Officials: Not so fast on aging rails

Railroad officials have imposed slower speeds on Amtrak trains traveling through portions of western Kansas because of deteriorating track conditions, The Hutchinson News reports. The slowdown, which could become permanent, has added about 45 minutes to the run from La Junta, Colo., to Hutchinson, Kan. Without a significant influx of spending on the line, the miles of slowdown are expected to increase with time.

Amtrak officials said
they’re reviewing whether to issue new timetables on the route in advance of a
normal schedule update set to occur in October.

While the slower speeds
will impact those on shorter trips, at least one rail expert said he didn’t
expect the change to hurt ridership on the overall Southwest Chief route –
which goes from Los Angeles to Chicago – because the delay can easily be made
up along the route.

BNFS, which owns the track
and contracts with Amtrak for its use, imposed the reduced speeds on Aug. 20
following an inspection, said BNSF spokesman Andy Williams.

"Yes, we do have a
slow order in place – 60 mph for passenger, 40 mph for freight," Williams
stated in an e-mail. "This rail was laid between 1940 and 1951. It is now
not feasible to maintain ride quality on these segments for passenger trains
operating at speeds of 79 mph."

For speeds to return to 79
mph, new rail would have to be installed along the segments – and there are no
plans to replace the rail "at this time," Williams said.

While BNSF officials
wouldn’t identify the segments of track involved in the slowdown, Fred Frailey,
a freelance writer and special correspondent for Trains Magazine, said
officials confirmed for him it involved about 180 miles of the more than
365-mile route from Newton to La Junta, Colo., including an area from
Hutchinson to 22 miles west, from east of Dodge City to west of Garden City and
from Syracuse to Las Animas, Colo.

BNFS, a division of
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owns the line and runs a couple of freight trains a
day on it. Under an agreement with Amtrak that took effect in January, BNSF has
agreed to maintain the track to allow both freight and passenger speeds up to
40 mph, but Amtrak would be responsible for costs to keep the track maintained
for 79 mph operation.

In an article he wrote last
year about the deal, Frailey estimated it’s costing Amtrak about $10 million
per year to maintain the track from Newton to New Mexico for those speeds.

The track is now to the
point, however, that entire segments of line need to be replaced with
continuous non-welded track in order to continue those higher speeds. Those
costs would run into the millions.

"The railroad has been
saying for years that the rail from Albuquerque to Hutchinson is 60 to 70 years
old, and when it wears out, they’re not prepared to replace it," Frailey
said. "That goes back 15 years, through two different CEOs. It appears
that time has come."

The line, Frailey
explained, is composed of 39-foot segments of 132-pound jointed rail. As they
age, the ends of each piece begin to wear down and bend. So when a train car
passes over, it hits a dip at each joint. The older the rail, the more
pronounced the dip.

"I was on the line
about a year ago, in a business car, and it was a rough ride at 70,"
Frailey said. "I was on the Southwest Chief about two years ago and didn’t
sleep well. It was rocka, rocka."

Crews can saw the ends off
and weld pieces in, Frailey said.

"But if the rail is
near the end of its useful life, that’s a pretty expensive solution for the
short term," he said.

As time goes by, more miles
will have to be lowered to 60 mph, or less, Frailey said.

BNSF has proposed several
times over the years for Amtrak to move the Southwest Chief route south,
dipping down from Newton to Wichita, then southwest to Alva, Okla., on to
Amarillo, Texas, and from there to Albuquerque. Amtrak is not interested in a
route change, however, and reiterated that this week.

"We are talking to them
about operating conditions on the route," said Marc Magliari, media
relations manager for Amtrak. "In the meantime, we have no plans or desire
to change routes. As our president and CEO (Joseph Boardman) said, we’re
uninterested in any such arrangement.

"We are looking at
changes in our timetable to account for this change in our maximum speeds, so
our passengers will have a better understanding when they need to be at which
station to meet the train," Magliari said. "If necessary, we will
produce a new timetable."

Amtrak normally issues a
new timetable twice a year, in the spring and fall, he said.

"We’re talking mostly
about trains coming toward you from the west," Magliari said. "The
exposure to the train speeds is more on one side than the other."

"There’s hope,"
the route will continue for a long time, Frailey said. "It would just have
to run slower. Inevitably, the amount of track not good at 79 mph will
increase, but who knows at what rate. There’s a lot of rubber in the schedule.
You can lose 45 minutes, and then get to Newton and make up 25 of them. If the
train runs without delays, it waits at every stop. People don’t ride a train
like this, or will not ride it, because it goes 60 instead of 79 mph. The ride
will actually be better."