UTU News Digest - Monday, December 14, 1998

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Monday, December 14, 1998

Appeals court backs railroads in severance-pay battle

WASHINGTON -- Rail workers who are forced to take lower-paying jobs when their employers are involved in an acquisition aren't entitled to severance pay, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The ruling stems from Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp.'s (WC) $3.8 million purchase of 18 miles of rail line from Union Pacific Corp. (UP) last year. The federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) had approved the acquisition after imposing several conditions designed to protect workers.

Wisconsin Central had challenged the conditions, however, including one that extended severance pay not just to workers who lost their jobs, but to those who were shifted to lower-paying jobs.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here sided with the railroad, saying it "couldn't square the board's position with the statute's plain language."

The STB was created in 1995 when Congress abolished the Interstate Commerce Commission. The legislation "strictly confined" the new agency's authority to impose labor protections on such acquisitions, the appellate panel said.

Other conditions challenged by the railroad were upheld. The appellate judges said the STB was within its authority to call for mandatory arbitration of disputes, and they backed a formula used to calculate severance pay for laid-off UP workers who were subsequently hired by the WC.

Before imposing conditions on the merger, the STB opened the proceeding to public comment. The board said any conditions it adopted would be important because they would serve as a model for future labor-protection requirements.

U.S. DOT Secretary Slater announces expanded high-speed rail program

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater late last week announced the expansion of the high-speed rail corridor program originated under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991.

The program will expand the number of federally designated high-speed rail corridors from five to eleven. Designated corridors are eligible for funding to eliminate hazards at highway-rail crossings.

"Safety is President Clinton's highest transportation priority, and by eliminating hazards, this program improves safety," Secretary Slater said. "High-speed rail is an important part of our vision for a safe, flexible, seamless intermodal transportation system providing for economic growth and greater mobility for both rural and urban Americans in the 21st century."

Section 1103 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which President Clinton signed on June 9, 1998, continues the highway-rail grade crossing hazard elimination program, which will be managed jointly by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

A notice that funds are available was published in last Friday's Federal Register.

"States already have invested millions of dollars in high-speed rail initiatives," said FRA Administrator Jolene M. Molitoris. "This program leverages that investment and provides the leadership for a new generation of high-speed rail services."

Key elements of the expanded hazard elimination program include:

* An increase in the number of designated high-speed corridors from five (prior to the passage of TEA-21) to eight, with the addition of the Gulf Coast, Keystone, and Empire State corridors. Up to three additional high-speed rail corridors may be selected by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, for a total of 11; and

* Contract authority of $31.5 million through fiscal 2003 to be used for all the designated high-speed rail corridors.

The FRA is soliciting applications from states, individually or in conjunction with other states, for designation of high-speed corridors and for funding highway-rail crossing improvements on those corridors. Each corridor must have rail lines where train speeds of 90 mph or more are possible or can be reasonably achieved in the future.

The FRA and the FHWA will jointly review and evaluate applications for corridor designations and funding.

To date, eight corridors have been designated:

* California Corridor (San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego);

* Pacific Northwest Corridor (Eugene, Ore., Portland, Ore., Seattle, Vancouver, B.C.);

* Chicago Hub Corridor, extending from Chicago to St. Louis; to Detroit; to Minneapolis/St. Paul via Milwaukee;

* Florida Corridor (Miami, Orlando, Tampa);

* Southeast Corridor (linking the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., Richmond, Va. (with an extension to Hampton Roads, Va.), Raleigh, N.C., Columbia, S.C., Savannah, Ga., Jacksonville, Fla., and another route linking Charlotte, N.C., Greensboro, N.C., Spartanburg, S.C., Atlanta and Macon, Ga.;

* Gulf Coast Corridor; New Orleans hub extending westward to Baton Rouge, La., and Houston; and eastward to Biloxi, Miss., and Mobile, Ala.;

* Keystone Corridor, (Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pa.); and

* The Empire Corridor, (New York City, Albany, N.Y., Buffalo, N.Y.)

Of the eight corridors listed, the first five were designated and funded under the predecessor grade crossing hazard elimination program in Section 1010 of ISTEA. Currently, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas are investing in, or seriously studying, upgrades to existing rail corridors in order to provide high-speed rail passenger service.

Canadian National Railway transfers 67 miles of line

OTTAWA -- Canadian National Railway (CN) is transferring 67 miles of short line running northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Cando Contracting Ltd. of Brandon, Manitoba, the railroad said.

The Pine Falls subdivision handles about 7,700 carloads of freight annually, mostly industrial and forest products, coal, and grain, CN said.

Cando Contracting provides maintenance and freight transportation services to Canada's two national railroads and to shippers.

Loose rail hardware is blamed in Conrail derailment

COLUMBUS, OH -- Loose metal tie plates on a lumberyard sidetrack have been determined to be the cause of a derailment last Wednesday in Brice, Ohio, a Conrail official said.

The plates which connect the rails to the wooden crossties were worn, allowing one of the rails to turn under the weight of the train cars, said Conrail spokesman Bob Libkind.

Four locomotives were pulling 46 freight cars from Columbus to Charleston, W.Va., when the train stopped in the sidetrack at Major Builders, 2932 Brice Rd., about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

The train was dropping off one car and picking up two empties when seven cars derailed, Libkind said. The train was traveling back-and- forth at about 5 mph over the sidetrack at the time. The speed limit on that sidetrack is 10 mph, Libkind said.

The city's Hazardous Materials Unit was called to the scene because four of the cars contained chemicals, but no leaks were detected. The other three cars were empty.

French rail conductors' strike ends

PARIS -- French rail traffic was expected to return to normal last weekend as the last units of striking conductors voted to end a 15-day stoppage, the state-owned SNCF railway company said Friday.

Conductors in the Rouen, Bordeaux, Nantes, and Chambery regions were the last to agree to end their protest over staffing levels that had snarled rail passenger travel and freight shipments since late November.

Rail unions had complained that staffing levels were steadily declining despite increases in passengers. The strike petered out after SNCF President Louis Gallois agreed last Monday to stabilize staffing levels next year after 17 consecutive years of cuts.

He also agreed to renegotiate a reorganization plan that had angered railway workers and to increase bonuses for conductors.