Terrorists might try to bomb buses and rail lines in major U.S. cities this summer, according to a government bulletin issued to law enforcement officials nationwide, The AP reported on Friday.

The FBI and Homeland Security Dept. sent a bulletin Thursday night saying terrorists could attempt to conceal explosives in luggage and carry-on bags, such as duffel bags and backpacks.

The bulletin cited “uncorroborated intelligence” as indicating that such bombs could be made of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel, similar to what was used to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in April 1995.

A senior federal law enforcement official, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity, said recent intelligence, coupled with the deadly March 11 commuter train bombings in Madrid, has increased the level of concern about a potential attack in the U.S. The bulletin did not specify a particular city that might be targeted. [See separate story in “Across the pond.” – Ed.]

Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups have “demonstrated the intent and capability” to attack public transportation with a variety of bombs, including suicide bombers, the bulletin stated. Such attacks have occurred in Israel, Greece, Turkey, Spain and elsewhere.

In Spain on Friday, police found a bomb connected to a detonator with a 450-foot cable under the tracks of a high-speed railway between Madrid and Seville. Bomb disposal experts disarmed the device, and no train was in the vicinity when it was discovered, Spanish officials said.

The U.S. bulletin says that a “viable” explosive constructed of ammonium nitrate and diesel “could be concealed in standard luggage.”

British authorities earlier this week arrested eight people on suspicion of being involved in a possible terrorist plot that included the discovery of 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate.

The warning follows by one day an FBI bulletin to state and local law enforcement agencies raising concern that terrorists might try to use cultural, artistic or athletic visas to slip into the U.S. undetected.

The new bulletin lists a number of suggestions for city transportation systems to enhance security. These include close monitoring of parking lots, removal of trash receptacles, limiting access points, improving lighting and beefing up overall law enforcement presence.

Barriers should be deployed at key points to prevent terrorists from parking a bomb-laden vehicle, possibly disguised as a delivery truck, close to entrances and exits.

“Question drivers and direct them to move immediately,” the bulletin says.

In addition, the bulletin recommends passenger screening steps such as random security sweeps, positive matches of bags and cargo to passengers, and reminding passengers to immediately report any unattended bags or suspicious behavior.

The U.S. House approved a six-year, $275 billion highway and transit funding bill on Friday. The legislation, The Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users (TEA-LU), was approved by a 357 to 65 vote. The bill provides for $275 billion in federal funding for highway and transit projects over the next six years.

“This another positive step in a long process,” said U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Young added, “While I’m pleased the House approved this legislation, I’m still going to work for additional improvements because this is one piece of legislation that will determine the future of our nation’s surface transportation system in the coming years.”

The House version will now have to be married with a $378 billion Senate version in a joint Senate-House committee.

“This is a good bill but it can be made better in the Conference Committee,” Young said.

“This is a major step forward towards the enactment of legislation to develop our national transportation system,” said U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), the ranking Democrat on the Transportation Committee.

Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), the Chairman of the Highways, Transit and Pipelines Subcommittee said “We are going to save lives by improving the condition of our roads, we are going to provide millions of jobs, we are going to be sure that the trains and buses that carry people to work every day continue to run, and we are going to provide the very basic infrastructure structure that we need for our economy to prosper.

Petri said, “It maintains the trust with the motoring public that was established in TEA 21 by continuing to ensure that the gas taxes paid by Americans will actually be spent on transportation improvements,” but he also noted, “This bill clearly does not provide all the resources necessary to improve our transportation and meet the needs identified by the USDOT – and that is an issue that the Congress must face at some point.

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg raised the possibility last Thursday that Pennsylvania Station might be shut down temporarily during the Republican National Convention.

Earlier in the week, officials in Boston, where the Democratic National Convention is to be held in July, said North Station, a rail and subway hub, would be closed for an entire week, beginning three days before the convention. The station is in the same building as the FleetCenter, where the convention will take place, and security officials said they deemed the closing necessary, especially after the recent train bombings in Madrid.

In New York, where the GOP convention will be held at Madison Square Garden from August 30 to September 2, police and Secret Service officials had dismissed suggestions of a similar closing for Penn Station, although they cautioned that those plans could change, The New York times reported.

Earlier in the week, police commissioner Raymond W. Kelly issued a statement saying that the city would remain “open for business” during the convention, including the station and “all major thoroughfares” – but on Thursday, after saying that the Secret Service had not asked the city to close the station, Bloomberg allowed for the possibility of shutting it down, if only for a few hours.

“If the Secret Service feels that it’s necessary we’ll certainly talk to them,” the mayor said at a news conference when asked if he thought the station should be closed.

“If they came and said that, you know, for two hours or something they felt that there was a heightened security during the presidential speech above, that wouldn’t be the world’s worst thing.”

Still, he said, any disruptions would be minor and would probably be limited to the areas immediately surrounding the garden. “Most people will go about their business and not even know that there is another event taking place,” he said.

Amtrak trains were stopped and searched on March 30 after the carrier received bomb threats.

On March 31, the Bradenton Herald reported, dispatchers brought trains to a halt in Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania after Amtrak officials said they had received bomb threats.

Bomb-sniffing dogs, according to Amtrak, searched each train.

The northbound Palmetto carrying 144 passengers stopped at Selma, N.C. station around noon. Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black, in Washington, said the train continued on after the search, which delayed the trip by about two hours.

“Unfortunately, bomb threats of this nature are fairly common,“ Black said. “They cause delay and inconvenience, but it‘s something we have to deal with.”

Two northbound Silver Meteors were stopped – one in Sebring, Fla., near the start of its run. Some 140 people were taken off the train while police searched it. Police searched the other Silver Meteor in Philadelphia, near the end of its 27-hour trip to New York, Amtrak said. 176 passengers were evacuated from the Silver Meteor in Philadelphia. The train resumed its journey after a 45-minute delay.

Black said while there‘s heightened awareness about train travel in the wake of a terrorist attack in Madrid a fortnight ago, Amtrak didn’t change its procedures.

Nothing was found on either train, said Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel.

A New York state judge has ruled that Amtrak and Conrail destroyed dispatcher‘s records from a 1991 train accident outside Syracuse that injured two boys, including one who suffered permanent injuries.

The ruling in state Supreme Court in January is part of a lawsuit brought by Brad Hulett and Richard Rowe Junior. Hulett was 12 and Rowe was 15 when an Amtrak train struck them, The AP reported.

Hulett was knocked into a slow-moving Conrail freight train. He fractured his skull and doctors had to remove part of his brain. The judge ruled that Amtrak and Conrail destroyed records pertaining to the incident.

Lawyers for the boys accused the railroad companies of covering up evidence to hide their negligence. The railroads contend the boys were trespassing and caused their own injuries. The $20 million lawsuit is expected to go to trial in October.

World Wide Web A CSX general merchandise freight train, with a Canadian Pacific engine leading, came to a stop as Amtrak’s No. 281 bore down on it in upstate New York in February. The Amtrak engineer, who admits falling asleep, has been fired. Both CSX crewmen bailed out when it appeared the trains were going to hit. CSX officials said neither was seriously hurt.

An Amtrak train traveling at 76 mph with 128 passengers came within 400 feet of crashing into a freight train on February 20 because the engineer fell asleep, Amtrak officials said Thursday. Both trains made emergency stops in Kirkville, near Minoa, N.Y., about six miles east of Syracuse. Amtrak’s train, No. 281, was enroute from New York City to Niagara Falls.

The train would have continued into the 105-car CSX train hauling hazardous chemicals if the computer system on board the Amtrak train hadn’t automatically sensed there was no engineer in control and applied the brakes, officials said.

Amtrak recently concluded its investigation into the incident near Kirkville, N.Y. at about 5:00 p.m. on February 20, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported. The Amtrak train was heading from New York City to Niagara Falls.

“It was human error,” spokesman Dan Stessel said Thursday after a hearing earlier in the week, “and that employee no longer works for Amtrak.”

He refused to identify the engineer or say how many years he’d been working for the company.

The engineer reportedly admitted during a hearing in mid-March that “the signals were missed because he wasn’t giving his full time and attention, and, in fact, was asleep,” Stessel said.

“Obviously, any type of incident of a safety concern is important to us,” said FRA spokesman Warren Flatau, which is expected to release its own report on the incident early next week.

That report will not include recommendations or penalties, he said.

“It will be just a factual account of the date, the location, the probable cause and contributing factors,” Flatau said.

The trains are equipped with a so-called “dead-man’s switch” to ensure that if an engineer becomes incapacitated, either because he’s fallen asleep or has suffered a medical emergency, the brakes are automatically applied.

The switch beeps every 20 seconds and the engineer has to acknowledge it by making a movement to indicate he’s alert.

If he fails to do that, the “little beep becomes more rapid, then louder and louder. If it’s still ignored, the brakes are applied,” Stessel said.

“I can make the comparison with a snooze alarm. When he was hitting it, it’s that kind of daze you’re in where you’re conscious but not really conscious.”

The engineer missed three wayside signals in a four-mile stretch warning him to slow down because a dispatcher had lined the route to another track. He apparently fell asleep as the train continued to barrel down the tracks at 76 mph. The train slowed only when the computer applied the brakes, waking the engineer.

It’s rare that engineers miss signals, Stessel said. They go through six weeks of training to learn what each signal means and only travel on routes they’re familiar with, “so they know where the signals are, when the speed limits change and where the curves on the track are.”

“He’d made this trip many, many times before,” Stessel said.

The signals warn engineers about oncoming trains and the need to reroute to alternate tracks.

The engineer was tested for drugs or alcohol, but those tests were negative, said Stessel. No criminal charges will be filed against the engineer, he said.

Amtrak officials “want to express our thanks to CSX for their assistance and taking some of the heat for this early on,” Stessel said.

New York state Rep. James Walsh (R) has asked for a hearing to review the safety of the upstate railway system, but that has not been scheduled yet.

The battle lines have been drawn and the sides have been joined in the struggle to keep or destroy high-speed rail in Florida. On one side is Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, who is adamantly opposed, and on the other side the Florida High-Speed Rail Authority – authorized by the state constitution.

On March 31, The Florida Transportation Assn. (FTA) wrote on its The Rail Truth web page, it is designed to counter “off track” quotes and “inaccuracies” about the efforts to build Florida’s Constitutionally mandated high-speed rail system.

“All you have to do is to try to drive between Tampa and Orlando today to know we need an alternative means of transportation now,” said Rep. Dennis Ross in a press release.

“Unfortunately, what we see on Interstate 4 [between Tampa and Orlando] is becoming true for all of the state, and we simply cannot build roads fast enough to keep up.”

The Ocala Star Banner noted on March 31 that Bush, who is the President’s brother, made a stop in Leesburg, Fla.

Bush railed against high-speed rail, among other topics.

In the “Capital for a Day” program Bush introduced in 1999, the Florida Cabinet occasionally schedules meetings outside Tallahassee to, in Bush’s words, “connect state government to the citizens of the state.” Tuesday’s meeting at the historic Leesburg Opera House was for the most part a ceremonial affair.

When talk turned to the state budget, Bush and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher did away with the ceremonial pleasantries and took aim at the high-speed rail project voters approved in 2000.

Bush and Gallagher are leading a “grassroots movement,” they said, to have the high-speed rail provision to be repealed through another voter referendum. With the state now facing a bond debt of $20 billion, Bush described the high-speed rail and class size reduction (another new Constitutional mandate) as a “couple of dark clouds out there on the horizon,” with billions of dollars in capital costs associated with them.

He argued that with high-speed rail, in particular, “the benefits don’t come close to the cost.” While the whole state would pay the construction bill, Bush believed it would be a “cold day in hell” before the rail connected to north Florida cities like Jacksonville or smaller cities like Leesburg.

Gallagher said 589,000 signatures were needed to get the referendum back on the ballot and urged the hundreds in attendance to sign the petition. He predicted the bullet train would be a financial black hole that could lead Florida into the budget deficit California now faces, in part, he said because of “senseless” voter approved amendments to the Constitution.

According to the governor’s staff, with the bullet train out of the equation, a recovering economy is bringing more revenue to the state, paving the way for a proposed agreement with the state legislature that would reduce by $500 million the amount the state would borrow through bonds this year for school construction and land acquisition.

After the Cabinet meeting, Bush took off his suit coat and walked among the crowd gathered on the city’s downtown square. A few yards from the Opera House, members of Democratic Executive Committee of Lake County stood amid red, white and blue balloons on a small patch of grass, holding signs with messages such as “Protect the Constitution.” Committee Chairman Robert Italia said the group felt Bush had not done enough to protect a local river watershed or for public education, quoting U.S. Census Bureau statistics that the state was 41^st in the country in funding per pupil. He also took aim on the effort to repeal the high-speed rail amendment, saying it would benefit public transportation through much of Florida.

“We want the mandate of the people. It is the will of the people,” Italia said of the high-speed rail. “If they (voters) didn’t know what they were doing with class size and didn’t know what they were doing with the bullet train, then maybe they didn’t know what they were doing when they elected him.”

A proposal to cut $7.1 million in Michigan funds for Amtrak failed last week. The carrier will be able to keep its passenger rail lines open. The funding is contained in Michigan’s $3.29 billion budget for the state DOT.

– Detroit Free Press

Airport rail station stuck in ‘park’

Harrisburg, Penna. is getting a new intermodal terminal that will be a companion structure to an 18-year-old terminal at Harrisburg International Airport, but a rail connection is stuck.

The familiar 200,000-square-foot structure – through which 98,675 travelers passed last month to board planes that hourly rise over the Susquehanna River is the existing structure, but next door is a new 350,000-square-foot terminal, with a sleek design that gives it the look of a futuristic aircraft, wrote the Harrisburg Patriot-News on March 30.

A gleaming white concrete intermodal transportation center, which will be used for parking and ground transportation, is being constructed next to the new terminal.

A year after the first piece of steel was erected, these two legs of the airport’s expansion project are on track to open in late August or early September, spokesman Scott Miller said, but the third leg, a $10 million passenger train station, is stalled in talks between Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, the Pennsylvania DOT and the airport. All three buildings will be linked by a moving sidewalk encased in glass.

With the addition of four gates to the terminal, the project‘s price tag has grown from $222 million to about $240 million, according to airport Aviation Director Fred Testa. The money is coming from federal and state governments and the sale of bonds by the airport.

For years, Harrisburg Airport customers migrated to Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) where Amtrak and MARC have stopped for years, and Philadelphia International Airport, where low-cost carriers offered cheaper fares. A 2001 legislative study showed that 30 percent of Harrisburg’s air-traffic market used BWI. At that time, Harrisburg had lost more than 100,000 customers, or 13 percent of its yearly departing passengers, over three years.

Bret Volkmer got a little buddy for his big bike at home.

The Timken Co. employee successfully bid on the miniature 100^th Anniversary Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycle at an auction in Bucyrus, Ohio.

Volkmer, whose dad, Jerry Volkmer was the evening’s auctioneer, said he wanted the mini-cycle to go with the real one he has that cost about $24,000. Timken donated the model, the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum reported recently.

Dave Pirnstill of the Bucyrus Preservation Society said the group was hoping to raise $40,000 at the auction. He said the money will go toward renovating a Toledo & Ohio Central Railroad (New York Central) depot built in 1882. The group is hoping to turn it into a museum dubbed “Bucyrus Industrial and Transportation Museum.” Pirnstill said the major project right now is replacing the roof.

Amtrak Ink California Zephyr crewmembers and California Highway Patrol officers carry an injured woman away from the track following her rescue in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Her snowmobile is beside the baggage car on the bridge approach.

The Amtrak train crew aboard the California Zephyr helped rescue the victim of a snowmobile accident after its rider was struck by a Union Pacific freight train in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on January 14.

The UP train, which was just ahead of Amtrak’s No. 6, had just struck a snowmobile on the Lower Cascade trestle – 40 to 50 feet over the Lower Cascade River.

The woman rider sustained what appeared to be a broken leg, and the snowmobile was precariously perched next to the train and on a small snow ridge.

Employee publication Amtrak Ink for March reported engineers Rich Edson and Joe Burk, along with Safety Officer Peter Hall, in No. 6’s cab, offered to carry the victim to the nearest town, Soda Springs – some six miles distant – to receive medical assistance. The area was unreachable by vehicle.

The UP and the victim agreed and the freight moved east so that Edson could slowly guide the Zephyr to the victim.

Meanwhile, Conductors Mel Jackson and Kevin Kelly, and Senior Operating Rules Officer Paul Manger found an emergency medical technician (EMT) aboard the CZ who immediately volunteered to help. Jackson had the train stop with the dorm car adjacent to the victim so the EMT could reach the injured woman.

Just then, a California Highway Patrol helicopter appeared overhead and found a safe spot to land alongside the train. After about 20 minutes of preparing the victim for air travel, she was on her way to the hospital via helicopter. In order to clear the track for the train, Kelly and Hall pulled the damaged snowmobile out of the way, mindful not to let it slip into the ravine.

M-N gets extra commuters to work

Southbound commuters avoided Connecticut’s highways March 29, packing into trains headed for southern Connecticut and Grand Central Terminal, said Dan Brucker, a spokesman for Metro-North Railroad.

The extra riders came after a tanker truck literally broke part of Interstate 95 near Bridgeport.

Morning ridership was up 30 percent, with 4,000 more customers than usual choosing rail over road. Commuters said finding parking at the stations was harder than usual, and though some riders had to stand, they weren’t elbow to elbow, according to The New York Times.

“We did not have overcrowding conditions,” Brucker said. “We did have some standees.”

Three state-owned trains shuttled commuters from Old Saybrook south to Stamford to help relieve the pressure on Metro-North, but M-N did not need to use other emergency plans, such as asking Amtrak conductors to stop at crowded stations, or having express trains make local stops.

No extra M-N trains nor coaches were added.

Cranes swung the skeleton of a temporary bridge into place over a destroyed section of the southbound side of Interstate 95 four days after a fiery crash engulfed the highway in flames.

The 90-ton bridge was trucked to Connecticut in pieces from New Jersey and assembled at the site over the next two days. It carries three lanes of southbound traffic and can last for “years and years,” according to the state’s chief engineer, Arthur Gruhn.

Nonetheless, state officials plan to build a more permanent bridge. That work, which will start once the temporary bridge is in place, is expected to take about 18 months. The northbound lanes of I-95 were reopened at 5 p.m. Sunday, and traffic flowed slowly on Monday as police officers enforced a speed limit of 45 mph.

New Mexico officials are negotiating with a railway operator to begin commuter train service between Bernalillo, Albuquerque and Belen, according to KOV-TV Albuquerque.

Project manager Chris Blewett said on March 27 a 47-mile stretch of existing tracks has been assessed and revealed no major surprises. The condition of the track is in line with the budget and timeline of the project, sources said. The commuter service is expected to cost between $55 million and $75 million.

The Albuquerque-based council of governments and the state DOT met a fortnight ago for another round of negotiations with the line’s owner, Burlington Northern Santa Fe. The state and council have also hired several experts who are to help with everything from obtaining locomotives and coaches to setting fares and schedules. The TV station did not name the operator.

Union Pacific Trailers and containers on flat cars are big business for all the Class Is, but capacity is being stretched. Meanwhile, seasonal grain shipments car supply is strained.

Are railroads, shippers, regulators,
consumers heading for a ‘train wreck?’

A little-publicized hearing on Capitol Hill this past week dealt with a looming showdown that could affect every consumer in America.

The controversy puts a sharp focus on a years-long marathon jungle of charges, counter-charges, despair, and valid conflicting interests between railroads, shippers, and regulators.

As D:F reported last December 8, grain shippers from Heartland America are victims of their own success. They’ve had bumper crops, so they should be making more money than ever, right?

If only it were that simple, they respond. The railroads do not have the equipment to keep up with the demand. The result is a lot of grain has been standing by, just waiting for an inordinate length of time to be shipped to market so the farmer can be paid.

Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairman Roger Nober summarized the problem this way in testimony March 31 before the Railroad Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee:

“The service railroads provide and the rates they charge customers are directly limited by the capacity and reliability of their network. To increase their business or to charge premium prices, railroads must improve service, but they can only improve service if they increase their capital investments. Railroads cannot increase infrastructure spending because they are not earning the cost of capital. To earn their cost of capital and be revenue adequate, railroads must increase their revenues, which are limited due to the condition of their networks– thus the problem comes full circle.”

Steve Strege, executive vice-president of the North Dakota Grain Dealers Assn. testified that the circle is a bit wider. All of this, he notes, can affect all Americans who are neither railroaders nor shippers.

“Any of you who eat high quality breads or pasta products or who consume a beer now and then, can appreciate” that the unavailability of grain can reverberate throughout the economy, he said.

To the politicians who must answer to the voters, that raises such troublesome questions as whether Joe or Jane Six-Pack might decide the local Congressman – or woman – ought to do something about a substantial hike in the price of a beer after work.

Strege also cited complaints from dealers and government officials from the farm states of neighboring Montana, as well as Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa.

John B. Ficker, president of the shipper-supported National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) also weighed in at last Wednesday’s House hearing. He reiterated the point he made in a D:F interview last December when he told us, “At some point (speaking of the resulting price increase from this dilemma) that’s going to have to be passed along to people (consumers trying to put food on the table). It cannot continue to be absorbed by the man in the middle, whether it’s the farmer, the processor, or whatever.”

Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has told D:F the railroads have had “huge surpluses of grain cars for the past several years, thousands of cars in storage. Obviously you’re not going to be on a buying spree of buying a lot of new equipment” in that situation. To do that, he said, “You would have to charge such high rates that nobody could afford it, just to maintain the fleet.” Thus we get back to Chairman Nober’s “full circle.” Nobody ever builds a production model for the peak of the cycle, White noted. That would be a recipe for economic disaster.

The real gut issue is whether Congress should enact legislation that encourages more competition (according to the shippers) or regresses to old discredited re-regulation policies (according to the railroads).

Strege argued before the lawmakers that a “lack of regulatory oversight of the rates and service has allowed the railroads to pretty much do as they please and the captive shippers, their customers, suffer the consequences.”

NITL’s Ficker flatly endorsed House Bill 2924 and its companion Senate Bill 919, both labeled the Railroad Competition Act of 2003. The bills have been kicking around in the Halls of Congress for years and are backed largely by lawmakers whose constituents’ farms and industries are heavily depenendent on freight rail (In the Senate, Burns of Montana, Dorgan of North Dakota, and Rockefeller of West Virginia).

The shipper spokesman pinpointed specific parts of the bill he deemed most urgent: modifications to existing STB rules on competitive switching; the requirement of rail carriers to quote a rate to and from any point on its system; and allowing mandatory, expedited arbitration of rail rate and service disputes. These “sound steps” would enable better rail-to-rail competition, he argued. He added they are similar to those applying to railroads in Canada, which, he said, had prospered.

AAR President Edward R. Hamberger views the legislation from the opposite end of the telescope. He told the Congressional leaders the bills could control current and future rail rates; force an owning railroad to allow another railroad access to its tracks where it could “cherry-pick” traffic; and force an owning railroad to carry freight to a junction with another carrier at a rate set by the regulator.

The industry’s Washington voice testified that under the proposed law, the STB’s “bottleneck” policy – to make a long story short – would effectively cap rates on segments of a through movement involving the tracks of two railroads in such a way as to “ordain that railroads would not be able to cover their full costs or replace their assets over time.” This could cost railroads more than $4 billion a year in lost revenue.”

As for the binding arbitration, which Ficker likes, Hamberger cites a one-sidedness in that it would take place at the shipper’s discretion, the railroad would have nothing to say about it. Beyond that, he said, “an arbitrator’s decision could be completely divorced from regulatory precedent and sound economic principles.”

“It is no more valid for a government to force binding arbitration on railroads than it is to force it on chemical companies, plumbers, supermarkets, or any other business,” he told the committee.

Ficker argued the 1980 rail “deregulation” Staggers Act needs some fine-tuning. Hamberger, on the other hand, reminded his audience that though Staggers was welcome, it was only “partial” deregulation. The Class I carriers still must live with government constraints.

Nonetheless, the AAR boss told the House committee the 1980 law “relies on competition and market forces to determine rail rates and service standards in most cases, with maximum rate and other protections available to rail customers who truly need them.”

Notwithstanding the testimony of NITL and the North Dakota grain dealers, and complaints from other states in the farm belt, Hamberger said, “For every shipper who supports re-regulation, there are many others who oppose it.” He also cites rail labor in his corner, as well as the financial community

Again from the opposite end of the telescope, Grain Dealer spokesman Strege: “The problem lies in that railroads have gotten so huge and so dominant in some areas that no effective competitive transportation keeps their rates and policies in check.”

STB Chairman Nober, whose agency has been faulted by some shippers for not keeping a sharper eye on rail industry practices, says since he assumed his position more than a year ago, he has tried “to help parties informally resolve differences and improve relations between railroads and their customers.” For example, he has traveled to North Dakota to meet with the principles in the problems in that region.

The STB boss is skeptical of HR-2924 and S-919. The legislation, he told the committee “would fundamentally change the economic model of the railroad industry, and is unwise. Not a single one of our major railroads is revenue adequate, and if enacted, these bills would call into question the continued economic viability of our freight railroad system,” though the chairman added he understands the problems that have driven the (thus far unsuccessful) effort to enact them.

For example, he acknowledged that certain areas of the country (i.e. the Farm Belt) “are disproportionately dependent on rail service in general and on a single rail carrier in particular [BNSF in North Dakota and environs] for their economic health.”

However, he testified, “Attention – and not legislation – is the best way to resolve the issues faced there.”

Nober’s tenure at STB is still relatively new. For some time, he was all alone before two other commissioners were confirmed. His approach of personally jawboning with parties in disputes is aimed at dealing with the problems that have led to the proposed legislation, hopefully satisfying many of those who support the House and Senate bills.

Freight congestion has spread across the Union Pacific Railroad system, especially in Southern California and the Southwestern U.S., raising concern about the effects on America’s trade with Asia.

If a solution is not found before the rail freight rush begins in the late summer and autumn, the slowdown could disrupt trade through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, just two years after a West Coast port strike caused chaos.

International Herald Tribune (a New York Times subsidiary) reporter Don Phillips wrote on March 29 from New York railroad officials say that has not happened yet, and add that they are working to prevent such an outcome. Exacerbating the stresses on the system, Asian traffic has taken an unexpectedly strong upturn in the past few months, with a spike in shipping containers arriving from Asia and a new flow of American grain to China.

In Southern California, some railroad officials are calling the situation a mini-meltdown, similar to – but not as bad as – the freight chaos that spread from Houston across the UP system in 1996. Dozens of trains daily are parked on sidings because they cannot get into or out of the Los Angeles Basin. UP’s busy line from Los Angeles to El Paso is sometimes referred to as a parking lot, as trains have stalled there because their crews have reached the federal maximum of 12 hours on duty. Often, relief crews are not available.

At the root of the problem, UP concedes, is its failure to accurately gauge its hiring needs and unexpectedly strong traffic brought on by changes in regulations governing work hours for truckers.

UP and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the two largest U.S. railroads, handle all long-distance rail freight traffic to and from the West Coast.

Officials said BNSF, which shares port traffic with UP, is still fluid, but has been forced to begin operating more heavily loaded container trains on its busy Los Angeles-Chicago main line. Almost all Asian trade now moves by rail from U.S. West Coast ports to Midwestern, Southwestern and Eastern states, and not enough trucks and drivers would be available to handle even a small portion of it.

“At current delay levels, it’s not having an effect on trade,” said James Valentine, a railroad analyst for Morgan Stanley, “but keep in mind, this is a slow time of year. If UP doesn’t get its problems straightened out before the rush, then it will have an effect on freight flow.”

Normally the rush from Asia begins in late summer and continues through the autumn as retailers gear up for the Christmas season. Robert Turner, UP’s senior vice-president for corporate relations, said the railroad intended to be ready for the rush. He said 965 new train crew members were graduating this quarter from the railroad’s training center, 1,400 were beginning training, and 1,600 were scheduled for training in the third quarter.

“We’re pretty sure our crew base will be adequate by the fall rush,” he said.

Morgan Stanley downgraded UP to an “underweight” rating in model portfolios from “equal weight” two weeks ago, partly because of its operational problems. The firm’s latest freight customer survey ranked the company near the bottom in service among seven major North American railroads, giving it “the sharpest drop of any railroad” since a June survey. Only CSX, one of two big railroads in the eastern states, ranked below Union Pacific.

“The low scores, significant negative feedback from customers and no signs of improvement in the weekly operating metrics were key catalysts” for the downgrade, the firm said.

Operational data, reported by the rail companies to the AAR, give evidence of the railroad’s problems. Freight cars on line, which can be used as a measure of congestion, were at a historic high of 325,634 in the week that ended on March 19. The average amount of time that a car spends in terminals has also surged. That measure in West Colton, the major yard for Southern California, was up from 30.8 hours in the first quarter of 2003 to 49.0 hours in the latest week.

Average train speed, which was 24.8 mph in the first quarter of 2003, was down to 21.5 mph in the week that ended March 19.

This is a far more important measure than the slight differences might indicate. Turner said UP estimates that each decrease of 1 mile an hour decrease required 250 extra locomotives, 5,000 extra freight cars and 180 extra employees to absorb the decrease in efficiency.

If the problem grows worse, many maritime shipments from and to Asia will be locked in a ground transportation problem at each end of their journeys, as the problem is mirrored on the other side of the Pacific. The New York Times reported on March 5 that China’s ports had become clogged because of a lack of rail cars and trucks to haul goods. Rapid economic growth, complicated by a government crackdown on overweight trucks, is straining China’s rail system and highway transportation system.

The UP problems result partly from a surprising growth in rail traffic brought on by a sustained economic upturn and by federal rules on truck driver rest that went into effect early this year.

“It seems as though the economy is a lot stronger than it was, and it got better faster than anyone expected,” Turner said. The upturn is strong across all business lines from agriculture to intermodal traffic including ship containers delivered to ports, but the main reason for the railroad’s problems is a serious miscalculation on how many engineers and conductors would retire when Railroad Retirement rules changed early last year.

“We admit we got caught short of people,” Turner said. “We’re not contesting that. What we’re doing is fixing it.”

He said the railroad had tried to predict the number of retirements, convening focus groups, taking surveys and even hiring the Gallup organization to poll employees. At first, he said, the predictions seemed to be correct.

“Then when June rolled around and everyone was vested for vacation in 2003, the attrition rate took off,” Turner said. The shortages led to overworked crews and poor labor relations that further exacerbated the problem, according to union officials.

James Brunkenhoefer, national legislative director of the United Transportation Union, said UP had been “operating on the very edge” for two years, ignoring union warnings of coming shortages. When the traffic increase began last fall, the railroad pushed its employees to work harder and punished those who tried to take time off, he said.

“The railroad took a punitive attitude toward people who had already worked to exhaustion,” Brunkenhoefer said. “You’re threatening people to go to work who have already worked too much.”

“If people are not working or following the labor agreements, we’ll deal with them,” Turner replied.

The severity of the problem in Southern California and the Southwest, oddly, can be traced partly to a UP effort to provide premium service to one of the largest U.S. rail shippers, United Parcel Service. UPS has begun a coast-to-coast premium service that requires consistent high-speed train service to Dallas, Atlanta and New York. The New York train dispatched from Los Angeles on Tuesday is particularly time-sensitive because it is scheduled to arrive in time for package delivery on Friday rather than Monday.

To keep the train on time on the busy and mostly single-track segment between Los Angeles and El Paso, called the “Sunset Route,” railroad dispatchers clear other trains onto sidings far ahead of the hot UPS train, sometimes hours ahead. Often, crews can’t make their next terminal within the federal on-duty limit of 12 hours, and no other rested crews are available. It sometimes takes a week to sort out the resulting mess.

“The hot trains are a challenge, particularly on the Sunset,” Turner said. Sources said Union Pacific and UPS were discussing possible solutions, but neither company would comment.

“Union Pacific is a valued rail partner, but we don’t discuss the performance of individual railroads,” said Norman Black, a UPS spokesman.

Norfolk Southern Corp. could make Roanoke, Va. once again the crossroads of two major rail corridors.

Robert Martinez, Norfolk Southern vice-president for business development, told the Roanoke Times on March 29 the railroad wants to upgrade its tracks southwest of Roanoke in the Interstate 81 corridor. That alone would be a change from the railroad’s focus for the past 15 years.

If the tracks were upgraded, NS could capture more of the business of shipping container freight from the Southeast to the Northeast and possibly slow the growth of truck traffic.

The railroad also wants to improve its east-west corridor through Roanoke. That would give the port of Norfolk a faster connection to Columbus, Ohio, with Midwest markets and transcontinental rail lines.

Two key elements for Roanoke are its location in both corridors and Norfolk Southern’s vision of moving more container freight.

It is the most significant new business idea NS has offered for Roanoke since 1982, when the Norfolk & Western Ry. merged with Southern Ry. to form NS. A few years after that, thousands of NS jobs began leaving Roanoke.

Infrastructure is the obstacle to the vision. Public funding may be the answer, and that’s the new element in the NS business approach.

Container freight is merchandise in truck-size boxes that can be moved by ship, rail, or tractor-trailer. The containers are usually carried by at least two of those modes on a single journey, which is called intermodal shipping.

Trains with containers stacked two high have been moving through Roanoke for about 20 years, but NS hasn’t been able to increase business as quickly as it would like.

Tracks south of Roanoke can’t handle enough trains at speeds needed to compete with trucks. West of Roanoke to Columbus, tunnels and highway overpasses aren’t tall enough for double-stacked freight containers.

Martinez hopes the public funding can come to the railroad through the same program that is being used to widen I-81 to eight lanes.

The funding concept for I-81 is based on a 1995 Virginia law called the Public-Private Transportation Act. In its simplest form, the act enables private money to be lent for transportation projects. Revenues earned from roads repay the investors.

People in Western Virginia know that funding concept as tolls. Tolls have been the hot-button element in I-81 discussions since January 2002, when a builders’ consortium called Star Solutions offered to widen I-81 and collect fees from users.

Martinez hopes an NS track upgrade can ride piggyback on the highway widening because several local governments want the rail lines to be upgraded along with I-81, according to information gathered by the Virginia DOT.

Martinez said the railroad took note of media reports about the local governments’ wishes and about community activists who argued for more rail instead of more highway.

Highway tolls wouldn’t be used to pay for rail improvements, Martinez said. Instead, rail shippers would pay a surcharge on freight movements, thereby reimbursing private investors who would buy bonds that would provide upfront financing for construction.

In the early 1990s, Martinez served as Virginia’s transportation secretary under Gov. George Allen. Martinez said his major accomplishment in that role was writing the Public-Private Transportation Act. The act doesn’t contain a provision for one of the major conflicts that’s sure to arise with the NS proposal.

Any freight that moves through the corridor from Knoxville, Tenn., to Harrisburg, Pa., without paying a toll on I-81 cuts down on revenue the highway would generate.

The Star Solutions consortium has made its concern clear. It wants a contract with Virginia that eliminates competition in the I-81 corridor as much as possible. Wall Street investors will demand that protection, Star Solutions said.

Martinez says Virginia state officials can decide that issue when they weigh the value of rail in the I-81 corridor, he said.

Transportation officials should decide how much it’s worth, in terms of public welfare, to divert 518,000 trucks per year off I-81 and haul their loads by train, Martinez said.

Once Virginia decides what it’s worth, the state could offer NS a contract under the Public-Private Transportation Act allowing bonds to be sold to generate track-improvement funds.

At that point, NS would decide whether the improvements would generate enough profits for stockholders, and whether improvements in the I-81 corridor would be made more cost-effective than upgrades it could do itself at other places on the railroad.

Martinez said the track upgrades NS proposes could allow 12 more trains a day to pass through Roanoke on the north-south corridor.

The railroad has reduced its presence in Roanoke from 5,000 employees in 1987 to about 1,800. The major share of NS’ north-south shipping now follows its Piedmont corridor from Atlanta through Greensboro, N.C., and Lynchburg to Harrisburg.

NS said the Piedmont corridor is its fastest north-south route. Its track in the I-81 corridor is slow, has too many curves and too few sidings.

A study by NS in 1999 showed $2.3 billion would be needed to upgrade and double-track the line paralleling I-81 from Knoxville to Harrisburg. Martinez said NS has done a new study of the route and the price has come down considerably. The Virginia portion of the infrastructure upgrade would be $306 million, Martinez said.

Part of the line south of Roanoke would gain separate tracks for northbound and southbound trains, Martinez said. Most of the route, however, would remain a single track. It would have more sidings and longer ones, up to 11,000 feet to handle longer trains.

Curves would be improved to allow faster train speeds, and signals would be upgraded to shorten the trains’ wait on sidings, Martinez said.

That level of improvement isn’t enough to satisfy Michael Testerman, a leader among the community activists who favor rail and oppose the eight-lane concept on I-81.

Testerman said he didn’t know the details of Martinez’s proposal, but “of this I am certain: Norfolk Southern is not proposing rail upgrades that will substantially divert enough trucks from I-81 to minimize widening plans or to lower environmental impacts. We’d be lucky to see 1 million truck diversions between Chattanooga and Harrisburg under the NS upgrade scenario.

“Technologically, rail can divert 3 million to 8 million trucks annually between Knoxville and Harrisburg if the investment is made in the infrastructure – about $3.6 billion in Virginia’s segment” of the corridor, Testerman said. His cost figure was based on building double-track along the entire route.

State Sen. John Edwards (D) and a leading advocate for more use of rails, said he hadn’t heard the details of Martinez’s proposal, but he liked it anyway.

Edwards proposed legislation this year to create a rail development authority for Virginia that could guide the development of concepts such as the NS proposal, but it was killed. He said he plans to bring up the legislation again next year, but in the meantime he’s had conversations with Gov. Mark Warner’s staff about issuing an executive order to create a rail commission that would study and refine the plan for rail improvements.

“Roanoke was once a railroad town, and it could become a railroad town again,” Edwards said.

CSX Transportation rolled out the red carpet for USDOT Secretary Norm Mineta and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) last week in Huntington, W. Va. – and they liked what they saw.

“He was in the area and wanted to visit the Huntington Locomotive Shop, which is CSX’s largest heavy locomotive repair facility,” J. Randolph Cheetham, CSX’s vice president of state relations for West Virginia, said as the tour got under way.

“Employees here are the winners of CSX’s 2003 Most Improved in Safety Award. We’re very proud of our employees and the efforts they’ve made. We’re very excited for Secretary Mineta and Congressman Rahall to see our professionals in action.”

After a safety briefing, General Plant Manager Chuck Arwood took Mineta and his party through the heavy repair shop, electric shop and wheel shop, ending the tour with a visit to the cab of a 4-month-old, 4,400-horsepower diesel locomotive, Huntington Herald-Dispatch reported.

“He loved the place,” CSX CEO Michael J. Ward said after Mineta departed.

“He liked the attitude and enthusiasm of our people. He’s also impressed with the cleanliness of the facility, its modern machinery and its very impressive safety record.” Ward said that the shop force of 400 incurred four reportable injuries last year.

Answering a reporter’s question about the future of Amtrak, Mineta said there is room for a national passenger train system in general, and, specifically, the Cardinal, if Congress passes the reform bill that the Bush administration proposed last year.

The Bush plan replaces subsidy payments to Amtrak after a transition period, with direct federal matches for capital investment to be paid directly to the states. States and multi-state compacts would submit proposals for passenger rail capital investment and train operations to the USDOT. Ultimately, states would be free to choose the train operations provider of their choice, whether a private company or a public transit agency.

The states would also pick up a significant portion of financial support for the train service.

“The Administration has proposed $900 million for Amtrak in fiscal 2005, but if Congress passes the reform legislation, we will propose $1.4 billion per year for 2006 through 2009,” Mineta said. “Last year, they got $1.2 billion and were able to operate on that, so we think $1.4 billion is sufficient.”

Kansas State Univ. and the nation’s leading grain-hauling railroad announced a long-term partnership on March 29 to help educate international grain buyers from around the world about the role rail transportation plays in moving large volumes of U.S. grain for export.

The educational partnership involves significant contributions from both the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Foundation and The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Ry. Co. (BNSF). The BNSF Foundation has agreed to contribute $250,000 over five years to build a transportation exhibit at the new International Grains Program (IGP) Executive Conference Center now being constructed at Kansas State. Participating executives of BNSF railroad will deliver the rail transportation portion of the program’s short courses for international grain buyers.

For more than a century, BNSF and its predecessor railroads have played important roles serving agriculture throughout the Great Plains by transporting crops to market.

Matthew K. Rose, BNSF’s CEO, said the investment is a continuation of that partnership.

“We have long recognized that the more successful we help our customers become, the more successful our railroad will be,” said Rose. “That’s why this investment makes so much sense for us. Kansas State has established itself as a global leader in training international grain export buyers, and this program is helping to attract those buyers to the farmers, elevators and grain export marketers we serve,” Rose said.

The grains program is regarded as a national program receiving support funding from U.S. Wheat Associates, American Soybean Assn. and U.S. Grains Council; from state wheat associations in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas; and from some of the nation’s leading grain export marketers.

Kansas grain producers said they strongly support the BNSF partnership.

David Frey, administrator of the Kansas Wheat Commission said, “The IGP facility on the Kansas State Univ. campus is a natural site to showcase the critical role that BNSF and the rail industry play in our process of marketing grain internationally. BNSF handled record volumes of grain with the huge 2003 harvest. The U.S. grain industry, especially in the interior of the country, is dependent on the efficiency of rail transport, and BNSF makes U.S. grain attractive to overseas buyers.”

The new IGP Executive Conference Center, which will serve as the host facility for the export grain buyer short courses, is scheduled to be dedicated on May 1. The 20,000-square-foot facility will house world- class meeting and instructional facilities, including a grain grading laboratory, a tiered auditorium-style classroom, dining and lounge areas, office work space for the visiting participants and the rail transportation education exhibit.

S&P lowers CSX ratings, revises outlook

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said on March 30 it “affirmed its ‘BBB’ long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on CSX Corp. and related entities, including CSX Transportation, Inc. The short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings were lowered to ‘A-3’ from ‘A-2’. The outlook was revised to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’.”

S&P’s credit analyst Lisa Jenkins stated “The rating actions reflect CSX’s recent sub-par operating performance and the potential for a rating change if it appears that the company’s efforts to improve the performance of the railroad will not translate into improved credit protection measures over the near to intermediate term.”

The Jacksonville-based freight railroad has about $8.5 billion of lease-adjusted debt.

Ratings “reflect CSX Corp.’s strong competitive position as one of the two large eastern U.S. railroads and the better-than-average business risk profile of the U.S. freight railroad industry,” Jenkins said.

She added, “These factors partly offset a sub-par financial profile, which reflects the substantial debt burden CSX incurred in 1997 to acquire 42 percent of Conrail Inc., subsequent post-merger integration problems, and recent operating inefficiencies.”

She said ratings incorporate an expectation that management’s initiatives to improve operating performance will lead to a gradual improvement in financial results.

Kansas City Southern Industries, Inc. said on March 30 it filed its 2003 financial report, which reflects a $1 million increase to its previously reported net income of $11.2 million.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based holding group for freight-hauler Kansas City Southern Ry., said the adjustment in earnings primarily resulted from additional deferred tax adjustments at Grupo TFM, a Mexico entity in which it holds an equity stake. Reuters reported KCS also said it would seek renewed authority from the Mexican Competition Commission for the NAFTA Rail transaction, which proposed to put several railroads under common control.

On the same day, KCS filed its annual report (Form 10-K) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and released its final earnings for the year ended December 31.

Intermodal traffic on U.S. railroads was up sharply during the week ended March 27 in comparison with the corresponding week last year, the AAR reported Thursday.

Intermodal traffic totaled 208,810 trailers or containers, up 8.3 percent from last year. Trailer traffic was up 12.5 percent and container volume rose 6.8 percent from last year.

Carload freight, which does not include the intermodal data, totaled 342,001 cars, up 3.1 percent from last year, with volume up 6.5 percent in the West but down 0.7 percent in the East. Total volume was estimated at 30.8 billion ton-miles, up 4.4 percent from last year.

Thirteen of 19 carload commodity groups were up from last year, with coke up 36.3; waste and scrap materials up 15.8 percent; crushed stone, sand and gravel up 11.8 percent; and lumber and wood products up 11.4 percent. Among the commodities registering declines were farm products other than grain, down 20.6 percent; and metals, down 11.6 percent.

The AAR also reported the following cumulative totals for U.S. railroads during the first 12 weeks of 2004: 3,952,648 carloads, up 3.0 percent from last year; intermodal volume of 2,374,604 trailers or containers, up 7.1 percent; and total volume of an estimated 354.2 billion ton-miles, up 4.4 percent from last year’s first 12 weeks.

Canadian railroads reported increases in both carload and intermodal freight during the week ended March 27. Carload volume totaled 71,515 cars, up 6.3 percent, with coal up 25.4 percent and agricultural products up 16.0 percent from last year. Intermodal traffic totaled 43,065 trailers or containers, up 0.4 percent from last year.

Cumulative originations for the first 12 weeks of 2004 on the Canadian railroads totaled 789,553 carloads, up 6.2 percent from last year, and 470,549 trailers and containers, down 2.0 percent from last year.

Combined cumulative volume for the first 12 weeks of 2004 on 15 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 4,742,201 carloads, up 3.5 percent from last year and 2,845,153 trailers and containers, up 5.5 percent from last year.

The AAR also reported that originated carload freight on the Mexican railroad Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM) during the week ended March 27 totaled 8,754 cars, down 11.0 percent from last year. TFM reported intermodal volume of 3,723 originated trailers or containers, down 5.5 percent from the 12^th week of 2003. For the first 12 weeks of 2004, TFM reported cumulative originated volume of 99,439 cars, down 7.6 percent from last year, and 41,556 trailers or containers, down 6.6 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.

Near Madrid:

Railroader finds bomb under
RENFE track where Ave runs

Police found a bomb on Friday under the tracks of Spain’s bullet train line between Madrid and Seville, the interior minister said, less than a month after a deadly commuter rail attack. Bomb-disposal experts alerted by a railway employee found the 26-pound bomb about 40 miles south of Madrid, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.

The explosives were connected to a detonator with a 450-foot cable, the minister told The AP at a news conference.

He said initial analysis suggested the bomb might contain a Spanish brand of explosive called “Goma 2 Eco” – the explosive used in the March 11 backpack bombs.

“Because of its color and texture, it might be Goma 2 Eco,” Acebes said. “Now it is going to be analyzed, but the specialists say it might be Goma 2 Eco.”

Acebes said it was not clear who was behind the bombing.

The tracks are used by Spain’s Ave trains, which can reach speeds of 186 mph.

Friday was a busy travel day in Spain, with trains and highways full of people leaving home for Easter vacation, but the state rail company RENFE said no train was close to the bomb when it was found.

Bomb disposal experts disarmed the bomb, reports said.

On March 11, 10 backpack bombs ripped through four commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring more than 1,800. The focus of the investigation is a Moroccan extremist group with links to al-Qaida. The bombs were detonated with cell phones attached to the explosives.

Also on Friday, a judge freed three men who had been arrested in connection with the March 11 bombings, court officials said.

Judge Juan del Olmo ordered the release of two Syrian detainees, Walid Altaraki and Mohamad Badr Ddin Akkad, and Moroccan Fouad Almorabit.

The officials also said witnesses to the March 11 attacks had recognized three jailed suspects at a prison lineup Thursday night. News reports said two of those recognized were Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan prime suspect, and Basel Ghayoun, a Syrian. Both have been charged with mass murder.

Sixteen people are in custody, 14 of whom have been charged.

Del Olmo has issued international arrest warrants for five Moroccans and a Tunisian, Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, described as leader of the group suspected of carrying out Spain’s worst terrorist attack. The attack killed 191 people and injured more than 1,800.

The warrant for Fakhet does not suggest he was overall organizer of the attacks. Nor does it give many details about his alleged role.

The court documents said Fakhet, 35, had been an active campaigner for “jihad,” or holy war, among some of the suspects already in custody, and as early as mid-2003 had shown signs of preparing a violent act in Spain – specifically the Madrid area – “as a demonstration of the said jihad.”

The warrant said Fakhet had helped arrange the rental of the house outside Madrid where investigators say the bombs were assembled, and that four others among the six on the warrant list had been at the house.

Altaraki and Ddin Akkad, the Syrians released Friday, told the judge they knew Fakhet but had no direct ties to him.

Almorabit had been detained and released earlier in the week but was brought back to the court to clear up an unspecified point in his testimony. Almorabit shared a flat with Ghayoun.

He was ordered to appear before the court periodically while the Syrians must keep the court informed of where they live.

The government said Tuesday the investigation was focused on the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, forerunner of Salafia Jihadia, which Morocco blamed for bombings in Casablanca that killed 33 people and 12 suicide bombers last year. The arrest warrants made public Thursday did not mention the group.

Two people, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abdelkrim Mejjati, have been named as possible top organizers. Neither was among the six names on the international warrants.

Besides Fakhet, those named in the warrants were Moroccans Jamal Ahmidan, alias El Chino; Said Berraj; Abdennabi Kounjaa, alias Abdallah; Mohammed Oulad Akcha, and his brother Rachid Oulad Akcha.

French investigator Jean-Charles Brisard said last week that Spanish officials saw al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian linked to al-Qaida, as the brains behind the bombings.

Spanish news media have also quoted Moroccan intelligence sources as saying Mejjati, a Moroccan, was the on-the-ground organizer and had been in Madrid three days before the train attacks, but Moroccan authorities told The AP it was not clear what role he had played in the bombings.

The warrants made only one mention of the al-Qaida terrorist network. They said Berraj met with three al-Qaida suspects in Istanbul in October 2000. They said he also had ties with the jailed Syrian Ghayoun.

Australia’s Pacific National said on March 30 it would buy a freight unit from U.S. group RailAmerica (RRA) for a lower-than-expected $285 million ($214 million U.S.), Reuters reported last week, cementing its position as the dominant rail group and grain carrier in the eastern part of the country.

Pacific National, a rail joint venture of Toll Holdings Ltd. and Patrick Corp that is Australia’s largest private rail operator, would gain Freight Australia’s network that includes the country’s two most populous states, Victoria and New South Wales.

Florida-based RailAmerica, which wants to lower its debt and focus on growing its core North American business, bought Freight Australia from the Victorian state government in April 1999 for A$163 million.

“The (sale) price is lower than expected and we expect the deal to be earnings accretive for both Toll and Patrick,” said Paul Huxford, analyst with Macquarie Research.

Pacific National, which had been in talks with RailAmerica for some months, withdrew its initial bid in February after RailAmerica refused to lower its asking price of A$350 million.

International consultant and engineering company Arcadis said on March 31 it would design and execute the project management for a high-speed rail track and tunnel through the Pyrenees between France and Spain. The firm will be part of a consortium comprised of Ingerop of France, Sener of Spain, and Tucrail from Belgium.

The project includes tracks for commuter trans and freight rail. The new rail connection is expected to shorten the travel time between Perpignan, France and Figueras, Spain by two hours. The total cost of the project amounts to €952 million. The revenue for Arcadis will amount to €6 million, according to a press release from the firm.

The project will consist of building a double-track over land and two single tracks through two separate tunnels. The latter is done for safety reasons. The track will be more than 27 miles long. The first trains are expected to run in 2009.

The new track between both nations is a major step in improving the connection between them. Currently, the mountains of the eastern Pyrenees and the differences between the two rail systems are major hurdles. Consequently, much of the traffic is going via the highway, often resulting in large traffic jams.

Harrie Noy, Arcadis’s CEO, said, “For years now, the French and Spanish have been discussing ways to improve accessibility. It is apparent that a high-speed train connection through the Pyrenees will be an advantage. This is an excellent example of investments being made in transnational European networks.”

A proposed rail line would connect Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi with the northeastern port of Cai Lan, helping boost domestic and international cargo handled at the port, reports Asia Times Online from Hong Kong on March 24.

The Vietnam Railway Corp. (VRC) said a railway project with 15 stations linking Yen Vien in the outskirts of Hanoi with Cai Lan in Quang Ninh province would cost an estimated 3.2 trillion in Vietnamese dollars, or U.S. $206 million.

Le Van, an official from the VRC, said if work on the railway started next year it would be finished by 2008, requiring annual investment between VND 650-850 billion ($41-54 million).

Van said a feasibility study suggested funds for the four-year construction project would come from the sale of government bonds. He said the rail link would save Hanoi’s transport sector money on investments in passenger buses and transport trucks that currently service the regions.

VRC director Vu Xuan Hong said the Ministry of Transport was preparing to approve investment for the first stage of the project between Ha Long and Cai Lan this year.

Nguyen Tran Thuat, deputy director of the VRC’s railway project management unit, said the project would be divided into four sections: Ha Long-Cai Lan in Quang Ninh province, Co Thanh-Chi Linh in Hai Duong province and Lim in Bac Ninh province to Co Thanh and Yen Vien, on the outskirts of Hanoi.

The project management unit is working with relevant bodies to identify resettlement areas for those residents who would be displaced by the railway. Thuat estimated at least 400 families will be relocated in the provinces of Bac Ninh, Hai Duong and Quang Ninh, with compensation packages costing around VND178 billion ($11 million).

The feasibility study estimated trains traveling at 75 mph (120 kph) would carry an average of 3.5 million tons of cargo a year by 2010.