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Railroad Newsline for Tuedsay, 11/21/06
Author: Larry W. Grant
Date: 11-21-2006 - 02:53
Railroad Newsline for Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Compiled by Larry W. Grant
In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006
Rail News
BNSF Freight Train Derails At Everett, Washington Blocking Commuter And Passenger Trains; One Car Lands In Puget Sound
EVERETT, WA -- Ten cars of BNSF Railway Company train M EVEBAR1 20, loaded with wood products jumped the tracks early Monday, blocking Amtrak passenger trains and Sound Transit service between Everett and Seattle.
At approximately 03:57 PT Monday, November 20, 2006 as the train was passing over a switch less than a mile south of the old Everett train station. This location is approximately 34.6 miles North of Seattle, WA.
Repair crews hoped to restore train service within 24 hours, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said.
No one was injured, no hazardous materials or toxic substances were involved and there was no risk of pollution, Melonas said. The cause remained under investigation but train handling was ruled out, he added.
The first of the 10 cars to go off the tracks was 19 cars behind the four engines pulling an 89-car train, he said. One car was partly in Puget Sound, four were on their sides, two were tilting and three were upright. All were carrying lumber, veneer board, particle board or wood pulp.
Geoff Patrick of Sound Transit said the derailment blocked commuter service this morning and evening between Everett and Seattle. Amtrak passenger trains also were blocked, Melonas said.
He said some eastbound freight trains were being detoured through the Columbia River gorge.
Estimated time of opening for main track 2 is set for 01:00 PT, November 21. There is no estimated time of opening for main track 1 at this time.
Customers may experience 18 to 24 hour delays on traffic moving through this corridor. - The Associated Press, The Seattle Times and BNSF Service Advisory
Picacho Rail Yard Voted Down
FLORENCE, AZ -- A busload of residents from Picacho Peak RV Resort made the 40-mile trip to Florence Thursday, trying to stop a rail yard from being built in their back yard.
Some 50 people traveled to have their voices heard before the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission, which was considering an approximate 10,472-acre parcel along Interstate 10 for a comprehensive plan amendment, changing it from "development sensitive, transitional, natural resource and interchange mix" to "urban, industrial and rural community." The land is owned by the State Land Department and will go up for auction and be sold to the highest bidder, be it Union Pacific Railway or another party.
The railroad wants the yard as a means of expanding freight service in this part of the state. The Land Department manages vast areas, leasing or selling them to benefit an education trust that was set up when Arizona became a state. The commission recommended denial of the amendment by the Board of Supervisors, on a 5-3 vote, with Mary Aguirre-Vogler absent. The matter is tentatively set to go before the supervisors in late November. Many of those who make their home in and around Picacho Pass do so because of the uninterrupted desert vistas, the quietness of the desert and the ability to see a roadrunner or other desert creature running by.
Ann Hoffman, who lives at the resort, southeast of Picacho Peak along I-10 with her husband Robert, said she loves the beauty of the desert, and each morning when she looks out her kitchen window she is thankful for the peaceful nature of her home and the surrounding area. "The saguaros will probably be the first victims if this thing gets passed, then the wildlife will move or be killed because of the fumes," she said. "What we will get an abundance of is rats and roaches. Then people will start to leave because people with breathing problems won't be able to stay. "What I would do is turn it into a state park because it's that beautiful, but unfortunately I'm not the one who makes those decisions."
Ron Ruziska, a representative of the Land Department, said growth is coming to the Picacho Peak area. "This is inevitable, ongoing growth to the state and country," he said. "We have real estate here in Arizona where other parts of the country have timber or oil. Land is our life blood. It is in our best interest to work with our neighbors and ourselves to benefit the public schools from the inevitable sale of this land whether it be a switchyard or a Wal-Mart or a housing development. But, the majority of the Picacho area will be developed."
With its 5-3 recommendation for denial of the comprehensive plan amendment, the commission was divided in this case. Commissioner Scott Riggins said he did not want to see the Picacho Peak area developed. "I think it would have a large, large impact on a state treasure, the Picacho Peak," Riggins said. "To develop something on this spot would be a darned shame." Chairwoman Kate Kenyon said more industry is needed in Pinal County, so she voted for the proposal. "Pinal County is nothing more than a bedroom community with a 20-year supply of houses. We have no industry coming in," she said. "All bedroom communities do is ask for facilities like parks and entertainment. If a railroad comes in, so will other industries."
Herb Kai, who operates Kai Farms near the proposed site, said he was born and raised in southern Arizona. As a farmer and a businessman, he said he realizes the need for this project. He just wishes it could be built somewhere else. "This could have many negative effects including on the groundwater, it could be contaminated," he said. "... Union Pacific has enough income it can afford to build it somewhere else - anywhere it won't affect so many landowners." - Kris Walkinshaw, The Eloy Enterprise, Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc., courtesy Marc Pearsall
Amtrak Ridership At Near-Record Levels In Iowa
DES MOINES, IA -- High gasoline prices and long lines at the airports are paying off for Amtrak with another year of near-record ridership in Iowa.
A total of 61,377 people got on and off Amtrak trains at six Iowa stations during the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the railroad said.
That's just shy of the railroad's all-time high of 61,418 passengers in Iowa a year earlier.
"Our experience anecdotally has been that when gasoline prices make a major move, people search for alternatives for their travel plans. For a lot of people, we are a great alternative,'' said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari in Chicago.
Nationwide, Amtrak served a record 24.3 million passengers in the past fiscal year -- nearly 300,000 more than for the same trains in the previous year.
Many Iowans will board railroad cars this week as Amtrak adds dozens of trains nationwide to deal with a crush of travelers expected for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The largest number of travelers will be on the highways, while others will head for airports. The AAA motor club estimates that 37 million Americans will be on the road this week.
At the Travel Center in Des Moines, which specializes in train trips, Amtrak business has been brisk, partly due to travelers who want to avoid headaches encountered in airports, said Rick South, the travel agency's co-owner.
"For people who don't like to fly in the first place, the next thing they are going to do is Amtrak,'' South said.
Amtrak operates two daily trains that pass through Iowa between Chicago and the West Coast. The California Zephyr serves Burlington, Mount Pleasant, Ottumwa, Osceola and Creston. The Southwest Chief has a stop in Fort Madison.
Passengers on Amtrak's long-distance trains that run through Iowa will need patience.
According to Amtrak records, the California Zephyr ran late 93 percent of the time during the past federal budget year, while the Southwest Chief was late 27 percent of the time.
Much of the problem with the Zephyr's lack of punctuality can be attributed to worn tracks between Reno, Nev., and Salt Lake City, Magliari said. Trains running on this segment have to slow down, losing time from a schedule developed for faster train speeds, he said. - The Associated Press, WOI-TV5, Des Moines, IA
RMI Announces Second Annual Fast Track Award Recipients
ATLANTA, GA -- RMI, the market leader and largest independent provider of accurate, reliable, comprehensive and secure rail information services to the transportation industry, announces today the 2007 Fast Track Award winners. Award recipients will be recognized in the 2007 Fast Track Award calendar. Now in its second year, the Fast Track Award program honors 12 RMI customers who exemplify RMI's goal to streamline processes and improve procedures in the rail industry.
The Fast Track award is specifically designed to recognize RMI's RailConnect and ShipperConnect "power users," those that maximize the value of RMI's services by implementing procedures that result in more comprehensive automation of manual processes, improved information capture and reporting, greater accounting control, enhanced asset management or more efficient processes in any capacity.
"Fast Track Award winners are RMI customers who have continually demonstrated unique and creative ways of improving their businesses through the use of RMI's products and services," says Paul Pascutti, vice president marketing of RMI. "This is the second year of the Fast Track Awards and we at RMI are proud that this year's winners continue to improve upon the successes that were established last year. Several winners were honored both this year and last as they continue to demonstrate advanced use of RMI's technology in improving their overall operation."
2007 Winners
The following 2007 winners are being recognized by various internal and external promotions within the industry.
· Renewable Products Marketing Group: With the implementation of RMI's ShipperConnnect FMS and eBOL services, Renewable Products Marketing Group has been able to reduce transit times by two days.
· The Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA): Using advance yard blocking and car scheduling tools, PTRA has greatly improved the percentage of cars moving according to plan and reduced terminal dwell time by eight hours.
· Eljin, Joliet & Eastern Railway (EJE): Using eBOL with its shippers and the ability of RailConnect TMS to process bills of lading from other sources, EJE, now receives over 75 percent of its billing electronically, resulting in significant accounting efficiencies.
· New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway (NYSW): Over the past two years, NYSW has fully incorporated eBOL and scheduled FMS reports resulting in a 28 percent decrease in transit times for cars loaded by its customers.
· Chicago Rail Link (CRL): Using RMI's RailConnect TMS automated services, CRL has experienced greater efficiencies and reduced errors on inbound waybills by 25 percent.
· CSX Transportation (CSXT): As the operator of the largest railroad in the Eastern United States, CSXT utilized RMI's Car Management Business Intelligence tool to decrease car hire expenses and improve car utilization.
· The Central California Traction Company (CCT): With RMI RailConnect reports, CCT management has been able to plan effectively and CCT operations have been moving cars efficiently and safely.
· Warrior & Gulf Navigation Company (WGN): Prior to implementing RailConnect BMS and TMS, WGN reported its barge and tug locations manually, using fax and email. Now, with the help of RMI, WGN is the first inland waterway carrier to use RailConnect to ensure that the transportation and material handling services are reported and invoiced properly.
· Chemims de Fer du Quebec/Quebec Railway Corporation (QFQ/QRC): QFQ/QRC has utilized RailConnect to automate many aspects of its operations and as a result not only have they have been recognized for the best overall TRAIN II reporting for the past two years at the CN Short Line Conference, but they have also greatly reduced no-bills and improved customer satisfaction.
· Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway (CRANDIC): Just a few years ago, CRANDIC lacked an effective process for handling switching and trace requests generated by their customers. Now, over 99 percent of CRANDIC's customers use ShipperConnect to release, order and trace cars.
· Indiana Rail Road (INRD): After acquiring 92 miles of mainline track and trackage rights into Chicago and Louisville, Indiana Rail Road saw an opportunity to overhaul its processes. They provided all their customers with ShipperConnect and saw crew efficiency improve by 25 percent in two months and a reduction in phone calls and faxes.
· Farmrail (FMRC): Using the tools in RailConnnect TMS, EMS and ShipperConnect services, Farmrail has been able to enhance the efficiency of its operation, improve customer service and minimize cost. They were also recognized as one of five short lines to achieve 100 percent timely reporting of TRAIN II events.
Choices for the Fast-Track awards are based on several criteria including use of advanced RailConnect features such as ShipperConnect, Inbound Blocking Tables, SuperTrip and the RailConnect Query Tool. The program also requires consistently high percentage compliance with TRAIN II reporting standards.
Railroads and shippers interested in being considered for the 2008 Fast Track Awards should contact Jennie Baker at 404-355-6734 or jennieb@railcarmgt.com for more information on the criteria, nomination process and application. Nominations will be accepted starting in May 2007. - BusinessWire.com
City Of Wichita To Amend Contract For Rail Corridor
WICHITA, KS -- The city of Wichita is about to put the final touches on a deal to resolve problems with defective concrete panels in the $98 million Downtown Rail Corridor project, officials said.
The City Council is expected to approve changes to a construction and maintenance agreement with the BNSF Railway Company at its meeting Tuesday.
The changes are needed because of problems discovered about four months ago in the panels used to build retaining walls to elevate the tracks where they pass through the city center.
Steel reinforcements inside the defective panels were improperly bent in the fabrication process and shifted when the concrete was poured, city officials have said.
In some cases, the steel is exposed to the open air and prone to rust.
City Public Works Director Chris Carrier said there is no structural problem, but it could become a maintenance issue during the expected 75-year life of the panels.
"Maybe the design life ends up being only 50 years instead of 75," he said.
The city has reached agreement with the project's general contractor, Dondlinger & Sons Construction Co., to replace the top row of defective panels, which are exposed, Carrier said.
Dondlinger also will pay the city $1 million, to be put in an interest-earning account to pay for any future maintenance that may be required on possibly defective lower panels, he said.
The interlocking panels hold back massive amounts of sand, cement and asphalt that will hold up the tracks.
The project is designed to ease street traffic congestion by elevating the railway and improving rail overpasses.
A combination of federal, state, local and railroad funds is paying for the project.
The contract changes the council will vote on will alter the city's deal with the railroad to incorporate the settlement terms that the city has made with Dondlinger, according to a staff report.
Council member Bob Martz said he was initially concerned about the defects, but after meeting with city engineers, he's convinced the problems have been adequately addressed. - Dion Lefler, The Wichita Eagle
BNSF Requires All Truck Engines To Be Tuned Off At All Intermodal Facility Checkpoints
In order to improve safety for workers at BNSF Railway Company Intermodal Checkpoints, effective immediately, drivers of all trucks that enter or depart BNSF Intermodal Facilities will be required to turn their truck engines off while at designated checkpoint locations.
Truck engines are to remain off until truck drivers are instructed by the checkpoint inspector to start their engines and proceed from the checkpoint lane. The stop locations will be designated by a Stop Sign or a Stop Bar painted across the pavement of the checkpoint lane. Signs stating "Turn Engines Off" will also be posted at the stop locations.
In addition to improving safety for BNSF workers, this new policy will improve air quality with reduced diesel emissions and less overall noise. - BNSF Facility Update
RailAmerica October Carloads Down Nine Percent
BOCA RATON, FL -- RailAmerica Inc. said Monday freight carloads fell 9 percent in October from year-ago levels, hurt by the sale of several properties and a slowdown in the housing market.
The short-line and regional rail service provider said overall carloads fell to 102,031 from 112,134 in the year-ago period. The sale of the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad and other assets accounted for about 4,903 carloads of the 10,103 carload overall decline.
On a "same-railroad" basis, measuring assets held since Jan. 1, 2005, October carloads fell 4.8 percent due to lower shipments of lumber and forest products, coal, minerals, and autos. The company said the housing slowdown led to the declines in lumber and forest products.
Since the beginning of the year, total carloads are down 3.6 percent to 1.05 million, while "same-railroad" carloads are down 1.9 percent to 1.02 million. - The Associated Press, The Houston Chronicle
Othello Caboose Museum
OTHELLO, WA -- A caboose chugged its way to The Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello, Washington.
The railroad system and the gallery have a history together.
"The railroad was very important to this area," Gallery Director Sally Lambert said. "The old hotel was here for the railroad workers to stay."
After a long day of work on the railroad, workers from out of town stayed at the hotel long before it was converted into a gallery.
When the workers were on the road in the train, they stayed in the caboose, she said.
"The caboose was designed to be a kitchen and sleeping area for railroad workers," she said.
The interpretive caboose is an additional gallery for the museum. When the caboose opens in the springtime, a walk through gallery and its history are available for visitors.
"This will tell about the railroad," she said.
A lamp, potbellied stove and a seat inspired by the original caboose rest inside.
"It doesn't look very comfortable," Lambert said.
The 1946 caboose was transported to Othello from Maine. It was an original caboose designed and built by the Milwaukee Railroad.
Lambert expects a large turnout when it opens.
"I think it will bring a lot of railroad people in," she said. "There are so many people interested in the history of the railroad."
She knows of people who spend time sitting by the railroad tracks to reflect on the railroad's history.
"I'm really looking forward to having this open," Lambert said.
Since becoming the gallery director a few months ago, she finds she loves her job, Lambert said.
She drives a 140 mile round trip daily from her home in Benton City to come to work. Lambert said she always wanted to get involved with the gallery.
When the weather gets nasty, she plans to stay with a fellow gallery worker.
She moved from Virginia and was curious about Othello but never thought she might work there. She recalled seeing signs for Othello while driving to Western Washington and was curious about the city. When she saw the signs, she thought about the Shakespearean play "Othello." She always wanted to visit, Lambert said.
The project is funded by donations from the community, she said.
A tour guide specific to the project is available when the caboose opens.
For more information, contact Lambert at 509-488-2683. To view a photo of the caboose, click on the following link:
[www.columbiabasinherald.com]
- Candice Boutilier, The Columbia Basin Herald
Russia's Evraz To Buy Oregon Steel For $2.3 Billion
Evraz Group SA, a steelmaker partly owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, agreed to buy Oregon Steel Mills Inc. for $2.3 billion, the biggest-ever purchase in the U.S. by a Russian company.
Evraz bid $63.25 a share in cash for all of Portland-based Oregon to gain a foothold in the U.S. and create the world's largest producer of rail tracks and wheels, the companies said today in a joint statement. The proposal is 6.8 percent more than Oregon's closing stock price last week of $58.96.
The transaction will raise Evraz, Russia's biggest steelmaker, to 10th in the world, ahead of Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG. Russian steel producers and peers in India and Brazil, encouraged by rising stock values, want to boost crude- steel processing in North America and Europe to make higher- value products such as oil and gas pipes.
This shows ``corporate Russia is at its healthiest yet,'' said Al Breach, chief strategist with UBS AG in Moscow.
Shares of Oregon surged $4.45, or 7.6 percent, to $63.41 as of 11:49 in New York. The stock has more than doubled in the U.S. in the past year, as the company built new pipe-making facilities. Evraz's London-listed depositary receipts dropped 20 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $24.85 at 4:53 p.m. local time, valuing the company at $8.7 billion.
Emerging Muscle
The takeover would increase the muscle of steelmakers from outside developed countries. Emerging economies now account for six out of the 10 biggest steelmaking nations. China alone makes almost a third of the world's steel. Mittal Steel Co., the world's largest producer, started with an Indonesian steel plant. Arcelor SA proposed merging with OAO Severstal, Evraz's Russian rival, before agreeing to be bought by Mittal this year in the industry's biggest-ever combination.
``I suspect we'll end up with no first-world steel companies eventually,'' Roger Nightingale, a strategist with Millennium Global Investments, said in an interview in London. Cheap loans and profits boosted by low labor costs are helping steelmakers in emerging markets vie for rivals in mature markets, he said.
Steel companies are paying ever-larger premiums for smaller rivals. Evraz's offer is about 7.1 times Oregon's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, in the 12 months through Sept. 30. Mittal's offer for Arcelor was 4.56 times the Luxembourg-based company's Ebitda.
For Evraz, Oregon is ``big enough that's its worth buying, yet small enough so that it won't stretch the balance sheet,'' said Timothy McCutcheon, a partner at DBM Capital in Moscow. The cash-only bid shows some investor distrust of Russian companies, however.
Advisers
Credit Suisse is advising Evraz on the transaction, with UBS Securities LLC acting for Oregon.
The deal will allow Evraz to produce 1.5 million tons of railroad products a year, the most in the world, Evraz Chief Financial Officer Pavel Tatyanin said. Prices for track and other processed-steel products are about 30 percent higher in the U.S. than in Russia, Rob Edwards, an analyst with Moscow- based investment bank Renaissance Capital, said via telephone.
``Oregon offers a unique opportunity to expand in what is one of the largest and most mature markets in the world,'' Tatyanin said by telephone from the company's Moscow office today.
Evraz's output will increase by 21 percent to 16.8 million tons after taking over Oregon.
Dusseldorf-based ThyssenKrupp, currently No. 10, pours 16.5 million tons.
Biggest Purchase
The acquisition dwarfs previous Russian purchases in the U.S. Moscow-based OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, agreed today to pay $408 million in cash for the nickel assets owned by Cleveland-based OM Group Inc. to expand output of a metal that has more than doubled in price this year.
Norilsk, controlled by billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov, paid a then-record $257 million in 2003 for Stillwater Mining Co. of Billings, Montana. Later that year, Severstal, controlled by billionaire Alexei Mordashov, bought bankrupt Rouge Industries Inc., a supplier to Ford Motor Co., for $285.5 million. Severstal may now make a bid for U.S. Steel, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Nov. 17, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan.
Oregon makes seamless and large-diameter pipes used mainly in the oil and gas industry, as well as coils and plates, a semifinished product used to make pipes. The U.S. company will soon complete construction of a spiral weld mill in Portland, Tatyanin said.
`Further Acquisitions'
``Pipe making is an attractive business to be in,'' Tatyanin said. The company will consider further acquisitions or construction of pipe-making facilities after the transaction is complete, he said.
Evraz already holds 10 percent of Europe's plate market through its Czech and Italian plants.
Although Evraz and Oregon ``speak the same language when it comes to product mix, achieving cost-saving synergy will be complicated,'' McCutcheon said.
Russia won U.S. approval yesterday to join the World Trade Organization, the last major hurdle for membership. The accord, signed during an Asian summit in Vietnam attended by presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, may give a new spark to a relationship that is at a post-Cold War low.
Russia is the last major economy outside the 150-member WTO. That distinction, combined with government bureaucracy at home makes it difficult for Evraz and other metals producers to sign long-term contracts to ship ore or crude metal overseas to lower costs, McCutcheon said. - Yuriy Humber, Bloomberg.com
Transit News
Back On Track; Area's Transit Future Inspired By Past
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Imagine a Colorado Springs where you could hop one of 38 trains to Denver. Where trolleys whisk commuters and tourists all over town. Where there is no COSMIX crawl on Interstate 25.
Welcome to Colorado Springs, 1906.
The city's roots were planted alongside rails - Gen. William J. Palmer founded Colorado Springs while scouting a railroad route - but the automobile drove passenger train service out of business here by 1971.
Now there are so many cars on the road that planners envision a future that partly relies on a return to rails as a way to ease congestion and cut commuting times.
Transportation experts say it will take trains, lanes, buses - and busloads of money - to meet Colorado commuters' needs.
Has the time of the train passed? Or does this piece of the past hold the key to the future along the Interstate 25 corridor?
Do Coloradans have the political and financial will to spend billions to bring back the trains?
Neighbors to the north and south have already rediscovered the rails. On Friday, Denver opened its 19-mile southeast light-rail line along Interstate 25, a part of the ambitious FasTracks project there. The Rail Runner Express began serving the Albuquerque metropolitan area in July.
Commuters on I-25 might look wistfully to coal trains chugging along tracks between Colorado Springs and Denver. They might imagine the day when passenger trains again whir along those tracks.
It seems like a good idea, but it's not as simple as it sounds. It's a different world from what it was in 1906.
PASSENGER RAIL
When Bob Briggs gazes into the future, he sees high-speed passenger trains from Casper, Wyoming, along the Front Range to Albuquerque.
Another stretch of the proposed Ranger Express line would run along the I-70 Mountain Corridor connecting to Denver International Airport.
The track would span 1,095 miles, and trains would operate at speeds exceeding 90 mph, said Briggs, president of Front Range Commuter Rail, which backs the Ranger Express.
"It would take eight or nine years to build it," Briggs said. "Then it would be there for 100 years."
The goal is to start Ranger Express service in 2014 to integrate it with Denver's FasTracks. FasTracks is a voter-approved, $4.7 billion plan to add 119 miles of light rail by 2016. Nineteen of those miles opened last week, bringing Denver's existing light rail system to 54 miles.
Passengers would pay about $12 to ride from Colorado Springs to Denver or $24 round trip on Ranger Express.
"If we can provide the service for less than it costs to take a car, we can convince people to leave their cars at home and let us do the driving," Briggs said. "We know that when snow or rain or accidents happen, Interstate 25 doesn't move, but we will be able to move."
The popularity of FrontRange Express, or FREX, bus service shows demand for commuter transit service, said Corinne Donahue, senior transit planner for Colorado Springs.
"Clearly, the appetite is there," she said.
FREX ridership has surpassed projections, averaging about 630 boardings on a typical workday. Each of the Colorado Springs-based buses removes up to 27 cars from the highway, reducing congestion, road wear and tear, vehicle emissions and road rage, Donahue said.
As successful as FREX is, Donahue thinks high-speed rail is the long-term answer to moving passengers up and down the Front Range.
Transportation studies show people prefer rail to buses.
Front Range Commuter Rail forecasts predict commuters would ride the train for 26 million trips a year from Pueblo to Fort Collins in 2015, Briggs said. That doesn't count ridership by tourists, shoppers or Denver Broncos fans, he said.
Critics of Ranger Express say it's smarter to widen and maintain I-25, promote car pools or add buses.
The Federal Railroad Administration requires a feasibility study before the Front Range line would be designated. If approved, it would become the 11th high-speed rail corridor in the United States, opening the door to federal money.
The feasibility study will look at topography, tracks, train traffic and other factors to determine whether trains could operate at speeds exceeding 90 mph at least 75 percent of the time - a requirement for highspeed corridor designation, Briggs said.
The application would use existing BNSF Railway Company and Union Pacific Railroad tracks and right of way.
Colorado's demographics will make passenger rail along the Front Range a necessity, Briggs said. The only question is when.
The state's population is projected to nearly double to 7.1 million by 2030. Employment will swell to about 3.9 million from 2.3 million now, so nearly twice as many people will be commuting to work, state transportation department forecasts show.
"Rail has capacity," Briggs said. "You start out with a two-train system and as population grows, you can add more trains and move more people."
At most, I-25 moves 1,550 cars per hour in each lane when cars are going 65 mph or better. A doubletrack rail line can transport more people than eight lanes of interstate yet takes much less space, said Jon Esty, president of the Colorado Rail Passenger Association, or ColoRail. The group works to expand passenger rail.
Trains are safer, use less energy and create less pollution per passenger than automobiles, Esty said.
Front Range Commuter Rail plans to seek voter approval for long-term financing in 2008. Cost estimates won't be available until the feasibility study is done, but the project wouldn't be cheap, Briggs said.
High-speed rail from state line to state line - about 400 miles - requires two sets of track, he said. In most areas, there's only one. Laying track costs more than $1 million a mile; that cost goes up sharply when bridges are needed, Briggs said.
At the turn of the century, it cost $50,000 to $75,000 in today's dollars to lay a mile of track, not counting the cost of land acquisition, railroad historian Mel McFarland said. Today, crews do more ground development, and the track quality is better and lasts longer, he said.
The political will and regional cooperation needed for commuter rail has been lacking, but that's changing, Briggs said.
Early this year, the Legislature set aside 10 percent of transportation money for public transit projects during the next five years. The $65.1 million earmarked for transit - rail and buses - marks the first time the Colorado Department of Transportation allocated money for transit and not just highway projects, Briggs said.
The Colorado Transportation Commission, charged with divvying the $65.1 million, allocated $1.25 million for the feasibility study.
Ranger Express would be similar to the Rail Runner Express, which began serving Albuquerque in July.
Rail Runner uses diesel-electric locomotives burning biodiesel fuel to power trains along existing BNSF track from Belen to Bernalillo. The 50-mile route runs roughly parallel to I-25. Top speed is about 80 mph.
The next phase, scheduled to open in 2008, will extend the line northward to Santa Fe.
New Mexico has spent about $135 million for Rail Runner service, including buying train cars, locomotives and track. It will cost another $255 million to stretch the line 41 miles from Bernalillo to Santa Fe.
Rail Runner's 200,000th passenger climbed aboard in October. Project spokeswoman Augusta Meyers said the rail has exceeded ridership projections.
"When everything came on line it was a shock to see how many people wanted to use the service," she said. "We were thrilled about that. People love it. It's a big hit."
Voter passage of FasTracks in Denver and the state transportation department's approval of money for the high-speed rail feasibility show Coloradans' attitudes toward mass transit are changing, Esty said.
"We have made a lot of progress in the past decade," he said. "Folks in Colorado are really just becoming aware that there are ways of getting from place to place without using an automobile."
Before Ranger Express trains could roll, freight and coal trains should be relocated, Esty said. Freight and passenger trains can coexist, but it's a scheduling nightmare, he said.
The Colorado Department of Transportation has studied a route that would move freight rail traffic to the state's eastern plains by adding 95 miles of track to connect to existing track.
Another proposal would move freight trains to the eastern plains as part of a toll road project nicknamed Super Slab.
ROADS
Rail transportation might have back-to-the-future elements, but don't expect flying DeLoreans with flux capacitors when it comes to car travel.
Where we're going, we'll still need roads.
In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. By 1912, trolleys shared the streets with cars in Colorado Springs and cities throughout the nation.
Construction of the interstate system in Colorado began in 1956 and was mostly complete by 1976, providing 956 miles of highway.
When Interstate 25 opened in Colorado Springs in 1960, the highway carried about 8,500 cars a day. By the 2005 start of the Colorado Springs Metro Interstate Expansion, traffic counts in the COSMIX area had reached 110,000 vehicles on an average weekday. That number is expected to rise to 171,000 vehicles per day by 2025.
The $150 million COSMIX project, the city's largest transportation project ever, will give I-25 at least three lanes in each direction through the city, rebuild interchanges and replace or widen 20 bridges. A fourth lane in each direction is planned when an additional $400 million becomes available.
A study before COSMIX began concluded the I-25 expansion was necessary because mass transit would not divert enough commuters from their cars to noticeably reduce congestion.
Today, four out of every five Colorado motorists drive to work alone, state surveys show.
Expect more lanes to be added to I-25 and highways during the next 30 years, said Warren Whiteaker, senior transportation planner for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments.
The council is in charge of regional transportation planning. Whiteaker and other planners are developing the blueprint for 2035.
Whiteaker doesn't envision radical change during the next three decades. Federal law requires transportation officials to base their plans on conservative assumptions and reassess them frequently, he said.
"We can't make assumptions that we'll have hovercrafts or all be driving hybrid cars," he said. "We have to be realistic. We can't make Hollywood assumptions."
Eventually - beyond 2035 - I-25 will run out of capacity, said Craig Casper, the council of governments' transportation director. As interstates are widened, adjacent land becomes less available and more expensive, he said.
That's when a project like Super Slab makes sense, he said.
"You either make I-25 10 lanes in each direction like you see in Los Angeles," he said, "or you put a new interstate somewhere."
The $2.5 billion Super Slab project, officially called Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, would stretch 210 miles through seven counties.
The proposed toll road would veer off I-25 north of Fort Collins and reconnect south of Pueblo.
Landowners along the project's potential path have fought it every step of the way.
Proponents say the project would connect communities. It would reduce traffic along I-25, decrease freight traffic through Colorado Springs, Denver and other cities and bring economic opportunity to communities along the corridor.
Detractors call it a land grab. They say it would cut Colorado in half and cheat private property owners.
"This is just a terrible idea," opposition organizer Rob Dougherty said. "We aren't going to stop until we're sure this project is dead."
CONGESTION
They say nobody on their deathbed wishes they had spent more time at work.
Nor do they wish they'd spent more time in traffic.
That's what Colorado drivers will face, however, if experts are right.
Without passenger rail or driver behavioral changes such as more carpooling, by 2030 Interstate 25 will need to double its width to eight lanes much of the way from north Colorado Springs to Castle Rock, not counting acceleration and deceleration lanes. It will be wider still in Denver.
Even after the widenings, I-25 will be more congested, some studies show.
Congestion delays in Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder cost drivers $1,426 per traveler annually, according to a 2004 Texas Transportation Institute Urban Mobility Study.
Denver is the ninth-most congested city in the nation. Colorado Springs is the nation's most congested city under 500,000 population.
Without major improvements, Denver drivers can expect worse rush-hour traffic jams than present congestion capital Los Angeles by 2030, according to a study by Reason Foundation, a policy think tank. Colorado Springs can expect congestion as bad as present-day Miami.
All that sitting in traffic means lost productivity, said the study's lead researcher, University of North Carolina at Charlotte transportation studies professor David Hartgen.
"Congestion is an insidious problem," he said. "It's sort of like asphalt on your feet. It causes everybody to slow down and because everybody else has slowed down, you don't realize how much time you are wasting."
Beyond lost productivity, congestion raises crash rates, vehicle operating costs, fuel consumption, truck travel times and shipping costs, Hartgen said.
Colorado needs 4,670 new lane miles at a cost of $11.5 billion by 2030, the foundation study said. Lane miles measure pavement. A two-lane stretch of road one mile long is two lane miles.
Colorado ranks fourth out of the 50 states in most lane miles needed, according to the study.
State projections show about $75 billion available for state and local agencies to spend on transportation across Colorado through 2030.
Of the $75 billion, 62 percent will go to highways.
The state estimates it will take $123 billion to maintain today's service levels through 2030 and $178 billion for major improvements.
Unless something is done to close the $48 billion gap between the $75 billion available and the $123 billion maintainance funding, projects will be delayed, congestion will get worse and the cost of doing business will climb, transportation department spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.
It has become increasingly difficult to reach the state Transportation Commission's goal of keeping 60 percent of the highways in good or fair condition, Stegman said.
Falling gasoline tax revenues and rising costs of construction materials have made it harder to build and maintain roads, Stegman said.
"We have to put most of our funds into maintenance just so we don't have crumbling roads," she said. "It doesn't leave much room for expansion."
If the state adds the lane miles the foundation says it needs, it would save 169 million hours per year that now are wasted in traffic jams, the Reason report says. Without improvements, future traffic jams will make current weekday congestion look like a Sunday drive, the study suggests.
Colorado Springs drivers get impatient when they wait at a busy intersection, Casper said. In Chicago, where he lived previously, Casper often sat through six full light cycles before clearing an intersection, he said.
"Congestion is very subjective," Casper said. "I think people are going to change their expectations of what 'congested' is."
TRAINS VS. LANES
Gridlock and bottlenecks don't have to get worse, Hartgen said.
Too many transportation dollars are spent on public transit systems used by a small percentage of commuters, he said, siphoning funds from necessary road building and maintenance and simpler solutions such as signal timing.
"We know the vast majority of Americans aren't going to give up their cars," Hartgen said. "We need to focus our transportation dollars where they will do the most good."
The Denver Regional Council of Governments, for example, plans to spend $87.8 billion during the next 25 years, including $53.9 billion on highway improvements and $23.4 billion on mass transit.
Fewer than 5 percent of Denver commuters use mass transit, but 27 percent of funds are allocated to it, Hartgen said.
Even after spending $87.8 billion, congestion is expected to double during the next 25 years, Hartgen said. Denver would be better off taking about $8 billion planned for mass transit and spending it to increase road capacity, Hartgen said.
Rail proponents such as Esty say it's short-sighted to overlook public transportation's potential to reduce congestion.
Mass transit advocates cite a study by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University that found public transportation saved 1.1 billion hours of travel time in 85 urban areas in 2003.
Building highway lanes instead of rail requires more parking capacity and more fuel consumption, Esty said.
"That approach doesn't take into account the scarcity of land, the scarcity of fuel and the resultant pollution," he said. "Those are things that, with the growing population, we're going to have to take into consideration."
El Paso County Commissioner Wayne Williams, chairman of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority board and the council of governments board, isn't convinced passenger rail is the solution to congestion on I-25.
He's reserving judgment until the feasibility study is complete.
FREX buses, carpooling, van pooling and adding high-occupancy vehicle lanes might be the better way to go, said Williams, whose colleagues call him "Mr. Transportation" because of his interest in the subject.
Transportation funding increasingly must come from local initiatives such as the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, Williams said. Voters in 2004 approved a 1 percent sales tax levied in most of El Paso County to improve roads, bridges and public transportation.
Developers also will have to contribute more for road projects, Williams said.
Voters have sent mixed signals on transportation.
The RTA approval in El Paso County and FasTracks passage in Denver show voters are willing to pony up for transportation improvements in those areas.
But in 2005, voters statewide rejected the idea of financing highway projects with debt. Voters defeated Referendum D, which would have
jump-started 55 strategic projects throughout the state by selling bonds.
TROLLEYS
In Denver, shiny light-rail trains zip across the city carrying laptoptoting businesspeople, backpackwearing students and pierced barhoppers to their destinations.
In Colorado Springs, volunteers gather in a barn on Steel Drive on Saturdays to refurbish old, wooden streetcars.
Electric streetcars ran in Colorado Springs until 1932. Members of the Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation want to bring them back.
Even in the most ambitious plans, the trolleys would be more of a nostalgic tourist attraction than a transportation solution.
Realistically, their plan to bring back the trolleys may never get out of the barn.
The trolley foundation has 14 cars, built between 1901 and 1949, in various stages of restoration, foundation president David Lippincott said. The group hopes to start by running them three miles from the restoration facility to the old downtown train depot on Sierra Madre Street along the existing rail lines parallel to Interstate 25, he said. Eventually, trolleys would run along Colorado Avenue to Manitou Springs and along Constitution Avenue to Academy Boulevard.
"That's looking far into the future," Lippincott admits.
Cities such as Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Tucson, Memphis, New Orleans and Tampa have discovered that running vintage trolleys is good for tourism and helps relieve congestion and parking downtown.
The trolley group is trying to raise about $6 million in private money to open the downtown leg, he said. If volunteers can get that leg running, Lippincott hopes the trolleys will generate enough attention and donations to build the rest of the system.
In 1901, gold mining millionaire Winfield Scott Stratton bought a troubled trolley system and established the Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway.
Stratton's trolleys hauled tourists and residents to Seven Falls, Garden of the Gods and destinations citywide. Ladies in long skirts and gentlemen in felt hats rode to dances in the Stratton Park Pavilion and to Boulevard Park to see the then-new minor league baseball team, the Colorado Springs Millionaires.
In the early 1900s, the Colorado and Southern Railway, the Santa Fe and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad offered passengers 38 daily connections between Denver and Colorado Springs, rail historian McFarland said.
"At that time, it was the best mode of transportation," said McFarland, a conductor on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway in Manitou Springs. "Going to Denver any other way would take at least a day. This took a couple of hours."
Today, ColoRail's Esty would be happy with two passenger trains a day between the state's two biggest cities. He thinks ridership would grow quickly.
"We've got to start somewhere," he said. "Let's start with a handful and grow it from there."
RAIL, HIGHWAY AND BUS NUMBERS
How the past, present and future add up along Interstate 25
119
miles of light rail are hoped to be added with Denver's FasTracks by 2016. FasTracks is a voter-approved, $4.7 billion plan.
54
miles exist in Denver's current lightrail system after 19 additional miles opened Thursday.
$12
would be paid by passengers riding from Colorado Springs to Denver, or $24 round trip, on the proposed Ranger Express.
26 million
train trips a year from Pueblo to Fort Collins are projected by Front Range Commuter Rail, a group that supports passenger rail.
630
FREX boardings happen on a typical workday. Each of the Colorado Springs-based buses removes up to 27 cars from Interstate 25.
8,500
vehicles a day traveled I-25 when it opened in Colorado Springs in 1960. By 2005, that count had reached 110,00 a day in some areas.
SHORT OF CASH
The stream of money to keep traffic flowing throughout Colorado isn't there, according to many projections. Here are some of the numbers.
$75 billion
is forecast to be available for state and local agencies to spend on transportation across Colorado between now and 2030.
$123 billion
is needed between now and 2030 to maintain existing mobility levels and prevent the statewide transportation system from deteriorating.
$48 billion
is the shortfall between amount available and amount needed to maintain existing mobility levels.
$264
is the annual cost per motorist for poor road conditions, including extra operating costs and vehicle repairs.
$1,426
is the average annual cost of delays because of congestion to travelers in Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs.
$1 million
is needed to lay each mile of track.
- Bill Hethcock, The Colorado Springs Gazette
Teen's Drinking Cited In State's Report On LIRR Gap Death
NEW YORK, NY -- State investigators have released their findings in the case of a teenager who died after falling through the gap between a Long Island Rail Road car and a platform.
The state said the woman's own actions -- including drinking with friends -- probably caused the accident. And the Public Transportation Safety Board said the rail line was in compliance with government safety standards.
Natalie Smead, 19, of Northfield, Minnesota, was killed at a Queens station this year as she headed to a Dave Matthews concert.
The death prompted calls for North America's largest commuter railroad to reduce the number of gap-related injuries. - The Associated Press, WNBC-TV4, New York, NY
THE END
Compiled by Larry W. Grant
In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006
Rail News
BNSF Freight Train Derails At Everett, Washington Blocking Commuter And Passenger Trains; One Car Lands In Puget Sound
EVERETT, WA -- Ten cars of BNSF Railway Company train M EVEBAR1 20, loaded with wood products jumped the tracks early Monday, blocking Amtrak passenger trains and Sound Transit service between Everett and Seattle.
At approximately 03:57 PT Monday, November 20, 2006 as the train was passing over a switch less than a mile south of the old Everett train station. This location is approximately 34.6 miles North of Seattle, WA.
Repair crews hoped to restore train service within 24 hours, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said.
No one was injured, no hazardous materials or toxic substances were involved and there was no risk of pollution, Melonas said. The cause remained under investigation but train handling was ruled out, he added.
The first of the 10 cars to go off the tracks was 19 cars behind the four engines pulling an 89-car train, he said. One car was partly in Puget Sound, four were on their sides, two were tilting and three were upright. All were carrying lumber, veneer board, particle board or wood pulp.
Geoff Patrick of Sound Transit said the derailment blocked commuter service this morning and evening between Everett and Seattle. Amtrak passenger trains also were blocked, Melonas said.
He said some eastbound freight trains were being detoured through the Columbia River gorge.
Estimated time of opening for main track 2 is set for 01:00 PT, November 21. There is no estimated time of opening for main track 1 at this time.
Customers may experience 18 to 24 hour delays on traffic moving through this corridor. - The Associated Press, The Seattle Times and BNSF Service Advisory
Picacho Rail Yard Voted Down
FLORENCE, AZ -- A busload of residents from Picacho Peak RV Resort made the 40-mile trip to Florence Thursday, trying to stop a rail yard from being built in their back yard.
Some 50 people traveled to have their voices heard before the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission, which was considering an approximate 10,472-acre parcel along Interstate 10 for a comprehensive plan amendment, changing it from "development sensitive, transitional, natural resource and interchange mix" to "urban, industrial and rural community." The land is owned by the State Land Department and will go up for auction and be sold to the highest bidder, be it Union Pacific Railway or another party.
The railroad wants the yard as a means of expanding freight service in this part of the state. The Land Department manages vast areas, leasing or selling them to benefit an education trust that was set up when Arizona became a state. The commission recommended denial of the amendment by the Board of Supervisors, on a 5-3 vote, with Mary Aguirre-Vogler absent. The matter is tentatively set to go before the supervisors in late November. Many of those who make their home in and around Picacho Pass do so because of the uninterrupted desert vistas, the quietness of the desert and the ability to see a roadrunner or other desert creature running by.
Ann Hoffman, who lives at the resort, southeast of Picacho Peak along I-10 with her husband Robert, said she loves the beauty of the desert, and each morning when she looks out her kitchen window she is thankful for the peaceful nature of her home and the surrounding area. "The saguaros will probably be the first victims if this thing gets passed, then the wildlife will move or be killed because of the fumes," she said. "What we will get an abundance of is rats and roaches. Then people will start to leave because people with breathing problems won't be able to stay. "What I would do is turn it into a state park because it's that beautiful, but unfortunately I'm not the one who makes those decisions."
Ron Ruziska, a representative of the Land Department, said growth is coming to the Picacho Peak area. "This is inevitable, ongoing growth to the state and country," he said. "We have real estate here in Arizona where other parts of the country have timber or oil. Land is our life blood. It is in our best interest to work with our neighbors and ourselves to benefit the public schools from the inevitable sale of this land whether it be a switchyard or a Wal-Mart or a housing development. But, the majority of the Picacho area will be developed."
With its 5-3 recommendation for denial of the comprehensive plan amendment, the commission was divided in this case. Commissioner Scott Riggins said he did not want to see the Picacho Peak area developed. "I think it would have a large, large impact on a state treasure, the Picacho Peak," Riggins said. "To develop something on this spot would be a darned shame." Chairwoman Kate Kenyon said more industry is needed in Pinal County, so she voted for the proposal. "Pinal County is nothing more than a bedroom community with a 20-year supply of houses. We have no industry coming in," she said. "All bedroom communities do is ask for facilities like parks and entertainment. If a railroad comes in, so will other industries."
Herb Kai, who operates Kai Farms near the proposed site, said he was born and raised in southern Arizona. As a farmer and a businessman, he said he realizes the need for this project. He just wishes it could be built somewhere else. "This could have many negative effects including on the groundwater, it could be contaminated," he said. "... Union Pacific has enough income it can afford to build it somewhere else - anywhere it won't affect so many landowners." - Kris Walkinshaw, The Eloy Enterprise, Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc., courtesy Marc Pearsall
Amtrak Ridership At Near-Record Levels In Iowa
DES MOINES, IA -- High gasoline prices and long lines at the airports are paying off for Amtrak with another year of near-record ridership in Iowa.
A total of 61,377 people got on and off Amtrak trains at six Iowa stations during the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the railroad said.
That's just shy of the railroad's all-time high of 61,418 passengers in Iowa a year earlier.
"Our experience anecdotally has been that when gasoline prices make a major move, people search for alternatives for their travel plans. For a lot of people, we are a great alternative,'' said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari in Chicago.
Nationwide, Amtrak served a record 24.3 million passengers in the past fiscal year -- nearly 300,000 more than for the same trains in the previous year.
Many Iowans will board railroad cars this week as Amtrak adds dozens of trains nationwide to deal with a crush of travelers expected for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The largest number of travelers will be on the highways, while others will head for airports. The AAA motor club estimates that 37 million Americans will be on the road this week.
At the Travel Center in Des Moines, which specializes in train trips, Amtrak business has been brisk, partly due to travelers who want to avoid headaches encountered in airports, said Rick South, the travel agency's co-owner.
"For people who don't like to fly in the first place, the next thing they are going to do is Amtrak,'' South said.
Amtrak operates two daily trains that pass through Iowa between Chicago and the West Coast. The California Zephyr serves Burlington, Mount Pleasant, Ottumwa, Osceola and Creston. The Southwest Chief has a stop in Fort Madison.
Passengers on Amtrak's long-distance trains that run through Iowa will need patience.
According to Amtrak records, the California Zephyr ran late 93 percent of the time during the past federal budget year, while the Southwest Chief was late 27 percent of the time.
Much of the problem with the Zephyr's lack of punctuality can be attributed to worn tracks between Reno, Nev., and Salt Lake City, Magliari said. Trains running on this segment have to slow down, losing time from a schedule developed for faster train speeds, he said. - The Associated Press, WOI-TV5, Des Moines, IA
RMI Announces Second Annual Fast Track Award Recipients
ATLANTA, GA -- RMI, the market leader and largest independent provider of accurate, reliable, comprehensive and secure rail information services to the transportation industry, announces today the 2007 Fast Track Award winners. Award recipients will be recognized in the 2007 Fast Track Award calendar. Now in its second year, the Fast Track Award program honors 12 RMI customers who exemplify RMI's goal to streamline processes and improve procedures in the rail industry.
The Fast Track award is specifically designed to recognize RMI's RailConnect and ShipperConnect "power users," those that maximize the value of RMI's services by implementing procedures that result in more comprehensive automation of manual processes, improved information capture and reporting, greater accounting control, enhanced asset management or more efficient processes in any capacity.
"Fast Track Award winners are RMI customers who have continually demonstrated unique and creative ways of improving their businesses through the use of RMI's products and services," says Paul Pascutti, vice president marketing of RMI. "This is the second year of the Fast Track Awards and we at RMI are proud that this year's winners continue to improve upon the successes that were established last year. Several winners were honored both this year and last as they continue to demonstrate advanced use of RMI's technology in improving their overall operation."
2007 Winners
The following 2007 winners are being recognized by various internal and external promotions within the industry.
· Renewable Products Marketing Group: With the implementation of RMI's ShipperConnnect FMS and eBOL services, Renewable Products Marketing Group has been able to reduce transit times by two days.
· The Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA): Using advance yard blocking and car scheduling tools, PTRA has greatly improved the percentage of cars moving according to plan and reduced terminal dwell time by eight hours.
· Eljin, Joliet & Eastern Railway (EJE): Using eBOL with its shippers and the ability of RailConnect TMS to process bills of lading from other sources, EJE, now receives over 75 percent of its billing electronically, resulting in significant accounting efficiencies.
· New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway (NYSW): Over the past two years, NYSW has fully incorporated eBOL and scheduled FMS reports resulting in a 28 percent decrease in transit times for cars loaded by its customers.
· Chicago Rail Link (CRL): Using RMI's RailConnect TMS automated services, CRL has experienced greater efficiencies and reduced errors on inbound waybills by 25 percent.
· CSX Transportation (CSXT): As the operator of the largest railroad in the Eastern United States, CSXT utilized RMI's Car Management Business Intelligence tool to decrease car hire expenses and improve car utilization.
· The Central California Traction Company (CCT): With RMI RailConnect reports, CCT management has been able to plan effectively and CCT operations have been moving cars efficiently and safely.
· Warrior & Gulf Navigation Company (WGN): Prior to implementing RailConnect BMS and TMS, WGN reported its barge and tug locations manually, using fax and email. Now, with the help of RMI, WGN is the first inland waterway carrier to use RailConnect to ensure that the transportation and material handling services are reported and invoiced properly.
· Chemims de Fer du Quebec/Quebec Railway Corporation (QFQ/QRC): QFQ/QRC has utilized RailConnect to automate many aspects of its operations and as a result not only have they have been recognized for the best overall TRAIN II reporting for the past two years at the CN Short Line Conference, but they have also greatly reduced no-bills and improved customer satisfaction.
· Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway (CRANDIC): Just a few years ago, CRANDIC lacked an effective process for handling switching and trace requests generated by their customers. Now, over 99 percent of CRANDIC's customers use ShipperConnect to release, order and trace cars.
· Indiana Rail Road (INRD): After acquiring 92 miles of mainline track and trackage rights into Chicago and Louisville, Indiana Rail Road saw an opportunity to overhaul its processes. They provided all their customers with ShipperConnect and saw crew efficiency improve by 25 percent in two months and a reduction in phone calls and faxes.
· Farmrail (FMRC): Using the tools in RailConnnect TMS, EMS and ShipperConnect services, Farmrail has been able to enhance the efficiency of its operation, improve customer service and minimize cost. They were also recognized as one of five short lines to achieve 100 percent timely reporting of TRAIN II events.
Choices for the Fast-Track awards are based on several criteria including use of advanced RailConnect features such as ShipperConnect, Inbound Blocking Tables, SuperTrip and the RailConnect Query Tool. The program also requires consistently high percentage compliance with TRAIN II reporting standards.
Railroads and shippers interested in being considered for the 2008 Fast Track Awards should contact Jennie Baker at 404-355-6734 or jennieb@railcarmgt.com for more information on the criteria, nomination process and application. Nominations will be accepted starting in May 2007. - BusinessWire.com
City Of Wichita To Amend Contract For Rail Corridor
WICHITA, KS -- The city of Wichita is about to put the final touches on a deal to resolve problems with defective concrete panels in the $98 million Downtown Rail Corridor project, officials said.
The City Council is expected to approve changes to a construction and maintenance agreement with the BNSF Railway Company at its meeting Tuesday.
The changes are needed because of problems discovered about four months ago in the panels used to build retaining walls to elevate the tracks where they pass through the city center.
Steel reinforcements inside the defective panels were improperly bent in the fabrication process and shifted when the concrete was poured, city officials have said.
In some cases, the steel is exposed to the open air and prone to rust.
City Public Works Director Chris Carrier said there is no structural problem, but it could become a maintenance issue during the expected 75-year life of the panels.
"Maybe the design life ends up being only 50 years instead of 75," he said.
The city has reached agreement with the project's general contractor, Dondlinger & Sons Construction Co., to replace the top row of defective panels, which are exposed, Carrier said.
Dondlinger also will pay the city $1 million, to be put in an interest-earning account to pay for any future maintenance that may be required on possibly defective lower panels, he said.
The interlocking panels hold back massive amounts of sand, cement and asphalt that will hold up the tracks.
The project is designed to ease street traffic congestion by elevating the railway and improving rail overpasses.
A combination of federal, state, local and railroad funds is paying for the project.
The contract changes the council will vote on will alter the city's deal with the railroad to incorporate the settlement terms that the city has made with Dondlinger, according to a staff report.
Council member Bob Martz said he was initially concerned about the defects, but after meeting with city engineers, he's convinced the problems have been adequately addressed. - Dion Lefler, The Wichita Eagle
BNSF Requires All Truck Engines To Be Tuned Off At All Intermodal Facility Checkpoints
In order to improve safety for workers at BNSF Railway Company Intermodal Checkpoints, effective immediately, drivers of all trucks that enter or depart BNSF Intermodal Facilities will be required to turn their truck engines off while at designated checkpoint locations.
Truck engines are to remain off until truck drivers are instructed by the checkpoint inspector to start their engines and proceed from the checkpoint lane. The stop locations will be designated by a Stop Sign or a Stop Bar painted across the pavement of the checkpoint lane. Signs stating "Turn Engines Off" will also be posted at the stop locations.
In addition to improving safety for BNSF workers, this new policy will improve air quality with reduced diesel emissions and less overall noise. - BNSF Facility Update
RailAmerica October Carloads Down Nine Percent
BOCA RATON, FL -- RailAmerica Inc. said Monday freight carloads fell 9 percent in October from year-ago levels, hurt by the sale of several properties and a slowdown in the housing market.
The short-line and regional rail service provider said overall carloads fell to 102,031 from 112,134 in the year-ago period. The sale of the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad and other assets accounted for about 4,903 carloads of the 10,103 carload overall decline.
On a "same-railroad" basis, measuring assets held since Jan. 1, 2005, October carloads fell 4.8 percent due to lower shipments of lumber and forest products, coal, minerals, and autos. The company said the housing slowdown led to the declines in lumber and forest products.
Since the beginning of the year, total carloads are down 3.6 percent to 1.05 million, while "same-railroad" carloads are down 1.9 percent to 1.02 million. - The Associated Press, The Houston Chronicle
Othello Caboose Museum
OTHELLO, WA -- A caboose chugged its way to The Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello, Washington.
The railroad system and the gallery have a history together.
"The railroad was very important to this area," Gallery Director Sally Lambert said. "The old hotel was here for the railroad workers to stay."
After a long day of work on the railroad, workers from out of town stayed at the hotel long before it was converted into a gallery.
When the workers were on the road in the train, they stayed in the caboose, she said.
"The caboose was designed to be a kitchen and sleeping area for railroad workers," she said.
The interpretive caboose is an additional gallery for the museum. When the caboose opens in the springtime, a walk through gallery and its history are available for visitors.
"This will tell about the railroad," she said.
A lamp, potbellied stove and a seat inspired by the original caboose rest inside.
"It doesn't look very comfortable," Lambert said.
The 1946 caboose was transported to Othello from Maine. It was an original caboose designed and built by the Milwaukee Railroad.
Lambert expects a large turnout when it opens.
"I think it will bring a lot of railroad people in," she said. "There are so many people interested in the history of the railroad."
She knows of people who spend time sitting by the railroad tracks to reflect on the railroad's history.
"I'm really looking forward to having this open," Lambert said.
Since becoming the gallery director a few months ago, she finds she loves her job, Lambert said.
She drives a 140 mile round trip daily from her home in Benton City to come to work. Lambert said she always wanted to get involved with the gallery.
When the weather gets nasty, she plans to stay with a fellow gallery worker.
She moved from Virginia and was curious about Othello but never thought she might work there. She recalled seeing signs for Othello while driving to Western Washington and was curious about the city. When she saw the signs, she thought about the Shakespearean play "Othello." She always wanted to visit, Lambert said.
The project is funded by donations from the community, she said.
A tour guide specific to the project is available when the caboose opens.
For more information, contact Lambert at 509-488-2683. To view a photo of the caboose, click on the following link:
[www.columbiabasinherald.com]
- Candice Boutilier, The Columbia Basin Herald
Russia's Evraz To Buy Oregon Steel For $2.3 Billion
Evraz Group SA, a steelmaker partly owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, agreed to buy Oregon Steel Mills Inc. for $2.3 billion, the biggest-ever purchase in the U.S. by a Russian company.
Evraz bid $63.25 a share in cash for all of Portland-based Oregon to gain a foothold in the U.S. and create the world's largest producer of rail tracks and wheels, the companies said today in a joint statement. The proposal is 6.8 percent more than Oregon's closing stock price last week of $58.96.
The transaction will raise Evraz, Russia's biggest steelmaker, to 10th in the world, ahead of Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG. Russian steel producers and peers in India and Brazil, encouraged by rising stock values, want to boost crude- steel processing in North America and Europe to make higher- value products such as oil and gas pipes.
This shows ``corporate Russia is at its healthiest yet,'' said Al Breach, chief strategist with UBS AG in Moscow.
Shares of Oregon surged $4.45, or 7.6 percent, to $63.41 as of 11:49 in New York. The stock has more than doubled in the U.S. in the past year, as the company built new pipe-making facilities. Evraz's London-listed depositary receipts dropped 20 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $24.85 at 4:53 p.m. local time, valuing the company at $8.7 billion.
Emerging Muscle
The takeover would increase the muscle of steelmakers from outside developed countries. Emerging economies now account for six out of the 10 biggest steelmaking nations. China alone makes almost a third of the world's steel. Mittal Steel Co., the world's largest producer, started with an Indonesian steel plant. Arcelor SA proposed merging with OAO Severstal, Evraz's Russian rival, before agreeing to be bought by Mittal this year in the industry's biggest-ever combination.
``I suspect we'll end up with no first-world steel companies eventually,'' Roger Nightingale, a strategist with Millennium Global Investments, said in an interview in London. Cheap loans and profits boosted by low labor costs are helping steelmakers in emerging markets vie for rivals in mature markets, he said.
Steel companies are paying ever-larger premiums for smaller rivals. Evraz's offer is about 7.1 times Oregon's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, in the 12 months through Sept. 30. Mittal's offer for Arcelor was 4.56 times the Luxembourg-based company's Ebitda.
For Evraz, Oregon is ``big enough that's its worth buying, yet small enough so that it won't stretch the balance sheet,'' said Timothy McCutcheon, a partner at DBM Capital in Moscow. The cash-only bid shows some investor distrust of Russian companies, however.
Advisers
Credit Suisse is advising Evraz on the transaction, with UBS Securities LLC acting for Oregon.
The deal will allow Evraz to produce 1.5 million tons of railroad products a year, the most in the world, Evraz Chief Financial Officer Pavel Tatyanin said. Prices for track and other processed-steel products are about 30 percent higher in the U.S. than in Russia, Rob Edwards, an analyst with Moscow- based investment bank Renaissance Capital, said via telephone.
``Oregon offers a unique opportunity to expand in what is one of the largest and most mature markets in the world,'' Tatyanin said by telephone from the company's Moscow office today.
Evraz's output will increase by 21 percent to 16.8 million tons after taking over Oregon.
Dusseldorf-based ThyssenKrupp, currently No. 10, pours 16.5 million tons.
Biggest Purchase
The acquisition dwarfs previous Russian purchases in the U.S. Moscow-based OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, agreed today to pay $408 million in cash for the nickel assets owned by Cleveland-based OM Group Inc. to expand output of a metal that has more than doubled in price this year.
Norilsk, controlled by billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov, paid a then-record $257 million in 2003 for Stillwater Mining Co. of Billings, Montana. Later that year, Severstal, controlled by billionaire Alexei Mordashov, bought bankrupt Rouge Industries Inc., a supplier to Ford Motor Co., for $285.5 million. Severstal may now make a bid for U.S. Steel, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Nov. 17, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan.
Oregon makes seamless and large-diameter pipes used mainly in the oil and gas industry, as well as coils and plates, a semifinished product used to make pipes. The U.S. company will soon complete construction of a spiral weld mill in Portland, Tatyanin said.
`Further Acquisitions'
``Pipe making is an attractive business to be in,'' Tatyanin said. The company will consider further acquisitions or construction of pipe-making facilities after the transaction is complete, he said.
Evraz already holds 10 percent of Europe's plate market through its Czech and Italian plants.
Although Evraz and Oregon ``speak the same language when it comes to product mix, achieving cost-saving synergy will be complicated,'' McCutcheon said.
Russia won U.S. approval yesterday to join the World Trade Organization, the last major hurdle for membership. The accord, signed during an Asian summit in Vietnam attended by presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, may give a new spark to a relationship that is at a post-Cold War low.
Russia is the last major economy outside the 150-member WTO. That distinction, combined with government bureaucracy at home makes it difficult for Evraz and other metals producers to sign long-term contracts to ship ore or crude metal overseas to lower costs, McCutcheon said. - Yuriy Humber, Bloomberg.com
Transit News
Back On Track; Area's Transit Future Inspired By Past
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Imagine a Colorado Springs where you could hop one of 38 trains to Denver. Where trolleys whisk commuters and tourists all over town. Where there is no COSMIX crawl on Interstate 25.
Welcome to Colorado Springs, 1906.
The city's roots were planted alongside rails - Gen. William J. Palmer founded Colorado Springs while scouting a railroad route - but the automobile drove passenger train service out of business here by 1971.
Now there are so many cars on the road that planners envision a future that partly relies on a return to rails as a way to ease congestion and cut commuting times.
Transportation experts say it will take trains, lanes, buses - and busloads of money - to meet Colorado commuters' needs.
Has the time of the train passed? Or does this piece of the past hold the key to the future along the Interstate 25 corridor?
Do Coloradans have the political and financial will to spend billions to bring back the trains?
Neighbors to the north and south have already rediscovered the rails. On Friday, Denver opened its 19-mile southeast light-rail line along Interstate 25, a part of the ambitious FasTracks project there. The Rail Runner Express began serving the Albuquerque metropolitan area in July.
Commuters on I-25 might look wistfully to coal trains chugging along tracks between Colorado Springs and Denver. They might imagine the day when passenger trains again whir along those tracks.
It seems like a good idea, but it's not as simple as it sounds. It's a different world from what it was in 1906.
PASSENGER RAIL
When Bob Briggs gazes into the future, he sees high-speed passenger trains from Casper, Wyoming, along the Front Range to Albuquerque.
Another stretch of the proposed Ranger Express line would run along the I-70 Mountain Corridor connecting to Denver International Airport.
The track would span 1,095 miles, and trains would operate at speeds exceeding 90 mph, said Briggs, president of Front Range Commuter Rail, which backs the Ranger Express.
"It would take eight or nine years to build it," Briggs said. "Then it would be there for 100 years."
The goal is to start Ranger Express service in 2014 to integrate it with Denver's FasTracks. FasTracks is a voter-approved, $4.7 billion plan to add 119 miles of light rail by 2016. Nineteen of those miles opened last week, bringing Denver's existing light rail system to 54 miles.
Passengers would pay about $12 to ride from Colorado Springs to Denver or $24 round trip on Ranger Express.
"If we can provide the service for less than it costs to take a car, we can convince people to leave their cars at home and let us do the driving," Briggs said. "We know that when snow or rain or accidents happen, Interstate 25 doesn't move, but we will be able to move."
The popularity of FrontRange Express, or FREX, bus service shows demand for commuter transit service, said Corinne Donahue, senior transit planner for Colorado Springs.
"Clearly, the appetite is there," she said.
FREX ridership has surpassed projections, averaging about 630 boardings on a typical workday. Each of the Colorado Springs-based buses removes up to 27 cars from the highway, reducing congestion, road wear and tear, vehicle emissions and road rage, Donahue said.
As successful as FREX is, Donahue thinks high-speed rail is the long-term answer to moving passengers up and down the Front Range.
Transportation studies show people prefer rail to buses.
Front Range Commuter Rail forecasts predict commuters would ride the train for 26 million trips a year from Pueblo to Fort Collins in 2015, Briggs said. That doesn't count ridership by tourists, shoppers or Denver Broncos fans, he said.
Critics of Ranger Express say it's smarter to widen and maintain I-25, promote car pools or add buses.
The Federal Railroad Administration requires a feasibility study before the Front Range line would be designated. If approved, it would become the 11th high-speed rail corridor in the United States, opening the door to federal money.
The feasibility study will look at topography, tracks, train traffic and other factors to determine whether trains could operate at speeds exceeding 90 mph at least 75 percent of the time - a requirement for highspeed corridor designation, Briggs said.
The application would use existing BNSF Railway Company and Union Pacific Railroad tracks and right of way.
Colorado's demographics will make passenger rail along the Front Range a necessity, Briggs said. The only question is when.
The state's population is projected to nearly double to 7.1 million by 2030. Employment will swell to about 3.9 million from 2.3 million now, so nearly twice as many people will be commuting to work, state transportation department forecasts show.
"Rail has capacity," Briggs said. "You start out with a two-train system and as population grows, you can add more trains and move more people."
At most, I-25 moves 1,550 cars per hour in each lane when cars are going 65 mph or better. A doubletrack rail line can transport more people than eight lanes of interstate yet takes much less space, said Jon Esty, president of the Colorado Rail Passenger Association, or ColoRail. The group works to expand passenger rail.
Trains are safer, use less energy and create less pollution per passenger than automobiles, Esty said.
Front Range Commuter Rail plans to seek voter approval for long-term financing in 2008. Cost estimates won't be available until the feasibility study is done, but the project wouldn't be cheap, Briggs said.
High-speed rail from state line to state line - about 400 miles - requires two sets of track, he said. In most areas, there's only one. Laying track costs more than $1 million a mile; that cost goes up sharply when bridges are needed, Briggs said.
At the turn of the century, it cost $50,000 to $75,000 in today's dollars to lay a mile of track, not counting the cost of land acquisition, railroad historian Mel McFarland said. Today, crews do more ground development, and the track quality is better and lasts longer, he said.
The political will and regional cooperation needed for commuter rail has been lacking, but that's changing, Briggs said.
Early this year, the Legislature set aside 10 percent of transportation money for public transit projects during the next five years. The $65.1 million earmarked for transit - rail and buses - marks the first time the Colorado Department of Transportation allocated money for transit and not just highway projects, Briggs said.
The Colorado Transportation Commission, charged with divvying the $65.1 million, allocated $1.25 million for the feasibility study.
Ranger Express would be similar to the Rail Runner Express, which began serving Albuquerque in July.
Rail Runner uses diesel-electric locomotives burning biodiesel fuel to power trains along existing BNSF track from Belen to Bernalillo. The 50-mile route runs roughly parallel to I-25. Top speed is about 80 mph.
The next phase, scheduled to open in 2008, will extend the line northward to Santa Fe.
New Mexico has spent about $135 million for Rail Runner service, including buying train cars, locomotives and track. It will cost another $255 million to stretch the line 41 miles from Bernalillo to Santa Fe.
Rail Runner's 200,000th passenger climbed aboard in October. Project spokeswoman Augusta Meyers said the rail has exceeded ridership projections.
"When everything came on line it was a shock to see how many people wanted to use the service," she said. "We were thrilled about that. People love it. It's a big hit."
Voter passage of FasTracks in Denver and the state transportation department's approval of money for the high-speed rail feasibility show Coloradans' attitudes toward mass transit are changing, Esty said.
"We have made a lot of progress in the past decade," he said. "Folks in Colorado are really just becoming aware that there are ways of getting from place to place without using an automobile."
Before Ranger Express trains could roll, freight and coal trains should be relocated, Esty said. Freight and passenger trains can coexist, but it's a scheduling nightmare, he said.
The Colorado Department of Transportation has studied a route that would move freight rail traffic to the state's eastern plains by adding 95 miles of track to connect to existing track.
Another proposal would move freight trains to the eastern plains as part of a toll road project nicknamed Super Slab.
ROADS
Rail transportation might have back-to-the-future elements, but don't expect flying DeLoreans with flux capacitors when it comes to car travel.
Where we're going, we'll still need roads.
In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. By 1912, trolleys shared the streets with cars in Colorado Springs and cities throughout the nation.
Construction of the interstate system in Colorado began in 1956 and was mostly complete by 1976, providing 956 miles of highway.
When Interstate 25 opened in Colorado Springs in 1960, the highway carried about 8,500 cars a day. By the 2005 start of the Colorado Springs Metro Interstate Expansion, traffic counts in the COSMIX area had reached 110,000 vehicles on an average weekday. That number is expected to rise to 171,000 vehicles per day by 2025.
The $150 million COSMIX project, the city's largest transportation project ever, will give I-25 at least three lanes in each direction through the city, rebuild interchanges and replace or widen 20 bridges. A fourth lane in each direction is planned when an additional $400 million becomes available.
A study before COSMIX began concluded the I-25 expansion was necessary because mass transit would not divert enough commuters from their cars to noticeably reduce congestion.
Today, four out of every five Colorado motorists drive to work alone, state surveys show.
Expect more lanes to be added to I-25 and highways during the next 30 years, said Warren Whiteaker, senior transportation planner for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments.
The council is in charge of regional transportation planning. Whiteaker and other planners are developing the blueprint for 2035.
Whiteaker doesn't envision radical change during the next three decades. Federal law requires transportation officials to base their plans on conservative assumptions and reassess them frequently, he said.
"We can't make assumptions that we'll have hovercrafts or all be driving hybrid cars," he said. "We have to be realistic. We can't make Hollywood assumptions."
Eventually - beyond 2035 - I-25 will run out of capacity, said Craig Casper, the council of governments' transportation director. As interstates are widened, adjacent land becomes less available and more expensive, he said.
That's when a project like Super Slab makes sense, he said.
"You either make I-25 10 lanes in each direction like you see in Los Angeles," he said, "or you put a new interstate somewhere."
The $2.5 billion Super Slab project, officially called Prairie Falcon Parkway Express, would stretch 210 miles through seven counties.
The proposed toll road would veer off I-25 north of Fort Collins and reconnect south of Pueblo.
Landowners along the project's potential path have fought it every step of the way.
Proponents say the project would connect communities. It would reduce traffic along I-25, decrease freight traffic through Colorado Springs, Denver and other cities and bring economic opportunity to communities along the corridor.
Detractors call it a land grab. They say it would cut Colorado in half and cheat private property owners.
"This is just a terrible idea," opposition organizer Rob Dougherty said. "We aren't going to stop until we're sure this project is dead."
CONGESTION
They say nobody on their deathbed wishes they had spent more time at work.
Nor do they wish they'd spent more time in traffic.
That's what Colorado drivers will face, however, if experts are right.
Without passenger rail or driver behavioral changes such as more carpooling, by 2030 Interstate 25 will need to double its width to eight lanes much of the way from north Colorado Springs to Castle Rock, not counting acceleration and deceleration lanes. It will be wider still in Denver.
Even after the widenings, I-25 will be more congested, some studies show.
Congestion delays in Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder cost drivers $1,426 per traveler annually, according to a 2004 Texas Transportation Institute Urban Mobility Study.
Denver is the ninth-most congested city in the nation. Colorado Springs is the nation's most congested city under 500,000 population.
Without major improvements, Denver drivers can expect worse rush-hour traffic jams than present congestion capital Los Angeles by 2030, according to a study by Reason Foundation, a policy think tank. Colorado Springs can expect congestion as bad as present-day Miami.
All that sitting in traffic means lost productivity, said the study's lead researcher, University of North Carolina at Charlotte transportation studies professor David Hartgen.
"Congestion is an insidious problem," he said. "It's sort of like asphalt on your feet. It causes everybody to slow down and because everybody else has slowed down, you don't realize how much time you are wasting."
Beyond lost productivity, congestion raises crash rates, vehicle operating costs, fuel consumption, truck travel times and shipping costs, Hartgen said.
Colorado needs 4,670 new lane miles at a cost of $11.5 billion by 2030, the foundation study said. Lane miles measure pavement. A two-lane stretch of road one mile long is two lane miles.
Colorado ranks fourth out of the 50 states in most lane miles needed, according to the study.
State projections show about $75 billion available for state and local agencies to spend on transportation across Colorado through 2030.
Of the $75 billion, 62 percent will go to highways.
The state estimates it will take $123 billion to maintain today's service levels through 2030 and $178 billion for major improvements.
Unless something is done to close the $48 billion gap between the $75 billion available and the $123 billion maintainance funding, projects will be delayed, congestion will get worse and the cost of doing business will climb, transportation department spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.
It has become increasingly difficult to reach the state Transportation Commission's goal of keeping 60 percent of the highways in good or fair condition, Stegman said.
Falling gasoline tax revenues and rising costs of construction materials have made it harder to build and maintain roads, Stegman said.
"We have to put most of our funds into maintenance just so we don't have crumbling roads," she said. "It doesn't leave much room for expansion."
If the state adds the lane miles the foundation says it needs, it would save 169 million hours per year that now are wasted in traffic jams, the Reason report says. Without improvements, future traffic jams will make current weekday congestion look like a Sunday drive, the study suggests.
Colorado Springs drivers get impatient when they wait at a busy intersection, Casper said. In Chicago, where he lived previously, Casper often sat through six full light cycles before clearing an intersection, he said.
"Congestion is very subjective," Casper said. "I think people are going to change their expectations of what 'congested' is."
TRAINS VS. LANES
Gridlock and bottlenecks don't have to get worse, Hartgen said.
Too many transportation dollars are spent on public transit systems used by a small percentage of commuters, he said, siphoning funds from necessary road building and maintenance and simpler solutions such as signal timing.
"We know the vast majority of Americans aren't going to give up their cars," Hartgen said. "We need to focus our transportation dollars where they will do the most good."
The Denver Regional Council of Governments, for example, plans to spend $87.8 billion during the next 25 years, including $53.9 billion on highway improvements and $23.4 billion on mass transit.
Fewer than 5 percent of Denver commuters use mass transit, but 27 percent of funds are allocated to it, Hartgen said.
Even after spending $87.8 billion, congestion is expected to double during the next 25 years, Hartgen said. Denver would be better off taking about $8 billion planned for mass transit and spending it to increase road capacity, Hartgen said.
Rail proponents such as Esty say it's short-sighted to overlook public transportation's potential to reduce congestion.
Mass transit advocates cite a study by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University that found public transportation saved 1.1 billion hours of travel time in 85 urban areas in 2003.
Building highway lanes instead of rail requires more parking capacity and more fuel consumption, Esty said.
"That approach doesn't take into account the scarcity of land, the scarcity of fuel and the resultant pollution," he said. "Those are things that, with the growing population, we're going to have to take into consideration."
El Paso County Commissioner Wayne Williams, chairman of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority board and the council of governments board, isn't convinced passenger rail is the solution to congestion on I-25.
He's reserving judgment until the feasibility study is complete.
FREX buses, carpooling, van pooling and adding high-occupancy vehicle lanes might be the better way to go, said Williams, whose colleagues call him "Mr. Transportation" because of his interest in the subject.
Transportation funding increasingly must come from local initiatives such as the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, Williams said. Voters in 2004 approved a 1 percent sales tax levied in most of El Paso County to improve roads, bridges and public transportation.
Developers also will have to contribute more for road projects, Williams said.
Voters have sent mixed signals on transportation.
The RTA approval in El Paso County and FasTracks passage in Denver show voters are willing to pony up for transportation improvements in those areas.
But in 2005, voters statewide rejected the idea of financing highway projects with debt. Voters defeated Referendum D, which would have
jump-started 55 strategic projects throughout the state by selling bonds.
TROLLEYS
In Denver, shiny light-rail trains zip across the city carrying laptoptoting businesspeople, backpackwearing students and pierced barhoppers to their destinations.
In Colorado Springs, volunteers gather in a barn on Steel Drive on Saturdays to refurbish old, wooden streetcars.
Electric streetcars ran in Colorado Springs until 1932. Members of the Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation want to bring them back.
Even in the most ambitious plans, the trolleys would be more of a nostalgic tourist attraction than a transportation solution.
Realistically, their plan to bring back the trolleys may never get out of the barn.
The trolley foundation has 14 cars, built between 1901 and 1949, in various stages of restoration, foundation president David Lippincott said. The group hopes to start by running them three miles from the restoration facility to the old downtown train depot on Sierra Madre Street along the existing rail lines parallel to Interstate 25, he said. Eventually, trolleys would run along Colorado Avenue to Manitou Springs and along Constitution Avenue to Academy Boulevard.
"That's looking far into the future," Lippincott admits.
Cities such as Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Tucson, Memphis, New Orleans and Tampa have discovered that running vintage trolleys is good for tourism and helps relieve congestion and parking downtown.
The trolley group is trying to raise about $6 million in private money to open the downtown leg, he said. If volunteers can get that leg running, Lippincott hopes the trolleys will generate enough attention and donations to build the rest of the system.
In 1901, gold mining millionaire Winfield Scott Stratton bought a troubled trolley system and established the Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway.
Stratton's trolleys hauled tourists and residents to Seven Falls, Garden of the Gods and destinations citywide. Ladies in long skirts and gentlemen in felt hats rode to dances in the Stratton Park Pavilion and to Boulevard Park to see the then-new minor league baseball team, the Colorado Springs Millionaires.
In the early 1900s, the Colorado and Southern Railway, the Santa Fe and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad offered passengers 38 daily connections between Denver and Colorado Springs, rail historian McFarland said.
"At that time, it was the best mode of transportation," said McFarland, a conductor on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway in Manitou Springs. "Going to Denver any other way would take at least a day. This took a couple of hours."
Today, ColoRail's Esty would be happy with two passenger trains a day between the state's two biggest cities. He thinks ridership would grow quickly.
"We've got to start somewhere," he said. "Let's start with a handful and grow it from there."
RAIL, HIGHWAY AND BUS NUMBERS
How the past, present and future add up along Interstate 25
119
miles of light rail are hoped to be added with Denver's FasTracks by 2016. FasTracks is a voter-approved, $4.7 billion plan.
54
miles exist in Denver's current lightrail system after 19 additional miles opened Thursday.
$12
would be paid by passengers riding from Colorado Springs to Denver, or $24 round trip, on the proposed Ranger Express.
26 million
train trips a year from Pueblo to Fort Collins are projected by Front Range Commuter Rail, a group that supports passenger rail.
630
FREX boardings happen on a typical workday. Each of the Colorado Springs-based buses removes up to 27 cars from Interstate 25.
8,500
vehicles a day traveled I-25 when it opened in Colorado Springs in 1960. By 2005, that count had reached 110,00 a day in some areas.
SHORT OF CASH
The stream of money to keep traffic flowing throughout Colorado isn't there, according to many projections. Here are some of the numbers.
$75 billion
is forecast to be available for state and local agencies to spend on transportation across Colorado between now and 2030.
$123 billion
is needed between now and 2030 to maintain existing mobility levels and prevent the statewide transportation system from deteriorating.
$48 billion
is the shortfall between amount available and amount needed to maintain existing mobility levels.
$264
is the annual cost per motorist for poor road conditions, including extra operating costs and vehicle repairs.
$1,426
is the average annual cost of delays because of congestion to travelers in Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs.
$1 million
is needed to lay each mile of track.
- Bill Hethcock, The Colorado Springs Gazette
Teen's Drinking Cited In State's Report On LIRR Gap Death
NEW YORK, NY -- State investigators have released their findings in the case of a teenager who died after falling through the gap between a Long Island Rail Road car and a platform.
The state said the woman's own actions -- including drinking with friends -- probably caused the accident. And the Public Transportation Safety Board said the rail line was in compliance with government safety standards.
Natalie Smead, 19, of Northfield, Minnesota, was killed at a Queens station this year as she headed to a Dave Matthews concert.
The death prompted calls for North America's largest commuter railroad to reduce the number of gap-related injuries. - The Associated Press, WNBC-TV4, New York, NY
THE END
| Subject | Written By | Date/Time (PST) |
|---|---|---|
 Railroad Newsline for Tuedsay, 11/21/06 |
Larry W. Grant | 11-21-2006 - 02:53 |
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Re: Railroad Newsline for Tuedsay, 11/21/06
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William Nicholson | 11-21-2006 - 06:50 |
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I agree with William
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Matt K | 11-21-2006 - 07:24 |
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Re: I agree with William
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Larry W. Grant | 11-21-2006 - 09:48 |
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Re: I agree with William
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CWLee | 11-21-2006 - 11:35 |
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Re: I agree with William
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Carol Voss | 11-21-2006 - 17:47 |