UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Monday, February 14, 2000

MASSACHUSETTS: Big Dig cost balloons to $12 billion … $4 billion per mile

BOSTON (AP) -- The Big Dig is becoming the Bottomless Pit, a wire service reported.

Planners originally estimated that building an underground connection from the Massachusetts Turnpike to Boston's interstates would cost a few billion dollars. Now the cost has ballooned to at least $12 billion.

The three-mile project, which for a while was considered the largest public works project in the world, started in 1993 and was supposed to be done in 2001. But the completion date is now maybe five years down the road.

And to pay for the most recent overruns, state officials are now planning to double tolls, slash funding for other road projects and take back a promise to eliminate regular driver's license renewals in favor of lifetime licenses. And that won't even fill half of the gap.

Every day, the project soaks up $3 million as 4,000 workers dig away. For years, critics have cautioned that the state would have trouble paying for it. Now the critics are getting a chance to say, "I told you so."

Last week, it was revealed that the Big Dig, officially known as the Central Artery Project, would cost $1.4 billion more than the previous estimate, partly because of problems tunneling under the channel that separates central Boston from its South Boston neighborhoods.

And the overruns could be even higher, according to a report issued Thursday by Kenneth Mead, the U.S. Transportation Department's inspector general. He chastised state and federal transportation officials for "an alarming lapse in oversight."

Jeremy Crockford, a spokesman for the Big Dig, defended the project, saying oversight has been excellent. "We are making certain that we have the resources we need to complete this job right," he said.

Gov. Paul Cellucci has suggested he might go to the federal government to seek more financial help. Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the state is highly unlikely to get such help.

The Big Dig was dreamed up because the Massachusetts Turnpike ends in Boston and the old elevated highway that links it to interstates is too narrow, causing huge traffic tie-ups and an accident rate four times the national average for urban highways.

The goal of the Big Dig is a wider, underground expressway. In the meantime, it's become an old joke in Boston.

After Lawyer Milloy of football's New England Patriots signed with the team Thursday for six more seasons, he quipped, "The biggest reason I remained a Patriot was to see if the Big Dig would ever get done."

Boston College student Matthew Houtsma might have aptly summed up the city's frustration with the project. "I don't know," he said Friday, "if it's worth the money or the time."

MARYLAND: Commuter train hits barrier at BWI Airport injuring 22 passengers

LINTHICUM -- A light rail commuter train arriving at Baltimore-Washington International Airport hit a safety barrier at the end of the line Sunday, sending almost two dozen people to area hospitals, a wire service reported.

The train's operator, who suffered minor injuries, and the 22 passengers were taken to area hospitals. One passenger was in serious condition, but details on the others were not available.

The one-car train originated at Baltimore's Penn Station and normally would have been traveling about 13 mph as it neared the end its trip about 2:45 p.m., Fulton said.

Investigators were trying to determine how fast it was moving when it hit the barrier.

Witnesses said they heard the train's brakes screeching just before the crash. The impact crumpled the front end of the car and derailed it, but the car train remained upright in the airport train station. 

"I was knocked completely out," passenger Marlene Perry said, wearing a patch over her eye.

ARIZONA: Child dies in train-car accident

TUCSON -- A 22-month-old boy was killed Friday after a freight train struck his mother's stalled vehicle before she and bystanders could free him from his car seat, a wire service reported.

Alex Caravantes was thrown about 50 feet after the car was hit by a northbound Union Pacific train. The boy was airlifted to University Medical Center, where he died about an hour later.

The child's mother, Maria Cuello, and other motorists were able to unlatch the boy's seat but could not get him out in time, police said.

"The train was coming too fast and they had to back off. They had to make a decision to get out of the way," Police Chief Richard Miranda said.

Cuello, 25, was hospitalized, but her injuries were not considered life threatening.

The car stalled as it was crossing the tracks. Witnesses told officers the warning signal rail crossing arms had not yet lowered.

No one aboard the train was injured.

CALIFORNIA: Glendale funds bus zone study

GLENDALE -- Glendale has taken another small step toward in forming a transit authority that provides bus service for the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The City Council voted Tuesday to budget $12,000 for hiring a consultant to conduct a financial study on what it will cost the San Fernando Valley Transportation Zone to operate.

Officials from Glendale and eight other area cities contend they can provide the same level of bus service over 28 routes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but at a lower cost. The savings would be used to expand bus service.

The MTA voted Jan. 27 to fund the $140,000 study, said Jano Baghdanian, the city's transportation administrator. It is expected to take 60 to 90 days to complete. Glendale's contribution, taken from county sales tax funds, will be used for other expenses such as legal counsel, administration of the zone and technical assistance.

"We have to come up with what we think it is going to take to operate the zone and finalize our application to the MTA," Baghdanian said. "It could be another six to nine months or a year after that before we start operating."

The council on Tuesday selected Councilman Sheldon Baker to serve on the interim joint powers authority that would get the bus zone started. Baker represented Glendale on the zone's planning committee and served as chairman.

"He has spearheaded us through the entire process and taken cities and held them together with a single purpose," said Mayor Ginger Bremberg. "Mr. Baker has done a marvelous job."

The zone has had to overcome a debate on how voting power should be allocated and deal with state legislation aimed at protecting union jobs at the expense of starting the zone.

Baker said the zone can operate at a lower cost than the MTA, but he said that issue won't decide if it becomes a reality. He said he is confident the zone will be created.

"It has been shown it can be done," Baker said. "The real question is whether the politicians that have their own egos and desires will get in the way and preclude us from carrying this out."

MARYLAND: Machinists Union makes representation bid at US Airways

UPPER MARLBORO -- The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) petitioned the National Mediation Board (NMB) this week for union representation rights to approximately 2,000 Clerical and Office employees at US Airways, a union press release said.

If the IAM is successful, it would bring to 20,000 the number of employees it represents at the airline.

"What we're talking about here is strength at the bargaining table and a guarantee of justice and fairness on the job," said IAM Transportation Vice President Robert Roach, Jr. "US Airways clerical and office employees don't get any of the benefits of a union contract. We intend to remedy that situation."

The IAM currently represents aircraft mechanic and related, and fleet service personnel at US Airways. Clerical and office employees are the only large nonunion group employed at US Airways.

If the IAM's petition is successful, the National Mediation Board would schedule a representation election.

The IAM is the largest U.S. airline union, representing more than 140,000 air transport workers.

CALIFORNIA: Old North Hollywood depot faces uncertain fate

NORTH HOLLYWOOD--Lucas Morvo, rambling down Lankershim Boulevard on his way to buy hot purple hair dye, knows his way around the thrift stores of North Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times reported.

But ask him about the broken-down train station at the end of the block, and the teenager shrugs.
"I don't know it," he says, his long hair brushing the metal spikes on his dog collar as he cranes his neck for a peek at the century-old building. "And I hang out here a lot."

Morvo, an animated 18-year-old wearing a "Napalm Death" T-shirt, is the face of the new North Hollywood, home of a fledgling arts district, the newly renovated El Portal Theater and plenty of trendy types with dyed hair.

So far, those in charge of the neighborhood's make-over haven't made much of the dilapidated train station, a relic of the old North Hollywood that dates back to the 1895 opening of the Southern Pacific Railroad's Valley line.

Once a lively hub in a thriving town, the station now languishes like a forgotten grandparent across the street from Los Angeles's latest rail project, the North Hollywood station of the Metro Red Line subway.

The subway line is scheduled to open in June, but the fate of the Valley's oldest railroad station, also owned by the MTA, remains undecided.

The depot, a single-story wooden structure surrounded by a chain-link fence, is slowly falling apart. Its old doors are padlocked, its windows coated in dust and guarded by metal bars. Most passersby probably don't even know it used to be a train station--the sign by the roof says "Hendricks Building Supply," a remnant from its post-depot days as a warehouse.

Its weather-beaten white paint hasn't seen a brush in years. The station platform has collapsed into a heap of rotting wood. The roof is starting to cave in.

Guy Weddington McCreary, the great-grandson of one of North Hollywood's founding fathers, stands inside the dusty room once used to store baggage and sighs.

"It's a miracle it's still here," McCreary said. "This is about the last hurrah, so it's got to be protected at all costs."

The old station, located at the corner of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards, lies at the heart of much of North Hollywood's history.

In December 1911, Pacific Electric opened its new Big Red streetcar line from Hollywood to Lankershim (as North Hollywood was then known). McCreary's great-grandfather, Wilson C. Weddington, the area's first postmaster, was there to help drive a golden spike through the rails in celebration--one of the tiny town's first photo opportunities.

The Hollywood Freeway, our modern-day route of choice through Cahuenga Pass, didn't open until 1940. This grimy asphalt ribbon is now cluttered with 325,000 vehicles per day, but a century ago it was a one-lane dirt road, traversed chiefly by foot, horses, a twice-weekly mail stagecoach and an occasional wild turkey.

Trains linked the Valley's sleepy ranches and peach orchards to the rest of the world, paving the way for development.

But the railroad's heyday was short-lived. Trolley ridership dropped sharply during the Great Depression, and rising automobile traffic meant longer trips for streetcars that traveled on roads shared with cars. After a brief surge in ridership during World War II, as workers flocked to Southern California's factories, streetcar operators began substituting buses on many rail lines

By 1952, the trolleys no longer stopped in North Hollywood, and by 1958 the aging station housed the building supply warehouse, which remained there for nearly 40 years. Boxes of rusty nails and old bags of mortar mix still litter the floor, even though the warehouse closed in 1997.
The railroad tracks were barely used, although freight trains continued to chug by sporadically until the route was finally abandoned in 1994, according to MTA officials.

For the past few years, the building has slumped unused behind a chain-link fence as construction workers dug the subway next door.

"It's just a shame," said Jim Sowell, the MTA's environmental compliance manager, as he runs his hand along the cracked wood of the abandoned station. "It's had a lot taken out of it and not much put back in."

The station's preservation has been left to the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, whose 20-year, $117-million effort to combat blight in North Hollywood has met with limited success.
The CRA recently obtained about $1 million to rehabilitate the building, including $817,000 from an MTA grant, said Lillian Burkenheim, the CRA's North Hollywood project manager.

Mayor Richard Riordan's Targeted Neighborhoods Initiative, which set aside money to spruce up downtrodden areas, contributed $200,000 to renovate the station.

Ideas abound for ways to reuse the historic depot. McCreary thinks the place would make a swell railroad-theme restaurant, with the servers dressed up as old-fashioned engineers. Sowell, of the MTA, envisions retail shops tucked into the old station, possibly selling made-in-the-Valley products.

James Albright, who owns a nearby costume store, would like to see a railway museum, complete with a restored Red Car trolley ride.

Others, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, have suggested placing Phil's Diner, an old North Hollywood restaurant, next to the old depot. The 1928-vintage landmark, built to resemble a dining car, now sits unoccupied on Chandler Boulevard. The diner closed in 1996 after MTA subway construction drove away customers, reopened briefly in 1997 and soon closed again amid a tangle of bureaucratic red tape involving a CRA loan.

"The opportunities are remarkable," said Ken Bernstein, the conservancy's director of preservation. "There's a very powerful potential to use historic sites as redevelopment and economic development tools in North Hollywood." The CRA has tracked down an old steam engine--currently mothballed in a Southern Pacific storage building in Omaha, Neb.--that it might be able to move to North Hollywood, Burkenheim said.

The agency may also install a model railroad and rebuild a small park and gazebo that once graced the corner of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards.

A series of public meetings are being planned to gather suggestions. Whatever the outcome, it won't be ready in time to greet the first passengers boarding the subway this summer in North Hollywood.

Albright, a member of a citizens committee that helps guide the CRA's redevelopment efforts, is skeptical that city officials will ever revive the dreary area around the new subway station.

"The MTA needs something to happen here, but who's going to ride to this place?" Albright said bitterly, writing off the auto repair shops, a plumbing supply wholesaler and the mortuary around the corner with a wave of his arm.

But McCreary, whose family has ridden out North Hollywood's crests and troughs since 1886, is more upbeat.

"I've waited a hell of a long time for this [redevelopment]," McCreary said. "I've turned from a young punk on the block to an old fart on the block."

Now in his 60s, he gazes past the bleak scenery at the corner of Lankershim and Chandler, which includes two boarded-up houses, a discarded baby stroller and several splashes of graffiti. He pictures the long-gone Rathbun's department store where his family shopped, the old El Portal, where he squirmed through many a Flash Gordon flick as a boy, and the sidewalks so teeming with people that he was once knocked into the gutter.

"This was one of the magic places in the Valley," he said. "And it's going to be again."

GERMANY: Government to invest $500 million in bid for China fast rail pact

BERLIN -- The German government reportedly is willing to invest some $500 million to demonstrate its superiority as the contractor for China's highly prized Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line, the Journal of Commerce reported.

Germany plans to use the funds to build a 62-mile demonstration railroad over the next two years as part of its feasibility study, Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao reported.

The long-discussed fast link between China's capital and its largest port and commercial heart will cover more than 800 miles and could cost $15 billion, depending on the technology used.

Germany's magnetic-suspension system can produce speeds of more than 300 mph. Its chief rivals are Japan's shinkansen (bullet train), which moves at 186 mph, and the Eurotrain consortium of France's Alstom SA and Germany's Siemens AG. It uses conventional propulsion as found on the TGV and ICE (Inter-City Express) lines.

Japan argues that, while its system is slower, the technology has been well tested and proven.

As reported, the Japanese and Europeans are also vying for a high-speed railroad between Taipei and its main Port of Kaohsiung in the south of Taiwan.

CONNECTICUT: Genesee & Wyoming Inc. reports record operating results

GREENWICH -- Genesee & Wyoming Inc. ("GWI") (Nasdaq: GNWR) reported record revenues for its fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 1999, a company press release said.

Revenues were $53.7 million for the fourth quarter of 1999, up 41.4% from $38.0 million for the fourth quarter of 1998.  Operating income was $8.3 million for the 1999 quarter, up 42.8% from $5.8 million in the 1998 quarter.  EBITDA of $11.9 million for the 1999 quarter was up 43.2% from $8.3 million for the 1998 quarter.  Net income for the 1999 quarter was $3.4 million, or $3.7 million excluding the effect of a $262,000 extraordinary charge.  This compares to net income for the 1998 quarter of $5.9 million, or approximately $2.0 million excluding the after-tax effect of a $6 million insurance settlement.

Diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 1999 was $.78, or $.84 per share excluding the extraordinary charge, with average shares outstanding of 4.4 million.  Diluted earnings per share for the 1998 quarter was $1.19, or approximately $.40 per share excluding the after-tax effect of the insurance settlement, with average shares outstanding of 5.0 million.  The change in weighted average shares outstanding reflects the impact of a one million share buy-back program, which started in August 1998 and ended in April 1999.

Revenues for the year ended December 31, 1999 were $175.6 million, up 19.1% from $147.5 million reported for 1998.  Operating income of $22.4 million for 1999 was up 14.8% from $19.6 million in 1998.  EBITDA of $34.9 million for 1999 was up 18.5% from $29.5 million in 1998.  Net income was $12.5 million in 1999, or $8.6 million excluding the $4.2 million income tax benefit resulting from legislation passed in Australia during the third quarter and the $262,000 extraordinary charge during the fourth quarter.  This compares to $11.4 million of net income in the prior year, or $7.5 million excluding the after-tax effect of the insurance settlement.  Diluted earnings per share for 1999 was $2.76, or $1.89 excluding the effect of the Australian tax benefit and the extraordinary charge, on weighted average shares of 4.5 million.  In 1998, diluted earnings per share were $2.19, or $1.44 excluding the after-tax effect of the insurance settlement, on weighted average shares of 5.2 million.

The Company's 1999 results include those of the Company's Mexican subsidiary, Compania de Ferrocarriles Chiapas-Mayab, which commenced operations on September 1st.  The 1999 results also include those of the Company's Canadian subsidiary, Genesee Rail-One Corp. (GRO).  The Company purchased the 47.5% ownership interest of its former joint venture partner, raising the Company's ownership to 95%, and assumed operational control of GRO on April 15, 1999.  GRO's results have been consolidated into those of the Company since that time.

JAPAN: Rail foreman gets 30 months for negligence in train accident

TOKYO -- The Tokyo District Court sentenced a railway maintenance foreman Monday to 30 months in prison for negligence in a train accident last February that killed five night workers, a wire service reported.

Presiding Judge Junichiro Akiyoshi said Haruo Ide, 45, should have been more alert while watching the five men working on the rail tracks in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The five were fatally hit by a nonservice train after midnight on Feb. 20, 1999.

The victims, all employees of a JR subcontractor in Saitama Prefecture, were pushing a railway truck carrying parts of a railroad signal near JR Meguro Station when the train hit them from behind, the ruling said.

The judge said Ide, who worked for a different JR subcontractor, was so "careless" that he failed to check the trains' timetable before starting work that night. Prosecutors had demanded a four-year sentence for Ide last December.