WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, Sept. 2, 2006
BY: DAVE MEARS
(Posted by permission)
WEEKLY RAIL REVIEW
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SAT,
SEPTEMBER 2, 2006
BY DAVE MEARS
(NOTE: Getting back
on schedule, a little later than earlier intended, but still hoping to be back
on schedule by the end of the week.)
THE WEEK’S TOP RAIL
AND TRANSIT NEWS (in chronological order):
(SUN) Norfolk Southern confirmed an on-duty employee
fatality the previous Friday. Thomas
Myers was killed while switching cars in NS’s Calumet Yard in Chicago, IL. Mr. Myers had been with NS
since March, 1999. (ffd: Chicago Tribune, wire services)
(SUN) St. Louis light rail operator MetroLink began service
on its new Cross County Extension. The
new line, totaling approximately 8 miles in length, extends MetroLink light
rail service from the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station to Shrewsbury, MO. The extension includes 9 new
stations. (ffd: Progressive Railroading, RT&S)
(SUN) Nine Union
Pacific locomotives derailed on the UP main line through San Timoteo Canyon in Riverside County, California. The engineer and conductor of
the train, a light move of locomotives without cars, received minor injuries in
the accident. A UP spokesman said that
the locomotives derailed on a curve and that this may have been the result of
excessive speed. The spokesman added
that two of the locomotives were able to depart the accident site under their
own power, two were towed, and that the remaining five would be loaded up.
(ffd: Riverside Daily Bulletin)
(MON) California’s Capitol Corridor intercity train services
were increased effective this date. The
number of weekday trains operating between Sacramento and Oakland was increased from 24 to 32, and the number
of trains traveling as far south as San Jose was increased to 14. The service is funded and managed by California’s Capitol Corridor Powers Authority and
operated by Amtrak. (ffd: Sacramento Business Journal)
(MON) Philadelphia transit operator SEPTA resumed train service
on its Market Street Elevated Line between 51st Street and 62nd Street. The
line segment had been closed for 16 days for rebuilding work, which will
continue, but with only some weekend closures of this line segment from now
through the end of the year. The project
to rebuild the “El”, which opened in 1907, includes reconstruction of 5
stations and replacement of over 2 miles of the existing elevated structure
between Millbourne and 46th Street with a new single column bent structure, which a SEPTA spokesman said
“will open up Market Street and significantly improve the flow of
[vehicular] traffic.” (ffd: SEPTA)
(TUE) Amtrak
temporarily curtailed operation of some segments of its intercity train
services south of Washington,
DC. The
curtailment affected trains in the path of Tropical Storm Ernesto. Amtrak resumed most of these services by the
end of the week. (ffd: Amtrak)
(TUE) Siemens
Transportation Systems announced that it had delivered its first
diesel-powered, self-propelled passenger car for a U.S. customer.
The Siemens diesel multiple unit (DMU) car will be used by California’s
North County Transit District for its forthcoming “Sprinter” commuter rail
service, which will operate over approximately 22 miles of line between
Oceanside and Escondido. A Siemens
spokesman said that the DMU was manufactured in Germany and is part of what it calls its “Desiro”
family of passenger rail equipment. (ffd: Siemens Corporation, Trains)
(WED) Union Pacific
revised its earlier announced policy banning photography of trains from
commuter rail stations on UP lines. The
original policy, announced approximately two weeks earlier, contrasted with
policies of Chicago commuter rail operator Metra and the opinions of some legal
experts, with the latter suggesting that UP would be on “shaky legal ground” if
it attempted to enforce the ban. A UP
spokesman said that the new policy would permit photography from Metra station
platforms, adding that UP police would reserve the right to question
photographers exhibiting “suspicious behavior.” (ffd: NBC5 News, wire services)
(THU) Nashville, TN officials announced that its “Music City Star” commuter rail service
would start September 18. The service
will operate 32 miles between Lebanon, TN and Nashville over the tracks of the Nashville &
Eastern Railroad. Equipment used will
include three F40 locomotives purchased from Amtrak and 11 gallery-style
bi-level coaches acquired from Chicago commuter rail operator Metra, including four
cab cars to lead in push-pull operations. (ffd: Trains)
(THU) The ABC show
“PrimeTime” aired a report entitled “Toxic Trains.” The report investigated the transportation of
hazardous materials by rail and included interviews with survivors of the
Graniteville, SC accident that occurred on Norfolk Southern in January, 2005, which resulted in
a chlorine release that killed 9 persons.
A spokesman for the Association of American Railroads criticized the
report and its suggestion that hazardous material transport by rail was
dangerous, noting that 99.9997 percent of all rail-shipped hazardous material
arrived at destination without a release due to accident and that the rail
hazmat accident rate has dropped by 89 percent since 1980 and by 50 percent
since 1990. (ffd: AAR, ABC News)
(THU) The Florida
Coalition of Rail Passengers called into question Amtrak’s intention to resume
operation of its “Sunset Limited” train between Orlando, FL and New
Orleans, LA.
Operation of the train has been suspended since Hurricane Katrina in
September, 2005; however, the tracks over which it operates have been repaired
and reopened for several months now. A
coalition spokesman said that it had received a letter from Amtrak Chairman David Laney stating that “the relevance of ‘Sunset
Limited’ service to the region is an open question.” The spokesman added that it was mounting a
grassroots campaign to resume operation of the train between these cities. The train still operates three times a week
between New
Orleans
and Los
Angeles,
CA. (ffd: Trains)
(FRI) A rail labor
coalition criticized a new website operated by the National Carriers’
Conference, which is bargaining on behalf of the nation’s railroads for a new
national contract with rail labor. A
coalition spokesman said that the new website, known as “Rail Labor Facts” and
found at www.raillaborfacts.org, “distorts the facts and distorts the carriers’
goal in this round of negotiations.” The
coalition’s press release criticizing the website was tagged with the slogan,
“The Nation’s Railroads: They Use Us - Then Abuse Us!” (ffd: UTU)
(SAT) A South Shore
Line commuter train, operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation
District, collided at slow speed with a Chicago, South Shore & Sound Bend freight train
near Beverly Shores, IN.
A NICTD spokesman said that one person was injured in the accident. The spokesman added that the commuter train
was waiting on a siding for the freight train to pass on the adjacent main
track, but for some reason then hit the freight train. Commuter train service on the line was
suspended through the afternoon while the accident site was cleared. (ffd: Chicago Tribune, Trains)
STATS – TRAFFIC:
(THU) For the week
ending August 26, 2006,
U.S. rail volume grand totaled 34.3 billion
ton-miles, up 1.8 from the comparable week last year. U.S. carload rail traffic was up 0.7 percent,
down 3.0 percent in the East, but up 3.9 percent in the West. Notable traffic increases included metals and
metal products up 14.4 percent, metallic ores up 11.5 percent, and coal up 6.0
percent; notable traffic decreases included coke down 18.3 percent, primary
forest products down 17.8 percent, and motor vehicles and equipment down 12.6
percent. Also for the week, U.S. intermodal rail traffic was up 7.1 percent and,
at 253,981 units handled, represented a new U.S. weekly record. Finally for the week, Canadian carload rail
traffic was down 3.2 percent, Canadian intermodal rail traffic was up 5.2
percent, Mexico’s Kansas City Southern de Mexico’s carload rail traffic was up 3.1
percent, and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic was down 1.6 percent.
For the period
January 1 through August 26, 2006, U.S. rail volume grand totaled 1.13 trillion
ton-miles, up 2.7 percent. Also for this
period, U.S. carload rail traffic was up 1.5 percent, U.S. intermodal rail traffic was up 6.4 percent,
Canadian carload rail traffic was down 1.4 percent, Canadian intermodal rail
traffic was up 6.0 percent, KCSM’s carload rail traffic was down 4.8 percent,
and KCSM’s intermodal rail traffic was down 5.6 percent. (ffd: AAR)
MORE STATS –
OPERATING PERFORMANCE:
Not reported this
week.
EXPANSIONS,
CONTRACTIONS AND ALIKE:
(TUE) Canadian
National began construction of a new two mile connecting track in Ashland, WI from the Ashland
Industrial Park to CN’s ex-Wisconsin Central main line south of town. The new track will allow removal of the
existing CN line along the Ashland waterfront fronting Lake Superior. (ffd: Ashland Daily Press)
(WED) Shortline and
regional conglomerate Genesee & Wyoming announced that they had acquired
the Chattahoochee & Gulf Railroad and the H&S Railroad from Gulf &
Ohio Railways for $6 million. The CHAT
and the H&S will be operated as a contiguous railroad by G&W’s newly
formed Chattahoochee Bay Railroad.
G&W also announced that they had exercised an option to purchase,
from Norfolk Southern, approximately 13 miles of line
previously leased from NS that runs through Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Suffolk, VA. G&W’s Commonwealth Railway
will own and continue to operate the line, which will soon serve APM Terminal’s
new $450 million intermodal terminal currently under construction at Portsmouth and scheduled for completion in July, 2007.
(ffd: G&W Corp., Progressive Railroading)
(THU) BNSF filed to
abandon approximately 1 mile of line near Longmont, CO. (ffd: STB)
(FRI) Keokuk
Junction Railway, doing business as Peoria & Western Railway, filed to
lease, from BNSF, approximately 42 miles of BNSF’s former Yates City
Subdivision between Vermont, IL and Farmington,
IL, including the Dunfermline Industrial Track.
(ffd: STB)
APPOINTMENTS,
ACHIEVEMENTS AND ALIKE:
(TUE) Amtrak
announced the appointment of Alexander Kummant as its new president. Mr. Kummant, who was most recently EVP for
construction equipment supplier Komatsu America Corporation, was headlined in
Amtrak’s announcement of his appointment as a “veteran railway executive,” but
news reports later in the week indicated that his rail experience consisted of
less than four years at Union Pacific.
The position of Amtrak president has been unfilled since predecessor David Gunn was released by Amtrak's Board of
Directors last November. (ffd: Amtrak, wire services)
(TUE) Kansas City Southern appointed David Reeves Associate General Counsel. Mr. Reeves was most recently with the firm of
Baker & Miller of Washington,
DC. (ffd: KCS Corp.)
(FRI) BNSF appointed
Tom Packer AVP-Revenue Management, succeeding retiring Dave Lamott. Mr. Packer was most recently BNSF’s General
Director-Customer Billing. BNSF also
appointed Mark Ude AVP-Corporate Real Estate Development, succeeding retiring
Jim O’Neil. Mr. Ude was most recently
General Director-Corporate Real Estate Development. (ffd: BNSF Corp.)
*
* *
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 weeklyrailreview@aol.com to receive it, with my compliments.
BE SAFE AND PROSPER,
Dave Mears
Cherry
Hill, New Jersey, USA
Posted: 09/22/06