WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW

FOR THE WEEK ENDING Friday, July 13, 2007

BY: DAVE MEARS

(Posted by permission)

WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW

FOR THE 7 DAYS ENDING FRI, JULY 13, 2007

BY DAVE MEARS

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

(SAT) Massive wildfires in northern Nevada hampered rail operations in that area this date and the next several days. The fires caused delays to Union Pacific freight trains and also Amtrak’s “California Zephyr” train. The fires were brought under control later in the week. (ffd: NARP, wire services)

(SAT) BNSF suffered an on-duty employee fatality. Christopher Blackburn, Age 37 with 10 years’ railroad service, was fatally injured when he was run over by the train he was switching in Berry, AZ, near Kingman. Officials investigating the accident said that Mr. Blackburn was riding the point of a string of covered hoppers being pushed into a siding and that he apparently fell and was crushed under the wheels of the second car. (ffd: wire services)

(MON) Attorneys pursuing a lawsuit against Class 1 railroads over earlier fuel surcharges filed in federal court to have the lawsuit certified as a class action. The lawsuit alleges that BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific conspired to fix fuel surcharges artificially high. The lawsuit states that “the similarities are too precise and too comprehensive to have been arrived at independently.” The Surface Transportation Board earlier this year directed the methodology used to apply and administer fuel surcharges be revised, which resulted in several carriers opting to then apply them on a mileage basis. (ffd: Jacksonville Business Journal)

(MON) The Canadian Transportation Agency ordered Canadian National to create a program allowing one of its customers, Great Northern Grain Terminals, to place advance orders for blocks of 50 freight cars. The action responded to a complaint by the company alleging that CN discriminated against Great Northern in the distribution of freight cars, rendering it and other small grain handling companies uncompetitive in the marketing of grain. The complaint further suggested that CN’s car distribution practices favored 100-car order blocks. (ffd: Railway Age)

(MON) The PATCO subway line, which operates between Philadelphia, PA and Lindenwold, NJ, announced that it would spend $180 million over the next five years to rehabilitate its 121-car fleet. A PATCO spokesman said that “[the car’s] bodies are made of stainless steel so they will be around forever, [but] everything else will be replaced.” The spokesman noted that 75 of its cars were built by Budd in 1969 and that the remaining 46 were built by Canadian Vickers in 1980, and that both of these companies had since gone out of business, making it difficult for PATCO to find replacement car components. (ffd: Gloucester County Times)

(TUE) The Surface Transportation Board ruled related to the notable case of New England Transrail’s proposed new construction and demolition debris transload facilities in Wilmington, MA and Woburn, MA. The STB concluded that the NET’s proposal, if approved, would make it a rail carrier, but that part of NET’s plan involving shredding of construction and demolition debris would extend beyond the scope of rail transportation and therefore subject it to state and local regulation. However, the STB also concluded that other activities proposed by NET, such as loading, unloading, handling and storing, are defined in federal statute as being part of “transportation” and therefore fall within the STB’s exclusive jurisdiction. (ffd: RT&S, STB)

(WED) The U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved legislation funding $1.4 billion for Amtrak for Fiscal Year 2008. The House bill includes $50 million to match state intercity passenger rail investments. The next day, Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved legislation funding $1.375 billion for Amtrak for FY2008. The Senate bill includes $100 million to fund a federal/state matching program for development of state passenger rail corridors. Of interest to freight railroads, the Senate bill also includes a provision reducing Surface Transportation Board filing fees for certain challenges to freight rail shipping rates from $178,000 to $350. The bills now go to a House-Senate conference committee for reconciliation. (ffd: NARP, Railway Age)

(WED) Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and the Pennsylvania state legislature brokered a budget agreement providing Philadelphia, PA commuter rail and transit operator SEPTA $150 million in operating funding for the new fiscal year. A SEPTA spokesman said that the funding should be enough to avoid a threatened additional fare hike and severe service cuts. Also and in a possible answer to the long-standing want for sustained state funding of Pennsylvania transit systems, the budget agreement also calls for establishment of a transportation trust fund that in future years will give state transit agencies funding totaling more than $400 million annually. A spokesman for the governor said that the trust fund money is projected to come from existing Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls, new Interstate 80 tolls, and a 4.4 percent share of state sales taxes. (ffd: Progressive Railroading)

(WED) Amtrak President Alex Kummant testified before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Amtrak’s capital needs. Responding to committee members wanting to know how Northeast Corridor speeds could be increased so as to be comparable to those of European high-speed rail systems, Mr. Kummant said that, even with a $7 billion investment, the travel times between Washington, DC and New York, NY could only be improved by about 25 minutes, due to the highly urbanized and built-up nature of the region the NEC operates in. Mr. Kummant went on to say that he considers the most critically needed NEC improvements to be replacing its aging infrastructure, including the catenary network, the tunnels in Baltimore and New York, and several key bridges. (ffd: wire services)

(WED) New Jersey Transit’s board of directors approved a $1.6 billion operating budget and a $1.3 billion capital budget for Fiscal Year 2008. The capital budget includes $100 million to advance the building of two additional rail tunnels under the Hudson River, $85 million for track and bridge improvements, $57 million for station improvements, and $22 million toward replacing Amtrak’s Portal Bridge near Newark, NJ. Also this date, NJT announced that it had record ridership in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2007. A NJT spokesman said that commuter rail ridership totaled 73 million, an increase of 6 percent over FY2006, and that light rail ridership totaled 18.8 million, an increase of 22.4 percent over FY2006. Concerning the latter, the spokesman noted last year’s opening of two new stations on the Hudson-Bergen Line and the extension of the Newark City Subway to Broad Street. (ffd: NJ Transit, Progressive Railroading)

(WED) Amtrak announced the introducing of its next generation of Quik-Trak self-service ticketing machines. An Amtrak spokesman said that the new machines feature upgraded touch screens and brighter graphics, and are also ADA-compliant. The spokesman added that, when installation is complete, the number of available Quik-Trak machines will increase from a total of 176 in 67 stations to a total of more than 300 in 150 stations. (ffd: Amtrak)

(THU) New Long Island Rail Road President Helena Williams said that she has set as a goal the elimination of what she calls “nonspeak” train status announcements. Ms. Williams said that wants such announcements made by LIRR personnel to be of a more direct and understandable nature. Saying that the ubiquitous “signal problems” description especially irks her, she said, “I want to be specific…If Amtrak has a train in the tunnel [causing delay], I want to say Amtrak has a train in the tunnel.” (ffd: Newsday)

(FRI) The Railroad Retirement Board submitted its annual report to Congress concerning the solvency of the railroad retirement trust fund. The report said that total assets equaled $30.6 billion and that “barring a sudden, unanticipated, large decrease in railroad employment or substantial investment losses, the railroad retirement system will experience no cash-flow problems during the next 25 years.” The report went on to say that the fund had an investment return of approximately 14.4 percent for 2006, compared with an originally expected return of 7.5 percent. (ffd: RRB)

STATS – TRAFFIC:

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

(THU) For the week ending July 7, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 29.6 billion ton-miles, down 2.3 percent from the comparable week last year. U.S. carload rail traffic was down 3.6 percent, down 3.3 percent in the East and down 3.9 percent in the West. Also for the week, U.S. intermodal rail traffic was down 0.7 percent, Canadian carload rail traffic was down 1.0 percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 3.1 percent, Mexico’s Kansas City Southern de Mexico’s carload rail traffic was down 8.3 percent, and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic was up 17.7 percent.

For the period January 1 through July 7, 2007, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 887.5 billion ton-miles, down 2.8 percent from the comparable period last year. Also for the week, 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 1.7 percent, KCSM’s carload rail traffic was down 4.8 percent, and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic was up 10.6 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.)

(ADDITIONAL NOTE: These statistics published in the last edition were mentioned as being for the week ending July 3. In fact, they were for the week ending June 29. The below statistics are for the week ending July 6.)

(WED) For the week ending July 6, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average total cars on line was as follows: BNSF, 231,943 cars versus 222,676 cars; Canadian Pacific, 81,257 cars versus 81,213 cars; CSX, 221,386 cars versus 227,160 cars; Kansas City Southern, 27,743 cars versus 26,224 cars; Norfolk Southern, 202,886 cars versus 203,474 cars; and Union Pacific, 311,346 cars versus 322,185 cars.

Also for the week ending July 6, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average train speed was as follows: BNSF, 23.1 mph versus 23.6 mph; Canadian Pacific Railway, 23.0 mph versus 25.7 mph; CSX, 21.0 mph versus 19.0 mph; Kansas City Southern, 24.9 mph versus 24.5 mph; Norfolk Southern, 22.3 mph versus 21.8 mph; and Union Pacific, 21.4 mph versus 21.3 mph.

Finally for the week ending July 6, 2007 and versus the comparable week last year, average terminal dwell time was as follows: BNSF, 24.8 hrs versus 24.5 hrs; Canadian Pacific Railway, 20.2 hrs versus 20.1 hrs; CSX, 24.2 hrs versus 27.6 hrs; Kansas City Southern, 24.2 hrs versus 21.3 hrs; Norfolk Southern, 23.2 hrs versus 24.6 hrs; and Union Pacific, 25.5 hrs versus 28.0 hrs. (ffd: AAR)

STILL MORE STATS – SAFETY:

(THU) The Federal Railroad Administration reported a general decline in accidents and injuries on U.S. railroads the first four months of this year, compared with the first four months last year. Highway-rail grade crossing crash fatalities dropped 10.3 percent to 105 and trespasser fatalities dropped 6.8 percent to 137. However, there were four on-duty employee fatalities through April this year compared with three through April last year. The total number of FRA-reportable accidents and incidents dropped 8.3 percent to 3,910. (ffd: FRA, Railway Age)

EXPANSIONS, CONTRACTIONS AND ALIKE:

(MON) The Surface Transportation Board approved Caldwell County Railroad’s earlier request to discontinue service over approximately 6 miles of Norfolk Southern’s HG Line between Lenoir, NC and Valmead, NC. (ffd: STB)

(MON) Pam Am Railways filed to abandon approximately 2 miles of former Boston & Maine line in Haverhill, MA. (ffd: STB)

(MON) Railroad Development Corporation announced that it would end its operation of Guatemala’s national railroad, the Ferrovias Guatemala, effective October 1. In announcing the end of rail service, RDC Chairman Henry Posner III noted problems including “an inability to obtain credit; an increase in squatters of all types, ranging from families to private companies; judicial interference; and police indifference and neglect,” which he said was representative “of the [Guatemalan] Government’s determination to put us out of business.” (ffd: Los Angeles Times, RDC Corp.)

(THU) BNSF filed to abandon approximately one mile of line near Portland, OR. (ffd: STB)

(THU) Norfolk Southern and shortline conglomerate Watco Companies announced the formation of the Michigan Central Railway. A spokesman said that the new regional railroad will operate NS lines between Ypsilanti, MI and Kalamazoo, MI, between Jackson, MI and Lansing, MI, and between Grand Rapids, MI and Elkhart, IN, totaling 384 miles. The railroad will also have trackage rights over the Amtrak-owned line between Kalamazoo, MI and the Michigan-Indiana state line. The spokesman added that the railroad was expected to be in operation by the First Quarter, 2008. (ffd: NS Corp.)

(FRI) CSX granted Indiana Rail Road selected overhead trackage rights over CSX’s line between Terre Haute, IN and Sullivan, IN, totaling approximately 23 miles. Concurrently, Indiana Rail Road granted CSX selected overhead trackage rights over approximately 7 miles of INRD line in Terre Haute, IN. In their filings, the two companies said that the trackage rights would improve traffic flow and interchange between the two companies. (ffd: STB)

APPOINTMENTS, ACHIEVEMENTS AND MILESTONES:

(MON) Kansas City Southern appointed Daniel Hall its AVP-Business Solutions & IT. Mr. Hall was most recently KCSR’s Director-Business Solutions Delivery. KCSR also appointed Richard Stones its AVP-Technology Solutions. Mr. Stones was most recently KCSR’s Director-Enterprise Solutions. (ffd: KCS Corp., Progressive Railroading)

(FRI) The U.S. Senate reconfirmed the following appointments to the Railroad Retirement Board: Michael Schwartz as Chairman, Jerry Kever as Carrier Member, and V.M. Speakman as Labor Member. Mr. Schwartz has been on the Board since 2003, and Mr. Kever and Mr. Speakman have been on the Board since 1992. (ffd: RRB)

CORRECTION:

In last week’s edition, I mentioned Amtrak’s “Heartland Flyer” train as operating between Dallas, TX and Oklahoma City, OK. In fact, the train’s Texas origin is Fort Worth. Thanks here to the sharp eye of WRR Reader Charles “Stace” Robinson.

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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 receive it, with my compliments.

BE SAFE AND PROSPER,

Dave Mears

Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA

Posted: 07/16/07