The Village of Montgomery
now has a plan in place in the event Metra commuter rail service is one day
extended from downtown Aurora along the BNSF tracks into the village, according
to the Oswego Ledge Sentinel. In a split, 5-1 ballot Monday evening, the village
board adopted an ordinance to amend the village’s comprehensive plan to include
the new Transit Oriented Development Plan and Park-n-Ride Location Study.
(This article appeared the
July-August 2009 St. Croix Chronicle, a publication of the St. Croix Economic
Development Corp.)
Even in the current
economic downturn, it’s been several years of full steam ahead for Twin City
Signal in Hudson, Wis. In order to meet immediate demands for its services, the
railroad signal engineering and design company, founded in Hudson in 1996, has
expanded into an additional facility across from its 7,200-square-foot
headquarters on Livingstone Road. The move nearly doubles its space, and
founder and company president Lee Kisling sees rails and more rails in the future.
Tulsans who love to hear
the eardrum-piercing sound of a train blowing its horn as it slowly snakes
through downtown will be glad to know the city still has a ways to go before it
can designate part of downtown a "quiet zone," according to the Tulsa, Okla., World.
With the money already in
place to build what likely will be two overpasses and one underpass at three
major rail crossings in Galesburg, Ill., there is more good news, The Register-Mail
reports. The state has applied for about $550 million of federal stimulus
money, $52 million for what Illinois is calling its "Galesburg congestion
relief project."
The Dakota Minnesota
& Eastern dropped its condemnation lawsuit against several Wyoming
landowners in northeast Wyoming, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.
In
addition, the DM&E said current regulatory and economic conditions for its
proposed rail expansion into the Powder River Basin coal-mining district are
not good.
The city of Burlington,
Iowa, has a lot of irons in the fire, according to The Hawkeye. With that in
mind, City Manager Doug Worden updated city council members on the status of
two projects nearing completion during a recent meeting.
Construction of a 1
million gallon underground wastewater equalization tank on Gunnison Avenue and
a similar tank near the BNSF tracks on Lucas Avenue is complete.
Southwest Washington’s
three-member congressional delegation gathered at the Port of Vancouver to
celebrate the opening of a new marine terminal on the former Alcoa-Evergreen
aluminum site, The Columbian reported. Alcoa this spring finished environmental
cleanup of the 218-acre site, making way for the port to complete its purchase
of the two properties in March for a total of $48.25 million. The port is now
ready to develop the site, zoned for heavy industrial use.
Watco
Transportation Services, Inc., started up a new railroad, the Alabama Warrior
Railway August 7. The ABWR operates 15 miles of track in and around Birmingham,
Ala., and interchanges with BNSF, Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation. The
ABWR’s chief mission is to deliver coal to Walter Coke Inc., a furnace and
foundry coke producer based in Birmingham.
Federal
regulators are underestimating the health threat posed by a railroad freight
center proposed for southwest Johnson County, environmentalists charge,
according to The Kansas City Star. They say that the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers didn’t fully assess the cancer risk tied to the BNSF project and that
the corps’ predictions of diesel emissions are much less than what’s generated
at rail projects elsewhere.
South-side residents and business owners say they don’t want any part of a proposed two-mile-long railroad trench that would run east-west near downtown Fort Worth, saying it would effectively cut them off from downtown, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reports.
Although Norfolk Southern Corp.’s planned $129-million intermodal yard won’t be built within the city limits but instead in neighboring Rossville, Memphis’ logistics and distribution industries stand to benefit from the railroad’s decision to expand its local presence, The Daily News in Memphis reports. Not only is the railroad’s sprawling facility dubbed the Memphis Regional Intermodal Terminal, but it will be close enough for Memphis-based companies to gain unprecedented logistical access to eastern cities.
To relieve the notorious Tower 55 train gridlock in Fort Worth, Texas, one of the nation’s biggest railroads wants to dig a 1.5-mile-long trench and submerge its tracks as they run through a commercial and residential area south of downtown, according to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. The east-west trench proposed by Union Pacific would roughly parallel Vickery Boulevard from Eighth Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway and require buying of 15 properties, partial purchase of 15 more and moving 16 residences and businesses.
The distinct whistle blaring and the distant, thunder-like clanking commonly heard through Aberdeen, S.D. are the sounds of the Hub City’s history, the Aberdeen News reports. And, one railroad official said, they are the sounds of its future.
Keokuk Junction Railway Co. doesn’t necessarily want to own the swing-span railroad bridge between Keokuk and Hamilton, Ill., but that may be the best solution for all parties involved, according to company President Mike Carr, the Burlington Hawkeye reports.
"We really aren’t too excited about owning it," Carr said. "I’m not even sure I want to own it. But I think in the long run, it’s going to be best for the city and us if we do. We don’t want to buy it for money. We want them just to give it to us."
A controlling majority of Keokuk Junction Railway stock is owned by Peoria, Ill.,-based Pioneer Railcorp.
The Keokuk City Council kicked around the idea of selling the bridge for years. But the idea began to get more attention last month after the council proposed raising the cost of using the bridge. The council proposed raising the fee for the next three years from $16.67 a car to $19.67 per car and charging a second fee of $50 an hour for the time a city employee operates the bridge.
Keokuk Junction Railway, the only rail company that uses the bridge, rejected the initial proposal. But the two parties have come to tentative agreement of a single fee of $20.76 per car for a year. The council is expected to vote on raising the rate raise, which must be done by ordinance, later this month.
As part of the agreement, city officials pledged to make a concerted effort to determine whether the council would agree to sell the bridge and to explore questions that need answering before the bridge can be sold, Mayor David Gudgel said. Gudgel, who didn’t rule out the possibility of simply giving the bridge to the railroad, said It could be years yet before the city gets all its questions answered and is ready to divest itself of the bridge.
Carr points out the rate increases are passed directly to the two customers it has in Keokuk — Roquette America Inc. and Griffin Wheel.
"We can maintain the bridge cheaper and more effectively, more efficiently than the city can. And that is the bottom line. … Those bridge fees get passed on directly to those customers that use rail. We’ll be able to keep the costs down for them, our customers. Which in turn helps them, which in turn helps the city of Keokuk," Carr said.
The current rate simply isn’t enough to pay for bridge maintenance and employees who have to operate it, Gudgel said. Officials hope with the rate increase, the bridge will be able to pay for itself. The city spends at least $500,000 annually on maintaining the bridge. Although in 2008, costs were closer to $1.2 million, partially due to damage done during flooding last summer, said Keokuk Public Works Director Gerald Moughler.
Giving up the bridge would mean no more maintenance costs, which should be payment enough for the city, Carr said.
Before the council is willing to part with the bridge, officials first plan to shop it around to see if any other companies would be interested in the structure, such as BNSF, the Southeast Iowa Regional Economic and Port Authority or Roquette.
Carr was less than enthusiastic about the idea of another company owning the bridge and pointed out no other company could use it because Keokuk Junction Railway owns the tracks on either side of the bridge.
There are at least two other issues needing resolved before the city sells the bridge:
• Determining what the city would do with the $3.7 million fund it has in case the bridge ever needs to be demolished.
• Forging a legally binding agreement to guarantee the new owner does not abandon the bridge.
Gudgel added that if bridge were no longer maintained, the new owner would be required to remove it.
"I’m telling them (the city council members) if you give us the bridge, transfer it to us, you guys can keep that money for demolishing the bridge and use it for whatever you want in the city. We’ll take care of that (bridge). Because the last thing we want to see is that bridge demolished," Carr said.
The celebration will include a display of about 45 North American Rail Car Operators Association motorcars during an open house at the Harsco facility in Fairmont. The 45 restored cars were originally built at the Fairmont plant and shipped to railroads around the United States and Canada.
