday's transit summit: "I am not opposed to this plan. I am cautious."

Caution can benefit the process. Opposition from any lawmaker at this point would show deafness to the clamor from communities from across the region that have endorsed legislative approval of local-option elections.

Ms. Shapiro focused on the need for hard numbers for construction and operation of rail expansion and said state budget analysts ought to get on the case. Good. Let that process begin.

It was encouraging to see dozens of representatives of local communities attend Monday's summit, an effort to hold lawmakers' feet to the fire. That close monitoring will be needed in the weeks ahead, as lawmakers go to Austin and get distracted by competing agendas.

One distraction that cropped up Monday was introduction of a proposal to cut off sales taxes that fund cities' economic development authorities and divert the money to support rail transit. Our response is this: Cities already have that option and choose not to pursue it.
Moreover, 40 city councils are on record as backing local-option elections for new money.

Critics of the local-option plan also argued that the state should protect the sales tax (now capped at 8.25 percent) from further local use because of the possibility it might be needed for public education someday.

Harrumph. The need is here. The need is now. North Texas' choking, exhaust-spewing traffic is a health matter. It can drive away business. It degrades the quality of life. The fix mustn't wait any longer. - Editorial Opinion, The Dallas Morning News

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CAPITOL CORRIDOR RIDING HIGH

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Fifteen years ago, Amtrak and Caltrans began a new passenger train service connecting the Bay Area and Sacramento with three round-trip trains a day. The Capitol Corridor trains quickly drew standing-room crowds on some trains and prompted some predictions of a rail renaissance.

They appear to have been prescient -- at least where the Capitol Corridor is concerned.

Today, the rail service runs 16 round-trip trains between Oakland and Sacramento, including seven of those that go as far as San Jose and one that goes to and from Auburn. A total of 1.3 million passengers rode the Capitols in the past 12 months compared with 273,000 in the first year of operations.

And the train has become the third-most popular line in Amtrak's national passenger rail network, behind the New York-Washington Northeast corridor trains and the Pacific Surfliner between San Luis Obispo and San Diego.

Along the way, the Capitol Corridor trains also picked up an unusually complex governing structure, at least a dozen new or remodeled stations and a fleet of 78 modern and comfortable two-level "California cars" with snazzy blue, red and gold paint jobs.

Related photos by Michael Maloney of the San Francisco Chronicle and a map are here:

[www.sfgate.com]

[www.sfgate.com]

[www.sfgate.com]

[www.sfgate.com]

"It's been an interesting ride," said Eugene Skoropowski, managing director of the rail service.

And a comfortable one, according to the ever-growing number of passengers who say it's a great way to travel.

"It's clean, they provide outlets for your laptop, they have special seating at tables for people who are working, and they have food," said Krystle Cho, a UC Davis senior who often rides the train to visit her family in Daly City. "It's a nice ride. You feel safe and secure. It isn't your normal public transportation."

Skoropowski, who has presided over the Capitol Corridor boom over the last seven years, said the secret is simple: Give people trains that depart frequently, make the trip in a reasonable amount of time, and are fairly reliable. When he took over as head of the Capitol Corridor, he stressed the addition of trains as his top priority. Now, he brags that the frequency of Capitol Corridor trains is equal to those on the Northeast corridor.

"The key is being available when people want to travel," he said. "If you have enough frequency, you almost don't need a schedule. You know a train is going to be around soon."

The Capitol Corridor has also had to overcome other obstacles, including a bizarre governing structure that involves federal, state, regional and local government agencies. It's had to squeeze more trains onto tracks owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, which is seeing its own boom in freight traffic. And it hasn't had a state budget increase in five years.

Although Amtrak operates the service, it is subsidized by the state through Caltrans, managed by the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and overseen by a seven-county joint-powers authority.
That potentially bureaucratic arrangement, required by state legislation in 1996, hasn't proven to be a problem, Skoropowski said.

Crowding on the rails has been, however. To cope with the freight traffic problem, the Capitol Corridor and the state have paid for additional tracks at chokepoints at the Yolo causeway near Davis, south of Jack London Square in Oakland, at the Oakland Coliseum, in Newark and in San Jose. Those track improvements have allowed more trains to go south to San Jose and enhanced reliability.

But Skoropowski acknowledged that keeping the trains on time is a problem. In October, on-time performance was 80 percent -- not good enough, he said. And passengers agree, though many say it hasn't affected their overall positive impression of the service. The Altamont Commuter Express and many other Amtrak trains, including the Coast Starlight, share the problem of running late when railroad dispatchers give freight trains priority.

"It's late a lot," said Carol Johnson, 58, who lives in Sacramento and rides the train to Berkeley weekly. "Last week it was 50 minutes late on the way down and was absurdly late on the way home."

She passed the time hanging out with some fellow train riders she's met over the past eight years.

"I have train buddies," she said. "We drink coffee on the way down and wine on the way back."

Passenger rail advocates are also pleased with the Capitol Corridor.

"It's been more successful than anyone expected," said Richard Silver, head of the Railroad Passengers Association of California. "I don't think anyone anticipated that they would ever add so many trains."

As the Capitol Corridor rolls into the future, Skoropowski would like to get more rail cars so he can run longer trains, and make the track improvements necessary to run more trains between San Jose and Auburn.

"If there's anything that keeps me going it's that we're a real passenger rail success story in America," he said. "Anyone who says people won't ride trains in America need to look at us.
We have a real success here in California -- the capital of American car culture." - Michael Cabanatuan, The San Francisco Chronicle

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FREIGHT LINE EYED FOR LIGHT RAIL

DENVER, CO -- FasTracks planners say the only option that makes sense for rail transit from downtown Denver through Adams County is to build heavy commuter rail on the existing Union Pacific line.

On Tuesday, they rejected options that were suggested by residents in the North Metro FasTracks study area that RTD look into building light rail instead, either along the west shoulder of Interstate 25 or in the center of Washington Street.

RTD staff members working on the environmental impact study for the North Metro Corridor recommended against the light rail ideas, saying they were too expensive, took too many private properties and would have lower ridership.

The choices were laid out at a joint meeting of local, state and federal officials and FasTracks planners. Government representatives, including those from Brighton, Denver, Commerce City and Thornton, all concurred with the recommendation.

The plan could fan budding opposition from homeowners along the little-used rail line, which butts up against the backyards of single-family homes in some areas.

UP currently operates only one short train per week, on Wednesdays, on the track.

"We haven't ignored that there's been a lot of public comments about the impacts along that corridor," said Joe Rocsky of URS, a project manager hired by RTD for the study. Planners will evaluate noise and vibration issues and the impact of the plan on property values as part of their study.

The North Metro corridor has a budget of $428.1 million. The options involving light rail were estimated to cost $700 million to $1.15 billion. Even the remaining commuter rail options range higher than the budget, which will require some cost cutting.

A late suggestion to bring the light rail alternative back within budget by ending it at the Boulder Turnpike or 88th Avenue instead of the current proposed end at 160th Avenue was rejected because it wouldn't serve the entire transit market.

Commuter rail cars are larger with heavier steel frames and meet federal crash-safety standards for use in freight train corridors. Light rail vehicles don't meet those crash standards.

What's left on the table is the original corridor selected six years ago in an earlier study - the same version voters approved in 2004 when they passed a tax increase to pay for the $4.7 billion FasTracks program.

The choice has some historical significance. These UP tracks follow the alignment of the original Denver Pacific Railroad that in 1870 linked the fledgling Denver area to the transcontinental railroad at Cheyenne.

The major remaining issue is a question that could pit Denver leaders and neighborhoods against those in Thornton.

The two alternatives for the North Metro project involve using either self-propelled diesel-powered passenger cars or those powered by overhead electrical lines, similar to light-rail vehicles.

Neighborhood groups in Denver have pushed for electric trains because they don't favor handling the repair and upkeep of diesel-powered cars at the maintenance facility RTD plans on the border of the Cole and Elyria neighborhoods.

But in Thornton, the city and its residents oppose the overhead electric lines that would be needed to power electrified commuter cars. They prefer the diesel cars.

Gene Putman, Thornton's transportation planning manager, said city code requires all utility lines to be placed underground, and city officials aren't keen on considering a waiver for RTD trains.

"We would have to change the city code" to allow overhead wires, Putman said. "That would be difficult. That is a big issue in Thornton." - Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

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NAPOLITANO SAYS ROAD, TRANSIT PROJECTS CAN BE BUILT WITHOUT TAX BOOST

PHOENIX, AZ -- Calling it a "time tax," Gov. Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that she will propose a way to accelerate both road construction and mass transit without raising taxes. Napolitano said too much of the state is being developed with homes coming first and plans for services later. But Napolitano, in a preview of her State of the State speech, conceded that simply building more roads faster addresses only the symptoms of the state's meteoric growth.

The governor also wants to:

* Expand availability of "affordable housing" to ensure that people who work in communities actually can live there.

* Allow rural communities to deny building permits when there is no guarantee of enough water.

* Protect both natural and historical resources to ensure that Arizona does not "cement over our past" as it builds new houses and shopping centers.

The governor, however, rejected growth limits, saying they are not necessary, even in a state where it rains only about 7 inches a year.

"Even now, we're banking water," Napolitano said, referring to a 2004 deal for the state to bank and then sell more than 14 billion gallons of the Arizona's water supply to Nevada every year for the next three decades. "And we're careful about water."

Instead, Napolitano told mayors meeting in Phoenix that the state and its communities need "more tools" to deal with the effects of growth.

At or near the top of that list is traffic congestion, as drivers find themselves spending more time moving shorter distances. "We need to accelerate the construction of state roadways and expand other transportation options throughout the state," she said. Napolitano said the current schedule for building new roads and widening existing ones "is currently too long," with no end in sight to current congestion.

"Quite frankly, to me, sitting in traffic is a time tax," the governor explained. "For many, many people, busy or juggling work or family or other things, your time is your most precious asset."

Napolitano said she will ask legislators to change how highways are financed. The governor would not be specific, but she said it would not involve higher taxes or borrowing more money than the state already does for its road-building projects. And an aide said it does not involve toll roads. The governor said she also wants to accelerate mass transit funding and provide cash for intercity rail, something that does not now exist. Napolitano also wants changes in state law to promote affordable housing. "There are whole areas of our state where the average housing cost is far outstripping the average wage," she said. "There are areas of our state where there are people who are teachers and police officers and public servants cannot afford to live in the community that they service." She said that means giving more options to local governments to plan and actually finance homes that people can afford. "We want people to be able to have and own their own home," Napolitano said. - Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services, The Arizona Star, courtesy Marc Pearsall

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