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Railroad Newsline for Monday, January 08, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

AT A CROSSROADS: COMBINING THE BNSF AND UP LINES HAS BEEN A HOT TOPIC FOR MORE THAT A CENTURY

Photo here: [www.fresnobee.com]

Caption reads: Tomas Ovalle /The Fresno Bee. An Amtrak train heads north on the BNSF railway line, clogging the intersection at McKinley and Blackstone avenues. The railway's two dozen Fresno crossings block traffic every 25 minutes on average.

FRESNO, CA -- The first train on Fresno's second railroad reached the city's heart in October 1896 and was met by a joyous throng feasting on beef, pork and mutton. But the joy didn't last.

Only 22 years later, a planning report called the city's twin railroads a "great danger" and said the Santa Fe tracks should be moved three-quarters of a mile west to adjoin the older Southern Pacific line.

Another 88 years came and went. Then, on Nov. 7, 2006, Fresno County voters renewed the Measure C sales tax, earmarking $102 million for rail consolidation.

The vote foretold an end to decades of noise, dust and traffic snarls from trains slicing across the city. But consolidation still isn't a sure thing.

Before the tracks can be pried from their 19th-century routes, local leaders must answer some major questions:

Where will the rest of the funding come from? Even with Measure C, at least $500 million more might be needed.

Who's in charge? Unlike most of the $1.7 billion in other Measure C projects, rail consolidation is not assigned to any specific agency.

How to do it? Only a few cities have tried anything as complex as picking up 15 miles of tracks and moving them across a busy urban area.

Will the railroads help? The BNSF Railway Company has a 9-year-old agreement to "cooperate" with consolidation. But the Union Pacific -- the Southern Pacific's successor -- owns the land where the new tracks would likely go. Its position is uncertain and incentives unclear.

Still flush with success from a Measure C campaign that attracted more votes than any of them dared dream, local officials are only now thinking about those "what now?" questions.

Rail consolidation "definitely is not a well laid-out path, other than the objective," said Ron Peterson, executive director of the Fresno County Transportation Authority, which oversees Measure C spending.

What is now the main Valley route of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway began in 1896 as the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad, bankrolled by sugar magnate Claus Spreckels.

Today, that solitary line handles 75% of the rail traffic through Fresno -- typically 45 to 50 freight and 12 Amtrak trains a day. Its two dozen crossings block traffic every 25 minutes on average. Its noise disrupts stately neighborhoods.

Rita Hole has lived with the railroad's noise for decades. One Labor Day weekend, a train idled behind her house north of Shaw Avenue for two days, its engines filling the air with diesel exhaust.

"I've lived here for 32 years, and I knew there was a railroad track when I moved in," Hole said. "But there weren't nearly as many trains then."

In fact, when it began, the new line was just an upstart competitor to the Southern Pacific, which arrived in 1872. Shippers thought the new line would lower freight prices. An estimated 10,000 people -- out of a population of 11,000 -- met the first locomotive.

Soon, the new line was acquired by the Santa Fe railway and attracted industries that produced odors and noise. Steam engines menaced horse-drawn buggies and pedestrians.

In 1918, Charles Henry Cheney, a consultant to the first city Planning Commission, said that "the people of Fresno are in great danger on their public streets and suffering injury and loss from the evils of and excessive number of grade crossings of steam railroads on unnecessary duplicating lines."

Cheney proposed that the Santa Fe tracks be uprooted from the city center and merged with the Southern Pacific between Calwa and Roeding Park. It took 40 years before the city put forth a serious effort, asking the Interstate Commerce Commission to force a consolidation. The effort failed when the railroads declined to share needed evidence.

Other false starts ensued. Then, in the 1990s, a newly merged and renamed Burlington Northern Santa Fe signed an agreement to restructure many of its dealings with the city.

One provision pledged the railroad to support consolidation if it got new double tracks in the Union Pacific corridor, with no grade crossings, at no expense to itself. But with no obvious funding source, rail consolidation remained no closer to reality than in 1918.

Meanwhile, over the decades, miles of new houses went up along the BNSF line. Residents like Tom Bailey, whose home adjoins the tracks between Shaw and West avenues, could only wait -- and worry.

"It's the safety that concerns me," he said. "The noise, you get used to."

Bailey's next door neighbor Ray Bailey (no relation), sees it differently.

"Your whole house vibrates from the noise," he said. "Windows rattle and the floor vibrates. You'd think you were having an earthquake."

City Development Director Nick Yovino's office looks down on the BNSF tracks from the third floor of City Hall. Throughout the day, conversations in his office are drowned out by long, rumbling trains of cargo containers.

Rail consolidation, Yovino says, "has been talked about for at least the 35 years I've been here."

Measure C just a start

A pair of studies eight years apart by the Council of Fresno County Governments, a transportation planning agency governed by elected leaders from the county's 15 cities and the Board of Supervisors, set the stage for the inclusion of rail consolidation in Measure C.

The more recent study, in 2001, placed the cost of rail consolidation at $247 million to $319 million. But it did not attempt to gauge some major expenses, such as compensating Union Pacific for any land lost to the new BNSF tracks.

With construction costs generally rising faster than overall inflation, backers of consolidation now predict that the $102 million from Measure C will cover, at most, about one-sixth of the cost.

"It's going to take another $500 million -- I don't think there's any doubt about it -- to do the project," said Tom Bailey, who is president of Fresno Area Residents for Rail Consolidation, a citizens group formed seven years ago to promote consolidation.

Where that money will come from is far from clear. Tom Bailey says that the local investment from Measure C should help attract federal and state funds to the project.

But others say that grants are less likely to be available than loans, and that either the railroads or their customers would have to bear much of the repayment cost.

Measure C "is a wonderful start to the project, but it's not the end," said Corey Boock, a Los Angeles lawyer with rail consolidation expertise.

Experience in other cities bears that out.

In Los Angeles, the $2.5 billion Alameda Corridor project rerouted freight trains into a 20-mile trench between downtown and the seaports. It opened in 2002. Two-thirds of the cost came from borrowing, repaid by fees assessed on railroads and their customers.

Reno, Nevada, completed a 2.3-mile trench recently, funded by hotel and sales taxes plus a $65 million Union Pacific contribution, which the city won as a condition of the Southern Pacific merger. But in Spokane, Washington, a $270 million plan to merge two rail lines is moving at a crawl for lack of funding.

The lesson from those examples: Neither federal nor state grants are likely to pay much of the cost of rail consolidation in Fresno.

"There's not going to be a magic bullet of found money out of Sacramento or D.C.," Boock predicted.

Signs are few that the railroads would be willing to pay a significant share.

The BNSF's agreement with the city requires it to work toward consolidation -- as long as it gets double tracks and grade separations at no cost to the railroad. BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said the railroad will live up to that agreement.

The Union Pacific's position is less clear. Spokesman Mark Davis said that as far as his company knows, rail consolidation "hasn't been discussed, literally, for years."

If it comes up again, Davis said, no one should assume that the Union Pacific would be willing to give up part of its Fresno corridor to make room for the BNSF or any other user.

"If that property is there and available, it may be something we would want to use ourselves," he said.

Tom Bailey says that a key to getting railroad money for the Alameda Corridor was the prospect of cutting travel time from 12 to two hours between the seaports and the rail yards near downtown: "They were able to show the railroads that they would be able to move their freight a lot faster."

Whether that kind of payoff would result from Fresno rail consolidation is doubtful. But Peterson holds out hope that the Measure C money by itself will be enough to bring the railroads around.

"Now, when we sit down with them, we can say, 'Hey fellas, we've got $102 million,' so they'll know we're serious," he said. "It's not a study anymore. It's a project and it has a lot of money attached to it."

Many answers needed

Also unclear is which government agency would be in charge of rail consolidation. There are many candidates.

Peterson's transportation authority receives Measure C revenue from the state, which collects it. The city has jurisdiction over the railroad tracks. The Council of Governments commissioned the previous rail consolidation studies and drew up the Measure C plan.

"To be honest, I'm not sure exactly how we go about this," Tom Bailey said.

Little progress can be made until financing is in place. After that, Assistant City Manager Bruce Rudd outlines a possible scenario for moving rail consolidation ahead.

The first step would be to choose one of three alternative plans laid out in the 2001 report.
Engineering and environmental studies would follow, so that "within the next year or two, if at all possible, we'd have a shelf-ready project," Rudd said.

Along the way, though, several complications would have to be dealt with:

Both railroads have switching yards east of the current UP line. With four sets of main-line tracks instead of two, how would traffic move into and out of those yards? One solution proposed by the 2001 study would erect a $35 million bridge to carry the UP over the BNSF at Calwa.

The San Joaquin Valley Railroad runs three round-trip trains per week on a spur from the BNSF north of Olive east to Clovis Avenue. Would that spur be abandoned, at whatever cost? Or would three trains per week continue running through downtown Fresno on the old BNSF line?

What would happen to the current Amtrak station, on the BNSF at Tulare Street, which the city recently renovated for $5 million? Where would its replacement be?

Is it even possible to squeeze two more rail lines into the UP corridor, which is only 100 feet wide through most of the city? If not, where would the additional land come from, and who would pay for it?

Others want space in the same corridor. The California High Speed Rail Authority wants to run tracks there for its trains, which voters are scheduled to consider in November 2008. Amtrak wants a single track of its own, so that it can add more trains at higher speeds. "Physically, can you fit all of that within that corridor?" Rudd asks.

Until there are answers to those questions, as well as the engineering and fundraising challenges, rail consolidation is unlikely.

The Measure C spending plan provides that the $102 million will be used to build new railroad underpasses if consolidation is not "imminent" after 15 years.

In the meantime, local leaders counsel patience.

"If it's a multimillion-dollar project, you don't usually cobble together the money in three months," said Barbara Goodwin, the Council of Governments' executive director. "I would really like to say, 'Here we are, we're ready to roll,' but it's going to take a little time to pull it together."

Still a hot topic

In his 1918 report, Cheney urged quick action on rail consolidation. With the Great War raging in Europe, the federal government had assumed control of the nation's railroads, removing many political and administrative obstacles -- at least for the time being.

"If Fresno is alive to the situation," he said, "the city can probably obtain now from the government what it would otherwise take two decades and great expenditure to bring about."

Almost nine decades later, a city of 500,000 people has grown up around the "unnecessary duplicating" BNSF railroad tracks.

Generations of motorists have grimaced when major streets are blocked by crossing gates.

Homeowners have struggled to sleep through the rumbles and train whistles of late-night locomotives.

And the obstacles to rail consolidation have remained. But so has the interest.

"It's a hot topic in this town," Tom Bailey said. "And it always has been." - Russell Clemings, The Fresno Bee

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STUCK ON THE TRACKS: OFFICIALS DREAM UP $150 MILLION SOLUTION TO LONGTIME NIGHTMARE AT COLTON CROSSING

Photo here: [www.pe.com]

Caption reads: William Wilson Lewis III / The Press-Enterprise. Freight trains cross in Colton, where two of the nation's busiest rail lines intersect. The congestion will only get worse as imports coming through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are expected to nearly triple between 2004 and 2020, officials say.

COLTON, CA -- One of the Inland area's worst traffic jams isn't on a freeway.

Each day, more than 100 trains, some more than a mile long, make their way through Colton Crossing, an intersection of railroad tracks and switching equipment that is the railroad equivalent of a four-way stop.

Trains loaded with televisions, toaster ovens and tennis shoes bound for Chicago, Houston and New Orleans compete for access with trains hauling chemicals, lumber and other products destined for use around Southern California. They roll along on two of the nation's busiest rail lines, which intersect at Colton Crossing at a 90-degree angle. Some trains inevitably have to wait, sometimes for hours.

The congested crossing means that trains transporting goods imported from Asia through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach sometimes travel only about 65 miles before they come to a screeching halt -- with more than 2,000 miles to go.

Unclogging that mess would smooth interstate commerce, improve air quality in the surrounding neighborhoods, help Metrolink trains to run on time more often and reduce traffic delays caused by trains stalled at street crossings, officials said.

"It is a major rail bottleneck in Southern California," said Eric Haley, executive director of the Riverside County Transportation Commission. "And it has national impacts."

It also could get much worse. Imports through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are expected to nearly triple between 2004 and 2020, meaning Colton Crossing could become the rail equivalent of Highway 91 during the morning commute.

Inland transportation leaders want to spend $150 million to revamp the interchange by raising the east-west Union Pacific Railroad tracks above the north-south BNSF Railway Co. tracks between Rancho and Mount Vernon avenues.

"It would effectively remove half of the competing rail traffic there," said Cheryl Donahue, a spokeswoman for San Bernardino Associated Governments, or SANBAG, a regional planning group. "It's kind of a cumulative effect. If you have one stopped, the others are facing delays as well."

Track Separation

The section of track immediately south of the crossing, between Riverside and San Bernardino, is the most congested in Southern California, said Stephanie Wiggins, regional programs director for the Riverside County commission. Each day, dozens of BNSF and Union Pacific freight trains share the tracks with eight Metrolink trains and a couple of Amtrak trains, she said.

Metrolink's agreement with the freight operators calls for commuter trains to receive priority when two trains need to use the same track at the same time. But freight dispatchers sometimes fail to give Metrolink first priority for using the track, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said. That can leave more than 300 weary commuters steaming within their train car, waiting for a chance to get home.

Separating the tracks at Colton Crossing would eliminate that problem, Tyrrell said, and improve safety overall.

Construction on the grade separation, however, is years away. The first step comes in April, when SANBAG expects to award a $2.2 million contract for environmental and other studies that would help quantify what exactly should be built and what effect the new arrangement would have on the environment.

Local transportation advocates say problems at Colton Crossing are indicative of a larger problem of goods-movement congestion in the Inland area. They hope Prop. 1B, the $19.9 billion transportation bond state voters approved in November, could be a source for at least some of the $150 million.

"The last straw is almost on the camel's back," said Bob Wolf, founding president of the Inland Empire Transportation Coalition, a business group that lobbies for transportation funding. "I'm not sure how much longer we could handle this, even if we wanted to."

That chokepoint has existed since the 1880s, when it was built by one of the rail lines that eventually became part of BNSF, which now shares the crossing with its competitor, Union Pacific. Business is booming for both railroads, however, and delays at the crossing could get much worse.

"You are talking about a major stop-and-go process there," said Lupe Valdez, a spokeswoman for Union Pacific. "It can be a major thing if we are trying to get a freight out of town, away from Colton."

'It's Really Loud'

Trains caught in the congestion have to begin stopping long before reaching the intersection, and they need several minutes to power up and get going again. Delays at the intersection vary from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how many freight and commuter trains are trying to use the tracks that day.

As with most traffic jams, nearby residents suffer. Instead of shutting down trains while waiting for a chance to pass through the intersection, many conductors leave the trains idling, which sends diesel fumes and noise into nearby neighborhoods.

"When they power up to get going, the whole house rattles," said one resident, Ken Balmer.
As he spoke, a Union Pacific train blasted its whistle before beginning the final leg of its trip west into Los Angeles. The train had been waiting just east of the crossing for nearly two hours.

"Even when you're in the house, it's really loud," said another resident, Anthony Martinez. "Everything shakes like an earthquake, and you can smell the oil and the brakes."

Cutting Emissions

Locomotives around Southern California are responsible for about 33 tons per day of smog- and particulate-forming nitrogen oxides, roughly the equivalent to the emissions from about 1.4 million vehicles, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The agency adopted rules in February to reduce emissions from unnecessary locomotive idling, but has been unable to enforce them because of a lawsuit from BNSF, Union Pacific and the Association of American Railroads.

The rules would require railroads to shut down most locomotives that have been idling for 30 minutes. The railroads contend the rules are pre-empted by federal laws and would unduly interfere with interstate commerce. The case is expected to go to a mediator later this month, according to AQMD. - Phil Pitchford, The Riverside Press-Enterprise

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PCA THANKS KCSR's COUNCE TEAM FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE

During the holiday, Kansas City Southern Railway's transportation, engineering, mechanical, car distribution and sales and marketing teams worked together and provided extra switching to ensure that customer, PCA, in Counce, Tennessee would meet their year-end quota. PCA thanked KCSR for outstanding service with an email from transportation analyst David Ban on January 3.

On behalf of Dina Calabro, Luke Galat, and myself, I would like to thank everyone for their help with year-end. This year we shipped 130 railcars in order to facilitate a successful execution of month end. Despite the great job with this month end, we still need your continued support in future month ends.

This year's inventory goal was distinguished largely due to the Kansas City Southern railroad's hard work. Please continue to facilitate the flow of railcars and reject bad ordered cars in future month ends. Your effort of rejecting bad ordered railcars before they arrived at the mill was not only appreciated among PCA corporate transportation in Lake Forest, but also among the shipping crew at the mill, because it saved them time to load more rolling stock in a more expedited manner.

I note that year-end is especially difficult; especially since many KCS crews are working on the New Year's holiday. We based your great performance on year-end, largely due to the fact that there were so many constraints that you were faced with (e.g. Christmas holiday, New Year's, etc.). Thank you so much for your hard work, and we wish that this success continues in the future. - KCS News

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RAILROAD CROSSING ON COURT AGENDA MONDAY

DEL RIO, TX -- A railroad crossing where a woman’s truck was hit by a train last month will be the focus of a discussion by county commissioners court Monday.

The January regular term meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court begins at 09:00 Monday in the old county court-at-law building, 207 E. Losoya St.

Leading the discussion of the railroad crossing will be County Commissioner Precinct 1 Ramiro V. Ramón, in whose precinct the railroad crossing is located.

On Dec. 21, a Del Rio woman, Maria Calderon, was severely injured when a Union Pacific train struck her Chevy Suburban at a railroad crossing at the Rancho Del Rio entrance to the Escondido Estates area of the county.

Calderon is still in University Hospital in San Antonio, where she was listed in stable condition Friday, according to a spokesman for the hospital.

“I want the court to authorize me to start negotiating with the Texas Department of Transportation about this crossing. The whole thing has to go through TxDOT, starting with a traffic count, and I’d like the court to authorize me to start talking to TxDOT so maybe we can speed up the process a little,” Ramón said Friday.

Ramón said he would like to see crossing arm-barricades at the Rancho Del Rio rail crossing, as well as another rail crossing into the Escondido Estates area west of the crossing where Calderon’s Suburban was hit by the train.

“I’d like to see this done especially because of the fact that there are school buses full of children that go through there. I think it’s imperative that we start moving on this as soon as possible,” Ramón said.

Ramón added he has visited the two rail crossings several times since Calderon’s accident and has charged that he has personally witnessed trains passing the crossings without first sounding their warning horns.

Ramón said Friday the cost of installing the movable-arm barricades at both crossings would cost “a couple of hundred thousand dollars.”

“It is my understanding that TxDOT would pay for them to be installed and then the railroad would be responsible for maintaining them,” Ramón said. - Karen Gleason, The Del Rio News-Herald

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PASSENGER TRAIN GIVES FREE RIDES TO CULVER-JUDGE IOWA CITY EVENTS

DES MOINES, IA -- The Iowa City inaugural events for Governor Chet Culver and Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge will be just a short train ride away for many Iowans and the trip will be free.

Iowa Interstate Railroad, BNSF Railway Company and the Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers have teamed up to offer free passenger train service between Des Moines and Iowa City on January 11th.

That's the day of the Old Capitol Kickoff Reception and Tour hosted by Culver and Judge as well as the One Iowa Gala at Hancher Auditorium, an event to feature singer Al Green.

The passenger train, called the Inaugural Special, will arrive in Iowa City in time for riders to participate both events.

The Inaugural Special will originate from the former Rock Island Depot in downtown Des Moines. On its way to Iowa City, the train will stop in Newton, Grinnell and Marengo to pick up passengers.

The train will leave Iowa City and return to Des Moines about 30 minutes after the event at Hancher Auditorium ends.

To board the Inauguration Special, tickets will be required. Anyone wishing to ride must reserve free tickets by calling (319)466-4245 or e-mailing the organizers at InauguralSpecial@aol.com. - The Associated Press, KWWL-TV7, Waterloo/Dubuque/Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, IA

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DISTRIBUTOR EYEING SITE NEAR AIRPORT FOR CENTER

MESA, AZ -- The scent of the Williams Gateway Airport area as a major job center has a Phoenix beer distributor sniffing around for land to build a large distribution center in the East Valley.

Crescent Crown Distributing LLC, based in New Orleans, is looking to split its operations and about 600 employees east of Sky Harbor International Airport into East and northwest Valley facilities. It is discussing terms with landowners to buy 40 acres for a nearly 300,000-square-foot distribution facility. It also is negotiating with Union Pacific Railroad to build a run-around rail spur.

"Everything we see we like, we're definitely interested," said Joe Cotroneo, an executive vice president with Crescent Crown.

The company primarily uses rail and trucks for transportation. The East Valley's growth and improving transportation infrastructure make the area attractive, Cotroneo said. But cost issues, including extending the rail line and crossing a canal, will be a factor.

Crescent Crown and Mesa officials have not discussed any incentives package. The company distributes Miller, Coors, Pabst and other beers. - Carl Holcombe, The Arizona Republic

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PRESIDENT APPROVES DISASTER RELIEF FOR COUNTY

HOOD RIVER, OR -- The year turned over Sunday and with it came a welcome start to 2007 for Hood River County.

Emergency Management Officer Karl Tesch received word Dec. 31 that the state’s application for disaster relief had received presidential approval.

“What it means is the government is probably paying for most of the costs,” he said.

He referred to the Nov. 5-8 flood damages; which affected four counties in Oregon including Hood River, Lincoln, Tillamook, and Clatsop.

The state’s Emergency Management Office had listed the total amount of assessed damages at $6 million for all four counties. Before any money arrives though, the applicants face a round of paperwork and bureaucracy. The first step will be for Tesch to meet with County Administrator Dave Meriwether and Economic Development Coordinator Bill Fashing. That meeting is set for next week.

Following it, OEM will bring federal coordinators to Hood River within the next few weeks to explain the next level of report requirements. Those involve each entity submitting much more detailed requests than the initial reports.

“The briefing will be to get the paperwork started and to set up each one with a project manager,” said Abby Kershaw, director of OEM’s financial and recovery section.

The storm affected 14 sites within Hood River County. The Mt. Hood Railroad, which reported more than $1 million in damages, will not receive any relief.

“The private sector is not covered,” Tesch said.

Among the sites affected by the damages were both Farmers and Middle Fork irrigation districts, Ice Fountain Water District, Red Hill Road Bridge, Toll Bridge Road, and Highway 35.

One question remains gray. That is whether or not the Port of Hood River damages will be considered. Initially Kershaw had said the port would not be covered due to legal definitions. Those outline that any damaged infrastructure such as the Hood River channel that is the responsibility of another agency can not be considered for damage assessment by the state. In the Port’s case, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for dredging costs.

The damages at the port involve shoaling and sand that has filled in at the cruise ship dock. The state said that made the damages ineligible as it was the responsibility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Tesch disagreed.

“The port is covered,” he said.

Jon Gornick, Corps dredging engineer, said Thursday that nothing was happening on the Corps part.

“At this point, it’s in the port’s hands,” he said.

Kershaw stated Thursday that the issue was one that had to be resolved between the Corps and port.

“The port? It’s not for sure,” she said.

Kershaw explained that FEMA would examine the situation once they arrived to figure out the port’s eligibility.

Michael McElwee, executive director for the Port, said they are working closely with the Corps on the access channel issue.

“There are limited, if any economic damages to port facilities except for that channel,” he said.

He said the port has just begun the evaluation of the situation, which may take up to a year to complete.

“Until we do that, it’s unclear what would be the most prudent options to pursue,” he said. - Sue Ryan, The Hood River News

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COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF HARBOR BOARD'S RAILWAY BUY

PORT HUENEME, CA -- A state appeals court has ruled that the Oxnard Harbor District acted within its rights when it purchased a small railroad company in 2003 without the city of Port Hueneme's permission.

The city sued in 2005 over the deal, citing a state law that requires city approval when a harbor district acquires land within city limits. A Ventura County judge later ruled in the Harbor District's favor, and the state Second District Court of Appeal upheld that decision in two rulings, the latest released Thursday.

The only venue left for the city is the California Supreme Court. Port Hueneme City Attorney Mark Hensley said the City Council will probably decide at its next meeting whether to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case.

In its decision released Thursday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court said the Harbor District's purchase of the Ventura County Railway Co. did not require city approval because it bought only a controlling interest in the limited liability corporation that governs the railroad. Under state law, that does not give the district direct ownership of the limited liability corporation's land or other property.

The opinion also cites a state law that identifies railroads as a type of property that harbor districts are specifically allowed to acquire, as long as it is used for harbor business. The Oxnard Harbor District, which owns and operates the Port of Hueneme, uses some of the railway's lines to transport goods to and from the port. - The Ventura County Star

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TIBURON: CELEBRATING A RAILROD'S CENTENNIAL

Photo here: [www.sfgate.com]

Caption reads: The Tiburon Railroad Museum is in a historic building not far from Main Street. Chronicle photo by Frederic Larson

TIBURON, CA -- Historians will celebrate the 100th birthday of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at the landmark rail and ferry depot in Tiburon today with a ceremony that looks both backward and forward.

"The railroad used to be a big presence in Tiburon,'' said Fred Codoni, who once worked for the Northwestern Pacific and has written a book about the line's history. "Now the town is all condos. The people who live in Tiburon now have forgotten about the railroad.''

Codoni never forgot. An officer with the Native Sons of the Golden West, Codoni is one of the organizers of a 1 p.m. ceremony to celebrate the 100th birthday of a railroad that once dominated transportation in the North Bay by rail and ferry.

Eventually it faded away, like the smile on the Cheshire cat. All that was left were miles of rusty tracks covered with weeds. Most of the railroad was shut down in 1998; parts of it were revived briefly, but no trains have run for six years.

Changing times transformed Tiburon from a railroad town that was Northwestern Pacific's major freight and repair terminal into a high-end suburb of multimillion-dollar homes. But a new day may have dawned for the old railroad. Suddenly it has a future. If all goes right, by autumn it will have come back from the dead -- at least in Marin and Sonoma counties.

Armed with $50 million in public money, officials hope to fix up the tracks and start running freight trains from a junction with the Union Pacific near Napa through Novato, Petaluma and Santa Rosa to Windsor, just south of Healdsburg.

That's just the beginning. If the first 62-mile section works out, plans are afoot to rebuild the railroad all the way to Eureka, on Humboldt Bay, and help turn that hard-luck town into an international seaport.

"One of the best times to be in the railroad business is now,'' said John Williams, a veteran railroad manager who is president of the new Northwestern Pacific.

"It's nice to know the railroad is coming back,'' said Codoni, who grew up next to the tracks in San Rafael. "But it's not coming back to Tiburon.''

Codoni likes the future, but it's the past that fascinates him. The railroad, then called the San Francisco and North Pacific, first came to Tiburon in 1884. There were actually two competing rail systems in Marin and Sonoma for more than 20 years. The opposition North Pacific Coast line ran out of Sausalito.

Those two and a number of other small lines were combined in 1907 into the Northwestern Pacific, which had ferries, fast electric trains, an extensive freight and passenger system, and even a colorful little narrow-gauge branch that ran along Tomales Bay and ended up in the middle of nowhere.

Tiburon was the industrial heart of this enterprise. "No railroad, no town,'' Codoni said.

In Tiburon, the railroad first had a shipyard building ferryboats and then a big repair shop. "They could do anything,'' Codoni said. "They could jack up a throttle handle on a steam locomotive and put a whole new locomotive under it.

"It was an amazing facility,'' he said.

"Tiburon was a blue-collar town,'' Codoni said. "The railroad employed 300 people, train crews, machinists, blacksmiths, engineers. The whole town revolved around the railroad.

"Now,'' he said, "everything in Tiburon costs a million dollars. When I was a kid'' -- he's 72 -- "you could buy the whole damn town for a million dollars.''

He paused. "But who had a million dollars?''

Nobody in Marin was surprised when the railroad shut down the shops and pulled out of Tiburon in 1967, and abandoned the old Sausalito line five years later. It looked like railroading in the North Bay was a thing of the past.

The rest of the railway hung on for some years, hauling redwood lumber from the forests of the north. But then the lumber business collapsed, and through a series of complex events, the old main line -- from near Napa to Samoa, just across from Eureka -- ended up in public ownership.

It's owned by the public North Coast Railroad Authority, which has hired Williams' firm, the Northwestern Pacific Co., to run it.

The authority, which has a seven-member board consisting of public officials and business people, hired Mitch Stogner, a veteran BART financial executive, to find ways to pay for reviving all of the 316 miles of NWP right-of-way.

In November, the California Transportation Commission approved the authority's request for $50 million to refurbish the Sonoma and Marin portions and the Union Pacific connection.

The railway was also to be the right-of-way for a Sonoma-Marin passenger line called SMART, but that idea lost at a vote in November. Now the rails will be for freight only.

The money will buy 52 new highway crossing signals, 50,000 cross ties and 62 tons of ballast, among other things. Two swing bridges across the Petaluma River will be refurbished. "They are old and creaky, but they can be put back in order,'' Williams said.

What will the railroad carry? "Solid waste,'' Williams said. "Sonoma County has said it will consider shipping their garbage by rail.'' He also thinks he can ship in grain to feed livestock and lumber for houses.

"My game plan is simple,'' Williams said. "Fix up the railroad and then load it with traffic.''
Railroads, Stogner said, are good for the environment. "They save energy, they don't release greenhouse gases and are good for the economy.''

"There's been a huge shift away from trucks and to rail in the last 10 years,'' Williams said. "I think I can make some money on it.'' - Carl Nolte, The San Francisco Chronicle

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PLYMOUTH RESIDENTS FIGHT RAILORAD: OPPOSE STATE'S PLANS TO REOPEN SPUR TO FALLS; EMPLOYERS SAY IT'S VITAL TO 1,650 JOBS

PLYMOUTH, WI -- Residents of the Tallgrass Condominium subdivision in Plymouth say they are being railroaded — literally — by the state's plans to purchase and reopen a railroad right-of-way adjacent to the development.

Rick Iverson, president of the condominium association, said Saturday the track has been dormant for decades.

"When we bought, we specifically asked about that and they said, 'It's been abandoned for 20 years. The chances of it ever opening up are slim to nothing,'" said Iverson, 53, who purchased his condo three years ago. "I'm not going to blame any developer or real estate person because to the best of everyone's knowledge, it was gone forever."

Iverson and 56 others in the association sent U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac, a petition seeking a halt to plans to put the 11-mile line from Plymouth to Sheboygan Falls back into service. The residents say the track goes through neighborhoods that were developed over the years and near parks and schools.

Petri sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Railroads Subcommittee.
Petri's spokesman, Neil Wright, said the congressman's office only recently received the petition and that staff will look into the matter.

On the other side of the tracks, Bemis Manufacturing Co. and Richardson Industries Inc., both based in Sheboygan Falls, say reopening the railroad spur is vital to their businesses and 1,650 jobs in Sheboygan County. A different spur out of Sheboygan served both firms until March 2006, when Union Pacific discontinued service on that line.

John Howell, legal counsel for Bemis, which has 1,500 employees in Sheboygan Falls, said the change cost the company $500,000 more last year to have plastic delivered by semitrailers.

"For every rail car of plastic that comes in, it takes four semi trucks off the road," Howell said.

Joe Richardson III, chief executive officer of Richardson Industries, which has 150 employees in Sheboygan Falls, said the company now receives lumber by rail at Haven and trucks it to Sheboygan Falls.

"It's been a tremendous inconvenience for us," Richardson said. "It is an employment issue."

The state is expected to complete a $1 million purchase from Union Pacific for the Sheboygan Falls-to-Plymouth line by the middle of the year, said Frank Huntington, supervisor of the Railroad Project and Property Management unit of the state Department of Transportation. It will cost another $7 million to $8 million to rebuild the dilapidated track, which would then by operated by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad.

The project has to be ranked and funds must be available for before the rebuild work can begin, Huntington said.

"I would think the earliest service would begin on that line would be toward the end of 2008, and that might even be optimistic," he said.

Twenty percent of the rebuilding cost — about $1.5 million — would have to come from local sources such as the county, cities and businesses, Huntington said.

Attorney Phillip Kalchtaler, who moved two years ago into a home across the street from the tracks in the Tallgrass subdivision, drafted the petition to Petri.

"We moved in here under the belief that the railroad line was abandoned and it apparently isn't abandoned," Kalchtaler said.

But state Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elkhart Lake, said Union Pacific never had any intention of abandoning the track.

"The possibility of it being brought back into service always existed," Kestell said. "There was never a time when people should have been told that couldn't happen."

Tallgrass developer Mark Kleinhans and Bill Cain, owner of Re/Max Universal, the Realtor for Tallgrass condominiums, couldn't be reached for comment. - Troy Laak, The Sheboygan Press

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VANDALS HIT RAILROAD DISTRICT

SIOUX CITY, IA -- For the second time in a year, the Milwaukee Railroad Shops Historic District near Riverside has been devastated by vandals. This time, however, they left behind more than $20,000 in damage.

The vandalism, which occurred some time between Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, was discovered by a volunteer Saturday morning, said Larry Obermeyer, Siouxland Historical Railroad Association secretary.

Built in 1917, the Milwaukee Railroad Shops Historic District is one of the nation's largest collections of historic buildings associated with steam locomotive servicing and is listed as a project of Save America's Treasures. The district is located along the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway on Iowa Highway 12, adjacent to the Big Sioux River.

"This is the most extensive damage we've suffered through vandalism and burglaries ... it's malicious," Obermeyer said. "It's taking a toll on our volunteers. Some of them drive hundreds of miles to work here and renovate these buildings that are a part of Sioux City's history."

All of the windows on the lower level of the district's carpenter shop were broken, he said, as well as some top-level windows in that building and windows in the sand house. Glass display cases recently brought into the carpenter shop to house new displays were also broken.

In the SHRA's 400 railroad lift truck, used to lift freight cars and other heavy objects, windows were broken and tools were taken, Obermeyer said. A model railroad display put up for the district's Christmas open house also was totally destroyed.

It's not easy -- or cheap -- to replace anything, even the windows in the shops, as everything is done according to historic preservation guidelines, he said. During the last spate of vandalism in July, it cost them more than $5,500 to replace broken windows and stolen items.

"It is very depressing to see this kind of vandalism take place when you are trying to make your community better," he said.

Last time, security fencing was cut in two places to gain access to the district, but Obermeyer said this time that the vandals must have used ladders to get over the 10-foot-tall fence surrounding the buildings.

SHRA volunteers are willing to offer a $1,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for the vandalism, Obermeyer said. Anyone with information is asked to call the Sioux City Police Department's investigations bureau at (712) 279-6563 or the SHRA at (712) 258-0865. - Alicia Ebaugh, The Sioux City Journal

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TRANSIT NEWS

RAIL LINK COULD REINFORCE CITIES’ TIES’ FINANCES FOR MILWAYKEE-CHICAGO SERVICE REMAIN IN QUESTION

MILWAUKEE, WI -- The possible creation of a commuter rail system has the most potential to reduce the figurative distance between southeastern Wisconsin and Chicago, some civic and business leaders say.

It also figures to be an expensive project, with construction costs estimated at $237 million - a combination of federal, state and local funds. But some area officials, including Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, have said they would oppose a new sales tax to provide local funding, saying Milwaukee County residents already are taxed enough.

The service would run on existing railroad tracks from downtown Milwaukee to Kenosha, where it would link with Chicago's Metra rail system.

A commuter rail link from Milwaukee to Chicago - with stops at communities between both cities - would make it easier for professionals to live in southeastern Wisconsin and work in either or both cities, said Robert Mariano, chief executive officer at Roundy's Inc., the corporate parent of Pick 'n Save and other supermarket chains.

The system, known as the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line, or KRM Commuter Link, would provide more opportunities to travel by rail between southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

Photo here: [graphics.jsonline.com]

Caption reads: Photo/Gary Porter. Commuters from Illinois exit the Metra at the end of the line in Kenosha. The proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line would provide more opportunities to travel by rail between southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, but the 33-mile extension can't move forward without a local funding source.

Amtrak's trains run from Milwaukee to Chicago seven times daily. But once they leave downtown Milwaukee and Mitchell International Airport, those trains offer just two other stops - at Sturtevant, in Racine County, and in Glenview, Ill. - before they reach Union Station in downtown Chicago. A one-way fare is $21.

Photo here: [graphics.jsonline.com]

Caption reads: Photo/Gary Porter. Commuters from Illinois get off the Metra about 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kenosha station. As more people move from the Chicago suburbs to southeastern Wisconsin, ridership on the Metra rail system to Kenosha has increased.

The KRM link would offer 14 round trips on weekdays, seven on weekends and a lot more destinations, including likely stops in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood, Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Caledonia, Racine, the Town of Somers and Kenosha. Shuttle service would connect travelers who stop in Cudahy to Mitchell airport. Fares would be similar to the Metra trains, at less than $10 one-way between Milwaukee and Kenosha.

Photo here: [graphics.jsonline.com]

Caption reads: Photo/Kristyna Wentz-Graff. Racine's train depot on State St. has been restored in anticipation of a commuter rail link from Milwaukee to Chicago. The service would run on existing railroad tracks from Milwaukee to Kenosha, where it would link with the Metra.

The rail service could start by 2010, providing an alternative to driving on I-94 during freeway reconstruction between Milwaukee and the state line.

How to pay

The question of how to pay for more rail remains unanswered.

A Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission study estimated the cost of buying train cars and upgrading existing freight rail tracks at $237 million and projected operating costs at $14.7 million a year.

Congress has authorized $80 million for construction, and fares would bring in $3.8 million a year to help cover operating costs, the study says. Officials hope to get additional federal and state funds that would cover most of both the construction and operating costs.

But the 33-mile extension cannot move forward without a local funding source.

The newly created Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority is considering its options, including a local sales tax. Commission members could vote at its Tuesday meeting to ask the Legislature to authorize the new sales tax.

The three-county authority would be able to levy a 0.05% tax, or 5 cents on each $100 purchase, to cover the local share of building and operating the rail service. That would raise $8 million a year.

Many area business operators support the rail project, said Karl Ostby, president of Kenosha-based Southport Bank. A region tied together by commuter rail would allow southeastern Wisconsin companies to draw employees from a much larger talent pool, said Ostby, the transit authority's chairman.

The creation of rail stations also would stimulate development, said Richard Hansen, president of Racine-based Johnson Financial Group, which operates Johnson Bank.

"You look at every Metra stop, it turns into a great growth area," Hansen said. - Dan Daykin, The Milwaukee

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CALTRAIN'S RUNNING ON TIME, BUT BLOOD ON THE TRACKS IS WORRISOME

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- It’s a good thing that Caltrain officials finally appear to be going the extra mile on public safety measures, providing extra training, public education and monetary resources.

After all, considering its record in the past year, when it comes to public safety, the agency is more than a little behind schedule.

Caltrain is touting its increased ridership, added runs and a host of other progress markers, and perhaps rightly so. But what really stands out during the past year is the incredible number of fatalities on its Peninsula tracks — 17 — tying an 11-year high.

Facing mounting public pressure because of the death toll, the commuter train agency has set aside $6 million in the next three years for new fencing and added enforcement along its rails — things that have been needed for years. And while I applaud the agency for reacting to the safety problem, it may be premature to report that it is making “impressive progress on all fronts,’’ as it boasts on its Web site.

I realize the high number of tragedies may be an aberration — seven of the fatalities have officially been ruled suicides. Yet far too many people have been killed on Caltrain’s tracks in recent years for the agency to pat itself on the back for finally launching a much-needed public service campaign to educate families and children about the obvious threat posed by high-speed trains near schools and residential areas.

Caltrain board member Jerry Hill told The Examiner this week that Caltrain recognizes it’s part of the problem — but the same thing could have been said in 1995 or 2000, when the number of fatalities also spiked.

Agency officials say they have “redoubled’’ rail-safety efforts since May, starting a campaign call “Don’t Shortcut Life,’’ claiming to have made presentations to more than 5,000 people in the community. Representatives from the agency also have met with school officials near its rail lines, and even offered safety tips in school newspapers.

Yet if it somehow has another year like 2006, public pressure is going to quickly ramp up to public outcry.

There will always be voluminous debate whenever fatalities rise — in San Francisco, you can’t stop public officials from reacting every time a pedestrian is killed, even when it’s their fault. But with increased ridership comes a greater need for public awareness and education, and Caltrain officials are currently aglow about their 35,000 weekday ridership average.

Jonah Weinberg, Caltrain’s spokesman, told me the agency is doing everything possible to make people aware of the dangers posed by trains. The high number of fatalities in 2006 was largely a fluke, he said.

“It’s a strange factor that you can’t narrow down to a single variable,’’ he said. “You can’t factor in people using the railway to take their own life or those that ignore a lowered railroad crossing arm. We have suicide hot line numbers posted at least every 600 feet.’’

But still there are gaps in the system and it’s not enough to remind people that it’s illegal to cross the tracks in unmarked areas.

“We’re going to be putting in fencing in areas that might dissuade people from crossing,’’ Weinberg said. “But there are almost 80 crossings in the 47 miles of tracks and people still decide to take shortcuts. We’re just trying to eliminate as many potential shortcuts as possible. We’re trying to make it more difficult for people to take unnecessary risks.’’

That’s an encouraging sign, and there have been others. Last year, Caltrain became one of the nation’s first rail agencies to expand its safety messages to include the issue of suicide, the leading cause of train-related deaths. It also got some of its staff members to get involved with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and helped raise thousands of dollars for the cause.

Yet, in an area renowned for its technology, Caltrain needs to consider more advanced warning systems or other engineering solutions to make the rails more safe and secure. The agency budgeted $1.5 million to install fencing along the tracks last year and hopes to fund the same amount for fencing this year — although Weinberg said there is no guarantee the funding will be in the budget.

Of course, there’s no solution for stupid human behavior. In just two months, transit police issued nearly 300 citations to trespassers who crossed when the signal arms were lowered. And I doubt there’s a corner store or fast-food outlet that is worth the risk.

If anyone needs the warnings from 2006 to remind them, trains cannot stop on a dime. And that’s been true along the tracks of the Peninsula for 143 years now. - Ken Garcia, The San Francisco Examiner

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CREWS WORK TO CLOSE GAPS IN LIRR FENCING

NEW YORK CITY, NY -- MTA workers labored Saturday night to patch dilapidated fences near the Long Island Rail Road tracks in Queens where a teenage boy was struck by a train and killed, an area about which residents and businesspeople say they have complained repeatedly to the city and the LIRR because of easy access to the tracks.

The workers, wearing orange vests with the logo of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and LIRR, used metal clamps to close a gaping 6-foot-wide hole in a chain-link fence adjacent to the tracks near 63rd Drive in Rego Park. They used boards to repair a wooden fence that was missing several slats.

MTA police said they were investigating the accident, in which Ari Kraft, 13, was killed at 17:40 Friday when he was struck by an eastbound train.

From accounts given by friends, Kraft and at least one other boy were believed to be out spraying graffiti with their "tags," or nicknames, on railroad signal boxes when the accident occurred.

Vito Banca, 40, the owner of nearby Tony's Pizza, said he has called the LIRR to complain numerous times during the two decades he has run the business.

"It's always been open. It's a regular hangout," said Banca, who said he had served pizza to Kraft and his friends over the years. "Rarely do you see the cops check."

Banca said he frequently spots people walking in and out of the breaks in the fences near the 63rd Drive overpass. There are at least a half-dozen points of ready access, including the spots being repaired last night.

Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), who heads the City Council's Transportation Committee, had harsh criticism Saturday night for the LIRR and described access to the tracks as part of a "wider problem" regarding maintenance, gaps between platforms and trains and aged infrastructure.

"It's somewhat shocking how easy it is for kids to get on the tracks," Liu said. "Ensuring the track is not easily accessible is a responsibility that falls squarely on the LIRR."

LIRR officials said Saturday they were interviewing potential witnesses to the accident and waiting on speed and other data downloaded from the computer of the train. They said they also were reviewing how Kraft got on the tracks.

"We are attempting to make a determination right now what the access point was," said Kevin McConville, chief of the MTA police.

McConville said the investigation would include a review of complaints and citations of trespassing and graffiti. "Our initial results don't indicate much activity in this area," McConville said.

In 2006, 17 pedestrians were killed when they were struck by LIRR trains, spokeswoman Susan McGowan said. Most of the fatalities were suicides, and most of those killed were adults, she said.

Ava Barzvi, 37, the founder of Rego Park Group, a community organization, said she and other members have complained to city officials about graffiti and trespassing around the rail line, to no avail.

"There's always people back there, not only kids, but adults," she said. "Myself and a lot of other people call 311 and nothing seems to happen. The fence is always broken."

LIRR officials said the system's more than 700 miles of track are bound in part by a combination of LIRR and privately owned fences and walls. Officials said they had not determined who owned the fences near the spot where Friday's accident occurred.

McConville said finding unauthorized people in dangerous areas was "not uncommon."

"It's not realistic to believe that the railroad can install a system that is fully human-proof," he said. - Andrew Strickler, Newsday

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THE END