UTU News Digest - Wednesday, March 24, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Wednesday, March 24, 1999

ILLINOIS: UP, Conrail trains collide near Amtrak's fatal mishap

MOMENCE, Ill. -- A collision early Tuesday between a Conrail train and a Union Pacific Railroad train about 50 miles south of Chicago snarled operations on a north-south route that handles 60 trains a day.

Three persons suffered minor injuries in Tuesday's collision at Momence, Ill., which happened barely 10 miles from the site of an accident last week that killed 11 passengers on an Amtrak train after it collided with a tank truck that was trying to cross the tracks.

Union Pacific is expected to resume operations on its North-South line sometime Wednesday, a spokesman said. While workers clean up the accident site, more than 40 UP trains are being detoured around the crash.

Tuesday's accident also affected 18 daily CSX Transportation trains that use the UP line. A spokeswoman said the CSX trains were being re-routed. A Conrail spokesman said it was uncertain when service would be resumed. That east-west line handles an average of 12 trains a day.

The Conrail train was traveling eastbound when it collided with the southbound UP train.

A UP spokesman said the Conrail train hit the first locomotive in the UP train, but Conrail officials said their locomotive struck one of the freight cars. Officials at both carriers could not say who was responsible for dispatching trains through the crossing.

The speed of both trains was not known. UP's speed limit at Momence is 50 mph, while the Conrail line has a 45-mph limit.

The three persons hurt in Tuesday's crash were taken to Riverside Hospital in Kankakee, Ill., where a spokeswoman said they were treated for minor injuries. Two of the injured were on the UP train enroute from Chicago to Mexico with had 43 carloads of auto parts.

The engineer of the Conrail train was injured in the accident, but a Conrail spokesman said the conductor was unhurt. The Conrail train -- bound for Elkhart, Ind., from Kankakee -- contained 60 cars, including 46 loads of mixed freight. None of the cars in the Conrail train derailed. Diesel fuel leaked from one of the Conrail locomotives. A brief fire at the site was extinguished, railroad officials said.

ILLINOIS: Trucker may lose license for Amtrak accident

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The secretary of state's office was reviewing state law Tuesday to see if it could revoke the driver's license of the trucker involved in last week's deadly Amtrak crash.

"Our lawyers are looking at every possible angle,'' spokeswoman Anne Dybek said. "We want to do what's best for public safety.''

The driver, 58-year-old John R. Stokes, has not been charged in the March 15 accident in which 11 people were killed and more than 100 injured, but he has a long history of traffic citations over 31 years.

State authorities suspended Stokes' license Jan. 25 for 60 days after learning he had received three speeding tickets within a year while driving a commercial vehicle in Indiana. After taking a driving course, he obtained a probationary permit to cover the period of the suspension, which is scheduled to end Thursday.

State records obtained by The Associated Press also show Stokes' license was suspended twice when he failed to pass breath tests for alcohol after traffic stops in 1987 and 1988.

Stokes has denied wrongdoing and a federal official said last week that he was not over the legal limit for alcohol. The official didn't know if he had consumed any alcohol at all.

Stokes' attorney, Leonard Sacks, said his client's earlier driving history is not relevant in the Amtrak crash. He also was critical of Secretary of State Jesse White's office for trying to find a way to revoke Stokes' license now.

"I'd think it would be more appropriate to wait until there's an investigation that's completed and they have all the information, rather than reacting to public clamor,'' he said.

White's lawyers are trying to determine whether Stokes' license can be revoked even if he is not charged.

WASHINGTON: Supreme Court lets $20M judgment stand vs. Wis. Central

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday turned down a request to hear a dispute between Wisconsin Central Ltd. and Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad Co., letting stand a $20 million damages award against Wisconsin Central, according to Federal Filings Business News.

This dispute began in June 1993, when B&O, a unit of CSX Transportation Inc. (CSX), sued the wholly owned subsidiary of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp. (WCLX) in U.S. District Court in Illinois. B&O was seeking switching charges and railroad car rental fees under a tariff that it had filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission. In its answer, Wisconsin Central said B&O's claim was barred by an interchange agreement between the parties and that the rate in the tariff was unreasonable and discriminatory.

The district court sent the matter to arbitration per the interchange agreement, technically dismissing the case but without prejudice to either party to refile any nonarbitrable claim or defense within 30 days after the arbitrators made an award. B&O was awarded nearly $20 million in damages and interest, and the court confirmed the award on Aug. 28, 1997.

Wisconsin Central moved to reinstate its defenses during the confirmation process. The district court reinstated some of the defenses, but referred them to the Surface Transportation Board, the successor to the Interstate Commerce Commission, on the grounds that it had primary jurisdiction.

Prior to the court's decision, Wisconsin Central had filed a petition with the STB, contesting substantially all of B&O's switching charges, according to its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company stated in its most recent quarterly report that the case before the STB was still pending.

The district court's order regarding the arbitrator's award was certified as a partial final judgment, allowing Wisconsin Central to appeal to the Seventh Circuit. The appellate court affirmed the decision.

The appeals court noted that if the STB found the tariff invalid, Wisconsin Central would have a claim against B&O for the return of part or all of the arbitration award and that such a claim could be enforced as a part of this lawsuit.

AFRICA: 50 feared killed in Kenya train crash

NAIROBI, Kenya -- At least 50 people were feared killed in a train crash on Kenya's main Nairobi-Mombasa railroad on Wednesday, police said.

They said further details were not immediately available, but the accident happened at Man-eaters, a junction near Tsavo National Park, around 300 km (186 miles) southeast of the Kenyan capital.

A spokeswoman for the Kenya Railways Corporation said the overnight passenger train travelling from the capital to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa derailed at around 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT).

"I don't know how many people have been killed but there are quite a lot of injured people," she said.

She said a Kenya Air Force plane had already airlifted some of the most serious casualties to hospitals in Nairobi. Others were taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Voi. It was not clear how many passengers were on the train but the spokeswoman said the service, often used by tourists travelling to Kenya's coastal resorts, usually carried around 300 people.

OHIO: High-speed trains at least 10 years away

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohioans will have to wait at least 10 more years to ride a scaled-down version of bullet trains, a planner said.

Early proposals include an option for a 100-mph train on routes between Cincinnati and Chicago, as well as Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago, said Tom O'Leary, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission. The commission is one of 11 organizations planning such routes.

Last week, Amtrak announced a $2 billion, 150-mph train system that will begin operating in November or December between Boston and Washington, D.C. Amtrak said the service could be a model for similar trains in the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, California and the Pacific Northwest.

But a key difference is that Amtrak already owns the Boston-to-Washington right-of-way, O'Leary said. In the Midwest, much of the 3,000 miles in the regional plan belong to freight railroads, whose cooperation and support would be needed.

The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative is the work of Midwest states, Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration. It seeks to steadily increase speeds and passenger-rail service to 22 metro areas in the Midwest, using Chicago as a hub.

A Columbus route was not recommended because Amtrak does not serve the city and the most direct lines to Chicago have been abandoned, O'Leary said.

A route between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati could be added later, he said. The idea has been studied for decades, but deemed too expensive.

According to a $3.5 billion plan, the upgrade would represent a fivefold increase in service by 2006.

The states have yet to endorse the plan, and money would need to come from legislatures and Congress.

MONTANA: BNSF to cut rates for wheat shipping

BILLINGS, Mont. -- The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway has announced plans to cut shipping rates for Montana wheat. The company will cut freight rates by 150 dollars per rail car.

The move is expected to help wheat farmers who are being hurt by low prices. Virtually all of the wheat grown in Montana is shipped to the West Coast. The move drew immediate praise from Senator Max Baucus and Representative Rick Hill. The two have been lobbying for rate cuts from the railroad, which holds a virtual monopoly on grain transportation.

MARYLAND: Father of dead girl charged

ELKTON, Md. -- The stepfather of a young child killed by a speeding train is being charged in connection with her death. Michael Durant has been arrested for reckless endangerment.

His stepdaughter, 14-year-old Krystal Donlon, was hit by an Amtrak train going almost 90 miles an hour. State prosecutors say Durant was with the children and put them in danger by allowing them to walk near the railroad tracks.