WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW
FOR THE WEEK ENDING Friday, Feb. 23, 2007
BY: DAVE MEARS
(Posted by permission)
THE WEEK’S TOP
RAIL AND TRANSIT NEWS (in chronological order):
(MON) Amtrak
submitted a funding request to Congress of $1.53 billion for Fiscal Year
2008, which commences October 1, 2007.
The request includes $485 million in operating subsidy, the amount it
received for FY2007 and FY2006, and $760 million for capital improvements, an
increase from the $675 million for FY2007, which the railroad said reflected
the need for infrastructure investment, especially on its Northeast Corridor
Line. In its request, Amtrak noted that
it had improved efficiencies and increased revenues since 2005 and that its
long-term debt had fallen from nearly $4 billion in 2002 to less than $3.5
billion currently. (ffd:
wire services)
(MON) Concerns
representing constituencies in and near Rochester, MN continued their efforts in opposition to
the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern’s $2.3 billion
RRIF loan application, now in the final stages of consideration by the Federal
Railroad Administration. Minnesota’s two senators, Norm Coleman (R-MN) and
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), introduced legislation that
would prevent the FRA from making any loan of $1 billion or more without
congressional approval. On Tuesday, the
Mayo Clinic and the city of Rochester, MN filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court
seeking public disclosure of various DM&E financial records. The DM&E is seeking the federal loan to
finance its expansion westward to serve Wyoming’s Powder River Basin coal fields. (ffd: Progressive Railroading, wire services)
(MON) The New
Mexico Department of Transportation announced that a future extension of its
Rail Runner commuter rail service would be built in the median of I-25. State authorities making the announcement
said that they hoped to have the extension, to Santa Fe, in service by 2010. Rail Runner trains currently operate over a
50 mile route between Belen and Bernalillo, through Albuquerque. (ffd:
NARP, RT&S)
(TUE) Two
commuter rail agencies announced ridership increases
for 2006. Chicago commuter rail operator METRA said that
it had nearly 80 million passenger trips in 2006, a 5.2 percent increase
compared with 2005 and a new record. A
METRA spokesman said that its busiest line is its former Burlington line operating between Chicago and Aurora, IL, which had nearly 16 million trips. In New York State, the Long Island Railroad announced it
had 82.1 million passenger trips in 2006, a 2.4 percent increase compared with
2005. A LIRR spokesman added that its
trains had 93.3 percent on-time performance in 2006, its best performance in
four years. (ffd: Newsday,
Progressive Railroading)
(TUE) Freight
car builder FreightCar America debuted what it called “the first hybrid
coal car ever made” at its shops in Roanoke, VA. A
company spokesman said that the car, the first of 1,200 to be manufactured for Norfolk Southern, combines conventional steel,
stainless steel and aluminum to produce a coal car with greater carrying
capacity than those in the existing NS coal car fleet. The spokesman added that the car’s
construction and design also allows coal frozen into the car in wintertime to
be thawed out more efficiently for dumping. (ffd: Roanoke Times)
(WED) A U.S. district court threw out $2.5 million in
fines levied by the State of New Jersey against the New York, Susquehanna & Western for what
the state said were improperly operated waste transfer facilities. In her decision, U.S. District Judge Katharine
Hayden said that NJ’s more stringent state environmental regulations are
preempted by federal regulation of the railroad and per the 1996 Interstate
Commerce Termination Act. A spokesman
for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection said that it would
appeal the ruling. (ffd: Bergen Record, wire services)
(WED) A Norfolk Southern freight train collided into the
side of another on the NS main line in Goshen, IN.
The accident injured a crew member, damaged the colliding train’s diesel
locomotives, and derailed 14 cars. A NS
spokesman said that the westbound train was crossing from one track to another
when it was struck by the eastbound train. (ffd: Goshen News, wire services)
(THU) The
Surface Transportation Board announced that it would temporarily suspend most
business between February 28 and March 4.
The STB said that this was due to the agency’s planned relocation during
that time from K Street in Northwest Washington, DC to 395 E Street
in Southwest Washington.
Following their relocation, the STB’s main
telephone number will be 1.202.245.0245. (ffd:
STB)
(FRI) The strike
by the United Transportation Union against Canadian National entered its third
week. Developments,
some of which were of an unusual nature, included Canadian UTU leader Rex
Beatty urging striking workers to return to work on Monday. However and later on Monday, Mr. Beatty and
three other Canadian UTU leaders were removed from their positions by the UTU
International's board of directors. A
UTU spokesman said that the move was taken as a result of the Canadian UTU
leaders having “engaged in an unauthorized strike” and further alleged that
they had engaged in unauthorized negotiations to affiliate with the Teamsters
union. On Friday, Canadian Labor
Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn introduced legislation to force strikers back to
work. Although the strike does not
involve CN U.S. operations, several Canadian customers
or their representatives have reported effects from the strike, including Ford
Motor, which idled its St. Thomas plant because of interruptions in parts
coming via CN. (ffd:
Bloomberg News, Toronto Globe & Mail)
(FRI) A detailed
audit by the Illinois Auditor General criticized the state’s Regional
Transportation Authority. In his report,
Illinois Auditor General William Holland called for a top-down overhaul of RTA,
including its Chicago Transit Authority, saying that it was a “broken-down,
financially-stressed system.” Problems
highlighted by the report include underfunded
employee pensions on the CTA, transit salaries and benefits that are among the
highest in the nation, rampant absenteeism, and a lack of adequate central
planning. (ffd: Chicago Tribune)
(FRI) In an
interview with the New York Times, Amtrak VP-Operations Bill Crosbie said that an exhaustive analysis of the May 25,
2006 Northeast Corridor electrical outage had revealed that a four-year-old
computer installed to protect against electrical overloads had failed to
operate as intended, causing a systematic overload and shutdown of electrical
power on the line. Compounding the
problem was that some power distribution devices that were shut down could not
be restarted until they received power themselves and also could not be
restarted remotely. The outage, which
occurred during the May 25 morning rush hour, stranded 112 trains on the line,
including some in Amtrak's Hudson River tunnels. (ffd: NARP, New York Times)
STATS – TRAFFIC:
(NOTE: Canadian
traffic includes that on U.S. operations of Canadian-headquartered
railroads.)
(THU) For the
week ending February 17, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 30.9 billion
ton-miles, down 4.0 percent from the comparable week last year. U.S. carload rail traffic was down 5.0
percent, down 9.9 percent in the East, which experienced harsh winter weather
that week, and down 1.1 percent in the West.
Notable traffic increases included coke up 18.2 percent and nonmetallic
minerals up 13.8 percent; notable traffic decreases included lumber and wood
down 28.4 percent, metallic ores down 24.3 percent, and primary forest products
down 24.1 percent. Also for the week, U.S. intermodal
rail traffic was down 2.2 percent, Canadian carload rail traffic was down 13.5
percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 1.4
percent, Mexico’s Kansas City Southern de Mexico’s
carload rail traffic was up 6.2 percent, and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic was up 7.8 percent.
For the period
January 1 through February 17, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 220.2 billion
ton-miles, down 5.2 percent from the comparable week last year. Also for this period U.S. carload rail traffic was down 6.3
percent, U.S. intermodal
rail traffic was down 1.3 percent, Canadian carload rail traffic was down 4.8
percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 0.1
percent, KCSM’s carload rail traffic was down 8.7
percent, and KCSM’s intermodal
rail traffic was up 9.9 percent. (ffd:
AAR)
MORE STATS –
OPERATING PERFORMANCE:
(NOTE: Effective
October 1, 2005, railroads that had been furnished operating and performance statistics to the
Association of American Railroads began applying a new standardized
definitional framework, aimed at eliminating differences in calculation
methodology. Concurrent with but
unrelated to these changes, Canadian National elected to no longer furnish
these statistics.)
(WED) For the
week ending February 16, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average
total cars on line was as follows: BNSF,
225,170 cars versus 221,766 cars; Canadian Pacific, 79,775 cars versus 79,487
cars; CSX, 225,389 cars versus 225,358 cars; Kansas City Southern, 29,095 cars
versus 27,763 cars; Norfolk Southern, 207,407 cars versus 205,356 cars; and
Union Pacific 327,570 cars versus 328,742 cars.
Also for the
week ending February 16, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average
train speed was as follows: BNSF, 23.1 mph versus 21.6 mph; Canadian Pacific
Railway, 23.1 mph versus 25.2 mph; CSX, 19.1 mph versus 19.4 mph; Kansas City
Southern, 23.0 mph versus 21.0 mph; Norfolk Southern, 19.9 mph versus 21.6 mph;
and Union Pacific, 21.3 mph versus 21.1 mph.
Finally for the
week ending February 16, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average
terminal dwell time was as follows: BNSF, 25.8 hrs versus 25.4 hrs; Canadian
Pacific Railway, 25.9 hrs versus 20.9 hrs; CSX, 25.8 hrs versus 26.7 hrs;
Kansas City Southern, 25.9 hrs versus 29.0 hrs; Norfolk Southern, 24.2 hrs
versus 24.5 hrs; and Union Pacific, 29.0 hrs versus 29.3 hrs. (ffd: AAR)
EXPANSIONS,
CONTRACTIONS AND ALIKE:
(FRI) Missouri’s
Chillicothe-Brunswick Rail Authority filed to discontinue service over
approximately 38 miles of line between Chillicothe,
MO and Brunswick,
MO. (ffd: STB)
(FRI) Missouri
North Central Railroad filed to discontinue service over approximately 30 miles
of line between Norville,
MO and Kelly,
MO. (ffd: STB)
(FRI) Norfolk
Southern filed to abandon approximately 1 mile of former CNO&TP line in
Rockwood, TN. (ffd: STB)
APPOINTMENTS,
ACHIEVEMENTS AND MILESTONES:
(WED) BNSF
announced that EVP-Public Affairs Jeffrey Moreland would retire later this
year. A BNSF spokesman said that a
successor would be named at a later date. (ffd: STB)
(THU) The
Maryland Transit Administration appointed Paul Wiedefeld
its chief administrator, succeeding Lisa Dickerson, who resigned earlier this
month. Mr. Wiedefeld
was most recently a SVP with Parsons Brinckerhoff and
was earlier the executive director of the Maryland Aviation
Administration. MTA also appointed
Kathryn Waters its deputy administrator for operations. Ms. Waters was
earlier the senior manager of MTA’s MARC commuter
rail service. (ffd:
Progressive Railroading)
(FRI) The
Transportation Communication Union announced the passing of Richard Kilroy. Mr. Kilroy, who started in railroading in 1945 as a block
operator for the former Pennsylvania Railroad, was TCU’s
International President from 1981 to 1991. (ffd: Progressive Railroading)
* * *
Weekly Rail
Review is edited from public news sources and published weekly to those working
in, or interested in, rail and transit.
Send an e-mail to receive
it, with my compliments.
BE SAFE AND
PROSPER,
Dave Mears
Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA
Posted: 02/26/07