Way Too Early for Amtrak

It would be nice to be able to use the Amtrak station signs in Alliance to frame the Capitol Limited arriving into the station.

But No. 29 is scheduled in at 1:39 a.m. and No. 30 at 3:05 a.m. Given Amtrak’s habit of being tardy at intermediate stations, it probably doesn’t happen often that either train arrives at exactly those times.

I’ve yet to be in Alliance railfanning in the middle of the night and I’ve never had any luck getting Amtrak arriving in Alliance several hours late.

So framing a Norfolk Southern westbound stack train at the Amtrak station is the next best thing.

These images were made on the afternoon of the January Akron Railroad Club meeting.

Pa. Trains Require Reservations for Easter Travel

Amtrak will require reservations for travel aboard the Pennsylvanian and Keystone Service trains for travel during the Easter travel period of March 29 to April 2.

In a service advisory, the passenger carrier said monthly and 10-ride tickets will be accepted on these dates.

 

W.Va. Mulls Support for MARC Service

West Virginia policymakers are eyeing a range of options to continue Maryland Rail Commuter service operating in their state.

This includes a fare hike of $4 and increasing state funding of the service.

MARC recently said that if a new contract is not reached that it would end service as early as this summer to Martinsburg, Duffields and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, from Washington.

Maryland has demanded that West Virginia pay $3.2 million to keep MARC trains running to the Mountain State.

The proposed fare increase is expected to generate $600,000 a year.

West Virginia Department of Transportation Secretary Tom Smith said about $500,000 in funding could be taken from the state budget negotiations, which would still leave a funding gap of $2.1 million.

Smith said other funding sources could include federal funding and private sector support.

Gas Tax Hike Idea Dividing Public

The prospect of raising the federal gasoline tax has drawn mixed reviews, the Quinnipiac University poll found.

Although 46 percent think it is a good idea, 44 percent think it is a bad one. Unlike many policy proposals, there is no sharp partisan split.

Forty-eight percent of Republicans, 49 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of independents believe raising the gas tax helpful in paying for infrastructure projects involving railroads, bridges and roads.

Congress last increased the gasoline tax in the 1993 and some have been floating the idea of increasing it again.

The Quinnipiac poll was conducted from February 16-19 and surveyed 1,249 voters. The survey has a 3.4-percentage-point margin of error.

Supreme Court Won’t Take On-Time Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request by Amtrak to review a lower court decision that found the Surface Transportation Board cannot assume regulatory authority that is granted to Congress.

The high court’s decision means that a last effort by the federal government to revive the delegated authority will be decided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In a July 2017 decision, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the STB lacked the authority to establish regulatory standards for “on-time performance” in exercising its power to require freight railroads to give “preference” to Amtrak trains. See, Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Surface Transportation Board, 863 F.3d 816 (8th Cir. 2017).

The Union Pacific case was one of two in which courts considered challenges to a portion of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008.

That law delegated to the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak the joint power to establish metrics and standards to define “on-time performance,” and gave the STB power to penalize railroads that fail to meet the standards.

The other case was Association of American Railroads vs. U.S. Department of Transportation.

In the latter case, the railroad trade organization challenged the joint FRA/Amtrak authority as an unconstitutional delegation of governmental power to Amtrak because it is a for profit entity.

The appellate court in that case sided with the AAR, ruling that the law constituted a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause to give Amtrak, “an economically self-interested actor,” the power to regulate its competitors.

Following that decision, the STB sought to establish the on-time standards itself, which led to the Union Pacific case.

The district court in Washington has set oral arguments for March 5 in what remains of the AAR case.

During that hearing, the federal government and Amtrak will be seeking to have the court reinstate the joint rule-making authority of the FRA and Amtrak by narrowing the court’s previous decision and striking down only a portion of the offending PRIIA provision.

Trying Something Different in Berea

I’ve been going to Berea to watch trains for more than 20 years. I’ve pretty much exhausted about every photo angle I can think of short of trespassing on railroad property.

About the only thing new to get in Berea is to catch a particular locomotive or rail car that I haven’t photographed there before. Or so I thought.

While in Berea not long ago on a rare sunny winter day, I had the idea of photographing trains splitting the signals that have been installed within the past couple of years.

In the top image, eastbound Norfolk Southern intermodal train 206 has a Canadian National unit leading. Although not visible, the trailing unit belongs to Union Pacific.

In the middle image, westbound NS manifest freight 309 is framed by the signals on the Toledo connection between NS and CSX. Behind the lead unit is the Wabash heritage unit.

The bottom images shows a westbound NS stack train framed by several signals, including the westbound home signals for CP 194 on the Chicago Line.

PUCO OKs 2 Grade Crossing Projects

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved two grade crossing projects  in Huron and Tuscarawas counties.

The Wheeling & Lake Erie will install lights and gates at the Corwin Street grade crossing in Norwalk in Huron County.

In Tuscarawas County, the Columbus & Ohio River Railroad will install lights and gates at the West Street grade crossing in Newcomerstown.

Both projects must be finished by Nov. 21 and are being paid for in part with federal funding approved through the Ohio Rail Development Commission.

South Shore Gets into Car Storage Business

The Chicago South Shore & South Bend is looking to capture a greater share of the car storage market and is using its connections in Chicago to get it.

The South Shore said it will store empty or loaded freight cars, a service it said is the result of investments in track capacity.

The Michigan City, Indiana, carrier cited its connections with six Class 1 railroads and several regional and switching lines.

“The need for railcar storage capacity located close to Chicago fluctuates based on ebbs and flows of storage space in the industry,” said CSS President Todd Bjornstad. “We are offering this because we believe South Shore’s easy access to multiple Chicago railroads gives third-party customers a chance to take advantage of our strategic location.”

Since January, CSS has offered interchange service daily except Saturday with short- or long-term rates – daily, weekly, monthly, or annually – based on how long cars might sit in storage.

Bjornstad said shippers and railroads require temporary car storage for a variety of reasons.

“In some cases, car-leasing companies have equipment coming off lease for which new lessees have not been secured. Or, some customer-owned fleets might require off-site storage during a plant’s scheduled maintenance outage.”

Firm Chosen for Buffalo Light Rail Extension

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority has chosen WSP to provide environmental review and preliminary design work for the first phase of the Amherst Metro Rail extension project in the Buffalo, New York, region .

WSP will refine a 2017 study of preferred alternatives for extending the Metro Rail light-rail system along Niagara Falls Boulevard from the University Station in Buffalo to the University of Buffalo’s North Campus in Amherst, New York.

The WSP work will also include exploring options for additional storage and maintenance facilities.

CP Contract to Affect Ohio Valley Market

Canadian Pacific doesn’t own a foot of track in Ohio and the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, is thousands of miles away, but the Buckeye State looks to benefit from a recent contract that CP reached that will increase its share of intermodal traffic in Vancouver.

CP will begin hauling starting April 1, about 85 percent of the Ocean Network Express traffic passing through the Port of Vancouver.

How does that affect Ohio? It will boost traffic in the Ohio Valley intermodal partnership that CP has with the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern and Indiana & Ohio.

Ocean Network Express is a consortium of shipping companies K-Line, MOL, and NYK.

Canadian National has 70 percent of the container traffic moving through the Port of Vancouver, but CN officials say they will have to turn away some business due to capacity constraints.

International intermodal traffic moving on CN has experienced faster-than-expected growth and increases in traffic in frac sand, grain, and other commodities have left CN congested, particularly in Western Canada.

CP said the agreement with Ocean Network Express is worth $80 million annually over the three-year contract.

Interestingly, CP is gaining back traffic it walked away from when E. Hunter Harrison was CEO of CP because he thought domestic intermodal traffic was more profitable.

But now CP says its costs are similar to those of CN, which puts it in a position to vie for lower-margin international intermodal traffic.