The New York Times, pose a threat to oil company executives’ plans to double oil out- put over the next several years. Jack Eck- strom, a VP at Whiting Petroleum, a major producer in the Bakken, suggests an alter- nate change: to direct the trains around the cities rather than running through them. Oil executives object to allegations of the potential “volatility” of crude that prompted federal DOT to use as a rationale for issuing a safety alert regarding the Bakken crude. Canada Acts: The Canadian Minister of Transport has approved new updated rules dealing with securing equipment on a train. The new rules allow unattended equipment to be secured by air brakes for a maximum of two hours; unattended engines must be secured either by hand brakes or air brakes, provided the train is not left in excess of two hours and on a grade exceeding 1.25 per cent; and require railroads to have special instructions on ways to test the effectiveness of hand brakes. Personnel Shortage: For all the busi- ness on its plate, the U.S.’s foremost rail safety watchdog has 324 safety inspectors, a shortage across the country. That falls short of what is required to oversee more than one per cent of all railroad operations, according to a report by the Government Accountabili- ty office (GAO). “FRA is a small agency with limited resources available to execute the large scope of its oversight, compared to the size of the industry it regulates” the report declares. Note: Though this column is not in the
stock-picking business, we pass along one professional’s recommendations, updated to factor in the series of latest accidents. “Crude by rail is here to stay,” says Aaron Leavitt of Investor Place. How to play it on the market? His picks are CN, CP, and Trin- ity Industries, the latter representing “re- sources of the leading railcar manufacturer in North America.” To Sum It Up: Collectively, there are con- cerns that all of these problems could some- day threaten the nation’s security. Will the oil boom in North Dakota and Montana, Texas and elsewhere continue to reduce the nation’s reliance on unfriendly nations for our oil requirements and create even more jobs in addition to the thousands already added, with the rail industry contributing to a real renaissance? Or will the concerns now plaguing the project curtail one of the bright spots in what has been a disappointing econ- omy? Before the final numbers were in at the end of the year, it was projected that the 9500 carloads of crude oil carried by Class I carriers in 2008 had reached 400,000 in 2013 — just five years later!
Passenger Safety
Reverberations continued over the rail transport of the most precious cargo — hu- man beings. Last month we reported on the Metro-North Railroad train that hit a sharp 30 m.p.h. curve at 82 m.p.h. in New York City on December 1, causing four fatalities. The Federal Railroad
Administration
(FRA) here in Washington issued industry- wide “safety advisory” restrictions on train speed. Here are the specifics for the railroad: 1) Review with operating employees the cir- cumstances of Metro-North’s derailment. 2) Instruct employees in training classes and safety briefings on the importance of compli- ance with maximum speed limits and other speed restrictions. 3) Evaluate results of op-
erational data regarding speed testing. 4) Reinforce the importance of communication between crew members in the controlling lo- comotive, particularly during safety-critical periods when multiple tasks are occurring and during extended periods of inactivity. On the Local Level: As the FRA was be- ginning its “Deep Dive 60-day top-to-bottom investigation” of Metro-North’s safety proce- dures, the New York Metropolitan Trans- portation Authority at a meeting in Manhat- tan urged Metro-North leaders to be aggressive in adopting the high-tech colli- sion avoidance system called Positive Train Control (PTC). The December 1 accident prompted the MTA to urge a speed-up of PTC installation.
That issue is linked to a larger ongoing one wherein the feds have urged PTC instal- lation throughout much of the national rail network. The timetable for completion of that work has been December 31, 2015. How- ever, industry officials and trade groups have said finishing the project by then will be at best highly difficult, if not impossible. De- bate has continued over 1) whether to push back on that deadline and 2) if that is done what should a new postponed deadline be. At the New York meeting, MTA chief exec-
utive Thomas Pendergast promised the rail- road won’t “shirk” its duty to go beyond the federal requirements to devise modifica- tions to the signal system. “At a personal lev- el for me,” he added, “you do a lot of soul- searching on what you could do to prevent a recurrence… because you go back to the im- pact on human lives.”
Boardman’s Challenge: Think Big Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman has challenged the transportation industry and national policy-makers to venture way beyond the status quo — way, way beyond. The bank- ruptcy of the Highway Trust Fund is “the tip of the iceberg,” he warns. In a January speech to the National Press Club, the Am- trak boss declared, “The Highway Trust Fund is dead. We need to think about how to replace it with a surface transportation pro- gram for the 21st century, one that involves all surface transportation modes.” Such a new balanced program, the veteran transportation professional asserted, would include highway, transit, and rail (both pas- senger and freight), and would unshackle transportation planners, system users, and other decision-makers from simply chasing mode-restricted dollars, and instead . . . “pro- duce results that matter to the nation.” Boardman predicted dire consequences if we continue our fragmented method of transportation planning. “If we treat the is- sue as ‘what do we do within our existing structure,’ we will all lose,” he said, “Nothing worthwhile will change.” In the Q&A that followed, Mr. Boardman
was asked if he was calling for tax or fee in- creases. His response was the states were al- ready doing that “because the leadership is not coming from the federal government.” The federal government should understand that its responsibility was to “connect this nation together,” he told the journalists gathered at the Press Club. He cited the fed- eral government’s PRIIA law as a good start. That measure gave the states a greater role in planning for state corridors. Highlights of some other issues: Board-
man described Amtrak’s relations with the freight railroads as “very good,” even though
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