For NCI: Mike Duprey Amtrak, Guilford, and others finally see eye-to-eye and agree to run the Downeaster at 79 mph. Another train on another railroad – Maine Eastern – will start service in a pilot project this summer. Amtrak’s Downeaster conductor Mike Shaw signals his engineer it’s okay to go. The northward train is leaving Saco, Maine for Portland on March 13.

August 1: 79 mph in Maine

Operators of Amtrak’s Downeaster said last week they will suspend service between Portland and Boston during the week of the Democratic National Convention in July.

Security measures imposed on the rail line during the convention from July 26 to 29 are burdensome, said John Englert, executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority. In the end, the rail authority determined that few travelers planned to go to Boston that week anyway, he said. “Many of the customers said, ‘We’re not going to bother.’”

Workers will use the time to make rail improvements as the Downeaster prepares for a speed increase this summer, WCVB-TV in Boston reported on June 2 from Portland, Maine.

On August 1, the Downeaster’s speed will be boosted along much of the track owned by Guilford Rail System, shaving five to 10 minutes off the trip between Portland and Boston, Englert said. The top speed will be 79 mph along four miles of the Guilford-owned track.

The Downeaster will travel at 79 mph along a 30-mile stretch by fall 2005, reducing the travel time between Portland and Boston to 2.5 hours, he said. The route now takes 2 hours, 45 minutes.

A decade-long dispute over the Downeaster’s top speed on Guilford-owned track between Portland and Plaistow, N.H., came to an end after Maine Gov. John Baldacci personally intervened a couple of weeks ago.

On June 2, Baldacci, Englert, Guilford vice-president David Fink, and Maine transportation commissioner David Cole appeared together at a news conference to say an agreement had been reached.

In the end, Maine agreed to provide $1.5 million this summer and another $4.5 million next spring for rail improvements. That will also allow a fifth daily run by fall 2005, officials said.

“Our concerns were safety related. The governor has addressed those concerns, and we’re ready to go forward,” Fink said.

The spending on rail improvements comes on top of $50 million spent to overhaul the Guilford-owned tracks in 2000 and 2001. Guilford had insisted that heavier rails should have been used in the original overhaul.

Guilford and other officials declined to second-guess whether Amtrak and the state should have used heavier rail to avoid the protracted fight.

“I’m not going to beat a dead horse,” Fink said.

Rail officials and advocates said the higher speed should lure more riders, especially at a time of rising gasoline prices.

The Downeaster had operated at a top speed of 60 mph after going into operation on Dec. 15, 2001, with four daily trips in each direction between Portland and Boston’s North Station.

“Just the perception – being able to say ‘up to 80 mph’ – provides that comfort level that I’m moving faster than I can drive,” said Wayne Davis of Trainriders Northeast, a rail advocacy group.

The train makes stops in Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Wells in Maine; Dover, Durham and Exeter in New Hampshire; and Haverhill, Woburn and Boston.

Baldacci also said an excursion train pilot project will operate between Portland and Rockland, Maine along Guilford’s lines and track owned by the Maine DOT. The excursion trains will be operated by the Maine Eastern Railroad with four coaches, and will serve festivals and special events in Rockland, said Gordon Fuller, Maine Eastern’s chief operating officer.

Rockland’s Village Soup reported the train will also stop in Brunswick on Maine DOT’s Rockland branch.

NNEPRA spokesperson Patricia Douglas told Village Soup there’s not a lot of information available about the pilot program at this time.

“Right now it’s a tentative commitment to operate the service, but it’s really not any further than that yet,” Douglas said. “There have been broad agreements and handshakes, but we still need to sit down with Guilford, DOT and Maine Eastern Railroad and figure out how to make it work, how many trips and logistically how to sell tickets.”

Douglas said the plan is to provide rail service for the Maine Lobster Festival, August 4 to 8, and the Rockland Harborfest Jazz and Art Festival, September 18.

“We have a lot of work to do before then but we are very excited about this,” Douglas said.

Gordon Fuller, chief operating manager of Maine Eastern Railroad and vice-president and COO of Morristown & Erie Railroad, said crews from both Guilford and Maine Eastern will operate the train from Portland north up the coast. Fuller said there would probably be two to four trips this year.

“We are meeting on June 14 to determine where the train will physically stop along the route and drop off passengers, with stops in Brunswick, Bath, Thomaston and Rockland being discussed,” Fuller said.

He added, “We’ll test it out this year and go where people tell us they want it to go and if it goes like gangbusters, we’ll plan for it again next summer.”

The House Transportation Committee said on Thursday it had named its House members for the House-Senate Conference Committee on highway and transit reauthorization legislation.

The Senate passed a $318 billion bill earlier this year, which includes $56.5 billion for public transportation. The House, under pressure from a White House veto threat, agreed on $275 billion. The White House has disputed that number, saying the real cost of the House bill would be $284 billion. The original Tea-21 law has been extended three times since it expired last October.

Members from the Transportation Committee and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) were named to the conference to negotiate highway and transit issues:

Transportation Committee Republican members are Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who chairs the Transportation Committee, and Tom Petri (Wis.), chairman, Highways, Transit and Pipelines Subcommittee. Also named were Sherwood Boehlert (N.Y); Howard Coble (N.C.) ; John J. Duncan, Jr. (Tenn.); John Mica (Fla.); Peter Hoekstra (Mich.); Vern Ehlers (Mich.); Steven LaTourette (Ohio); Spencer Bachus (Ala.); Gary Miller (Cal.); Dennis Rehberg (Mont.); Bob Beauprez (Colo.); Tom DeLay (Texas).

Transportation Committee Democrat Members include Rep. James Oberstar (Minn.), ranking Democrat, Transportation Committee, and Rep. William Lipinski (Ill.), ranking Democrat, Highways & Transit Subcommittee. Also named were Reps. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.); Peter DeFazio, (D-Ore.); Jerry Costello (Ill.); Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.); Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.); Robert Menendez (N.J.); Corrine Brown (Fla.); Bob Filner (Cal.); and Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas).

Budget Committee Conferees are Reps. Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), Chairman; Chris Shays (R-Conn.); John Spratt (D-S.C.).

Education & Workforce Committee Conferees are Reps. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.); Judy Biggert (R-Ill.); George Miller (D-Cal.)

Energy & Commerce Committee Conferees Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas), Chairman; Charles Pickering (R-Miss.); John Dingell (D-Mich.)

Government Reform Committee Conferees – Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), Chairman; Edward Schrock (R-Va.); Henry Waxman (D-Cal.)

Judiciary Committee Conferees Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), Chairman; Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas); Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)

Resources Committee Conferees – Reps. Richard Pombo (R-Cal.), Chairman; Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.); Ron Kind (D-Wis.)

Science Committee Conferees – Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.), chairman; Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas); Bart Gordon (D-TN)

Ways & Means Committee Conferees – Bill Thomas (R-Cal.), Chairman; Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.) Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Backers of Florida’s high-speed rail project required by a 2000 state Constitutional amendment asked a judge on June 2 to throw out thousands of petition signatures collected by a group that wants the project killed.

The AP reported the bullet train’s opponents turned in thousands of invalid petitions to get repeal measure on the November ballot, backers alleged.

The lawsuit alleges that the petition forms don’t include the names and addresses of their paid circulators, which they contend is required by state law.

A group called “Derail the Bullet Train,” led by Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, is trying to get the measure on the ballot, saying the train will cost too much. Republican Gov. Jeb Bush is also backing the repeal effort. He started the petition drive and enlisted Gallagher to help.

Elections officials have verified nearly 55,000 petitions submitted by Derail the Bullet Train, more than 10 percent of the 488,722 needed to make the ballot.

C.C. Doc Dockery, who spent $3 million getting the bullet train proposal on the 2000 ballot, filed the lawsuit in Leon County Circuit Court, where the state capital is located, in Tallahassee.

Dockery’s lawyer, John Frost II, said he had looked at 70,000 petitions collected by the group and none had paid signature gatherer names. Dockery told Florida Public Radio they had looked at all 70,000 petitions, and not one named who the paid collector was.

The lawsuit’s contention that signature gatherer names are needed on petitions is based on a 1997 change to the law that added that requirement, but parts of the new law were subject to a 1998 state Constitutional amendment passing, and it didn’t. That leaves open to interpretation whether the name requirement is part of the law.

Division of Elections rules on petitions say nothing about needing signature gatherers’ names on them.

The suit names as a defendant Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who must approve the measure for the ballot after local supervisors verify that signatures are valid.

A spokeswoman for Hood said the secretary’s chief lawyer was reviewing the lawsuit Wednesday and couldn’t immediately comment.

Mark Mills, a spokesman for Derail the Bullet Train, said he couldn’t comment on the legal merits of the lawsuit, but said the group’s lawyers are confident that the petition meets the law’s requirements.

“This is a frivolous lawsuit without merit intended to slow our momentum,” Mills said.

If a judge orders a large number of signatures thrown out, it could be difficult for the repeal effort to make the ballot.

The group must collect the necessary signatures and have them verified by August 3. The group also needs to have the wording of its ballot measure approved by the Supreme Court for clarity and to make sure it only deals with one subject. That review is triggered when a group gets 10 percent of the signatures. With the lawsuit, it’s not clear whether the court review process could go forward.

More than 800 members of the American Public Transportation Assn. (APTA), representing rail transit systems, manufacturers, and suppliers, are meeting in Miami today and will continue through June 9.

They will focus on all aspects of the North American rail transit industry.

Topics include an update on the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century (TEA 21); securing local dedicated sources of funding; development of emergency preparedness plans for rail systems; the latest on federal support for transit major capital investments; how to pass successful local referendums; and promoting shared rail corridors in the U.S. Local hosts for the conference are Miami-Dade Transit and the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority.

The conference also features three separate technical tours of Miami area’s rail transit operations and facilities, and an extensive products and services showcase.

Federal Transit Administration Deputy Administrator Robert Jamison will discuss the complexity of FTA’s rail transit new starts approval process today, and a forum on the status of the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century or TEA 21, the federal legislation which funds public transportation will also be held today, as will a forum on local strategies to create and solicit community input to secure a dedicated source of funding for public transportation in Miami. Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno A. Barreiro will moderate the session.

Transit industry leaders will report on how their major capital projects are proceeding in the major investment planning process, and which aspects of the process were successful tomorrow, as will a review of how successful rail transit initiatives were passed in communities with insights into what makes a successful referendum and what it means for the financial viability of rail transit projects.

Transit systems report on safety and security strategies to manage major events such as political conventions, demonstrations and sporting events will be presented on Wednesday.

APTA said its rail transit members are responsible for 3.4 billion trips taken on America’s commuter, light and heavy rail trains each year.

The Transportation Security Administration has ended its test of a bomb-sniffing machine at New Carrolton, Md., saying initial results show the machine works.

The month-long pilot project ended May 26, and the equipment that puffs small bursts of air at passengers to detect explosives has been removed from New Carrolton station, according to TSA spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan.

A detailed final report will be completed over the next month, but early results showed the detection equipment worked and did not cause significant delays to passengers, WBAL Baltimore reported.

“Everything worked involving both people and the equipment,” Rhatigan said.

Amtrak said later, “The next phase will feature checked-baggage screening at Washington Union Station on certain long-distance trains.” The railroad’s identifier for Washington is “WAS.”

The New Carrollton tests were the first of a three-part experiment by TSA to see if passengers, bags, and trains can be effectively screened for explosives.

Starting this week, checked luggage at Union Station in Washington will be scanned. In July, the agency will use detection equipment to check passengers already on trains.

The bomb sniffing machines, known as “EntryScan,” would only be used at stations when there are specific threats to particular cities, stations or rail lines. There are no plans to install the equipment permanently.

Under the system, passengers headed to the platform have to line up and pass through a checkpoint similar to an airline security check. Passengers must stand in a portal while the equipment shoots bursts of air onto them and analyzes it. The whole process takes about 12 seconds.

The test was conducted on passengers boarding only Amtrak and MARC commuter trains at New Carrollton. Those riding Metro subway trains that also stop at the station were not affected.

Railway passenger advocates said that the lightly used New Carrollton may not be big enough to give a true picture of how much the security checks would affect commuters. Only about 1,000 passengers ride MARC and Amtrak each day from that station.

“If you try to do this on anything that approaches the Washington Metro system or the Long Island Rail Road at rush hour, you’re talking about slowing down the process,” said Ross Capon, executive director of that National Association of Rail Passengers, who visited the New Carrollton test site.

MARC and Amtrak both said they heard few complaints or reports of passengers who missed trains. However, the screeners allowed passengers to skip the check if their train was scheduled to depart within two minutes, said Marcie Golgoski of Amtrak.

“This was just a test program,” she said. “They weren’t there to detain people.”

The pilot started May 4 and was originally scheduled to last 30 days, but was cut because TSA had the information it needed and wanted to avoid causing delays during the busy Memorial Day weekend, Rhatigan said.

The Associated Press reported on June 1 the antiterrorism agency that Congress rushed into existence just weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks to protect America’s planes, trains and trucks is shrinking, and could all but fade away.

The Transportation Security Administration, which hired 65,000 employees and has spent more than $10 billion over 3-_ years, has been beset by complaints about its performance, leaving it vulnerable to congressional Republicans who want to reduce the size of government.

After the 2001 attacks, “people were panicked to put in place a massive bureaucracy,” said Rep. John L. Mica (R., Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure’s aviation subcommittee. Mica says the time has come to rethink and cut back the TSA.

The air marshal program, which places armed undercover officers on select flights, has been transferred elsewhere within the Homeland Security Department, and TSA has cut its passenger and baggage screeners workforce, who make up the bulk of its employees, from 60,000 to 45,000.

Mica and other Republicans, who were never entirely comfortable with creating a new bureaucracy, want to return all airport screener jobs to the private sector, where they were before September 11. If that happens, the federal screeners would get the first opportunity to apply for the private jobs. Other solons take a different view.

Mica argues that private companies would do a better, more efficient job at the screening that is now the TSA’s primary function.

“They were given almost an impossible task, and they did complete the task Congress requested,” Mica said of the TSA. “Now the question comes to sheer numbers and performance, and there’s a lot to be desired.”

He plans to meet soon with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to talk about reorganizing the TSA.

The law creating the Homeland Security Department has a sunset provision for the transportation security office, requiring that it be maintained as a distinct entity only until November 2004.

TSA Deputy Administrator Stephen McHale said he was not aware of any plans to change the agency’s status as a separate entity, but he acknowledged recently, “I’m not saying such a plan won’t develop.”

Many Democrats think the TSA is needed to protect travelers. They say Republicans set it up to fail by refusing to give it enough money.

“I helped to create TSA, which is now being disassembled,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, ranking Democrat on the aviation subcommittee.

The TSA started from nothing and grew quickly as part of the Transportation Department. It was incorporated into Homeland Security when that cabinet-level agency was formed.

Brian Jenkins, a special adviser to the Rand Corp. think tank, said he would not be surprised if the TSA disappeared. Many lawmakers were not enthusiastic about creating the agency, he said, but voted for it because of the pressure to do so after the terrorist attacks.

Recent reports by Homeland Security’s inspector general and the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative arm, showed that passenger and baggage screening remained lax despite the TSA’s efforts.

Still, Democrats say private screeners would do worse and have pledged to fight for the TSA.

“We will not go back to the days of private screeners,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)

Although Congress originally made the TSA responsible for protecting all modes of transportation, it has done little beyond aviation. A full 98 percent of its $5.3 billion budget request for next year is devoted to air transport.

Elsewhere in security matters, the Journal of Commerce reported on June 1 the TSA has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to begin the prototype phase of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program for transport workers.

The prototype phase is the third step in TSA’s development of a uniform identification credential for workers at seaports (schedules), airports, rail, pipeline, trucking and mass transit facilities. The testing will be conducted in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del.; the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., and the 14 major port facilities in the state of Florida.

In Washington, legislation that provides $3.4 billion in fiscal year 2006 for first responder grants and provides a clear framework for an all-hazards approach to disaster prevention and response was approved June 2 by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The legislation provides for a basic level of emergency preparedness for every state while providing that the larger share of funding be allocated according to risk.

A federal court jury has awarded $500,000 to a former Amtrak electrician who said he was subjected to racial slurs, harassment, and discrimination throughout five years of work at the Oakland coach yard, but Amtrak says it will appeal the decision.

The May 27 verdict in a San Francisco courtroom for Abner Morgan came two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he was entitled to a second trial and set new standards for claims of continuing workplace harassment, according to the San Francisco Chronicle of May 29.

Morgan worked at Amtrak’s Oakland maintenance yard from August 1990 until he was fired in March 1995. Amtrak said he was fired for threatening a supervisor, but Jory Steele, a lawyer for Morgan, said Friday that the evidence showed the accusation was false.

Morgan said he and other African American workers endured continual racial slurs and abuse, including a white manager’s regular performance of a racially stereotyped “shuffle” dance in the office, to the amusement of other managers, all of whom were white.

Morgan also alleged that African Americans were subjected to discriminatory discipline and were unfairly denied training and work assignments.

“A parade of witnesses at the trial clearly demonstrated that racial hostility permeated the Oakland yard,” said Anthony Prince, one of Morgan’s lawyers.

He said the witnesses included many who still work there.

Amtrak denied harassing or discriminating against Morgan and will appeal the verdict, attorney Patrick Mullin said. He said the rail corporation will contend that the judge allowed Morgan to introduce more evidence than the 2002 Supreme Court ruling permitted, and that some of Thursday’s verdict was inconsistent with an earlier jury verdict in Amtrak’s favor.

The FRA is still looking for other passenger train operators besides Amtrak.

The Federal Register posted a notice on June 1 with a long-winded title, Notice of Funds Availability and Request for Comment To Assist in the Development and Implementation of a Procedure for Fair Competitive Bidding by Amtrak and Non-Amtrak Operators of State-Supported Intercity Passenger Rail Routes.

USDOT and its FRA are the responsible agencies.

The FRA explained last April 13 the FRA published a “Notice of Funds Availability and Request for Comment” in the Federal Register looking for comments on how the Transportation secretary, working with affected states, “could develop and implement a procedure for fair competitive bidding by Amtrak and non-Amtrak operators for state-supported intercity passenger rail routes.”

Administrator Allan Rutter, who is the associate administrator for railroad development at the FRA, is the person in charge of getting the plans together.

The FRA “also encouraged interested states to submit a statement of interest” to get a grant to support “an initiative leading to a fair and open competitive selection of an operator to provide passenger rail service over a specific intercity route that receives or will receive state financial support.”

Those responses were due by May 28, but now the FRA has extended the due date for these submissions until June 28.

The agency did not state how many applications, if any, it had received so far.

The AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department was quick to respond.

“We reject the notion that the solution to intercity passenger rail is to simply allow private contractors to provide rail transportation service on a for-profit basis. This one-sided view ignores a fundamental reality that passenger train service should be a public service and must be supported by the federal government at a level commensurate with the expectations of Americans who expect the world’s finest transportation system,” wrote president Edward Wytkind.

He added, “TTD has long argued that efforts to privatize Amtrak, or to somehow insist that the carrier turn a profit, are simply a way to raise expectations to an impossible level and then call for the end of national passenger rail service. We find this result unacceptable and proposals such as the one issued by the FRA serve only to perpetuate the myth that Amtrak’s problems will end if we only allow the private sector to cherry-pick the most profitable routes or services.”

So, far, the labor organization is the only outfit – railroad or interested party – to respond publicly.

Wytkind added, “Transportation labor maintains that the role of the federal government is to support our national rail network with badly needed capitol and not to use resources on a failed policy experiment that is driven more by ideology than sound transportation policy.”

Those four tunnels that feed into Pennsylvania Station have long troubled those who have seen them, but that’s changing.

A New York Times reporter recently rode a work train into one of the holes, and on June 2 wrote about the work that has been done and the problems that remain.

D:F’s Wes Vernon broke the story some four years ago when he learned the tunnels at “NYP” were in desperate condition. Amtrak’s three-letter identifier for Penn Station, New York is “NYP.”

Entering the tunnels from Queens aboard a slow-moving work train, what is immediately noticeable is how clean they are, the Times reported. Hardly a scrap of garbage or piece of debris can be found on the track bed. Properly maintaining the tunnels has long been the first line of defense against disaster, said James J. Dermody, president of the Long Island.

The tunnels are now well lit by high-pressure sodium lamps, installed two years ago. They used to have a jury-rigged lighting system that worked like strings of old Christmas lights – when one bulb went out, the whole chain went. They were also far too dim to be helpful in an emergency.

“It was lit, but you needed a flashlight everywhere,“ said Steven J. Alleman, Amtrak‘s director of fire and life safety.

The light from the lamps casts a pale glow on the crumbling bench walls. Metal sheets bridge the most serious depressions, but they are clearly in bad shape. Stepladders have been placed throughout the tunnels so passengers can climb down to the gravelly roadbed in an emergency and walk out on a smoother surface. Along the walls are signs, put in recently, that tell people where they are in the 2.5-mile-long tunnel.

The train rolls past metallic emergency communication boxes, illuminated by blue lights. Last year, these phone systems, capable of reaching emergency workers and the Penn Station Control Center, came on line in the East River tunnels after several years of work.

The system replaced an antiquated system that required users to crank up the phones by hand, but work on the communications system has not yet been finished in the two tunnels under the Hudson.

“The old communication system has nowhere near the reliability you would need in an emergency situation,” Alleman said.

Metal shielding overhead interrupts the smooth arc of the tunnel ceiling. The shield hides construction work going on above the tunnel, Dermody said. On either side of the East River, in Queens and Manhattan, and on the western side of the Hudson River in New Jersey, workers are digging new ventilation shafts and building new emergency staircases to the surface.

The new staircases will replace the almost-century-old spiral ones that have come to symbolize the dangerous conditions underground. The staircases are the only escape routes from the tunnels other than entrances and exits themselves.

The new ones will be scissor-style, with landings every 15 or 20 feet for people to rest. They will also be wide enough for passengers to ascend and rescue workers to descend at the same time. At the same time, new reversible ventilation systems are being installed next to them that will be able to supply fresh air to the tunnels and suck out heat and smoke. The old blowers could move air in only one direction.

The staircases and the ventilation plants are among the critical changes that will not be made for some time. The ones on the New Jersey side will not be done until early 2005; Queens will be next in 2007 and Manhattan‘s exit stairwell and plant will not arrive until 2009.

Officials point out that the staircases are to be used only as a last resort. In an emergency, the first option would be to send a locomotive in to tow a crippled train out of the tunnel; the second option would be to send a rescue train into an adjacent tunnel and have passengers escape through one of the passageways between the tunnels. The passageways, closed since World War II, were reopened recently as part of the improvements.

Also incomplete is the standpipe system that firefighters need to get water into the tunnels to fight fires. Most of the metal piping is in place, but there are gaps that still need to be connected. Previously, the standpipes extended only 200 feet into the tunnels. As a stopgap, a decade ago, 150-pound dry chemical extinguishers were installed every 100 feet, but they would be useless in a major fire. The new system should be ready next year.

Even after all these improvements are finished, more than $500 million in work still needs to be done, including repairing the benchwalls and repairing the tunnels themselves, officials said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has introduced a rail security bill that would give $570 million to Amtrak to finish the work. New York Rep. Peter T. King has offered a similar bill in the House.

“Since Sept. 11, this becomes a homeland security issue,“ said King, who toured the tunnels recently. “After Madrid, it‘s even more so.” It is unclear whether the bills will pass, officials said. Some in Congress view the money as pork-barrel spending for New York.

Grade crossing accidents draw cops

Seeking to promote rail safety, educate law enforcement and the general public, Amtrak, Metrolink, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), and Operation Lifesaver representatives joined the California Highway Patrol and local police officers in a crackdown on motorists and pedestrians who ignore rail-related traffic laws in an Officer-on-the-Train event held on March 30 through April 1 in California’s Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Amtrak, Metrolink, BNSF and UPRR put together a special train consisting of locomotives or railcars from each group, including a special private car called the Silver Lariat, used in many Operation Lifesaver events. The special train was operated over grade crossings in both counties throughout the exercise.

Amtrak Ink, the passenger carrier’s monthly employee publication, reported the results from the three-day event were staggering. In just under 20 hours and along a 40-mile stretch of track, 195 pedestrians and 30 motorists were cited for railroad and right-of-way violations.

“…and these numbers don’t count the ones that got away,” said Amtrak Manager of Emergency Preparedness Dave Albert.

“In this area over the last few years, six people have lost their lives in over twenty incidents involving motorists, trespassers, and trains.

These communities are committed to reducing the number of incidents by educating law enforcement officers and the general public about the dangers of railroad grade crossings and trespassing,” added Albert.

The most recent incident involved a 15-year-old high school student who was killed in March when she stepped in front of a train.

Locomotive engineers and conductors know that with every trip they make, there may be one or more close calls with a vehicle or person.

The Officer-on-the-Train program provides law enforcement officers an opportunity to ride in a locomotive and experience – firsthand – the danger of motorists disobeying the laws at highway-rail grade crossings or pedestrians trespassing on railroad property.

The program educates law enforcement officers that may be unfamiliar with vehicle and penal code violations associated with rail operations.

Officers also learn how to handle a grade-crossing collision investigation, and receive emergency numbers and information about procedures associated with stopping a train in cases when continued train movement would be hazardous to persons or property.

Because the locomotive is limited to carrying up to four persons at one time, a video monitor installed in the OOT special train’s locomotive provided a live shot of the right-of-way that enabled representatives from the media, dignitaries, and law enforcement officials not riding the head-end to see the violations from a locomotive engineer’s perspective.

In addition to having officers in the locomotive, patrol vehicles were staged at the railroad crossings over which the events occurred.

Law enforcement officers stopped offenders and issued either a warning or a citation.

On the first day of the event, two patrol cars pulled over a Dallas truck driver. She was given a $275 citation after failing to allow enough time for her 18-wheeler to get through the crossing at Rice Avenue in Oxnard. The crossing gates bumped the rear of her trailer as the special train approached the intersection.

Participation of local media is critical to each of these exercises. By videotaping violations and interviewing Operation Lifesaver, railroad, and law enforcement representatives on board the train and at grade crossings, local media broadcasts the “Look, Listen, and Live” message to radio, print, and television audiences.

Operation Lifesaver officials believe that federal statistics show their public education campaigns are effective. The number of crossing incidents nationwide has dropped by nearly 75 percent since their message advocating rail safety began over 32 years ago. In 1972, there were approximately 12,000 collisions between trains and motor vehicles; the figure dropped to 3,072 in 2002, the most recent year for which national figures are available. In 2002, California led the nation in train-pedestrian fatalities, with 90 people killed.

The state came in second, after Texas, in train-vehicle fatalities, with 30 fatalities.

“Sometimes, the safety message makes a stronger impact when it’s accompanied by a ticket from law enforcement officers,” said Eric Jacobsen, president and state coordinator of California Operation Lifesaver.

“‘Look, Listen, and Live’ is not just a slogan – it saves lives,” added Jacobsen.

The Southern California Safety Team, comprised of members of California Operation Lifesaver, passenger, commuter, freight, and light rail agencies, as well as regulatory agencies, works toward the goal of reducing grade-crossing and trespasser incidents. The group sponsors at least six OOT exercises each year, combining resources to focus on the region incurring the majority of incidents.

(Editor’s note – What no one said is that when a person is hit by a train moving at 60 or 70 mph or faster, their bodies explode. It is horrific.)

Train use soars in California

The number of Southern Californians crossing the region by rail soared 12-fold over the last quarter century, and trains will be more important in the future, regional planners said May 26.

Now, measures are needed to boost passenger capacity of commuter and intercity rail systems, writes The Californian.

Rail’s rapid rise in the transportation arena was highlighted at the semi-annual meeting of a pair of regional planning agencies: the San Diego Assn. of Governments of San Diego County, and Southern California Assn. of Governments, which covers Riverside, Imperial, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. The four-hour meeting took place at a Temecula, Calif. resort.

Linda Culp, a transportation planner with the San Diego association, said the number of regional train travelers has increased from 1 million a year in the late 1970s to more than 12 million.

A quarter century ago, the only cross-regional train travel was on board Amtrak, Culp said – and the number of Amtrak riders has doubled in the years since.

But with the addition of the L.A. region’s Metrolink in 1991 and San Diego County’s Coaster in 1995, both of them commuter rail systems, train use surged exponentially. Today, Metrolink riders total about 9 million a year and the Coaster 1.5 million, according to Culp’s report.

Train use would be even higher if capacity problems weren’t holding systems back, officials said. Lack of available parking is restricting growth, and so is size of trains.

“The problem we have now is not having enough cars on our trains,” said Temecula City Councilman Ron Roberts, referring to Metrolink. “People are standing up all the way.” He said Metrolink is trying to buy additional cars from a Seattle rail line that has a surplus of them.

Metrolink operates several commuter lines linking outlying areas with coastal job markets, including one from Riverside to downtown Los Angeles and another from Riverside, through Corona, to Orange County.

Roberts said Metrolink plans to push 18 miles south of Riverside to Interstate 215 and Highway 74, in Perris, by 2006 or 2007.

Roberts sits on the Metrolink board of directors and serves as president of the Southern California association’s Regional Council, which is composed of 76 officials from the six counties. He said efforts are under way to add a seat representing the Indian tribes of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

To address passenger railroads’ parking problem, Culp said, plans are being laid to add stalls at maxed-out stations such as Oceanside and Irvine.

Plans also have been laid to raise rail’s profile.

The Southern California association is proposing to build a 275-mile system of elevated trains crisscrossing Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The first line would open between downtown Los Angeles and Ontario International Airport in 2018.

The maglev trains would operate up to 240 mph.

Rich Macias, association manager of transportation planning, said the system is a central feature of the agency’s 2004 regional transportation plan, adopted in April. That plan also aims to cap airline traffic at Los Angeles International Airport at 78 million passengers a year – it’s 55 million now – and spread air travelers among outlying airports such as Ontario, Palmdale and Palm Springs.

Macias said speedy maglev trains would connect the dots on the map that represent those airports. One of those dots is March Air Reserve Base in western Riverside County.

The association is aiming for March to handle 8 million of the 170 million passengers anticipated in Southern California north of San Diego County in 2030. San Diego County officials also have eyed March as a potential outlet for its growing air traffic – but neighborhood opposition is organizing against a March passenger airport.

“Everyone wants to fly, but no one wants an airport in their back yard,” said Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels.

The Federal Transit Administration approved $490.7 million for a six-mile extension of a light rail system from downtown to East Los Angeles, officials said June 2.

The money will allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to sign a construction contract to begin building the $898.8 million extension of the Metro Gold Line from Union Station to one of the most densely populated areas of Los Angeles County.

Service on the extension is expected to begin in 2009, the MTA said. The existing line runs 13.7 miles northeast from downtown to Pasadena, and is part of a 73.1-mile system that includes two other surface lines and a subway.

“There couldn’t be better news for the people of Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, an MTA board member.

“This line will link them to the Metro Rail system and provide them with easier access to jobs, schools, medical facilities and places of recreation.”

During the June 1 grand re-opening ceremony of the Overbrook light rail line in Pittsburgh, Federal Transit Administrator Jennifer L. Dorn presented a $5.8 million grant to the Port Authority of Allegheny County for the North Shore Connector Light Rail Transit Project. The extension would provide direct transit service between the North Shore area and downtown Pittsburgh’s central business district, which are separated by the Allegheny River.

“A transit investment is an investment that keeps giving back to the community, long after the project is complete,” Dorn said as she presented the check to Port Authority CEO Paul Skoutelas.

Dorn told the audience gathered near the refurbished Willow Station that the North Corridor Light Rail Transit Project will support Pittsburgh’s economic rebirth by “connecting workers with new job sites, increasing mobility and enhancing the livability of an already very livable city.”

The North Shore Connector project, a 1.5-mile extension of the existing 25-mile Light Rail Transit System, will run below ground, under the Allegheny River into the Downtown Pittsburgh central business area, providing direct transit access for the first time.

The extension will carry passengers from the new North Shore Station to the existing Gateway Station enhancing accessibility to major sports, cultural and civic facilities. The project includes developing North Shore and Allegheny stations, and a new Convention Center Station at Liberty Center. In addition, a short connection between the Convention Center and the existing Steel Plaza Station will be developed.

Massachusetts transportation officials say they are unlikely to meet a summer 2006 target date to replace the Sagamore Rotary in Bourne with a streamlined interchange at the notoriously congested Cape Cod gateway. The May 29 Patriot Ledger reported legislative stalling on a land-takings bill needed for the $58 million project to proceed will almost certainly delay the project by at least one construction season, said Jon Carlisle of the state Executive Office of Transportation and Construction.

“The art of the possible is quickly translating into the art of the impossible,” said Carlisle, conceding a June groundbreaking on the project will not happen.

Gov. Mitt Romney, who once pledged to complete the project before he seeks re-election in November 2006, will meet Tuesday with New Bedford-area legislators who have vowed to hold up the project.

The legislators say they won’t sign off on the Sagamore land-takings bill until Romney agrees to support a decade-old plan to expand commuter rail service to New Bedford and Fall River.

“We have to use the tools available to us,” said Rep. Michael Rodrigues (D). “When we saw another major construction project was moving ahead of commuter rail, we said, ‘Time out.’”

While three previous governors have backed the New Bedford-Fall River rail plan – including William Weld, who in 1991 promised the service would be running by 1997 – Romney has said the state may not be able to afford a rail extension expected to cost $800 million.

Rodrigues said he and other South Coast legislators have persuaded 70 House members to withhold their support for the Sagamore land-takings bill. The bill, which would allow the state to use public land for ramps onto a newly designed interchange, needs 106 votes, or a two-thirds majority, in the 159-member House.

After months of negotiations, a streetcar crossing over CSX tracks may not require a driver, a supervisor, a flagman and four cameras. The redundant safety process could end soon under an insurance deal between the city and the railroad – a deal that leaves taxpayers responsible for what’s essentially a $2 million deductible.

Negotiations began after communication breakdowns last summer threatened to bring trolleys and trains too close, according to The Tampa Tribune of May 28. A solution seemed close last fall, then fell short.

City officials said last week that CSX has agreed to accept a proposal for $100 million instead of $500 million in insurance to cover the intersection in the event of an accident.

The first $2 million in coverage would be self-insured by the streetcar line, potentially with help from the city. The deal could go to the Tampa City Council this week, Assistant City Attorney Morris Massey said.

Once approved, the deal would remove the streetcar supervisor, who stands beside the intersection, and the CSX flagman, positioned nearby in an air-conditioned trailer, from the safety equation.

Streetcar motormen, working with a dispatcher monitoring the intersection with cameras, would be left to decide whether it’s safe to cross the tracks.

“We believe at this point we have done everything we can do to make the process as safe as it could possibly be made,” said Ed Crawford, spokesman for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, known as HARTline, which operates the streetcar line.

CSX officials wouldn’t comment on the insurance proposal specifically.

“We’re working cooperatively with the city of Tampa to make sure that all safety and financial obligations are met,” spokesman Gary Sease said.

Tampa’s $56 million streetcar system started running in October 2002. The 2.5-mile line connects the Ybor City and Channel District entertainment areas.

CSX’s $500 million insurance request almost derailed the streetcar plans before trolleys began rolling. The insurance could have cost more than $1 million a year, almost as much as the streetcar system’s yearly budget.

In a compromise to keep trolleys running, streetcar officials agreed to pay about $300,000 a year for CSX to post a flagman at the intersection to help verify that streetcar drivers checked for trains before crossing. Communication mix-ups last summer led to the requirement for a supervisor to ride with streetcar drivers passing through the intersection.

On July 14, a trolley driver reported he had the flagman’s okay to cross the tracks, but an Amtrak train was backing slowly toward the intersection and had to make an emergency stop. Four days later, a streetcar operator reported he had the okay to cross but decided to wait – and watched a train roll by.

After those incidents, a procedure was begun that requires trolleys to stop at the intersection to let a supervisor climb aboard. The supervisor and conductor then radio the nearby flagman.

Once all of them agree no trains are coming, and a signal light indicates it’s safe to proceed, the trolley crosses. It stops on the other side and lets the supervisor off to wait for the next trolley.

HARTline has added a fourth set of eyes by paying $35,000 for cameras and monitoring equipment, which began working last month, that allow a streetcar dispatcher to check for trains.

Boston’s Blue Line rapid transit extension to Lynn has won initial legislative approval and a major funding commitment. Lynn’s legislators are confident they will secure sufficient votes in the Massachusetts House and Senate to support the Legislature’s Transportation Committee endorsement of the Blue Line.

Gov. Mitt Romney has expressed his support for the extension, providing there is sufficient state money available for the project. The committee included the Blue Line last week in a selection of six transit projects recommended for state funding, the Lynn Daily Item reported May 28.

The committee set a $493 million funding limit for the extension, with that money covering the costs of design, acquisition, renovation, construction and reconstruction to extend the Blue Line from its present terminus at Wonderland Station in Revere to Lynn.

Canadian Pacific Ry. Canadian Pacific says it will now tie its fuel surcharges to the monthly average price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil instead of the quarterly average WTI price.

Canadian Pacific Ry. said June 1 it will tie its fuel surcharges more closely to current fuel prices by changing its calculation base. The Calgary-based rail carrier said it would base surcharges on the monthly average price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil instead of the quarterly average WTI price.

CBSMarketwatch reported CP said the surcharge would be 2 percent of the freight charge when the monthly WTI average price reaches $24 a barrel and 4 percent when it reaches $27 a barrel. The surcharge will also increase by 0.4 percent for each additional $1 above $27 and will decrease by the same rates when WTI prices are reduced. Customers will have the current month to convert their payment systems to account for the rate change.

In a press release, CP stated, “The program enables the railway to adjust its rates more quickly as fuel prices move up and down in today’s volatile market. It also provides customers with surcharges that are more closely tied to current fuel prices.”

The new surcharge plan was effective on June 1, but the carrier stated “Once the previous calendar month’s average WTI price has been calculated, customers will have the current month to convert their payment systems to account for a rate adjustment. The surcharge will flow through to customers in the following month.”

Two freight trains will soon be operating in Staunton, Va., under a tentative agreement reached between CSX Corp. and Buckingham Branch Railroad. Both firms filed a 20-year lease agreement last week for STB approval.

Buckingham Branch plans to increase traffic and improve profitability on 200 route miles from Richmond to Clifton Forge, according to the Staunton News-Leader of June 3.

Buckingham Branch asked the STB for its decision by November 8. The lease would take effect on December 20 and calls for Buckingham Branch to pay CSX at least $140,000 annually.

Amtrak’s existing agreements to run the Cardinal (trains 50 and 51) on the line should not be affected, according to the filings. The passenger trains operate between New York, Cincinnati and Chicago.

One of the key components for increasing freight traffic is running two freight trains daily out of Staunton, according to the filings. One train would run south in the morning to Clifton Forge. The other would run north in the evening to Orange. Both trains would be an increase over CSX’s current service to Staunton.

Bob Bryant, president of Buckingham Branch, declined to comment.

If Buckingham Branch were to run a few competitively priced, short lines out of the area, it might appeal to some local industry, said Dale Cobb director of Augusta County Community Development, but without seeing Buckingham Branch’s plans, he said it is hard to tell what kind of impact the freight service might have on the local economy.

“It certainly could give industry another outlet, and that’s always good,” Cobb said. “Only time will tell how it’s going to impact our area.”

The lease agreement doesn’t clear up the question of whether or not excursion trains will be able to run on the line.

Sally Kammauff, president of Virginia Central Railroad, said the question still remains whether or not CSX will lower the liability threshold for her company’s steam trains to be able to run on the line, or whether or not an agreement with Amtrak could be reached to run them that way. In 1993, CSX set a $200 million liability price tag for the Virginia Central after allowing it to run a few test runs with a $20 million policy.

“We really don’t know how it might impact us,” Kammauff said. The Virginia Central briefly operated a steam train along the line in the mid-1990s. Since then, the vintage cars and engines have been idled in a Staunton train yard.

In order to maintain and run trains on the line, Buckingham Branch plans to hire 27 new employees, according to the lease.

Thirty-two CSX employees would be displaced, but not fired, according to the lease agreement. CSX also would retain the right to send empty coal cars westbound on the line and, in an emergency, return full coal cars to the east.

Florida East Coast Industries, Inc. said last week its board elected four new directors. Added were Robert Fagan, chairman, president and CEO of TECO Energy, Inc.; James Jordan, managing director, Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Advisors, LLC; John Lord, a business consultant and private investor from Central Florida; and James Pieczynski, director, CapitalSource Finance, LLC. Nelson Fairbanks and Richard Ellwood are retiring from the FECI board. FECI, Inc. is the parent company of Florida East Coast Ry.

Carload traffic on U.S. freight railroads rose 5.8 percent (75,743 carloads) while intermodal traffic rose 13.6 percent (102,522 units) in May compared to May 2003, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on Thursday.

Commodities showing carload gains in May included coal (up 4.0 percent, or 20,401 carloads), grain (up 21.1 percent, or 15,128 carloads), chemicals (up 13.5 percent, or 14,885 carloads), and primary metal products (up 15.7 percent, or 7,500 carloads).

Commodities showing carload declines in May included grain mill products (down 5.3 percent, or 1,968 carloads) and pulp and paper products (down 3.2 percent, or 1,119 carloads). Of the 19 major commodity categories tracked by the AAR, 14 saw carload increases on U.S. railroads in May 2004 compared with May 2003.

For the first five months of 2004, U.S. rail carloadings totaled 7,034,627 cars, up 3.8 percent (255,491 carloads), paced by year-to-date increases in coal (up 3.0 percent, or 80,146 carloads), grain (up 12.6 percent, or 53,149 carloads), crushed stone and gravel (up 8.4 percent, or 32,864 carloads), and chemicals (up 5.2 percent, or 31,898 carloads). Commodities showing year-over-year carload declines on U.S. railroads in May 2004 included motor vehicles and equipment (down 3.2 percent, or 16,910 carloads) and metallic ores (down 4.8 percent, or 12,543 carloads).

U.S. intermodal traffic totaled 4,271,079 trailers or containers, up 9.0 percent (352,131 units) in 2004 through May. Total volume through the first 21 weeks of 2004 was estimated at 634.3 billion ton-miles, up 5.2 percent from last year.

“The year-over-year monthly traffic improvement in May 2004 compared with May 2003 is slightly overstated due to the inclusion of Memorial Day in last year’s data for the month but not this year,” noted AAR vice-president Craig F. Rockey.

“Even so, there is no denying that U.S. freight rail traffic is up significantly thanks to the improving economy. The efficiency of our transportation sector – especially freight railroads – is a catalyst for growth and one of our nation’s primary competitive advantages in the global economy.”

Canadian rail carload traffic was up 13.0 percent (32,082 carloads) in May. Commodities that saw rail carload gains in May included grain (up 47.4 percent, or 11,273 carloads), chemicals (up 20.6 percent, or 10,441 carloads), and metallic ores (up 27.9 percent, or 2,920 carloads).

Commodities seeing declines in Canadian rail carloads in May included coal (down 5.4 percent, or 1,879 carloads) and primary forest products (down 9.3 percent, or 807 carloads).

Canadian intermodal traffic was up 2.7 percent (4,559 units) in May 2004 compared with May 2003. Of the 19 major commodity categories tracked by the AAR, 14 saw carload increases on Canadian railroads in May 2004 compared with May 2003.

For the first five months of 2004, Canadian carload traffic totaled 1,421,735 cars, up 8.3 percent (108,596 carloads), paced by solid increases in grain (up 27.8 percent, or 38,441 carloads), chemicals (up 5.1 percent, or 15,423 carloads), and coal (up 8.2 percent, or 13,515 carloads). Canadian intermodal traffic totaled 864,782 trailers or containers, up 0.3 percent (2,387 units) in 2004 through May.

Carloads originated on Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), a major Mexican railroad, were up 3.0 percent (1,054 carloads) in May, while intermodal originations were down 40.4 percent (6,289 trailers and containers). For the first five months of 2004, TFM carloadings were down 3.2 percent (5,880 carloads), while intermodal traffic was down 14.8 percent (11,324 units).

For just the week ended May 29, the AAR reported the following totals for U.S. railroads: 347,206 carloads, up 10.6 percent from the corresponding week in 2003, with loadings up 11.1 percent in the East and up 10.3 percent in the West; intermodal volume of 214,554 trailers and containers, the second highest weekly total ever and up 26.2 percent over 2003; and total volume of an estimated 31.6 billion ton-miles, up 11.7 percent from the equivalent week last year. [Note: the equivalent week included Memorial Day in 2003 but not in 2004.]

For Canadian railroads during the week ended May 29, the AAR reported volume of 67,222 carloads, up 10.6 percent from last year; and 42,024 trailers and containers, down 0.9 percent from the corresponding week in 2003.

Combined cumulative volume for the first 21 weeks of 2004 on 15 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 8,456,362 carloads, up 4.5 percent (364,087 carloads) from last year; and 5,135,861 trailers and containers, up 7.4 percent (354,518 units) from 2003’s first 21 weeks.

Trains return to Grozny-Moscow route

A passenger train left Grozny, the Chechen capital, en route to Moscow for the first time in five years on May 30, under tight security a day after an explosion derailed seven cars of a train in a region adjacent to war-ravaged Chechnya, the authorities said.

The train left Grozny shortly before noon, a duty officer at the station there said, according to The AP, reporting from Vladikavkaz, Russia.

Police officers were stationed in every car, and security forces with trained bomb-sniffing dogs were also on board, according to state-run First Channel television, which said tickets were sold out for the two-day trip to Moscow.

The Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Russian Railroads company spokesman as saying that passenger train travel to Grozny had been cut off early in the war, which began in Chechnya in September 1999, when the city’s central railroad station was destroyed and nearby tracks damaged in fighting between Russian forces and separatist rebels.

Passenger trains between Moscow and Gudermes, Chechnya’s second-largest city, have been running for some time. The Moscow-Grozny train, which is to run twice a week in both directions, is an extension of that route.

On May 29, an explosive device under the tracks in the neighboring North Ossetia region went off while a passenger train from Moscow to the regional capital Vladikavkaz was passing, derailing seven cars and injuring six people, officials said.

Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country, is looking to make a part of the old Silk Road from China to Europe into a faster link for goods with a 2,000-mile (3,000km) rail project.

The sprawling oil-rich country between China and the Caspian Sea has always been a hub on the ancient trade route which carried marvels of the orient like rich silks, tea and jade by horseback, mule and cart to the markets of Europe.

The proposed route, Reuters reported on May 26, would link Druzhba on the border with China’s Xinjiang northwestern region to Iran and Turkey – if Kazakhstan can get neighbors Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to upgrade their Soviet era railways, and then build on to Europe.

“I am talking about a perhaps extravagant, maybe ambitious or highly ambitious project,” Transport Minister Kazhmurat Nagmanov told parliament on May 24.

“We have the Silk Road in mind” – but a hangover from history is a major obstacle.

In the 19^th century, Russia extended its empire to Central Asia forcing all rail and road networks to point to Moscow and adopted a wider track to stop potential European invaders from using its railway system.

China and most of Europe use standard gauge, but the Kazakhstan lines are broad gauge, used by the former Soviet Union, hindering an easy link-up.

The solution would be to build extensive new sections of standard gauge track alongside existing lines, radically cutting the time it takes to transport Chinese goods to Europe.

Nagmanov said funding for the project would probably have to come from the private sector.

However, Kazakhstan has put relatively little of its booming oil and mineral wealth into infrastructure or social projects since the collapse of the Soviet Union and is one of the few countries the World Bank and IMF has encouraged spending more.

“This project won’t happen today or tomorrow, but it is begging to be built,” Nagmanov said.

Twenty-five countries agreed at a United Nations meeting in 1992 to try to link 49,710 miles (80,000 km) of railways into an Asian network and establish rail corridors to Europe.

A so-called northern route from China, through Mongolia or Kazakhstan, and then Russia to Western Europe will become operational this year, according to the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

Tests along that route last year showed it was possible to ship a container from Tianjin in China to Finland in 10 days, despite switching trains where the tracks did not match.

London subway workers voted to strike on June 10, to back demands for higher pay, their union said June 2. The industrial action falls on the day of elections to the European Parliament and local councils across England and Wales. The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union has been in discussions with subway operator London Underground for several weeks and has turned down the offer of a 3 percent annual pay rise for its staff, The AP reported.

Florida Disinformation

Editor’s note – William Dunn is a professional engineer whose involvement in high-speed rail began in the late 1980s as a senior vice-president and director for the Florida High Speed Rail Corp. He has been a member of the Florida High Speed Rail Authority since its inception in 2001.

I don’t object to the repeal effort. It is the right of every citizen – but Bush and Gallagher, and all of our elected officials, have a moral and legal obligation to tell us the truth about this important issue.

Here’s how they got it wrong:

Bush and Gallagher say it will cost $500 million per year to finance high-speed-rail service for Tampa-Orlando-Miami. The High Speed Rail Authority has requested $75 million per year for the first phase (Tampa-Orlando). The second phase (Orlando-Miami) will cost about twice as much as phase one, but it will produce eight times the number of riders and revenue, so state contributions for this phase will be very small or may not be required at all. We’ll know more as we complete the planning for that route. The Bush-Gallagher position on annual state subsidy is overstated by nearly 700 percent.

Bush and Gallagher say the total development cost for the Tampa-Miami-Orlando route will be $17 billion. Bush has blocked the studies for the Orlando-to-Miami route so no one can be certain what it will cost, but a more honest estimate is $7 billion to $8 billion, which is less than half the Bush-Gallagher estimate. The Bush-Gallagher position on development cost is overstated by more than 200 percent.

Bush and Gallagher claim that high-speed rail is a luxury we can’t afford and a project that will bankrupt the state. The project will likely be funded from the existing gas tax that is already being collected at the pump. Gov. Bush has just signed a budget that includes a “Gas Tax Holiday” that will cost $90 million in lost transportation revenue to the state.

Although this amount is greater than the $75 million that high-speed rail will need, Bush and Gallagher made no similar prediction about firing teachers, releasing inmates from state prisons or putting the state into bankruptcy as they did for high-speed rail.

For a typical Florida driver, the cost of high-speed rail amounts to about 50 cents per month out of the existing gas tax that is already paid. Drivers are now paying a $30 per month premium for gas over the price they paid in December, and getting nothing in return. By comparison, the cost of high-speed rail is quite small. The Bush-Gallagher position on the financial impact of high-speed rail is a gross exaggeration and a distortion of the facts.

Bush and Gallagher believe high-speed rail will only serve tourists. Jeb Bush and Tom Gallagher don’t even drive cars, so they would have no reason to know this, but every tourist whom we get off the road is a blessing to all of us, tourist and citizen alike. Tourists don’t like being lost on our highways and we Floridians don’t like dodging lost tourists.

The split between visitors and non-visitors is about 50-50 system-wide, depending on the route segment. Between the Orlando Airport and Disney, there are more visitors. For the rest of the system, there are more non-visitors. Getting tourists off the road is a blessing to all (at least those of us who drive).

Bush and Gallagher predict that federal funding is not and will not be available for this project. History shows that federal funding is always available for major transportation projects, whether highway, airport, seaport or transit.

The reason that we currently have no federal funding commitment is that federal funding comes in the form of “matching funds.” The way this works is that the state puts money on the table and the federal government matches it.

The state has to make a commitment before the federal government will even think about funding a project. It is manipulative and disingenuous for Bush and Gallagher to claim that there will be no federal support for the project when we have not taken the first important step to secure federal funds.

Tom Gallagher claims that “they” could attempt to impose a personal income tax in Florida (to pay for high-speed rail). No one in Florida other than Florida voters could impose a state income tax on Floridians, and we Floridians do not want an income tax.

We are particularly insistent that no politician, not Governor Bush, not Tom Gallagher, not the Legislature and certainly not the Florida High Speed Rail Authority can impose an income tax on Floridians.

The state’s conservative Republican leadership appointed the nine-member High Speed Rail Authority. The governor, the Senate president, and the House Speaker each appointed three members. Now, Bush and Gallagher would have the world believe that the authority is planning to take billions of dollars from our children’s education, health care for seniors and other vital services to finance a frivolous folly.

In fact, the authority is willing to invest a small amount of money (less than 1.5 percent of the state transportation budget) to fund a statewide alternative mode of transportation that will benefit us now and become absolutely essential in future decades.

Here’s the really good news: All of the money that Florida invests in high-speed rail will be refunded from project income over the next 35 years. High-speed rail will provide a needed service to Florida’s taxpayers and visitors, and it is a wise investment.