WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW
FOR THE WEEK ENDING Friday, June 29, 2007
BY: DAVE MEARS
(Posted by permission)
WEEKLY
RAIL REVIEW
FOR THE
7 DAYS ENDING FRI, JUNE 29, 2007
BY DAVE
MEARS
THE WEEK’S TOP RAIL AND TRANSIT
NEWS (in chronological order):
(MON) Another five unions joined
the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen in accepting the new
five-year contract negotiated between the National Carriers Conference
Committee and the Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition. The five unions are the Brotherhood of
Maintenance of Way Employees, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the International
Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, and the Sheet Metal Workers International
Association. The American Trains
Dispatchers Association rejected the national agreement and the United
Transportation Union is separately negotiating an agreement. Among other
provisions, the new contract raises pay 18.2 percent compounded over five years
and caps worker health care contributions. (ffd: Railway Age, wire services)
(MON) A federal judge approved an
agreement between Norfolk Southern and a pool of 480 persons
who claimed they suffered serious injuries as a result of the NS derailment and
toxic releases in Graniteville, SC
in January, 2005. The agreement gives people who
sought medical attention within three months of the derailment amounts from
$10,000 up to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on a number of
factors. The railroad has settled with
persons who had to evacuate or suffered property damage but were not seriously
injured, and has also settled with the families of nine persons killed as a
result of the crash. (ffd:
Aiken Standard)
(MON) To mark its 40th
anniversary as a passenger rail advocacy organization, the National Association
of Railroad Passengers proposed a notable expansion and modernization of the U.S. intercity passenger rail system. NARP’s plan
proposes a nationwide “grid and gateway” system to be put in place over the
next 40 years using "existing resources." The plan calls for increasing
intercity rail route miles from Amtrak’s current 22,000 to 45,000. Also and noting that there are currently 292
Metropolitan Statistical Areas and state capitals in the U.S., NARP’s plan calls for the number of these served by
intercity rail to increase from the current 134 to 237. (ffd: NARP)
(MON) Stating that it is trying to
remove the language barrier between its workers and those of its Kansas City
Southern de Mexico subsidiary, KCS said that it was offering a new web-based
program for learning the Spanish language.
A KCS spokesman said that the company has introduced an online language
learning center for English-speaking employees designed to teach them a
proficient level of Spanish over the course of six months. The spokesman added that KCS is also offering
one-hour language classes twice weekly at its corporate headquarters. (ffd: Progressive Railroading)
(TUE) Two Union Pacific freight
trains sideswiped each other approximately two miles west of Tama,
IA. At least one
locomotive and 42 cars were derailed in the accident,
the wreckage of which stretched out nearly one-quarter-mile. No
crewmembers were injured in the accident, the cause of which was still under
investigation at press time. (ffd:
wire services)
(MON) San Francisco, CA’s Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system reported that it
had carried its 100 millionth rider for Fiscal Year 2007. A BART spokesman said this marked the first
time that annual system ridership had surpassed the
100 million mark and that it occurred with five days still to go in the fiscal
year. The spokesman also noted that,
this past June 13, BART’s one-day weekday ridership total set an all-time record of 381,200
passengers. (ffd: BART,
Progressive Railroading)
(WED) New York City commuter rail and subway lines suffered power-related
delays. In mid-afternoon, an hour-long
blackout affecting parts of Manhattan and the Bronx caused a temporary shutdown
of the subway’s 4, 5, 6, D, E and V routes and, also, limited service on Metro
North rail lines north out of Grand Central Terminal. Later that evening, severe storms delayed
service on the Long Island Rail Road for more than two hours after floods caused signal
problems at the LIRR junction station at Jamaica in Queens. The New York Times
reported that Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station became so crowded at one point
that access to LIRR trains was closed off to new passengers between 8 and 10PM.
(ffd: New York Times, wire services)
(WED) Southern California’s Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority announced that
traffic on its Alameda Corridor rail freight line now has 54 freight trains
operating over it daily, an increase of nearly 200 percent from the time of the
line’s April, 2002 opening. The line
runs between the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach and railroad yards near
downtown on a multi-track and grade-separated right-of-way. An ACTA spokesman said that the Authority,
which managed the project’s construction and financing, will collect more than
$95 million in user fees and container charges from line use over the next 12
months. (ffd: Long Beach
Press Telegram)
(WED) New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority contracted to
replace the armrests on its new Class M-7 commuter rail cars now in service on
the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Railroad.
The railroads have received numerous complaints as well as monetary
claims from riders who have ripped their clothing on the armrests. An MTA spokesman said that the retrofit,
which would be performed on 826 LIRR and 336 MNRR M-7's, would cost $3.59
million. (ffd: Railway Age)
(THU) Two transit agencies that
must appeal to their respective state legislatures for funding planned fare
hikes and/or service cuts. Chicago, IL’s Regional Transportation Authority amended its budget to
make up for cash shortfalls. A RTA
spokesman said that, lacking $226 million in additional state funding, the
Chicago Transit Authority will have to increase peak fares to $2.75 for bus
rides and $3.25 for elevated and subway train rides, and commuter rail operator
METRA will need to increase fares 10 percent and continuing plans to reduce or
eliminate weekend trains and all weekday service after 9PM. In Pennsylvania, the board overseeing Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania
Transportation Authority voted to raise fares an average of 11 percent to help
address a $150 million cash shortfall. A
SEPTA spokesman said that, if the authority does not receive additional state
subsidies by September 2, it will have to raise fares an additional 24 percent,
implement a 20 percent across-the-board service reduction, and eliminate nearly
1,000 positions. (ffd: Chicago Tribune, Progressive Railroading)
(THU) Rail freight service resumed
to and from the New York City borough of Staten Island. Containers from
the new ExpressRail intermodal
facility at Staten
Island’s Howland Hook
Marine Terminal were loaded on flat cars for rail movement to western
destinations. The resumption of rail
service to and from Staten Island, which had been curtailed since 1991, was arranged for and
funded by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New York City Economic Development
Corporation. A spokesman for the two
agencies said that trains of city trash would soon depart Staten Island for out-of-state landfills. (ffd: Progressive Railroading,.RT&S)
(THU) Washington [DC’s]
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority approved a $1.9 billion budget for Fiscal
Year 2008. The budget includes $1.2
billion for operations and $731 million for capital expenditures, with the latter
including funds to rehabilitate older subway cars, escalators and elevators;
purchase 122 new subway cars; improvement maintenance and yard storage
facilities; and upgrade traction power to accommodate eight-car trains. (ffd: Progressive Railroading)
(THU) Canadian Pacific announced
that it would participate in e-Railsafe, a rail
industry initiative that undertakes background screening, credentialing and
tracking of railroad contractors and their employees. A CPR spokesman said that it will require its
contractors/vendors and their employees who operate at CPR and subsidiary
facilities in the U.S.
to comply with the program's requirements. CPR is the sixth railroad and
second Canadian railroad to join the e-Railsafe
program. (ffd: Progressive
Railroading)
(FRI) Protesters supporting the
“National Day Of Action” called for this date by the
First Nations tribal assembly disrupted some Canadian passenger and freight
rail services. Following reports of
armed protesters blocking Canadian National’s line between Toronto, ON and Montreal, PQ, CN temporarily suspended freight service on the line and
Via Rail Canada temporarily suspended passenger train services between Toronto and Montreal and between Toronto and Ottawa, ON. A CN spokesman
said that, although it had earlier obtained a court order barring occupation of
the rail line, the Ontario Provincial Police had refused to enforce the
order. In a related story, Canadian
Pacific ordered all its freight trains in Canada
to stop operation for one minute at 2PM this date in support of the First
Nations initiative. (ffd: Calgary Herald, Via Rail Canada, wire services)
(FRI) Union Pacific marked its 145th
anniversary. A UP spokesman noted that,
on July
1, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln
signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act, creating the Union Pacific and
Central Pacific Railroads, and chartering the two companies to link the country
from Omaha, NE to Sacramento, CA. The Central
Pacific later became the Southern Pacific, which was merged into the Union Pacific
system in the mid-1990s. Union Pacific
is one of the U.S.’s longest surviving corporate names. (ffd: UP Corp.)
STATS – TRAFFIC:
(NOTE: Canadian traffic includes
that on U.S. operations of Canadian-headquartered railroads.)
(THU) For the week ending June 23, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 34.3 billion ton-miles,
unchanged from the comparable week last year. U.S. carload rail traffic was down 0.8 percent, up 0.1 percent
in the East, but down 1.4 percent in the West.
Notable traffic increases included metallic ores up 35.7 percent,
petroleum products up 11.9 percent, and nonmetallic minerals up 8.8 percent;
notable traffic decreases included lumber and wood products down 15.9 percent
and crushed stone, sand and gravel down 12.7 percent. Also for the week, U.S. intermodal rail traffic was down
1.2 percent, Canadian carload rail traffic was up 1.9 percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 7.6 percent, Mexico’s Kansas City Southern de Mexico’s carload rail traffic
was down 0.9 percent, and KCSM’s intermodal
rail traffic was up 8.1 percent.
For the period January 1 through June 23, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 823.7 billion ton-miles, down
2.9 percent. Also for this period, U.S. carload rail traffic was down 4.1 percent, U.S. intermodal rail traffic was down
1.3 percent, Canadian carload rail traffic was down 0.7 percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 1.6 percent, KCSM’s carload rail traffic was down 4.9 percent, and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic
was up 10.7 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 22,
2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average total cars on line was
as follows: BNSF, 229,554 cars versus
224,679 cars; Canadian Pacific, 80,378 cars versus 81,722 cars; CSX, 225,406
cars versus 225,676 cars; Kansas City Southern, 27,851 cars versus 26,918 cars;
Norfolk Southern, 204,681 cars versus 202,526 cars; and Union Pacific, 309,722
cars versus 322,770 cars.
Also for the week ending June 22,
2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average train speed was as
follows: BNSF, 22.4 mph versus 22.6 mph; Canadian Pacific Railway, 24.3 mph versus
25.2 mph; CSX, 20.3 mph versus 19.1 mph; Kansas City Southern, 23.7 mph versus
24.6 mph; Norfolk Southern, 21.3 mph versus 21.1 mph; and Union Pacific, 21.6
mph versus 21.0 mph.
Finally for the week ending June
22, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average terminal dwell time
was as follows: BNSF, 23.9 hrs versus 24.4 hrs; Canadian Pacific Railway, 20.3
hrs versus 20.0 hrs; CSX, 23.5 hrs versus 25.5 hrs; Kansas City Southern, 20.9
hrs versus 21.6 hrs; Norfolk Southern, 22.0 hrs versus 22.4 hrs; and Union
Pacific, 24.4 hrs versus 27.2 hrs. (ffd:
AAR)
EXPANSIONS, CONTRACTIONS AND
ALIKE:
(MON) Shortline
and regional railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming announced that it
was terminating the operations of its Mexican railroad, the Ferrocarriles
Chiapas-Mayab S.A. de C.V. The railroad was severely damaged by
Hurricane Stan in Fall, 2005 and a G&W spokesman
said that its rail traffic has continued to decrease since the hurricane. “The uncertainty of the Chiapas reconstruction combined with the deterioration of our rail
traffic means that we can no longer justify absorbing financial losses or
making incremental investments,” added the spokesman. (ffd: G&W Corp., Progressive Railroading)
(TUE) CSX filed to abandon
approximately 14 miles of its Rupert Subdivision between Rupert Jct, WV and Clearco, WV. (ffd:
STB)
(THU) BNSF and a developer, Ridge
Property Trust, announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to
develop a new 2,000-acre, rail-served industrial park in Will County, IL. The announcement further stated that “certain
land [in the industrial park] is being considered for future transload operations and potential expansion of intermodal operations in the Chicago metro area.” (ffd:
BNSF Corp., RT&S)
(THU) Buffalo & Pittsburgh filed to discontinue service over approximately 36 miles
of line between Lawsonham, PA and Brookville, PA and over approximately 13 miles of line between Lawsonham, PA and Sligo, PA. The Pittsburg &
Shawmut remnant company, owners of the former, and Shannon Transport, owners of
the latter, concurrently filed to abandon these lines. (ffd: STB)
(THU) CSX filed to abandon
approximately 2 miles of its Muncie Belt line in Muncie, IN. (ffd: STB)
(THU) Rail car manufacturer and lessor Trinity Industries announced the formation of TRIP
Rail Holdings, which a Trinity spokesman said would be a new railcar leasing
and management service provider. The
spokesman added that, over the next two years, its TRIP subsidiary will
purchase about $1.4 billion worth of railcars from Trinity and Trinity
Industrial Leasing, and will manage and maintain those cars. (ffd: Railway Age)
(FRI) The Duluth, Winnipeg &
Pacific, the Duluth, Missabi & Iron Range, and
the Wisconsin Central concurrently filed to establish the following trackage rights, for purposes including improved
operations: DMIR over the DWP between Shelton Jct, MN
and Nopeming Jct, MN,
totaling approximately 60 miles; WC over the DWP between Nopeming
Jct, MN and Rainer, MN, totaling approximately 155
miles; DWP over the DMIR between Shelton Jct, MN and Nopeming Jct, MN, totaling
approximately 65 miles; WC over the DMIR between South Itasca, WI and Shelton Jct, MN, totaling approximately 81 miles; and DWP and DMIR
over the WC between South Itasca, WI and Fond du Lac,
WI, totaling aproximately 297 miles. (ffd: STB)
(FRI) Kansas City Southern filed to grant temporary overhead trackage rights to Union Pacific over approximately 285
miles of KCS’s line between Kansas City, MO and Godfrey, MO. The purpose of the
temporary trackage rights is to allow UP to perform program maintenance on its nearby lines. (ffd: STB)
APPOINTMENTS, ACHIEVEMENTS AND
MILESTONES:
(THU) Kansas City Southern appointed Thomas Naso
its AVP-Marketing-Intermodal & Automotive
Business Units. Mr. Naso
was most recently Senior Director-Intermodal of UPDS,
Union Pacific’s intermodal logistics subsidiary. (ffd: KCSR Corp.)
(THU) Shortline
holding company Patriot Rail appointed Stanley Wlotko
its SVP-Operations. Mr. Wlotko was most recently in charge of Patriot Rail’s
railroad operations and business development. (ffd: Patriot Rail Corp.)
*
* *
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
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BE SAFE AND PROSPER,
Dave Mears
Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA
Posted: 07/03/07