RAILROAD NEWS AND COMMENTARY FROM WASHINGTON BY WES VERNON Coal and Railroads: Big Changes Upcoming
THOUGH PRESIDENT TRUMP’S VICTORY in November caught much of the world by surprise, it has quite naturally set off sighs of relief that could almost be heard out loud in the precincts of the coal in- dustry. Not incidentally, since coal was the number one customer of the freight railroads for years, saving the coal in- dustry could have a salutary effect on the Class I rail carriers. However, the overall well-being of freight train traffic could be offset to some extent by the fact that the new president also wants to re- vive plans for fossil fuel pipelines whose commodities the previous president had planned for rail traffic. Exactly how all that balances out will be more evident over time. There are some regulatory battles to be fought. Aside from the political factor in the
2016 elections, we have in this month’s column some powerful comments from Matt Rose, icon of BNSF. His comments on some regulatory trends in the indus- try, mixed with some optimism, will be included below. Shock? What shock? The outcome
of the 2016 presidential contest was a “shock” for many — the biggest surprise since President Truman won in an upset in 1948 — but keen observers detected stirrings in Middle America weeks be- fore the final balloting. We are not cer- tain as to whether decision-makers in the railroad industry saw it coming. The threat by the Obama adminis- tration (followed by visible action) to regulate the coal industry, while not the deciding issue in 2016, certainly attracted more attention than it did in 2012 when Mr. Obama was re-elected. By 2016, the fate of coal miners and their families had begun to add up at the polls. Add in the fact that America’s Class
I railroad industry has a well-organized and highly respected lobby in Washing- ton. That is no small factor and can con- tribute to the potential for sympathetic voter attention. Moreover, now that President Trump is in the White House in early 2017, railroaders have been ask- ing how the Trump administration will affect the trains. Rail Flashpoint: One of the largest
bones of contention facing the Presi- dent is the Gateway Project connecting under the Hudson from New Jersey to New York Penn. The tunnel project, as we have noted in this space, is hugely vital, but also hugely expensive. In his winning campaign, the then-aspiring
A Norfolk Southern coal train passes through Falls Mills, Va., on the Pocahontas District. Will potential gains in coal traffi c under the new presidential administration be offset by losses to oil pipelines? STEVE BARRY PHOTO
president did mention the importance of “rebuilding America” via infrastructure projects. On at least two occasions, the 2016 candidate for the White House in- cluded mention of “our railway” projects. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the
new Senate Minority Leader, met with then President-elect Trump to let him know in a friendly way the Democrats in Capitol Hill’s upper chamber are ready and willing to work with him to see that the dollars to pay for Gateway are, in fact, provided. It was a thinly veiled point on the New York senator’s part to remind the newly elected president that he would be held accountable for one of the few things upon which the senator and head of state could agree. Does the political math add up? Barring some political earthquake, the Republicans appear well-positioned to hold on to control of the House of Repre- sentatives in the mid-terms of 2018. The Senate is another story — the Repub- licans now hold a slim lead there. (The Democrat contingent includes a couple of “independent” liberal lawmakers who caucus with the Democrats and usually vote with them.) Furthermore, whereas (per the Con- gressional Directory) there are at least 23 Democrats up for re-election in 2018, and only eight Republicans, in 2020 there will be 22 Republican seats up for anoth- er term, compared to just 11 Democrats.
Trump — if he himself is on board with Gateway — needs to corral enough of the GOP to add up. That’s a political rea- son for fast action. The more alarming reason for priority attention is the vul- nerability of the old tunnels, a circum- stance brought about largely because of the damage done by the big hurricane of 2012. One writer has posited the con- cern that failure to bolster the viability of Gateway — and soon — could lead to “apocalypse.”
Texas Rail This column on occasion has noted
the high hopes and dreams of those who are looking forward to getting a Japa- nese-built high speed railroad running between the major Texas cities of Dallas and Houston. The feds (via the Surface Transportation Board) have agreed to butt out on this issue, since the entire Texas Central line is located within the Lone Star State, and therefore is within the purview of the state rather than the federal government. It seems settled, then, that the state
(not the feds) would have the right to eminent domain. That term essentially denotes the right to take private proper- ty (usually at fair market value) for the public good. Still, for one of the largest states in the country, Amtrak service in Texas seems ridiculously small. “We hardly have any passenger train
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