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Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters NEWS CLIPS August 25, 2014 Clark Ballew, Director of Communications Telephone: 248-662-2605 (Fax) 248-662-2657 Email: [email protected] 2 Dead, 2 Hurt in Arkansas Freight Train Collision HOXIE, Ark. — By KEN MILLER Associated Press Two Union Pacific train crew members were killed and two others were injured when two freight trains collided head-on in northeast Arkansas early Sunday, Arkansas State Police said. The collision happened about 3 a.m. in Hoxie, a small town about 90 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. A resulting fire took about seven hours to extinguish, according to Union Pacific spokesman Brandon Morris. Authorities asked about 500 people within 1½ miles of the collision to leave their homes following the crash because of the fire, the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office said. Most were allowed to return home by midmorning Sunday, according to county Emergency Management Director Buddy Williams. "The fire involved diesel and also there was a tank car that ruptured and it contained an (unknown) alcoholic beverage," Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Kendell Snyder said. He said there were no other leaks. "We don't know the cause of the accident. We have no idea why these trains were on the same line," Williams said, noting that no local residents were hurt. Michael Hiller, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the collision involved a train with two locomotives and 86 cars and another with two locomotives and 92 cars. The first train was northbound on a single main track when the second train, which was southbound, collided with it, he said. Hiller said they were operating on the same track. Hiller said the cause of the accident has not yet been determined and he expects investigators to be on the scene about a week gathering evidence. "We will be looking at train signal information," Hiller said. "We're going to be looking at the train braking, the railroad track and inspection information. We'll be looking at train operations and how the crew operated the train." He said the daily recorders on the locomotives would provide information about speed, braking and throttle. Hiller said the recorders have been collected and will be shipped to Washington for analysis. It's at least the second head-on collision involving UP trains since 2012, when two collided in the Oklahoma Panhandle that June, which killed three crew members and injured a fourth. The names of those killed and injured on Sunday were not immediately released by Union Pacific. Hiller said he also did not have that information. "We're still conducting an investigation, we haven't made any notifications," Morris said. He did not know where the trains had originated or where they were headed. Morris said there were no other cars leaking any materials. "There was a tank car carrying alcoholic beverages that caught fire," Hiller said. "It's still burning. It's going to burn itself out. It's not an environmental problem." U.S. highways 67 and 63, main arteries through Hoxie and the adjacent town of Walnut Ridge, were closed for several hours Sunday. Highway 67 at the intersection with U.S. Highway 230 will likely remain closed for up to three days while the wreckage is removed, Arkansas State Police said. Railroad commits additional grain trains The (Mitchell, SD) Daily Republic on Aug 18, 2014 at 8:05 p.m. PIERRE — Railroad lines serving South Dakota shippers have committed to providing three additional grain trains per week, Gov. Dennis Daugaard said Monday. The governor received that commitment from the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern Railroad (RCP&E) and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) during a meeting with leaders of the rail lines last week in Washington, D.C. "With historically large harvests back to back, South Dakota needs the best service it can get from its rail carriers, so this is a welcome development, and it should provide some relief to those who depend on the RCP&E line,'' Daugaard said. "We had a very productive meeting with our rail partners about their plans to provide optimal service to South Dakota shippers and producers.'' Though the line has been sold to the RCP&E, the Canadian Pacific Railway will still be an integral part of South Dakota's agriculture shipping because it moves RCP&E freight from Tracy, Minn., to consumers in Minnesota, Illinois and beyond. "It was not wholly unexpected that there were some complications in the hand-off from the Canadian Pacific to the RCP&E,'' said South Dakota Agriculture Secretary Lucas Lentsch. "It was unfortunate that these service issues arose in June and July, when we were getting ready to take in the 2014 harvest. I am pleased to see train volumes increasing now, though, and this addition of three more grain trains a week should give producers and shippers some relief.'' "Railroads, however, are just part of the story," he said. "Producers and shippers need to make plans for what they can do to manage these large harvests. Make room now to store your grain wherever you can." South Dakota Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist said railroads suffered complications last year in moving freight due to the exceptionally cold and snowy winter. "If we have another winter like last year, everyone can expect things to slow down again,'' Bergquist said. "So we are hoping for the best but encouraging people to be prepared for the worst." Durbin sets hearing on Amtrak delays Tue, 08/19/2014 - 4:34pm | Tom Kacich The News-Gazette (Champaign, Ill.) CHAMPAIGN — Weeks after calling for a study of the potential for increased service along Amtrak's Chicago to Carbondale route, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is holding a hearing in Champaign Wednesday on freight train interference along the corridor. The meeting between Surface Transportation Board Chairman Dan Elliott, Amtrak board member Tom Carper and local officials is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign. The Illinois Terminal is the local Amtrak station. Elliott is meeting with communities throughout Illinois at Durbin's urging. Wednesday's meeting will focus on concerns associated with freight train interference and rail delays that have made Amtrak's Chicago-Carbondale route, along Canadian National Railroad tracks, the most delayed train route of its kind in the nation. In a July 31 letter to Elliott, Durbin wrote, "I also encourage you to visit Illinois to investigate ways the STB can take a more active role in improving the on-time performance (OTP) for Amtrak trains. Amtrak OTP has suffered significantly this fiscal year along all lines, but none worse than the Chicago-Champaign-Carbondale route owned and operated by CN. The Illini and Saluki trains are consistently delayed by freight trains, resulting in trains arriving on-time only 54 percent of the time this fiscal year, including one scheduled train arriving on-time only 34 percent of the time." Durbin called the delays "unacceptable," and said they deserved the surface transportation board's "immediate attention and action. "Amtrak recently filed an updated petition with the STB citing CN's obstructions and delays that resulted in the dismal OTP for Amtrak passenger trains. I strongly encourage you to visit Illinois to investigate this matter further and use your authority under the 2008 Amtrak Reauthorization law I promoted to enforce OTP standards when a railroad, like CN, fails to keep passenger trains on-time at least 80 percent of the time." Amtrak's monthly report for June showed that Illini and Saluki trains were on time 63.3 percent of the time that month, down from 81.7 percent a year earlier. For the year so far, on-time performance has been 54.8 percent, a drop from last year's 76.4 percent. Freight train interference and passenger train interference were cited as the main reasons for the delays on the corridor, which is primarily a single track route. Earlier this summer Durbin sent a letter to CN president and CEO Claude Mongeau, urging him to address ongoing traffic and safety issues along CN routes in Illinois. Railroad officials serious about tunnel route By Scott Bridges -- LA Business A top official with the high-speed rail says the agency is seriously considering Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s alternative route underneath the San Gabriel Mountains. “We ought to take a serious look at this,” Jeff Morales, chief executive of the California High Speed Rail Authority told the Los Angeles Times. “I continually push our team to look at ideas and to solicit and listen to what we get from the outside. We are sensitive to to community input.” Robert Cruickshank, posting on the California High Speed Rail Blog, is uncertain about Morales’ sincerity, however. “The thing is,” Cruickshank writes, “I can’t tell if the CHSRA is just humoring Antonovich or whether they might actually do it.” “We’ve had some discussions and talked to the supervisor,” Morales told the newspaper. “I’m impressed by his focus to bring improvements to that part of the county and state. He’s pushed hard and we’ve listened.” The Times explains that Antonovich raised the idea years ago, “but board members and the chief executive at the time were reluctant to work with the range of federal environmental agencies that would have to be involved in planning and approving a route through a national forest.” The article states that under the leadership of the new chief executive and Chairman Dan Richard, however, the agency has been “more receptive.” Cruikshank points out that “Morales and Richard are careful to not say they plan to endorse the proposal, but neither are they simply dismissing it.” The route would not only be a straighter shot but would keep the speeding train away from schools on the S-route along the 14 Freeway through Santa Clarita.

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