UTU News Digest - Tuesday, October 13, 1998

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Tuesday, October 13, 1998

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Six people killed by train in Texas

NORIAS, Texas -- A freight train struck and killed six people, all Mexican immigrants, sleeping on railroad tracks early Monday. The 105-car train was on its way to Brownsville from Houston when the accident occurred in Kenedy County, about 60 miles north of Brownsville. No cars derailed.

"When (the crew) saw the people lying between the tracks, there was no way they could stop," UP spokesperson Mark Davis said. A train that size could take up to a mile to stop, Davis said.

For many Mexican immigrants seeking a better life in Texas and beyond, the path is familiar. So are its myths. The route traverses the world's largest privately held ranch, the 825,000-acre King Ranch south of Corpus Christi, where 50,000 cattle graze among cotton, grain, scrub brush and oil derricks. The dangers are well documented -- nine illegal immigrants died in searing heat this summer.

Copperheads, corals, rattlers and other venomous snakes also infest the range, and authorities say that may explain why six men were sleeping in the path of a Union Pacific freight train that crushed them to death early Monday.

"There is a great (misbelief) that if you sleep between the railroad tracks, snakes won't get you," Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said. "Unfortunately, trains will."

The six unidentified men, believed to be undocumented immigrants from Mexico, were killed around 3:15 a.m. by a 105-car train carrying mixed freight on its way to Brownsville from Houston.

Train engineers said they never had a chance to avoid the men.

"The train crew saw some debris on the tracks," said Letty Garza of the U.S. Border Patrol. "That next split second, they saw heads raise up and then six people were killed instantly."

An agent happened to be working near the accident. "He heard the train, then all of a sudden he heard something -- he described it as a loud slapping," she said.

The train was traveling about 45 mph and took a half-mile and several minutes to stop, Garza said. Even after authorities cleaned up the site, pieces of bloody human tissue remained between the tracks, with crushed cans of beans, packages of tortillas and a roll of toilet paper -- provisions for the journey -- strewn about.

Investigators will try to identify the men through fingerprints and dental records, said Kenedy County Sheriff Rafael Cuellar Jr. One man was carrying an identification card. The sheriff said similar train accidents have happened in his county, but none involving so many men. Union Pacific is working with the Border Patrol to discourage immigrants and transients from seeking refuge on the tracks.

After authorities interviewed the crew, the train continued to Brownsville, Davis said.

Genesee Rail-One acquires CN line

EDMONTON -- Genesee Rail-One announced today that it has reached an agreement in principle to acquire 364 miles of track in northwestern Alberta from Canadian National.

The trackage begins 36 miles northeast of Jasper and runs north to Grande Prairie, where the network splits, with one line running northwest to Hythe and another northeast to Tangent. The network, consisting of CN's Grande Prairie, Grande Cache and Smoky subdivisions, serves shippers in the coal, forest, industrial products and grain industries and transports about 50,000 carloads of freight traffic annually.

The southern portion of this line was formerly known as the Alberta Resources Railroad until 1992, when CN purchased it from the Government of Alberta.

The creation of this shortline will strengthen the competitiveness of shippers in northwest Alberta and the Peace River region", said Francois Hebert, CN's assistant vice-president, business planning and network restructuring. "Shortline railways excel at cost- effective, customer-focused service on light-density lines, and are very successful at generating new rail business. Genesee Rail- One's new operation will connect with CN's North American network, benefiting from CN’s long-haul efficiencies and reaching domestic markets and key international ports."

The line will be operated by an Alberta railway company to be called "Grande-Prairie - Grand Cache Railway".

GRO is a Canadian regional railway company, which will now have over 1,000 miles of operating lines in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, with extensive experience in handling products similar to those on the Grande Prairie Network, such as paper, lumber and forest products, grain, coal, and other general traffic. GRO is a joint venture between Rail-One, a Canadian corporation, and Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a multi-national shortline railway company with over 3,700 miles of lines in the U.S., Australia and Latin America.

FBI thinks it’s found evidence of sabotage on Sunset Limited derailment

WASHINGTON -- FBI agents reportedly believe that they have found evidence relating to the 1995 sabotage derailment of Amtrak's Sunset Limited deep within the treacherous confines of an abandoned Arizona mineshaft, this according to a story in the Arizona Republic.

"FBI Special Agent Ray Churay said investigators are trying to determine if an off-road vehicle that was yanked from the mine by a crane Saturday is linked to the Amtrak derailment," the newspaper reported.

The new evidence reportedly comes after FBI agents received a number of unrelated tips from informers familiar with the case. In what has become one of the most "intensive law enforcement probes on record," federal authorities say that the Amtrak case continues to be a top priority and that the reward for information in the case has been raised by $200,000 to $320,000!

Amtrak considers new east coast of Florida train

MIAMI -- Amtrak is considering a new Florida train along the east coastal cities on tracks owned by the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC).

It seems that Amtrak may be closer to an arrangement that would reroute one of the three existing Florida long distance trains. According to press reports, Raymond Lang, an Amtrak official, said the train line is "close to reaching an agreement" with FEC that would allow passenger trains on its tracks for daily rail service from Miami to New York. He said Amtrak is looking at a "handful of stops along the FEC." The new train would stop at about a half dozen cities along the east coast of Florida.

Former Virginia governor appointed to Amtrak board

WASHINGTON, DC -- Linwood Holton, former Governor of Virginia, was appointed by President Clinton to the Board of Directors of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), effective Sept. 25, 1998. The United States Senate confirmed Gov. Holton's nomination on Sept. 24, 1998.

Holton joins board members Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson (Chairman); former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis (Vice Chairman); U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater; Meridian, Miss. Mayor John Robert Smith and Amy Rosen.