The Wheeling and Lake
Erie Railway Co. is on track to increase train speeds from 25 to 40 mph, and
railroad and public officials are advising motorists to take extra precautions
at crossings. The Gazette in Medina County, Ohio, reports.
Northstar Commuter service in
the Twin Cities area became a reality Nov. 16, with the first paying customers
for the new rail line. Northstar is BNSF’s first new BNSF-employee-operated
commuter service in nine years and has been more than 10 years in the planning
and execution stage, the company newsletter reports.
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.
It took nearly 13 years,
$320 million and a few major derailments, but the Northstar commuter rail line
made its initial run this morning, moving full speed ahead out of Big Lake at 5
a.m., the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Avoiding congestion along Hwy. 10
in Sherburne and Anoka Counties, the sparkling blue, gold and white cars with
red trim left Big Lake for the new Target Field station in Minneapolis, with
45-second stops along the way in Elk River, Anoka, Coon Rapids and Fridley.
Some people like the
haunted train station look — the boarded-up windows at the Metra stop at 115th
Street, or the eerie yellow light shining on the plywood fencing at Cicero, the
Chicago Sun-Times reports. Metra, however, is assuming that most riders prefer
stations that don’t look as if they’re about to fall on their heads. So the
commuter rail service is doing rehabs on 27 stations in the area.
A nine-mile spur prevents
a key West Feliciana Parish industrial site from linking to the remaining 2,900
railroad miles in Louisiana – and to business beyond the state, industry
leaders claim, local media report. The spur runs west from Slaughter in lower
East Feliciana Parish, crosses U.S. 61 at Delombre and enters West Feliciana
Parish shortly before reaching the Renew Paper mill on the Mississippi River.
Because of the recession,
Union Pacific Railroad officials said plans for its proposed intermodal
facility in Santa Teresa, N.M., are on hold until the economy improves, the El
Paso, Texas, Times reports.
The battle of the borough
train station continues as historians voiced concerns that the Victorian-style
NJ Transit station will go through the winter with peeling paint and rotting
holes in the wooden walls and window sills, the Asbury Park Press reports. NJ
Transit officials confirmed there are no plans for work on the station until
after next summer when contracts are scheduled to be awarded for repairs and
painting. However, they insist the station is structurally sound.
It’s a project that could
improve public transportation in Northeast Florida while also helping to bring
back the historic LaVilla section of downtown Jacksonville, the Florida
Times-Union reports. For almost 20 years, the Jacksonville Transportation
Authority and the Florida Department of Transportation have been working on a
plan to create a regional transportation center that would house Amtrak,
Greyhound, bus rapid transit and, possibly, commuter rail — all at the
existing Prime Osborn Convention Center.
A plan is in the works to
eliminate some of the lengthy stoppages on Glenview Road caused by train
traffic at the downtown Glenview, Ill., train station, the Sun-Times reports. If
the General Assembly, Glenview and Metra make good on their funding pieces,
Amtrak officials have agreed to move the stops for the Hiawatha and Empire
Builder routes from the downtown Glenview Metra station to The Glen of North
Glenview station.
The Lake Zurich, Ill.,
Village Board gave its preliminary consensus for a property swap with Canadian
National Railway at the board’s meeting last week, which would result in CN
building a 250-foot-tall communication tower in the village’s industrial park
rather than near downtown, according to local newspapers.
South Los Angeles has won a
significant victory as transportation officials recommended this week that a
proposed transit corridor along Crenshaw Boulevard be a light-rail line rather
than a less expensive dedicated busway, the Times reports.
MBTA officials laid out a
four-step plan Nov. 9 to address last week’s critical third-party review of the
system’s safety and finances, The Raynham Call reports. Transportation
officials also reiterated that the agency is not backing away from the proposed
expansion of transit service to the South Coast cities of Fall River and New
Bedford, Mass.
A $10-billion unfunded
mandate regarding "positive train control" — wherein trains will
need to be outfitted with GPS technology that’ll detect when trains are near
each other — may hamper the railroad industry as a whole, but as far as
Canadian National’s plans for Northwest Indiana go, it’s full steam ahead, the Gary
Post-Tribune reports.
With a catchy new name and
wads of cash, the LSTAR has left the station, the San Antonio Express-News
reports. The Lone Star Rail District said that it’s moving closer to a goal of
connecting San Antonio to Austin and beyond with a commuter rail line.
Plymouth, Wis., officials
say that the city is now recruiting at least three startup manufacturers
capable of creating hundreds of jobs thanks to a planned project to restore
freight rail service from Plymouth to Sheboygan Falls, the Sheboygan Press
reports. The companies, which city officials declined to name citing
confidentiality agreements, include one manufacturer that could employ up to
500 people and two others that could create 150 jobs combined – and officials
said more are expected to follow.
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.
The Port of Seattle will
be joined by several local agencies in preserving the Eastside Rail Corridor
and placing it in public ownership. King County, Sound Transit, the City of
Redmond, Puget Sound Energy, and the Cascade Water Alliance will partner with
the port in maximizing the corridor’s benefit for the region.
There was an almost
euphoric tone to the news last week when the nation’s beloved sugar daddy,
Warren Buffett, sprung for the rest of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., a
big part of Lincoln’s economy, Nebraska’s and the nation’s, the Lincoln, Neb.,
Journal Star reports. The guys on CNBC acknowledged they just couldn’t get
enough of their videos of BNSF trains chugging mightily across America’s TV
screens. A hard-headed business decision can pull at least a couple of carloads
of railroad nostalgia, if the whistle is far enough away.
Like other railroads
across the country, Metro-North Railroad is considering how to outfit its
trains to comply with a federal safety technology mandate that would alert
engineers when trains become dangerously close, the Connecticut Post reports.
