Rail access is key to Aroostook’s future






(Rep. Mike Michaud,
D-Maine, wrote the following opinion for the Brunswick, Maine, Times Record.) A
report recently released by the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials analyzed our nation’s freight system. The report found
that if we do not maintain, much less improve, our nation’s system of moving
freight, millions of jobs and our nation’s long-term economic health would be
put at risk. Unfortunately, we have a potential economic crisis brewing right
here in Maine on this very topic.

Caltrain construction, maintenance update: July 10-16






From Saturday, July 10, to
Friday, July 16, crews will continue a project that will improve the rail
crossings at Mary and Sunnyvale avenues in Sunnyvale, Calif. Crews will grade
and trench the site and make wiring modifications in the signal houses. The
work is part of a VTA project to improve safety at eight crossings in
Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto.

Part of flooded KCSM main line remains closed

February 14, 2001

Kansas City Southern issueda service advisory July 11 reporting hat while Kansas City Southern de Mexicoresumed most operations over the weekend, its main line between Laredo andMonterrey remained closed due to "high waters and floating debris"left by Hurricane Alex, which made landfall June 30.

Obedoza joins RailPros

February 14, 2001

David Obedoza, formerCaltrain signal and communications manager, RailPros, Inc., in its Los Angelesoffice. Obedoza will serve as a key member of the firm’s expanding signal andcommunications design and construction management division.

Merced’s G Street Underpass closure starts July 12






February 14, 2001

On July 12, the G Street
Underpass project in Merced, Calif., which will be the only below grade
railroad crossing in the city, will start in earnest, when crews begin the prep
work needed to create an undercrossing beneath the BNSF tracks, the Sacramento
Bee reports. The $18-million project will take 18 months to complete.

Feds see ‘grim’ delays, overruns on Second Ave. Subway, East Side Access






February 14, 2001

For months, the New York MTA
and the Federal Transit Administration had been at odds over
cost overruns of the MTA’s two biggest projects: the long-planned Second Avenue
Subway and East Side Access, which would bring the Long Island Rail Road to
Grand Central, the New York Observer reports. The FTA, which is partially
funding both, had argued the projects were running up to $1.6 billion over what
the MTA was projecting, and the projects would be further delayed, both into
2018. The MTA begged to differ.

BNSF, UP partner with Texas DOT for Tower 55 money

BNSF, Union Pacific and the Texas Department of Transportation are working together to secure National Infrastructure Investments Discretionary Grant, TIGER II, funding to make Tower 55 improvements in Fort Worth, Texas. Tower 55 is one of the nation’s busiest railroad intersections and a TxDOT organized selection committee has rated the project as the highest priority proposed TIGER II project in Texas.

Both BNSF and Union Pacific rely heavily on Tower 55 to move freight throughout the Southwest. More than 100 trains a day must stop and make turns through the intersection, increasing emissions and traffic congestion for both freight trains and commuters.

Summary of improvements

• Additional trackage north, south and through Tower 55 on BNSF and UP
• Improved quadrant connections to promote train movements
• New and structurally improved bridges and grade-crossing closures
• Enhanced signals that would be compatible with positive train control (PTC)
• Two new grade-separated pedestrian crossings adjacent to an elementary school
• Two at-grade road crossing closures in a residential area

"The Tower 55 rail intersection plays a major economical role in North Texas. It is clear how important Tower 55 is to the vitality of the area, which is why I have worked on, and tried to bring attention to, the issues at Tower 55 since the authorization of the last transportation bill," said U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville. "Action is needed to address the problems at Tower 55, not only because of congestion and economic reasons, but more importantly, for the safety of those in the North Texas communities along the line."

Funding to make the improvements would come from a number of sources in addition to the federal funds, including BNSF, UP and North Central Texas Council of Governments.

AAR: Weekly rail traffic volume highest in more than two years, sixth highest ever

The Association of American Railroads reported that rail traffic for the week ending July 3, 2010 topped comparison weeks from both 2008 and 2009. Carloads were up 18.8 percent, at 286,777 cars, from the comparable week in 2009 and up 0.4 percent from the same week in 2008. Comparison weeks in both 2009 and 2008 included the July 4th holiday. In order to offer a complete picture of the progress in rail traffic, AAR reports 2010 weekly rail traffic with comparison weeks in both 2009 and 2008.

Intermodal traffic totaled 231,286 trailers and containers, the highest since week 42 of 2008. Volume was up 36.6 percent from a year ago and 19.1 percent from 2008. Container volume of 197,134 was the sixth highest week ever and the highest since week 39 of 2007. Compared with the same week in 2009, container volume gained 39.8 percent and trailer volume rose 20.9 percent. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume increased 30.8 percent and trailer volume fell 21.3 percent.

Eighteen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009, with metallic ores up 205.5 percent; motor vehicles and equipment up 122 percent; metals and metal products up 80.3 percent; and crushed stone, sand and gravel up 50.6 percent. Seven of the commodity groups also posted gains over 2008 levels.

Carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 36.8 percent from last year and 5.5 percent from 2008. In the West, carload volume was up 9.5 percent from last year but down 2.7 percent from two years ago.

For the first 26 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 7,338,963 carloads, up 7.8 percent from 2009, but down 12.9 percent from 2008, and 5,434,892 trailers or containers, up 12.9 percent from 2009, but down 6.2 percent from 2008.

Canadian railroads reported volume of 68,956 cars for the week, up 21.3 percent from last year, and 44,110 trailers or containers, up 22.2 percent from 2009. For the first 26 weeks of 2010, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 1,880,555 carloads, up 21.4 percent from last year, and 1,184,555 trailers or containers, up 13.8 percent from last year.

Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 13,949 cars, up 21.9 percent from the same week last year, and 5,666 trailers or containers, up 21.3 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 26 weeks of 2010 was reported as 360,456 carloads, up 22.9 percent from last year; and 169,717 trailers or containers, up 37.2 percent.

Combined North American rail volume for the first 26 weeks of 2010 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 9,579,974 carloads, up 10.8 percent from last year, and 6,789,164 trailers and containers, up 13.6 percent from last year.

Amtrak news: Last VRE run; scheduled to launch train between Richmond and Washington, D.C.

Today is the final day Amtrak will run Virginia Railway Express trains. Keolis Rail Services America will begin its five-year, $85-million contract with VRE on Monday.

It’s been a difficult eight-month transition process between the contract being awarded to Keolis and its operational hand over. Accusations of improper training and transition interference along with a two-week extension of Amtrak service as a precautionary move all marred the situation.

Keolis has said its crews are all trained and qualified to operate the trains and they have shadowed Amtrak engineers all week.

In other news, Amtrak will begin operating a second state-funded intercity passenger train between Richmond and Washington, D.C., beginning July 20. The new service, which is funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia, is part of a three-year, $17.2-million pilot project to increase the number of mass-transit options and determine how feasible enhanced rail service in Virginia can be.

With this new train, hourly morning departures are available from Richmond’s Staples
Mill Station to the Northeast Corridor and more convenient afternoon return trips are available from Washington, D.C. The total number of morning departures from Richmond to Washington is now five, with six return departures available in the afternoon and evening. The new train has Virginia stops at the Staples Mill, Ashland, Fredericksburg, Quantico, Woodbridge and Alexandria stations. Passengers may travel directly to destinations along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor as far north as Boston.

CSXT annual coal route maintenance work complete






Nearly 1,000 CSX
Transportation engineering employees completed the annual coal route
maintenance project the week of July 5. Track maintenance teams worked their
way across the Appalachian coal route, which includes Kentucky, West Virginia,
Tennessee, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina. Demand for coal remains
strong, and on a typical day as many as 50 trains make their way across this
important corridor.

Grant sought to help Fort Worth railroads out of a jam






The so-called Tower 55
crossing in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, needs additional tracks so not every
train moving through the crowded freight intersection has to stop and wait for
another, state and local officials said Wednesday during a tour of the crossing,
The Dallas Morning News reports.

CSXT, NS eye deal to serve Charleston, S.C.






The long-running commercial
rail saga in North Charleston, S.C., has taken another turn, and a resolution
could finally be in sight, the South Carolina Business Journal reports. The
Business Journal has learned that the city has drafted a memorandum of
understanding with development firm Shipyard Creek Associates and railroad
operator CSX Transportation that, if approved by City Council, would eliminate
rail service to the former Navy base from the north in favor of a new southern
line.

City Council will be
presented with the memorandum during its 7 p.m. meeting July 8.

A southern line would
satisfy a 2002 memorandum of understanding penned by North Charleston and the
S.C. State Ports Authority in which the SPA agreed to "use rail access
exclusively from the south end of the property." That document has been a
source of contention among city leaders, who backed the agreement, and state
officials, who claim the memorandum didn’t pertain to them.

Under the latest proposal,
CSXT would abandon rights of way from a to-be-determined point between Clement
Avenue and Viaduct Road northward to just past the intersection at Braddock
Road. In return, North Charleston would assist CSXT in acquiring city-owned
property making up the new route. North Charleston would also pay CSXT between
$3 million and $5 million in tax-increment financing revenue for the old rights
of way.

Shipyard Creek Associates,
meanwhile, would move ahead with construction of an intermodal facility on its
Macalloy property, a project it’s been pitching for years. That Macalloy site
is located practically adjacent to the container terminal being constructed by
the State Ports Authority on the former Navy base and would serve as a rail
yard for CSXT.

In the past, officials from
the state and CSXT’s chief rival, Norfolk Southern, have claimed that such an
arrangement would be unfair. Those officials have trumpeted the need for dual
access to the port terminal and said that Norfolk Southern would be at
competitive disadvantage if it had to pay CSX for access to its tracks.

The threat of northern rail
access loomed, but North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey is now close to
vanquishing that possibility. He said that the proposed memorandum provides
dual access.

"Is it equal dual access?"
Summey said. "I don’t know if that’s available at any port."

The new plan relies heavily
on federal grant financing and the "existence of sufficient property tax
revenues to permit bonding against city TIF districts."

Summey said that a series
of federal grants over a period of several years would be needed to pay for the
project and that the parties involved will move ahead in seeking those funds if
the memorandum of understanding is approved.

Did ‘point protector’ cause derailment?






In Austin, Texas, a new
piece of equipment intended to keep trains on the track may have contributed to
two recent freight train derailments, including one July 7 that forced the
cancellation of all morning MetroRail trains and blocked Seventh Street traffic
for several hours, Capital Metro officials told the Austin American Statesman.