UTU News Digest - Tuesday, September 21, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

MISSOURI: Woman awarded $40M in rail accident

KANSAS CITY -- Union Pacific Railroad Co. and Amtrak have been ordered to pay a Missouri woman $40.4 million for a 1997 crossing accident that left her with brain damage and more than 20 broken bones.

A Jackson County jury ruled Monday that Union Pacific was 75 percent at fault and Amtrak 25 percent as it awarded actual damages to Kimberly Alcorn, 34. The mother of two teen-agers suffered brain damage, broken bones and disfiguring injuries, her lawyers said.

Union Pacific acted "with complete indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of others,'' according to the verdict.

The jury also found Union Pacific liable for punitive damages, which could add millions to what lawyers say is already Missouri's largest award for a rail-crossing accident. That phase of the trial was to begin today.

Railroad attorneys declined to comment Monday.

State officials allegedly told the company 11 months before the 1997 accident that the crossing was dangerous.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Grant L. Davis told jurors that Ms. Alcorn lived with extreme pain because Union Pacific waited for state aid instead of paying $200,000 for lights and gates.

"This case is about corporate greed,'' Davis said. "It's about putting dollars ahead of lives.''

Lawyers also relied on testimony that Amtrak engineers did not apply brakes until after the train hit the car Ms. Alcorn was in. The train was traveling at 65 mph to 70 mph.

Ted Williams, an attorney for the rail companies, told jurors: "You can see a train if you look.'' He suggested the accident was the fault of Curtis Edwards, the driver of the car hit by the train.

Attorney John Rollins represented Edwards, who was driving Ms. Alcorn back to Sedalia after they visited an Independence mall.

Rollins said that a sign, which warned of a railway crossing, was in a ditch and that Edwards did not know he was approaching the crossing. Rollins cited the testimony of area residents who said that it was hard to see a train even if they stopped and looked.

Rollins said Union Pacific's attitude was "we run the trains, we make the money ... but we're not responsible for safety.

WASHINGTON: Morgan's reappointment hearing to generate lively debate

WASHINGTON -- Tuesday's Senate hearing to consider whether Linda Morgan should remain as chairman of the Surface Transportation Board is shaping up as a referendum on her leadership of the controversial agency, the Journal of Commerce reported.

The hearing before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will go beyond the routine review of a presidential appointment because senators remain split on the direction of STB, which is running on a year-to-year basis without Congressional reauthorization.

Since Morgan became chairman in 1995, STB decisions regarding commercial competition and labor issues have irked various parties with a vested interest in the rulings.

Shipper groups, with support from several senators on the committee, back legislative proposals to increase competition and neutralize a 1996 STB decision that blocked some shippers from having a choice of railroads to serve them.

Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who introduced one of the shipper-backed bills, are expected to direct pointed questions at Morgan.

She has an obvious ally in Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. Morgan was chief counsel to the Commerce Committee when it was chaired by Hollings during the 1980s.

Hollings co-authored railroad -backed legislation that would reauthorize the STB for four years without changing its regulatory policies. Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and committee chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., also introduced that bill.

Committee members who are co-sponsors of the leadership's proposal include Ted Stevens, R-Alaska; Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii; Olympia Snowe, R-Maine; Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; and John Ashcroft, R-Mo.

Most believe the committee's vote will recommend that the full Senate approve Morgan's nomination. Others insist there will be no immediate committee action.

Most union leaders insist that legislation reauthorizing the STB must remove the agency's power to allow carriers to override negotiated labor agreements during merger cases. Four major rail mergers have been approved during Morgan's tenure, affecting the working conditions of more than 150,000 organized rail employees.

The AFL-CIO leadership has taken the unusual step of urging rejection of Morgan's nomination. Labor's fight against Morgan's nomination is expected to continue beyond the hearing room.

Earlier this year, some observers thought labor had the power to keep her nomination bottled up in the White House. President Clinton sent Morgan's nomination to the Senate during the summer.

Senators likely will weigh Morgan's status as the only veteran on the three-member board. The other two commissioners, Wayne Burkes and William Clyburn, are in their first year of service.

Some Capitol Hill insiders believe Morgan's experience and expertise may assure her confirmation to insure continuity as the agency rules on issues arising from the 1990s and wraps up major rail and truck cases.

The key rail case involves FMC Corp. and Union Pacific Railroad. FMC, which mines soda ash in Wyoming, is seeking an STB finding that Union Pacific must offer competitive rates.

On the trucking side, the STB must resolve whether rate bureaus and an industry body that classifies freight moved by less-than-truckload carriers will continue to have antitrust immunity.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, will chair the hearing. She has introduced legislation calling that would impose fewer changes but would urge the board to emphasize competition.

Another issue at the hearing could be legislative and philosophical changes at the STB.

Morgan has cited several decisions involving rail competition where the agency has felt it lacked statutory authority to make changes.

"STB is a small agency that has defied the opinions of the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation on numerous occasions, particularly with regard to mergers that have not turned out very well," said Ed Emmett, president of the National Industrial Transportation League. "That has built up a reservoir of skepticism about their judgment among other government types."

Other trade associations with a stake in the outcome will be watching the hearing closely.

"We are pleased that the nomination is moving forward," said Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads. "As we have said before, the board functions best when it has a full complement of members. Linda Morgan has proved herself to be knowledgeable and impartial and has provided solid leadership on complex issues."

"We look forward to hearing what she has to say," said Diane Duff, who heads the Alliance for Rail Competition, a shipper group backing the bill by Rockefeller, Burns and Dorgan.

MASSACHUSETTS: Boise seeks to lure union workers; offers bonuses to lure Amtrak employees

BOSTON -- Amtrak unionized workers who maintain the MBTA's commuter-rail trains are being offered $1,000 each if they move over to the new company the authority has hired to take over the work.

Bay State Transit Services sent out application packages to hundreds of workers, who fought unsuccessfully to keep the MBTA from putting the maintenance work out to bid.

The controversial contract with Bay State was signed last week, and the company is expected to assume the work in March. But Bay State is obligated to offer employment first to the more than 600 employees of Amtrak that have done the work for the last decade or so.

Charles Moneypenny, who represents the Amtrak workers, said Bay State was not getting many takers, and he said the offer is simply an attempt at union busting. ''They're not obliged to accept this offer to scab from Bay State,'' Moneypenny said yesterday. ''Paul Cellucci and his people are just determined to break the union.''

Moneypenny said Bay State has a legal obligation to negotiate directly with the unions that represent Amtrak workers, not to go directly to the employees.

Bay State officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

MBTA officials are hoping for a smooth transition, in which those who formerly worked for Amtrak would become Bay State employees. MBTA lawyers have gone to court to try to prevent a strike over the matter.

Bay State has said pay and benefits would be better than workers had received, though no numbers were specified in the material that workers received. The packages that went out to employees gave a description of Bay State, a team made up of Boise Locomotive Co. and Herzog Transit Services Inc., and invited current workers to become part of ''a skilled, efficient workforce.''

''Bay State Transit Services recognizes that change is difficult for employees and that components of the compensation package, while comparable, may be different,'' the letter said. ''To lessen the uncertainty,'' a bonus of $1,000 is to be paid to employees who apply and are hired.

Bay State has said it intends to use about 400 employees, compared to 650 or so who have done the equipment-maintenance work to date. Though the unions and many politicians are skeptical, the company says it will save the MBTA millions of dollars each year.

NEW YORK: U.S.DOT announces $43.8 million federal contribution to MTA's Long Island Rail Road East Side access project

NEW YORK -- U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary Mortimer L. Downey today announced that nearly $43.8 million in Federal Transit Administration funds have been provided to assist the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Long Island Rail Road East Side Access Project.

"Investments in transportation strengthen the economy and improve the quality of life in our communities, supporting President Clinton's goal of putting people first," Downey said. "This extension will give residents better and more efficient public transit and will result in a better quality of life for the people in New York."

The grants provide initial funding for completion of the environmental impact statement, preliminary engineering, preparatory work for right-of-way acquisition, project management, administrative costs and other project activities.

The East Side Access connection involves construction of a 5,500-foot tunnel from the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) main line in Sunnyside, Queens, to the existing tunnel under the East River at 63^rd Street. A second 5,000-foot tunnel will carry LIRR trains from the 63^rd street tunnel under Park Avenue and into a separate and distinct LIRR terminal in the western portion of Grand Central Terminal. A new passenger station in Sunnyside Yard, Queens, also will be constructed to provide access to the growing Long Island City business district.

WASHINGTON: Slater announces $1.6 billion in financing for five projects

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater today named the first five projects to benefit from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). The Department of Transportation is providing $1.6 billion of credit assistance to projects of national significance in California, the District of Columbia, Florida, New York and Puerto Rico worth $6.5 billion at a cost of only $61 million to the federal government.

Every TIFIA dollar spent will contribute to more than $100 in capital investment.

TIFIA, authorized under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) and signed into law by President Clinton June in 1998, authorized an innovative financing program under which the Department of Transportation provides credit assistance rather than grants to public and private sponsors of major surface transportation projects.

"TIFIA is a catalyst for creating jobs and continuing our nation's record economic growth," said President Bill Clinton. "This innovative financing program turns a $61 million commitment into $1.6 billion in funding to support $6.5 billion in transportation projects of critical national importance."

"TIFIA is a new and better way of doing business," said Secretary Slater. "By working smarter for the American people, we are making possible major transportation investments which might otherwise not have received financing."

The projects selected under TIFIA are:

Farley-Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Project, New York City. This $750 million project will convert the Farley post office building adjacent to the existing Penn Station into an intermodal facility and commercial center serving Amtrak, commuter rail and subway passengers. Participants in the project are the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation, Amtrak, the U.S. Postal Service, and federal, state and city governments. The project will receive a TIFIA loan of $140 million and a TIFIA line of credit of $20 million.

Metro Capital Program, Washington, D.C. This project will help accelerate a 20-year, $2.3 billion capital improvement program for the transit system in the Nation's Capital. The project will rehabilitate and replace vehicles, facilities and equipment on the 103-mile Metrorail system. It will receive a $600 million TIFIA loan guarantee.

State Route 125, San Diego. This is a $400 million, nine-mile segment of toll road connecting San Diego to the U.S.-Mexico border crossing at Otay Mesa and a joint venture of California Transportation Ventures, Inc. Pending receipt of final environmental documents, it will receive a TIFIA loan guarantee of $90 million and a $37 million TIFIA line of credit.

Miami Intermodal Center. This project, adjacent to Miami International Airport, is a joint venture between the Florida Department of Transportation and the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. The $1.4 billion project includes a consolidated rental car facility, an automated people mover, strategic highway improvements, and links to transit. It will receive two TIFIA loans totaling $436 million.

Tren Urbano, San Juan, Puerto Rico. TIFIA funding will enable Tren Urbano, a transit system under construction, to complete a 17-kilometer rapid rail system. The $1.7 billion project will be assisted with a $300 million TIFIA loan to the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority.

The purpose of TIFIA is to provide federal credit assistance to major transportation infrastructure facilities that address critical national needs, such as intermodal facilities, border crossing infrastructure, highway trade corridors, and transit and passenger rail facilities with regional and national benefits.

It provides three types of financial assistance and addresses a project's varying needs during development, construction and operation. They include direct federal loans to project sponsors; loan guarantees which provide full-faith-and-credit guarantees by the federal government to institutional investors, such as pension funds, that make loans for projects; and standby lines of credit representing contingent federal loans that may be drawn upon to supplement project revenues on the occurrence of certain events during the first 10 years of project operations.

To be eligible, projects also must generally cost at least $100 million or equal at least 50 percent of the amount of federal highway assistance funds apportioned for the most recent fiscal year to the state in which the project is located. The projects also must be supported at least partially by user charges or other dedicated revenues.

NEBRASKA: U.P. continues tests of refrigerated cars

WASHINGTON -- Union Pacific continues to test a state-of-the-art-refrigerated car. For the past four years, UP personnel have been helping develop the first new refrigerated railcars in three decades.

The 18- to 24-month tests, which began in February, involves 50 railcars developed by Thermo King Corporation, Trinity Industries and Union Pacific. The new cars feature payload capacity 40 percent larger and cubic capacity 85 percent larger than the cars now in use.

In addition, the test cars have temperature modulation or fresh air exchange -- two important features of the new units and necessary for hauling a variety of fresh produce, including everything from fresh potatoes to French fries. The units also sport onboard monitors that alert users if the system is not operating within specifications, as well as equipment that can transmit unit and temperature information via satellite.

The 72-foot car is 22 feet longer and nearly three feet higher inside than a standard refrigerated car. Those dimensions demanded use of new refrigeration technology, developed by Thermo King, that incorporates a powerful blower system that pushes conditioned air to the back of the car, eliminating temperature gradients. On an 80-degree day, the unit cooled to minus 20 degrees and operated flawlessly.

Since UP manages 5,200 refrigerated cars, or about 70 percent of the nation's refrigerated boxcar fleet, testing of the new units is of prime interest in the industry.