Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

For

UTU-UNION PACIFIC HOTLINE: 1-800-964-9464
Call to report workplace problems.

CSXT delivers donated Kentucky hay to Florida farmers

Drought-stricken farmers and ranchers in Florida will begin to see relief soon as more than 230 tons of hay donated by Kentucky farmers was delivered by CSX Transportation Inc. (CSXT) to four locations in the state. CSXT donated the transportation service to aid the relief effort.

Commissioner Bob Crawford and the Florida Department of Agriculture initiated the plea for assistance and identified the areas most in need. The donation effort was organized in Kentucky by members of the Disciples of Christ Church, who worked in conjunction with Florida Interfaith Network in Disaster (FIND).

The hay was delivered to Orlando, Wildwood, Trenton and Marianna. The respective county extension agencies arranged for offloading of the hay at CSXT facilities and will aid in distributing the hay to farmers and ranchers in the region.

The 230 tons of hay were loaded into fourteen box cars in Paris, Ky., last week, traveled approximately 1,000 miles and arrived today at its four Florida destinations. 

Rail chief urges stop signs at crossings

With tight budgets limiting safety measures, a railroad executive is pushing a low-tech approach to cutting rail crossing accidents: stop signs, according to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

William Gardner, president of the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., said all of the state's rural railroad crossings should have stop signs if they don't have gates or flashing lights, the article said.

In particular, Gardner is pressing for stop signs on the tracks where his railroad operates. He said they would be crucial if Amtrak hires Wisconsin & Southern to run passenger and express freight trains between Madison and Chicago, an idea that is under study, according to the Sentinel.

State Railroad Commissioner Rodney Kreunen, however, said in the article that stop signs could cause more problems than they're worth. He's concerned they might result in more rear-end collisions between autos at the crossings.

Of more than 4,700 crossings statewide, less than half have gates or lights to warn motorists of approaching trains, according to the article. About 2,600 are marked only by railroad crossing signs.

Kreunen's main job is to ensure safety at railroad crossings. But he doesn't have much money to work with. His budget for safety devices is only about $1 million a year, the Sentinel said.

Installing flashing lights at a single crossing can cost $80,000 to $100,000. With gates, the cost rises to about $130,000 per crossing. As a result, Kreunen said in the article he has to rank crossings according to the amount of automobile and railroad traffic and order gates and lights only at the busiest crossings. That means most rural crossings are unlikely to get the safety devices any time soon, Kreunen and Gardner said in the Sentinel.

But stop signs can be installed quickly and inexpensively by local governments, without the public hearings that Kreunen is required to conduct before he acts, Gardner said in the article.

Without those stop signs, both railroads and local governments could be open to lawsuits from the families of motorists killed or injured in crossing accidents, warned Gardner and his attorney, Brian Baird, according to the Sentinel.

However, Kreunen objected, saying statistics show that "we create more rear-enders" if stop signs are installed where motorists don't expect them, the Sentinel said. Gardner said those figures were for urban crossings, not rural crossings.

Kreunen also questioned whether people might simply ignore stop signs at crossings if they don't see any trains coming. Baird said he believed most drivers stop at stop signs, according to the article.

CP to transfer Okanagan line

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) has announced it has signed a letter of intent with OmniTRAX Inc., of Denver, Colo., for the transfer of operations of the CPR line in the Okanagan region of British Columbia, according to reports.

After reviewing proposals from a number of bidders, CPR has selected OmniTRAX as the operator for the Okanagan Subdivision, a 151-km (94-mile) stretch of track from Sicamous south to Vernon, Lumby and Kelowna, B.C.

OmniTRAX already owns and operates 12 railway subsidiaries in the United States and Canada, as well as railway switching services at Deltaport, an intermodal terminal on the West Coast of B.C.

CPR, which announced Jan. 30 it was seeking to transfer the line, expects to complete a transaction with OmniTRAX this fall.

Under the proposed agreement, OmniTRAX will establish a local shortline railway to operate the Okanagan line, providing connecting rail service to and from CPR's east-west main line at Sicamous.

LA bus group frustrated with overcrowding

Bus rider advocates launched their "No Seat, No Fare" campaign Aug. 11, boarding some Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses during the morning and afternoon commute and urging passengers not to pay if they had to stand, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

The protest was designed to call attention to continuing problems with overcrowding on MTA's buses, but it was difficult to determine the fare strike's impact on the transit agency's operations, the Times said.

MTA spokesman Marc Littman said in the article that there were reports of protesters distributing leaflets on the buses, but there were no disruptions in service. Some passengers refused to pay the $1.35 fare, he told the Times, but no figures on participation in the fare strike were immediately available.

Organizers of the protest said they were pleased with the first day results, according to the article. "This is the beginning of a fare strike," Kikanza Ramsey of the Bus Riders Union told the Times. "For a beginning, it's pretty darn good."

Ramsey told the Times the group's supporters were given instructions to board buses and urge passengers not to pay for overcrowding and poor conditions.

On a crowded bus traveling down Western Avenue, organizer Geoff Ray led passengers in chanting "No Seat, No Fare" first in Spanish and then in English, the article said.

Although refusal to pay the fare is an infraction, MTA bus operators were instructed not to get into a confrontation with those who didn't pay, the Times said.

Littman said the MTA would not know until fare boxes are counted whether the strike had much impact on revenue. About $300,000 in cash and tokens are collected each day, but as many as half of the MTA's passengers use passes, he told the Times.

The MTA last week asked a special master appointed by a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining blocking the fare strike, according to the Times. Donald T. Bliss Jr. issued a decision Monday denying the MTA's request, the article said. He is responsible for ensuring that the MTA complies with a federal court order requiring a reduction in overcrowding and improvement in bus service, the Times said.

The Bus Riders Union is demanding that the MTA buy 1,600 buses over the next two years to relieve overcrowding and replace its aging and breakdown-prone fleet, according to the Times. MTA officials say they plan to acquire 1,313 buses over the next six years, the article said.

Seat cushions for NYC buses

The New York City Transit Authority has decided to install vandal-proof tush cushions on New York City buses, according to reports. Riders have been sitting on hard fiberglass seats for more than 35 years, when cushion attacks by knife-wielding vandals prompted officials to strip old-fashioned foam rubber and vinyl padding from the seats. The old cushions were easy to slash, but the new pads are only a quarter-inch thick and easily replaced. Some buses already have the new cushions, and officials predict one quarter of the fleet will have the fanny padding in a year.

Transit authority mulls cameras to stop bus vandals

The New York Transit Authority is planning to install cameras on dozens of its accordion-style buses to stop vandals from scratching their names into windows with razors and knives. The million-dollar plan will be tested in mid-1999. Norman Siegel of the Civil Liberties Union points out that the cameras may catch vandals, but they will also record law-abiding citizens.