UTU News Digest - Friday, December 24, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

NOTE: The Daily News Digest will resume on Tuesday, December 28

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Friday, December 24, 1999

ILLINOIS: RTA eyes improved coordination among CTA, METRA, PACE

CHICAGO -- Acknowledging the coordination of commuter services among the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace is often akin to ships passing in the night, the Regional Transportation Authority launched a study Tuesday that officials said they hope will result in a unified transit plan for the entire Chicago area, the Chicago Tribune reported.

RTA officials said the renewed attention toward creating a seamless partnership among the three transit agencies was in response to complaints from riders over the years about transit routes that either don't meet each other or, if they do intersect, lack stations or stops for transferring.

Examples that critics have cited include the CTA rail stations: at 35th and LaSalle Streets; Addison Street and Lincoln Avenue; 35th Street and Archer Avenue; and Austin Avenue at Lake Street. At each location, Metra trains pass by but do not stop.

Other areas that the three-year, $400,000 RTA study will focus on include coordinating schedules where there are links so that commuters can more easily make their connections. The study also will investigate the introduction of a universal fare-paying system that promotes cross-ridership.

Transit officials hope maps and signage, areas in which the RTA has recently concentrated efforts, would be improved through the use of electronic message boards, which tell how many minutes until the next train and provide estimated travel times to destinations. The signs would advise commuters who drive to Metra stations about the availability of parking long before they drive up to the lot.

"Our customers have spoken, and they've primarily said that what they want is more ease of use and greater choice," said RTA Executive Director Richard Bacigalupo, adding, " What you see today represents our beginning blueprint to think differently about the region."

The RTA study, spurred by legislation sponsored by state Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), will not result in a merger or a reorganization of the CTA, Metra or Pace, officials said. In fact, the RTA, created in 1974 primarily to oversee the financial operations of the three transit agencies, does not have regulatory authority to mandate changes in service. Instead, Bacigalupo said, the RTA will stress cooperation among the CTA, Metra and Pace.

But given the history of competition among the agencies--mostly for funding--and questions about whether the RTA has shown sufficient leadership, some mass-transit advocates who attended Tuesday's public hearing on the coordination plan expressed little enthusiasm.

"It's going to be the same old turf wars between the CTA and Metra," predicted Harvey Kahler, a transportation planning consultant. "The RTA has been around for 25 years. Why are they just getting around to this now?"

Jacquelyne Grimshaw of the Center for Neighborhood Technology complained that the RTA's 23-page blueprint for the study "fails to give serious consideration to access-to-work issues" for people who are trying to get off public assistance rolls.

The Illinois General Assembly has called for a unified regional transit plan since 1983. Only two years ago, the House instructed the RTA and its service agencies to coordinate stops where Metra and CTA rail lines are in proximity, but no action followed. If anything, critics say, the spirit of cooperation has deteriorated.

Earlier this month, for example, Pace's board voted to stop accepting the CTA's seven-day pass, effective Jan. 1. The pass, designed as a tool to increase ridership on both the CTA and Pace, costs riders $20 and allows unlimited use during a seven-day period. But Pace said it is losing $1 million annually by accepting the pass.

PENNSYLVANIA: SEPTA responds to PennDOT hearing

PHILADELPHIA -- SEPTA is responding to today's findings by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation concerning bus inspection procedures with initiatives aimed at improvement, a company press release said.

Riders can be assured that all buses in service not only meet but also exceed state inspection standards. SEPTA has systematically re-inspected its entire fleet, having taken direct action since it became aware of problems at Comly depot in September.

As soon as SEPTA found inspection problems on 11 buses, it urged the Pennsylvania State Police to inspect. Ultimately, State Police found 13 buses in violation. In addition, SEPTA relieved three inspectors of their duties pending the outcome of its internal investigation and the PennDOT inquiry.

SEPTA is now providing several enhancements to its fleet inspection, including:

Appointment of a single senior official to manage the program for greater oversight

Special audits to inspect every bus every two months. SEPTA will conduct audits with assistance from State Police

Re-training of all SEPTA inspectors by March to the highest of standards developed by the Authority and State Police

Continuance of the SEPTA 3,000-mile (every three to five weeks) preventative maintenance program exceeding state inspection standards

Specific improvements SEPTA is making to the bus fleet include a new repair program for corrosion affecting older (15-16 year-old) buses. SEPTA, State Police, and an independent metallurgical and structural engineering firm developed better repair procedures for bus frames.

In its report today PennDOT said SEPTA has shown a good faith effort to implement proper inspection procedures since its December 8 hearing. It is asking SEPTA for a plan regarding continuance as well as oversight and management of the procedures and process.

The hearing has yielded the following actions:

Suspension of Comly depot's licensing certification for six months beginning Jan. 6

Suspension of the licenses of three inspectors for two months for faulty inspections and careless record keeping

Citation of SEPTA for three faulty bus inspections

Comly, one of seven SEPTA depots, has been an ongoing problem that the Authority pledges to rectify. "This is an isolated incident and an exception to our every rule," says SEPTA General Manager John K. Leary Jr. "The actions we continue to take on behalf of customer safety speak for themselves."

To prevent shortages among the Comly fleet, SEPTA will employ a private contractor to conduct inspections. About 180 buses will be affected.

NEBRASKA: Short-line takes it slow and easy

CHADRON -- For the Nebkota Railway, the philosophy of slow and steady does not win the race, but it does get the grain to market, the Associated Press reported.

The short-line railway with headquarters in Chadron provides a means of transporting wheat, millet and sunflower seeds from U.S. Highway 20 elevators to Burlington Northern-Santa Fe rail connections in Crawford.

The Nebkota runs on a section of track from the old Chicago Northwestern line that ran across north-central Nebraska through the northern Panhandle to the Wyoming coal and oil fields.

While most of the abandoned track is in the process of being converted into a recreational trail system known as "The Cowboy Trail," the Nebkota uses 103 miles of rail right-of-way to haul the summer harvest from Merriman, Gordon, Clinton, Rushville, Hay Springs and Chadron at a sedate pace of 10 mph.

"It's not like we're hauling TVs and VCRs that have a time-sensitive delivery," Nebkota general manager George LaPray said. "For what were hauling, 10 mph is just fine."

The trains can go much faster, but lowering the speed to 10 saves wear and tear on the track as well as on locomotives and cars, he said.

"Trucks have flat tires and railroads have derailments," LaPray said. "Obviously, a flat tire at 60 mph is much more dangerous than one at 20. A derailment at 10 mph isn't near as damaging as one at a higher speed."

The Nebkota has suffered only two derailments in five years, both coming in a section of track about three miles east of Chadron. Both incidents were blamed on expanding rails in the hot summer months and involved less than a handful of cars.

The Nebkota allows farmers and ranchers along the route to graze livestock in the right-of-way.

"We're going slow enough to stop for any livestock anyway," engineer Roy Fitzgibbon said.

Even at harvest time, the railway makes only a pair of runs to elevators per week to keep grain from piling up.

The railway continues to make weekly runs though the winter months.

"We provide service as needed," LaPray said. "We'll get busy again if the price bumps up and farmers bring a lot of grain out of storage."

The Nebkota leases two of its three locomotives from Independent Locomotive Service.

"That's cost-effective for a small operation like ours, because they handle all the maintenance," LaPray said. "If something major happens, they come and get the locomotive and bring us a new one."

The railway has just three full-time employees.

Fitzgibbon, president of the Chadron school board, said he is required to follow all safety regulations for engineers, including regular retraining, annual physicals and random drug-testing.

"A little railroad is just like a big railroad in that way," he said.

CALIFORNIA: 7 suffer minor injuries when train hits car

LOS ANGELES -- An automobile drove around a closed crossing gate and was struck by a Metro Blue Line train Wednesday in Watts, resulting in minor injuries to seven people, an MTA official said.

The crash occurred about 11:08 a.m. as the southbound train traveled through the three-sided intersection at 114th Street and Wilmington and Willowbrook avenues, said Gary Wosk of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The train was preparing to stop at the upcoming Imperial / Wilmington station when an elderly man drove his car around the crossing gate, Wosk said. The train operator was 90 feet away when he noticed the car and applied his emergency brakes, but the train clipped the car's right rear, sending it about 100 feet down Wilmington Avenue, where it rear-ended another auto.

Five people on the train complained of neck and back pain, and four were taken to hospitals, Wosk said. The drivers of both cars also suffered minor injuries and were treated.

The accident caused a 40-minute disruption of service.

Since 1992, there have been nine accidents between cars and Blue Line trains, including four fatalities, along that stretch of Wilmington Avenue that includes at least three intersections. Since the Blue Line opened in 1990, there have been 53 fatalities in accidents involving cars and pedestrians, Wosk said.

OBITUARY: Louis W. Menk

Louis Wilson Menk, a railroad entrepreneur who wove three medium-size companies into the much larger Burlington Northern, then went to the rescue of a faltering industrial giant, International Harvester, died at his home in Carefree, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, the Omaha World Herald.

He was 81.

The cause was cancer, his family said.

Menk, the son of a trainman, said he could never remember a time in his youth when he ever wanted to be anything but a railroader, too.

He was a champion golfer at Denver High School, then studied at Denver University for two years, carrying a full schedule of courses while learning Morse code as a messenger for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Within a year his skill as a telegrapher took him to a dispatcher's job with the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, where he had a rapid rise. He became president in 1962 and added the title of chairman in 1964.

The next year the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad drew him away to take over as president of the Burlington Lines.

In the years after that he played a key role as the industry reinvented itself by shifting the emphasis from passenger transportation to hauling freight.

He led the merger of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Burlington Railroads into Burlington Northern, of which he served as president, chairman and chief executive. He retired in 1981 as chairman of the board.

Burlington Northern later merged with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to form the present Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of North America's largest railroad networks.

In 1982, International Harvester, a big maker of trucks and farm equipment, was on the brink of bankruptcy. Menk was asked to take over the company.

In 20 months, he led a reorganization, oversaw cutbacks and installed a new management team. He served as chairman and chief executive of the company, now known as Navistar International Corp.

EUROPE: German-Dutch rail venture seeks third European partner

FRANKFURT - Even before the German and Dutch rail-freight companies fuse into "Railion" on Jan. 1, the joint company's executives already are looking for other European partners.

According to published reports in Denmark, Railion officials have been in touch with the Danish national railroad, DSB, about adding its rail-freight division, DSB Gods, to the Railion partnership.

Spokespersons for the two Railion partners -- Germany's DB Cargo AG and the Netherlands' NS Cargo NV -- declined to comment last week on the reports, but reiterated previous statements that Railion is open to other potential partners in Europe. Railion is the result of an agreement last year between DB Cargo and NS Cargo to join forces as a European logistics and transport provider. The parent railroads will own the shares, with Germany's Deutsche Bahn AG owning 94% and the Dutch Nederlandse Spoorwagen NV owning the remaining shares.

When Railion begins operations on Jan. 1, it will have about 45,000 employees and estimated annual sales of $3.8 billion, with an annual transport volume of about 315 million tons. The joint company will own 133,600 freight cars and 4,785 locomotives.

The Railion venture, the first of its kind in Europe, is considered an early step in integrating Europe's fragmented and inefficient rail systems, a trend that is gaining momentum as European railroads have steadily lost market share to trucks, leading to heavy congestion on highways.

European Union transport ministers agreed this month to develop a proposed law that would mandate seamless border crossings for freight trains in high-density corridors by requiring common technical standards and procedures. For the last half-century, Europe's rail systems have developed largely along national lines, with the result that freight trains are routinely held up at borders.

According to a Danish news agency, DSB is considering selling more than half the shares in its DSB Gods cargo subsidiary to the Railion partners. In one version of the potential agreement, DSB would receive as much as 4% of the Railion shares in return for the shares in its rail-freight division.

A DSB official said the Danish railroad has had discussions with interested parties "in several directions," but has not concluded any deal.

The Danish rail-freight operator, DSB Gods, is a much smaller operation, but would add to the Railion network. DSB Gods has about 800 employees and annual revenue of approximately $90 million.

In addition to the talks with the Danish rail, Railion executives are also said to have discussed possible cooperation with the Czech national railroad.