CALIFORNIA: Key
L.A. official backs move to break up MTA
LOS ANGELES -- The focus of the
political drive to break off an independent San Fernando Valley transit system
shifted abruptly Friday as a top Los Angeles official moved to embrace a
regional pact that would pursue the proposal, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton,
who had bottled up the proposal, reluctantly recommended that the city join
the county and eight cities in pursuing a split from the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
Deaton had been pressed by Councilwoman Laura Chick and County Supervisor Zev
Yaroslavsky, among others, to relinquish his stranglehold on the issue.
City Council members had been waiting for Deaton to complete his analysis and
recommendation before acting on the proposal.
Despite his written advice, Deaton insisted that a breakaway district had yet
to prove it can survive financially. He suggested the council reconsider in a
year, and pull out of the joint powers authority--the group considering the
breakaway plan--unless a transit district is viable.
Deaton said a Valley zone would face a deficit of $70 million over the next
three years if it is forced to accept a proposal by the MTA. The MTA has
offered to pay $69 per hour per bus for services it would turn over to the new
agency.
"This is the most serious challenge to the zone's feasibility,"
Deaton wrote in a report to the council Friday. "Clearly . . . if this
gap cannot be closed, there cannot be a San Fernando Valley Transit
Zone."
On Wednesday, Yaroslavsky wrote to Los Angeles officials, complaining that the
city's refusal to sign on was "the only thing holding up progress"
in the effort to dismantle the MTA.
Chick said she was prepared to force the issue in the council had Deaton not
acted.
The council's top advisor said he was recommending the city join "to
accommodate other member agencies" and to make sure that other cities
share part of the $140,000 cost for a financial study on the MTA's subsidy
proposal.
"I'm pleased," Yaroslavsky said of Deaton's action. "For the
Valley Transit Zone to work, it is going to require the city's
involvement."
First proposed two years ago, the idea of a Valley Transit Zone has been
bogged down in financial negotiations and politics. State legislation that
would have doomed the idea by requiring the zone to match wages and benefits
paid by the MTA was vetoed by Gov. Gray Davis in early October, giving the
proposal new life.
At issue is how much the MTA is willing to pay for the services it will no
longer provide. Consultants for the agency estimate the MTA is spending $103
per hour per bus on its Valley service, but that the zone could provide the
service for about $88 per hour.
Yaroslavsky and Chick said Friday they believe the joint powers authority will
be able to find a way to make the Valley Transit Zone financially feasible.
"It has worked in other areas, including the San Gabriel Valley. I don't
know see why we can't make it work in the San Fernando Valley," Chick
said.
The officials said poor bus service provided to the Valley by the MTA is an
incentive to make it work.
"The agency there now is not meeting the mass-transit needs of the San
Fernando Valley," Chick said.
OHIO: Railroad
posts reward in conductor's assault
AKRON - A conductor who was attacked
and beaten last week at a rail yard said he was impressed by his company's
offer of a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the assailant. But
he said it won't ease his concerns about working conditions, the Cleveland
Plain Dealer reported.
Jeffrey Weisgarber said last Monday's
incident was the second time in three years that he has been attacked while
working for the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co., based in Brewster, Ohio.
"It is a good start for all the
problems we have been having," he said yesterday. "There is no
security on Wheeling property."
Weisgarber said that in January 1997,
when he was at a rail yard in Cleveland about 1 a.m. one night, two men
assaulted him, breaking his nose and kicking him so many times that he still
has back problems. Those men were never arrested.
On Monday, he got a ride from the
Brewster headquarters to Akron, where he was to drive a train back to
Brewster. According to the police report and Weisgarber, he was working on the
train under the Ohio 91 bridge at Interstate 76 and Gilchrist Rd. at 2:30 a.m.
when a man came out from behind a pillar and attacked him.
He was repeatedly hit in the face but
fought back, and the attacker ran away.
Weisgarber had bruises and swelling
on his face from the incident. He expects to return to work soon.
"I am afraid to go out there and
do my job," he said. "What will happen next time?"
Weisgarber, 43, of Beach City, said
he has worked for Wheeling & Lake Erie since 1993. "A reward is
something they should have done years ago," he said.
The railroad purchased a half-page
newspaper advertisement, which ran yesterday. It said those with information
should call the Akron police detective bureau.
That was news to the detectives, who
knew nothing about the case, since it was an assault. Captain Rick Mullins
said the department now has the information if anyone calls. He said he was
impressed the company would pay such a high reward for an assault case.
Bill Callison, vice president of law
and government relations for the railroad, said the company is concerned about
its employees.
The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway
Co. employs 350 people and runs its trains over 800 miles of track in Ohio,
West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
ILLINOIS:
RTA passes budget; more cash on way for CTA, PACA and METRA
CHICAGO -- All three Chicago-area mass-transit systems should have more money
to work with next year, according to the Regional Transportation Authority,
which passed its 2000 budget Thursday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The budget calls for increases in
funds for day-to-day operations and major projects, thanks to state and
federal largess.
The RTA gets money from sales taxes
and government grants and borrows more through bonds.
It distributes the money to the
Chicago Transit Authority and the suburban Pace and Metra transit systems.
The agency projects that its pool of
operating money will grow almost 7 percent next year, to $881 million--largely
because sales tax collections are expected to grow about 4 percent, said Joe
Costello, the RTA's chief financial officer.
However, higher labor and fuel costs
are expected to drive up expenses more than 10 percent, to $738 million, he
said.
The rest of the operating money will
go toward construction and renovation projects, like installing air
conditioning on CTA buses.
Combining that and other funds, the
RTA expects to have $826.5 million for capital projects next year, almost 50
percent more than it did this year.
NEW YORK: Fire disrupts train service
in NYC
NEW YORK -- A fire in Penn Station
made a mess of thousands of shopping excursions and holiday visits on the last
weekend before Christmas, the Associated Press reported.
Trains came to a halt on Amtrak and
suburban commuter railroads after a two-alarm fire was reported Sunday in a
communications shed at 3:17 p.m. on one of the busiest travel days of the
year.
Penn Station slowly filled with smoke
and was evacuated for four hours as Amtrak passengers waited through
hours-long delays up and down the East Coast.
There were no reported injuries, but
service was suspended for hours on Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and New
Jersey Transit, stranding thousands of travelers.
Amtrak reported delays for Northeast
Corridor trains between Washington, D.C., and Boston. Trains heading south
from Boston were stopping at New Haven, Conn., and northbound trains were
halted in Newark, N.J. Trains began running through Penn Station again by the
early evening.
In New York, Penn Station was filled
with would-be passengers lugging shopping bags. A performance of "The
Christmas Carol" at the Theater at Madison Square Garden was delayed for an
hour, but a New York Rangers game was played as scheduled.
"I came in to see the
tree," said
Gus Brandstatter of Howell, N.J., referring to the 100-foot-tall Christmas
tree in Rockefeller Center. "It looks like I'm staying here."
The damage to switching and signal
equipment was extensive. Some Long Island Rail Road trains into the station
experienced 15-minute delays this morning, and some were diverted to stations
in Brooklyn and Queens. Service was normal for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit.
"What burned had controlled all the
switches and the signals," Amtrak spokesman Russell Hall said.
Fire department officials said the
blaze was suspicious. Investigators were seeking to interview homeless people,
who sometimes visit the area around the shed.
NEBRASKA: Each Union Pacific
commodity business group surpasses $1 billion in annual revenue
OMAHA -- For the first time ever, all
six Union Pacific Railroad commodity business groups have each surpassed $1
billion in annual revenues, the railroad said in a press release.
Latest to hit the billion dollar
milestone was the Automotive business group, which transports finished cars
and trucks as well as auto parts for General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler,
Toyota and other customers. The
Automotive group contributes nearly 11 percent of Union Pacific's annual
revenues, which are projected to approach $9.9 billion in 1999.
The railroad's largest commodity
business group is Coal (22 percent of revenues), followed by Industrial
Products (19 percent), Intermodal (17.5 percent), Chemicals (16 percent) and
Agricultural Products (14.5 percent).
"Each of our commodity groups is
making significant contributions to what we anticipate will be almost 9
percent revenue growth this year," said Jack Koraleski, Executive Vice
President Marketing. "Within every group, we are gaining market share and
growing revenue and volume. Our growth momentum is being helped by stronger
demand than we anticipated." During
the week before Thanksgiving, UP's 7-day volume hit 178,700 carloads -- the
highest in history.
"Certainly, the key has been
accelerating operational improvements across the board," Koraleski said. He cited substantial improvement in UP's network velocity --
train speeds -- as the catalyst for major gains in dozens of operating
measures, including car cycle times and locomotive availability.
"Steadily improving operating
performance is the single biggest factor in earning customer confidence in our
ability to deliver," Koraleski said. "Overall, we expect to grow our
revenues by nearly $800 million this year. This sets the stage for continued
growth in 2000 and beyond."
TEXAS: Royalty owners win class
action status in suit against Union Pacific Resources
HOUSTON -- Fleming and Associates
announced that more than 27,000 royalty owners from across the State of Texas
have been granted class action status in their fight against the Ft.
Worth-based Union Pacific Resources Group, Inc. (NYSE: UPR), a press release
said.
Also included as defendants in the
suit are four entities affiliated with the parent company (UPRG):
Union Pacific Resources Company, Union Pacific Fuels, Inc., Union
Pacific Oil and Gas Co., and Union Pacific Austin Chalk Company.
The lawsuit, filed in Brenham, Texas
by the Houston-based law firms of Fleming & Associates, L.L.P. and Looper,
Reed, Mark & McGraw, Inc., and the Brenham firm of Moorman, Tate, Moorman,
Urquhart & Haley, L.L.P., seeks to recover damages owed to the royalty
owners. The class action
certification order, signed on December 7 in state court in Brenham, allows
parties owning royalty interests under leases located in the State of Texas to
seek recovery for underpayment of royalties from Union Pacific Resources for
natural gas production occurring during the first quarter of 1994 through the
present.
"Under Texas law, Union Pacific
Resources has a duty to these royalty owners to market their gas
diligently," said Robert R. Herring, Jr., Fleming & Associates.
"Union Pacific Resources failed to market the gas diligently in
this case because they simply sold the gas to an affiliate and paid royalty on
the proceeds from this sham transaction, instead of on the proceeds that UPR
actually received on the open market."
Herring estimated the damages as approaching $100,000,000.
"While discovery has not been completed, we believe the damages
will be substantial."
The lawsuit alleges that Union
Pacific Resources engaged in a deliberate scheme aimed at lowering royalty
payments to the royalty owners. "The
net effect of UPR's slight-of-hand operations was to take dollars away from a
lot of folks who depend on these checks to make ends meet," said Will
Bowen, former teacher and class action suit representative.
"What they did was quite clever.
They shifted the value of the natural gas production away from the
point where the royalties were calculated to a position downstream in a wholly
owned subsidiary. They sold the
natural gas through a process of inter-affiliate sales from one wholly owned
subsidiary to another at an arbitrary price.
These controlled transfer prices were then used as the basis to
calculate our royalty payments."
"UP Fuels, one of the
wholly-owned players in this calculated drill, was sold by Union Pacific
Resources for $1.35 billion to Duke Energy in early 1999," Herring said.
"We believe that after this sale Union Pacific Resources has
continued to market the gas to Duke Energy based on arbitrary and artificial
index prices rather than marketing the gas with due diligence in order to
obtain the best deal reasonably possible.
Essentially we believe that the practice of short-changing the royalty
owners continues today."
In a separate case in federal court,
Union Pacific Resources Corp. and five other oil and gas companies reportedly
agreed to pay a $71 million settlement for underpaid royalties on oil
production which when combined with other individually negotiated settlements
is estimated to total more than $276.3 million.
ILLINOIS: Amtrak's Kentucky Cardinal
service showcased for Louisville area customers
CHICAGO -- Amtrak's newest train, the
Kentucky Cardinal, rolled into the station in Jeffersonville, Ind., Saturday
morning, ending a 20-year absence of passenger rail service in the Louisville
metropolitan area, a press release said.
"The new Kentucky Cardinal
strengthens Amtrak as a business because we are restoring an important market
for our passenger rail system," said Ed Ellis, Amtrak Vice President. "The Kentucky Cardinal fills a transportation gap for
people in this area who can now take advantage of convenient rail travel to
Indianapolis, Chicago and the rest of our over 500 destinations."
The Kentucky Cardinal broke a huge
paper banner upon its arrival. Those
riding the train on its inaugural trip from Chicago disembarked the train and
joined a reception co-hosted by dignitaries from Jeffersonville, Louisville,
Amtrak and the Louisville and Indiana Railroad.
Following the ceremony, as the guest of honor, the Kentucky Cardinal
was put on display for the general public for two-and-a-half hours.
"It's exciting to have Amtrak
extend its service to our area," said Louisville Mayor David Armstrong. "Louisville and Chicago have a lot to offer and
traveling by rail has always been an enjoyable mode of transportation. This is
a great opportunity for both cities."
"This is much bigger than I ever
thought it would be, and I thought it would be big," said Jeffersonville
Mayor Tom Galligan. "This is
a tremendous shot in the arm for the whole region.
I've had so many people come up and express gratitude because they are
afraid to fly and don't want to drive. It
gives people access to be able to travel the whole country."
Peter Gilbertson, Chairman of the
Louisville & Indiana Railroad said, "We hope this is the first step
in a renewed regional awareness of the value of rail freight and passenger
networks."
The southbound Kentucky Cardinal will
depart Chicago Union Station each evening at 8:10 p.m. CST and arrive in
Jeffersonville at 8:40 a.m. EST the following morning.
The northbound Kentucky Cardinal will depart Jeffersonville each
evening at 10:25 p.m. EST and arrive in Chicago at10:05 a.m. CST the next day.
The station in Jeffersonville is located at500 Willinger Lane.
A limited number of parking spaces are available at the station.
Three days per week, the Kentucky
Cardinal will operate between Chicago and Indianapolis as a section of
Amtrak's Cardinal, a train that operates thrice-weekly between Chicago and
Washington, D.C., via Indianapolis. In
Indianapolis, the Kentucky Cardinal will be joined with, and separated from,
the Cardinal on the days of that train's operation.
On the remaining four days per week, the Kentucky Cardinal will operate
independently between Chicago, Indianapolis and Jeffersonville/Louisville.
Passengers utilizing the Kentucky
Cardinal will be able to connect in Chicago to Amtrak's national network of
short and long-distance trains. Same
day connections can be made at Chicago to the California Zephyr serving
Oakland/San Francisco, the Empire Builder serving Portland and Seattle, the
Southwest Chief serving Los Angeles, the Lake Shore Limited serving New York
and Boston, and numerous other trains to destinations throughout the country.
WASHINGTON:
FRA consolidates docket with DOT
WASHINGTON -- The Federal
Railroad Administration (FRA) has consolidated its docket operations
with those of other Department of
Transportation operating elements, a press release said.
DOT's
nine separate docket facilities have been consolidated into the Centralized Docket Management System and have been converted
from a paper-based system to an
optical imaging system for more efficient
storage, management and retrieval of docketed information. This
conversion is intended to provide better service and more widespread
access to both the public and government users. This final rule provides details of new docket filing procedures for FRA
regulatory and adjudicatory
proceedings.
NEW YORK: Transit officials say no
fare hike in city
NEW YORK --
The tentative labor contract reached between New York City transit
workers and the state agency that runs the city's buses and trains will not
result in a fare hike, according to transit officials quoted in Friday's
newspapers.
The Daily News, in its Friday
edition, quoted Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Virgule Conway
as saying: "I can assure you the effect is quite modest."
The New York Times quoted Marc Shaw,
executive director of the MTA, as saying the agency had already budgeted money
to cover most of the wage increases in the contract.
The contract, which still has to win
approval from the transit union's 33,000 members, would provide a 12.5 percent
increase in base pay over three years. Transit workers earn an average of
$39,000.
Diana Fortuna, the president of the
Citizens Budget Commission, a business-backed monitoring group, said the
preliminary labor agreement was so generous that it might force an increase in
the $1.50 fare for subways and buses, according to the New York Times.
OHIO:
Railroad will reopen line through east side
HURON - Despite neighborhood
protests, Norfolk Southern Corp. has decided to reopen an unused rail line in
East Toledo that crosses several busy streets at grade, railroad and city
officials disclosed last week, the Toledo Blade reported.
At a city council committee hearing
Oct. 21, Norfolk Southern officials said they had no firm plans to rebuild a
dismantled piece of track and increase traffic on a connecting section that
now is used only by trains serving a local refinery.
But during a hearing here yesterday
concerning blocked-crossing problems in northern Ohio, railroad spokesman Mike
Scime confirmed that the track restoration will proceed.
Norfolk Southern sees the old Toledo
Belt track as a way to bypass congestion on CSX-owned tracks that it now uses
to run trains between an Oregon rail yard and the former Conrail main line through Toledo that
Norfolk Southern now operates.
But residents of the East Toledo
neighborhoods through which the track passes fear that long, slow-moving
trains will add to burdens they already suffer from trains on the CSX track,
and that when trains stop they will impair emergency response and pose a
hazard for schoolchildren.
Diana Shinaver, an East Toledoan who
organized an anti-train petition drive, said Norfolk Southern's decision did
not surprise her, but she hopes the protests have "forced them to take a
look at our community."
City Councilman Robert McCloskey
asked state legislators to help in addressing "this tyranny of the
railroads" that has caused his east side district to be
"besieged" by blocked crossings.
The joint hearing of the House
transportation and public safety committee and the Senate highways and
transportation committee was held primarily for testimony about several bills
that would raise fines for trains that block road crossings.
"Current state code leaves a lot
to be desired,'' said Paul Goldberg, Oregon's law director, who likened
current blocked-crossing penalties to a "plastic hammer."
Officials from across northern Ohio
urged legislators to find money for bridges over or under tracks through their
communities so firefighters and schoolchildren no longer will have to worry
about being delayed by trains. But in the meantime, they said, the crossing
blockages must stop.
"When you hear that children,
little kids, are crawling under trains to get to school, we can't have that,''
said Bill Ommert, Huron County's emergency management coordinator. "When
you hear that firefighters are crawling under trains with their hoses to get
to a fire, we can't have that.''
Trains now are forbidden to block
road crossings for more than five minutes, but violations are minor
misdemeanors punishable by a fine of no more than $1,000. And officials say
only chartered cities can assess that full amount; the maximum fine a township
can collect is $65.
Separate bills pending before the
legislature would, if enacted, raise fines for trains that block crossings for
more than 25 minutes; give villages, townships, and counties the same
enforcement authority that cities now have, and provide for designating
certain crossings as "no-stop" zones upon which trains would be
required to keep moving. Northern Ohio has been plagued with stopped-train
problems since June 1, when the Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation
railroads divided rail lines formerly operated by Conrail between them and
began integrating those routes into their two networks. Computer glitches,
crew management problems, and other merger-related difficulties caused
congestion in rail yards that in turn led to trains being parked on tracks
across the region.
State Sen. Scott Oelslager (R.,
Canton), chairman of the highways and transportation committee, remarked that
Ohio witnesses' fears about grade-crossing problems were pooh-poohed when the
federal Surface Transportation Board held hearings in 1998 concerning the
Conrail transaction.
"These committees will be
watching very closely - people's lives are at stake,'' he told CSX and Norfolk
Southern representatives at the hearing yesterday.
Proponents hope that higher fines
will persuade the railroads to keep more crossings clear.
"I know [the railroads are]
working hard to alleviate the problems, but every once in a while you've got
to raise the ante,'' said state Sen. Jeffry Armbruster (R., North Ridgeville),
sponsor of the bill to strengthen rural areas' enforcement power and a
highways and transportation committee member.
Ultimately,
many speakers agreed, the grade-crossing solution is to build overpasses or
underpasses at vital roads. Senator Oelslager said he was interested in a
suggestion to set up a railroad-bridge prioritizing system similar to the one
the Ohio Department of Transportation now uses to decide where to build roads.
