A fire burning in Tunnel No. 7 on Union Pacific’s Cascade Pass line some 33 miles southeast of Oakridge, Ore., has closed the rail corridor, the Oregon DOT reported August 17, but the fire began on August 14. The line is a former Southern Pacific route. Amtrak trains as well as UP freights are affected.

UP spokesman John Bromley in Omaha told D:F on Friday reports that the tunnel had collapsed were unfounded. Bromley said, “We haven't determined the extent of damage yet, nor do we have an ETO.” The fire was still burning one week later.

The Albany Democrat-Herald reported on August 21 UP had made some headway Friday in the struggle to control the blaze fire that has interrupted normal freight and passenger train service from the Willamette Valley south.

“We’ve made a little progress,” said Bromley.

Crews were able to establish a couple of fire breaks in the tunnel, he said, and also hoped to get a reconnaissance team to go all the way through the 3,164-foot bore in order to assess the damage.

The tunnel, 33 rail miles southeast of Oakridge, is lined with concrete for 2,689 feet, and another 475 feet has timber posts and concrete ribs, according to Bob Melbo, former superintendent of the Southern Pacific in Oregon.

What’s burning in the tunnel, Melbo said, is wood that was used to fill the space between the rock walls and the concrete lining in order to stabilize the excavation.

Tunnel No. 13 on the former Siskiyou line is being repaired, but it’s not yet open for traffic. Some traffic will be rerouted via BNSF, but some may also take the long way around via Salt Lake City.

The Democrat-Herald broke the story on August 17 with information from Melbo, who now works at the Oregon DOT Rail Division.

Amtrak continued operating its Coast Starlight trains between Seattle and Eugene, and between Los Angeles and Oakland, but the passenger railroad was not offering any substitute service between Oakland and Eugene, which includes Klamath Falls and Chemult. That continued until Friday when Amtrak said it would reevaluate the situation – which it did.

On Friday (August 20), Amtrak posted a notice on its web site stating “Starting today, and projected through August 31, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight trains will operate only between Seattle and Eugene, Ore., and between Klamath Falls, Ore., and Los Angeles.”

The carrier added, “Coast Starlight passengers whose travel route includes the closed segment between Eugene and Klamath Falls” will be able to ride a bus between those cities, “including an intermediate stop in Chemult, Ore.”

Melbo said that according to UP’s Bromley, a freight train crew discovered the fire burning in two places inside the bore at about 1:30 p.m.

Since then, the fire intensified and is generating very high temperatures, Bromley said, keeping UP personnel from effectively fighting the fire and assessing the situation.

The fire also is burning behind the concrete lining in at least one location, making it difficult to attack with water or fire suppressing chemicals.

Tunnel 7, like the other tunnels between Crescent Lake and Oakridge, was built in 1925-26, Melbo said. The hole is between Cruzatte and Frazier sidings (both named for members of the Lewis and Clark expedition).

Bromley said UP had moved water tank cars equipped with fire-fighting apparatus up to the tunnel. These cars are normally stationed at Oakridge and other points for fighting forest fires.

UP will detour some of its Cascade line traffic via the BNSF’s Oregon Trunk, but this line does not have enough capacity to handle the 18 or so freight trains per day UP operates between Eugene and California.

Some traffic will be detoured via Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, he said.

Melbo also reported that UP also experienced a major derailment on August 14 in California’s San Joaquin Valley between Fresno and Bakersfield. A freight train moving at 55 mph derailed 35 cars, some of which struck and derailed two locomotives and one car of another freight train standing in a siding. This line is also considered part of the main Pacific Coast rail corridor.

UP embargoed all intermodal traffic between Seattle and Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans and more than a dozen other places on August 17.

This wasn’t the way Amtrak ever expected to operate on the Florida East Coast Ry., but an extra train got the passenger carrier over the road.

Following Hurricane Charley, Amtrak ran a deadhead extra over some 360 miles on the FEC from Miami to Jacksonville on August 15 due to a derailed hopper train fouling the CSX single track south of Sanford, Fla.

Both Amtrak and CSX needed the FEC to get to north Florida until the line was cleaned up. Sources said CSX was also having numerous problems with signals and grade crossings.

The Amtrak train interchanged from CSX to FEC just south of Miami International Airport. An FEC crew from Jacksonville’s Bowden Yard operated the extra, and was the same crew that departed Bowden the day before with a CSX drag.

E-mail queries from D:F to CSX in Jacksonville went unanswered.

The Amtrak extra left Hialeah at about 6:00 p.m. as train 242, went to Jacksonville. An FEC GP-38, No. 448, was tacked on top of Amtrak’s P-42s and an empty hopper on the rear.

A photographer at Fort Lauderdale said he heard the Amtrak engines running under load, and the FEC 2000 was idling. FEC saved its own fuel when the crew let the Amtrak motors do the work, and operated the train from FEC’s lead engine.

Amtrak interchanged from CSX to FEC at “G-9,” which is the crossover diamond and has an interchange track “where many cars and trains can be interchanged,” a source told D:F. The diamond is about four miles south of FEC’s Hialeah yard, near Miami, and just south of Miami International Airport on the west end.

The passenger extra ran to Bowden yard where it was taken to CSX in Jacksonville across St. John’s River where it later continued as a northbound scheduled train Amtrak to New York.

Meanwhile, due to track conditions resulting from Hurricane Charley, Florida service trains were still being affected on Monday, August 16:

Northbound Silver Meteor No. 98 originated in Sanford. The passenger railroad bused passengers between Orlando and Sanford. Its southward counterpart, No. 97, terminated at Sanford. Buses were again used from Sanford to Miami and intermediate points to discharge passengers.

The Palmetto, No. 89, terminated in Jacksonville, while No. 90 originated there.

CSX was also running a few freight trains over FEC. It ran some southward coal trains to deliver coal to power plants, and CSX auto trains traveled to West Palm Beach (milepost 295) where they got back onto CSX tracks. The train crossed over from FEC at a place named Lewis Terminal in West Palm Beach. Both railroads are only a few blocks away at that point, and Amtrak’s West Palm Beach station is just south of the interchange track.

FEC No. 145 left Bowden Yard in Jacksonville at 12:30 p.m. with CSX power and 48 auto racks. Another CSX run-through autorack train traveled to West Palm Beach the next day for Bowden. A CSX crew picked it up there.

CSX’s “A” Line was reopened Wednesday morning, at least between Taft and Auburndale, under direct train control (DTC) operating rules. Extra 177 North rolled by Kissimmee on the main while meeting Extra 456, which took the siding at 6:20 a.m. The crews were calling blocks.

This summer’s freight railroad congestion and construction, and Amtrak’s own equipment shortages are making for a tough summer for passengers and crews, Amtrak reports through the pages of Amtrak Ink for August, a monthly employee publication. The summer’s challenges are also slowing the railroad’s ridership and revenue growth.

Acela Express trains continue to show strong results, but when Acela and Metroliner are combined, ridership is down 3 percent compared to last year and 10 percent against budget.

There are two factors for this downtrend. The first is OTP, which was at 72 percent in June. The other market impact is the increased competition among low-cost air carriers, which is especially true in the Philadelphia-Providence and Boston markets. Between April and June, Amtrak lost 15,000 trips and $1.6 million. Most of the lost trips were off-peak or weekend travel.

Amtrak Ink

New York City is getting ready for a myriad of commuting and other transportation changes when the Grand Old Party – the Republicans – invade the city in a little over a week, much like Boston was a month earlier.

The 2004 Republican National Convention will attract some 2,500 delegates, 15,000 journalists, 10,000 law enforcement officials and hundreds of thousands of protestors to the Big Apple and Madison Square Garden (West 34^th Street and Eighth Avenue).

USA Today noted on August 15 whether on foot, by train, subway or car, during the convention, everyone is urged to allow extra time to get where they need to go.

The convention hours will “bookend” these times. The convention begins on Monday, August 30 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., then Tuesday through Thursday – from August 31 to September 2, from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Penn Station on West 34^th Street and Eighth Avenue, adjacent to Madison Square Garden, is home to Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, and the New York City subway 1, 9, 2, 3 and A, C, E lines. Most will remain unaffected by the convention, but there are some exceptions.

• All customers wishing to travel to or from New York City on Amtrak trains during the week of the convention must reserve tickets in advance.

Sharon Farmer, Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. Teresa Heinz Kerry speaks to a crowd on August 7 from the observation car on a chartered train drawn by Amtrak engines as the “Believe In America” tour stops in Las Vegas, N. Mex.

Presidential candidate John Kerry noted on his web site last week he “completed one of the most incredible journeys of my life. In the fifteen days following the Democratic convention, on our “Believe in America Tour,” John Edwards and I traveled over 8,180 miles, through 22 states on 43 buses, 17 train cars, 7 helicopters, 3 airplanes, and even one boat” – but not everyone was happy.

Kerry’s visit to New Mexico left car and truck owners fuming.

The Santa Fe New Mexican and The AP reported on August 13 Kerry’s whistle-stop tour through New Mexico left Bill Carlis and other drivers wondering what happened to their vehicles.

Carlis’ truck, parked the previous week at the Amtrak lot in downtown Albuquerque, wasn’t there when he returned from a trip to Philadelphia on Monday evening (the 23^rd).

He had no warning that the Secret Service had it towed when Kerry, John Edwards and their families arrived by train Saturday. The group spent the night before heading west the next day.

“The whole thing was unbelievably disconcerting,” said Carlis, who had no easy way to get home to Silver City after finding that his truck was gone. He had to make arrangements and pay $106 to get his truck back.

Eight to 10 cars were towed from the Amtrak lot, according to the company that moved the cars for Albuquerque police and the Secret Service.

Angelo Padilla, manager of the towing company, said “Just about everyone who walked in the door” was upset about getting back from vacation and finding their cars not there.

Carlis said he doesn’t blame the Kerry campaign but faults Amtrak. “They were totally nonchalant and indifferent to our turmoil… People were fuming,” he said.

Carlis had asked before parking his car last week whether it was okay to leave it there. He said Amtrak employees told him yes. A local Amtrak employee referred questions to a spokeswoman in Oakland, Calif., who couldn’t be reached for comment.

Carlis filed a complaint and said an Amtrak official planned to issue a voucher to make it up to him.

Amtrak, M-N suspend some service

Amtrak suspended passenger service between its Rensselaer, N.Y. station and New York City on August 16 and canceled trains slated to leave Rensselaer early Tuesday following washouts from heavy rains under the tracks along the Hudson River.

Other transportation was cobbled together for people who had planned to travel to New York City by rail. The New York DOT arranged for shuttle buses.

Metro-North Railroad shut down operations between Peekskill and Garrison around 8:30 a.m., said Metro North spokesman Dan Brucker.

A 15-foot chunk of earth was dug out under the rails by cascading runoff, and other portions of rail were submerged under water, he said.

Six buses carried commuter railroad passengers between Peekskill and Garrison stations, where they were able to resume their trips on Metro North trains, Brucker said.

Fully restoring the tracks was expected to be difficult, Brucker said, because the washout was in a hard-to-reach location. “We’re going to be working on this thing all night,” he said. “It’s a highly inaccessible area, and we will have to use trains to bring in material and manpower.”

Amtrak said limited service planned for Tuesday included eight trains leaving New York for Albany and six trains leaving Albany-Rensselaer for New York City.

Affected Amtrak trains included No. 294, the Ethan Allen Express; No. 48, the Lake Shore Limited; and No. 68, the Adirondack; No. 64, the Maple Leaf and several unnamed trains.

Solon urges colleagues to support
anti-terrorist funding for rails.

While the government focuses anti-terror resources on aviation, there remains a neglected threat to Amtrak trains, commuter lines, and freight rail, and authorities should better secure the nation’s railways, according to investigators and legislators.

The 9/11 commission said the government should identify transportation assets most likely to be attacked, prioritize which ones to defend, and then accomplish both with available funds, according to an August 18 report from States News Service.

The commissioners chided the Transportation Security Administration for failing to quickly develop an “integrated strategic plan.” They also noted that aviation security in the past three years received 90 percent of the TSA’s terror funding while rail protection received a fraction of available money.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill also are calling for more attention to rail security.

“We need to try and stay one step ahead of these terrorists, and in order to do that we’ve got to look at history here,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), who has introduced a bill to overhaul emergency training for rail workers and expand safety and communications systems.

“We have a very large population of travelers who use the rail every day, and there’s very little being done in terms of losing the vulnerability right now in our rail systems,” he said.

The Senate next month is expected to move on a $200 million appropriations measure that would for the first time earmark funds specifically for rail security, rather than draw from the Homeland Security Department’s general budget. The House version of $100 million must be reconciled with the Senate’s, but either one would at least double previous rail security funding levels.

In the Senate, the banking committee authorized $5.2 billion for rail security, and the transportation committee authorized $1.2 billion for freight security.

This month, however, the terrorism debate on Capitol Hill has centered on how, and whether, to create a national director of intelligence and counter-terrorism center. Lynch said he was concerned that the need for enhanced rail security was overshadowed by the 9/11 commission’s sweeping intelligence proposals.

In its summary of transportation security, the commission stopped short of providing specific guidance on what priority to give securing the nation’s rails and how much to fund the effort, leaving those decisions to Congress and the Department of Homeland Security.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) supports the Senate’s proposed appropriations level, but said an industry survey this year identified $6 billion in transit-security needs – $5.2 billion in one-time capital expenses, and $800 million in annual costs.

Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Homeland Security’s Border and Transportation Security Department, said he agreed with the 9/11 commission’s recommendations, but said the department is already developing a plan to address each mode of transportation, and it should be completed by year’s end.

Noting ground-transportation terrorist attacks in Tokyo, Moscow, Chechnya, and, most recently, in Madrid, Lynch urged quick action to protect railways, and avoid the same mistakes.

“We were victims of our own incompetence and our own arrogance, some would say,” Lynch said of pre-September 11, 2001 aviation security.

“What I’m afraid of is that we’re repeating our past mistakes, and we’re assuming that we’re invincible, and that is not at all the case.”

Amtrak Ink Locomotive #461 was among the first F-59s, used on the West Coast, to be overhauled at the Beech Grove facility.

Last year’s Five-year Strategic Plan set the stage for a national and comprehensive heavy maintenance program for Amtrak’s locomotive fleet, says Amtrak.

Previously, heavy maintenance programs – major repairs, overhauls and remanufactures – were managed by the strategic business units (SBUs), product lines, or not at all. The August issue of Amtrak Ink reports the five-year plan launched a shift from an inconsistent locomotive heavy maintenance program to a national program centered at the company’s backshops in Indiana and Delaware, which began last October, and the beginning of this fiscal year.

Presently, locomotives all over the system – from those at the engine house at Redondo (in California) to the shops at Rensselaer, N.Y. – are now using the Beech Grove locomotive and car shop in Indiana and the Wilmington locomotive shop in Delaware for heavy maintenance.

The change is a return to a more traditional railroad, with centralized heavy maintenance shops, centralized system-wide, and materials management processes. Once complete, this centralized program will split heavy repairs for the diesel locomotives at Beech Grove and the electric fleet at the Wilmington shop, making the Beech Grove and Wilmington backshops the backbone of the locomotive heavy maintenance program.

This shift simplifies what had become complicated and incoherent catch-as-catch-can maintenance for the company’s locomotives.

For example, the Rensselaer shop supported the MP-15 switchers used in New England, while other EMD switchers were maintained at the Wilmington shop, except for the West Coast switchers. Some of the F-59 engines used on the West Coast were cared for in Los Angeles, while a contractor maintained others. The P-32-8s and HHP-8s had no heavy maintenance “home.” The result was orphaned locomotives and no central procurement process.

Instituting material management of the national program through the company’s Procurement department results in cost savings to the company. By consolidating its buying power, Amtrak has more influence over its vendors and can exercise better warranty management.

Also, under the centralized program, the company benefits from direct supervision of the work and clearer lines of accountability, as well as enhancing the knowledge of its mechanics.

Earlier this year Beech Grove began overhauling previously orphaned F-59s for the West Coast. Over the past year, the backshop has dedicated money, time and brainpower to support the West Coast fleet.

This is not only the first time the F-59 work is conducted at Beech Grove, but also the first time the overhaul is conducted by Amtrak mechanical forces.

Another example of progress underway is the overhauls the Wilmington shop is doing on the MP-15 switchers, work that is new to the shop.

General Electric built the P-40 and P-42 road diesels (Genesis locomotives) used on long-distance routes.

Most of the locomotives’ major components continue to be sent out to GE, such as the motors, alternator and generator, the air brakes and the electronics – but, for the first time, some GE motors are being repaired at Wilmington, as well as some F-59 motors. While in the past some maintenance on the P-40s was done at Rensselaer, all the heavy work will be done at Beech Grove. Dual Mode P-32s used on the Empire Corridor will also be shipped to Beech Grove for maintenance.

Currently maintained by the Northeast Corridor Management Service Corp. (Bombardier), Amtrak will begin to maintain the Acela power cars in October 2006.

Over five years (2005-2009), overhauls are scheduled for more than 320 locomotives. According to the updated five-year plan released last month, locomotive availability is expected to increase from76 percent to 85 percent, due in large part to the return of locomotives to a regular overhaul cycle. About 60 locomotives will have been overhauled by the end of September.

Maintenance required on locomotives depends on the design of the equipment and how it’s used. Generally, most locomotives require light to medium overhaul every 3 to 6 years, medium to heavy overhaul every 5 to 10 years, and remanufacturing over 12 to 20 years.

Beech Grove is now repairing GP-38s, P-32-8s, P-32 dual mode engines, P-40s, P-42s, and F-59s.

Wilmington is fixing MP-15s, HHP-8s, AEM-7s, Acela equipment, traction motors and all other switchers.

A new kind of fuel-efficient locomotive – a “Green Goat” – pulled into Amtrak’s maintenance facility in Washington on Friday to begin a 60-day test of the technology.

Amtrak hopes to reduce its fuel bill with the hybrid electric locomotives, which operate on a combination of diesel fuel and batteries, The Washington Times reported on Saturday.

The locomotives also are designed to reduce harmful emissions around 80 percent and to operate quietly, which would be good news for residents around Union Station and the Ivy City yard.

“You can be in the cabs of these locomotives and carry on a conversation,” said Nigel Horsley, spokesman for RailPower Technologies Corp., manufacturer of the locomotives.

Amtrak intends to use them pull cars and its road diesels at about 5 mph between Union Station and the yard, just off New York Avenue in Northeast D.C.

They use a relatively small diesel engine and rechargeable lead acid batteries. When the battery charge runs low, the diesel engine switches on to recharge the batteries.

The Vancouver, B.C. company pins its hopes for the hybrid locomotive largely on tougher emissions standards the government is phasing in for railroads nationwide. Beginning January 1, the Environmental Protection Agency requires that all new or rebuilt locomotives emit 25 percent less harmful pollutants than would be allowed under current standards.

“As the standards have come up, it’s made it far more difficult to meet those standards,” Horsley said.

The Green Goats have been used at yards in Texas and California, where residents have complained about health hazards from fumes.

Amtrak considers the hybrid locomotives to be a cost-saving venture as much as an environmental courtesy.

“We are interested in reducing our use of fuel,” said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black, in Washington. He added, “If the reduction of emissions is part of it, we’re delighted.”

RailPower estimates the Green Goats can cut fuel use by about half compared with most yard locomotives.

Diesel fuel prices have been soaring as the cost of crude oil approaches $50 a barrel. The test with the hybrid locomotive represents another effort by Amtrak to reduce expenses as it relies on government subsidies to make up for its persistent annual losses.

Most railroads downgrade old diesels to use in their yards. They sell for about $1.2 million when they are new. Amtrak is leasing the hybrid locomotive during the two-month test. It would cost $750,000 to buy.

“We will gather data and operations experience on the Green Goat during the trial period, and we anticipate it will be sufficient to allow us to determine how the technology might fit our needs,” said Amtrak Vice-President Ed Walker.

New York’s state DOT is suing Amtrak in federal court, claiming the national railroad has failed to bring promised high-speed passenger service to the Hudson Valley.

The suit filed August 13 seeks a court order for Amtrak to fulfill its 1998 commitment to a $185 million rail project that included seven rebuilt Turboliners over upgraded tracks, according to the Albany Times-Union.

Amtrak has put two Turboliners in New York service, but took them out in June citing inadequate air conditioning. The trains also cannot approach their top speed of 125 mph without track improvements.

A railroad spokesman declined to comment. Amtrak several months ago acknowledged wanting to pull out of the New York deal, saying it could not afford it.

A reliable source told D:F on Wednesday Superliner I sleeper 32016 was released from Amtrak’s Beech Grove, Ind. heavy repair facility on August 17. It had been wrecked on Train No. 2, the Sunset Limited, in Lissie, Tex., in July 1999. Also, Auto Train Superliner lounge car 33100 – wrecked on No. 52 in Crescent City, Fla. in April 2002 – was released on August 8.

The Florida Supreme Court approved ballot language last week advising voters could save billions if they reversed their position on the state’s high-speed train project. The brief order was unanimous.

The state’s high court had rejected an earlier version of the statement, which estimated the money that could be saved if the train was repealed could add up to $51 billion over 30 years. Last week, state analysts responsible for drafting the statement revised it, cutting the estimated savings in half.

The AP reported as it stands now, voters on Election Day will read a statement advising them that a repeal of the high-speed train would save the state an estimated $20 billion to $25 billion over three decades.

Analysts in Florida last week cut in half the amount of money the state would save if voters killed the high-speed rail project. They estimated the state could save up to $25 billion over 30 years if the project were derailed, down from their original July forecast of up to $51 billion.

Voters in 2000 approved a ballot measure to build a high-speed train linking the state’s five major urban areas. Next November 2, they’ll face another ballot measure, championed by Gov. Jeb Bush, to repeal the project. Bush argues the state cannot afford the train.

Under state law, a panel of analysts must estimate the financial impact that citizen initiatives going before voters will have on state and local government.

The AP in Tallahassee reported a brief statement describing the impact that was produced by the analysts, who work for the state legislature and the governor, will go on the ballot, but it first must be approved by the state Supreme Court.

The first statement prepared by the panel would have told voters that repealing the project could save Florida between $41 billion and $52 billion over the next 30 years. The statement also measures that savings in per-household terms, ranged from $157 to $190 a year for three decades, but a fortnight ago Florida’s high court rejected the statement, saying it went too far in describing the financial impact by using the word “could” and measuring the impact in per-household terms.

The panel met shortly thereafter to come up with another version.

The difference between the two forecasts was one of size. The first estimate figured a “statewide” system of nearly 1,000 miles. The new version assumes the system will fall just short of 500 miles, but the 2000 ballot measure only required a system that links the state’s five main urban areas, so the analysts scaled down their assumptions about the size of a final rail network.

As implemented by state lawmakers and managed by the Florida High-Speed Rail Authority, the first phase of the project will run from Tampa to Orlando.

The state would commit $75 million a year for the first leg of the train under the plan prepared by Fluor Bombardier, the company selected to design, build and operate the train. The second leg, which is in the planning stages, goes down to Miami.

The cost estimate agreed to Thursday would extend another leg to Jacksonville and the last leg to the Sarasota-Bradenton area.

Thom Rumberger, a lawyer for C.C. “Doc” Dockery, the Lakeland businessman who pushed through the 2000 train proposal, said Dockery would appeal the new version to the Florida Supreme Court.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, who headed the repeal petition drive this summer, predicted even cut in half the price tag would give voters “sticker shock.”

“They’ll realize that $25 billion would be better spent on... building highways to ease traffic congestion and educating our children,” Gallagher said in a statement.

Few states improve grade crossings

The 33-car CSX freight train blasted its whistle as it thundered toward a railroad crossing in Conasauga, Tenn.

“Hey! Hey!” the engineer shouted when he saw a school bus rumble toward the tracks, then slammed on the emergency brakes.

It was too late.

The 2,465-ton train smashed into the side of the bus. One witness said the crash sounded like “damn thunder or a bomb blown up.”

Two girls, ages 7 and 9, and a 9-year-old boy were killed in that crash in 2000. Three more children were seriously hurt, one of them the bus driver’s daughter.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the crash and in 2002 recommended states make it a high priority to improve safety at ungated railroad crossings school buses use.

“Children continue to be unnecessarily killed in school bus accidents at grade crossings,” NTSB Chairman Ellen Engleman said in an interview this week. “Children’s lives can and will be saved if state authorities adopt the simple safety measures that the board recommended. With the school year beginning, action is needed.”

Vehicles and trains collide an average of nine times a day. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the four years since the Tennessee crash. In the first five months of this year, there were 1,205 crashes, including four involving school buses, and 155 deaths.

The 82,000 crossings where there are no gates present the greatest danger. The accident rate is seven times that for crossings with gates that block vehicles.

A key NTSB recommendation for such crossings was to install stop signs. That was seen as a far cheaper alternative to other railroad crossing safety measures, such as installing gates at a cost of $150,000 apiece, building bridges or rerouting tracks or roads.

Every state requires school buses to stop, turn off noisy equipment, open the doors and look both ways before crossing railroad tracks, according to the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, which supports the NTSB’s recommendations – but that doesn’t always happen. The 34-year-old bus driver in the Tennessee crash never stopped at the crossing, even though it was marked with two warning signs and a crossbuck.

Research shows that while some know to “stop, look and listen” when they see a crossbuck, many others think the sign means “slow down” or doesn’t require any special action, NTSB investigator Joseph Osterman said. There is no such confusion with a stop sign, which is why installing them at crossings makes sense, he said.

“It’s a real easy solution,” Osterman said. “Leaving an ambiguous sign that means different things to different people in different states is not a good answer.”

Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Assn., agreed crossings present significant danger but said she doesn’t believe stop signs will persuade drivers to halt.

“They think, ‘I never see a train on this track, so I’m just going to ignore the stop sign,’” Harsha said. She suggested placing video cameras at crossings and issuing tickets to anyone who fails to stop.

Beyond stop signs, the NTSB recommends equipping school buses with “option kill switches,” which enable drivers to turn off noisy devices like fans and radios when a bus approaches a rail crossing. Only Florida and Kentucky require the switches.

The NTSB also called for better training and oversight of bus drivers, including using video cameras to help monitor performance.

Nashville commuter rail
construction to begin

After months of insecurity, Nashville’s Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) is moving forward with building the east corridor commuter rail connecting Nashville and Lebanon, even though the project still lacks $8.1 million in federal funding.

Lebanon Mayor Don Fox said on August 18 he felt confident RTA’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., would be able to secure the $8.1 million, the Nashville City Paper reported on August 19.

“They’ve been able to pull it out every year, and we have full confidence this year that they’ll do the same thing,” Fox said.

RTA’s rail project manager, Allyson Shumate, said $24 million of the $39.7 million is new start funding from the Federal Transportation Administration.

“Of that $24 million, that’s where the $8.1 [million] is lacking,” Shumate said, adding RTA hopes to get the remainder of the funding secured in this next federal appropriation bill.

“We’re starting [construction] regardless,” Shumate said. “We are getting ready to award construction contracts for track and signal rehabilitation. That’s the biggest piece of the project, and we will be making those awards between now and October, and then the station construction will start in the spring.”

The support assurance from the Tennessee DOT last month has given the commuter rail project a needed boost, and RTA’s board, which is chaired by Mayor Bill Purcell, felt confident enough to approve the rail procurement contract to L.B. Foster Co. for $3.4 million.

The board also authorized recruiting a commuter rail director, which would be a new position. The director would manage the construction and operations of the Music City Star East Corridor project and oversee the development of other transit corridors.

Critics of commuter rail point to reports such as a recently published study examining commuter rail projects in North Carolina. In the study Ted Balaker, research fellow at California-based Reason Foundation, notes that urban rail projects are expensive and do not significantly relieve congestion.

“In city after city the urban rail saga rarely changes: costs soar, congestion continues to mount and local officials call for more rail,” Balaker stated; but the mayors of Lebanon and Nashville hope the connection between the two cities will spur retail.

“Our station will be literally, physically connected to what will become a warehouse shopping and retail center. It will be The Mills of Lebanon,” Fox said. “The parking lot will be connected to the train station with a pedestrian bridge.”

Fox said the rail project would put the region “20 years ahead of the curve in combating traffic gridlock.”

Purcell said he believes the new rail station next to the Cumberland River at the foot of Broadway will speed development along the river front, “not just the Thermal site, but the Rolling Mill Hill site as people realize that this is one part of Nashville that now has transportation options that we haven’t had in many, many years.

“So if done right, my sense is it will have an effect not unlike Lebanon’s in terms of encouraging retail and in our case residential as well,” Purcell said. “Nashville is returning to the river and this is just one more strong indication and important element of that return.”

The Greenbush, Mass. Board of Selectmen rescinded its appeal of an environmental permit for the Greenbush commuter rail project, just days after the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority threatened to withhold millions of dollars in mitigation money.

Town officials acknowledged that they made mistakes in filing the appeal, which expressed new concerns about the project’s impact on the Scituate, Mass. water supply. Still, the selectmen said they were trying to act in the best interest of the town, according to the Boston Globe.

“We were kind of throwing rocks at each other without letting the other know what we were doing,” Richard Lane, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said of MBTA and town officials last week.

A $10 million mitigation agreement in 2002 prohibited the selectmen from interfering with future permits for the rail project. Under the agreement, any concerns by town officials about the project must be brought to the MBTA.

Lydia Rivera, a spokeswoman for the T, said that the authority is pleased that Scituate officials have withdrawn the appeal and that the T will not freeze or withhold promised funds, as long as there are no future violations of the mitigation agreement.

“Now we can get back to business and sit down to work out any issues they have,” Rivera said.

Officials from the town and the MBTA scheduled a meeting last week to discuss concerns about the project’s impact on the town’s water supply.

Last month, the state Department of Environmental Protection approved a water quality certification waiver for the project, which included measures to protect the town’s water resources during construction and operation of the commuter rail line, but town officials argued that the waiver failed to take into account new information, that the town is approaching the state limit on daily water withdrawals.

Scituate officials said they are concerned that plans to discharge storm water runoff at the Greenbush station into a nearby river will contaminate and reduce the amount of water supplying the town’s aquifers.

“The board is absolutely concerned about the water supply,” Lane said. “We had to do something, even if it wasn’t correct, to preserve the water resources for Scituate.”

Town officials said they might have been able to move forward with the appeal if they had signed it on behalf of Scituate’s water commissioners, rather than the selectmen, because the water commissioners are not bound by the mitigation agreement; still, the selectmen voted to rescind the appeal at its meeting Tuesday night.

The board based its decision on an opinion issued by town’s counsel, but would not release a copy of the opinion until the MBTA and the DEP received confirmation that the appeal is withdrawn.

“It’s not important to me what avenue we take, as long as we protect the people,” said Selectman Joseph Norton.

Norton declined to comment when asked whether he believes that the MBTA would fully address concerns about the water supply without the legal teeth of an appeal.

Lane was more positive. He said, “I believe all of the people are competent to address these issues to our satisfaction.”

Rivera said the T is working to address the concerns of the communities through which the 18-mile Greenbush line will run. It is the third branch of the restored Old Colony Railroad.

The authority agreed a fortnight ago to install quadrant gates at five crossings along the South Shore transit line, adding about $3 million to the $479 million project. The MBTA had long opposed these four-arm gates, calling them untested and inappropriate technology – but several communities insisted on using the gates, which extend across the entire road at all four corners of a crossing, calling them the safest design when railroad tracks cut through town centers or residential neighborhoods that experience high levels of vehicular or foot traffic.

The T approved the gates at intersections in Weymouth, Braintree, and Cohasset, and at two intersections in Hingham.

Dozens of North Texas officials, including leaders from Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Johnson counties, agreed August 9 to a formal plan to build a six-county regional rail network stretching from Denton to Waxahachie and McKinney to Cleburne.

The $3.5 billion, 260-mile commuter rail network would require a half-cent sales tax increase for taxpayers in the counties involved, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The plan first must get the approval of the Texas Legislature and then be approved by voters.

The unanimous vote came during a meeting of the “Texas Transportation Summit.” At last year’s summit, many of the same leaders signed a pledge to work on solving the region’s transportation problems, especially its heavily congested highways.

The summit was prompted, in part, by a joint effort in the editorial pages of The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to push local leaders to come up with a plan to expand mass transit into their city’s rapidly growing suburban areas.

Critics say, however, that more freeways are the answer rather than mass transit – something they say most North Texans won’t use but always will have to subsidize.

Many North Texas cities already have a maximum 8.25 percent sales tax and adding a new transit tax along with the possibility of another sales tax to fund schools could be a hard sell, officials say.

Plans to bring light rail to Norfolk suffered a blow August 12 when Norfolk Southern Corp. ended negotiations to sell its Norfolk-Virginia Beach rail corridor to Hampton Roads Transit, saying the agency’s offer was too low to be taken seriously.

Norfolk’s Virginian Pilot reported the development could derail HRT’s proposal for a “starter” light rail line in Norfolk. More than half of the proposed route follows the Norfolk Southern freight line. The setback also could scuttle any chance of a future extension of the Norfolk line into Virginia Beach, as well as that city’s interest in potentially using the corridor for express buses.

Scott Chandler – Milepost318.com The western railroads passing though the plains states will soon see their trains hauling crops to market, adding to the congestion on the roads. An eastward Union Pacific grain train drops into Truckee, Calif., at the West Truckee Signal Bridge on July 2.

U.S. railroads are bracing for the fall peak season, which could test already strained resources after unprecedented volumes this year.

Reuters reported on August 18 shippers and regulators will closely monitor how the sector, vital to the economy because it delivers both raw materials and finished goods, handles the traditional peak season when crop harvests and shipments from abroad for the holiday retail season add to freight volumes.

Rail congestion has already hurt companies such as coal miners Arch Coal Inc. and Peabody Energy Corp., and further disruptions could sting many more, analysts said.

“The whole goal is for the transportation supply chain to bend, not break,” said Jason Seidl, analyst at Avondale Partners.

Volumes have surged as companies replenished inventories amid the economic recovery and as the weak dollar boosted imports, but the upswing has not been a windfall for everyone in the sector, which is also contending with high fuel prices.

Union Pacific Corp. and CSX Corp. have scrambled to hire more crew and buy equipment to cover shortages and alleviate bottlenecks. Poor returns on investment and slow revenue growth kept some railroads from spending on infrastructure in the past, and that is hurting them now.

Independent transportation analyst Anthony Hatch said operations seem to have stabilized – but the question is, what happens if they are hit by a big wave? He expects some delays and prioritizing of what business is taken, based perhaps on the margins.

Norfolk Southern Corp., which invested in tracks and stations a few years ago, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. have fared better than CSX and UP.

“There seems to be increasing divergence between two good performing railroads and two poor railroads,” said Standard & Poor’s transportation analyst Andrew West. “From an investor point, what good is a cyclical upturn if, when times should be good, your system isn’t able to handle it?”

The STB has asked railroads to outline their plans for the peak season, and the rails have said they are talking more to customers, boosting hiring, buying more equipment and reopening closed freight yards.

“Certainly, we have seen some improvement in the two railroads having the most difficulty – UP and CSX – and that has given me some hope things won’t get a lot worse,” said Roger Nober, STB chairman. “I’m not going to say we are out of the woods, but everything that can be done has been done.”

Kansas City Southern Ry. is buying Mexrail, Inc. from Grupo TMM for about $32.7 million. The sale will give KCS a controlling interest, at 51 percent stock ownership. The sale closed August 16.

KCS said it “will repay to TFM on or before January 1, 2005, certain advances from TFM in an amount of approximately $9 million and will pay to Grupo TMM at the closing outstanding payables of approximately $400,000.”

Mexrail wholly owns The Texas-Mexican Ry. Co. (Tex-Mex), a U.S. based shortline railroad that connects KCS with TFM, Mexico’s largest railroad, in terms of volume. The Mexrail shares will be placed in a voting trust pending regulatory approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) of KCS’s common control of Tex-Mex, KCSR, and the Gateway Eastern Ry. Co.

Under the agreement, KCS has an exclusive option to purchase the remaining 49 percent of Mexrail through October 31, 2005, and an absolute obligation to purchase those shares on or before October 31, 2005. KCS said it agreed to comply with all prior STB rulings concerning the international rail bridge between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo and to operate it under the terms of the applicable bridge agreements and protocols.

KCS had previously submitted an application to control Tex Mex, but that proceeding was suspended by the STB on October 8, 2003, following TFM’s repurchase of the Mexrail shares from KCS under the terms of an April 2003 agreement. KCS has notified the STB of the new agreement and has requested the STB to reinstate the procedural schedule and to move forward with its consideration of KCS’s application to control Tex Mex.

CSX Transportation has received nine bids for 530 miles of railroad, mostly in West Virginia. The line from Cumberland, Md., to Brooklyn Jct., just south of New Martinsville, is up for sale or lease. The bidding deadline was August 12.

CSX spokesman Gary Sease said smaller companies may be able to make the stretch of track more profitable, and CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington added the company hopes to have the bids evaluated by mid-September before the finalists are selected for further evaluation.

It’s possible that none of the bids will be accepted, at which point CSX would continue to operate the railroad, she told The AP. Sease said about 250 CSX employees may be affected by the lease or sale.

The Port of Anchorage has been added to a Defense Department list of strategic ports of departure, a designation port officials say could help secure federal funding for a large chunk of a $300 million expansion.

The Anchorage port is one of 15 with the military designation, which is given to those commercial ports that can support major force deployments, The AP reported on August 18.

The bottom line is it is good new for the Alaska Railroad.

The city-owned port is the main terminal for container ships carrying goods to Alaska, and will need to be able to accommodate larger ships, unload containers using bigger cranes and provide more berthing areas, proponents of the expansion say.

The first phase of the project calls for extending the port’s access road and building three railroad tracks and a train yard within the port’s boundaries.

Incoming containers and other cargo destined to be shipped by railroad now must be trucked three miles before they’re loaded onto flat cars.

That phase is meant to ease traffic congestion, speed freight shipments to the Interior and improve the port’s ability to process large shipments of heavy equipment for military deployments, Sheffield said.

The Army is transforming an infantry brigade throughout Alaska into a unit using new eight-wheeled Stryker fighting vehicles. So far, more than 100 Strykers have been delivered to Alaska, and all of them have crossed the port’s docks, said Army Maj. Tom Deakins, one of the officers in charge of setting up the new brigade.

Other strategic ports include San Diego and Tacoma on the West Coast, and the New York-New Jersey port complex, said John Randt, a spokesman for the Defense Department unit in charge of moving troops and gear by land and sea.

Goshen, Ind., police ticketed Norfolk Southern – not the crew – aboard a mile-long freight train for blocking a dozen city crossings for almost an hour as they awaited the arrival of a replacement crew on August 13. Under federal regulations, train operators cannot work more than 12 straight hours.

The engineer of a Norfolk Southern freight notified the company on Thursday that he was approaching 12 hours. He then parked the train that was moving through Goshen when he reached that limit, Police Sgt. Darrell Robinson said.

Another federal law states it’s unlawful to block a grade crossing for more than 10 minutes.

Traffic in the city about 30 miles east of South Bend had to find other routes and some semi-trucks that were unable to turn around, were trapped them, said Robinson, who wrote a ticket to the railroad company.

“It’s not that I have anything against the railroad, but when poor planning on their part shuts down our city, that makes me unhappy,” Robinson told The Truth of Elkhart. “If it had been a motorist blocking a crossing, I would’ve ticketed them.

“I can’t blame the engineer. He just ran out of time and had to stop,” Robinson said.

A Sioux Falls, S.D. federal judge last week barred the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad from using managers to fill crew positions on special passenger cars.

The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol on August 6, according to an AP report of August 16, who granted a preliminary injunction requested by the United Transportation Union. The union, which represents train service employees and locomotive engineers, claimed using managers violated its collective bargaining agreement with the Sioux Falls-based railroad.

The union said that on June 26, the railroad ran a crew of managers on a business car operation between Huron and Pierre. The same thing happened from June 27-29, court papers said.

The collective bargaining agreement “plainly only permits an engineer and a conductor, not a qualified manager, to perform the work on a train crew,” the document said.

Kevin Schieffer, president and CEO of the railroad, said the DM&E had leased and operated three business cars, used mainly for promotional purposes in connection with its proposal to build a 280-mile rail line to haul coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

No work was being taken away from the union, Schieffer said. The railroad is short of crewmembers during peak summer traffic, he said, adding that the union regularly complained that its members are overworked.

It will cost $1.2 billion to move much of the freight rail traffic that crawls through central Denver to a faster route on the plains east of the metro area, according to preliminary results of a rail relocation study obtained by The Denver Post.

Over the next 25 years, moving many freight trains out of the congested urban corridors of Denver and Colorado Springs could generate $2.3 billion in direct economic benefits for the Front Range and add 6,000 new jobs, the study shows, according to the Post.

Colorado DOT officials are expected to formally release details of the one-year, $500,000 rail relocation study in the coming weeks.

“We still have to verify the numbers,” said CDOT Executive Director Tom Norton, “but I’m excited about the positive nature of the findings and the willingness of the railroads to work with the state on a major economic investment in Colorado.”

The study said the $2.3 billion in economic benefits includes about $694 million in railroad operating efficiencies, $332 million in reduced auto and truck travel delays at railroad crossings, $118 million in rail efficiencies for the Colorado coal industry, and $245 million in air-quality savings.

Currently, southbound 100-car coal trains frequently creep through central Denver on their way to Texas and other locations in the Southwest.

Moving freight lines to the plains also could facilitate the future launch of regional passenger rail service linking the urban centers of Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

The Union Pacific line relocation as well as Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads, Colorado’s two principal rail freight haulers, still require detailed negotiations to determine how much money various parties will contribute to the move.

The railroads, CDOT, the Regional Transportation District, local governments and even private developers all may share a portion of the cost. Other elements of the $1.2 billion price tag include building new intermodal freight loading and distribution facilities and new train maintenance centers, officials said.

Norfolk Southern said on August 16 it is exchanging new unsecured NS debt securities for a portion of its 7.35 percent notes due May 15, 2007. The purpose of the exchange offer is to extend the maturity of a portion of such notes to September 17, 2014. NS stated “The exchange offer will expire at 5:00 p.m. EDT, on September 14, unless extended.

The terms require NS to exchange up to $400 million aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 7.35 percent notes due May 15, 2007, for new notes maturing on September 17, 2014, which will bear interest at a rate per annum equal the yield on the 4.25 percent U.S. Treasury Note due August 15, 2014, as of 2:00 p.m., EDT on the second business day prior to the expiration date. There are also other requirements. Merrill Lynch & Co. is managing the deal.

Freight traffic on U.S. railroads continued to run ahead of year-ago levels during the week ended August 14, the AAR reported Thursday.

Intermodal volume during the week totaled 219,156 trailers and containers, the fourth busiest week ever and 12.2 percent above the comparable week a year earlier, with container volume up 11.9 percent and trailer traffic up 12.9 percent.

Carload freight, which doesn't include the intermodal data, was also up for the week, totaling 342,262 units, up 2.2 percent from last year. Carload volume was up 4.1 percent in the West and was virtually the same as a year ago in the East. Total volume was estimated at 31.1 billion ton-miles, up 3.3 percent from the corresponding week last year.

Eleven of 19 carload commodity groups were up from last year, with coke up 11.2 percent; metallic ores up 10.8 percent; petroleum products up 10.1 percent; and coal up 3.3 percent. Among commodities showing declines were nonmetallic minerals, down 15.5 percent; grain mill products, off 11.0 percent, and grain, down 5.5 percent.

The AAR also reported the following cumulative totals for U.S. railroads during the first 32 weeks of 2004: 10,695,744 carloads, up 3.5 percent from last year; intermodal volume of 6,605,229 trailers or containers, up 9.5 percent; and total volume of an estimated 966.1 billion ton-miles, up 4.7 percent from last year’s first 32 weeks.

On Canadian railroads, during the week ended August 14 carload traffic totaled 65,381 cars, up 12.8 percent from last year while intermodal volume totaled 42,254 trailers or containers, up 6.3 percent from last year.

Cumulative originations for the first 32 weeks of 2004 on Canadian railroads totaled 2,133,334 carloads, up 8.9 percent from last year, and 1,326,150 trailers and containers, down 0.1 percent from last year.

Combined cumulative volume for the first 32 weeks of 2004 on 15 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 12,829,078 carloads, up 4.3 percent from last year and 7,931,379 trailers and containers, up 7.7 percent from last year.

The AAR also reported that originated carload freight on the Mexican railroad Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM) during the week ended August 14 totaled 8,779 cars, up 12.3 percent from last year. TFM reported intermodal volume of 4,315 originated trailers or containers, up 27.4 percent from the 32^nd week of 2003. For the first 32 weeks of 2004, TFM reported cumulative originated volume of 272,795 cars, down 0.1 percent from last year, and 115,076 trailers or containers, up 0.8 percent.

Railroads reporting to AAR account for 88 percent of U.S. carload freight and 95 percent of rail intermodal volume. When the U.S. operations of Canadian railroads are included, the figures increase to 95 percent and 100 percent. The Canadian railroads reporting to the AAR account for 90 percent of Canadian rail traffic.

Challenges [come] our way

For every month since the beginning of this year, Amtrak’s ridership has been the best ever, and we are on track to serve a record 25 million passengers this year. At the same time, however, this summer has brought a number of challenges our way – especially for our long-distance trains – unprecedented freight congestion and construction, a shortage of equipment and poor on-time performance.

I will be blunt. These things wear on all of us, most of all those of you on the front lines. Whether you are in on-board service, a call center or a service and inspection facility, it is painful to know that the Sunset Limited’s on-time performance for June was zero; that the long-distance trains’ overall OTP in June was 26 percent; that for all trains it was 64 percent. It has not been fair to our passengers or to those of you who serve them. No one wants to ride a train that’s constantly given to delays – or have to explain why.

We are doing some things to turn this around, but the changes won’t all come instantly.

I’ve been talking with the top executives at the freights to seek their help in getting our trains over their roads on schedule. It’s tough for them, though, as a lot of summer track work must be done and their networks are in a near-crisis state of dysfunction.

There are things here at our railroad that we can do, and will be doing. In Transportation, Ed Walker and his team have been taking steps to alleviate the problems, like canceling trains in circumstances where we know extraordinary delays will occur. We may also invoke other measures on some trains where we just can’t deliver the level of service we’re currently offering. In Mechanical, vice [-president] Nesci and others are making changes to increase our equipment availability. I hope by the time you read this those changes will have occurred. Scores of others throughout the company are doing their part as well.

In the meantime, as frustrating as these problems are, it is more important than ever to deliver to our passengers the best, most courteous service possible. I will never throw in the towel trying to fix our problems. Don’t give up on serving our passengers the best you know how. In many ways, this challenge is unprecedented, as our growing ridership is putting ever-greater strain on our ability to serve it. It is a problem we all recognize and share, and I am bound and determined to fix.