According to government forecasts, freight volumes
in the United States will significantly increase by 2020. Unless major
transportation infrastructure improvements are made, this could lead to reduced
productivity resulting in job losses, higher prices for the goods we buy and
reduced worldwide demand for the goods we sell. The National Gateway – an $842-million
multi-state public-private infrastructure initiative – will help meet current
infrastructure needs and prepare the nation for this projected growth by
investing in surface transportation infrastructure improvements.
Canada’s Transport
Minister John Baird and the Honorable Rob Merrifield, Minister of State said
Marc Laliberté, of Boucherville, Québec, has been appointed president and chief
executive officer of VIA Rail Canada Inc. for a term of four years, effective
January 4, 2010.
With a goal of speeding
freight between East Coast ports and the Midwest, CSX Transportation has
undertaken what it calls the National Gateway project – an $842-million
public-private upgrade of rail infrastructure to accommodate double-stack
container cars, The State Journal in Huntington, W.Va., reports.
This city (Chicago) was
built on railroads that moved meat from its famous packing houses, steel from
its mills, corn from surrounding fields. Today Chicago is still the nation’s
leading rail hub, with about 37,500 rail cars passing through daily, the Washington
Post reports. But massive congestion on Chicago tracks costs millions of
dollars in shipping delays, and it causes substantial noise and air pollution
as trains idle for hours, waiting for track clearance. The problem threatens to
get worse since freight traffic is expected to double in the next 20 years.
Norfolk Southern has joined
the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit, membership-based organization
committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for the nation through
cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.
The Central Alabama Intermodal Container Transfer Facility
in Bessemer, Ala., has been operating since September, but had its official
opening on Dec. 1. The $6 million hub operates on 25 acres, with an option to
develop 25 additional acres, has 5,000 feet of working track, parking for 1,000
stacked 40-foot containers and 307 40-foot containers on truck chassis. The
facility can move more up to 40,000 containers annually.
According to CSXT, initial demand should be
about 10,000 to 15,000 containers per year, but the railroad is pursuing
additional business.
Freight traffic on U.S. railroads reached its highest level
so far this year during the week ended November 21, the Association of American
Railroads reports.
U.S. railroads reported originating 287,087 carloads for the
week, down 6.8 percent compared with the same week in 2008 and down .7 percent
from the same week in 2007. Volume was up 2.1 percent from the previous week
this year. In order to offer a complete picture of the progress in rail traffic,
AAR will now be reporting 2009 weekly rail traffic with year over comparisons
for both 2008 and 2007. Note that the comparison weeks from both 2007 and 2008
included the Thanksgiving Holiday.
In the West, carloads were down 8.8 percent compared with
the same week last year, and 4.8 percent compared with 2007. In the East,
carloads were down 3.8 percent compared with 2008, but up 6 percent compared
with the same week in 2007.
Intermodal traffic totaled 213,382 trailers and containers,
down 3.1 percent from a year ago but up 11.5 percent from 2007. Compared with
the same week in 2008, container volume rose 3.4 and trailer volume dropped
26.8 percent. Compared with the same week in 2007, container volume rose 19.4
percent and trailer volume dropped 16.6 percent. Intermodal traffic was up 2.6
percent from the previous week this year.
While 13 of the 19 carload freight commodity groups were
down compared with the same week last year, increases were seen in nonmetallic
minerals (26.5 percent), grain (8.1 percent), chemicals (8.1 percent), waste
and scrap metal (6.5 percent), grain mill products (6.4 percent) and food and
kindred products (.4 percent). Declines in commodity groups ranged from .3
percent for petroleum products to 22.1 percent for crushed stone, sand and
gravel.
Total volume on U.S. railroads for the week ending Nov. 21,
2009 was estimated at 32.1 billion ton-miles, down 6.1 percent compared with
the same week last year but up 4.9 percent from 2007.
For the first 46 weeks of 2009, U.S. railroads reported
cumulative volume of 12,325,563 carloads, down 17.3 percent from 2008 and 18
percent from 2007; 8,801,968 trailers or containers, down 15.6 percent from
2008 and 17.9 percent from 2007, and total volume of an estimated 1.32 trillion
ton-miles, down 16.4 percent from 2008 and 16.5 percent from 2007.
Union Pacific opened its
Donner Pass route to domestic double-stack intermodal container freight traffic
Nov. 19, marking the completion of a 12-month project designed to move customer
products over a shorter, faster and more efficient route.
A plan to build a major
passenger terminal in downtown Atlanta might soon boast new life, in the form
of an $80 million-plus jump start, state officials said at Transportation Board
meetings, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The idea has reeled in
big supporters, but raised questions too — including whether it’s legal.
Patrick Donovan started
talking about Prichard, W.Va., a long time ago, he said, according to The
Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W. Va. He foresaw a center of activity for
transporting goods, a place where trains carrying double-stacked containers
could drop off goods and where barges along the Big Sandy River, planes from
Tri-State Airport and trucks along the Tolsia Highway could pick them up.
He wanted it to be a stop
along the planned Heartland Corridor — a project that involves improvements in
Norfolk-Southern railways between the Virginia coast and Columbus, Ohio, so
trains can carry more goods in a more direct route. When finished, 28 tunnels will
be raised so that trains can carry double-stacked containers. The
public-private partnership also will include construction of three intermodal
facilities for easier transfer of containers between rail, roadways, rivers and
airways — at Prichard, as well as Roanoke, Va., and Columbus.
While efforts to raise
tunnels along the Heartland Corridor Project are moving right along, it’s been
a slow process to get preliminary work done on an intermodal facility in
Prichard. The West Virginia Public Port Authority went through a lengthy
process to hire an engineering firm to do an environmental study on the land
along the Big Sandy River, where it will sit. The study determines if the
project is compliant with the National Environmental Protection Act. It looks at
archaeological and flood concerns, stream restorations and wetland issues.
Baker Engineering of
Cross Lanes was hired in February for that project, and while the results of
the study are promising, Donovan said, the Port Authority still awaits approval
from the West Virginia Historic Preservation Office. When it finally becomes a
reality, it is expected to be an economic boon for the entire region, as
companies set up warehouses and other related businesses along the route, said
Donovan and Don Perdue, executive director of Wayne County Economic Development
Authority.
While the Port Authority,
as well as local government and Norfolk Southern await that approval for the
environmental study, they’re also waiting for news about a new grant for which
they’ve applied. They teamed up to apply for $50 million in federal stimulus
funding. Nationally, $1.5 billion is up for grabs through the Transportation
Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants Program.
If approved, $30 million in TIGER funds would go toward the Prichard intermodal
facility, and $20 million would go toward the tunnel work.
Donovan said he’s
encouraged by what’s in the outline describing projects that would qualify for
the grant money.
Receiving those funds
would free up more upfront money for the project. As of now, Senate Bill 569,
approved by the General Assembly in 2007, provides $4.3 million per fiscal year
through 2016 for the Heartland Corridor. The first fiscal year, $2.15 million
was allotted, but the following years, the full $4.3 million will be provided.
Norfolk Southern has already put $49.5 million of its own money into the tunnel
clearance project, with a $90 million match in federal funds. The tunnel
clearance project is estimated at $151 million, Norfolk Southern says.
Norfolk Southern has
donated 78 acres to the West Virginia Public Port Authority for the intermodal
facility at Prichard, and the authority already has 20-plus acres. The railroad
company would take care of hiring a company to design the facility, and it’s
undetermined right now who would operate it. Norfolk-Southern might contract
out an operator, but would be involved in selection of the operator either way,
Donovan said.
"Ideally, by late
spring or early summer, I want to have some dirt moving. I really do," he
said.
Meanwhile, all kinds of
earth is moving as workers continue to heighten tunnels along the railway.
"We’re currently
working on the last five tunnels," said Robin Chapman, spokesman for
Norfolk-Southern. "One of them is called the Cooper Tunnel, not far from
Bluefield. The other four are from Williamson and west of there on the Big
Sandy River. We anticipate finishing in mid 2010."
Workers increase the
clearance for double-stacked trains by either lowering the track, when
possible, or carving away rock in the tunnel.
In preparation for the
work, crews test drill into the rock to determine the density they’re dealing
with, and make sure there are no voids behind it. Then they install rock bolts
to stabilize the roof. Meanwhile, trains need passage, so crews usually begin
work in the wee hours of the morning so they can remove rock and spray a layer
of concrete over the work area as a sealant before trains come through in the
afternoon.
As Prichard and
southwestern West Virginia get ready for Norfolk Southern Corp.’s
double-stacked trains to move through, the eastern part of the state is looking
forward to a project by CSX Transportation. The rail company also is planning
to embark on a project to raise tunnels to accommodate double-stack trains
through the Mid-Atlantic region.
The $842-million National
Gateway project would affect Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West
Virginia, and is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from trucks on the
highway, as well as saving $3.5 billion in shipper and logistics costs,
significantly increase freight capacity, reduce transit times between West
Coast ports and major population and triple the market access potential for
some ports on the East Coast.
There’s a prediction that
freight transportation is going to increase by 70 percent over the next 20
years, said CSXT spokesman Bob Sullivan. Moving it to rail rather than trucks
will reduce greenhouse emissions, he said.
The path of the double-stacked
trains would stretch from Wilmington, N.C., up the East Coast and northeastward
through the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Along the National Gateway,
the nearest intermodal distribution facility to West Virginia will be in
Pittsburgh.
CSXT is committing $395
million to the National Gateway project, and it’s asking for $258 million in
federal stimulus grants through the TIGER Discretionary Grants Program. States
are being asked for $250 million.
About $60 million will be
spent in West Virginia, to clear six tunnels in the state. But West Virginia is
being asked to contribute $5 million to the project, Sullivan said.
Cortlandt, N.Y., Town
Supervisor Linda Puglisi, MTA Metro-North President Howard Permut and local and
state officials held a ground breaking ceremony today to mark the start of
construction at the Cortlandt Station for expanded station facilities including
an extended overpass and new elevated waiting area, a new western parking lot
and an access road connecting to a new Route 9A intersection.
The state of New Mexico and
Union Pacific Railroad agreed on a land swap that will enable Santa Teresa, N.N.,
to become a major commercial and industrial hub, officials said Nov. 10,
according to the El Paso, Texas, Times. Under the agreement, Union Pacific is
trading a large ranch property in exchange for land near the Santa Teresa
industrial park for its intermodal facility.
A nearly $850,000 million
public and private effort to connect mid-Atlantic ports to Midwest U.S.
population and manufacturing markets using double-stack trains has railroad
improvement projects scheduled for Trumbull and Mahoning counties, according to
the Warren, Ohio, Tribune Chronicle. What’s going to be done locally includes
bridge replacement and other projects necessary to provide the vertical
clearance to allow train cars hauling two shipping containers stacked on top of
one another.
Pennsylvania and four other
states are seeking stimulus money to make upgrades to their rail systems,
including the proposed intermodal terminal in Greencastle, the Chambersburg
Public Opinion Website reports. Pennsylvania was a co-signer of an application
for $300 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, according to
PennDOT spokesperson Rich Kirkpatrick.
(The following opinion
article, "Rail upgrade needed for passenger service, not freight,"
was written by Joseph Bateman and appeared Nov. 4, 2009, in the Springfield,
Ill., State Journal-Register. Bateman is vice president for public affairs of
Union Pacific.)
Contrary to the headline
and opinions expressed in the Oct. 25 article "High-speed rail spending to be a
boon to freight rail companies," Union Pacific does not need for its freight
operations the improvements contained in IDOT’s proposal for high-speed
passenger service in the St. Louis-to-Chicago corridor.
Norfolk Southern and the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are investing $11 million in the railroad’s
Philadelphia Navy Yard intermodal facility to expand track and parking
capacity. The expansion is part of Norfolk Southern’s multi-state Crescent
Corridor initiative to establish a high-speed intermodal freight rail route
between the Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The proposed investment — $6 million
from Norfolk Southern and $5 million from Pennsylvania — will create the
capacity to handle more than 72,000 containers and trailers annually.
Construction is scheduled to begin in mid-2010.
It usually takes 20 to 30
minutes to drive to Carnegie Mellon University from the former LTV site in
Hazelwood. That commute could take six minutes by train. Pittsburgh Councilman
William Peduto has envisioned the train, and planners have deemed it feasible,
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Norfolk Southern has
unveiled preliminary environmental data that will serve as the foundation of
its proposed intermodal terminal in Fayette County, where cargo containers will
be transferred between trucks and trains, The Daily News reports.
The National Gateway
initiative will spur thousands of employment opportunities throughout the
Midwest and East Coast, creating growth and building the nation’s economic
competitiveness. The National Gateway is an $842-million, multi-state
public-private infrastructure initiative that will create a more efficient
freight rail route between Mid-Atlantic ports and Midwestern markets. Planned
improvements that will create job opportunities include raising bridges,
increasing tunnel clearances and building new terminals along existing rail
corridors to support the movement of double-stacked containers on rail cars.
Tennessee is seeking $81.2
million as part of a coalition of states applying for $300 million in federal
stimulus funds to make railroad upgrades linked to development of intermodal
rail terminals, where trailers and containers are transferred between trucks
and trains, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Although the coalition’s
application for stimulus money is based on reducing truck traffic along
Interstate 81, whose southern terminus is in Jefferson County, Tennessee would
spend its entire share on an intermodal facility being built near Memphis, some
400 miles from I-81.
