UTU News Digest - Monday, November 23, 1998

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Monday, November 23, 1998

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Wisconsin Central conductors reject pact

STEVENS POINT, Wisc. -- Conductors represented by the United Transportation Union (UTU) working on the Wisconsin Central Ltd., Fox Valley & Western Ltd., and Sault Ste. Marie Bridge Company have overwhelmingly rejected a proposed wage-and-rule pact.

The parties are now scheduled to reopen the mediation process Dec. 14, 1998, at National Mediation Board headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to UTU International Vice President Robert W. Earley.

The rejected agreement, reached by negotiators on Oct. 19, 1998, would have affected more than 320 conductors on the three properties, and would have been effective through Dec. 31, 2001.

The conductors chose the UTU as their bargaining agent during a representation election held in the summer of 1997. At that time, engineers on the three properties chose the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers as their representative by just 12 votes.

The Wisconsin Central is the largest regional railroad in the nation, with more than 2,000 route miles of track in five states of the upper Midwest. It also was the largest non-union railroad in the nation until the 1997 representation election.

Montana lawmaker blasts BNSF wheat rates

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Montana lawmaker is criticizing Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) for its decision to raise northern wheat rates in the Pacific Northwest during the current farm crisis.

"I don't think these folks get the fact that our farmers are in real trouble," said Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.). "BNSF has a stranglehold on Montana's farmers, and when they tighten the grip with a rate hike, they have the power to kill off more of our farms."

"Maybe they don't bother to open the newspaper, but there's a real crisis in the farming community right now," Burns continued.

Burns calls the BNSF rate hike "insensitive."

"The railroad may have the right to raise prices at this time, but choosing to do so now is a very low blow," Burns stated.

Debris injures New Jersey Transit Commuter

KEARNY, N.J. -- A New Jersey Transit commuter train passenger was critically injured Friday morning in a freak accident when a part that had fallen from another train smashed a window of her rail car.

According to reports, a 52-year-old woman was taken to University Hospital in Newark, N.J., where she underwent emergency surgery for severe head injuries, a hospital spokesman said.

Penny Bassett Hackett, a New Jersey Transit spokesperson, said the accident happened at about 6:20 a.m. EST when a train bound from Dover to Hoboken struck a part that had fallen onto the tracks from a Midtown Direct train near Kearny Junction.

The debris appeared to be part of a pantograph, a device that connects the train to overhead electrical wires.

The accident resulted in delays into Hoboken on New Jersey Transit's Morris and Essex rail line.

CSXT marks project's completion with golden spike

WILLOW CREEK, Ind. -- With the pounding of a golden spike and the joining of two locomotives, CSX Transportation Inc. (CSXT) on Friday announced the grand opening of its $220-million capacity expansion project.

CSXT and state officials drove the golden spike, symbolizing the completion of the project that links the former B&O rail line to Conrail's Water Level route into the Northeast. Two locomotives -- one CSXT and one Conrail -- then met nose to nose signifying the joining of the two railroads.

The expansion effort will create a transportation link connecting local communities throughout northern Indiana and northern Ohio with major markets in the Northeast. The massive construction project establishes an expanded high-capacity, double-track route between Chicago and the East Coast, CSXT President and Chief Executive Officer A. R. "Pete" Carpenter said.

"The enhancements we have made along this key rail line have created the most direct route from New England and mid-Atlantic coast ports and industrial centers of the Midwest," said Carpenter.

Throughout the region, more than 100 route miles of new track were constructed and another 250 route miles of existing track were reconstructed and upgraded as part of the project. It included installation of crossover tracks and signaling systems that allow reverse operation over all rail lines. In addition, more than a dozen new connecting tracks were installed to smooth traffic flows on the CSXT system and to facilitate interchange of traffic with short line railroads, regional rail carriers and other railroads serving the region.

The Chicago-to-Greenwich upgrade is part of a $500 million capital improvement program CSXT is planning over and above its regular capital spending to smoothly integrate roughly half of the Conrail rail system into its own.

CPR Transfers Operations on Okanagan Rail Line

CALGARY -- Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) today announced it has finalized an agreement to transfer its rail operations in the Okanagan region of British Columbia to OmniTRAX Canada.

Under a long-term lease agreement with CPR, OmniTRAX Canada has established a new shortline company -- the Okanagan Valley Railway (OKAN) -- to provide rail service on the Okanagan Subdivision, a 151-km (94-mile) stretch of track from Sicamous south to Armstrong, Vernon, Lumby and Kelowna, B.C.

The Okanagan Valley Railway will provide rail service to and from CPR's east-west main line at Sicamous, with running rights over the 77-km (48-mile) CN-owned southern section of the line, between Vernon, Lumby and Kelowna.

CN will continue to operate via long-established running rights with CPR between Armstrong and Vernon.

With a direct connection to CPR's main line at Sicamous, the Okanagan Valley Railway will provide shippers and receivers on the Okanagan line with continued rail access to Canadian, U.S., and international markets, CPR said.

Among the freight currently carried on the Okanagan Subdivision are aggregates, forest and resource products, chemicals and some grain. There is no passenger service on the line.

With the launch of this new shortline in the Okanagan, OmniTRAX Canada now operates five subsidiaries in Canada. OmniTRAX Canada is affiliated with OmniTRAX Inc. of Denver, Colo., which has 10 railways in the United States.

OmniTRAX is the largest privately-held North American shortline railroad holding company. Its other Canadian companies are TransCanada Switching in Vancouver (Deltaport); Hudson Bay Port Company in Churchill, Man.; Hudson Bay Railway in The Pas, Man.; and Carlton Trail Railway in Prince Albert, Sask.

OmniTRAX also owns non-railroad transportation subsidiaries, including a locomotive leasing and repair company, a logistics and warehousing company, two industrial rail switching companies and real-estate companies.

CSX rail car lands on front porch

TROY, Ohio -- Rob and Brian Yantis are accustomed to trains shaking their house, but when they show up at the door, they draw the line.

As the brother watched television Saturday night, an empty rail car from a CSX Corp. freight train derailed, jumped the tracks, and landed on their front porch.

Brian Yantis said it sounded like a bomb went off.

"Trains always shake the house when they go by here," Yantis said. "This was a little different."

No one was injured as the rail car destroyed the porch that it came to rest on, and there was no other damage to the house.

Only the 24th car of the 29-car freight train derailed, local police said, and there was no damage to the track.