Conductor Sir James's RailNews For 3/26/17

OMAHA, Neb. — More than a quarter of Union Pacific’s rail system is equipped with Positive Train Control equipment. In a recent news release, railroad representatives say that nearly 60 of its subdivisions are fully equipped with wayside devices and other PTC-ready equipment.

PTC has been installed across a swath of the railroad’s Western Region from Southern California to Portland, Ore.; from Portland east to Pocatello, Idaho; and from Roseville, Calif., through Reno, Nev., and toward Elko, Nev.

In addition, more than 7,000 railroad employees have undergone training to fully understand the purpose of the safety technology.

More than 60 percent of the railroad’s locomotive fleet has been equipped with PTC radios and other equipment — approximately 2,441 locomotives — while 85 percent of the railroad’s wayside radio towers are also PTC ready.

So far, the railroad has invested approximately $2.3 billion into the technology and estimates a total project cost of around $2.9 billion.

15. From TRAINS Magazine: Vehicle-train collisions down, trespassing deaths increase in 2016

March 22, 2017

WASHINGTON – Fewer people were involved in vehicle-train collisions at highway grade crossings in 2016, however more people were killed in railroad trespassing-related incidents, the Federal Railroad Administration reports.

According to the data from the agency’s office of safety analysis, vehicle-train collisions fell 2.4 percent in 2016, while the number of people killed in trespassing-related incidents increased more than 12 percent. Total trespass-related casualties increased more than 14.5 percent in 2016 when compared to statistics from 2015.

According to Operation Lifesaver, Inc., a nonprofit rail safety and awareness organization, the rail trespass casualty rate is 1.45 – the highest level in the past decade. The number of deaths and casualties per million train miles determines the casualty rate.

Texas, California, Illinois, Indiana, and Georgia reported the most crossing collisions last year, while California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania logged the most trespasser casualties.

FRA representatives say they are concerned about the increase in trespass deaths and injuries and will be working with Operation Lifesaver and all other partners to address the ongoing issue.

Operation Lifesaver is planning the first U.S. rail week on Sept. 24-30, 2017, that will make a nationwide effort to improve rail safety and education through safety literature, conversations with the general public and other initiatives.

16. From TRAINS Magazine: Biloxi to close six grade crossings after fatal train-bus collision

March 23, 2017

BILOXI, Miss. – City council members in Biloxi have approved a plan to close six railroad crossings in town less than a month after a deadly collision between a CSX Transportation freight train and a tour bus.

City leaders say they were already planning to close a half-dozen of its 29 railroad crossings before the wreck occurred, but the incident focused more attention on the issue, the Sun Herald reports.

Earlier this month, a CSX freight train struck a tour bus on a grade crossing in Biloxi. The incident killed four bus passengers and injured dozens more. The National Transportation Safety will have a preliminary report on the crash within a few weeks.

17. From TRAINS Magazine: Rail industry sets new safety record

March 23, 2017

WASHINGTON – U.S. railroads had the lowest train accident rate on record in 2016, according to recent data from the Federal Railroad Administration. Derailment rates were down 10 percent in 2016 compared to 2015 and track-caused accidents were at all-time lows.

Since 2000, FRA statistics reveal that track-caused incidents are down 53 percent, train accidents and derailment rates are down 44 percent, and equipment-caused accidents are down 34 percent. The agency calculates incident rates per one million train miles, according to a news release by the Association of American Railroads.

Not only have there been fewer train accidents, but the agency is also reporting fewer employee injuries. In 2016, the employee injury rate dropped by 1.8 percent relative to 2015.

The AAR believes the drop in train accidents and employee injuries is a result of safer operations, new technologies, and ongoing private investment in railroad infrastructure.

18. From TRAINS Magazine: 'Hoosier State:' Lessons learned

By Bob Johnston | March 24, 2017

CHICAGO – A quick round-trip from Chicago to Lafayette, Ind., last week revealed much about what happened – and didn’t – between Aug. 2, 2015, and Feb. 28, 2017, when Iowa Pacific was the contract operator of the Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State. Iowa Pacific’s marketing, and amenities utilizing heritage passenger cars, were an attempt to upgrade the bare-bones service Amtrak had previously offered.

On March 1, on-board service and equipment of the four-times-per-week passenger train – which alternates with the tri-weekly New York-Chicago Cardinal – reverted to Amtrak. Since then, the national carrier has been running its lone full-length dome on the Hoosier State.

The Ocean View, a former Great Northern Empire Builder car built by the Budd Co. in 1955, makes periodic appearances around the country to give prospective customers an extra reason to travel. Amtrak assigned it to the Hoosier through March 31, as a means of promoting the change and easing the transition from Iowa Pacific’s dome-equipped train set.

Amtrak’s dome is quite similar to the ex-Santa Fe, 1954-vintage Budd-built Scenic View, which Iowa Pacific ran as premium-priced business class under glass, with a dining room for coach passengers downstairs. After a month-long promotional period in 2015, business class patrons paid $70 with meals included, or about twice the Chicago-Indianapolis adult coach fare, for the privilege of sitting in the dome.

Coach passengers also benefited with full breakfasts, dinners, and snacks offered at reasonable prices. Amtrak had not provided a café car on the train since shortly after it was inaugurated as an equipment move to and from the Beech Grove Heavy Maintenance Facility in the 1980s.

When Indiana became responsible, under terms of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, for covering a significant portion of operating costs it never had to absorb before, the state had the option of paying Amtrak to add a food service car. Instead, after protracted negotiations, it contracted with Iowa Pacific to enhance the entire on-board experience.

The relationship ended over the flat-annual-fee contract between the state and Iowa Pacific. Third-party costs – which Amtrak billed to Indiana for operating the train, including incentive payments the passenger carrier said it was sending to CSX Transportation for improved on-time performance – ate into the amount Iowa Pacific had expected it would receive under terms of the agreement. Through January 2017, Amtrak had earned about $3.9 million and Iowa Pacific about $500,000. Iowa Pacific asked for more money to continue operating until the end of the contract on June 30; instead, the state let Iowa Pacific out of the commitment after paying the vendor a flat $150,000 per month to maintain service in January and February.

For the next week, passengers can still eat a meal in the dome, but there is no longer a cook in the kitchen downstairs preparing food served on a white tablecloth. Instead, passengers order in the adjacent café car and bring the food back to the dome. The food is typical Midwest microwave fare: a few fresh sandwiches, burgers (both flame broiled and White Castle “sliders”), and other light snacks. One interesting addition is a robust craft pale ale, Yum Yum, brewed locally by the Three Floyds brewing company of Munster, Ind.

Amtrak will continue to run the café through the end of the current contract on June 30.

By running the food service car, which also contains a business class section with one-plus-two seating, Amtrak and the state hope to maintain the increased revenue per passenger generated by Iowa Pacific’s enhanced service.

For the fiscal year from October 2015 to September 2016, revenue increased by $242,331 while carrying the same number of passengers, a 36 per cent jump. For the final period under Iowa Pacific, October 2016 through February 2017, revenue rose more than 19 percent (the biggest cumulative increase for any train on the Amtrak system) while the passenger count was up 11.5 per cent.

Interestingly, because Iowa Pacific had limited coach inventory and Amtrak’s yield management system raises fares as available space diminishes, passengers would regularly find seats on Hoosier State to be more expensive than if they were to travel on a day the Cardinal is running. Even under Amtrak’s auspices, this occurred on last week’s trip; a Thursday return on the long-distance train from Lafayette to Chicago was priced at $23 but the previous day’s Hoosier required a $36 adult fare.

Although the heritage coaches Iowa Pacific supplied had less seating than the Hoosier State’s Horizons or Cardinal’s Amfleet IIs, they provided a generous seat pitch clearly appreciated by passengers Trains talked to on a half-dozen Chicago-Indianapolis trips.

But an important operating practice that has carried over to the Amtrak equipment is the decision by crew to dim lights at night in the Horizon cars, as they did in the Iowa Pacific days. Horizon coaches have the dim light setting, but using it makes notifying passengers of an upcoming stop more difficult for conductors, so lights stay bright on most Midwest Corridor trains throughout the trip. That wasn’t the case on the Hoosier State before, and the Amtrak crew has continued the thoughtful practice. In fact, a conductor on the run to Lafayette on March 15 actually apologized to a practically full car of Lafayette-bound passengers for having to turn the lights on 15 minutes before the stop so they could gather belongings.

The fact remains that both the Hoosier State and the Cardinal are constrained by unreliable travel times traversing CSX, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, Metra, and Amtrak rails to and from Chicago Union Station.

Outbound on March 15, the Hoosier stopped or crept for 28 minutes over the 2 miles from Dolton to Thornton Junction while Indiana Harbor and Union Pacific dispatchers cleared a path through Yard Center. Not to worry: that lag time had been built into the lethargic schedule, but clearly any semblance of “passenger train priority” was dead on arrival. Do these carriers feel remorse and is Amtrak or Indiana in a position to call the shots? Not likely.

The next morning’s March 16 trip from Lafayette to Chicago was on-time until it got to Dyer, Ind., which would have put it into Chicago with all of the schedule padding at least 20 minutes early. The engineer even said to the conductor over the radio, “The UP knows we’re coming.”

Not so fast. Instead, the train arrived into Chicago’s Union Station more than an hour late while track inspectors investigated an underpass bridge strike by a truck up ahead. Though this was an unusual occurrence, it is typical of the obstacles thrust in the path of these trains between two population centers that deserve faster speeds and more punctual service.

So in the age of the smartphone, there is demonstrable value in enhancing the on-board experience if speed and convenience can’t be part of the equation. Conversely, unbridled cost-cutting has its price; Indiana’s brief fling with Iowa Pacific proved that conclusively. It will be interesting to see if Amtrak, with a burdensome cost structure and aging equipment, is able to provide service that makes the best of the cards it and the states are dealt.

19. From TRAINS Magazine: Judge sides with freight carriers in Amtrak time-keeping case

By Malcolm Kenton | March 24, 2017

WASHINGTON – A ruling issued Thursday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is likely to be the final decision in a case that dates back to 2010. District Judge James E. Boasberg, an Obama appointee, found the entirety of Section 207 of the 2008 Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act to be unconstitutional and voided the metrics and standards that the Federal Railroad Administration issued in 2011 pursuant to the section. The Association of American Railroads (AAR), representing the Class I, first filed a lawsuit against DOT challenging Section 207 railroads whose tracks Amtrak trains use. Given that Thursday’s ruling was made on remand from the Supreme Court, an appeal by DOT is likely not possible.

Boasberg’s ruling, which is not yet available online, was based on clauses in the U.S. Constitution that state that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law (the Due Process Clause), and that the regulatory authority of the federal government may only ultimately rest with individuals appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate (the Appointments Clause). In keeping with the precedent set by an 1886 Supreme Court ruling in a case involving the Southern Pacific, all rights the Constitution grants to persons are also granted to corporations. Boasberg found that Section 207’s vesting of regulatory power with an entity that is also a participant in the industry subject to regulation violated the Due Process Clause, and that vesting the ultimate power to settle disputes concerning the metrics and standards with an arbitrator appointed by the DOT violated the Appointments Clause.

In July 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel comprised of George W. Bush appointees, in the same case, ruled in AAR’s favor by finding that Amtrak is a private company that may not be granted regulatory powers, overturning a May 2012 ruling by the District Court that Amtrak is a governmental entity. But in a unanimous March 2015 decision, the Supreme Court overturned that ruling, declaring that for the purposes of the constitutional clauses in question, Amtrak shall be considered as part of the government, but remanded the questions of due process and appointments back to the lower courts. Thursday’s District Court ruling establishes the principle that while Congress may create companies that act commercially within an industry, and may also create regulatory bodies, it cannot create entities that do both at the same time. In this case, the thing for which Amtrak and freight railroads are competing is not customers, but rather finite track capacity.

In earlier filings before the Supreme Court, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Cato Institute, the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Center for the Rule of Law, the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators (whose member firms aim to compete with Amtrak in operating intercity passenger trains), and law professor Alexander Volokh sided with AAR, while the National Association of Railroad Passengers, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and some local rail passenger advocacy groups sided with DOT.

In the 20 months between the D.C. Circuit and Supreme Court rulings, Amtrak’s system wide on-time performance declined.

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