NCI: Leo King Amtrak says its Acelas are now permanently fixed. Time will tell if that prediction is correct. Acela Express 2154 makes its way into its Boston service and inspection building in 2002. The weekday express operates from Washington to Boston.

Acelas get good marks – now Amtrak believes it has resolved reliability and mechanical problems with its Acela Express trains, and is making a new push to attract more premium fares and build loyalty to its signature service. While it may never meet lofty expectations, the nation’s first high-speed passenger train remains the railroad’s window to the future and a lucrative selling point on its flagship line between Washington and Boston. Amtrak, now 33, received $1.23 billion this year from the Congress, and is seeking $1.8 billion for next year. Still, ridership is healthy and Amtrak, accelerating its investment in track, tunnel and other improvements along the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, wants to maximize reliable premium revenue much like the airlines get on their shuttle routes. Reuters writer John Crawley reported on February 22 that to lure and retain Acela Express customers who pay at least $126 for a one-way ticket on the New York-to-Washington route, Amtrak launched a promotion a fortnight ago to give preferred customers a free round-trip ticket for every two paying round trips they take on the fast trains, or the slightly slower and less expensive Metroliner. One travel expert says Amtrak continues to challenge big airlines like US Airways (UAIR), Delta Air Lines (DAL) and American Airlines (AMR). “From the numbers I’ve seen, Acela seems to be picking up market share against the shuttles,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents corporate travel managers. Trends away from air travel became more pronounced after the September 11, 2001, aircraft attacks, and the train emerged as a strong option, especially Amtrak’s hourly runs – both high-speed and regular fares – between Washington and New York. With ridership throughout the Amtrak system expected to set a record this year at 25 million, the railroad is confident Acela is ready to contribute more. Acela Express trains accounted for 22 percent of total revenue last year, or $272 million. Introduced in late 2000, Acela’s problems have ranged from embarrassing reports of bathroom doors that would not latch properly to computer and mechanical glitches on the high-tech trains that caused unexpected and frustrating delays. The most serious setback involved cracks in steel suspension system brackets, yaw dampers, on its locomotives that forced a temporary halt to Acela service in August 2002. Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel says those problems have finally been fixed on all trains.

Amtrak has taken delivery of its 20^th and final Acela train set – two locomotives and six cars – from its Canadian manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation, and now has 14 in service on a typical day. Four are usually out for inspection or service and two are usually held back as reserves.

Acela ridership was up 42 percent between November and January between Boston and New York at 182,000 compared with the same period last year. Ridership was up 1.5 percent on the more heavily traveled Washington-to-New York route at 365,000.

While track and other infrastructure hurdles prevent Acela from reaching its top speed of 150 mph on all but a small part of its Boston route, the railroad has nevertheless improved high-speed performance overall. Acela on-time performance is up 5 percent since the end of September to 75 percent.

Amtrak plans to add a 15^th Acela train to its daily schedule in April at the next timetable change for round-trips between New York and Washington.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), agreed Friday to give the independent panel investigating the September 11 attacks an extra two months to finish its report, clearing the way for Congress to approve that extension.

His decision could resolve a dispute that has held up action on an unrelated highway bill, according to The AP.

Hastert, in a letter to the two chairmen of the commission, former New Jersey Republican Gov. Thomas H. Kean and former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), acknowledged that he had been “reluctant to support this extension” because of the need for Congress to move quickly on the findings of the report.

President Bush supports the extension and the Senate earlier Friday passed on a voice-vote a Senate Intelligence Committee bill including the two-month extension.

USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta said on Friday, after the vote to extend the commission’s viability, “Today’s action by Congress avoids the unnecessary shutdown of important highway programs and the furlough of almost 5,000 workers.”

Mineta, who had earlier in the day issued a statement saying the extension had to be agreed to because of the possible job shutdowns.

Mineta added, in his second statement of the day, “With the issue of a temporary extension behind us, we now can return our attention to the passage of a fiscally responsible, six-year surface transportation bill.”

He urged Congress to use the time “provided by this second extension to give America a bill that allows states to plan and construct critical highway and transit projects, without raising gas taxes, increasing the deficit or taking money from other important federal programs.”

However, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), who led efforts to prolong the commission’s life, demanded a guarantee that the House would act by next week on that Senate bill.

Until receiving that guarantee, they held up a vote on a highway bill needed to prevent the furlough today of some 5,000 federal workers and a cutoff of highway money.

Hastert’s letter did not indicate when the House would act on the extension.

It noted that under current law the commission, established by Congress to investigate the nation’s preparedness for and response to the September 11 attacks, does not go out of existence until July 26, but does have a May 27 deadline for filing its report.

He said he was prepared to support legislation that would give the panel an extra 60 days to file that report.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush aides had been in contact with Hastert’s office throughout the week to make clear the president’s support for an extension. Hastert informed the White House of his change of heart before he announced it.

“We are pleased that everybody seems to support an extension,” McClellan said.

There was no immediate response from McCain and Lieberman, who had wanted an extra two months both to write the report and to close down the commission.

“We don’t live in ordinary times,” Lieberman said earlier in explaining why they were using the highway bill as leverage to get the commission extension. The inconvenience of the temporary disruption of highway programs would “pale in significance to not giving the commission the extra time it needs,” he said.

McCain and Lieberman said the extension was needed because the administration has not fully cooperated with the commission, established by Congress to study the nation’s preparedness for and response to the September 11 attacks.

Being held hostage is a highway bill that would also extend for two months the federal highway and public transit bill, which is set to expire on Sunday.

Without passage, nearly 5,000 Transportation Department workers would be furloughed on Monday, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said.

“It could halt the flow of federal dollars to hundreds of highway construction projects now underway across America,” he said. “It could delay federal approval of new projects. And it could slow the ability of states to make debt payments.”

Department spokesman Robert Johnson said affected departments are the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but it would also affect Amtrak and rail transit funding.

The House and Senate are now trying to work out differences on a major new highway bill that would outline spending over the next six years. The Senate recently approved a $318 billion bill, which the White House has threatened to veto, saying it shouldn’t go above the president’s $256 billion proposal.

The House has yet to take up its bill, but is expected to press for at least the amount passed by the Senate.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, late Thursday won House approval of a two-month extension of the highway program to keep projects going while the negotiations continue on the new bill. McCain and Lieberman were blocking the Senate version of that extension.

Majority Leader Bill Frist, frustrated with the delay in sending the bill to President Bush, appealed to McCain to drop his objection. The extension expire yesterday, and Frist warned that allowing the law to lapse would result in furloughing 4,600 federal highway workers. McCain and Lieberman the two co-sponsors of the original legislation creating the September 11 commission, rejected Frist’s appeals.

While saying he understood the importance of the highway programs, McCain argued that ensuring the commission has adequate time to finish its work is more important than avoiding a short-term disruption in highway and transit programs.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said on Friday that the president has expressed directly to Hastert his view that the deadline for the commission should be extended. The White House also confirmed that Bush is planning to meet only with the chairman and vice-chairman of the commission in a meeting likely to be limited to one hour.

“The President looks forward to meeting with the chairman and vice-chairman and providing the commission with the necessary information for it to complete its work,” McClellan said.

Amtrak’s numbers continue to show improvement. From October 2003 through January, the fiscal year-to-date shows ridership up by some 600,000 people. The carrier budgeted for 7,595,778 passengers but actually carried 8,169,712. One year ago, Amtrak carried 7,540,502.

That resulted in total operating revenue of $629,750,000 while the national passenger rail system had expected to earn $607,336,000. One year earlier, Amtrak earned $696,630,000, or about $66.8 million more.

Its total operating expenses came to $1,009,628,000, but it had budgeted for $1,041,364,000, a difference of about $31.8 billion. In the same period one year earlier, Amtrak spent $1,074,571,000.

Safety is a problem. Amtrak’s reportable injury ratio was 3.6 for the period. Its goal was 3.4. One year ago, it worked out to 3.5.

On-time performance continues to suffer. Its system goal is 85 percent, but only 73 percent of scheduled trains arrived on time. A year ago, they came in at 76.3 percent on time.

An Amtrak passenger train and a 105-car CSX freight train came within 400 feet of each other on February 20 after both trains made emergency stops in Kirkville, near Minoa, N.Y., about six miles east of Syracuse.

Amtrak’s train No. 281, bound from New York City to Niagara Falls, was carrying 128 passengers, Amtrak spokeswoman Marcie Golgoski told D:F on Thursday, from Washington.

A two-man CSX crew jumped from the freight train after going into emergency braking mode, company spokesman Adam Hollingsworth said Saturday from Jacksonville, Fla., CSX’s headquarters. Both suffered minor injuries, he said.

The eastbound freight consisted of two locomotives and 105 cars, and was a general merchandise train with two locomotives, transporting various cargo from Buffalo to Selkirk, Hollingsworth said. The train passed through Syracuse and did not make any stops in Central New York, he said.

Hollingsworth said he did not know how fast the CSX train was traveling when conductors saw the approaching Amtrak train. He said the average freight train traveling about 45 mph needs 1.5 miles to stop.

Locomotive engineers on both trains “big holed” their consists after each crew spotted the approaching train on a straight, flat stretch of track, Hollingsworth said.

The incident occurred when the Amtrak train entered the freight train’s operating block, Hollingsworth said. He said the CSX crew had been operating its train in accordance with all rules. He also said that the signals were working properly.

Unofficially, railroaders suspected one of the engineers ran by a stop signal.

The Amtrak train was scheduled to depart Rochester at 5:13 p.m.

Amtrak spokeswoman Sarah Swain, in Washington, acknowledged that the incident involved “an alleged rules violation,” but she would not say what rules might have been violated or by whom. Swain said she had no other details of the incident, which occurred about 5:15 p.m.

CSX owns the double-track line from Chicago to Albany. Amtrak has operating rights on the route. CSX would not state the freight train’s symbol, its origination point nor its destination. Each railroad is investigating the near-collision, representatives of both companies said on February 21.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and the Syracuse Post-Standard contributed to this story.

A homeless New Jersey man who gained notoriety when he sued a Morristown public library after it booted him out has filed another suit, this one against Amtrak.

Richard Kreimer, who initially won an $80,000 legal settlement in 1992 by suing the Joint Free Public Library of Morristown, reportedly claims the railroad violated his rights by booting him out of various stations along the Northeast Corridor.

A source at the Philadelphia federal courthouse said last week that one of those locations included the Trenton, N.J. station.

Kreimer’s suit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, also includes the city of Philadelphia, SEPTA Transit, the Gallery Mall at Market Street in Philadelphia, and several security guards.

Kreimer, who ran for mayor of Morristown, N.J. in 1993, and lost, also filed suit against the Morris County prosecutor, claiming the state had harassed him by checking his police files.

The suit had also called on the state Superior Court to allow him access to records he claimed police kept on him in the early 1990s.

Kreimer had also asked that New Jersey’s 1963 Open Public Records Act be declared unconstitutional because it failed to grant citizens access to their own police files, the Bergen County Record reported.

Kreimer, who had used a park bench as his address when running for mayor, was issued an $80,000 settlement in 1992 as a result of his suit against the library, and eventually began living in a motel near Parsippany, records indicate.

Although the suit was overturned, it’s unclear if he was asked to return the money.

A security guard at the Trenton railroad station said that several homeless men have been hanging out inside the station recently, although they move outside when asked. The guard was unsure if that person was Kreimer.

According to court documents filed in Eastern Pennsylvania District Court, Kreimer will act as his own attorney in his recently filed lawsuit against Amtrak Inc.

Kreimer could not be reached for comment.

Florida’s high-speed rail contractor said on February 20 it is negotiating with British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s business empire to operate the Tampa-Orlando leg of the new rail system when, and if, it goes into business in 2009.

Lecia Stewart, in Quebec, vice-president for high-speed rail contractor Fluor-Bombardier, told the St. Petersburg Times the company is in “exploratory talks” with Virgin Trains, the rail arm of an empire that includes Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Virgin Atlantic flies about a million people to Florida now, many of them into Orlando, but also arranges tours by another subsidiary, Virgin Holidays, that brings many of the Orlando tourists into the Tampa Bay area for the attractions and beaches.

Stewart did not know when talks between Bombardier and Virgin might conclude.

Officials of Virgin Trains roamed Florida last week to talk with contractors and officials of the Florida High Speed Rail Authority, which plans a $2.6-billion bullet-train system between Orlando and Tampa.

If the rail system gets built, the primary contractor would be Fluor-Bombardier, a Canadian partnership, with no experience running a railroad. That point was raised by the partnership’s competitor during the bid process, but was dismissed by the authority as a future issue. The high-speed rail plan has powerful political opposition, and Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in particular.

“We contemplated during the bid process that we would be working to take on a partner at just about this point in planning for the train,” Stewart said. “We are partnered with them in the U.K. on high-speed rail, and they have quite a presence in Florida already.”

Enter Virgin Trains in Florida.

“They came to Orlando yesterday [February 19] and sat down and wanted to know more about the project so I gave them that information,” said Nazih Haddad, director of the Florida High Speed Rail Authority. “They expressed they were very much interested in joining the Fluor-Bombardier team.”

“They know their business,” Haddad added.

Virgin Trains operates rail lines that run from Scotland to southern England, including two that use high-speed trains. The Virgin trains annually carry 35 million riders, including 15 million on the high-speed lines, said spokesman Will Whitehorn, a director of Virgin Group, the parent company of Branson’s empire. Virgin Trains last year posted $1.3-billion in revenue.

A Philadelphia court has temporarily blocked Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority from buying $236 million in light rail cars from a South Korean firm after a Japanese competitor, who wants to build them in Nebraska, filed suit, a spokesman for the commuter agency said last week.

The battle hinges on whether SEPTA broke its own rules when it preliminarily gave South Korea-based United Transit Systems the go-ahead to replace about one-third of its fleet, Reuters reported last week.

The mass transit agency, one of the nation’s five biggest, ranked United Transit Systems last on technical merit, but the company’s low-cost bid was a big attraction. The mass transit agency said it stands to save $14 million by buying the rail cars from United Transit Systems.

The bidder ranked first on technical merit, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. of Japan, got the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court to grant a temporary restraining order on February 24, said Richard Maloney, the spokesman for the transportation authority.

“We feel we followed the letter and spirit of the law and we will prevail,” Maloney added.

A Kawasaki spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

The siphoning of U.S. jobs by foreign companies has proved a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign.

Though United Transit Systems would build the cars in South Korea, they would be assembled in Philadelphia. And the firm plans to hire about 140 Philadelphians to do the job.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries would have made the rail cars at its Nebraska plant.

United Transit Systems makes high-speed trains for Asian countries, but winning the Philadelphia contract would be a coup as it would be the company’s first U.S. win in years.

The board of the mass transit agency, which carries about 100,000 people a day, had been expected to formally approve the United Transit Systems contract on Thursday.

Though the agency’s regular board meeting still will take place as scheduled, its leaders have yet to decide what if any action they will take in response to the lawsuit, Maloney said.

“We investigated their (United Transit Systems) history and find them eminently qualified to fulfill the contract,” Maloney said.

NCI: Leo King Through the cold of winter and the heat of summer, F-40PH locomotives soldiered on from Boston to Los Angeles, from Seattle to Miami. Now, one is being preserved in running condition in North Carolina. The engines slogged through the snow and ice in New England. Consider, for example, a westbound morning train from Boston enroute to New Haven, Conn. as it crosses the Niantic River movable bridge in Connecticut, ca. 1994. Railroaders call the place, “Nan.”

It’s full steam ahead for plans to restore and display one of the EMD F-40PH diesel locomotives instrumental to Amtrak’s survival through the 1980s and early 1990s. At the direction of Amtrak’s president and CEO David L. Gunn and the company’s directors, North Carolina has received a retired F-40PH for its transportation museum in Spencer.

As part of the donation, CSX and Norfolk Southern moved locomotive engine 307 free of charge from Amtrak’s Beech Grove, Ind. maintenance facility to the museum’s Back Shop Hall, where it will be restored and eventually put on display.

The 307 was one of 216 F-40PH engines that toiled pulling the nation’s passenger trains between 1976 and 2001, including those operating in North Carolina and the Northeast Corridor between Boston and New Haven, Conn. The North Carolina Transportation Museum Foundation, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, was first to request an F-40PH from Amtrak.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) worked closely with Amtrak officials to identify a suitable locomotive and arrange for its transportation.

The 16 cylinder, 3,000 horsepower locomotives began to be phased out in 1997, as more modern engines, like the GE Genesis P-40s and P-42s became available. The last F-40 was taken out of service in 2001.

Racine station to be restored

For more than a century, the Racine, Wis. depot, has weathered snow, ice and people. Now a Metra station, the structure, originally built in 1901 for railroad traffic, may get its oak and iron restored to historical accuracy.

Imagine an outdoor bus terminal with more than a dozen buses lined up. The bus terminal is next to the restored Metra station, a warm resting place for both Metra users and city bus riders. This whole scene from the future is a $6.2 million transportation hub, planned for the 1400 block of State Street, and it’s to be completed by July 2005 reports the Racine Journal Times.

If plans to take the Metra through Racine come to fruition in 2007, the renovated State Street station and outdoor bus terminal will have been ready and waiting for two years.

The bus terminal, which accounts for about $3.3 million of the construction costs, will be completed first. The outdoor collection of platforms and overhangs is to become the central station for the Belle Urban System in July.

The State Street train station, beside aging tracks that could soon hold Metra trains, will have its $1.9 million renovation work started just as the bus depot is finished this summer. The expected completion date is next summer.

Other costs include a $205,000 parking lot and $800,000 in landscaping. The project is 80 percent funded by federal grants and 20 percent funded by the city.

Last used in 1971, the train station is a mess. It’s boarded up and filled with junk, but also filled with gems like a stained ceiling of wood slats in good condition and about 25 feet high.

The station occupies some 6,000 square feet, with space for antiquated needs like ticket booths, railroad offices, and a smoking room. City Transit Planner Mike Glasheen said these uses will be eliminated – neither the Metra nor the Belle Urban System require ticket booths.

The new station’s design will maintain much of the woodwork and ornate character, but also will embrace modern needs by including a lounge for bus drivers, a police office, and a vending area.

Frederick J. Patrie, chairman of a Technical Advisory Committee on commuter rail, said he still hopes to expand the Metra service through Racine and on to Milwaukee by 2007. He said the proposed route runs right beside the State Street station.

The $5.9 million Saratoga, N.Y. railroad station will be formally opened on March 15. Amtrak will move into its new digs before the official opening date, said Capital District Transportation Authority executive director Steve Bland. He could not say for certain when the new railroad station would start being used. Work is still being finished. A ceremony is set for 11:00 a.m. CDTA officials had originally hoped to have the station finished by December 21.

Siemens via North County Transit District Siemens’ DMU I will be running at 55 mph in California later this year.

Siemens’ diesel multiple units (DMUs) are coming to Oceanside, Calif., and other commuter stops. North County Transit District directors okayed a plan to buy a dozen DMUs on December 18.

The 12 DMU light-rail vehicles are being built by German-based Siemens Transportation Systems. The total cost of the contract for the self-propelled Sprinter vehicles, including freight and taxes, is $50.65 million.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Colorado Railcar has made its first sale, to the South Florida Regional Rail Authority, and is running its DMU in a demonstration project between Miami International Airport and Magnonia Park Station. The train operates over the 72-mile Tri-Rail line. The authority bought a three-unit trainset of a single-level powercar, an unpowered bilevel coach, and a powered bilevel cab car.

The two-year project will cost nearly $12 million – $3.9 million from the FRA, $5.6 million from Florida DOT, and 2.4 million from the authority.

The 140-foot long vehicles, model VT 642, are state-of-the-art mid-sized diesel vehicles.

They will travel along 22-mile Highway 78 corridor, including a 1.7-mile diversion over elevated rail to California State Univ. at San Marcos.

The trains’ best speed will be 55 mph, although the cars are capable of 80 mph, through four North County cities. The total cost of the line is $351.5 million.

Washington State’s Sound Transit is getting ready to run trains to Rainier Valley. It inked a pact with RCI-Herzog, a joint venture, on February 24.

The Central Link light rail segment is the latest segment. In 1996, voters approved funding for Sound Transit to provide a regional system of transit improvements, including Sounder commuter rail, ST Express regional bus service, numerous capital improvements (including park-and-ride lots, transit centers and direct access ramps) and Link light rail.

“This spring we will begin construction of the second major section of Central Link light rail,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. “Sound Transit is moving ahead aggressively to build this important element of the regional mass transit system that the voters mandated.”

The 4.3-mile section of light rail tracks and the associated improvements are along Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.

RCI-Herzog bid $128.3 million, which was $30.4 million under the engineer’s estimate. The Rainier Valley contract is the fourth major Central Link Initial Segment contract to come in under budget.

The commuter carrier broke ground on the Central Link Initial Segment in October after receiving a $500 million federal full-funding grant agreement. Currently, two major components of the Central Link Initial Segments are under construction by Kiewit Pacific Co., including the light rail alignment through Seattle’s “Sodo” area and a 25-acre Operations and Maintenance Facility and train storage yard. Totaling $94.7 million, these two contracts came in 15 percent below Sound Transit’s engineer’s estimate.

Sound Transit is preparing to issue contracts for building the three remaining sections of the 14-mile initial segment.

A contract for building a one-mile tunnel through Beacon Hill as well as the underground Beacon Hill station and above-ground McClellan Street Station is scheduled to be awarded this spring. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.

Also this summer, Sound Transit is scheduled to execute a contract for retrofitting the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to accommodate both light rail trains and buses, as well as constructing a short tunnel extension beneath Pine Street. Work on the Pine Street “Stub Tunnel,” which will allow trains to change tracks and directions of travel, is scheduled to begin this fall. The DSTT retrofit is scheduled to begin in fall 2005, two years ahead of the previous schedule.

Central Link is scheduled to begin passenger operations in 2009 and is projected to move more than 42,000 people a day by 2020.

The Democratic-led New York State Assembly on Friday vetoed plans to buy 120 commuter trains, a victory for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg who feared it would have drained money from city bus and subway lines.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs New York City’s commuter lines, subways and buses, had asked the state’s capital review board to let it buy the rail cars from Canada’s Bombardier Inc. 18 months faster than initially planned, Reuters reported.

A spokeswoman for the Assembly, which has one voting member on the board, declined comment on the details of its opposition. She said only that the nation’s largest mass transit agency had failed to answer its questions.

The MTA, which carries 7 million bus and subway riders every day, also rejected the Assembly’s request to extend the deadline, the spokeswoman added.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said, “It is particularly disturbing that this veto was issued without explanation after extensive briefings and information were provided over the last month.”

Spokesmen for Gov. George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno of Rensselaer were not immediately available. Both Republicans also have representatives on the capital review board, which must approve the MTA’s capital spending; technically, the Assembly’s representative rejected the agency’s proposed amendment to its 2000-2004 plan.

The Republican mayor said he was pleased the Assembly, whose speaker represents Lower Manhattan, had “stood up for the people of New York.” Bloomberg added: “Transportation for City residents must be the agency’s first priority.”

The new Bombardier cars were destined for the Metro-North railroad, which serves commuters who live in New York State and Connecticut. To help pay for the cars, the MTA got its board to approve a $208 million bond sale.

CN A week-old strike at Canadian National entered its second week on Friday.

Canadian National Ry. entered a crucial weekend of contract talks on Friday to end a week-long strike by 5,000 employees that has squeezed traffic along Canada’s biggest railway.

“We are still far from a deal,” Canadian Auto Workers union negotiator Abe Rosner said after a meeting with the company in Montreal on Friday.

The union presented its demands in terms of pay, benefits and pension, he said. Federal mediators were expected to schedule more meetings during the weekend.

The Canadian economy has avoided major disruptions since the strike began as many shippers turned to trucking companies to avoid having goods stalled in container yards, but pressures were beginning to build, with CN’s overall railcar volume down nearly 10 percent last week compared with last year. The volume of containers hauled by the company dropped by a quarter alone, according to a report by Merrill Lynch transport analyst Ken Hoexter.

“Shippers who have critical time-sensitive traffic chose to put their traffic on the road,” CN spokesman Mark Hallman said.

Hallman said container movement in intermodal yards improved steadily throughout the week, in part due to court orders limiting picket lines around the terminals where containers are transferred between trucks and rail.

In comparison, CN’s main competitor, Canadian Pacific Ry. Ltd., saw its container traffic jump 25 percent last week.

“We are not seeing any traffic coming from CN,” CP Rail spokesman Len Cocolicchio said. “We are very busy because the intermodal sector is very strong.”

Official traffic statistics for the week just ended are not yet available.

CN resumed contract talks with its striking employees on Thursday.

The railway and union officers met for an hour in Montreal under the supervision of three government mediators, the union said.

“We didn’t put any specific demand on the table, they didn’t put any offer,” union negotiator Rosner said.

“It was more of an exploratory meeting,” he said. “Talks will continue, that’s for sure.”

CN has called on managers and contractors to keep its operations running, but some 130 locomotive engineers, members of the Teamsters union at CN’s terminal in Winnipeg, Manitoba, threatened to walk out on Friday.

In a letter sent to CN president and CEO Hunter Harrison, the Teamsters said a locomotive engineer was injured after another train operated by a manager hit his train.

“The entire Winnipeg terminal is an unsafe workplace,” the union said in the letter.

The union representing CN signal and communications employees also said it was concerned for the safety of its members.

“The CN managers who are replacing CAW workers are starting to look beat,” said Kevin Kearns, chairman of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

CN spokesman Mark Hallman denied any safety problems at the Winnipeg terminal or elsewhere on the CN network, which stretches across Canada and down through the United States to the Gulf of Mexico.

Both sides were first expected to resume talks on Wednesday evening, but Hallam said it took longer than planned to get the bargaining teams together.

“It was a matter of getting people from across the country into the city,” Hallman said.

A union spokesman was not immediately available.

Some 5,000 Canadian mechanics, clerks and intermodal yard workers, about one fourth of the company’s work force, went on strike after rejecting a 3 percent pay offer. CN’s U.S. workers are not on strike.

In Toronto, Ford Motor Co. of Canada sent about 3,700 workers at three Ontario plants home on February 24 after some union members supported the strike at CN. They refused to unload rail shipments, Ford spokeswoman Lauren More said. The move by the CAW union members led to a parts shortage at the plants, More said.

CAW represents 5,000 striking railway employees, who account for nearly a quarter of CN Rail’s 23,000 employees.

“We did have a parts shortage at the assembly plants due to the fact that some Ford CAW members are refusing to handle inbound rail shipments that feed the line,” More said.

Ford said 1,200 workers on the day shift at its St. Thomas, Ontario, assembly plant were sent home, for a second consecutive day, and 2,500 employees at its two Oakville, Ont., plants, one of which is a truck plant, were also told to go home.

More said operations at Ford’s Windsor, Ont., plant were running on schedule and the afternoon shift at the St. Thomas and Oakville assembly plants were slated to start on time. The truck plant is a single shift facility.

More said Ford, which moves about 2,500 finished vehicles a day, about 80 percent of that by rail, was not shipping out by rail either and was storing vehicles on site.

CN spokesman Mark Hallman said the railway was operating at “near normal” levels despite the strike.

“This issue at Ford is not an issue caused by CN service but by Ford CAW employees,” he said. “We remain, and have been, ready, willing and able to service all of our customers.”

A spokeswoman at General Motors of Canada (GM), which ships about 20 percent of its goods by truck and the rest by rail, said the automaker has been making alternative arrangements for incoming parts shipments and shipment of finished vehicles.

“So far, we are able to get our production out and we’re probably getting close to being in a position where we’re going to have to park vehicles,” said Pam McLaughlin.

McLaughlin said parts coming into its plants were not unloaded by GM’s CAW-represented workers but outsourced to a group whose workers are represented by the Teamsters union.

Daimler-Chrysler Canada said it had seen no manufacturing disruptions either inside or outside Canada. The automaker relies on CN to ship engine parts from a plant in Mexico to its Brampton, Ont., facility, and frames from supplier Magna International to Chrysler’s Dodge Durango manufacturing site in Newark, Del., in the U.S.

“Canadian National Rail has been able to maintain 100 percent of the pre-strike service,” Daimler-Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff said.

Montreal-based CN said on February 24 clients faced only “minor delays,” and it denied it had reduced the number of rail cars available for shipping western grain to ports.

CN said it used managers and contractors to keep trains and other operations running.

The Canadian Wheat Board, the biggest seller of wheat worldwide, said the strike was slowing shipments, but seaports were still supplied with grain for export. Other large customers turned to trucking companies to keep their shipments flowing.

The world’s biggest newsprint producer, Abitibi-Consolidated Inc., said part of its production has been diverted to warehouses and then sent by truck. Montreal-based Abitibi normally ships 40 percent of its newsprint rolls by rail.

Inco Ltd., the world’s No. 2 nickel miner, is trucking nickel to customers in North America and shipping metal for export with CN rival, Canadian Pacific Ry., Ltd.

BC Rail, the country’s third largest rail carrier and a major hauler of Canadian forest products, reported some minor delays as it relies on CN for connections to other rail lines.

The Wheat Board said it would likely ask the Canadian government to force workers back to work if it felt the strike would prevent grain from moving to port.

A spokeswoman said the Wheat Board requested 2,300 railcars from CN for last week, but it was told it would get only 1,400. She said the shortfall is not unprecedented.

CN spokesman Mark Hallman denied the company was cutting back services to the grain industry.

“CN has not reduce its grain car supply,” he said. “We are maintaining a fair allocation of cars to all customers in all corridors and the wheat board statement is totally wrong.”

Overall, he said, “The operations are very much near normal.”

“The company is in denial,” said Abe Rosner, a CAW union negotiator. “We don’t want to be alarmist, but we can see that clients are not happy and are trying to find other ways to transport their goods,” he said.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said on February 20, in New York, its ratings on Canadian National Ry. Co., at BBB+/Stable/A-2, will “not be affected by a Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) members’ strike at the company.”

The rating firm added, “Should the strike continue for a significant period of time and cause operations to be materially affected, Standard & Poor’s would reassess the ratings impact.”

The Canadian National Ry. and the United Transportation Union (UTU) jointly said on Thursday they had reached a tentative labor agreement covering 375 UTU members who work on CN’s former Grand Trunk Western (GTW) territory in the U.S.

This agreement and the employees involved are separate from the ongoing Canadian Auto Workers strike, solely within Canada.

In contrast with traditional mileage and rule-based wage systems dating back to the steam locomotive era, this agreement would provide hourly wages, job guarantees and more flexible work rules for current UTU members on the GTW.

If the agreement is ratified, all of CN’s 2,300 U.S. train and engine employees would be covered by hourly-rated pay schemes.

The GTW’s main line between Port Huron, Mich. Chicago is a key link in CN’s network between the U.S. Midwest, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.

Two railroaders died when the freight train they were aboard hit another train in southern New Mexico on February 21, Union Pacific officials said. An eastbound UP train carrying automobiles sideswiped another train carrying grain as it moved onto a siding at Carrizozo, N. Mex., said UP spokesman John Bromley in Omaha.

The two men, whose names were not released, were on the UP train, he said, according to The AP.

“Collisions like that are pretty rare,” Bromley said.

Emergency workers and a hazardous materials team were working to clear the wreckage and clean up about 100 gallons of diesel fuel from the crash site, State Police spokesman Lt. Robert San Roman said.

Authorities were trying to determine what caused the collision.

Two years ago, a jury in Lucas County, Ohio, Common Pleas Court awarded $625,000 to a railroad employee who contracted asthma from inhaling diesel fumes while working as a locomotive engineer. At the trial, in the lawsuit brought against Norfolk Southern Corp. by Rodney Cutlip, medical experts testified that his asthma was caused by exposure to diesel fumes on the job.

The jury also heard from Cutlip’s coworkers who testified about ill-fitting and poorly maintained doors on locomotive cabs that allowed diesel fumes to get inside, and said they often used duct tape to seal the cracks, the Toledo Blade reported on February 23.

The jury’s verdict stands because the Ohio Supreme Court declined in December to consider the railroad’s appeal.

While the courts have held railroads liable for similar workplace conditions that have caused cancer, it is believed to be the first for an employee who got sick from inhaling diesel fumes.

“This is the first case of its kind in the country. There had never been a case in which an employee successfully claimed that diesel fumes caused asthma,” said E.J. Leizerman, a Toledo attorney who represented Cutlip.

According to Leizerman, his client filed the suit, in part, to get Norfolk Southern to address the fumes in the engineers’ compartment, providing a safe workplace for him and his coworkers.

The jurors heard testimony from employees about the railroad’s practice of operating trains in “long hood forward,” which placed the locomotive engineers at the front of the engine but running backwards – and the smoke in front of them – thereby exposing them to more fumes.

In addition, Mr. Cutlip’s co-workers testified that NS often engaged in “deadheading,” a practice in which engineers were kept in train locomotives at the end of their work shift. Instead of using vans to get the employees home, they were returned to a yard where they were subjected to the down-wind path of diesel fumes.

Despite the jury award, NS has not addressed the issues raised at Cutlip’s trial, said John Bentley of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Cleveland. The union represents about 35,000 engineers, conductors, and other employees.

“There is no evidence that NS made any improvements to locomotive cabs to reduce the possibility of diesel exhaust entering the cabs. There is no evidence the railroad improved insulation in the cabs or anything of that nature,” he said.

Rudy Husband, a Norfolk spokesman, said the railroad would not comment on the Cutlip case, and it has a policy of not talking about lawsuits filed against the company. He also would not discuss the conditions of locomotives or its practices of long hood forward and deadheading.

Leizerman said NS did not appeal the jury verdict to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said the railroad settled the case with his client, paying him the $625,000 jury award and about $100,000 in interest.

Cutlip sued his employer under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), a federal law that provides compensation for railroad employees who are injured on the job.

Enacted by Congress in 1908, the law is used as the basis for civil lawsuits for injuries resulting from a railroad’s negligence, and covers everything from dismemberment, hearing loss, and carpal-tunnel to other health problems caused by exposure to asbestos, chemicals, and solvents.

The law allows railroad employees to sue for compensatory damages, but it does not allow them to receive punitive damages.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a $5.8 million West Virginia jury award to six retired NS employees who believed they were exposed to asbestos at their workplace.

The court ruled that workers, all of whom have asbestosis, may win damages for their fear of contracting asbestos-related cancer.

Tom White, a spokesman for the AAR, said FELA lawsuits cost the industry about $1 billion annually in jury verdicts like the Cutlip case and out-of-court settlements, administrative costs, and attorney fees.

“Lawsuits are filed virtually on anything. They are an unfortunate fact of life in business today, and an awful lot of lawsuits are filed,” White said. “It is definitely a high cost of doing business.”

White added, “We are the only industry covered by this law. It puts a greater burden on the railroad than any other business facing employee-related injury cases,” he said.

Union Pacific says it will spend $2 billion during its 2004 fiscal year, according to a February 20 regulatory filing. The railroad and trucking company said capital spending is for expanding railroad lines, equipment upgrades and new technologies.

CSX Corp., in the midst of sweeping cost-cutting measures, has canceled plans to build a hangar for its corporate aircraft at Jacksonville International Airport. Instead, Jacksonville-based CSX will continue leasing hangar space at the airport. The decision to halt the project was made “earlier this year,” said a CSX spokesman. CSX had approached the Jacksonville Airport Authority to lease land for the new hangar about one year ago.

– Florida Times-Union

Trinity Industries, Inc. said it will build 6,000 high-capacity covered hoppers over the next four years for Burlington Northern & Santa Fe. The cars will haul grain. The companies signed their agreement in Dallas on February 24. Trinity Rail stated in a press release it would begin production of the units in the third quarter of 2004. Mike Flannery, Trinity Rail Group’s CEO, said the firm’s railcar backlog in North America had grown to more than 12,000 at the end of 2003.

Brokerage house Merrill Lynch said on February 24 it cut its rating on two railroads. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and CSX Corp. were cut to “neutral” from “buy.”

Freight traffic on U.S. railroads was up sharply from a year ago during the week ended February 21, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported February 26.

Intermodal traffic totaled 181,566 containers and trailers, up 3.5 percent from the comparable week last year. Trailer traffic gained 21.6 percent, while container volume was off 2.3 percent from last year.

Carload freight, which does not include the intermodal data, totaled 333,337 cars, up 8.6 percent from last year with volume up 14.2 percent in the East and 4.6 percent in the West. Total volume was estimated at 29.9 billion ton-miles, up 10.3 percent from last year. Traffic in the year ago week was adversely affected with heavy winter snowstorms, especially in the eastern part of the U.S.

Among the 15 carload commodity groups showing significant increases from last year were coke, up 32.8 percent; waste and scrap materials, up 18.7 percent; nonmetallic minerals, up 13.6 percent; crushed stone, sand and gravel, up 12.9 percent; and coal, up 12.2 percent. Four commodities were down in comparison with last year, with metallic ores off 6.1 percent.

The AAR also reported the following cumulative totals for U.S. railroads during the first seven weeks of 2004: 2,269,369 carloads, up 2.0 percent from last year; intermodal volume of 1,361,122 trailers or containers, up 5.5 percent; and total volume of an estimated 202.9 billion ton-miles, up 3.3 percent from last year’s first seven weeks.

Railroads reporting to AAR account for 88 percent of U.S. carload freight and 95 percent of rail intermodal volume. When the U.S. operations of Canadian railroads are included, the figures increase to 95 percent and 100 percent. Railroads provide more than 40 percent of the nation’s intercity freight transportation, more than any other mode, and rail traffic figures are regarded as an important economic indicator.

Canadian railroads reported an increase in carload freight, but a decline in intermodal volume during the week ended February 21. Carload volume totaled 65,976 cars, up 7.2 percent. Intermodal traffic totaled 39,221 trailers or containers, down 1.1 percent from last year.

Cumulative originations for the first seven weeks of 2004 on the Canadian railroads totaled 442,873 carloads, up 3.1 percent from last year, and 276,602 trailers and containers, down 0.3 percent from last year.

Combined cumulative volume for the first seven weeks of 2004 on 15 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 2,712,242 carloads, up 2.2 percent from last year and 1,637,724 trailers and containers, up 4.5 percent from last year.

The AAR also reported that originated carload freight on the Mexican railroad Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM) during the week ended February 21 totaled 8,127 cars, down 11.1 percent from last year. TFM reported intermodal volume of 4,036 originated trailers or containers, up 6.3 percent from the seventh week of 2003. For the first seven weeks of 2004, TFM reported cumulative originated volume of 55,491 cars, down 10.1 percent from last year, and 22,564 trailers or containers, down 12.9 percent.

Florida East Coast Industries, Inc. (FLA) (FECI) directors declared a quarterly dividend of 40 cents per share on all issued and outstanding common stock, payable on March 25 to all shareholders of record as of March 11. Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) directors declared a quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share on its common stock, payable April 1 to stockholders of record March 10.

Needed: new coaches

We are pleased to see Amtrak earning some good numbers, both financially and in numbers of passengers riding its trains.

In the latest reported figures, published in detail elsewhere in this issue, the carrier earned more than $22.4 million over expected revenue while carrying nearly 600,000 more passengers than it had expected.

Good news is good news.

Now it is time for Amtrak management to start talking to member of Congress and the Administration to buy some new coaches, cafés, sleepers and diners.

It is a required capital expenditure not only to replace the last remaining 50-year old cars still in service, but also to add for the burgeoning traffic flow.

It is ironic that it took a disaster like September 11, 2001, to wake up so many people, but there are a great many people who are finally seeing the light – and they are putting their money into Amtrak’s farebox.

It’s time to change priorities on rail

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Massachusetts engaged in a great debate over the future of state transportation policy and, ultimately, the future of the Commonwealth itself. Those were the days when state transportation planners were insisting that we spend billions on the so-called Master Highway Plan for metropolitan Boston that would have paved Boston over with eight-lane expressways.

In the meantime, the rest of the state’s highway system was barely half-finished. Route 495 stopped in Mansfield. Even after it was completed, you couldn’t take it directly to the Cape because it stopped in Wareham. There was no north-south highway through the central part of the state. All the attention – and all the money – were focused on Boston.

Fortunately, a broad-based citizen’s movement killed the Master Highway Plan and shifted the focus of the Commonwealth’s transportation policy to transit and rail in metropolitan Boston and the long overdue completion of the state’s highway network outside the metropolitan area.

Today, Boston has the finest public transportation system in the nation; the Big Dig is finally on the way to completion; and Boston itself is one of the nation’s great urban success stories.

Now, Massachusetts must decide what it will do to continue to build a first-rate transportation system that combines Boston’s success with a “smart growth” policy for the rest of the Commonwealth. Cities like New Bedford, Fall River, Worcester, Springfield, Fitchburg, Lawrence and Lynn are hurting. They need strong rail links with the capital city and the Northeast region in general.

Such links could also play a key role in helping to solve what is a serious housing crisis in metropolitan Boston.

As we have already seen in Brockton, connecting these older urban communities with Boston by rail can open up affordable housing opportunities to thousands of Massachusetts families who have been priced out of the Boston market.

Unfortunately, the state’s current transportation policies offer these cities little, if anything, and that is particularly true in southeastern Massachusetts.

Instead, the Romney administration seems to be concentrating on two new Boston megaprojects that will cost billions and are of marginal value, at best.

One of them is the half-mile Silver Line bus tunnel under Boston that will cost nearly $1 billion.

The second is the so-called Urban Ring, which carries a price tag currently estimated to be in excess of $3 billion.

How can we possibly justify more billions for Boston and turn a cold shoulder to the real needs of New Bedford, Fall River and their sister cities outside of Boston?

In fact, the cost of the Silver Line tunnel itself would more than pay for commuter rail to New Bedford and Fall River and major improvements throughout the commuter rail system, and the cost of the Urban Ring would go a long way toward paying for the one Boston project that should be built and would knit the entire regional rail system together with enormous transportation and environmental benefits for everybody – the North-South rail link.

Why are the governor and his key advisors turning a cold shoulder to New Bedford and its sister cities? Frankly, I just don’t understand it. Of course, we had another state administration (under Gov. Edward King) that once referred to New Bedford as “the end of the universe.” But how can you possibly look at this state’s future and advocate a smart growth policy while pouring billions more into Boston and ignoring the critical needs of the rest of the state?

Perhaps we should put them all in the governor’s limousine and send them south on Route 24 at five in the afternoon. Then they might understand.

Unfortunately, they seem to be digging in. That means that the legislators, mayors and business leaders of the state’s older urban communities now must do precisely what those of us who opposed the Master Highway Plan did in the 1960s and 1970s – organize themselves, make their case loud and clear, and convince a majority of the state legislature, if not the governor, that it’s time for a change in transportation priorities.

You’ll have plenty of company from those of us who live in and around Boston; are thrilled at the quality and level of public transportation we now get; and want you to have first-rate rail access to Boston and the entire region.

This article appeared on Page B1 of The Standard-Times on January 11, 2004. Republished with permission from the Standard Times of New Bedford. –Ed.

For a nightmare scenario of the world you drive in, imagine the year is 2020. The freight railroads of America are carrying close to the same volume of goods they do today – about 14 billion tons yearly, with no adjustment for market expansion.

What do you face when you head out on the road? Answer: More slowdowns, massively increased congestion – and most visible: tens of millions more trucks, many of them 18-wheel rigs with tons of cargo on board, filling up roadways, surrounding and frightening many auto drivers.

Here are projections of cumulative impact, 2000 to 2020, if freight railroads stall: about 900 million tons of freight will shift onto the roads; cost to shippers will rise $326 billion; taxpayers will be charged $21 billion to $40 billion in extra highway and bridge upgrades; cost to highway users, in travel time, accidents, and operating costs, will rise $492 billion.

Do these figures come from the rail lines? No! They were put together by two highly regarded transportation consulting teams (Cambridge Systematics, and Reebie Associates) – and they’re published by the group long considered the top voice for expanded road building in the U.S. — the American Assn. of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

“We cannot afford for freight rail to carry any less than its current market share,” says John Horsley, AASHTO’s executive director. “Domestic freight will grow 60 to 100 percent in the next 20 years, and international freight will double or triple. Rail freight is vital to a balanced national transportation system.”

Right now, Horsley notes, rail lines carry 16 percent of America’s freight tonnage. Just to keep up that share, they need $2.65 billion in capital investment they simply don’t have.

So why can’t the rail lines raise the capital themselves? They’re already intensely capital-intensive, obliged to plow 18 percent of earnings back into improvements compared with 4 percent for average companies.

The freight-rail system was a triumph of 19^th century America, opening up our heartland, freeing business and industry from the need to be near rivers or seaports, but highways and trucking, this time freeing shippers from a need to be near rail lines, eclipsed freight rail in the 21^st century.

With mergers and abandonments – and the federal and state governments creating and maintaining the competing new highway “roadbeds” – rail-system mileage halved from 380,000 track miles in 1920 to 172,000 miles today.

In recent years, the rail industry has upped its productivity and efficiency. It’s “stable, productive and competitive enough,” notes Horsley, “to profit and operate, but not to replenish its infrastructure quickly or grow rapidly.”

The rails are plagued with choke points that cry out for repair or replacement: antiquated bridges (some a century or more old), low tunnels, highway crossings at grade, single-line tracks without adequate sidings, and signal systems incapable of handling both high-speed passenger trains and slow-speed freight trains.

So AASHTO endorses a “public policy-driven expansion” of the rail system including federal and state co-funding of upgrades that would clear the track for rail to maintain its current share of national freight, conceivably even increase it and relieve road congestion even more, pushed along by federal funding of as much as $4.15 billion a year.

Of course, there’s a limit to all generosity. First, says AASHTO, Congress must fund highway and transit at levels the organization believes necessary. The mega-reauthorization bill for transportation, “SAFETEA,” now making its way through Congress, has dollar levels well below AASHTO’s targets.

Another complication is that assistance for freight railroads quickly gets entangled with efforts to keep Amtrak rolling, or to help the 30 states interested in new high-speed rail corridors start moving their projects forward. Often, but clearly not always, track can be shared, but the critical issue is whose trains get priority. The just-passed Senate version of “SAFETEA” does include some authorizations to support freight and passenger rail investment by the states, plus a $2 billion annual authorization for Amtrak.

A big related issue: the air industry (already heavily subsidized by federal taxpayers) has been cutting back sharply on service, especially to small and medium-sized cities. Result: More cars crowding roads to reach major hubs.

Rail could pick up much of the slack. Reconnecting America, a transportation advocacy group, notes that trips of 100 to 400 miles are the most-effective market for rail service.

The bottom line is clear: Whether for freight or passengers, we need to invest seriously to once again make rail a major part of our national transportation system. If we don’t, our future may be one great snarled traffic mess.