A Government Derailed

Click title for story link. By Michael Lee PopeThursday, September 18, 2008 In the days before Norfolk Southern began operating an ethanol loading facility on the city’s West End, railroad officials tried to contact the Alexandria Fire Department several times to no avail. Voice-mail messages went unreturned even though city officials were aware the railroad was days away from opening a facility where thousands of gallons of hazardous materials would be loaded from rail cars to tanker trucks every week. According to court documents, city records, interviews with officials involved in the dispute and information obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, top-ranking officials made a series of missteps in the months before Norfolk Southern began its ethanol "transloading" station in April."I wish I could say this was an April Fool’s joke but it is not," wrote Chief Fire Marshal Robert Rodriguez in an April 1 e-mail to senior city officials. "We received a voice mail message this morning from Kelley Minniehan … of RSI Logistics. He wants to put keys in their Knox Box at the NS site."

Congress Hustling to Pass Rail Reform After Deadliest U.S. Crash Since 1993

Click title for story link. LOS ANGELES — After a fatal commuter train collision, Congress is hurrying to pass new laws that would limit hours engineers work, mandate technology to stop trains on a collision course and enact the rail industry's first other major reforms in 14 years. The train oversight and safety agency, the Federal Railroad Administration, has operated under an expired 1994 law, and until the Sept. 12 crash, it looked like Congress would end another legislative session without changes. Twenty-five people were killed when the Metrolink commuter train collided with a freight train, the nation's deadliest train accident since 1993. Now lawmakers are scrambling to come up with a final deal by the end of the week on sweeping reforms pushed for years by the National Transportation Safety Board. The House and Senate have passed versions of the bill, but hope to resolve differences before the election recess Friday, according to Senate aides. "We regulate in this country by counting tombstones," said Barry M. Sweedler, the former director of the NTSB's office of safety recommendations. "If you don't have enough people dead, not much gets done. The pressure isn't there to do it." In 1993, Amtrak's Sunset Limited jumped the rails on a weakened bridge and plunged into a bayou near Mobile, Ala., killing 47 people.

Residents fear the worst from intermodals

Click title for story link September 21, 2008 By STEWART WARREN SWARREN@SCN1.COM At the CenterPoint Intermodal Center, the diesel trucks go on forever. In a single hour, hundreds rumble through Elwood's 2,200-acre industrial park -- and the place is open around the clock, seven days a week. Some bring cargo in, others haul it out. The yard is a transfer point for goods, a spot to shift materials from a train to a truck, or a truck to a train. Experts say Will County's unique network of highways, interstates and rail lines is the perfect place for that kind of work: It's very close to Chicago but not nearly as clogged with traffic.

CSX Following In The Same Footsteps?

Below is a link to a news report about the tragic crash and deaths in Texas. It's amazing how the story focuses on freight becoming priority over passenger service and this crash proving that freight and passenger should not be on the same tracks in this CEO's eyes. It's long been rumored that CSX may be using the commuter rail deal to gain taxpayer dollars by having the State of Florida take control of the rail lines for passenger service. The hope of CSX, it is rumored, is to ultimately have no passenger service on these lines and the tax payers bearing the burden of cost for track maintanence, repairs and liability, thus freeing up CSX dollars. http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/columnists/david_hendricks/28675324.html You be the judge.

Winter Haven Planning Commission Public Hearing

The Winter Haven Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 5pm in the John Fuller Auditorium at Winter Haven City Hall, 451 Third Street NW, to consider the CSX/Evansville Western Intermodal DRI and to approve the Intermodal site. Please make plans to attend and speak.

A lot to say about Metrolink disaster

16 September 2008 - LA Times A lot to say about Metrolink disasters How The Times responded to L.A.-area commuter-train disasters of the not-too-distant past. Posted September 15, 2008 Sadly, the topic addressed in Tuesday`s editorial ``Make the tracks safer`` is one the editorial board has been forced to address three times in the past seven years. Before last week`s Metrolink crash in Chatsworth, which claimed more than two-dozen lives, a rush-hour collision in 2005 between several trains and a personal automobile on the Glendale-Los Angeles municipal border killed 11 people. In a 2002 accident that eerily resembles last week`s tragedy, a Metrolink train travelling through Placentia collided with a freight hauler on the same track, killing two people. The following observation from an editorial reacting to that incident resonates now: ``The April 23 head-on collision between a freight train and a Metrolink commuter train that left two passengers dead underscored another unfortunate fact of railroad life in the county. Existing corridors force freight and passenger trains to share tracks.`` Below are Times editorials that reacted to each Metrolink accident. Some, including the 2002 editorial and one several months after to 2005 crash, offer advice to policymakers who are addressing rail safety. Another editorial offers praise to rescue workers. First, the editorial following the 2002 accident in Orange County: May 5, 2002 Rail Issues Lack Easy Fixes Some South County residents want to derail a proposal that would send high-speed trains barreling through the heart of San Clemente. The fatal Metrolink commuter train crash April 23 in Placentia is fueling a new sense of urgency for a plan that would move increasingly busy railroad tracks running through the city into a trench below street level. The growing chorus of railroad blues might sound like a bad case of NIMBY in a county that just grounded an airport proposal. The noisy parade of passenger and freight trains rolling through the county is growing longer, though, and talk of 200-mph passenger trains racing between San Diego and San Francisco is moving into the realm of serious public policy debate. Existing railroad tracks were laid decades before suburban sprawl blanketed the county, so there is no easy way to give frazzled commuters a ticket out of freeway gridlock, or accommodate freight traffic that carries goods to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Solutions that will eliminate bottlenecks along tracks are costly and will emerge in bits and pieces. The proposed four-mile trench through Placentia, for example, would keep automobiles and pedestrians out of harm`s way by eliminating 11 dangerous grade crossings. The plan is worth implementing as funds become available; Placentia residents are assaulted by the blaring horns of more than 70 daily Metrolink, Amtrak and Burlington-Northern Santa Fe trains. The trench is a real-world solution patterned after the $2.4-billion, 20-mile Alameda Corridor that eliminated traffic jams and noise in municipalities bisected by busy tracks linking the port with freight yards in Los Angeles. The April 23 head-on collision between a freight train and a Metrolink commuter train that left two passengers dead underscored another unfortunate fact of railroad life in the county. Existing corridors force freight and passenger trains to share tracks. Those bottlenecks threaten to stall discussion of innovative proposals, including the California High-Speed Rail Authority`s envisioned fleet of high-speed passenger trains. One key bottleneck is in San Clemente, where northbound and southbound trains share a single set of tracks perched beneath delicate coastal bluffs. Stand at the foot of the municipal pier and it`s clear that the extremely narrow railroad right of way that barely accommodates one set of tracks wasn`t built to handle high-speed trains. Safety is an issue in San Clemente, where seven people have died during the past decade while trying to walk across railroad tracks. On a recent morning, a middle-aged couple ignored the flashing red lights and crossing gates as they scrambled safely across the tracks and toward the pier. Seconds later, a northbound Amtrak Surfliner drowned out the rhythmic pounding of the surf. The rail authority is considering two possible solutions in San Clemente. Unfortunately, neither is an easy or good one. The first would create a pair of high-speed tracks that would run along the existing seaside corridor. The second is a mammoth, five-mile railway tunnel that would run under Interstate 5. The environmental cost of anchoring two sets of high-speed tracks near the fragile bluffs would be unacceptable. It`s difficult to imagine the rail authority finding hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to finance a massive tunnel. The rail authority`s charge to move Californians into the future is laudable in a state where transportation alternatives are a necessity. However, the problems of Placentia and San Clemente show that it won`t be easy to move passengers and freight in a manner that coexists with nature and civilization. The following 2005 editorial praised rescue workers who responded to the Glendale Metrolink disaster: January 27, 2005 A Response of Grit and Grace The emergency response to Wednesday`s commuter train wreck on the border of Glendale and Los Angeles was everything the region could have hoped for. All those earlier rehearsals, some in preparation for possible terrorist attacks, paid off. Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, sheriff`s deputies and paramedics from jurisdictions across the county raced to rescue trapped passengers and get them to hospitals. At least 11 people died in the crash and about 180 were injured, but things that could have gone wrong -- confusion over who was in charge, missed radio connections -- didn`t. A command center resembling a small city rose with astonishing swiftness in a Costco parking lot, its orderliness in stark contrast to the derailed and jackknifed trains on the vast lot`s edge. Costco workers were the very first responders to the predawn tragedy on their doorstep. They rushed out in the dark and rain, toward flaming, smoking rubble. The passengers themselves remained calm in the midst of chaos, helping each other. Residents countywide can take credit for passing a 2002 measure that increased property taxes to keep trauma centers open and able to handle the influx of injured. Californians are tested veterans of devastating earthquakes, fires and mudslides. Wednesday`s man-made catastrophe may be even harder to comprehend. With one train car tossed on its side like a discarded toy and others crushed like cans of Coke, the wreckage looked like the work of a suicide bomber. In fact, police say, it resulted from the act of a 25-year-old man, now in custody, apparently bent on suicide. He appears to have driven his Jeep Cherokee around barriers and onto the tracks, then changed his mind. He jumped out, leaving the SUV to be struck by one Metrolink train, which derailed into another coming from the opposite direction on another track. It will be up to psychologists to discern what forces were acting on the SUV driver, and to the courts to determine what to do with him. Federal transportation safety experts will study the crash to see if barriers were adequate and whether the configuration of the Metrolink train -- the heavier locomotive was in the rear rather than the front -- contributed to the derailment. In the meantime, Californians can take some comfort in knowing that the response to this most inexplicable tragedy was carried out with grit and grace. The following 2006 editorial discouraged state legislators from passing a bill in response to the 2005 Metrolink crash: June 27, 2006 Way off track ON JAN. 26, 2005, AN APPARENTLY SUICIDAL motorist parked his SUV across train tracks near Glendale, causing a horrific accident that killed 11 passengers and injured 180 others. Today, a state Senate committee is scheduled to consider a bill that its sponsors say could help avert such tragedies in the future. The committee should reject it. A special committee on rail safety headed by Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) has considered the results of studies performed in the wake of the disaster and crafted a bill now before the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing. The bill would force rail lines to close off the first 10 rows of the lead cars in so-called push trains, in which the train is pushed from behind by a locomotive rather than pulled, and end push-mode operations entirely in 2010. The bill might soothe the grieving with a feeling that all those deaths had at least resulted in a law that would save lives in the future. More likely, however, is that the measure would be costly and result in reductions in rail service without necessarily improving safety. A study by the Federal Railroad Administration found that push mode doesn`t result in more derailments than pull mode. Supporters of a ban say the study considered only the likelihood of derailment, not the extent of injuries. Data do show more deaths in crashes involving trains in push mode, but there have been too few incidents to reach firm conclusions. A final version of the report released Monday contained computer modeling of the Glendale crash and concluded that it would have been just as deadly with a locomotive in front. Rail operators estimate that it would cost more than $200 million to buy enough locomotives to put them at both ends of California`s commuter trains, which could be necessary if push mode were banned. Other options could cost even more. For example, railroads could build ``wye`` tracks, which are configured like the letter Y and allow trains to reverse direction by performing something like a three-point turn. But a Metrolink spokeswoman says it would take a parcel of land the size of Dodger Stadium for a single wye, and Metrolink alone would need 21 of them. Even if the land were available, which it isn`t, it would be prohibitively expensive. The state is obliged to pay the mandated costs of its legislation, but that`s a tricky proposition. It is notoriously difficult to get the Legislature to reimburse agencies and municipalities for the cost of complying with its laws. If rail services like Metrolink have to pay the cost, it may mean reductions in service. Further, design improvements may be about to render the issue moot. Metrolink has ordered 87 new cars, scheduled to arrive by 2010, that are said to be far superior to current models, incorporating new safety features such as energy-absorbing technology and better seating configurations. If the safety difference between push and pull trains is murky now, it will get even murkier when these cars come online. If the bill would produce measurable improvements in safety, it would be worth the price. There is no evidence that it would. To head off future crashes, the Legislature should focus on things that could actually make a difference, such as more barriers to keep cars off the tracks and more grade separations where roads and tracks meet. But the state`s transportation system should not be hobbled because of one man`s apparent attempt to commit suicide.

California Crash May Test $200 Million Cap on Damages

It's a shame that we have to loose so many lives to prove the concerns for the citizens of Florida were correct and worth the fight that took place on the floor of the State Legislature earlier this year but this points out the need to not rush to a quick fix for Orlando, FDOT and CSX and to give Congress time to come up with a fair and effective nationwide solution. 16 September 2008 - Bloomberg News California Crash May Test $200 Million Cap on Damages By Angela Greiling Keane Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The California commuter train crash that killed 26 people may test a 1997 U.S. law capping passengers` damage claims in railroad accidents at $200 million. The Sept. 12 collision between a Metrolink train and a Union Pacific Corp. freight train in Los Angeles was the worst U.S. passenger rail accident since before the liability limit became law as part of a bill reauthorizing Amtrak, the national passenger rail system. ``It`s hard for me to imagine given the number of deaths and injuries we know about so far that the cap would not come into play,`` said Glenn Scammel, a former Republican staff director for the House rail subcommittee who helped write the 1997 law. ``The cap is almost certainly going to be an issue.`` The $200 million limit is for ``the aggregate allowable awards to all rail passengers,`` including punitive damages, from any single passenger rail accident, according to the text. Scammel said the law covers all rail carriers, not just Amtrak. Metrolink`s preliminary investigation found that the commuter train`s engineer failed to follow a signal directing him to stop to allow the freight train to pass, a spokeswoman said on Sept. 13. The trains collided head-on, with more than 130 people hurt in addition to those killed. The number of fatalities rose to 26 when one of the injured died, Lieutenant Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner`s Office said today. Professor`s Viewpoint Metrolink may be better off establishing a compensation fund than testing the damages cap in the courts, said Georgetown University Law Center professor Heidi Li Feldman, whose specialties include tort law and complex litigation. ``They would nip litigation in the bud by creating a compensation scheme that is generous enough to adequately compensate people for the very real losses that they`ve obviously suffered,`` she said in an interview from Washington. ``No one likes to litigate under conditions of uncertainty.`` Costs for Metrolink may rise should attorneys for victims of the accident challenge the damage cap`s definition, because the issue hasn`t been settled in court, she said. Callers to Metrolink`s press office were referred today by a recorded message to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the crash inquiry. A message left for board spokesman Terry Williams wasn`t immediately returned. The rail agency`s spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, resigned after being criticized by executives for her comments about the crash`s cause, the Wall Street Journal reported. Metrolink is owned by a group of southern California counties. `Very Heavy Change` Feldman said the 1997 law also made ``a very heavy change in the standard that is normally applicable to punitive damages,`` making it harder for victims of rail accidents to win such claims. ``No one ever wants to be the test case on this,`` she said. ``This may involve enough injury and death on the one side and a vulnerable-enough defendant on the other side that people may want to invoke this statute.`` Because the damage limitations apply to passenger-rail crashes, the 1997 law wasn`t tested in connection with fatal accidents such as the 2005 Norfolk Southern Corp. derailment that ruptured a tank car carrying chlorine and killed nine people. Freight railroads have asked Congress for liability limits on accidents involving chemicals. Forty-five people died in a commuter train accident in Chicago in 1972, the New York Times said. An Amtrak crash in Mobile, Alabama, in 1993 that killed 47 people was the worst accident for the long-distance U.S. passenger railroad.

Mayor: At Least 10 Killed In Metrolink Crash

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Friday night that "at least 10" people were killed -- and scores injured, as many as 47 critically -- when a Metrolink commuter train crashed into a freight train in Chatsworth before the evening rush hour.One of the confirmed dead is a Los Angeles Police Department officer, according to LAPD Media Relations. The officer's name was not released.Reporting overhead in Sky 9, Gary Lineberry said it was a "real mess. And it's a bad one...no doubt about that."The freight train looked accordioned. Several cars on the freight train derailed. Several cars of the commuter train overturned. Tim Lynn reporting overhead in Chopper 2 said the crash was "head on." He added, "We saw people crawling out of the train trying to escape flames. The fire department immediately got into rescue mode."Just looking at the aftermath Lynn said, "this crash had to be horrific."A Metrolink spokeswoman confirmed at least seven people were killed as of 7:30 p.m. Lineberry said police sources were confirming casualties are expected to mount.Later in the evening, a somber Mayor addressed reporters and said the rescue effort had turned into a recovery effort and that "at least 15 people" were dead. Also, officials called in cadaver dogs to look for more victims.The crash occured near Topanga Boulevard about 4:40 p.m.The most serious injuries are believed to be in the front car of the Metrolink train. Some people were believed trapped. Rescue teams were on hand to extricate at least three people from the overturned cars, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.The Los Angeles Police Department called a citywide tactical alert in response to the crash.Metrolink says the train had 350 passengers. Fire crews think that there might be some bodies trapped underneath some of the overturned cars, debris and rubble.They have requested heavy machinery to move the wreckage.Lineberry reporting over the triage area said responders were separating the wounded and injured by color-coded blankets: the most serious injuries were put on red blankets, serious -- but not critical -- injuries were given yellow blankets, and wounded people who did not require immediate attention were put on green blankets. (© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

County Sues Va. Over NS Hub

John D. Boyd Associate Editor Just as promised, Virginia's Montgomery County filed suit against state plans to fund a Norfolk Southern Railway intermodal transfer facility, which is part of the carrier's multi-state Heartland Corridor construction project. The county is asking a state court to rule that spending public money on a privately owned intermodal terminal violates Virginia's constitution. But it was Virginia's site choice that triggered the complaint, after state authorities cleared NS to start building the facility at the rural village of Elliston, near Roanoke. The county's board of supervisors had passed resolutions against putting the terminal there, arguing it would disrupt the area's pastoral lifestyle and not be in accord with county development plans. So the local officials vowed to fight the plan. The suit, though, focuses on what Montgomery County says is more than $31 million the state would spend for rail improvements that would then be owned by the railroad. That would include a road link Virginia aims to connect the new terminal to the adjacent Interstate 81, a major north-south highway some truckers use instead of the often congested I-95. "We believe the public funding of private railroads is prohibited by the Virginia Constitution," said Board Chairman Annette Perkins. The NS corridor project is revamping 28 Appalachian rail tunnels along what is now largely mixed-cargo lines, raising their clearances so doublestack intermodal trains can use a much more direct route between Norfolk, Va., area ocean ports and the large consumer centers at Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago. The Heartland Corridor, due to start operations early in 2010, will also have three intermodal terminals. One opened this spring at Columbus, another is being built by West Virginia at the town of Prichard, and Elliston would be the third. That Roanoke-area terminal serving mostly east-west box traffic would also be located on another route that NS hopes to develop with federal and state funds. Dubbed the Crescent Corridor, that project envisions a faster north-south intermodal route from New Orleans up through the Southeast and into the Northeast.

CSX Rails Runs Smoothly Through Washington

This is an oldey, but a goody. http://aikane.blogspot.com/2008/06/csx-rails-run-smoothly-through.html

The Impact Project

Click title for page link. This is a very interesting website everyone may want to look at. http://www.theimpactproject.org/

Train Derails in Tipp City

Click title for story link A train pulls out from the station yard in Walbridge, Ohio, a village just south east of Toledo. Two locomotives pull 73 freight cars towards Cincinnati, making its way through the early morning hours past Lima, Sidney, Wapakoneta and Troy before coming to the Crane’s Road Crossing when something goes terribly wrong. Joe Bell, a Crane Road resident awoke early on that Saturday morning. “It’s just a fluke I guess.” Joe recounted. “I heard the train blowing like crazy and I noticed it was running long and loud, which was odd because you could tell the train was going really slow. I got up and a minute or two went by and there was this really loud banging sound. I didn’t give it a whole lot of thought at first and then I heard more noises. That told me that something was wrong, so I looked out the window and I saw the train, but it didn’t look like it was moving down the tracks anymore…but the cars were moving, but I think it was more of a rocking motion than a forward motion.”