UTU News Digest - Tuesday, June 22, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Tuesday, June 22, 1999

TEXAS: FBI adds serial killer to Most Wanted List

HOUSTON -- Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, a Mexican drifter alleged to be a serial killer with a habit of riding the rails, is the latest addition to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, law enforcement officials said Monday.

"He's real dangerous, a real violent person. We need to get him off the streets," said Don Clark, the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation.

"He has demonstrated he can use almost any object to take a human life," Clark said. Mexican authorities were aiding in the search.

Resendez-Ramirez has been linked to at least eight slayings, including two that Illinois officials in Murphysboro charged him with on Monday. All eight killings took place on or near railroad tracks.

Jackson County States Attorney Mike Wepseic said authorities found fingerprint evidence directly tying Resendez-Ramirez to the Illinois deaths of an 80-year-old man and his 52-year-old daughter.

The bodies of George Morber and Carolyn Frederick were discovered last week in their home in Gorham, in southern Illinois. Morber's pickup was recovered Wednesday from a school parking lot in Cairo, about 60 miles south of Gorham.

Wepseic has charged Resendez-Ramirez with first-degree murder and home invasion.

In addition to the two Illinois deaths, authorities are seeking Resendez-Ramirez in connection with at least five killings in Texas and one in Kentucky.

An FBI task force of local, state and federal officers has been hunting for Resendez-Ramirez since authorities began connecting the slayings earlier this month.

Resendez-Ramirez also is suspected in as many as 14 other murders in cities from Miami to Detroit to Phoenix. FBI officials worry that the killing sprees may be intensifying.

Resendez-Ramirez, thought to be from Puebla, Mexico, is described as 5-foot-7 inches tall and 39 years of age. He has a U.S. criminal history going back 20 years and is known to have used numerous aliases and disguises. Police photographs show a bespectacled man with dark skin and features.

Resendez-Ramirez came to the attention of police in December 1998 when a Houston woman was found beaten and stabbed to death in her home in an affluent suburb near a railroad track. Her stolen car was discovered later in San Antonio, Texas, 200 miles west.

On it was a fingerprint belonging to Resendez-Ramirez.

In May and early June this year, three people, including a minister and his wife were found bludgeoned to death in Weimar, Texas. The town is located beside the main railroad track between Houston and San Antonio. Resendez-Ramirez's fingerprint was found in the home of one of the victims, police said.

Police also believe Resendez-Ramirez may have killed a university student in Kentucky who was fatally beaten while walking along a railroad track with his girlfriend in August 1997, and a Luling, Texas man who was clubbed to death in his home in November.

A federal reward of $50,000 has been offered for information leading to Ramirez's arrest in addition to $75,000 being offered in Texas and Kentucky.

In Houston, FBI spokesman Rolando Moss said Resendez-Ramirez faces a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. The charge stems from a Texas burglary.

ILLINOIS: CSX says Conrail delays should be fixed by July 4

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Traffic jams and delays on the U.S. northeast Conrail railway network acquired 21 days ago by giants CSX Corp. (CSX.N) and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC.N) should be ironed out by July 4, a CSX official said Monday.

Congestion is currently being experienced at big yards such as Avon in Indianapolis, Ind. and Selkirk in Albany, N.Y., but that is expected to melt away as data problems are solved by this weekend, said Bob Haulter, an assistant vice president overseeing the integration process for CSX.

"We're hoping the data problems we have now will be cleaned up by the end of the week," Haulter told Reuters.

"Our goal is to get back to normal operations by July 4th," he added.

Conrail, which held a monopoly on north-south traffic in the Northeast, was bought up for $10.3 billion by CSX and Norfolk Southern two years ago. The new Virginia-based owners split up the line's operations on June 1 amid fears the gridlocks that braked the 1997 Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger would reoccur.

Initial trouble with crew calls was dealt with quickly, but niggling computer integration glitches have sent incorrect data to less than ten percent of the network and shuttled freight in the wrong direction, Haulter said.

"Certainly when the computer cut-over took place there was noise on the system and things that didn't quite synch up," he said.

All major rail yards around the Northeast, running from northern New England down to Philadelphia and over to Michigan, have had some delays, Haulter said. Norfolk Southern said last week there was congestion at terminals in Elkhart, Ind., Bellevue, Ohio and Conway, Pa.

The yards get hit with the highest volumes Thursday through Saturday.

"While we have yards that are heavy by our normal traffic standards, it's not like cars are going in there and going into a black hole," Haulter said.

"Our cars on line (percentage) is staying flat and we are making interchange with the foreign carriers and they're making interchange with us," he added.

Time-sensitive businesses like United Parcel Service have complained over the bottlenecks, Haulter admitted. The Northeast, Atlantic Coast and Southeast are also home to large numbers of poultry and swine operations, flour mills and livestock feed manufacturers who depend on the railway for volume deliveries.

Freight car tie-ups have underpinned corn and meal rail quotes for the Southeast and eastern markets this month, but optimistic dealers said the firmness may be easing as the wrinkles in the railroad network are smoothed out.

"We're finally going to get some cars Wednesday," said one Mid-South broker. "Eastern markets are still steady and the truck premiums are about $10 (a ton). But within a couple of weeks it looks like things will be running okay."

No large problems have been detected in the railroad's computer web over the past week, Haulter said.

"We are not expecting to find any more big kinks in our system," he added.

The new railway empire has run up higher costs with emergency maneuvers such as dispatching special trains to clean out yard congestion, changing routings and shifting traffic to truck and air to meet critical customer needs, Haulter said.

"Any time you're not running as efficiently as possible in any business that creates extra cost," he noted.

WASHINGTON: Appeal fails to stop BNSF line reopening

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a city's challenge of a Burlington Northern & Santa Fe rail line's reactivation in Washington state, turning away an appeal that said local environmental regulations wrongly were ignored.

The court, without comment, left intact rulings that said a 1996 federal law pre-empts any state or local regulation that would delay or frustrate BNSF's reopening of the Stampede Pass line.

Officials from Auburn, Wash., had asked the justices to overturn decisions by the Surface Transportation Board and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that approved the line's operation.

Auburn, along with the communities of Kent and Yakima, challenged the STB's environmental consideration before it decided to reopen the 78-mile rail line between Auburn and Ellensburg.

That stretch was inoperative from 1985 until 1996, when plans to reopen it were announced. Kent and Yakima later reached settlements with BNSF. But Auburn, a city of about 40,000 residents in King County, rejected a settlement offer.

INDIA: 9 killed in blast at Indian railway

NEW DELHI -- A bomb exploded today at a railway station in northeastern India, killing nine people and injuring 80, a news agency reported.

The blast just after noon at New Jalpaiguri, 270 miles north of Calcutta, was heard half a mile away, the Press Trust of India reported.

The explosion occurred between two platforms, where a New Delhi-bound express train from Mahanda had just pulled in, railway manager Somnath Mukherjee told the agency.

At least 42 of the injured at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital were in critical condition, Dr. A.K. Das told the agency.

Two of the dead were part of a dozen soldiers on their way to the Kashmir front, where the Indian army is fighting Muslim militants who seized Himalayan mountain peaks in May, the news agency reported.

ILLINOIS: New Oklahoma Amtrak service off to impressive start

CHICAGO -- In its first week of operation, new Amtrak passenger rail service in Oklahoma has carried more than 1,800 passengers along its Oklahoma City to Fort Worth route. This impressive performance caps a week in which Amtrak and the State of Oklahoma celebrated the inaugural run of the Heartland Flyer, returning passenger rail service to the citizens of Oklahoma for the first time in 20 years.

The return of passenger rail service to Oklahoma and the enthusiastic response to the train's inaugural underscores the growing popularity of passenger rail service in the United States. Nationally, Amtrak experienced its largest ridership increase in a decade last year, and the trend continues this year with a five-percent ridership increase in just the second quarter.

"More than 5,000 Oklahoma and North Texas residents turned out last week to welcome the new Amtrak service during its inaugural run from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City," said Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Neal McCaleb. "Nearly 700 guests, including federal, state and local officials, were on board to bring back this important and celebrated service to Oklahoma. Strong support of passengers and community partners like this is necessary to expand this service and keep it in Oklahoma for many generations to come. All Oklahomans can be proud of this service. Every seat is a first class seat."

"I am pleased about the enthusiastic response by Oklahomans to the new passenger rail service," said Senator Don Nickels. "After a 20-year absence from the state, during which time Oklahomans paid almost $200 million in taxes into the Amtrak system, I am pleased the state is once again part of the national rail network and getting something for its money. I hope Oklahomans will continue to take advantage of this new resource and that the route will be successful," the senator added.

"We are confident that the momentum will be sustained with aggressive promotion by Amtrak and the State of Oklahoma," said George Warrington, President and CEO of Amtrak. "The Heartland Flyer will attract travelers in the Oklahoma City -- Fort Worth market to choose rail as their travel option. The Oklahoma and North Texas travelers will join millions of others who already enjoy Amtrak service each year," Warrington said.

Amtrak and the State of Oklahoma have begun an aggressive campaign to market the service with print, radio, and billboard advertising to build awareness of the new rail service. Other incentives already available to Amtrak passengers nationwide are also now available to customers using the Heartland Flyer, including senior discounts, half fares for children, and regional and international discount fare passes. Over the next several years, Amtrak and the state expect ridership levels on the route to increase as they continue to promote the service. Amtrak is operating the service under contract for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Amtrak and the State of Oklahoma are also cooperating to form a marketing coalition of communities along the route to promote the new service. Amtrak has found these partnerships with communities successful vehicles for maintaining and building ridership.