WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW

FOR THE WEEK ENDING Friday, June 22, 2007

BY: DAVE MEARS

(Posted by permission)

WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW

FOR THE 7 DAYS ENDING FRI, JUNE 22, 2007

BY DAVE MEARS

THE WEEK’S TOP RAIL AND TRANSIT NEWS (in chronological order):

(MON) The U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee further amended the much-watched bill proposing the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007. The amendment would require railroads to specify track, rolling stock, grade crossing and other infrastructure investments made in a previous year and planned for the coming year. On Wednesday, Committee Member John Boozman (R-AR) withdrew his amendment to the proposed Transportation Energy Security and Climate Change Mitigation Act of 2007 that would have made Amtrak’s right of access to railroad lines subject to route-by-route findings by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Mr. Boozman had earlier asked the Government Accountability Office to study the matter of access, noting in a letter to colleagues that “we don’t need a passenger train with a handful of passengers delaying freight trains.” On Thursday, the T&I Committee approved and sent to the full House the proposed Federal Railroad Improvement Act of 2007. Included in the bill’s provisions is $18 million for a new training facility at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, CO that would have a tunnel for training emergency workers in the handling of accidents and terrorist attacks on rail and transit lines running underground. (ffd: NARP, Progressive Railroading, wire services)

(WED) Study results were released that concluded that building a 1,600-mile rail line connecting Alaska, Canada’s Yukon Territory and the U.S.'s lower 48 states would cost approximately $10.5 billion. The project’s potential net revenues totaled $7.8 billion and its net public benefits totaled $11.4 billion, according to the study. The study examined the construction of a rail line from a Canadian National route in northern British Columbia, running through Yukon to an Alaska Railroad line and a White Pass & Yukon line. (ffd: Progressive Railroading, RT&S)

(WED) Amtrak and Union Pacific announced a joint agreement specifying the maximum number of minutes Amtrak trains may be delayed on tracks being repaired by the Union Pacific. An Amtrak spokesman said that the agreement was the first such contract between Amtrak and a host railroad mandating a specific process for carrying out track repairs and taking schedules into account. In announcing the agreement, Amtrak also reported which railroads hosted the most Amtrak train miles during the past fiscal year: BNSF at 6.5 million train-miles, CSX at 5.5 million train-miles; and Union Pacific at 5.4 million train-miles. (ffd: Amtrak, NARP)

(THU) San Francisco, CA’s Bay Area Rapid Transit unveiled an initial 50-year plan to expand subway service. The plan’s key element is an additional tunnel underneath San Francisco Bay, which would allow the doubling of the number of BART transbay trains. The plan also suggests new lines, including one to the west side of San Francisco and the Presidio, another to Emeryville, the extension of the Richmond line to North Hercules, another directly linking Martinez and San Jose, and the extension of the Dublin-Pleasanton line to Livermore. (ffd: Trains)

(THU) The president of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern said that private investors were stepping forward and predicted that the railroad would begin construction next year on about 200 miles of new line accessing Wyoming’s Powder River Basin coal fields. “There are a lot of non-carrier [capital] funds extremely ready, willing, and able to invest in this,” said DM&E President Kevin Schieffer. He added that, “While I would never say never to beginning construction this summer, next year will be the first major year of construction.” (ffd: Trains, wire services)

(THU) Canadian National ordered 65 new locomotives for delivery later this year and next year. A CN spokesman said that it had ordered 40 Class ES44DC units from GE Transportation Rail and 25 Class SD70M-2 units from Electro-Motive Diesel. (ffd: CN Corp., Railway Age)

(THU) The Port of New York & New Jersey announced that it would conduct its business with greater openness. A PANYNJ spokesman said that the agency would change the way it awards contracts, works with lobbyists, and makes decisions affecting the airports, bridges, ports and tunnels it operates, to allow for greater public knowledge and scrutiny. The spokesman added that the governors of New York and New Jersey concurred with and helped prosper the changes. Each state has existing laws intended to reduce secrecy in government, but those laws have not heretofore applied to the bi-state Port Authority. (ffd: New York Times)

(THU) New Jersey Transit announced that the rehabilitation of its Hoboken, NJ terminal building is proceeding on schedule. A NJT spokesman said that reconstruction work will include the restoration of the terminal's 120-foot-tall clock tower and the rebuilding of five of its long-idle ferry slips, the latter for use by the several new cross-Hudson ferries. The spokesman said that the project’s cost is expected to total approximately $115 million and that work is expected to be complete by the summer of 2009. (ffd: Jersey Journal)

(FRI) The History Channel cable network announced that it would air a new documentary, “Railroad Boneyards,” on Thursday, June 28 at 9PM. A History Channel press release said that the show would report on “…imaginative entrepreneurs [who] have found new and innovative uses for every single component of railroads, from tracks and ties to the trains themselves.” The History Channel repeats its evening programming four hours after initial airing, so the show will be repeated Friday, June 29 at 1AM. (ffd: The History Channel)

STATS – TRAFFIC:

(NOTE: Canadian traffic includes that on U.S. operations of Canadian-headquartered railroads.)

(THU) For the week ending June 16, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 34.5 billion ton-miles, down 1.1 percent from the comparable week last year. U.S. carload rail traffic was down 1.8 percent, down 2.4 percent in the East and down 1.3 percent in the West. Notable traffic increases included nonmetallic minerals up 9.0 percent and petroleum products up 6.6 percent; notable traffic decreases included lumber and wood products down 18.0 percent and metals down 14.5 percent. Also for the week, U.S. intermodal rail traffic was down 2.3 percent, Canadian carload rail traffic was up 3.7 percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 1.8 percent, Mexico’s Kansas City Southern de Mexico’s carload rail traffic was down 14.1 percent, and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic was up 1.3 percent. In reporting these totals, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads noted that U.S. carload traffic here reaches its highest weekly level so far this year and U.S. intermodal traffic here reaches its second highest level so far this year.

For the period January 1 through June 16, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 789.4 billion ton-miles, down 3.0 percent from the comparable period last year. Also for this period, U.S. carload rail traffic was down 4.3 percent, U.S. intermodal rail traffic was down 1.3 percent, Canadian carload rail traffic was down 0.8 percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 1.3 percent, KCSM’s carload rail traffic was down 5.0 percent, and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic was up 10.8 percent. (ffd: AAR)

MORE STATS – OPERATING PERFORMANCE:

(NOTE: Effective October 1, 2005, railroads that had been furnishing operating 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 June 15, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average total cars on line was as follows: BNSF, 227,635 cars versus 224,395 cars; Canadian Pacific, 81,469 cars versus 81,817 cars; CSX, 223,229 cars versus 223,347 cars; Kansas City Southern, 27,460 cars versus 26,957 cars; Norfolk Southern, 205,720 cars versus 203,690 cars; and Union Pacific, 310,133 cars versus 322,208 cars.

Also for the week ending June 15, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average train speed was as follows: BNSF, 23.0 mph versus 22.5 mph; Canadian Pacific Railway, 23.5 mph versus 25.3 mph; CSX, 20.6 mph versus 19.5 mph; Kansas City Southern, 24.4 mph versus 24.4 mph; Norfolk Southern, 21.3 mph versus 21.3 mph; and Union Pacific, 21.8 mph versus 21.3 mph.

Finally for the week ending June 15, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average terminal dwell time was as follows: BNSF, 22.4 hrs versus 24.0 hrs; Canadian Pacific Railway, 19.5 hrs versus 19.2 hrs; CSX, 23.1 hrs versus 24.6 hrs; Kansas City Southern, 19.7 hrs versus 21.6 hrs; Norfolk Southern, 22.3 hrs versus 22.4 hrs; and Union Pacific, 24.3 hrs versus 26.4 hrs. (ffd: AAR)

EXPANSIONS, CONTRACTIONS AND ALIKE:

(MON) Union Pacific filed to abandon approximately 3 miles of its Barber Greene Spur in DeKalb County, IL. (ffd: STB)

APPOINTMENTS, ACHIEVEMENTS AND MILESTONES:

(THU) New York Governor Eliot Spitzer nominated H. Dale Hemmerdinger as the next chairman of the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Mr. Hemmerdinger is most recently the president of The Hemmerdinger Corporation, a New York City-based real estate development company. (ffd: Progressive Railroading)

CORRECTION (Yikes! The third in three weeks!)

In my June 15 edition, I referred to the new 21.2-mile Loetschberg Tunnel under the Swiss Alps as “now the world’s longest rail tunnel.” I appreciate WRR Readers Tony Bailey and John Brandon noting that this is an incorrect statement. John additionally replied, “The New Loetschberg Base Tunnel is the world’s third longest, after the 33.5-mile Seikan Tunnel [in Japan] and the 31.5-mile [English] Channel Tunnel. The Loetschberg is the longest tunnel under land, thus exceeding London Underground’s 17.3 mile Northern Line tunnel from East Finchley to Morden via Bank, which had held the record since 1939.”

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Weekly Rail Review (WRR) is edited from public news sources and published weekly to those working in, or interested in, rail and transit. Send an e-mail to weeklyrailreview@aol.com to <mailto:weeklyrailreview@aol.com>receive it, with my compliments.

BE SAFE AND PROSPER,

Dave Mears

Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA

Posted: 0625/07