finery’s lexicon. One imagines a 21st centu- ry-style assembly line.
Rail vs. Pipeline
There are analysts who think using rail to carry oil is a temporary solution while await- ing the arrival of more pipelines. Not so, ac- cording to Carlyle’s Rodney Cohen, who tells reporter Steve Mufson, “You’d be shocked. A very big piece of the country is filled with rail. It doesn’t come in a straight shot, but there is a lot more track than you think.” Read that quote again. We don’t know what generation identifies Mr. Cohen, but our guess is Baby-Boom. With all the new technologies that have arrived in the inter- vening eras, the nearly two-century old steel wheel on steel rail still has the flexibility and the efficiency to serve America in ways that other modes can’t manage as well. And Cohen adds, “Pipelines are largely point-to-point systems.” Yep.
Or as BNSF communications director Krista York-Woodley told U.S. News and World Report, “Rail is a more flexible and faster alternative to pipelines, and is mak- ing it possible for oil and gas shippers to ship new production to areas of greatest demand to the benefit of the U.S. economy and do- mestic energy independence.”
But one need not take the word of a rail-
road employee. Carlyle, a firm that owes its success to “thinking out of the box” and put- ting the economic pieces together to make things happen, sees rail as a key element in the Philadelphia project.
The American Way Carlyle’s managing director David Marchick wrote, “This is what we do. We put some equi- ty in and make the asset sing.” His letter was read at a labor union-backed dinner dance celebrating the huge number of American jobs that were being created at the refinery. As if to put an exclamation point on that
“Americanization,” not only will the North Dakota shale oil be produced in the U.S.A., so too will the cheap Pennsylvania shale gas that will fire up the refinery itself. By con- trast, Sunoco had imported oil primarily from West and North Africa. But the new arrange- ment is a good deal for American consumers and (let it never be forgotten in this railroad column) also a very good deal for the health of the American railroad industry.
Coal, and Maybe a Downside? Speaking of energy abundance, Canadian Pacific now has picked up a share of the con- tinual expansion of the coal business from the seemingly bottomless supply of that en- ergy source in the Powder River Basin. CP CEO Hunter Harrison says he wouldn’t have believed ten years ago this could have happened. The line eventually goes to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. “Is that an aber- ration?” he asks rhetorically, adding “I don’t know. But I think there’s going to be more export out of Powder River Basin that a lot of us ever dreamed.”
While CP wins one for coal traffic, other
news raises yet more questions about coal notwithstanding that the U.S. — the “Saudi Arabia of coal” — has enough of the black gold to last 500 years: the U.S. Energy Infor- mation Administration reports the cost to ship coal by rail to U.S. power plants in- creased almost 50 per cent from 2001 to 2010. And the Association of American Rail- roads has petitioned the Surface Trans-
portation Board to reconsider the measure- ment by which it rules on rate cases dealing with that very issue — rail shipment of coal to power plants.
Our point here is that this dispute, while in and of itself may seem to be no big deal in the larger picture, is just one more controver- sy added to the hard line that the feds (in this case the EPA) are taking toward the coal industry, and by extension potentially affect- ing the railroads that do business with it.
Feds re PTC: Get On With It The National Transportation Safety Board has put Positive Train Control on the rails on its list of “Most Wanted” safety improve- ments for all modes. “For positive train con- trol to reach its greatest safety potential,” the agency said, “it must be implemented on all passenger and freight trains. With this technology, even if a train operator has fall- en asleep or is distracted in some way, hu- man lives will not be at risk.” The NTSB rec- ognized Southern California’s 55-station Metrolink commuter railroad as a leader in PTC implementation. The Association of American Railroads (freight rail’s voice in Washington) issued a statement stressing the industry’s intent to meet the December 31, 2015, mandate for full implementation. AAR CEO Ed Ham- berger cited the $1.5 billion the industry has thus far spent on this effort. However, he noted that the undertaking is “unprecedent- ed” and faces “significant hurdles” in a process he said amounted to starting “from scratch.” The final PTC system must operate seamlessly on all railroads’ systems. Even the FRA, however, has acknowledged “unre- solved issues” that render the 12/31/15 deadline “unrealistic.”
One Employee Per Train? Railroads are looking toward pushing for just one employee per freight train. If that goal is achieved, it means over time, the tain crew has shrunk from five (in the old days) to four to three (with the elimination of the caboose); then from three to two, and now it’s believed the next move will be to eliminate the conductor, leaving only the engineer. A group called Railroad Workers United, made up of employees from several unions, has organized to “stop this dangerous trend,” listing 10,000-foot long, 15,000-ton trains and conductors duties, and accusing its union leaders of being “asleep at the wheel.” With every cutback in personnel on the freight haulers, rail employers in con- tract talks have argued that modern technol- ogy has made previous crew requirements unnecessary.
Looking Ahead
Amtrak President Joe Boardman has scrapped previous stop-gap plans to add 40 cars with newer technology to the older Acela high speed trains on the NEC. In- stead, he plans to replace the existing less- than-two-decades-old Acela equipment with entirely new rolling stock “to meet the grow- ing demand for service on the Washington- New York-Boston corridor.
Passenger Privatization Again? Mr. Boardman made the equipment an- nouncement at a hearing before the House transportation committee. Outgoing com- mittee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) made strong pitch for private sector involvement
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TIME of CHANGE - Iron Rooster 2012
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