AP Photo: Peter Dejong A woman lights a candle at Atocha station in Madrid on March 16 as she mourns victims of the Madrid bombings, which claimed the lives of 201 people, and injured more than 1,500.

Rails get world attention after blasts

For the first time in ages, railroad safety – and in particular, terrorism on the rails – was getting world attention following the deadly blasts in Madrid last week that saw 201 commuters and trainmen die, and 1,500 others wounded following detonations on three Spanish Railways trains.

By Thursday last, Spanish railway crews were pulling apart severely damaged coaches with wreck train equipment, and a switcher was pulling out cars that still had wheels under them at Madrid’s Atocha station.

All Americans as well as journalists began paying particular attention to Amtrak, and the passenger carrier itself said it had increased its alertness level.

Time magazine’s Amanda Ripley and five other Time journalists wrote, “Anyone who has boarded an Amtrak train since September 11, 2001, must wonder how long the delusion can last. How easy it is to waltz into a teeming station 10 minutes before departure, pull your ticket from a machine and glide onto the train without any inspection of your ID or your bags. Your shoes are of no interest to anyone. It’s as if Amtrak has been exempted from modernity, and all the fuzzy charm of taking the train remains untouched by time.”

The writers added, “The tragedy in Madrid may have put an end to the railroad anachronism. The attack that killed some 200 innocents was cruelly simple. The perpetrators left backpacks full of explosives fitted with simple timers and walked away.”

British security expert Michael Dewar told the magazine, “It’s a load of rubbish to call it a sophisticated attack. You and I could do it.”

The reporters added, “Some 10 million train and subway trips are taken every day in America. Amtrak shuttles 66,000 of those passengers, two-thirds of them through the target-rich Northeast Corridor, and, they pointed out, “The Washington Metro moves 600,000 people near national monuments. What makes trains useful is what makes them devilishly hard to secure: many doors, high volumes of passengers and thousands of miles of lonely tracks.”

A former government railway official said, “I hear people saying it is virtually impossible to make public transport in the U.S. secure. That’s wrong. It is impossible.”

Amtrak’s Marcie Golgoski in Washington, A spokeswoman for the passenger carrier, told D:F on Wednesday via e-mail, “At this time there is no specific threat against U.S. railroads. Amtrak continues to maintain a high level of vigilance at its stations, on trains and facilities.”

In the boilerplate text, she stated, “Nevertheless, we have instituted several additional protective countermeasures. While neither Amtrak nor other transportation providers can disclose details of its plans without compromising them, some of these steps are visible to the public.”

Amtrak police officers are operating “at an elevated state of alert and readiness in conformance with the Homeland Security Advisory System threat level ‘Yellow,’ she noted, and added that the railroad is also in “direct communication with government agencies that receive and disseminate intelligence information.”

Amtrak’s generic, scripted response was silent on specific stations like Washington’s Union Station, New York City’s Penn Station and Boston’s South Station. The carrier was equally silent regarding small, out-of-the-way locations. Our query asked, “What can you possibly do regarding Jacksonville where there isn’t an Amtrak cop within 500 miles, or a place like Flagstaff, Ariz?”

The Associated Press did a story on Meridian, Miss. Mayor John Robert Smith – who not only is NCI’s board chairman but is also Amtrak’s immediate past board chairman.

“If folks believe the train bombing in Spain can’t happen in Mississippi,” the reporter wrote, Smith “invites them to visit their local train station.”

Smith said, “See how easy it is to get on and off a train? The baggage isn’t scanned. You don’t pass through a metal detector. There’s a real concern there.” Smith was first elected mayor in 1993, and he served a five-year term on Amtrak’s board beginning in 1998.

After the train bombing in Spain a fortnight ago, the U.S. government advised state officials, police and transit and rail agencies to be vigilant. They were asked to consider additional surveillance and to look out for unattended bags and backpacks, Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

Amtrak increased patrols of its police force and canine units, spokesman Dan Stessel said.

‘Electronic surveillance of bridges and tunnels was intensified,” and the company reinforced its message to Amtrak employees to report suspicious activities to police.

Smith said Friday that Amtrak went to Congress shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks and requested about $5 million to immediately address security needs. He said Amtrak had proved its worth after the attack by providing movement of rescue personnel, blood supplies and other emergency traffic. The request went nowhere, he said.

“There has been very little done to address the liability of rail – freight or passenger – since September 11,” Smith said. “We have yet to address the security of the rail infrastructure. The freights are very concerned about it.”

One thing that was accomplished was the location of the emergency responders’ training center in Meridian. He said workers trained at the center can respond to derailments and chemical leaks caused by tanker cars.

Smith said derailments are of concern and happen every day. Adding the terrorist dimension – someone who purposely wants to cause those problems – creates a greater potential for liability, he said.

“If September 11 wasn’t a wake-up call on rail infrastructure, certainly what the people of Spain have suffered must be that wake-up call. We ought to be concerned,” he said.

Metal detectors, scanners for passengers and luggage and systems to track trains and buses and their cargo anywhere on the globe are things that must occur, Smith said.

“That’s the first thing that’s got to be done... assess the security of the facility, and the assessment of the passengers and their luggage and the freight they’re (trains and buses) are carrying. Then, you’ve got the whole other cargo consideration with freight rail.

“The greatest problem is securing this long, rambling rail infrastructure we have,” Smith said.

Smith said it will take money and a commitment from Congress to improve rail security in the country.

“We don’t want to wait until we experience a Madrid,” he said.

Meanwhile, Madrid police identified five Moroccan suspects in the train bombings, a Spanish newspaper reported on March 16, and the death toll rose to 201.

A French investigator told The AP that he had found a direct link between prime suspect Jamal Zougam and the spiritual leader of a clandestine extremist group believed involved in last May's deadly attacks in Casablanca, Morocco.

Police believe the five Moroccan suspects took part in the bombings, the newspaper El Pais [The Nation] reported, without identifying them by name. Interior Ministry spokesman Juan de Dios Colmenero said he could not confirm the report.

Since the attacks, investigators have focused on Zougam, a Moroccan immigrant who was arrested Saturday with two other Moroccans, and two Indians. Last Thursday, six more people were arrested. CNN reported one was a Spaniard.

El Pais’ English edition said the Indians were released, but editors said later that those released were two Indian-born Spaniards picked up for questioning Saturday along with the five suspects, who remain in custody.

Cell phones triggered the bombs, and investigators were able to find and arrest the three Moroccans and two Indians on Saturday because a cell-phone card was found in an unexploded bomb and traced.

Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported Monday that police found a witness who saw Zougam on a train that was bombed, but Interior Minister Angel Acebes said authorities had no knowledge of a witness.

The radio station, quoting unidentified police sources, said the witness said he saw Zougam on the train headed for Madrid’s Atocha station, leaning against a door.

Both Cadena Ser and El Pais reported that police believe Zougam actually left bombs on the train. Ibanez said there was no proof of that.

A commemorative Mass for the victims was conducted Tuesday night (March 16) at Madrid's Almudena Cathedral.

Following the bombings, two Republicans have called on Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to balance his department’s focus on air and seaport security with an increased emphasis on protecting the nation’s railroads.

CongressDaily reported on March 17 that in a letter sent March 12 to Ridge, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.), pointed to what they called “disconcerting” discrepancies in transportation security funding, and asked Ridge to explain what efforts the Homeland Security Dept. was planning to do to increase rail security. Ridge had not responded to the letter by the Washington newspaper’s press time last Wednesday.

Snowe and Castle noted that the fiscal year 2004 budget allocated no funding to assist Amtrak or commuter rail services with passenger security efforts.

“For too long, the federal government has made air and port security top priorities, while funding for rail security has lagged far behind,” Castle said.

Snowe and Castle in November directed GAO to produce a report on rail security measures in Europe and Japan. The agency was asked to examine foreign passenger and baggage screening technologies and the potential cost of incorporating those systems within Amtrak. A source familiar with the report request said the final report was expected in June, but a GAO analyst who handles homeland security studies said the agency had not yet begun any work on the foreign rail study and had nothing to report so far.

Senate Commerce ranking member Ernest “Fritz” Hollings (D-S.C.), introduced legislation that would authorize $500 million for the Homeland Security Dept. to study and improve rail security across the country. The Hollings bill also includes a provision, originally included in legislation introduced last fall by Snowe, directing Amtrak to conduct a passenger screening pilot program.

The Commerce Committee twice approved legislation similar to Hollings’ current bill when Hollings served as committee chairman during the 107^th Congress. A Hollings aide said last week that Senate Commerce Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) supported the legislation in the last session but had not yet weighed in on the new proposal. The aide said the legislation was “essentially the same as what the committee reported out previously.” A McCain aide did not respond to a request for a response, but the Hollings aide said the committee had not yet decided when or if it would take up Hollings‘ bill.

According to The Washington Times of March 16, the rail security funding bill would include $515 million in fiscal 2005 for more surveillance of rail facilities and closer monitoring of passengers.

The solons who introduced the legislation are seeking an additional $777 million to pay for railroad tunnel safety improvements, including $40 million for the Amtrak tunnel in the District of Columbia running under the Supreme Court and Capitol Hill offices to Union Station.

The separate proposal for tunnels would spend $667 million to improve fire, ventilation and other emergency systems in six New York tunnels. The Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel outside of Baltimore‘s Penn Station would get $57 million.

“The harsh truth is that our passenger rail system is far from safe and unless we do something about it and do it quickly, we could suffer a similar or even worse fate,“ said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat.

Biden added, “If we don‘t use this tragic event in Madrid as a wake-up call and start investing in rail security, in my opinion, we are making a tragic mistake.”

Specific surveillance techniques and how passengers would be more closely monitored are part of what the Homeland Security Department would be ordered to determine under the Senate proposal.

The new emphasis on rail security also responds to criticism from the railroad industry, which has warned since the September 11 terrorist attacks that the emphasis by Congress on aviation security overlooked vulnerabilities of the rail system.

However, federal officials in charge of transportation security say maintaining security on the nation‘s vast rail network creates unique problems.

The “open“ nature of passenger rail means “it is difficult and challenging to have a 100 percent secure guarantee of safety,“ Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary of homeland security, said on CBS’s The Early Show on March15.

He also has dismissed the idea of searching all rail passengers as impractical.

Bill Ghent, spokesman for Sen. Thomas R. Carper, a Delaware Democrat who co-sponsored the rail bill, said less-intrusive security methods are available. They could include computerized searches of passenger financial records for suspicious transactions and greater use of bomb-sniffing dogs.

He said money for rail security could be diverted from other parts of the Homeland Security Department‘s budget, which is $30.4 billion this year.

“That would be up to the appropriators,” Ghent said. “It‘s a matter of setting priorities.”

Amtrak is spending less than $50 million on security this year. Commuter railroads and other urban rail systems often fund their security jointly with local police departments.

“It would be virtually impossible to duplicate the kind of controlled access that airlines are able to employ,” Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said.

The Association of American Railroads spelled out some details on its web site about how freight railroads are trying to cope with potential terrorism.

“Since Sept. 11, 2001, freight railroads have been on heightened alert. Under a comprehensive security plan developed by the industry with the assistance of counter terrorism experts, the freight railroads established a progressive series of counter terrorism measures based on the level of threat against the industry.”

The industry’s representative organization stated the industry “is one of the few private sector industries to receive an ‘A’ for its security efforts in a recent independent analysis by The Washington Post.

Some of the actions taken since September 11 “include increased cyber-security, restricted access to railcar location data, spot employee identification checks, increased tracking and inspection of certain shipments, new encryption technology for selected data communications, and increased security at physical assets.”

Collectively, including Amtrak, freight rail management has told all employees – more than 200,000 people – to “serve as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the security effort.”

The industry also created a Defense Dept. certified, 24-hour, seven-days-a-week operations center that links the railroads with appropriate national security intelligence officials, according to the AAR.

The AAR stated railroaders are conducting “real-time monitoring and additional surveillance of designated trains, increased security at certain rail yards, increased inspection of priority track, tunnels and bridges, and working with customers to tighten control of supply chain logistics.”

Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said that based on the current assessment of intelligence, “We do not have similar corresponding threats directed to the U.S.”

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said authorities had moved to increase security in city subways and commuter trains. Uniformed personnel will be present at subway stations and trains, and bomb-sniffing dogs will also be in use around the region.

NCI – 2 photos: Leo King Amtrak, Bombardier and Alstom have all agreed on a plan that will resolve their differences over Acela Express trains. The trainsets should be spending less time in the barns getting fixed.

Amtrak and the Bombardier-Alstom consortium, which built the Acela Express trains for Amtrak, have come to terms and settled a two year dispute that landed all three in U.S District Court in Washington.

Bombardier stated in a press release on March 17 the agreement “settled all current legal disputes associated with the comprehensive $1.2 billion U.S. high-speed rail program delivery.”

The major problem arose when cracks in yaw dampers, part of the truck stabilizers under the locomotives, began showing premature cracks shortly after delivery began in 2000. Bolts that held them in place were damaged as well. That development led to emergency repairs and developing revised designs. After some body shell were fabricated for the first few trainset, someone discovered the carbodies were four inches too wide. Bombardier refused to shrink them.

The first trainset was delivered in December 2000 and since its introduction into revenue service, more than 6 million passengers have ridden the trains.

Reporter Don Phillips, who now writes for The New York Times, pointed out to his readers “the agreement came as Bombardier announced plans to eliminate 6,600 jobs worldwide in a huge realignment of its troubled rail division in Europe.” Phillips formerly was The Washington Post’s transportation writer. (See separate story. – Ed.)

The contract covered delivery, performance and maintenance for 10 years of 20 high-speed Acela Express trainsets, buying 15 additional HHP-8 high-speed electric locomotives rated at 8,000hp, and building three maintenance facilities for the trains in Ivy City Yard, Washington; Sunnyside Yard in Queens, and Southampton Street Yard in Boston.

HHP-8 No. 657 in Boston.

Phillips recalled the Acelas, which operate between Boston, New York and Washington, “are essentially an attempt to combine French TGV technology with the existing U.S. rail system, which was designed primarily for freight service and has far more sharp curves than European high-speed systems. To compensate for the curves, the Acela trains were built with a tilting mechanism in each car.” Under the terms of the agreement, Bombardier said, “The parties will drop all claims against each other relating to the program and the consortium will be entitled to receive up to $42.5 million U.S. against approximately $70 million that Amtrak previously withheld.” The all agreed to “amend the maintenance services contract for the trainsets, allowing Amtrak to assume responsibility for the trains’ maintenance in October 2006.” Amtrak President and CEO David L. Gunn said, “Instead of continuing to spend unnecessary time and money on costly and attention-diverting litigation, the full focus of our efforts will now be on improving the performance of Acela Expresses and delivering the best service we know how for the passengers who enjoy and depend on it.” Paul Tellier, Bombardier’s president and CEO, said, “The consortium is satisfied with the solution reached out of court with Amtrak.” He added, “The consortium will respect Amtrak’s strategy to provide maintenance services and will take the necessary steps to ensure a seamless transition between now and October 2006.”

“During the transition period, training will be provided to Amtrak employees and after October 2006, the service company will continue to provide equipment parts and technical advice to Amtrak’s mechanical department, as needed,” explained Fred Einbinder, the service company’s board chairman and senior lawyer of ALSTOM Transport.

Development of the high-speed service began in 1996, when Amtrak and the consortium agreed to the deal.

Bombardier Transportation of Montreal is getting ready to lay off more than 6,000 employees, and to close seven production sites – along with several other actions the carbuilder will be taking to get the company into blacker ink at its bottom line.

Bombardier, Inc. president and CEO Paul M. Tellier said last Thursday a major restructuring initiative for the corporation’s rail transportation business “will address excess capacity in its industrial operations, drive performance improvements and restore its earnings power.”

Tellier said the firm “will reduce its rail operations workforce by 6,600 jobs, or 18.5 percent of its total workforce” and 37 percent will be jobless “white collar” workers.

Tellier said “The initiative calls for seven production sites in five European countries to be closed over the next two years.”

He said the sites he intends to close this year are in Amadora, Portugal; and Doncaster and Derby Pride Park in the United Kingdom.

“We will maintain our manufacturing capability in the U.K. with the Derby Litchurch Lane facility,” stated Tellier. In 2005, more facilities will shut down – in Pratteln, Switzerland; Ammendorf, Germany; Kalmar, Sweden; and Wakefield, U.K.

Tellier said, “Since 65 percent of costs are in materials, this initiative also includes new arrangements with suppliers to better coordinate materials procurement. An industrial site improvement program is also being launched at five European locations to further reduce manufacturing costs.”

Earlier this year, Bombardier installed new managers in its transportation division, and rearranged its organizational structure to improve accountability.

The Industrial Division was disbanded. Manufacturing facilities and processes now form part of the respective product divisions to allow each to have direct responsibility for marketing, sales and engineering as well as production.

“This restructuring initiative is part of a three-year strategy to bring back improved margins and profitability to this company,” said Tellier.

“Last April, in the first year, I announced an aggressive action plan that was designed to restructure the balance sheet, restore shareholder confidence, and get Bombardier back to profitability. We have made good on that plan and have met all of our commitments. Now, we are restructuring our businesses.”

Tellier explained further, “A series of measures were introduced earlier at Bombardier Aerospace, and we are already seeing concrete results,” and last week’s initiative “focuses on Bombardier Transportation. The initiatives launched in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2004 will set the stage for the third phase of our strategy-capitalizing on growth opportunities and maximizing shareholder value next year.”

Bombardier Transportation has sustained “disappointing financial results in this division in the last two quarters of fiscal year 2004,” Tellier pointed out, and added, “The improved results at Bombardier Aerospace and those of Bombardier Capital have been offset by this poor performance.”

All is not gloom and doom, though.

“Overall, Bombardier’s strengths are positive cash flow in the fourth quarter, a strong backlog, an excellent product portfolio and a solid global market position. Consolidated revenues of the corporation were stable despite the effect of a lower U.S. dollar, which had a negative impact mainly on the aerospace segment.”

“We had a good year at Bombardier Aerospace, and the restructuring plan is on target. The organization is leaner and more efficient, and both regional and business aircraft deliveries are up on a year-over-year basis,” he said. “During fiscal year 2004, aircraft deliveries totaled 324, compared to 298 last year, representing a 9 percent improvement.”

The CEO said “We need to push performance improvements forward” at Bombardier Transportation.

“Plant efficiency is not adequate, with certain facilities operating at barely 50 percent capacity. Our goal is to improve margins,” said Tellier.

“We could no longer delay moving ahead on our restructuring initiative as our competitors have already dealt with industry changes. During the year, we put in place a rigorous bid review process and we are now focusing on project management.”

Bombardier Transportation currently operates 35 production sites in 15 European countries, significantly more than either of its main competitors. It employs a global workforce of 35,600 people, 78 percent of whom are based in Europe. The excess capacity issue was most acute in Europe, where all the site closures and 86 percent of the workforce reductions are intended to take place. In North America, actions to address overcapacity issues have already been initiated – four sites located in Kingston, Ont.; Burnaby, B.C.; Barre, Vt.; and Pittsburg, Calif., ended or suspended operations.

The cost of this restructuring initiative is estimated at $777 million, $457 million of which was recorded during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, with the remainder to be recorded over the next two years.

Once fully implemented, the restructuring initiative will reduce transportation’s costs by approximately $600 million annually. “Although the cost of these efforts is high, these steps are essential to maintain our competitive position in the market,” Tellier said.

The proposed site and workforce reductions balance Bombardier Transportation’s industrial footprint with projected market demand. None of the plants proposed for closing currently has work scheduled after 2005, he said.

Five additional sites in Crespin, France; Aachen and Siegen, Germany; Bruges, Belgium; and Crewe, U.K. will take part in the initial phase of a global industrial site improvement program that will, over time, be rolled out to all manufacturing facilities. This program will focus on reducing inventory levels and production overhead, improving project management and increasing efficiency in site configuration.

Management is also targeting procurement and supplier base as areas offering significant opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements. The procurement integration program, launched earlier in 2004, “will rationalize the number of suppliers the business utilizes, increase parts standardization, and centralize negotiation processes to achieve economies of scale wherever possible,” said Tellier.

Bombardier Inc. also reported unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and its fiscal year ended January 31. Audited consolidated financial results for the year will be released as planned on March 31, Tellier said, but he added, “The corporation believes it is important to disclose these unaudited results in light of the restructuring initiative for its transportation segment being announced today in the interest of timely disclosure.”

Consolidated revenues totaled $6.4 billion for the three-month period which ended January 31, compared to $5.9 billion for the same period in 2003. This increase is mainly due to higher revenues in the aerospace segment. For the year ended Jan. 31, 2004, consolidated revenues totaled $21.3 billion, compared to $21.2 billion the previous year.

Loss before special items and income taxes for the three-months ended Jan. 31, 2004 “was $52 million, compared to a loss of $358 million for the same period last year.”

The improvement resulted from “higher earnings before taxes (EBT) before special items in the aerospace segment, partially offset by the decrease of EBT before special items in the transportation segment. EBT before special items reached $439 million for fiscal year 2004, compared to an EBT before special items of $381 million for fiscal year 2003,” The Bombardier press release stated.

Special items for the three months ended January 31, 2004 amounted to $474 million, compared to $1.1 billion for the same period last year. For the year ended January 31, 2004, special items reached $429 million, compared to $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2003.

As a result, the loss before income taxes was $526 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2004, compared to a loss of $1.5 billion for the same period the previous year. For the year ended Jan. 31, 2004, EBT was $10 million, compared to a loss before income taxes of $930 million for fiscal year 2003.

Income taxes for the quarter ended January 31, 2004 were $20 million, “compared to an income tax recovery of $397 million for the same period last year. For the year ended Jan. 31, 2004, income taxes totaled $205 million, compared to an income tax recovery of $221 million for fiscal year 2003.”

The income tax expense for the fourth quarter and for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2004 were higher than the expense that would be recognized at the effective income tax rate, mainly due to the non-recognition of $123 million of income tax benefits related to the restructuring charge of Bombardier Transportation, and an increase in the valuation allowance for deferred tax assets recorded for the U.S. operations in the fourth quarter.

As a result, loss from continuing operations was $546 million, or $0.32 per share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2004, compared to a loss of $1.1 billion, or $0.78 per share, for the same period the previous year. For the year ended Jan. 31, 2004, loss from continuing operations was $195 million, or $0.13 per share, compared to a loss of $709 million, or $0.54 per share, for fiscal year 2003.

Over the last year, Bombardier has sold off its recreational products segment.

Standard & Poor’s revised the long-term outlook on Bombardier Inc.’s (CA:BBDB) ratings to “negative” from “stable” after the Canadian train and plane maker posted a $337 million (C$448 million) quarterly loss, Reuters reported last week.

S&P stated on March 17, “A negative outlook indicates a downgrade is possible over the next two years, which would leave the company’s rating in junk territory.”

At the same time, S&P affirmed Montreal-based Bombardier’s long-term corporate credit rating at “BBB-minus,” its lowest investment-grade rating.

“The negative outlook reflects the risks presented to the company’s financial recovery by continued uncertainty in the commercial aerospace segment and the uncertainties associated with the execution of a planned restructuring in the transportation division,” S&P said in a press release. Material difficulties in either of those sectors could lead to a downgrade, the rating agency said.

Amtrak’s California Zephyr will bypass western Colorado and travel via Wyoming for 32 days this summer, and the Ski Train won’t run to Winter Park while historic Moffat Tunnel closes for repairs, railroad officials said Wednesday.

The 76-year-old, 6.2-mile-long tunnel, which cuts through the Continental Divide at 9,242 feet above sea level 50 miles west of Denver, will close to permit major track repairs, reports the Denver Post. The train will detour onto tracks that passenger trains have not traversed since 1997, according to Amtrak.

The Tunnel opened in 1928 after four years of work, and is the keystone of the Denver to Salt Lake rail line, allowing trains to travel through Colorado year-round.

The detours will be made on June 8-15, June 23-30, July 8-15 and July 23-30.

Service to Fraser-Winter Park, Colo.; Granby, Colo.; Green River, Utah; Helper, Utah and Provo, Utah, will be suspended on the days of the train’s detour. Passengers already ticketed to those stations are being notified of the service suspensions.

Amtrak said it would also notify passengers ticketed between Denver and Salt Lake City during the 32 days of the detour or alternate transportation from Denver to and from Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction. Passengers will be offered travel on alternate days or refunds.

According to Amtrak, more than 32,000 people board or depart the train in Glenwood Springs each year.

The Glenwood springs Chamber Resort Assn said more than 80 percent of the city’s train tourists arrive during the summer. One of the closure dates, June 23, is ironic because it falls on the planned celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the Glenwood Springs depot.

It is possible that coal trains will be permitted through the tunnel at night, said Jim Bain, president of the Ski Train, which operates between Denver and Winter Park on Saturdays in the summer, but Union Pacific’s John Bromley, in Omaha and spokesman for the tunnel’s owner, could provide details of the closure or repairs last week.

Instead of rolling west from Denver through Winter Park-Fraser, Granby, Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction en route to Salt Lake City, the CZ, (trains 5 and 6), which connects Chicago and Oakland, will head north to Wyoming, bypassing Cheyenne and crossing southern Wyoming to Salt Lake City during the track work, Amtrak’s Mark Magliari said from Chicago.

Officials in towns affected by the extended closure, the first in recent memory, say it won’t be easy. Normally about 6,000 tourists ride the Ski Train to Winter Park through the summer, said Catherine Ross, executive director of the Winter Park Fraser Chamber of Commerce.

“We are very sad that this is happening,” Bain said.

The temporary loss of passenger rail service also will be a hard blow to Glenwood Springs, which thrives on summertime visitors who enjoy the scenic route through the mountains and Glenwood Canyon.

Many people on the Front Range make it a weekend train trip, with time to hike or bask in Glenwood’s hot springs before climbing aboard for a restful rail ride home.

“Our local train station is celebrating its 100^th birthday this year, and people from all over the country come in by train for our strawberry days festival in June,” said Chamber of Commerce director Marianne Virgili.

Moffat Tunnel, first envisioned by David Moffat, Jr., president of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, saved 150 miles and at least four hours of travel time after its inauguration. About 2,500 people witnessed its opening on February 24, 1928.

Federal highway officials agreed to a streamlined environmental study process for the Trans-Texas Corridor that could speed progress on the Mexico-to-Oklahoma portion of the ambitious proposed web of highway, rail and utility zones.

State and federal officials said on March 15 the designation as a special experimental project won’t impair environmental safeguards, according to the San Antonio Express-News. It’s the second such designation to be granted in the U.S., following a project in Virginia - but the Sierra Club voiced concern over the action, which could allow rights-of-way to be bought more quickly along the project’s 600-mile strip intended to parallel Interstate 35.

It will allow the purchasing routes for a particular road segment after an environmental study is completed on that segment, but before environmental studies are finished on the entire length of the road.

The action also will allow federal money to be spent on project planning before the environmental analysis is complete.

“We are not going to take any chances on harming the environment, and we’re not going to change the process by which the environment is protected,” Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson said.

“I speak not only of plants and animals, but I speak of the social environment of our citizens as well,” he said at an Austin news conference.

“That process will be honored and followed to the letter – not because somebody makes us, but because it’s what we want to do,” he said.

Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, said looking at the massive project in pieces rather than as a whole could miss some environmental effects.

“I think definitely the Trans-Texas Corridor project as a whole, and even any one corridor... potentially has enormous environmental impacts,” he said.

“Probably the biggest is the loss of open space and wildlife habitat, not just associated with the construction and operation of the corridor itself, but the indirect and cumulative impacts of the development that will occur as a result of the corridor being constructed,” he said.

Williamson said allowing environmental, design and construction-related processes to proceed simultaneously could shave three to five years off the time needed for completion.

“Some have suggested as soon as 12 years, you’ll see the largest portion of this corridor open and collecting tolls,” he said.

That assumes the envisioned public-private partnership falls into place for the project, which has been championed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).

Three private partnerships are submitting proposals on developing and financing the Oklahoma-Mexico segment.

The overall project is envisioned as a 4,000-mile network including separate highway lanes for passenger cars and trucks, high-speed passenger rail, freight rail, commuter rail and a zone for utility lines. Its estimated cost is $180 billion.

‘River Line’ passengers like first ride

South Jersey’s first new rail service in three decades opened to the public on March 14 with aficionados clambering aboard railcars under the light of a silver, crescent moon.

They clicked digital cameras and panned with camcorders to capture the maiden voyage of New Jersey Transit’s $1.1 billion diesel-powered River Line, which has been fraught with political fights and residential revolts stretching back a decade.

Riders snatched up souvenirs, and many were so eager to own a piece of history that they paid $1.10 for tickets even though there was talk that they could ride for free, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I wanted to take part in this lovely ride on a new transportation system,” said Larry Waples, an auto mechanic from Woodbury and model railroader who proudly displayed his ticket, which showed he was the third person to board. “Thank you for spending that billion dollars. I’m enjoying it.”

The light-rail system completed its inaugural round-trip between Camden and Trenton, including turnaround time, in about 21/2 hours – on schedule and without a hitch.

The first passengers boarded on Delaware Avenue at the Tweeter Center on Camden’s waterfront at 5:45 a.m. After 34 miles and 20 station stops, they arrived in Trenton just before 7. They returned to the waterfront at 8:20 a.m.

“We’re train dorks,” admitted Christina D’Ambrosio, 20, of Philadelphia. She boarded the train with her boyfriend, Walt Weber, 24, of Collingswood. “It’s just interesting to look at the history of transit in a place like Philly and see how the city was run by the trolley for years. Now the system is in a shambles, and workers can’t even get a decent contract. So we just had to ride on this.”

A rider who took the inaugural trip remarked, “The cars are quiet. You don’t even hear the diesels revving up.”

He also enthused, “The center section is actually a walk-through, but it’s plexiglassed-off on both ends. There are bicycle racks and ADA access.”

NJT officials estimated there were 7,000 passenger trips from the line’s opening until 3 p.m., translating to 3,500 individual riders. Around midday, standing-room-only crowds began causing some minor delays.

Many of those who boarded one of four 90-foot-long, Mercedes-Benz cars said they wanted to experience local history. It is the first passenger rail service most of the towns have seen since 1963, when the Camden & Amboy line closed for lack of riders.

The train experienced no technical glitches, but a half-dozen protesters at the station in Riverton, Burlington County, carried signs reading, “The Train to Nowhere” and “The Loser Train.” The line has been criticized as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The line’s creation stretches back to 1994 when state officials in the Whitman administration and elected officials seriously began planning a new South Jersey mass-transit system.

A Camden-to-Glassboro run was initially pushed to alleviate congestion on Route 42, but public opposition in some towns and political maneuvering in others helped reroute the line along the Delaware River as an engine to spur economic development in a string of aging towns, mostly in Burlington County.

The line, with its debt, costs triple its original projections in the mid-1990s and is more than a year overdue. Projected daily ridership of 2,950 people is half of original forecasts made in 1996. NJT expects the line to generate $1.5 million in sales in its first full year of operation. Meanwhile, taxpayers will shell out $73 million annually to subsidize it.

Burlington County officials, who pushed for the line, say that such criticism is unfair, and that the rail system will eventually help transform the area.

Smiling enthusiasts who boarded the brightly lit, sparkling clean, quietly running railcars yesterday agreed. They were not troubled by the cost because, they said, the need for public transit is so great.

Eddie Ruberte, 27, of Mount Laurel, roused his two daughters, Evanna, 6, and Anadie, 4, from bed at 4 a.m.

“We wanted to be on the first ride,” said Ruberte, who boarded on Camden’s waterfront. “I read that the rail line was finally going to open. I told my daughters they’d have to get up early.”

“Awesome,” is how Evanna described the ride.

Tod Kimmel raced from his Burlington City home to catch the first train, missed it because he got lost, then raced back home to board there so he could still make the system’s virgin run.

“I’m the first person to have the terrible misfortune of missing a train this morning,” the nonetheless cheerful Kimmel said.

Kimmel, who is opening an art gallery this month on High Street in Burlington City, handed out colorful souvenir cards replicating a cardboard cutout, folding train toy that he made.

Richard Roel, 67, a retired tug captain from Westville, boarded at the waterfront.

“I’ve followed all the articles,” he said. “But I also like public transportation. It’s just a necessity. My feeling is that you can’t keep putting cars on the road.”

A Seattle Monorail Project Committee approved a Project Labor Agreement, shortened to “PLA,” on March 16 by 36 local unions that will set the stage for six million labor hours that will result from construction of the Monorail Green Line. Final approval by the national union offices is expected later this month.

The labor agreement is a key milestone for the monorail organization. Leaders from the Seattle-King County Building praised it and Construction Trades Council on behalf of workers who will be employed doing everything from construction of stations to electrical work, represented by 19 local and district councils and 16 affiliated international unions. The committee stated in a press release.

Monorail board members also voiced strong support for the agreement. “This was a key priority for us, knowing that there will be 2,100 new jobs in the community because of the Green Line,” said board chairman Tom Weeks.

Under the agreement, Green Line contractors and subcontractors must pay prevailing wages and benefits as well as contribute to health and safety programs. No lockouts, work stoppages or delays in the work will be allowed, a key provision to help ensure the project stays on budget and on schedule.

Included is a commitment to apprenticeship positions, with a particular emphasis on low-income women and people of color. The agreement also implements a “Helmets to Hardhats” program designed to bring military veterans into construction jobs.

The PLA is critically important because of its emphasis on these programs and on maintaining a safe working environment with zero accidents, Peter Coates, Executive Secretary of the Seattle-King County Building and Construction Trades Council, said in urging passage of the agreement.

A joint administrative committee representing SMP, unions, and the DBOM contractor team will be formed to monitor compliance with the Green Line PLA throughout the project.

A bustling urban landscape with people strolling sidewalks, shopping and eating at storefront businesses, living nearby and, most important, riding the train. That’s how Phoenix planners envision the eventual impact of light rail on the city, with stations becoming the focal points of traditional, pedestrian-based urban living.

The vision has resulted in transit-oriented development, adopted by the city in December that creates a zoning overlay along Phoenix’s portion of the light-rail line, The Arizona Republic reported on March 16. The plan is to guide business and residential development away from automobiles and more toward walking and public transit.

“The transit-oriented district is a development style that will cater to pedestrians and focuses on mixed uses where people can live, shop, work and play,” said Sandra Zwick, principal planner for Valley Metro Rail.

The idea is something of a sea change for Phoenix, which is based almost exclusively on automobile traffic and suburban-style development.

Nothing changes immediately, though. The transit-oriented district is a long-range plan, intended to guide construction over the decades.

“Over time, we believe this will change the land-use patterns,” said Daina Mann, spokeswoman for Valley Metro Rail. “You’ll start to see different kinds of development around light-rail stations than anywhere else in Valley.”

Eventually, the areas around the stations would be more akin to that in a big city. The zoning encourages buildings set close to the street with wide sidewalks, outdoor restaurants, coffee shops, newsstands and loft apartments.

No more shopping centers surrounded by parking lots, big-box retailers, gas stations or drive-through businesses could be built, among other banned uses. Parking would be behind or next to businesses, with shop entrances facing the street for walk-in traffic.

The district does not affect existing businesses, only new development or expansion, the planner added.

“It would be directed to new development and redevelopment that will occur within the district-designated area along the light-rail corridor,” she said.

“That’s the quarter mile or five- to 10-minute walk surrounding light-rail stations within the city of Phoenix.”

The ultimate goal is to encourage light-rail ridership. Construction begins this summer on the 20-mile “starter” segment of light-rail line that links west-central Phoenix with Tempe and Mesa. Tempe has a similar development plan in the works, said Amanda Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Planning Dept. The “pedestrian overlay district” specifies areas around light-rail stations and major intersections north of Broadway Road, she said.

It’s all part of a mix to create a vibrant downtown, an observer said, while making it easy to walk, use transit and leave the car home.

Managers of the St. Mary’s Railroad in southeast Georgia want to establish passenger service to Fernandina Beach, Fla.

St. Mary’s, Ga., Mayor Deborah Hase said she learned about the plans two weeks ago and is excited about the potential to bring more tourists to her community, she told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville on March 11.

“If they can make it fly, it’s a wonderful thing,” Hase said. “If they do the marketing right, they will do well.”

Carolyn Haney, director of tourism for the Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach and Yulee Chamber of Commerce, said the idea has potential to increase tourism in her region and in St. Mary’s.

“I think we can feed off each other,” Haney said. “I think we’re a regional destination.”

Janet Brinko, director of tourism in St. Mary’s, said a rail service between the two cities “would be a huge attraction.”

The service may be expanded to Jacksonville before Super Bowl XXXIX to bring some of the estimated 100,000 visitors for the event to St. Mary’s. The city is a candidate to host a sanctioned Super Bowl event during the days leading up to the game.

“It would encourage a lot more people to come here,” Brinko said. “They can relax and leave the driving to us.”

Craig Root, owner of Vista Outdoor Advertising in St. Mary’s, said St. Mary’s Railroad has plans to rent billboard space as far as 100 miles from the city to advertise the new service.

St. Mary’s Railroad officials confirmed a new passenger service is being established but declined further comment until a formal presentation is made at a St. Mary’s Downtown Development Authority meeting, tentatively scheduled for 9:30 a.m. April 5 at St. Mary’s City Hall.

“It would be hundreds of people coming in each day,” Root said, adding he knew nothing else about the proposed service.

The railroad is owned by bankrupt Durango-Georgia Paper Co., which closed in November 2002. More than 900 Durango workers lost their jobs and two-thirds of the St. Mary’s Railroad staff was also laid off.

The line was profitable hauling wood, chemicals and products until the paper industry began struggling in the mid-1990s. Since the layoffs, employees said St. Mary’s Railroad makes about one run a day to a CSX’s Kingsland Subdivision, about 11 miles from the headquarters in downtown St. Mary’s.

Other employees work on freight car repairs, as part of an agreement the railroad has with CSX. Before the service begins, St. Mary’s Railroad will have to reach an agreement to use CSX lines, CSX spokesman Gary Sease said. CSX has no proposals for any new passenger service on its lines in the region, Sease said.

[CSX is considering a five-county commuter rail proposal, but regional officials have not yet had time to formally request using CSX property. It is still in the early planning stages. – Ed.]

Once St. Mary’s Railroad formally approaches CSX, Sease said “fairly complicated” criteria is considered before a lease to use the lines is signed.

A new rail service using CSX lines cannot impact the safety of the company’s employees or interfere with current customers and the growth of its business, Sease said. Also, CSX cannot subsidize the new service, and St. Mary’s Railroad must have $500 million in liability insurance, he said.

“It’s not impossible,” Sease said. “The process could take months.”

Some negotiations to use CSX lines have taken years, Sease said, and an agreement could depend on who is already using the lines at the times the St. Mary’s Railroad wants to run its trains.

“Some lines are more heavily used than others,” Sease said.

Despite the uncertainty about when the rail service would run, and how often, Mayor Hase said she looks forward to the new service.

“I think they may have found an untapped resource,” Hase said. “I look forward to riding it myself.”

Track speed between St Mary’s Railroad to Yulee, where the Fernandina line begins, ranges from 10 mph to 40 mph. Track speed from Yulee to Fernandina Beach ranges from 10 mph to 35 mph. The total route, from the St. Mary’s Railroad junction at Kingsland to Fernandina Beach is about 23 miles.

Remote control locomotives
imperil rail safety, BLET says

Toledo, Ohio railroads continued use of remote-control locomotives pose an ongoing public safety threat, in terms of pedestrian and vehicular safety and the potential for accidents or sabotage, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) told Toledo officials on March 13.

Of particular concern are Norfolk Southern switchers that switch petrochemical tank cars at a Sunoco refinery on the Toledo-Oregon border, according to The Toledo Blade.

“If something happens over there, a lot of people could be killed by this stuff before they even know what’s happening,” Rodney Cutlip, a Norfolk Southern engineer, told an audience in Government Center that included Toledo Councilman Bob McCloskey; Jay Black, Jr., the city’s chief operating officer, and Bill Franklin, the city’s assistant chief operating officer.

Don Rozick, a fellow member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), said the unmanned locomotives pose an even more immediate threat to people who, whether or not they’re supposed to, may walk along or cross the tracks unsafely and assume there’s an engineer on board looking out for them.

While CSX has posted prominent signs at its yards where remote control is in use, Rozick said, warning signs in Norfolk Southern areas are tiny and thus hard to read, particularly from a moving vehicle. A crossing of Navarre Avenue that is the closest to the refinery’s rail entrance has warning lights and gates but no remote-control warning signs.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said company policy is that an employee must be in a position to watch the forward end of any remotely controlled movement. He denied the union allegation that the policy is routinely violated, and said according to federal remote-control guidelines, warning signs aren’t required if “other effective means” of protection are provided.

FRA spokesman Warren Flatau in Washington said the union’s charge that remote-control employees are not watching where their trains are going “is a serious allegation” that will be investigated – and while the FRA has been monitoring remote control operations closely since its widespread introduction two years ago, Flatau said, a safety audit requested by top members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee has begun.

Gary Sease, a spokesman for CSX in Jacksonville, Fla., said his company’s employees also are required to watch the forward part of any remotely controlled movement except in designated “remote-control zones.” So far, CSX has confined its Toledo-area remote operations to switching yards in Lake Township.

The meeting followed by two days City Council’s approval of a resolution objecting to remote-control locomotive operations within Toledo’s limits.

The resolution calls on railroads to operate such engines only after notifying the mayor, only using qualified engineers, and never handling or operating near cars loaded with hazardous materials.

In so doing, the council stepped into a controversy brewing for more than two years over railroad use of remote control, and, in particular, a dispute over which of two union’s members control the trains under such circumstances.

A 2001 agreement between five major railroads and the United Transportation Union (UTU) that gave its members the right to operate remote-control trains riled the BLET, which maintains that only its members have been trained adequately to operate locomotives.

But an arbitrator upheld the pact with the UTU, which primarily represents train conductors. Major U.S. railroads began using remote-control engines, primarily for yard switching, about two years ago.

The engineers union has kept an accident list since then involving remote control, and passed a resolution this week stating that the record has proven that remote control is not being deployed safely.

The council resolution’s language resembles that of similar measures passed in other cities at the engineers union’s urging.

McCloskey, whose East Toledo district includes the tracks used by the refinery run and several other major rail routes, said he sponsored the resolution because of mounting complaints about remote-control safety, and especially the refinery train. The refinery train is the only current use of remote control within the city.

NTSB recommendations:

Better joint bar inspections needed

The National Transportation Safety Board last week issued seven safety recommendations to the FRA, and one specifically to Canadian Pacific Ry.

NTSB recommended all railroads “with continuous welded rail track to include procedures that prescribe on-the-ground visual inspections and nondestructive testing techniques for identifying cracks in rail joint bars before they grow to critical size.”

The board advised CP to “Finalize and submit” to the FRA its “revised continuous welded rail maintenance program and ensure that all maintenance employees are trained in the requirements of the new program.”

The recommendations grew out of a derailment on CP on the Portal Subdivision in 2002. At approximately 1:37 a.m. on January 18, according to the NTSB, “eastbound Canadian Pacific Ry. freight train No. 292-16, traveling about 41 mph, derailed 31 of its 112 cars about one-half mile west of the city limits of Minot, N.D.”

Five tank cars carrying anhydrous ammonia, a liquefied compressed gas, “catastrophically ruptured, and a vapor plume covered the derailment site and surrounding area. The conductor and engineer were taken to the hospital for observation after they complained of breathing difficulties.”

About 11,600 people occupied the area affected by the vapor plume. One resident died, but 60 to 65 residents of the neighborhood nearest the derailment site were rescued. As a result of the accident, 11 people suffered serious injuries, and 322 people, including the two train crewmembers, sustained minor injuries. Damages exceeded $2 million, and more than $8 million has been spent for environmental remediation.

The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the derailment was “an ineffective CP inspection and maintenance program that did not identify and replace cracked joint bars before they completely fractured and led to the breaking of the rail at the joint. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the catastrophic failure of five tank cars and the instantaneous release of about 146,700 gallons of anhydrous ammonia.”

The train crew, while traveling about 41 mph, experienced rough track at MP 471.65 just before their train derailed, separated, and went into automatic braking. During the mechanical investigation of the locomotives and first cars on the train, “marks were found on the wheels that had traversed the north rail.” The marks, said the investigators, consisted of a point of abrasion on the tread. Starting with the lead locomotive, the scuff points became more distinct by depth and metal flow until the third car behind the locomotives, which was the last car to traverse the point of derailment without derailing.

The main track in the subdivision in which the accident occurred was continuous welded rail (CWR); however, the CWR had numerous joints where defective sections of rail had been cut out and replaced with pieces of matching rail called “plugs.”

Based on post-accident rail reconstruction, inspection of the undisturbed track, a visual survey of the derailment “footprint,” and a review of previous ultrasonic rail test records, investigators eventually determined that the derailment occurred at or near a 36-foot plug in the north rail that was inserted with 36-inch joint bars. The joint on the west end of the plug was found intact, albeit bent, but the east joint was found completely separated with the joint bars fractured vertically at the rail joint.

Laboratory examination determined that the east joint bars contained fatigue cracks that existed before the derailment. The bolts that were removed from the joint displayed signs of bending away from the joint in both directions, meaning that the rail had been under tension and that the joint had pulled slightly apart. During reassembly of the rail pieces, investigators found that portions of the railhead had broken out of the rail where the joint bars attached. Later, small fatigue cracks were found that emanated from the bolt holes that had been drilled in the rail to secure the joint bars.

Further examination of the rail ends at the east joint showed signs of batter from impact by the train wheels. Although some batter was found on nearby rail fractures, the batter on the rail ends at the east joint was more severe. The more severe batter on the rail ends in the east joint, the bent bolts, and the abrasions on the wheels of the head portion of the train that traversed the north rail confirmed that a gap existed at the east joint and that the joint bars at the east end of the plug rail had fractured under the previous train or as the accident train passed over the joint. After the joint bars fractured, the rail itself, which had been weakened by small fatigue cracks, also fractured.

The Safety Board concluded that “The derailment occurred as a result of the joint bars and rail at the east joint of the plug having fractured and broken away.”

According to CPR maintenance-of-way employees, most inspections of joint bars were visual inspections made from a moving Hy-Rail vehicle. They would also listen for telltale sounds to indicate a loose joint, but “neither of these methods is as accurate at detecting defects in the joint bars as a visual inspection from the ground.”

The sound as the vehicle traverses a joint is both nonspecific and subjective. Inspectors simply cannot “hear” the presence of small hairline cracks at a rail joint location. A wide gap at the rail ends may be detected as a “thud,” but these gaps are more closely associated with “pull-aparts.”

Visual inspection from a moving vehicle is inadequate because, for example, a track inspector checking the accident location from a vehicle traveling west to east would be able to see only the tops of the joint bars on the north rail, and the outside joint bar on the south rail would not be visible at all. Even those joint bars that can be partially seen by an inspector may have small fractures or fatigue cracks that are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to see from a moving vehicle. Instead, to adequately visually inspect joint bars, an inspector must dismount the vehicle and conduct an up-close, on-the-ground inspection of both the field and gauge sidebars for small hairline cracks.

The joint bar fatigue cracks that eventually fractured and led to the Minot derailment were externally visible over a length of 1.9 inch on the gauge-side bar and 0.8 inch on the field-side bar.

“An on-the-ground, visual inspection of this joint bar would almost certainly have detected the larger crack, which should have led to replacement of the joint bar before it failed and caused a derailment,” the board stated.

“A secondary benefit of on-the-ground rail joint inspection in CWR territory is that the inspector could assess the rail joint gap as well as look for evidence of bent or loose bolts,” inspectors added.

The board also recommended railroads need to establish a program to periodically review continuous welded rail joint bar inspection data from railroads and FRA track inspectors and, “when determined necessary, require railroads to increase the frequency or improve the methods of inspection of joint bars in continuous welded rail.”

The board advised the FRA to instruct track inspectors to obtain copies of the most recent continuous welded rail programs of the railroads that fall within the inspectors’ areas of responsibility and require that inspectors use those programs when conducting track inspections.

Freight railroads were advised to “Conduct a comprehensive analysis to determine the impact resistance of the steels in the shells of pressure tank cars constructed before 1989. At a minimum, the safety analysis should include the results of dynamic fracture toughness tests and/or the results of nondestructive testing techniques that provide information on material ductility and fracture toughness. The data should come from samples of steel from the tank shells from original manufacturing or from a statistically representative sampling of the shells of the pre-1989 pressure tank car fleet.”

Trainmen said they set the air brakes of the runaway Long Island Rail Road engine, but the switcher started moving on its own after they left – but National Transportation Safety Board investigators said last week, according to crew statements and investigator observations, a separate braking system – the hand brake – was not set, nor were the wheels blocked, as required by LIRR operating rules when a locomotive is left unattended.

The NTSB released an update on March 16 on its investigation of a series of highway grade crossing collisions on March 10 after an unmanned Long Island Rail Road locomotive in Queens, New York, hit several highway vehicles and seriously injured four vehicle occupants.

The unmanned locomotive passed through grade crossings without active warning devices (bells, lights, gates), struck several vehicles and caused.

NTSB investigators said they completed interviews with all five of the railroad employees involved in the accident, and will be reviewing that information. The employees told the investigators they set the air brakes before briefly leaving the locomotive unmanned.

Two days before the accident, the locomotive passed an FRA-mandated inspection, but tests done on the locomotive after the accident showed some leakage in the air brake system, indicating that after time enough air would bleed off to release the brakes.

The locomotive is being held out of service for further NTSB mechanical evaluation. The FRA requires that locomotives be inspected every 92 days.

Data from the locomotive event recorders has been sent to the NTSB laboratory in Washington for detailed readout and analysis. Investigators also will be studying security camera videos obtained by the New York City Police Dept.

NTSB investigators are looking into why a derail failed. They also will be studying the grade crossings, which earlier had active warning devices that were removed. The board also expected to receive reports of toxicology tests done on the train crewmembers in accordance with LIRR policy.

CN From Halifax to Vancouver, Canadian National is back to work.

The 5,000 striking workers at Canadian National Ry. Co. (CA:CNR) have accepted the company’s latest contract offer and agreed to end a four-week strike, their union said on Friday.

The mechanics, sales clerks and container yard employees, accounting for almost one-fourth of CN’s work force, voted by wide margins to accept the offer, the Canadian Auto Workers union said in a statement.

CN Rail spokesman Mark Hallman said the workers began returning to work with the first daylight shift on Saturday.

“There is no backlog of traffic and we expect a seamless return to full operations,” he said.

The union said CN shopcraft workers voted 69 percent for the agreement, while clerical, customer service, and intermodal yard employees voted 81 percent in favor.

The three-year deal includes annual wage increases of 3 percent, a $750 (C$1,000) bonus for returning to work and improved formulas on shift pay.

The company also agreed to scrap a new disciplinary system, a sticking point that scuttled a January 23 tentative agreement.

Some analysts had been trimming their first-quarter profit estimates for CN, the largest railway in Canada and No. 5 in North America, because of the strike, which slowed freight traffic across the country, especially for intermodal shipping.

CN’s U.S. workers were not on strike.

“We expect a substantial portion of the intermodal traffic that had been reduced to come back immediately,” CN’s Hallman said.

CN stock rose 37 Canadian cents to C$51.92 in Toronto on Thursday. The stock fell as much as 6.5 percent after the strike, but at the Thursday close was less than 4 percent off its pre-strike price.

Industrial brokers say they have first-hand evidence of a back-to-the-rails movement in the freight industry in New Jersey. Sites with rail connections have become hot properties.

Over the years, rail had become somewhat outmoded because of its set schedule of delivery times, observed Frank Caccavo, a Cushman & Wakefield broker.

“There was a time when rail companies did not fully participate in the time sensitivity of delivery,” Caccavo said delicately, but he added, “With the modern manufacturing supply chain, from just-in-time production to the reduce-your-inventory model of warehousing, the handle-pack-reship mode of operation has been better suited to trucking in many ways.”

The New York Times noted on March 14 that he and other brokers point out that it has always been cheaper and more efficient to ship heavy bulk items by rail – and now that some improvements have been made in rail delivery, certain industries are simply demanding it.

“We are seeing a tremendous demand for rail-served buildings right now,” said Robert C. Kossar of Binswanger/Klatskin in Teterboro.

“I have seen nothing like it in my 15 years in the business,” he said Kossar said he was about to close a deal in the Newark area for a grocery concern, recently closed one just over the border in Eastern Pennsylvania for a lumber company and is currently searching for 250,000-square-foot rail-served buildings in New Jersey for a paper producer and for a recycling company.

“We used to see a lot of times when rail was a ‘nice to have’ when a company was looking for a site,” Kossar said, but “more and more now, it’s a ‘must.’”

Caccavo said he was working on a deal for a build-to-suit warehouse and storage yard for a construction products company at a rail-served site in Middlesex County. He also spoke of a large retailer that is seeking a 50- to-100-acre site, with a rail connection among the requirements.

Mindy Lissner of CB Richard Ellis said her company is marketing seven sites with rail spurs that are either active or fairly easy to reactivate after a period of disuse. “There is a great amount of activity with those buildings right now,” she said.

“The people that have been coming to look at the buildings have been coming because of rail. There are at least a couple of serious lookers at all the properties,” she said.

The largest available rail-linked sites, Lissner said, include a 606,000-square-foot former Ford parts distribution plant in Teterboro, a 127-acre rail-served property owned by Dow Chemical in Piscataway and 262,000-square-foot and 400,000-square-foot properties in Jersey City.

Mitchell Katz of Trammell Crow recently sought out a 470,000-square-foot rail-linked site in the Heller Industrial Park in South Brunswick for the Sappi Paper Co. He did it the old-fashioned way, Katz said – poring over street and aerial maps and walking the rail lines from Carteret to South Brunswick, looking for a suitable site.

“My dad, Ben Katz, who was with Insignia/ESG, always told me, ‘Go out and look at the property to see what’s there,’” Katz said. “In this case, I had to. Because rail fell out of favor there for a while, information on what sites have it is really limited,” Katz said. Sappi also wanted port access, since much of its product is shipped from Australia, he said, and that narrowed the list of potential sites.

The paper company previously had warehouse-distribution facilities in Edison and in Allentown, Pa., and wanted to consolidate at one rail-served site in New Jersey, the broker said.

Katz said his clients demanded rail service because it offers “huge savings,” given the sizes of loads the paper industry ships. “A typical rail car can carry about 90 tons of paper,” he said, “whereas a typical 58-foot trailer carries about 45 tons. So, rail means much fewer loads, greater efficiency and big savings. It also means greater speed of product to market.”

Sappi’s warehouse-distribution facility is under construction now. It will have 36-foot ceilings, modern sprinkler systems and the use of a rail spur with a switch and allows cars to travel through warehouse bays for loading and unloading. Sappi signed a five-year lease, Katz said, and expects to take occupancy of the building in late summer.

Lissner noted that use of port-to-rail – intermodal transport – is becoming increasingly popular. One factor, she said, is the increasing cost of fuel and trucking in general.

CSX has started hauling ethanol to market from the Midwest to the Northeast with its rail-to-vessel service.

CSX is billing its ethanol express delivery trains as “EthX,” and is moving large quantities of the product on unit trains from points throughout the Midwest to Albany, N.Y. From Albany, the fuel is barged down the Hudson River for use by consumers in New York and New England markets.

“With the growing demand for ethanol in the Northeast, and a lack of pipeline infrastructure from the Midwest, CSX set out to fill the distribution void by building a virtual pipeline,” said David Kennedy, business development manager for the railroad’s agricultural products group.

Two weeks ago, the tank barge Westchester made its way north from Philadelphia, making gasoline deliveries in Newburgh and Albany, N.Y., via the Hudson River, before it took a rail-delivered load of ethanol in Albany for the southward backhaul.

He described the 65,000-barrel Westchester an example of developing new markets and companies that have not traditionally used rail.

“Aventine Renewable Energy, Inc., one of the largest marketers of renewable fuels is the first ethanol supplier to commit to and ship ethanol to the East Coast via CSX’s ethanol network,” said Jim Redding, Aventine’s vice-president for marketing.

The inaugural ethanol shipments arrived in Albany earlier in the year and were produced by VeraSun Energy of Aurora, S. D. VeraSun’s plant opened and began production just three weeks before the first shipments.

“VeraSun Energy vice-resident Bill Honnef said “The efficiencies and expansion in the production and distribution of ethanol are a clear sign that ethanol is growing into a strategic nationwide blending component.” Honnef said that VeraSun’s new plant is capable of producing 100 million gallons of ethanol each year, the equivalent of nearly 25 percent of the total volume of ethanol projected to be consumed in the Northeast in 2004.

CSX did not state how much the service costs.

Canadian Pacific Ry. said on March 12 it would buy 41 new locomotives in the second quarter and add more crews to help ease a backlog in Canadian grain shipments.

Canada’s second-largest railway has been behind on grain shipments since cold weather and avalanches stopped traffic earlier this winter, Reuters reported, and high volumes of all commodity traffic have prevented CP Rail from catching up, CP spokesman Len Cocolicchio said.

“We’re very busy with demand from shippers in virtually all commodities at this point, and we’re doing everything we possibly can to meet all the needs of grain shippers during an extremely busy period for not only grain, but all commodities,” Cocolicchio said.

Grain shippers complained on Thursday that CP Rail is not giving them enough railcars to get their grain to export ports.

Agricore United, Canada’s largest grain company, has seen two- to three-week delays on its CP Rail shipments, and has had to ask farmers to delay grain deliveries.

The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), the largest volume shipper in the country, has an accumulated shortfall of 1,450 railcars from CP Rail, and incurred demurrage penalties on West Coast vessels over the winter because of delays.

The CWB has received less than half the cars it asked for during the most recent two-week period, a spokeswoman said.

CP Rail is “making good progress” in working through the backlog, Cocolicchio said, although the surge in volumes has hindered the railway’s ability to erase the backlog, he said.

Cocolicchio said he could not estimate the size of CP Rail’s backlog, nor could he estimate how much volumes have increased.

“The volumes are strong right now,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a seasonal thing, we’re just very, very busy.”

A month-long strike at Canadian National Railway Co. has not contributed to the surge in demand at CP Rail, Cocolicchio said.

“We are not seeing extra volumes coming at us from CN,” he said. “We are not out there actively pursuing CN business.”

The new locomotives and crews could help address the backlog, Cocolicchio said, adding the railway also plans to lease 25 more locomotives in the fourth quarter.

“We want the same things that grain producers want: we want to move grain,” he said.

Tony L. Ingram is CSX’s new executive vice-president and chief operating officer. Ingram came from Norfolk Southern Corp. where he was senior vice-president-transportation network and mechanical.

Michael J. Ward, CSX’s chairman, president, and CEO, said Ingram will be responsible for all rail operations including transportation, safety, engineering and mechanical, and service design.

“Tony is a terrific person with proven transportation expertise, coming from Norfolk Southern’s excellent team of industry experts and leaders,” Ward said. “He is committed to the continued implementation of CSX’s vision and core values, especially our focus on improved safety, consistent and reliable customer service, efficient network design and continued employee development.”

Ingram, 57, is a native of Dothan, Ala., and a 33-year railroad veteran.

He started out on NS predecessor Southern Railway in Atlanta as a management trainee.

Tennessee looks at new taxes

Legislation is advancing in both Tennessee General Assembly chambers that opponents say could cost private railroads, pipeline utilities, and broadcasters millions in taxes.

Sponsored by Rep. Tommy Head (D) in the House and Sen. Douglas Henry (D), in the Senate, the legislation classifies certain property associated with such businesses as real estate rather than personal property. Included in the list of items that could be taxed at the higher realty rate are railroad tracks, pipelines and broadcast towers, the Nashville Business Journal informed its readers on March 12.

Dan Haskell, who represents the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters, says the bill is, at best, unclear.

“If you drive up with a barge, it’s clearly personal property, but if you throw a cable from the barge over a bollard (a post for a mooring), it’s real property and becomes taxable at a higher rate,” he said. “I’m not sure who is supposed to pay: The barge owner or the bollard owner.”

Kelsie Jones, executive secretary of the Tennessee Board of Equalization, says the bill maintains the status quo and won’t hurt businesses. Defeat, however, could cost local governments as much as $10 million in tax revenue, he said. Passage of the bill would reverse a 2003 court decision giving pipeline companies a 15 percent tax break.

Representatives of the pipeline industry filed a lawsuit against the state in 1997, claiming pipelines should be classified as personal property, since they can be moved. The 2003 ruling resulted in tax refunds of about $1.5 million for each year of the lawsuit to plaintiffs in the suit.

“If the bill passes, (the pipeline companies) will get to keep the refunds they have been awarded,” says Jones, adding that the legislation is primarily targeted toward the pipeline industry. “As far as the railroads and broadcasters are concerned, this just heads off any future claims similar to the pipeline companies.”

Haskell, who is part of a consortium of lobbyists from affected industries, isn’t buying Jones’ assertion.

“Railroads relocate sections of track on a regular basis,” he said.

Broadcast towers are also portable and should continue to be classified as personal property, he argued.

Technically, Haskell is right, said Jones, who said it’s disingenuous to label pipelines or railroad tracks as personal property.

“A vehicle or a desk is personal property – things you pick up when you move,” he said.

“Pipeline companies aren’t going to dig up pipe unless they absolutely have to,” said Jones. “Railroad tracks and ties are so installed, there is a preexisting notion if you put something in the ground that deeply, it’s real property.”

The House budget sub-committee approved the bill March 10 and the full committee will vote next week. The Senate Tax Committee will also vote on the legislation in the coming week.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the ratings of Kansas City Southern Railway (KCR) senior implied to B1 from Ba3. In a related action, Moody’s assigned a Ba3 rating to KCRs new $150 million secured Term Loan B and the company’s amended $100 million secured Revolving Credit agreement. The rating outlook is negative. The ratings company disclosed its changes on March 16.

KCS reported Moody’s stated ‘The downgrade considers the continued high indebtedness of KCR and the weak coverage and cash flow leverage metrics, the company’s weak operating ratio relative to other major railroads, and its high operating cost structure that limits meaningful upside potential even as the industrial economy improves,” Moody’s stated in a press release.

The ratings “also consider KCR’s geographically attractive rail property, significant asset protection for KCR’s secured debt, and the relatively high level of balance sheet cash at present. The negative outlook reflects the expectation of modestly negative to break-even free cash flow from operations over the near term, and the ongoing dispute between KCS and TMM regarding their joint investment in TFM.”

KCR’s ability to generate a cash return on its investment “in TFM will be limited until, among other things, the dispute with TMM is resolved.”

Moody’s added the rating “could be downgraded further” if the Mexican government exercises the “put” option on its 20 percent interest in TFM “causing additional cash calls on KCR, or if the company’s operating performance further weakens, including EBITDA to interest expense falling below 2x, or failure to generate positive free cash flow by at least 2005.”

The rating outlook “could be stabilized if KCR obtains full control of TFM at a price no worse than that contemplated by its second quarter 2003 agreement with TMM, the ‘put’ on the TFM shares and the Value Added Tax (VAT) dispute with the Mexican Government are resolved favorably for KCR, and operating performance of the railroad improve so that Adjusted Debt to EBITDAR falls below 4:1.”

CSX Corp has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $1.2 billion in debt, stock and other securities. In its filing, reports CBS MarketWatch, the company said it will use the proceeds of any offer for general corporate purposes, including to pay down debt, cut costs or redeem or repurchase securities.

Intermodal freight on U.S. railroads registered a sharp 7.7 percent gain during the week ended March 13 in comparison with the corresponding week last year, the AAR reported on Thursday.

Intermodal traffic totaled 199,547 trailers or containers, with trailer traffic up 12.8 percent and container volume up 5.9 percent from last year.

Carload freight, which does not include the intermodal data, totaled 333,846 cars, up 1.0 percent from last year with volume up 3.0 percent in the West but down 1.3 percent in the East. Total volume was estimated at 30.0 billion ton-miles, up 2.7 percent from last year.

Among the 10 carload commodity groups with increased loadings, double digit increases were reported in loadings of coke, up 40.2 percent from last year; crushed stone, sand and gravel, up 18.3 percent; lumber and wood products, up 13.2 percent; grain, up 13.0 percent; and waste and scrap, up 12.8 percent. Nine commodities reported declines, with primary forest products off 10.2 percent; farm products other than grain down 9.9 percent; and metals and products off 9.1 percent from last year.

The AAR also reported the following cumulative totals for U.S. railroads during the first ten weeks of 2004: 3,274,623 carloads, up 2.7 percent from last year; intermodal volume of 1,958,818 trailers or containers, up 6.6 percent; and total volume of an estimated 293.2 billion ton-miles, up 4.1 percent from last year’s first ten weeks.

Canadian railroads also reported sharp increases in carload freight but a small decline in intermodal freight during the week ended March 13. Carload volume totaled 69,745 cars, up 15.6 percent, with coal up 44.6 percent and agricultural products up 33.7 percent from last year. Intermodal traffic totaled 38,391 trailers or containers, down 0.8 percent from last year.

Cumulative originations for the first 10 weeks of 2004 on the Canadian railroads totaled 648,719 carloads, up 6.0 percent from last year, and 388,391 trailers and containers, down 1.7 percent from last year.

Combined cumulative volume for the first 10 weeks of 2004 on 15 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 3,923,342 carloads, up 3.2 percent from last year and 2,347,209 trailers and containers, up 5.2 percent from last year.

The AAR also reported that originated carload freight on the Mexican railroad Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM) during the week ended March 13 totaled 9,206 cars, up 5.4 percent from last year. TFM reported intermodal volume of 3,746 originated trailers or containers, down 8.3 percent from the tenth week of 2003. For the first ten weeks of 2004, TFM reported cumulative originated volume of 82,169 cars, down 8.3 percent from last year, and 33,880 trailers or containers, down 8.8 percent.

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. The Canadian railroads reporting to the AAR account for 90 percent of Canadian rail traffic. Railroads provide more than 40 percent of U.S. intercity freight transportation, more than any other mode, and rail traffic figures are regarded as an important economic indicator.

Wabtec gets Union Tank order

Wabtec Corp. (WAB) said last Wednesday it received a $19 million order for braking equipment from Union Tank Car Co. The order includes air brakes, draft gears and hand brakes, as well as Wabtec’s UBX brake assembly. The products will be delivered in 2004 by Wabtec subsidiaries WABCO Freight Car Products and Cardwell Westinghouse.

Erie’s station get a big spruce-up

Its walls are still unpainted, its ceiling is still pocked with holes, its floor is still covered with a thick layer of grime, heat pours out of the recently installed duct work, and temporary lights illuminate the 190-foot hallway.

“For the age of the building and how it’s been abused over the years, it’s really going to clean up nice,” said Logistics Plus’ corporate project manager, Heidi Schlabach, as she showed off the progress made by renovation crews at Erie, Pennsylvania’s Union Station.

Logistics Plus, an Erie-based freight-management company, is more than halfway through renovating the landmark’s 16,000-square-foot third floor, writes the Erie Times-News.

When the $500,000 to $1 million project is complete in May, it will house Logistics Plus’ corporate headquarters staff of about 75.

It also will mark a significant step in what the company hopes will be the revitalization of a key district in Erie’s downtown.

The 77-year-old landmark (at the corner of West 14^th and Peach Streets) was once Erie’s key transportation hub, serving as the city’s launching point for train traffic. Since the late 1970s, however, much of the building has been vacant.

Union Station has some prominent tenants, including Amtrak (train Nos. 48-49, the Lake Shore Limited stop here), Porters Restaurant & Tap Room, Sabella’s, and the YWCA – but the 100,000-square-foot landmark has stood more as a monument to past failures than current successes during the past quarter century.

Logistics Plus, however, is betting that it can restore the building to its past glory.

The company, which moved its headquarters to Erie from Jamestown, N.Y., in 2003, has about 90 employees in offices worldwide, but has centered its business in Erie, where it can remain close to key customers such as GE Transportation, Lord Corp. and Ameridrives.

In addition to spending about $1.5 million to acquire Union Station, Logistics Plus has committed to renovating its third floor and rehabilitating the rest of the building for other use.

Once it finishes with the third floor, company officials said they plan to clean up space that could soon house retail shops, a museum and a pedestrian mall.

In one corner of the building, Logistics Plus CEO Jim Berlin envisions a railroad museum that would overlook the tracks that carry about 70 freight trains through Erie daily.

In another space, Art Whelan, the company’s director of corporate development, talks about creating a jazz club and restaurant.

Outside, the company plans to create a paved pedestrian mall that would give railroad lovers a chance to watch the passing trains and would offer an array of retail and restaurant tenants — a scene reminiscent of Pittsburgh’s Station Square area.

The renovation still is far from finished — workers will soon begin replacing the roof, building an elevator and digging into an intense few weeks of cleanup, painting and restoring, but Schlabach said work remains on schedule and Logistics Plus should be moving into its new digs by the end of May. When that happens, Whelan said he expects it to help bring new life to what has long been a struggling part of Erie’s downtown.

As the Southwest side of Rockford, Ill., begins to undergo a major face-lift, there’s still one eyesore that can’t be touched – yet. The abandoned Amtrak station on South Main Street is surrounded by litter and burned-down buildings. Since the Canadian National Railroad acquired the former Illinois Central depot, the property has steadily, and literally, fallen by the wayside.

WIFR Rockford reports The Greater Rockford Transportation Coalition is hoping to change that. They’d like to revitalize the land and possibly build a railroad museum, community center or even restore passenger service to the area, but first they have to get permission to work on the land. They’re looking at three options. To either buy the land, lease it, or get permission to cosmetically restore it. Alderman Victory Bell said negotiations with CN were to begin this week. They’re hoping to reach an agreement by the summer.

After nearly five years of bureaucratic red tape, the town of Southern Pines, N.C., now owns its railroad depot, clearing the way for long-overdue renovations.

The North Carolina DOT’s Rail Division plans to award a contract to repair the deteriorated station this spring, according to the Southern Pines Pilot.

Work could begin after Memorial Day and be completed by the end of 2004, Town Manager Kyle Sonnenberg said last week.

“I just can’t express how pleased we are to have this transaction finalized,” Mayor Frank Quis said Thursday in a brief statement.

“Now, we can move forward with the renovations. It will certainly salvage a historic building and improve the looks of downtown Southern Pines tremendously,” the mayor said.

The depot is a prominent structure in the center of Southern Pines between New Hampshire and Connecticut Avenues along the tracks that split the downtown between both sides of Broad Street.

Nearly five years ago, Congress committed $800,000 to pay for renovating the passenger station. The town also acquired a brick freight depot for a small cost from CSX. It is a block north between Connecticut and Vermont.

Because it’s a federally funded railway project, the state transportation department is handling the work instead of the town. The DOT has already advertised for pre-qualifying contractors. The next step will be to seek construction bids on March 21, which will be opened April 20. A contract should be awarded by May 6.

The DOT’s timetable calls for construction to begin after May 31, (Memorial Day), with work to be finished in six months, Sonnenberg said.

Southern Pines acquired the title only a few days ago. The old passenger station has been a prominent eyesore for years, resulting in a drumbeat of complaints among visitors and residents about how its condition detracts from downtown’s appearance.

CSX had not done any maintenance or repair work on the white-framed building with its outside canopy and its parking lot for years. It continued to use the freight depot for line maintenance crews in the area. Amtrak passenger trains stop at the depot.

Amtrak, The California DOT (Caltrans) and the City of Fresno will formally break ground tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. for a $6 million rehabilitation of the historic downtown former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe station, at 2650 Tulare St.

The project, scheduled to be completed in fall 2004, will provide new space for Amtrak passengers, retail and business offices, increased parking and new landscaping. The project will return the Fresno Station to its late 19^th Century appearance, Amtrak stated in a press release on Friday.

Constructed in 1899, the California Mission-style station has seen two major additions in its career as the Santa Fe Railroad depot. Some old additions will be removed and important architectural station details will be restored – including its clock and tower, now obscured by a station addition that is to be torn down.

Fresno officials named Reyman Brothers, of Sparks, Nev., to undertake the extensive rehabilitation. Johnson Architecture of Fresno conducted the architectural research to assure authenticity of all work performed at the station.

“In the past decade, the CalTrans has joined with many cities to construct and rehabilitate train stations along our intercity routes,” Caltrans Rail Division Chief Warren Weber said.

“Projects such as Fresno Station acknowledge the present day growth and success of rail travel while paying homage to the rich history of railroads in California.”

Major project funding comes from the California DOT. The City of Fresno purchased the building and land from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, and is paying to move railroad staff from the building. Other funding comes from Amtrak, California Pollution Control Financing Authority and the State Office of Historic Preservation.

An antebellum freight depot that burned a fortnight ago in Alabama may be salvageable, according to a local heritage organization.

“We’re hoping that the brickwork can be salvaged,” said David Nuttall, chairman of the Preservation Committee with the Historic Huntsville Foundation. “We’re getting some structural engineers to look at it, and looking at what emergency funding is available.”

The depot, located just outside the Historic Huntsville Depot, was the oldest railroad building in Alabama, The Huntsville Times reported, and until 1996, Nuttall said, the second oldest continually-used freight depot in the world.

Smoke from the fire was visible for miles, and by mid-morning news of the fire had spread across town. Mayor Loretta Spencer visited the site, as did several bystanders. Several members of the Historic Huntsville Foundation turned out to view the remains of a building they had long been planning to restore.

“I’m almost tearful,” said Nuttall. “We’ve been working with Norfolk Southern on this for years.”

Nuttall said that they had been close to agreement for the railroad to donate the building, and the foundation had hoped to take over the site by the end of the year.

Huntsville Fire and Rescue spokesman Jay Gates said the initial fire call was made at 5:37 a.m. Two pumpers and one ladder truck responded, Gates said, then two more pumpers were called in.

“Once the fire got going, it was hard to deal with,” Gates said. “We’re talking about an old building with floors that were soaked with oil from years of use.”

Gates said the cause of the fire had not been determined. Madison County’s Joint Arson Task Force has been called to investigate the blaze.

“It’s only speculation at this point, but the building was secure,” said Bart Williams, Executive Director of the Early Works Museum Complex, which runs the Historic Huntsville Depot across the tracks. “The utilities were off. Maybe the fire was started by a homeless person or someone crawling in.”

Williams arrived at 6:00 a.m. to see the building in flames. “It was quite a dramatic fire,” he said. “It was fully engulfed and the old brick and mortar was just crumbling.”

According to Williams the depot was built in 1856.

“It was the first permanent railroad station in Huntsville,” he said. The station’s passenger depot, now part of the Historic Huntsville Depot, was added in 1860, he said. The depot was last used by The Huntsville Times to store paper until 1996. It’s been vacant since then.

The freight house was a critical building as well as the passenger depot during the Union occupation of Huntsville during the civil war, a historian said.

While the passenger depot and other buildings on the depot complex got facelifts and new life, the freight depot stayed unused, still owned by Norfolk Southern Railroad, and the Southern before the Norfolk & Western and Southern merger.

One of the main reasons the building has not been donated to historic Huntsville is because the depot sits between two working tracks, posing a safety problem.

The depot was being considered for the National Trust of Historic Preservation’s list of 11 most endangered properties in the nation. Mike Holbrook said, “We hoped that making that list would spur local, state and even national interest in getting money to rehab the building.”

Bart Williams said, “From a complex standpoint, it was the original piece of the depot complex, so it’s like seeing the older brother go away or something like that. I hope they are able to do something to save what’s left of it, it’s definitely a nice landmark.”

Kazakhstan rail to link China, Europe

Kazakhstan plans to build a rail link between China and Europe, state-run media reported March 12. Kanat Zhangaskin, vice-president of the Kazakhstan National Railway Co., announced the 1,930-mile railway project Xinhua News Agency reported from Hong Kong. Zhangaskin was visiting Hong Kong seeking investment for the $3.5 billion project, which is to be completed within four years, the report said. The rail link would speed overland travel and transport between China and Europe. Currently, branches of Russia’s trans-Siberian railway provide the only rail link between China and other parts of Asia to Europe. Overland, the trip takes about 10 days. Most goods are now shipped by sea, which takes about three weeks.

The World Bank may cooperate with the Russian Railroad Co. to help start a long-term project. Julian Schweitzer, the country director for the Russian Federation of the World Bank, told reporters in Moscow the plan was under development after holding a meeting with the head of Russian Railroads Gennady Fadeyev. They discussed perspectives of possible cooperation, according to Ros Business Consulting of Moscow on March 15. The World Bank is considering a $500 million to $1billion loan to help fund rail infrastructure projects. Russian Railroad will be required to introduce its restructuring railroad transport plan for 5 to 10 years, and an investment and streamlining program to get the loan. The Russian government has to provide guarantees, Ros stated.

Dear Editor:

In the March 15 D:F, a story entitled “Turboliner plans scaled back,” makes reference to “...diesel-turbine powered trains...” This is incorrect.

A gas turbine is a prime mover as is a diesel engine; both are distinct in their own right. The originally configured seven five-car trainsets in question were fabricated only with two gas turbines as prime movers, and each coupled to a hydraulic transmission in the two power cars that were (and are) positioned on either end of the train. There never were any diesel power units installed in these trains.

The Union Pacific Railroad had several series of gas-turbine powered freight locomotives in the 1950s and 1960s [built by Kraus-Maffei and tried out on former Denver & Rio Grande Western]. They were equipped with a small separate diesel engine to move the locomotive around yards since the turbine consumes almost as much fuel when lightly loaded as it does when under full load. It’s just the nature of the beast – and is the reason why these power units have not been adopted for railroad use where loads and speeds vary widely.

Albert L. Papp, Jr.
NARP Region 3 Director
Director New Jersey Assn. of Railroad Passengers