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21 cars leave track in derailment

Washtucna, Wash.- Crews worked to pick up debris Wednesday and re-rail 21 derailed Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train cars, including one that contained a hazardous chemical.

A train derailment Tuesday sent 21 of 94 cars off the track near this Eastern Washington town. No injuries resulted from the derailment, which left 15 freight cars on their sides while six others remained upright.

The track, which was closed late Tuesday, was expected to reopen soon.

State hazardous chemical experts were on the scene Wednesday to supervise the cleanup of a car carrying 17,000 gallons of titanium tetrachloride. There was no chemical leakage, although some steel pipes were spilled.

The cause of the derailment was under investigation.

Study examines school bus safety

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The government is ordering a major review of school bus safety, including possible seat-belt requirements for riders.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is conducting the first comprehensive review of school bus safety since the 1970s.

The two-year review will examine all school bus crash data and agency crash testing and consider a number of possible safety upgrades, including padding the sides and roofs of buses or adding padded arm rests.

Safety officials are expected to recommend that new buses transporting children four years of age or younger have lap belts or anchors to secure child or booster seats.

Officials said they probably would recommend changing only a few rows of seats because the seats would have to be spaced wider to accommodate child seats.

The recommendations would affect about 3% of the 23.5 million children who ride 440,000 school buses to and from class each day.

NHTSA contends school buses are among the safest vehicles on the road. The high-backed bus seats are padded and spaced about 24 inches apart to cushion students in a crash.

Only 11 children under age 19 are killed in school bus crashes each year, the report to Congress found. More children are killed each year -- about 25 -- trying to get off or on the bus, many of them hit either by a passing car or the bus.

Several groups have strongly advocated installing seat belts in buses, arguing that padded seats do not help when a large truck slams into the side of a school bus or the bus rolls over.

"We need seat belts to keep the kids in the compartment," said Arthur Yeager of the National Coalition for School Bus Safety.

Government officials, though, worry that lap seat belts could cause children to double over, hitting their heads in accidents, while shoulder belts might be impractical to install.

CN-IC merger to change rail traffic patterns

A good portion of the roughly $220 million in benefits projected by Canadian National Railway and Illinois Central Railroad in their merger will come in the form of efficiencies gained by new single-line freight movements of automotive traffic from Canada into the U.S., according to a report in Traffic World magazine.

At the same time, Union Pacific Railroad will be the hardest hit by traffic diversions onto the new and improved CN-IC system, Traffic World said.

A CN source familiar with the merger application was able to shed light on some of the details to Traffic World.

Considering that Chicago always has been an operational hot-spot, along with the fact that both CN and IC use Chicago as a termination point, a big question on shippers' minds has been how the railroads plan to avoid a Houston-like service meltdown there, Traffic World said. The application contends the merger can actually help relieve congestion in Chicago.

For example, it earmarks part of the $30 million in yard improvements for a connection between the two railroads at Harvey, Ill., according to the report. When coming into the Chicago area from the north, instead of having to first bypass the yard and then back into interchange with IC, CN will be able to swing into the yard directly via the new connection, Traffic World said.

Through trains of automotive parts from Canada and Michigan moving through Chicago to points south will be able to shave one to two days off cycle times, the article noted.

"With this merger, you don't have the kind of service problems going in, like you had with (Southern Pacific)," the CN source told Traffic World. CN customers will benefit, he said, because instead of diverting traffic to other railroads, CN will want to put as much traffic as possible onto the former IC. There will be more trains at IC and CN yards, which have the capacity to deal with the traffic, and less traffic clogging up the Belt Railway of Chicago. "It's totally unlike anything UP-SP had to deal with," he told Traffic World. "Besides, the SP was in decrepit shape when UP took over. IC is in great shape.

" Topping the list of losers in the diverted traffic category: UP. One example cited in Traffic World in the application is the new system's ability to take advantage of a more efficient unit-train move of Powder River Basin coal out of Wyoming to electric utility Detroit Edison, at the expense of UP. The merged railroad plans to pick up one coal train a week from UP at Council Bluffs, Iowa, using the IC's Chicago, Central and Pacific subsidiary around Chicago and CN's Grand Trunk Western Railroad to Michigan, Traffic World said.

"The utility is already getting PRB coal, but it's been a UP movement into Chicago," the CN source told Traffic World.

Wisconsin Central, according to the filing, should be a winner after the merger. One reason is a new haulage agreement between CN and WC, replacing the one CN had with BNSF. Carload traffic coming from western Canada on CN will connect with WC at Duluth, Minn., for traffic moving south to Chicago and beyond.

Conrail's Operation Lifesaver train nears end of the line

Public safety officials will be aboard special passenger train trips in Ohio and Pennsylvania next Tuesday and Thursday (August 11 and 13) to emphasize the need for greater public safety awareness by motorists at railroad-highway crossings and by pedestrians anywhere near the tracks.

The trains will be operated by Conrail on behalf of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Operation Lifesaver organizations. These two trains will be the last Operation Lifesaver trains operated by Conrail, as the acquisition of Conrail by Norfolk Southern and CSX Corp. becomes effective August 22, 1998.

The Ohio Operation Lifesaver train on Tuesday, August 11, will operate one-way between Sharonville and the State Fair in Columbus. Intermediate stops will be made in Middletown, Miamisburg, Dayton, Springfield and London before the train arrives at the fairground.

The Pennsylvania Operation Lifesaver train on August 13 will operate round-trip from Harrisburg with stops for passengers in Lebanon, Wernersville, Reading, and Topton before returning from Allentown-Bethlehem.

The number of crashes and people killed or injured in highway-rail crossing accidents declined last year, but the human toll is still too high. Despite a 19% decline nationally in the number of crashes to 3,765, a total of 445 people died and 1,459 were injured last year, according to preliminary statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

For the first time, the number of pedestrians walking on railroad property surpassed rail-highway crossing incidents, with 127 pedestrians killed last year.

One feature of Conrail's Operation Lifesaver train is a television camera mounted in the locomotive engineer's cab. From monitors placed throughout passenger cars on the train, those aboard can see motorists who try to beat the train at crossings, and pedestrians endangering themselves by trespassing on the railroad right-of-way.

Illinois & Midland hit with lawsuit

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) subsidiary Illinois & Midland Railroad, Inc. (IMRR), has been hit with a lawsuit by Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.

The suit alleges that IMRR is in breach of certain provisions of a 1987 agreement entered into by a prior unrelated owner of the IMRR rail line. The provisions pertain to limitations on rates received by IMRR and by the unrelated predecessor on freight hauled for ComEd's Powerton plant.

The suit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $100,000. ComEd is IMRR's largest customer and in 1997 accounted for 15% of the consolidated revenues of GWI and its subsidiaries.

Mortimer B. Fuller, III, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of GWI, said, "We believe this suit is without merit. IMRR has consistently fulfilled its service requirements to ComEd and believes this suit is a "hardball" tactic to put pressure on a small supplier in order to maximize the value of its Powerton plant in light of its announced prospective sale. IMRR intends to defend the suit vigorously."

Railroads hold outreach meetings

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The nation's railroads will hold the first in a series of shipper outreach meetings August 31 in Chicago, Edward R. Hamberger, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has announced.

He said at least five meetings will be held around the country between now and the end of the year to help railroads and their customers better understand each others' concerns.

The second meeting will be September 29 in Houston. Locations under consideration for other meetings include Newark, Atlanta, San Diego and the Pacific Northwest.

The first meeting will be at the Chicago Marriott O'Hare and will last from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

"Railroads are committed to engaging in a meaningful dialogue," Mr. Hamberger said. "The high level of that commitment is demonstrated by the fact that railroad chief marketing officers and at least one CEO are expected to be present at each of the meetings.

"Although there will be a few set presentations at each meeting, the emphasis will be on exchanges between rail customers and railroads so that issues can be thoroughly explored," Mr. Hamberger said.

Truckee Commemorates Railroad Days

Truckee, Calif.-The First Annual Truckee Railroad will roll Sept. 26 and 27.

Commemorating the first transcontinental route through the Sierra Nevada, Railroad Days is pancake breakfasts, a chili cook-off, handcar races, street shows, games, a huge static train exhibit including a historical Union Pacific steam engines, vendor booths with railroad art, historic photographs, memorabilia and train souvenirs, and a festive street dance themed after the historical red light district of Truckee. On both Saturday and Sunday, kids of all ages will enjoy the caboose carnival including gold panning booth, moonwalk and lots of games of chance. The Community Center will display a model railroad exhibit and swap meet.

For information call the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce at (530) 587-2757.