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Railroad Newsline for Thursday, December 28, 2006

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

BNSF ISSUES SERVICE ADVISORY REGARDING WEATHER DELAYS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Across the Pacific Northwest region, heavy rains have caused mud and rock slides, downed trees, and power outages, which are causing delays to BNSF Railway Company customers shipments.

Heavy rains, adverse weather and track conditions are forecasted to continue through Wednesday, December 27, 2006, subsiding throughout the day on Thursday, December 28, 2006.

Customers may experience delays between 12 and 24 hours on traffic moving through this region. - BNSF Service Advisory

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PARK AVALANCHE CONTROL DRAWS 8,000 COMMENTS

COLUMBIA FALLS, MT -- Avalanche control in Glacier National Park is apparently a very hot topic.

The Park has received about 8,000 comments already on an environmental impact statement that deals with avalanche control along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line through the John Stevens Canyon.

The Park announced last week it was extending the comment period until Jan. 29 on the plan after BNSF requested it.

The Park's preferred alternative is to have the railroad build about a mile more snowsheds to protect the tracks from avalanches. Snowsheds already exist in several areas in the Canyon, where avalanche chutes from the Park's southern boundary cross the tracks.

The cost of the snowsheds, the Park has calculated, would be about $5 million annually for the railroad over 20 years.

BNSF, however, has long maintained that it should be allowed to blast avalanche chutes rather than build more sheds. Blasting the chutes causes the avalanches to come down off the slopes and then the snow is cleared away. The railroad is worried an avalanche, left to its own devices, will knock a train off the tracks. That has happened to cars in the past.

In fact, the Park in the past few winters has given the railroad a special permit to blast avalanche chutes in emergency situations.

But the Park also notes there are a host of concerns with using explosives in the region, from the impacts on wintering ungulates to endangered species to the impacts on what is recommended as a wilderness area.

The Park manages its southern region primarily as if it were wilderness already, though it does used mechanized means to clear trails and the like.

A limited number of copies of the DEIS are still available upon request from the park. It can also be found on-line at [parkplanning.nps.gov].

Written comments can be sent to the park electronically on this Web site or via the postal service addressed to: Superintendent, Glacier National Park, Attn: Avalanche Hazard DEIS, P.O. Box 128, West Glacier, MT 59936. - Chris Peterson, The Columbia Falls Hungry Horse News

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COLLAPSED RAILROAD TUNNEL COSTLY FOR COOS COUNTY LUMBER OPERATIONS

COOS BAY, OR -- If fall's slumping housing market weren't bad enough, three Coos County lumber mills have another barrier to business. There's no railroad service.

The Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad has been unable to reopen its short line heading south out of Florence to Coquille due to a collapsed tunnel. After four weeks of working to remove massive boulders, CORP told its customers last week it wouldn't be able to reopen the rail line by Dec. 22 as planned.

Now, the target date is Jan. 8.

The closure has forced the Coos Bay-area Southport Forest Products and Georgia-Pacific mills to move lumber exclusively by more expensive semi-trucks. Coquille's Roseburg Forest Products now is loading plywood onto semis, trucking it to Dillard, offloading and reloading onto railcars. That increases damage to the wood. Home Depot is its largest customer, and orders have slowed.

“We're losing money. We sell in carlot loads,” said Hank Snow, Roseburg's vice president of human resources.

Rail is the cheapest way to ship. A railcar holds the equivalent of 2.5 truckloads of plywood. So far, Snow said, his company hasn't curtailed operations for its 336 Coquille employees, but “it'll get there if we keep building inventory.”

The collapse

CORP's problems with the tunnel apparently started in November. The company had hired engineers to inspect the tunnel off Canary Road near Florence, said John Bullion, the railroad's assistant general manager. They recommended doing maintenance on the structure held up by rotting wooden timbers. CORP brought in a crew to work days and sent trains through at night. But then a 35- to 40-foot section of the tunnel collapsed.

The railroad pulled workers from California to help with repairs, keeping crews attacking in two shifts on the tunnel's south end. Another crew worked in from the north, drilling and grouting in bolts to stabilize the ground. Workers are shoring up the tunnel with steel arches, then digging out the 300 to 500 yards of muck.

“Unfortunately it's a slow process,” Bullion said.

And dangerous.

And while mills might be lamenting their losses, Bullion said money's flowing fast out of the railroad's accounts, too. Workers had completed two-thirds of the tunnel maintenance project prior to the cave in. He estimated that the current repairs alone will add another $1.1 million to the costs.

“We're spending money because we're not open and we're losing money because we're not moving freight,” he said.

Political pressure

While the tracks are privately owned, G-P at least has been ringing phones all the way up to the governor's office. On Friday, the company's Portland-based lobbyist also called up Rep. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, and suggested that if times get too tough, G-P's Coos Bay mill, which employs 140 people, may cut operations. Two-thirds of that company's lumber heads out on rail.

“Telling me that it's a possibility that they could shut down gets my attention,” Roblan said.

But, he said, there's nothing he can do to speed up repairs.

A G-P spokesman at company headquarters in Atlanta downplayed mill closure concerns.

“I think that's speculative,” James Malone said, but added later, “The longer this process goes on, the harder it is to run this operation.”

The Coos Bay mill is a topnotch facility, he said, and it needs to be operating efficiently; hence the phone calls to public officials.

A lot of people in Oregon probably assume railroads fall under some state jurisdiction, since they are part of the statewide transportation system. The state does have oversight when it comes to ensuring railroads, trestles and tunnels are safe, said Kelly Taylor, the administrator of the Oregon Rail Division. But she doesn't tell private companies how to do their work.

“There aren't state funds - or federal funds for that matter - to help a railroad like this when they get in a pinch,” she said.

There are funds for airports and other transportation modes, but not rail.

Oregon actually has a state statute in place to do that, with the State Railroad Rehabilitation Fund.

“Nobody's ever put a dime into it,” she said of the Legislature.

Big bucks

This year's been a tough one stormwise for the state's beleaguered shortlines. The Mount Hood line, with companies specializing in passenger train services, is closed. Part of the mountain slid away.

“The tracks and ties are hanging there like some jungle bridge,” Taylor said.

Shortlines struggle to come up with the money for such massive repairs. CORP spent $18 million to repair an arson-damaged tunnel on its busy line through Ashland. Insurance only covered $10 million of the bill, Taylor said.

For the Coos Bay line, the three mills are the biggest customers, but American Bridge at Reedsport and some other small companies rely on rail, too. Leading up to the tunnel cave-in, CORP was moving an average of 78 railcars per week, almost entirely lumber, along with bridge materials and propane. For American Bridge, 95 percent of its materials come in by rail, and the week of Jan. 8, it's due to ship out 19-plus-foot-tall bascule girders to Wisconsin.

Economic engine?

When the Legislature convenes in January, lawmakers likely are going to hear from railroads. Roseburg's Snow, for one, thinks the Coos Bay line deserves a lot more attention.

“I think you're going to be the next large port on the West Coast.”

There was good news out this morning, with the U.S. government reporting the “serious slump in housing” could be ending. New home sales rose in November, and there were fewer homes on the market, according to The Associated Press.

Snow's company may see that upturn, but that won't solve the long-term problems with the viability of the Coos Bay rail line.

“Somehow someone's going to have to step up and take responsibility for the repairs on that railroad,” he said. - Elise Hamner, City Editor, The Coos Bay World

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PROBE OF COAL-TRAIN PLAN REQUESTED

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Two U.S. House members want the House to investigate a proposed $2.3 billion federal loan for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's coal train project.

The Federal Railroad Administration is expected to make a decision early in 2007 on a loan that would help pay for a $6 billion DM&E project to expand to Wyoming's coal fields and haul coal east across refurbished track in South Dakota and Minnesota.

The request for a House review of the loan came from Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, incoming chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform.

Their Dec. 11 letter suggests that the DM&E may be a poor credit risk unable to cover its debt service and that an environmental analysis for the project may be outdated.

The letter also questions "whether at a time of squeezed national priorities this loan warrants such a large expenditure of taxpayer monies."

The letter also questions the involvement of Sen. John Thune, a DM&E lobbyist before his election to the Senate, in securing changes in the 2005 federal transportation bill that make the DM&E more attractive for an FRA loan.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., in a letter to Waxman Dec. 20, countered Walz's claims. She said a House hearing before a decision is made on the DM&E loan would be premature.

She also told Waxman there is no indication procedures for applying for a loan and analyzing such an application have been violated, and she called Walz's characterization of the proposed loan as wasteful "absurd hyperbole" and said if the loan is approved "it would make an invaluable contribution to (the) economic infrastructure of my state and the region, and promote increased rail competition throughout the country."

DM&E President Kevin Schieffer said the company spent $40 million in the first eight years of project development and has committed another $100 million this year. - The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette

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COAL FUELING ENERGY DEBATE

CENTRALIA, WA -- On the outskirts of Centralia, Washington, the state's only coal-fired power plant stands like a factory from another world, shining bright around the clock, steam and smoke pouring forth as it generates enough electricity to light all of Seattle.

Photo here: [seattletimes.nwsource.com]

Caption reads: The TransAlta coal-fired plant outside Centralia uses coal shipped in from Wyoming and Montana.

But that power comes at a price — pollution.

Until new equipment went in about five years ago, the plant was blamed for much of the haze that obscured views of Mount Rainier. Today, the 470-foot-tall smokestack remains the state's largest single source of poisonous mercury.

But efforts to crack down on that mercury pollution may ensure the Centralia plant remains a rarity in Washington as a power plant fed by coal.

Even as some states go on a building binge of coal-fired power plants, Washington is considering hefty restrictions that would do the opposite, essentially allowing just one new coal plant to be built. It's part of an emerging schism over coal as a future source of energy, pitting those who see it as reliable and cheap against those who consider it the dirtiest way to make electricity.

On one side is Texas, where a Dallas energy company wants to build 11 new coal power plants. On the opposite end is California, which wants to bar the use of most coal power to fight global warming.

Washington voters in November endorsed a shift toward cleaner energy. They approved an initiative requiring major utilities to get 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources like wind by 2020.

Now, if Washington makes proposed restrictions on mercury emissions a reality, it will be further allied with the California camp. But that may hinge on the outcome of a debate between a huge state agency and the leader of a much smaller one.

Plans to cap mercury

The latest attempts to limit mercury, a potent poison that can hurt development of children's brains, began with a federal rule issued in 2005 that set a 2018 deadline for cutting emissions.

But, like at least 15 other states, Washington is drafting an even tougher standard. In its case, the deadline would be 2013.

The state also would block coal plants in Washington from participating in a federal program that lets some plants keep puffing out more mercury through a "cap-and-trade" program. That gives companies an "allowance" of mercury to emit every year. If a company doesn't use all its allowance, it can sell the remainder to another power plant so it can emit more mercury.

That has the large state Department of Ecology, which is charged with protecting the environment, at odds with the chairman of a state board called the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, which oversees permits for new power plants.

For Ecology, the issue is relatively simple: "We were really driven to act on this because of our concern about mercury," said Sarah Rees, an Ecology manager working on the new mercury limits.

The cap-and-trade system would allow some plants to pay to keep pumping out more mercury, and people living nearby could suffer, Rees said. It also delays cuts in the pollution.

For Jim Luce, chair of the Energy Facility council, as well as several power companies, that would limit options in the search for new electricity.

Luce said he favors a regional trading system with Oregon, but he doesn't like the nationwide program.

If power companies can't use a cap-and-trade system at all to buy the right to more emissions, the mercury limits would effectively mean only one more coal plant could be built in Washington, Luce warned.

"Look at the projections for resources that are going to be needed for the Northwest. Where's it all going to come from?" he said.

More plants coming?

The Centralia plant would benefit from being the first plant in the state, by getting most of the state's mercury allowance.

But meeting the new limits by 2013 could be nearly impossible because the technology hasn't been developed yet, said Richard DeBolt, a Republican state representative who works as a spokesman for the Centralia plant, owned by Canadian-based TransAlta.

"If they would support extending it until 2018, then we would be fine," DeBolt said.

Although the coal mine next to the plant shut down this month, TransAlta plans to keep running the power plant with coal shipped in from Wyoming and Montana.

Ecology officials are optimistic that such mercury-cleaning technology will be available by 2013, but they say the proposed rule allows some latitude if it isn't.

Right now, the leading candidate to use the rest of the mercury allowance is Energy Northwest, a consortium of public-utility districts that has applied to build a power plant in Kalama, Cowlitz County, along the Columbia River near Portland, fueled by coal or sludge left over from refining oil.

But a company called United Power is also considering a coal-powered plant in Wallula, in Walla County in southeastern Washington.

If the state pursues the tighter limits on mercury, one of those companies may lose out.
Yet there's little agreement on how many coal plants the region really needs.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a federal agency that plans for the region's electricity needs, predicts that in the next two decades only one more small coal plant of between 400 and 425 megawatts is warranted in all of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Puget Sound Energy, however, has said it could need to make as much as 675 megawatts of coal power in that time just for Western Washington.

Then there are environmentalists who even question the need for the Kalama plant, particularly with the initiative passed by state voters that dictates that major utilities get more power from renewable sources.

"We really don't see any need for coal development in the Northwest, period," said Marc Krasnowsky, spokesman for the NW Energy Coalition, an environmental group. - Warren Cornwall, The Seattle Times, courtesy Dick Seelye

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KING OF COAL: UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD REPORTS RECORD SHIPMENTS TO AREA POWER PLANTS

OMAHA, NE -- With winter energy needs nearing their peak, Union Pacific is moving record trainloads of coal from Wyoming’s Southern Powder River Basin (SPRB) and coal-producing mines in Colorado and Utah.

The impact on Sterling, CO and Logan County is pretty minimal, according to Mark Davis, spokesman for the Union Pacific.

“We serve the mines on the western side of the state,” Davis said this morning.

Davis added that the BNSF Railway Company moves a lot of coal.
During November, Union Pacific moved 20 million tons of coal from the SPRB and Colorado and Utah, an increase of nearly 8 percent over November 2005. The railroad posted its third best average daily performance in the SPRB, averaging 35.7 trains per day. The movement of Colorado and Utah coal posted its best daily train numbers of the year in November, averaging 11.6 trains per day.

Davis said the Union Pacific is running about eight trains per day, averaging about 100 cars per train, compared to 125 to 130 cars in neighboring states. Davis said the difference is the terrain, and the side tracks.

Union Pacific also set train size records during the months of October and November. UP trains moving coal out of the SPRB averaged 15,135 tons each—an increase of 200 tons over last year’s annual average. A new wheel-changing process at Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, helped UP achieve the increased tonnage record. Wheels are changed without removing cars from a train, saving handling and processing time. The enhancement has the potential to increase train tonnage out of the SPRB by more than 750,000 tons next year with no additional train starts.

“These records and process improvements are just two more examples of how committed Union Pacific employees are to meeting our customers’ needs,” said Jim Young, president and CEO. “Every day our employees are on the job to meet the nation’s demand for coal, food, construction equipment, and other items. And we will continue to look for new ways to handle rising demand.”

Additional rail line improvements are expected to boost the railroad’s coal capacity in 2007. Davis said these improvements could result in trains moving through Logan County toward Greeley.

The completion of a third main line south of Reno Junction, Wyoming, and five new train landing tracks just completed at the mines will help boost capacity on the Joint Line owned by UP and BNSF to more than 375 million tons. During 2006 the Joint Line is expected to support more than 350 million tons of coal.

Future improvements, including construction of a third main line north of Reno Junction, and a fourth main line south of Nacco Junction, Wyoming, are expected to boost Joint Line capacity to more than 400 million tons per year.

Grading is already underway on both of these projects and completion is expected in late 2007. - Forrest Hershberger, Editor, The Sterling (CO) Journal-Advocate

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SANDBURG RIDERSHIP SOARS; NEW AMTRAK TRAIN FROM CHICAGO TO QUINCY CREDITED WITH INCREASE

GALESBURG, IL -- Amtrak officials are happy with ridership totals for the first month of The Carl Sandburg, the new Amtrak morning service from Chicago to Galesburg, Quincy and points in between.

Photo here: [www.register-mail.com]

Caption reads: Photo by KENT KRIEGSHAUSER/The Register-Mail. Passengers board the 07:35 Amtrak train to Chicago this morning at the Galesburg depot on what a conductor said was "A full train."

Service began Oct. 30 on the state-subsidized route. The state also helps pay for Illinois Zephyr Service, which leaves Quincy in the morning and goes to Chicago. Illinois increased its Amtrak funding from $12.1 million to $24 million in the fiscal year 2007 budget in order to pay for the direct costs, including fuel and salaries. Those costs are about 75 percent of the full cost of the service, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said in October.

New service between Chicago and Springfield and Chicago and Carbondale also was added.

Magliari said November ridership this year compared to November 2005 was 14,103, an increase of 3,634 from 10,469. That was for both the Illinois Zephyr and the Carl Sandburg. Including all service between Chicago and Galesburg, including the Southwest Chief, the California Zephyr and the state-subsidized trains, ridership was up this year from 12,885 to 16,597, an increase of 3,712.

"We're off to a great start," Magliari said, "and the response, especially in the Galesburg to Quincy corridor, has been very strong."

He cautioned, however, this is based upon the results of one month. December ridership figures will be available in about 2-1/2 weeks.

The new train is the first to give Chicago morning service to west-central Illinois. The Carl Sandburg leaves Chicago at 08:00, is scheduled to arrive in Galesburg at 10:39 and in Quincy at 12:15. Then train leaves the Gem City at 17:30, arrives in Galesburg at 18:56 and in Chicago at 21:48.

"I would say we're up more than 3,000 on the Chicago to Galesburg run," Magliari said. "Most of that on the new state-subsidized route."

He said there are few available seats for Galesburg riders on the long-distance trains.

"The new morning departure from Chicago and the new afternoon train from Quincy gives people a lot more flexibility," he said.

Other Amtrak service from Chicago to Galesburg requires Chicagoans to stay overnight, if this is their destination and they plan to ride Amtrak home.

"I want to see how we do with Railroad Days in the summer," Magliari said.

Galesburg's two-day railroad festival, held the fourth weekend in June, has attracted enough interest to schedule excursion trains here from Chicago in previous years. Now, it will be possible for Chicago railfans to board the train at Union Station in the morning, spend the day here, have time to eat dinner, then catch the train and be back in the city before 22:00.

Magliari said an earlier concern about the freight lines getting used to the new service still is being addressed.

"We've seen an improvement in the on-time performance," he said. "There's still some capacity issues we're going to have to work through."

The first day of the Carl Sandburg saw it run into a number of delays as the passenger train was forced to wait on sidings to accommodate freight trains. Magliari said there is double track from Chicago to Galesburg but only a single track from Galesburg to Quincy, causing the capacity problem.

"We're working with IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) and the BNSF Railway to work with these capacity issues," Magliari said. "We expected them going in." - John R. Pulliam, The Galesburg Register-Mail

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CLIMB ABORAD A CABOOSE AT THE MUSEUM OF TRANSPORTATION

Photo here: [images.stltoday.com]

Caption reads: Photo by Jarrett Baker, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Susan Healy, of St. Charles, climbs onto a newly-refurbished caboose with her friend's son, 2-year-old Stephen Benny, of Ballwin.

ST. LOUIS, MO -- Two red cabooses -- the real things, not reproductions -- now sit on a track at the Museum of Transportation. The railroad cars are ready to be toured and to spur imaginations, just in time for holiday train nostalgia.

Volunteers spent about a year cleaning, refurbishing and repainting the cars.

One volunteer, Robin Deturk, 61, of Chesterfield, said the cars were full of dust, dirt and cooking grease. "The workers lived there for weeks at a time," he said. "A caboose is not a hospital."

Deturk, a former Air Force pilot, began to love trains at age 5 or 6. He and his mother crossed a bridge over four tracks and were hit with steam-engine soot. He loved it. She hated it.

Deturk and Therese Brady, of south St. Louis County, the museum services supervisor, expect many people to climb aboard the cabooses even though such cars are rarely used today. Beginning in the 1980s, electronic systems began performing many of the jobs handled from the caboose. But people love cabooses. Entrepreneurs turn them into restaurants, shops and even motels.

People coo that cabooses are cute. They are smaller than other cars and a bit anthropomorphic.

Deturk says people remember the end cars with kindness because the conductor, who worked out of the caboose, usually waved. "It's the human interaction," he said. "Cars carrying coal didn't wave."

Trains with cabooses travel around countless Christmas trees. Generations have grown up reading books such as "The Little Red Caboose," in which the caboose saves a train even though he is always last and small.

Thomas the Tank Engine, the star of a popular series of children's books, has a caboose.

Duncan McNees, 4, knelt on the floor at the Transportation Museum recently and held up a small, red, wooden caboose. He was obviously displaying a treasure. He was about to attach it to a Thomas the Tank Engine play train.

"Thomas only pulls the caboose when he hauls grain or coal," Duncan said professorially. "Not when he pulls passengers."

Duncan was right. Cabooses go on freight trains. His mother, Kelley McNees of Kirkwood, was taking him to see the real cabooses.

One of the museum's cabooses, the brick red Northern Pacific car, rode the rails from 1948 to 1984. Its interior is narrow, not even as wide as most school halls. The walls are gray. The beds have white blankets, and the oil-burning stove is black.

This caboose was for trips with overnights. The conductor kept track of the cargo, brakes and wheels and signalled stops from here. He slept and ate on the caboose. Children should imagine it with family pictures and curtains. Some conductors made the cars their home. The food they fixed was as famous for its flavor as firehouse fare today.

There are desks and chairs, modern-looking and metal, with seat belts. The desks turn to face either end of the car so the rest of the train can hitch up to the caboose from either end.

This train has a cupola that allowed the conductor to see both train and track for several miles. This caboose looks like the little red caboose. Not all cabooses are red. They are usually painted in the railroad line's colors.

Visitors to the museum can step from the Northern Pacific into the bright red Missouri Pacific car. The second car is a transfer caboose used in rail yards and on short hauls. In addition to their other duties, workers on this car help couple and uncouple freight cars. The shelter on this caboose sits in the middle of the car. Trains can hitch up from either end. It has a bay window instead of a cupola for a wider view of the yard. There are modern-looking desks. Its decorating scheme is gray and black. But this car features graffiti. Many cabooses did. This was a workplace, and people gripe. This ditty was written on the wall by J.R. Wolfe -- his name is all we know -- between 1980 and 2000. That's when this car was on the tracks.

"Up hill slow.

Down hill fast.

Tonage first.

Safety last …

Ban the brakeman.

I need a raise."

- Theresa Tighe, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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TRANSIT NEWS

STOP YOUR RAILING! SURE, LIGHT-RAIL CONSTRUCTION IS PAINFUL, BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT IN THE LONG HAUL

PHOENIX, AZ -- It's six o'clock on a Friday evening, and Dennis Chiesa hasn't seen a customer in his record shop for more than three hours.

The cozy little store, Tracks in Wax, is nestled in an aging strip mall between a hair salon and a psychic, just south of Camelback Road on Central Avenue. It's a niche retail business that differs from Borders and Sam Goodies by selling mostly vinyl records, and it's got a reputation, Valleywide, as a good place to find old punk or classic rock for the turntable.

The 25-year-old business is crammed with record bins and appears maxed out for space; the covers of albums and posters provide a swirl of eye candy for browsers. A manic saxophone wails on the jazz album Chiesa's currently spinning.

"Once rush hour starts, I don't know why I'm here," says Chiesa, the store's owner. He's a short man in his 50s with a substantial paunch, a kindly face, and black hair combed straight back.

His sales are half of what they were by this time last year, he says.

Chiesa blames this problem on light-rail construction. Much of the problem, anyway.

All he really knows is that few people are coming into his store in late November, weeks after the cooler weather has ushered in what's usually a hopped-up retail season.

Central Phoenix has always been a tough place to do business, partly because the metro area's population is so spread out. But the notion that light rail may be culpable for the downturn is hardly the product of an unhinged mind.

Outside the store, Central Avenue has been narrowed to one lane in each direction, the slow-moving traffic guided by thickets of orange-and-white hazard markers.

The old strip mall is at the northern end of one section of torn-up road. Farther south on Central, just west of Steele Indian School Park, hundreds of feet of brown-black steel rail line are stacked six feet high and just waiting to get laid.

No doubt some northbound motorists clench when they make the right turn into the strip mall just past the foot-and-a-half-deep, unfenced trench.

Even tougher driving challenges exist along the 20-mile path of the future light-rail train system. To motorists, the whole route has been an annoying patch of hell since construction began in earnest last year.

We've been bombarded with barricades and signs, shifting lanes, road closures and epic traffic snarls. Daytime movement around the Valley's urban cores has become a vein-popping experience that takes twice as long as usual and requires extra planning to avoid being late to work or for appointments.

But while the construction problems have just been aggravation for most of us, they have been extremely costly for businesses along the light-rail line, especially those that rely on walk-in customers.

Judging by estimates of restaurant, hotel and retail shop owners along the line, plus a report by the City of Phoenix, businesses have lost millions of dollars -- collectively -- as potential and regular customers avoid them during the mess.

From Tempe to Phoenix, most business owners interviewed for this article say they are suffering losses. Their revenue is down 7 to 70 percent of what they believe they should have seen in 2006. Though their estimates cannot be verified reliably, their main point is sound: It's a tougher environment than ever in which to do business right now.

Some owners, like David Wimberly of the George & Dragon English Restaurant and Pub down the street from Tracks in Wax, have been complaining bitterly.

True, it has looked like a war zone for the past few weeks outside George & Dragon. Besides the construction activity, the Autumn Court restaurant next door burned down after being abandoned by its owners a few months before. Blackened debris was strewn over its parking lot.

Wimberly says light-rail construction has brought sales down in his pub by 60 percent, and he can't see how much longer he can stay in business. He's one of the people calling for more handouts from the city and Metro rail to help him stay afloat.

"The worst part — we're not getting any compensation from the city," says Wimberly. "There should be no taxes on any light-rail people. We pay seven-and-a-half grand a month for taxes; my mortgage is 10. That would be the most fair — no taxes until this is done."

Such a move would be above and beyond what other light-rail-building cities have done. As with other urban innovations, Phoenix put off light rail until most other major Western cities had embraced it. But waiting has its advantages: Local officials knew how to apply just the right amount of aid to give small businesses a fighting chance.

Yet there is no guarantee of their survival.

The worst will probably come in the next few months for both George & Dragon and Tracks in Wax as more of Central between Indian School and Camelback roads gets ripped up.

One or both of those businesses could close its doors for good. And a bloody shame that would be — G & D is a great dive bar, and serves a mean plate of fish 'n' chips. But should the city or the rest of us really give a toss?

Most businesses on the rail-construction line, though hurting, will survive. And it may sound harsh, but even if they don't, plenty more entrepreneurs are lined up to take their places.

Businesses have had years to plan and prepare for the construction, and they're getting lots of help. Even critics like Wimberly pepper their complaints with praise for the way government officials and the construction companies doing the work act promptly when problems arise.

The reality is that it looks worse than it is out there for businesses.

Sure, some of the most vulnerable will be weeded out. Is that a crime, or is it merely capitalism?

In any case, it's a fiscally foolish idea to give away huge taxpayer dollars to keep afloat a select few merchants whose business acumen ranges from savvy to incompetent.

Even with reasonable government assistance in play, weak ventures are going to wither and die in this Darwinistic landscape.

The strong will not only survive, but -- if those who have gone through light rail before are any barometer — will thrive. Eventually.

And the rail line, still slated to start carrying passengers in December 2008, will be a great amenity for the Valley.

To be sure, one of the project's goals is to reduce the adverse effects of the construction on businesses.

But the first priority is to build the thing.

"Infrastructure for the future comes at a cost," says Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. "But it will be paid back in dividends. And a lot of [business owners] know that, and they are just trying to figure out day-to-day how to get through this."

Negative effects from the construction were unavoidable from the beginning, because the route plows through the most densely populated areas of the Valley.

The new railroad track goes from 19th Avenue and Montebello, south on 19th Avenue to Camelback Road, east to Central Avenue, and south to Washington and Jefferson streets. From there, the tracks enter Tempe via a bridge over the Town Lake, through downtown Tempe's Mill Avenue and south to Apache Boulevard. Less than a mile of line is in Mesa, ending its eastward push at Sycamore Street.

Neighborhoods were warned that roadwork would go on for 14 to 24 months in front of any given spot along the way.

At the start, more than 250 businesses were condemned and relocated, while others were truncated and remodeled, to make space for the trains.

Some businesses moved out for the duration of the construction, and the rest battened down the hatches.

The construction phase is not for the timid. It's ugly and it's painful.

But c'mon -- it's not that bad.

Not a single business has been sunk because of light rail. Not yet, anyway. That's the official line from the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, and it's hard to disprove. Without an audit and knowledge of the firm's history, there's no way to say for sure why a business fails.

Lack of customers, which no doubt had something to do with the construction, played a role in the closing of at least one business, A Taste of N'Awlins, as detailed below.

But as Lance Armstrong would say, it's not the bike.

Take the case of Pita Jungle in Tempe, a well-managed eatery that in 12 years has managed to expand once and open two other Valley locations. Hit with a one-two punch on both its access roads, Apache Boulevard and Terrace Road, the place stayed so busy that its owners spent $40,000 in June to expand into an adjacent 1,000-square-foot space.

In downtown Phoenix, ground zero for light-rail construction, city finance department reports show restaurants and bars and retail shops took a big hit in revenue in the months after construction started in March 2005. But they're making a fine comeback.

Downtown restaurants and bars posted receipts of $38 million by late spring 2006. That's not too shabby considering it's $10 million higher than the same period in 2004, when the roads were still intact.

Retail businesses in the studied area (from Fillmore to Jackson streets, and from Seventh Street to Third Avenue) aren't faring quite as well and have been making less money since the construction began.

Save the tears, though: Downtown retail has been gaining revenue for the past 12 months, even through the summer doldrums. Retailers made $9.2 million in sales between July and September, compared with $6.6 million the summer before. (The reports also show how minuscule the downtown retail industry is in comparison with that of the entire city, which posted overall summer retail revenues of $3.6 billion.)

Elsewhere along the light-rail route, new businesses are opening in seeming defiance of common sense.

We can see certain shops struggling with access and traffic problems, and assume their sales are affected. The broadcast media have focused on a few hardship cases.

So if it seems like businesses near light-rail construction face imminent economic collapse, it's an understandable misperception.

In a society trained to seek out instant gratification, the building process of light rail -- not to mention the hoped-for benefits -- grinds out in the achingly long-term.

One thing is certain: We have no choice but to adapt to light-rail construction, because it will be going on for a long, long time.

The starter line won't be done for two years. After that, there'll be a two-year respite, and (assuming there are no major snafus) construction will begin anew on the extensions.

It's helpful to keep one thing in mind while dodging barricades and rolling at two miles per hour single-file with other motorists through Construction City:

We brought this on ourselves.

The apparent chaos on the streets started at the polls.

With transportation a growing concern in 1985, Maricopa County voters agreed to pay for dozens of miles of new freeways by raising the sales tax half a cent for 20 years. The vote also created Valley Metro, which organized bus service and looked into trains as a future mass-transit option.

Four years later, in 1989, voters killed the ambitious, $10 billion ValTrans proposal that would have built -- among other things -- 103 miles of elevated commuter trains around the Phoenix metro area.

Rail boosters were undeterred. And as the county's population grew from 2.1 million in 1990 to more than 3.7 million today, voters changed their minds about trains.

Tempe and Mesa voters approved paying for light rail by bumping up their sales taxes in the late 1990s.

Phoenix got on board in 2000 after residents voted two-to-one to increase sales tax for light rail. Plans were soon worked up for the $1.4 billion starter line. A public-naming contest dubbed the system "Metro."

Before the construction even started, county voters in 2004 gave a thumbs-up to extend the 1985 tax for wider freeways, more buses and -- at a cost of $2.3 billion -- the addition of 27 more miles of light-rail tracks.

In March of 2005, just weeks after the federal government awarded its $587 million share of the funding for the starter line, the jackhammers began sounding.

The main notion of light rail is that it will move large amounts of people who might otherwise be driving cars, thus reducing traffic and air pollution. It's estimated that 26,000 people a day will ride it at first, but it could carry twice that number.

True, the population density of Western cities such as Phoenix makes rail a less efficient option than in, say, New York City. Manhattan is just 24 square miles, yet has roughly the same number of residents as Phoenix, a sprawling mega-suburb that encompasses 515 square miles.

But light-rail lines have still become popular in San Diego, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Portland and Denver, judging by how many people ride them and how voters in those cities keep approving light-rail extensions.

Los Angeles, which built its 22-mile Blue Line light-rail service in 1990, went from 19,000 riders a day to more than 75,000 riders a day in 2006.

So it makes sense that the Valley will learn to love its light rail, too.

The Japanese Kinkisharyo trains we're getting have a certain cool factor. They're sleek with lots of glass and can hold four wheelchairs and four bicycles. How PC is that?

Each car seats 66 people but can be packed with 200. Riders will board on stations that in most places will be like islands in the middle of the street. The trains, running the route on two separate east-west tracks, will arrive every five to 10 minutes during rush hour, and every 20 to 30 minutes at other times.

Metro hasn't decided on the hours of service yet, saying only that the trains will operate 18 to 20 hours a day.

Karla Navarrete, a Metro spokeswoman, says people have been asking whether the trains will run late enough to accommodate the state's new 02:00 last call at bars, but there are no answers yet.

"That will all really come about as we get closer to opening day," she says.

Businesses will be getting perks. Like the fact that thousands of people will look at their storefronts while riding by on trains every day. That kind of free advertising is hard to beat.

And this should mean that new customers will be exploring shops and eateries near light-rail stations.

"The theory is that in the long term, this is going to bring them more business," says John Henry Smith, a business counselor at the Maricopa Community Colleges Small Business Development Center in Phoenix. "It's worked in L.A., Oakland, San Diego and Houston."

In Portland, construction of the Interstate MAX Yellow Line put a few marginal businesses under a few years ago, but resulted in 51 new businesses opening along the line, according to Oregon transportation officials.

The most important benefits of light rail may be the indirect ones. Indeed, light rail is often viewed as a sort of rolling growth-stimulus package, spurring redevelopment of blighted areas and enhancing existing business and residential districts.

"Investment is about more than a new rail system," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta after the feds agreed last year to pay for 42 percent of our $1.4 billion rail line. "It is about a new wave of development that will promote new housing, new retail and new offices."

Studies show that light rail tends to spur development and increase property values. A 2003 report by researchers at the University of North Texas, for example, states that light-rail stations increased residential and office property values 25 percent over similar areas without such stations.

Listening to Mayor Gordon expound on the virtues of light rail, it's almost like he's playing SimCity, the popular computer game in which players build urban environments -- and he fully expects to win.

"It will create, you know, that high mixed-use density, which then adds property values, provides more individuals to support existing and new businesses, which all provides retail and property tax to government, that then allows government to be able to afford to hire more police and fire and librarians," Gordon says.

Ron Evjen, the regional leasing director for Renaissance Square, says light rail -- along with other projects like ASU's fledgling Phoenix campus — is already sparking demand for downtown Phoenix office space.

Three banks have signed long-term leases at the 26- and 28-story Renaissance buildings in the past year, including Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver's business, Alliance Bank.

"Banking is ahead of the curve — they can see the benefit," Evjen says. "They know it's going to be a little slow until the light rail is completed, but . . . the traffic that the light rail is going to bring is going to be very positive."

The latest update on Metro's Web site (http://www.valleymetro.org/METRO_light_rail/) says that while sections of Central, Washington and Jefferson will be torn up until the end of 2007, much of the downtown Phoenix work will be done by this coming March.

On First Avenue and Jefferson Street, the main roadwork in front of the Luhrs Tower is already finished. The steel track is embedded in concrete, the sewer lines and fiber optics and gas lines have been relocated.

Businesses in the one-story building just east of the historic Luhrs had it rough while construction went on right outside their shops.

By November it had eased up, but the owners of the nearby 22-year-old Flower Stand shop wonder whether their business will survive another year.

Next door to the flower shop is an empty storefront with a sign on the door: "Sorry, this location [of Red Seven Computers] is closed until January 2007 due to the impact of light rail construction."

Michael Cady, one of Red Seven's owners, says the store had been open for about six months when construction began in June on that part of Jefferson Street.

"It was instantaneous," Cady says of the effect on business. "Boom! It was like the hammer came down."

The downtown store had been getting in five to 10 people a day — suddenly its owners were lucky if they got that many in a week. But they were stuck with their lease. Red Seven will come back to downtown in the first half of 2007, Cady says.

"We think it will totally pay off for us," he says. "We feel downtown will finally be reborn."

But, for now, it's cheaper to pay the rent with the store closed than to try to keep it open.

The sales-and-repair business has three other Valley locations to subsidize its decision to keep the downtown store closed.

Sometimes it's not just the construction giving businesses a hard time — it's their landlords.

Light rail promises that property owners will be able to charge higher rents, and some of them are already doing that long before the trains are running. So some stores strapped for business because of rail construction are also seeing their rents jacked up.

Daniel Peralta says he was already struggling to pay the bills at his restaurant, Nick's 101 Bistro on First Avenue, when his landlord doubled his rent to more than $10,000 a month.

"We are [right now] paying high rent for a corner with no access," Peralta says. "We are determined to survive."

Best of luck. The "Nick" in the eatery's name comes from Nick Ligidakis, the chef who has infamously failed at five or six other restaurant ventures since the mid-1980s.

Of all the problems business owners must deal with related to light rail, perhaps the worst is being utterly unprepared for it. Like Ben Bahmae, who not only failed to plan for the trumpeted construction outside his convenience store on West Camelback Road, but says he didn't even know the work would go on in the daytime.

Bahmae, who moved to the Valley in 2006 from Los Angeles, says he worked for the previous owner for six months before buying the store in August.

"I thought it was going to be nighttime construction only," he says.

Now he wants Metro to pay his bills for a few months, since he's experiencing a 40 percent drop in business.

"I made a mistake," he says. "I'm very disappointed."

Four contractors are building light rail's 20-mile starter line nearly simultaneously in five segments. The project also includes a new bridge over Tempe's Town Lake and a $58 million maintenance and storage yard for the trains near Loop 202 and the Salt River bed.

Overseeing everything is Metro, the nonprofit public company (officially known as Valley Metro Rail Inc.) that is in charge of building and operating the Valley's light-rail system. Its board of directors consists of the cities involved in the project.

Both the project and Metro have avoided any major debacles so far.

There was one mini-scandal over the summer: Metro fired Vicki Barron, the project's director of design and construction, in October after the panel decided she had improperly tried to influence consultants for the project to hire an engineering firm run by her boyfriend.

While making headlines, Barron's firing had no discernible effect on the light-rail work.

A few months before, in May, news outlets had reported that the project's work schedule was four to six months behind.

Metro soon announced it had a plan to make up the lost time and still insists the trains will be running by the end of 2008.

While Metro and its partner cities can't prevent the construction from possibly sinking places like 101 Bistro or Tracks in Wax, observers like Smith at the community colleges say the Valley is doing a good job helping businesses.

Complaints that have come up in the year and a half of construction usually see a fast resolution, says Tom Callow, Phoenix light-rail coordinator.

The Phoenix City Council set aside more than $2 million for programs to help businesses stay alive through the three-year construction period. Businesses that sign up get free marketing and financial advice.

Most owners of retail and restaurant businesses interviewed by New Times said they took advantage of that service.

The blue signs and A-frames all over town begging customers to visit stores during construction come from Metro, as does the "Metro Max" discount program, which gives businesses free advertising.

Metro set aside $2.5 million for a program that pits contractors against one another to win cash incentives for excellence in handling complaints from businesses — and the business owners decide which contractors win. About half the money has been paid out so far, says Howard Steere, Metro's public involvement manager.

Officials learned many of their tricks from the experiences of Portland and Salt Lake City, flying in business owners from those cities last year to discuss ways to ensure the health of Valley enterprises affected by the construction.

Salt Lake City's initial TRAX light-rail construction in 1999 was a case study in how to royally screw over downtown businesses. Streets and sidewalks were scraped down to dirt from one side of the street to the other, and major throughways were closed for eight blocks.

The rumor mill soon had locals believing downtown was totally closed, says Tony Weller, owner of the 77-year-old Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore at 254 South Main Street in Salt Lake City. The track stop is nice now that it's done, but it "brought me to the brink of bankruptcy," he says.

To survive, Weller blew through a nest egg of a few hundred thousand dollars, and borrowed even more money against the property.

Communication is the key to keeping the frustration levels down for both businesses and their customers, officials here learned. Many owners interviewed had the phone numbers of officials from Metro, the city or a contractor at their fingertips.

That kind of attention has fostered goodwill up and down the light-rail corridor.

Joe Weaver of Stuff Antiques, 4206 North Central Avenue, says that while he opposes light rail, officials do seem to be trying to keep people happy.

During the monsoon season, Weaver noticed construction workers outside his store shoving debris piles against a nearby storm drain, and he worried that his building might get flooded in a storm. He called a woman from Metro, who said the problem would be fixed that day.

Come closing time, it still hadn't been done. So he called the woman again, and she called the work-site supervisor.

"The woman told him he had to do it. He got out with his shovel and he moved it clear," says Weaver, obviously impressed.

When utility relocation stopped water from flowing at George & Dragon for eight hours one evening, owner David Wimberly says the contractor dropped off two portable toilets and seven cases of bottled water.

"And that's brilliant," Wimberly says.

Nothing reveals faith in what light rail could mean to Phoenix like the new businesses opening at ground zero of light-rail construction.

"I think this downtown is just waiting to explode," says Barry Schoeneman, owner of the Men's Apparel Club at 204 North Central Avenue.

Schoeneman, who says he used to own manufacturing businesses in Chicago and is now selling suits here, opened last year "when there was nothing but rubble and trucks and everything else."

"I knew this was going to be like a bump in the road," Schoeneman says. "It hasn't hurt me, particularly. And now I'm here."

Schoeneman, like many others, believes light rail won't give Phoenix the soul it's lacking. But it will help.

People just need a reason to keep coming downtown, he says. He wants to see art shows, fairs, car shows -- anything that makes the place look more alive, especially on weekends.

"This is like a palette that's empty," he says.

Former downtown business owner John Rapoport says someday he'll hop on a light-rail train, drive past his old business at 130 East Washington Street, A Taste of N'Awlins, shake his head and think of what might have been.

Rapoport is a lawyer who also owned restaurants in the New York City area. He opened the Cajun food cafe in January 2005.

"I didn't fully comprehend how bad it was going to be," says Rapoport, who lives in Chandler. "There were times when light rail virtually blocked the access to my restaurant. You'd have to be dying of hunger to want to get in there."

The business lasted until May.

"We were trying to establish a foothold," he says. "There's no question that, in doing that, you need everything to go your way."

In retrospect, he has decided that light rail was just one factor in his eatery's demise.

Phoenix is a town where people would rather visit a chain restaurant, he claims, adding that a bar would have fared better in his old location.

Rapoport says it's wonderful that Phoenix is spending money on light rail to at least try to bring more people to downtown. He added that the city "desperately" needs help.

Anyone who says that weathering light-rail construction won't pay off is "just talking out of their hat — nobody's going to know until 10 years from now," Rapoport says. "Some guys like me are going to get kicked down, but that's tough."

Sometimes one man's misfortune is another's opportunity.

Bill Smith, co-owner of Stoudemire's Downtown on Washington Street, knows firsthand that the construction has been brutal. It's "crushing" downtown nightlife, and many people who brave the scene once won't come back, he says.

Yet he's preparing to open a pub this coming year in the space Rapoport vacated.

Clearly, it won't be easy. But "the growing pains are for the greater good," Smith says. "I'm willing to take a two-year loss to have a 30-year gain."

In two years, the trains will be running, the Phoenix Convention Center expansion will be done, and a new 1,000-room Sheraton hotel should be ready for business.

"There are no other big cities you can go into now and get this opportunity," Smith says, adding that the cost would be unimaginable to put a 10,000-square-foot restaurant next to a large office building in San Francisco. "If you want to be ahead of the curve in downtown Phoenix, now is the time."

There is similar enthusiasm uptown as well.

Smelly Dog, a self-serve dog wash on the northeast corner of Seventh Avenue and Camelback Road, has also managed to thrive as the jackhammers and backhoes rattled the streets outside. It opened in May 2005, post-construction. Owners Sean Kirk and Rob Valenzuela say their customers seek them out, and that light-rail work hasn't affected them a bit.

Their business is so good that it spills customers over to Mixture, Mike Hale's small furniture and home-accessory shop that opened a few weeks ago.

"I'll be excited to see how much business we're going to get" from light rail, says Thomas Smith, manager of the Fez bar and restaurant at 3815 North Central Avenue. "We opened our business a year ago — this restaurant's been going strong since Day One."

You, the customer, carry most of the responsibility for preserving the businesses you like that are trying to weather the light-rail storm.

Now is the time to dive into that turbulent sea of dirt piles and traffic jams and support your favorite eatery, retail shop or chiropractor. The businesses want you to pay a visit. With the emphasis on pay.

But if the parking problems are too much for you, don't worry. There are customers who are willing to frequent the construction-ravaged areas, no matter what. Always have been. So if the construction is over when Metro Rail officials say it will be and the trains are running in two years, odds are, the place you love will still be in business.

The light-rail project came about partly because it was feared that, without it, the densest part of the Valley would face gridlock. There was also the desire to help poor or disabled non-drivers. And there was also the belief that light rail would be a cool amenity that would spark more interest in downtown Phoenix. For instance, it will be easy for all those ASU students to venture into Phoenix's urban core.

Light rail isn't perfect.

There are no plans for it to go to the airport.

It's obscenely expensive -- nearly $4 billion for the first 47 miles. The operating cost alone is $28 million a year, and riders will only pay a quarter of that. It may never pay for itself.

Even with the planned extensions, the Valley's north-south corridors will be poorly served by light rail. Valley residents far from the metro area's core will have little need to board light rail except as a novelty ride.

But at full capacity, Metro says its system will move as many people per hour as a six-lane freeway.

The extensions, forecast to open from 2012 to 2025, will shoot the trains west to 79th Avenue on Interstate 10 and north of Paradise Valley up State Route 51.

And, for businesses, there are all those potential dividends Mayor Gordon talks about.

One thing is for sure: There's no use @#$%& now.

Voters approved light rail, and now it's here to stay.

Jennifer Houde recently closed her downtown shop, Greta's Pet Boutique, to get back into practicing law. She lives in central Phoenix and looks forward to using the light-rail line. Her shop, which opened in March 2005, had always been successful despite the construction.

"We all had enough notice [that light rail was coming] — like years," she says, laughing. "I'm sure there are some businesses that are hurting, and that's too bad. I know I always try to personally shop [at downtown stores] to help support them. And if they weren't prepared, then I don't know what else to say." - Ray Stern, The Phoenix New Times

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BROKEN PIPE SIDELINES NEW ORLEANS STREETCARS

Photo here: [www.nola.com]

Caption reads: Times-Picayune photo by Eliot Kamenitz. A yellow caution flag lies strewn on the ground as water fills the ruts on the streetcar tracks, workers dig down to a reported water line break under the neutral ground at Canal St. and S. Gayaso St.

Another Photo here: [www.nola.com]

Caption reads: Times-Picayune photo by Eliot Kamenitz. As water fills the ruts on the streetcar tracks, workers from Boh Brothers dig down to a reported water line break under the neutral ground at Canal St. and S. Gayaso St. Wednesday.

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- Because of a break in a Sewerage & Water Board pipe at Gayoso and Canal streets, the Regional Transit Authority suspended operation of streetcars on the Canal line Tuesday afternoon.

An RTA spokeswoman said the agency did not know when repairs to the broken pipe would be completed and streetcar service restarted.

The RTA said it will provide bus service on the line while the pipe is being repaired.

Buses were running on the entire Canal line, from the river to the cemeteries, and also on the City Park spur line from Canal to Beauregard Circle.

Because of the change, passengers were having to board vehicles on the Canal Street sidewalk, rather than the neutral ground.

Service on the Riverfront streetcar line and the St. Charles line's Lee Circle loop were not affected. - The New Orleans Times-Picayune

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THE END