UTU News Digest - Thursday, June 3, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Thursday, June 3, 1999

WASHINGTON: NS, CSX employees express both relief, apprehension

WASHINGTON -- Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp. steamed through an apparently trouble-free first day of service to former customers of Conrail Inc. with a sigh of relief and a whiff of employee apprehension, the Journal of Commerce reported today.

Those twin messages emerged from interviews with more than a dozen NS and CSX executives and employees in Jacksonville, Fla., and Altoona, Pa., during Tuesday's "Day One," when the two carriers divided up Conrail and formally began operations over their own expanded systems that move virtually all Eastern railroad traffic.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," said Randy Coho, a member of the Transportation Communications Union that represents clerical workers in Altoona. "Everybody is assuming that wait and see attitude."

Dennis Appleman, local chairman of the International Association of Machinists in Altoona, said most of his union's members "are concerned about their jobs. We have 460 machinists on June 1, 1999. How many will there be a year from now?"

"Employment is always a concern," said 23-year Conrail veteran Jerry Conrad, a boilermaker in Altoona.

"We're grateful we have a chance here. We are all waiting to see what happens."

NS is the fourth employer for some Altoona workers, following Conrail, Penn Central and Pennsylvania Railroad.

Conrad also said, "For a lot of people here, this isn't anything new. We're just going through another merger."

It was another day at the office for CSX's director of train operations, Carl Caldwell, a 41-year industry veteran of 10 rail mergers.

"We've had an excellent day," Caldwell said. "It's one of the best days we've had in a long time."

"Our people have been so apprehensive," said Don Menefee, a general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Jacksonville. He praised CSX President Pete Carpenter for helping smooth the transition.

"Many of these people are concerned for their jobs," said Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris, who visited Altoona and Jacksonville for a first-hand look. "They have been through several mergers," she said. "Their experience has not always been good. It's incumbent on the unions, NS and FRA to assure that these people have enough information in a timely way that the insecurity is taken away."

Prodded by Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., NS promised to spend $67 million to upgrade the Altoona facilities and move 178 jobs there.

"These commitments were only a down payment," Molitoris said. "Our responsibility is assuring that those commitments are met."

Another commitment made by NS and CSX is to use their new assets to attract new business.

"Railroads have to be strong for the 21st century," Molitoris said. "We care a lot about market share at FRA. If the railroads can't gain market share, things don't look too great."

Executives at both railroads tried to project a business-as-usual attitude.

"Everything seems to be running fine," said NS Chairman David Goode. "We have a good beginning."

"We came out of this weekend in great style," said Michael Ward, CSX executive vice president. "I've had a most wonderful day. Hopefully, this is a harbinger of what will happen in the future."

The excitement showed through in others.

Ray Thigpen, CSX assistant vice president, was in Jacksonville, but he really wanted to be on the first train running east from Chicago -- an intermodal service loaded with parcel traffic.

Menefee injected some caution by discussing operations in Chicago, where the railroad and the union battled over the procedures for qualifying current CSX workers to run trains over former Conrail lines.

Chicago also was a focal point, because UTU General Chairman Carl Cochran said CSX provided crews for several Norfolk Southern trains there because of a temporary NS crew shortage.

Safety at NS, which has won the industry's top safety award for 10 consecutive years, also was a prominent topic.

Asked about differences between his old and new employers, Coho said, "Norfolk is more safety-conscious."

"NS has a great safety record," Appleman said. "They don't vary. If it's a rule, it's a rule."

A recent NS bulletin to Conrail engineers underlined that view: "An engineer will be subject to discipline when speeding results in an accident and/or whenever the train is operated at an excessive speed," the notice said. "To repeat, engineers guilty of excessive speed will be subject to dismissal," the bulletin said in closing.

Molitoris said, "That letter was in a very traditional railroad mode. You can get the facts out about safety in a way that is not harsh. I believe NS will revise it (the way safety messages are sent)."

PENNSYLVANIA: Amtrak’s new Acela train unveiled

PHILADELPHIA -- Technicians at 30th Street Station literally took the bubble wrap off one of Amtrak's new 150-mile-an-hour trains yesterday - revealing the first visible sign of dramatic changes coming to the Northeast Corridor.

The train was towed here late last week from the Bombardier Inc. assembly plant in Plattsburgh, N.Y., for months of testing on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Philadelphia-Harrisburg lines.

By late fall, the first of 20 new 300-passenger trains, dubbed "Acela Express," is expected to go into passenger service on the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington line. No date has been set.

When all of the new trains are running late next year, replacing the current Metroliner fleet, a trip from Philadelphia to Boston will take four hours and 28 minutes - down from six hours and 39 minutes today.

The testing will begin this week. By mid-afternoon yesterday, technicians were raising the cantenary - the metal racks atop the locomotives that draw electric power from overhead wires - and hooking up test equipment.

For the next several weeks, the six-car train with a locomotive at each end will be parked in view of the Schuylkill Expressway, in the 30th Street Station railyard, while engineers prepare for moving tests.

"It will be the most extensive testing ever done on equipment like this. We will test every system - signals, electrical and propulsion - seven days a week," Amtrak president George Warrington said yesterday.

Portable buildings have been set up alongside the track for engineers from Bombardier Inc., maker of the cars, and Alstom Drives & Controls Ltd., the British firm that is building the locomotives.

The initial testing will focus on electrical systems and controls while the train is standing still in the yard. Then it will be tested at low speeds on the Harrisburg line before going on the busy Northeast Corridor for nighttime test runs.

Similar procedures are being done on a railroad test track in Colorado.

The new train is sleek. Even the rearview mirrors, which allow the engineer to see when all passengers have boarded, retract at high speeds.

There is a 6,250-horsepower locomotive at each end, and six passenger cars. One is for first-class passengers, another is a cafe.

Warrington said yesterday that the new high-speed trains would be a catalyst for improved service and a better image for the passenger railroad.

They also are expected to boost ridership, which has been growing rapidly for the last two years.

During the second quarter of this year, Warrington said yesterday, ridership was up 5.1 percent over the same quarter a year ago - the ninth consecutive quarterly increase.

Passenger revenue is also up - 8.2 percent - over the previous year, Warrington said.

"We're overhauling all aspects of the Amtrak system," Warrington said.

This will include improved parking and access to rental cars at stations, and a more efficient reservation system, as well as better service aboard trains.

Warrington said Amtrak would continue to form partnerships with private companies to improve service and save money. For example, he said the rail line recently turned over operation of the commissaries that prepare food served on trains, once staffed by government employees, to Dobbs International Services, a transportation caterer.

"This has produced a significant reduction in food costs," Warrington said, "and we've got nothing but rave reviews from our employees and customers."

Every Amtrak employee who deals with passengers will be retrained, he said.

"We have already retrained 7,000 employees and will have trained more than 13,000 by the end of this month . . . to assure that everyone's experience with Amtrak is positive and delightful."

FRANCE: Paris Metro strike goes on, doubts on assault

PARIS -- Workers on the Paris Metro railway stayed off work for a second successive day on Thursday, forcing hundreds of thousands of commuters to walk to work or struggle with huge traffic jams in the city's streets.

Bus drivers in Paris and public transport employees in the major cities of Marseille and Lyon joined the strike, angry after the death of a Metro worker on Wednesday.

France Info radio reported 250 km (150 miles) of traffic jams in and around Paris and transport officials in Lyon said only one in every 10 buses was running.

Despite the disruption, there were early signs that the strike could be winding down as doubts emerged about the circumstances surrounding the Metro worker's death.

Early reports had said the man was assaulted when he approached vendors to check their right to trade in the underground station. Paris prosecutors later issued a report saying there were no signs he had been beaten.

Despite the huge traffic backups, the strike lent a festive air to the capital as would-be commuters turned to roller- blades, bicycles, hitchhiking and walking shoes to get around.

But the stoppage was a double blow to tourists already barred from many Paris-area parks, museums and historical monuments by strong winds and striking museum workers who complain the Culture Ministry is chronically overworking them.

The museum strike, now in its third week, has shut down such popular tourist draws as the Louvre, the Orsay Museum and the Arc de Triomphe.

Adding to the chaos, an unrelated business dispute on Wednesday afternoon shut down the Gare du Nord, the point of departure for high-speed Eurostar trains to Brussels and London, French railways operator SNCF said. Police were on the way to clear out the protesters, an SNCF spokeswoman said.

Some Metro union leaders urged employees of the Paris-area transport authority RATP to return to work on Thursday morning, saying no one wanted a long strike.

But three of the biggest unions called for the stoppage to be continued "in hope of genuine political action on the problem of security in public transport."

Conservative President Jacques Chirac expressed dismay over the killing and said security was "more than ever a fundamental requirement, for both RATP agents and for passengers."

RATP President Jean-Paul Bailly told Reuters the dead guard, 49-year old father of three Eric Douet, had been part of a team of three agents tracking down unlicensed vendors at the Barbes-Rochechouart Metro station when he was attacked.

RATP workers said he had been badly beaten but Paris prosecutors issued a statement saying there was no sign of a beating, a finding suggesting he may have been pushed.

The only underground line which remained running on Wednesday was the ultra-modern multi-billion-franc east-west line No 14, which is completely automated.

ENGLAND: Rail regulator calls for Railtrack to cut delays

LONDON -- The U.K. rail regulator, Chris Bolt, said Thursday he expects Railtrack PLC to meet its own target of a 15.6% improvement in the delays it causes to passenger trains over the two years to March 2000.

Bolt said he was "disappointed" Railtrack only achieved a 2% reduction in minutes delay per passenger train in 1998-99, against the agreed 7.5% target.

"If Railtrack fails to deliver, it will be for Tom Winsor, who takes over as regulator from July 5, to consider appropriate action," Bolt said.

The Rail Regulator has also told Railtrack that he expects the minutes' delay that it causes to trains on the Great Western Zone to be reduced by 20% in 1999-2000.

Bolt said the Great Western Zone did show significant improvement in the latter half of 1998-99, and he intends to ensure that this is maintained.