The construction company continued its push into the US rail market with new contracts and an acquisition. Balfour Beatty has been selected to design and build an 18-mile commuter line in South Boston, and an extension to the San Diego light rail system. The company has also bought an Alabama-based rail maintenance business for $3.5 million, possibly rising to $6.2 million. The shares nudged up to 231p, a 14 percent premium to January's buy tip.
Everyone will win when electric streetcars return to Tampa's streets on Saturday, Oct. 19, after a 56-year absence. The attractive, bright red and yellow, air-conditioned streetcars will help bring more tourist dollars to Tampa by providing cruise ship passengers and other urban tourists with easy, inexpensive access to hotels in downtown Tampa, attractions such as the Florida Aquarium and the Ice Palace, and unique shopping, dining and leisure experiences in downtown, Channelside and Ybor City.
Meeting and convention planners, who will bring visitors to ride Tampa's new streetcar system and visit other regional tourist attractions, are already making inquiries. Commercial development along and near the streetcar's tracks is booming.
Millions of dollars in new entertainment, retail, commercial and residential development is either under construction, complete or scheduled for completion by 2005. Property values along the streetcar alignment have been rising steadily and could double within four to five years.
Other cities that have brought back their streetcar and urban transit systems have found they prove to be intrinsically attractive tourist attractions and powerful economic stimulants for urban redevelopment, as well as being enormously popular with local residents.
And because our state and federal governments are matching the city of Tampa's gas tax investment on a 4-to-1 basis with funds specifically designated for transit, Tampa taxpayers win too.
The Florida Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation, with persistent urging and grant applications from HARTline, the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the city government, are paying the majority of the $32 million cost of building the first 2.3-mile segment of the system and 100 percent of the costs for the ancillary, complementary, intermodal transportation facilities being built on both ends of the track.
Southern Transportation Plaza ($14.5 million) will be located next to the Tampa Convention Center. Ybor Station ($7.3 million), the "car barn" and streetcar museum for the system, is being built in Ybor City.
So Tampa's residents will get a clean, friendly and efficient transit system that will provide easy access to events and attractions in Tampa's urban core and significantly alleviate the gridlock that often precedes and follows shows or games at the Ice Palace and multiple downtown events, without having to pay any additional taxes.
The groups involved in bringing Tampa's streetcars back (Tampa & Ybor City Street Railway Society, the city of Tampa, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, the MPO, FDOT and Tampa Historic Streetcar Inc.) were aware that it takes time for new transit systems to optimize operating revenues. Protecting Tampa taxpayers from paying any operating costs was a very high (and early) priority. A unique and innovative plan to cover the system's operating costs was developed before the groups obtained any construction funding.
The streetcar system's operating costs during the first three years will be covered through a one-time federal grant along with a special assessment on private property in the three areas the streetcar serves — downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City. The special assessment of one-third mill is very important to the streetcar system and is a strong indication of the support the system has received from the local business community, the Tampa Downtown Partnership, the Channel District Council and the Ybor City Development Corp.
From year four on, operating costs will be funded through fare box revenues, the special assessment, interest on an $8 million to $10 million endowment fund built through the sales of streetcar system naming rights, revenue generated by electronic streetcar and station stop advertising, and potential income generated through joint public/private commercial development at Ybor Station and Southern Transportation Plaza.
And Tampa itself wins because it gets an important piece of its history back, thanks to the leadership of Mayor Dick Greco and the commitment of the Tampa & Ybor City Street Railway Society, which first suggested the return of the streetcars in the mid-1980s. The group that began as 100 streetcar enthusiasts is today composed of hundreds of active members, and it has played a key role in expanding the public support for this exciting project.
Tampa's first electric streetcar system ran from 1892 until 1946 and was the Southeast's largest with 53 miles of track, about 70 cars and more than 24 million passenger trips a year during its heyday. For 50 years Tampa residents used and enjoyed streetcars, viewing them as an essential part of their lives. We believe that will happen again. Come join us on opening day and see for yourself.
(NOTE: adding a human perspective)
Ventura County Star
04/13/2002
An Amtrak train smashed into a sports car at a rural railroad crossing north of Camarillo Friday afternoon, killing a 20-year-old woman.
The driver was identified as Nichole Laster of Camarillo.
Tom Stoddard was working at the Halle Tree Farm less than 15 yards from the intersection about 2:30 p.m. when he saw the car cruise through the unmarked crossing just as the northbound train was about to roll through.
"She smiled and waved at me as she drove by," a shaken Stoddard said as he sat under a tree next to the crossing on Bell Ranch Road. "I was yelling 'train, train,' but I don't think she heard me or even saw the train until it was too late."
He added that Laster did not appear to have stopped before crossing the tracks, despite a stop there.
Stoddard said Laster turned and saw the oncoming train only as she was crossing the tracks.
"She tried to accelerate and almost made it," he said. But the train rammed the back of the silver car with a tremendous force, throwing the woman from the car.
"When I reached her she was lying on the ground saying, 'No, no, no'," Stoddard said. Clothes from inside the car were scattered hundreds of feet away.
Amtrak officials told investigators the passenger train was traveling at 68 mph when it hit the car. No one aboard the train was reported injured by the collision.
Laster was taken to St. John's Pleasant Valley MedicalCenter in Camarillo, where she was pronounced dead.
Stoddard said she stopped breathing several times as he sat next to her, waiting for paramedics to arrive.
"Each time she stopped breathing, I'd say 'breathe, breathe', and she would," said Stoddard, who has worked at the tree farm for 20 years. He said that during that time he's had the misfortune to witness about 10 such accidents along that stretch of track.
An Amtrak train hit a tractor on Nov. 23, killing the driver and causing it to burst into flames as it was going through another unmarked crossing near Las Posas Road in Camarillo. That collision also injured 12 of the train's 150 passengers. And in November 2000, an Amtrak train struck a truck at another unmarked crossing near Moorpark with enough force to cut it in half. The collision killed the truck's driver.
In response to the accidents, the California Highway Patrol, along with a coalition of rail companies and public agencies, gave three presentations last year to hundreds of farm workers about the dangers of railroad accidents.
Officials say it takes at least one mile for a 12-million-pound train traveling at 55 mph to come to a stop.
Stoddard said locals have been asking for years that a crossing arm and warning lights be installed at the Bell Ranch Road intersection. But he said so far no one has been willing to pay the estimated $150,000 such an installation would cost.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
04/13/2002
A spate of violent crime along the route of the San Diego Trolley through the East County prompted a two-day police crackdown this week that yielded 10 arrests and about 80 citations, authorities said yesterday.
Groups of six officers from La Mesa, transit security and the Sheriff's Department rode commuter trains from noon to midnight Thursday and noon to 9 p.m. yesterday, checking passengers for tickets. Anyone without a ticket was cited and checked for warrants.
Police said their presence may have prevented crime.
La Mesa Detective Justin Smith organized the sweep after getting numerous reports of assaults and other crimes involving juveniles along the tracks and at trolley stations. A woman was shot in the hand by a robber this week while she was sitting with her husband on a bus bench along Palm Avenue not far from a trolley stop.
"It perked our interest to get some high-visibility enforcement out there," Smith said.
"Overall, they're pretty effective," Smith said of the sweeps. "It keeps crime down for a period of time. Your being out there keeps the people away that are going to do the most violent stuff, or at least moves them away."
The sweeps stretched from the Massachusetts Avenue station in south Lemon Grove to the end of the Orange Line in Santee.
La Mesa police Officer Mark Falcione said the checking of passengers did not involve any sort of profiling.
"Everybody gets their ticket checked," he said.
One 13-year-old girl was arrested yesterday when officers learned of a warrant for her arrest for a school fight.
Some riders were irked at the stepped-up enforcement.
Michael Perry was pulled off a train at a La Mesa station and cited for riding the train without a ticket. Perry, 47, said it was his sixth such citation, the second in recent days.
"I'm going to be late for work," he said. "They weren't polite. They're a bunch of rats."
Falcione said Perry was cited on the first day of the sweeps and warned there would be a second.
Raul Escamilla was pulled over a few stops south and cited for riding without a ticket.
Escamilla said he hadn't ridden the trolley for two years and forgot to get a return ticket for his trip home. He felt he should have been given a warning instead of a ticket.
Other passengers said the sweeps weren't an inconvenience.
"It doesn't bother me," said Raquel Martinez while boarding the trolley at the La Mesa station. "Lots of times, there are people on drugs on the train. If they see the officers, it makes them more respectful."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
04/13/2002
Another legal challenge may face Sound Transit's light rail segment in Rainier Valley, after critics questioned the proposed cost-sharing arrangement with Seattle.
The City Council Transportation Committee was told yesterday that committing the proposed $21.5 million in city utility costs to the project through a community-development fund would violate state law.
At least two council members said they're comfortable with the arrangement, under which city utilities would pay to move utilities for the new line, which will require widening of four miles of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. One official said this is normal practice when roads are widened.
But Jorgen Bader, secretary of the Seattle Community Council Federation, told committee members the arrangement is a "rip-off of ratepayers" and violates a state law requiring a benefiting unit of government to pay the cost of services provided by another unit. City Light, for the most part, would not be reimbursed for the expense.
Bader and two other speakers said City Light ratepayers shouldn't have to pay the costs of running the trains through the neighborhood. Bader said it could be paid with general tax funds but not with utility money.
The council has not yet approved the arrangement, supported by some Rainier Valley neighborhood and business leaders. The fund was negotiated between Sound Transit and the city three years ago to help pay for the street work and compensate displaced landowners and businesses.
Although it is not clear who would bring legal action, the proposal is "most likely to be challenged in court," said George Curtis of Save Our Valley, an organization that filed its own suit against the project two years ago. Most of the suit was thrown out.
Curtis said a compensation arrangement similar to the one under discussion now was struck down by a court in Portland when that city built its light rail line. Critics said it's not appropriate to ask City Light to commit money to the project, given its disastrous recent losses in the electricity market and its staggering $1.7 billion debt.
But two committee members, Richard Conlin and Heidi Wills, said it's legal for the city to contribute the utility work. Wills said it will allow Sound Transit to put more of its money into programs to assist and move the hundreds of businesses the project will displace.
Assistant City Attorney Will Patton said city utilities always bear the complete cost of moving their facilities when roads are widened and the law Bader cited doesn't apply in the Rainier Valley case. He said City Light will be compensated for some work it will do for Sound Transit — "more than the normal zero, but less than 100 percent."
And several speakers, some of them members of a steering committee that developed the fund proposal urged the council to approve it.
Pat Chemnick, of the Southeast Effective Development organization, said the fund will create redevelopment opportunities in the valley, "in the community that's hit the hardest" by the ground-level rail line.
The controversial line, which many residents wanted buried in a tunnel, "split our community in half," said Eric Pettigrew, president of the Rainier Chamber of Commerce, but the fund has "started to bring (it) back together."
Thao Tran of the Vietnamese Business Council said his group opposes the rail line, but wants the fund established if it is built. He said there is a "very real" possibility that building the line and widening the street will wipe out 300 businesses.
Committee members, after some debate and minor amendments, agreed to send the measure to the full council April 22 or April 29 depending on when final language is completed.
One possible change is language emphasizing that the Rainier Valley fund arrangement is unique and should not be viewed as a precedent for other areas.
Council President Peter Steinbrueck expressed concern that if the fund is approved, other neighborhoods will ask for "equal treatment" in similar circumstances. Councilman Richard McIver said, however, that Rainier Valley is a case of "a disadvantaged community trying to get to the same level as everybody else" in the city.
Sound Transit plans to run its trains along the center of the street surface, necessitating widening it. Construction is to start in 2004 and continue through 2007. The segment is part of Sound Transit's initial 14-mile, $2.1 billion light rail line to be operational by 2009.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
04/13/2002
BOSTON — Amtrak's high-speed Acela Express train got a big boost after the terrorist attacks, and seven months later it appears to be holding.
Credit comfort, fear of flying, or backed-up airport security lines. In any case, business travelers have steadily been trying Acela Express between Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.
According to the best available records from Amtrak and airline companies, the train appears to be competing neck-and-neck with the US Airways and Delta Air Lines shuttles, which still have not fully rebounded from the Sept. 11 attacks.
Acela's initial projections of 3.9 million annual riders at full capacity still look rosy. Nobody knows how Acela Express will fare once the novelty wears off and airport lines shrink, or whether Acela will solve enormous financial headaches that Amtrak blames on decades of federal underinvestment and political pressure to run unprofitable routes.
But for now, more travelers are trying the 15-month-old service, which experts say gives Amtrak a window to impress passengers and lure them permanently from the air shuttles.
Acela ridership in August, just before the attacks, stood at 96,037, or 218 passengers per train. It jumped to 201,176, or 340 per train, in October, according to Amtrak figures. The monthly numbers dipped later in the fall as the airlines rebounded and Reagan National Airport near Washington reopened, but they passed 200,000 again in February, and most recently were running at a monthly rate of 219,917, or about 300 per train.
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics filings show that in December, Delta and US Airways reported a combined 215,366 passenger boardings on the shuttle routes, down from 330,040 in December 2000. Both airlines acknowledge that traffic remains below the pre-Sept. 11 level.
"It is a very big concern for us," Delta spokeswoman Peggy Estes said. "We are implementing programs and looking at new ones to get our business traveler back."
Acela Express ticket revenue totaled $25.5 million in March, but officials will not say whether that represents a profit.
Acela Express trains use an advanced tilting system to take turns at higher speeds. But because of track conditions, these trains reach 150 m.p.h. for only 18 miles in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and go no faster than 135 m.p.h. between Washington and New York.
That means Acela Express saves only about 15 minutes on the Philadelphia-Washington route compared with Amtrak's conventional trains, called Acela Regional. The saving from Philadelphia to New York is about 29 minutes; to Boston, it is about 51 minutes. From Philadelphia, a flight to Washington takes an hour and five minutes; to New York, it takes an hour; the trip to Boston is an hour and 15 minutes.
A next-day, same-day return Acela ticket between Boston and New York cost $236 on Amtrak's Web site this week. A comparable flight on both airlines cost $411. However, Acela Express can be more expensive than some shuttle fares on weekends or with advance purchase.
(Round-trip from Philadelphia, Acela Express costs $151 to Washington, $133 to New York, and $302 to Boston.)
For business travelers, Sept. 11 altered the train-versus-plane equation, whose variables include cost, door-to-door travel time, and amenities.
"It boils down to, 'How much time is it going to take when I leave my office in Boston to when I arrive in New York?' " said Thomas Nulty, president of Navigant International, an Englewood, Colo., company that makes $6 billion in annual travel arrangements for businesses.
But it's not just the time involved. Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, of Lafayette Hill, Pa., says his group plans to release research soon showing that, among business travelers who have cut back flying 25 percent or more, 56 percent cited airport hassles as the main reason, followed by costs at 27 percent. Safety was a distant third.
The airlines are trying to respond. US Airways spokesman David Castelveter said an express security line had shuttle passenger check-in down to 20 minutes. Delta is tripling its number of electronic check-in kiosks systemwide and rebuilding its shuttle terminal in Boston.
"We need to convince our customers that the airport experience really is something that can be hassle-free," Castelveter said.
New York Daily News
04/13/2002
Last week, outgoing Amtrak President George Warrington sent 46 state governors a sort of ransom note threatening to eliminate 18 long-haul lines if the national rail system did not receive enough federal funds to sustain operations for the next year.
Go ahead. We double-dare you.
Amtrak lost $1.1 billion last year, the most in its 30-year history. It has proven itself incapable of stanching the flow of red ink from its operating budget. This is a time for drastic measures to keep at least some lines running — particularly those that pay their own way. (The Boston-New York-Washington line reportedly carries almost as many passengers as airlines serving the same corridor.)
Maintaining full service on every route across the country is no longer profitable, or viable. For example, the Sunset Limited, which runs from Orlando through New Orleans to Los Angeles, loses $347 per passenger.
Better to sacrifice some routes for the sake of those where the rails fulfill a necessary mass transit need and function — in the Northeast Corridor, around the Chicago area and along the Pacific coastal corridor.
President Bush has said he will approve the same level of funding for Amtrak as in 2001 — $521 million — but some members of Congress, fearing election-year repercussions if service is cut to their communities, have bought into the poor-mouthing. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.) have co-sponsored bills to give the rail service $1.2 billion — twice what it received this year — for operations and infrastructure repairs. A more sensible proposal comes from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who would cut federal funding and explore privatization.
In February, the Amtrak Reform Council suggested several fixes for the ailing system, such as splitting tracks and terminals off from rolling stock and bidding out lines to private operators. Those suggestions need serious consideration.
Congress shouldn't be cowed into pouring more resources into Amtrak. Election year will come and go. This operational maw of a rail system will still be there, greedily sucking up ever more money.
The Baltimore Sun
04/13/2002
The speedy Maglev train that Maryland officials are promoting as a new East Coast transportation option could be years from construction, if it is ever built, but it has Howard County officials and developers blinking.
To the surprise of local leaders, state transportation planners drew one of three alternative routes through Emerson, a huge mixed-use Rouse Co. planned community along Interstate 95 near Savage, where $400,000 to $500,000 homes are beginning to rise.
State and county politicians — usually friendly to new rail transit plans — are turning against Maglev, arguing that it would be a waste of money and would do nothing for Howard County except bring trouble.
"It's a train for executives, highly paid executives," said Del. Frank S. Turner, a Columbia Democrat.
He and others argue that the $500 million Maryland would be expected to contribute to the project could be better used for more conventional transportation projects with a greater local impact.
State officials say the I-95 route was created in 1994, before the Emerson development was approved. The route also traverses Lennox Park, a 50-home community along Route 103 near the Dorsey MARC commuter rail station.
Howard officials and builders have just awakened to the Maglev route and its implications, thanks to a prospective Emerson buyer.
"A family buying a house called and asked what's the status of this (Maglev) line. We couldn't answer the question," said Alton J. Scavo, senior vice president of Rouse Co.
Rouse, which developed Columbia, is building a suburban village on 570 acres, with 1,215 homes and apartments and 1.8 million square feet of commercial and retail space. Emerson straddles I-95 at Route 216.
Scavo wrote to state Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari, saying the proposed route "has already cast a pall over home sales," and he vowed to "vigorously oppose this implied, or real taking (of land)."
Scavo had no answers. Neither did Howard County Executive James N. Robey, chairman of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council. Robey also wrote to Porcari, requesting a public meeting in Howard County on the Maglev route. The meeting has been scheduled for April 30 at Murray Hill Middle School in North Laurel.
The Baltimore-Washington area is competing with Pittsburgh for federal money to help build the 240-mph, $3.5 billion train. If this area wins, trains would whisk about 35,000 people a day between the two cities, with a stop at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Trains would run every 10 minutes during peak rush hours.
Maglev project manager Suhair Alkhatib said the trains would take 30,000 vehicles off the roads, helping Maryland with its worsening air pollution and congestion problems.
The three alternative routes will be narrowed to two late this year, said Suzanne Bond, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration. An environmental study has established that 153 houses are within 100 feet of the proposed 40-mile rail line, she said.
Alkhatib said any route selected will be adjusted to minimize its impact. The train would be elevated over about half of the route to clear obstacles, he said, and the high speeds require that it follow a fairly straight course. That's why the route veers off I-95 south of Route 32 and across Emerson.
"There is room to adjust the alignment," Alkhatib said.
Robey said he is keeping an open mind on Maglev because he doesn't have enough information on which to base an opinion. "We need to consider all the options on regional transportation," the county executive said.
Others have doubts. "We had heard the I-95 alignment would be within the I-95 right of way. I have concerns about the whole project," said County Councilman Guy J. Guzzone, a North Laurel-Savage Democrat.
Alkhatib said commuters would make up fewer than 20 percent of riders, 40 percent would go to BWI, and the rest would be tourists and conventioneers. The one-way fare between Baltimore and Washington would be $26.
"It's not mass transit. Maglev is about the (2012) Olympics. What that does for our constituents is nothing except impact their neighborhoods," said Del. Shane Pendergrass, a Howard Democrat who opposes the route. The Baltimore-Washington area is competing to attract the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Lora Muchmore, who lives about a mile from Emerson, asked, "Who is going to develop? Who is going to buy in an area that potentially could be chosen? I work in Arlington, Va., but I cannot get on this train."
The reaction in tiny Lennox Park was surprise.
"Get out of here. I didn't even know," said Carol Martin, a longtime Lennox Park resident who thought the route would pass through Anne Arundel County, where Linthicum residents have organized against Maglev.
Homebuilders are trying to calm fears.
Harry "Chip" Lundy, president of the Williamsburg Group, which is building houses in Emerson, said he learned about the proposed Maglev route Thursday. He said he doubts it will affect home sales.
"Are people not going to buy homes in Washington, D.C., because they're worried about a nuclear attack?" he said. "The likelihood of that is greater than the train going through Emerson."
South China Morning Post
04/13/2002
Beijing is spending more than $21 billion yuan (HK $19.7 billion) on three mass-transit railway projects in another attempt to deal with the city's worsening transport problem.
The projects, totalling 88km in length, include two light-rail lines that will run through the northern and eastern suburbs, and a 28km subway line running north to south through the centre.
Beijing's first subway line opened in 1969, but after more than three decades, the total length is still only about 54km, concentrated in the downtown area.
Some local analysts say the meagre network is a major reason for the traffic congestion and air pollution in the city. Gao Delong, the head of Beijing's Major Project Office, announced on Wednesday that the municipal Government would throw its weight behind the three projects to try to ensure early completion.
He said the light-rail system, a 41km inverted U-shape line through the northern suburbs, could be finished this year, and that half of it could undergo trials in October.
The rail system will serve several large residential areas that have mushroomed in recent years, beyond the future 2008 Olympic Games site.
Work has also begun on the 19km light-rail line — an extension of the current east-west subway line under the downtown area — eastward to the Tongxian district. Some tracks have been laid and several stations finished. Mr Gao said the line should go into operation next year.
The 12 billion yuan subway project — considered vital for alleviating north-south traffic jams — has, however, been plagued with problems. Work had been due to begin last year but was halted due to financial difficulties.
Mr Gao said the state-run Beijing Subway Corp was negotiating with a Canadian company to get the work started. He said the Government hoped the project would begin this year. The municipal Government has promised exemptions from land-use fees and other incentives.
In the past 20 years, Beijing has focused largely on new road-building projects and now boasts three ring roads. It also claims to have more flyovers than the rest of the country combined. Nonetheless, traffic congestion is getting worse.
"We realise that road construction will actually increase the amount of traffic," said Zhang Chunsheng, at the Beijing Transportation Engineering Society.
He said the city's population was spreading quickly to the northern and eastern suburbs as a result of the massive development of the centre. "Only railway lines can carry large numbers of passengers quickly during rush hour," he said.
Mr Zhang said that even if the city had the land to build more roads, the increased amount of car exhaust fumes would make it a bad choice.
He said the city had decided to halt the building of flyovers in an effort to cut air pollution.
Daily Post (Liverpool)
04/13/2002
THOUSANDS of long-suffering commuters on Merseyside have demanded a dramatic improvement in the region's rail service.
Transport chiefs have been "staggered" by the huge response to a survey on the future of the Merseyrail network.
Of 65,000 questionnaires distributed on the Northern and Wirral lines, almost 50pc were completed. Leaflets were also distributed at libraries and community centres. A four percent response was expected.
Merseytravel, the public transport watchdog, commissioned the survey to assess public priorities for a network which handles 28 million journeys every year.
Coun Mark Dowd, chairman of Merseytravel, said: "We expected to get above average responses. But we're staggered by this kind of co-operation from so many people." The authority is drawing up a shortlist of companies to compete to run the network when the current Arriva Trains deal ends next February.
The successful bidder will be announced in the autumn.
Neil Scales, chief executive of Merseytravel, said: "It just shows how much the people of Merseyside care about their rail network.
"This survey will be presented to the eight companies bidding for the contract.
"It will say to the bidders, 'This is what the people of Merseyside want, this is what you have to deliver'."
Criticism of the punctuality and reliability of trains clearly emerged as the public's key priorities.
A third of passengers rated the punctuality and reliability of Merseyrail trains as "poor" or "very poor" and almost 70 percent said it needed to be improved.
"Trains are always cancelled in the morning. Very inconvenient, " said one reply. Another said: "When the trains are on time the service is second to none.
Unfortunately this does not happen very often."
Concerns over the reliability of trains, which have seen the network branded "Miseryrail", are already being addressed, says Merseytravel. Trains are being refurbished and, in six or seven years, new ones will be built.
Merseytravel's vision is to have a "single integrated public transport network accessible to everyone". A proposed tram system, which could be approved in the next three months, will fill in gaps in the bus and rail networks. Other key priorities identified by rail users were personal safety, cleanliness and ticket prices.
Almost 20 percent thought personal safety on the rail network was "poor" or "very poor" while more than 40 percent gave similar verdicts on the toilets.
On the bright side, more than 50 percent of replies rated the helpfulness of staff as either "good" or "very good."
Merseytravel plans to repeat the surveys at yearly intervals.
Bob Hynd, managing director of Arriva Trains Merseyside, said: "We have had the franchise for two years, before that it was MTL. As far as reliability is concerned, over the last three months we have consistently met our charter target of 99 percent of trains running.
"We recognise there have been problems with punctuality and we have been negotiating with the Strategic Rail Authority to change the timetable to make it more punctual and we have now reached agreement.
"The new timetable will be in place from the start of June."
Washington Post
Friday, April 5, 2002
The biggest transit project in the region and one of the largest in the country — a $3.3 billion proposal to build rail to Tysons Corner and Dulles International Airport — nudged ahead yesterday as Metro directors gave initial approval to a draft environmental impact statement.
The idea of building rail to Dulles has been kicking around since the 1950s, but it is finally gaining political, financial and practical momentum. Metro directors say they expect to give final approval to the environmental statement in two weeks, then launch a seven-month period of public comment and hearings on the options. The directors will then vote on a final plan and seek federal acceptance and permission to begin construction.
The draft study analyzes three ways to build rail in the 24-mile Dulles Corridor, which stretches from the West Falls Church Metro station in Fairfax County to Route 772 in Loudoun County. Most of the alignments call for a rail line to run down the median of the Dulles Access Road, but the analysis includes four options for routing rail through Tysons Corner, including two alignments with short tunnels.
The study also looks at several proposals for bus rapid transit, a relatively new kind of transportation that does not exist elsewhere in the region. Bus rapid transit would use 60-foot buses that would travel at high speeds in their own lane on the Dulles Access Road and mimic the behavior of subway cars, stopping at stations to unload and collect passengers along the route. Bus rapid transit doesn't follow a schedule; service is as frequent as on the subway.
One drawback to bus rapid transit is that it won't work in Tysons Corner because of the traffic around the shopping centers and office parks, said Metro Chief Operating Officer Richard A. White. Bus rapid transit would have to stay in the median of the Dulles Access Road; passengers bound for Tysons would get off the bus rapid transit at a proposed Spring Hill Road station and then board buses to Tysons, Metro officials said.
Ridership analyses found that rail would attract more than twice as many daily passengers as bus rapid transit and about three times as many new transit trips — passengers who would otherwise drive or not travel at all, according to the draft study. Although bus rapid transit would be cheaper to build and operate than rail, trains would attract more riders for the investment, it said. The draft statement also found that development would be greater around rail stations than around bus rapid transit stations.
At $481 million, a bus rapid transit system from West Falls Church to Loudoun County is the cheapest plan under consideration. Metro projections show that passengers would make 30,300 trips on an average weekday in the first year of operation.
The most expensive plan outlined in the study is a $3.3 billion, two-stage program that calls for bus rapid transit to be built first and then gradually replaced by a rail line. Projections show that passengers would make 71,900 daily trips the year the rail line opened.
The transit project would be funded at the federal, state and regional level. Under a financing plan created by state officials, Virginia would seek 51 percent of the capital cost — the maximum allowed — from the federal government. The state's share would be $800 million, or about 24 percent, and would be drawn from Dulles Toll Road revenue. State officials plan to raise tolls on the road.
Fairfax would pay $514.1 million, or about 16 percent of the cost, which county officials say would be raised through bonds and a special tax district. Loudoun would owe about $152 million, or 5 percent, while the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority would pay $133.5 million, or 4 percent, from passenger facility charges.
None of the financing for the Dulles project depends on the sales tax referendum that has been under consideration in the Virginia legislature.
The Salt Lake Tribune
04/14/2002
In the pre-TRAX days, transit planners had to wade through minefields filled with reticent city councils and reluctant businesses to push through the Salt Lake Valley's first light-rail line.
Now, with full trains barreling between Sandy and Salt Lake City, the mood has changed. West-side cities and businesses want TRAX — and they want it yesterday.
But land mines again loom. This time, though, the barriers are technical, not political.
The overriding question: How can the Utah Transit Authority efficiently link two proposed west side extensions — with a total tab estimated at $525 million or more — to the main north-south line.
"We've got some serious engineering design issues," acknowledged Barry Banks, a transportation engineer for the Wasatch Front Regional Council, a governmental planning organization.
For example:
The proposed extension to West Valley City would begin on existing west-east tracks just south of TRAX's Central Pointe Station at 2100 South. Those tracks cross, but do not connect with, the north-south line.
Should the two sets of tracks be tied together so West Valley City-bound passengers would not have to walk a few hundred feet to change trains at Central Pointe?
"We need to resolve how those two lines would dovetail," UTA project manager Hal Johnson said. "It won't be easy."
Another design dilemma:
The east-west route to West Valley City would have to fly over Union Pacific rail yards and then squeeze its way through a narrow corridor between state Route 201 (2100 South Freeway) and businesses to the south until it crosses the Jordan River.
"It will be tight and fairly expensive to get past the Jordan River. But once there, it's fairly clean," Banks said.
And farther south, along the proposed Mid-Jordan line:
The single track at the eastern end of the line — which would serve Midvale, West Jordan and South Jordan — currently ties into the north-south line in Midvale. But its configuration would allow eastbound passengers to proceed only north.
So how would TRAX enable passengers to travel south?
"We certainly do not want to move them north, have them get off at the next station and then catch a southbound train," said UTA transit-development director Mike Allegra.
There is another nagging question for the Mid-Jordan line:
The route passes a half-mile north of Jordan Valley Hospital and a mile from the northern edge of Salt Lake Community College's Jordan Campus. Do builders carve out a spur to serve those high-ridership destinations or create a shuttle-bus system from the nearest station?
"Otherwise, it could be a long walk for hospital visitors and students," Johnson said.
And both west-side lines face key passenger-movement issues:
City officials want their routes to flow directly onto the main line, so riders won't have to transfer to northbound or southbound trains.
How does TRAX — with 10 to 15 minutes between north-south trains — accommodate additional trains from the extended lines so time between trains does not drop below the system's design capacity of six minutes?
Everyone wants no-transfer service, said West Valley City light-rail coordinator Jeff Hawker, but not everyone will get it.
These technical questions are foremost in designers' minds this week as residents get their first chance to discuss route alternatives for the West Valley City and Mid-Jordan lines. An open house for the Mid-Jordan corridor is scheduled Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. at West Jordan City Hall. On Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m., the West Valley City line, including longer-range link to Taylorsville, will be discussed at West Valley City Hall.
The sessions are part of the comment process for the joint environmental study now under way for both west-side light-rail extensions. The draft study is expected to be completed by October. Then, the final environmental-impact statement, with preferred alignments chosen, will be reviewed.
At the same time, the Federal Transit Administration will be asked to authorize the start of preliminary design work for one or both lines. Cost estimates will be developed, and planners hope to win congressional approval in the 2004 federal budget.
It's possible that both lines could be operating by decade's end.
Proposed light-rail lines to Draper and Salt Lake City International Airport probably would come later. But the fact they all are expected within 15 to 20 years will affect how the west-side extensions are designed.
A proposed line from South Salt Lake to the Sugar House area of east Salt Lake City also is being preserved. But it could be decades before trains begin rolling along that narrow corridor.
The Boston Globe
04/14/2002
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Capital Investment Program — seven words that have a tendency to put this column's dear readers to sleep. Heck, sometimes they put this columnist to sleep. But with the plan's passage last week, we hope the following paragraphs will be an interesting summary of the T's fiscal priorities over the next five years.
The system is in fine fiscal shape, but it's too early to tell if a fare increase will be necessary down the road, according to T officials.
The $2.82 billion, five-year budget plan breaks down as follows: $152 million, or 5 percent of the budget, for accessibility; $193 million, or 7 percent, for enhancements; $650 million, or 23 percent, for expansion programs; and $1.82 billion, or 65 percent, for infrastructure maintenance and improvements — the cost of upgrading the nation's oldest public transit system.
Blue Line highlights: $230 million for station modernization at State Street, Government Center and Maverick/Orient Heights; $30 million for signal upgrades; $186 million for purchasing six-car trains; and $19 million for an Orient Heights car house.
Green Line highlights: $92 million for low-floor No. 8 cars; $108 million for accessibility on all four lines, plus Copley, Arlington, and Government Center; $5 million for a grade-crossing program; and $10 million for the design and planning of the proposed Arborway light rail service in Jamaica Plain.
Orange Line highlights: $74 million for a new signal system; $90 million for renovations at North Station; $10 million for accessibility at the Chinatown, Malden, and Haymarket stops; and $19 million for Orange Line car investments.
Red Line highlights: $80 million for station and bridge rehabilitation for the Dorchester line stations. This project recently received a boost when the MBTA staff decided to sell 30,000 square feet of real estate at the Ashmont Station site. The sale is expected to generate $1 million for the project, which will include an affordable housing element. The developers also have agreed to landscape the station entrance as part of the deal.
And let's not forget the Silver Line, the T's newest addition, which is set to bring rapid bus transit to the Washington Street corridor and South Boston. Highlights include $113 million for ongoing construction; $111 million for the South Boston Transitway, which will link the line to the South Boston waterfront; $52 million for Silver Line vehicles; $27 million for a Southampton Street maintenance facility; and $43 million for the line's Phase 3 planning and design (that would link the two disconnection sections, between Boylston Station and South Station, providing "one-seat" service from Roxbury to Logan Airport).
For the bus lines, which T general manager Michael H. Mulhern has vowed to improve: $110 million for 314 clean-burning compressed natural gas, or CNG, buses systemwide; $65 million for 175 replacement buses; $20 million for 27 CNG rapid transit buses; $75 million for CNG maintenance facilities; $23 million for 28 trackless trolleys; and $25 million for reinvestment in the existing bus fleet.
There also is $118 million for the automated fare collection system. The system, similar to New York City's MetroCards, will rid us of the antiquated token system. It will give MBTA officials a much clearer picture of how much revenue comes and from which routes. That is, it will reveal which routes are used more, which ones less, which ones are most heavily subsidized, and where the authority should be putting its scarce resources.
Studies funded in the plan include $620,000 to study building the North-South rail link, which would link North and South stations by rail, and $6.62 million to study the Urban Ring, a rail system that would circumnavigate the downtown. Patriot's Sox Day
The MBTA board of directors last week approved a $346,700 contract to analyze the building of a new 400- to 700-space parking garage for the Beverly Depot station on the Newburyport-Rockport commuter rail line. The station averages 1,800 passenger boardings on a typical week.
The San Francisco Chronicle
04/14/2002
"In the end, I think it comes down to this: You need six votes to pass a fare increase, but you only need five votes for cuts and layoffs" — that's how BART board member Dan Richard summed up the bottom line on the transit system's financial problems.
"I can tell you right now, there's not a single director willing to put off spending money in repairing trains or escalators to get out of the current problem," Richard said.
And there isn't much chance that there's the necessary two-thirds majority on the nine-member board for a fare increase to help erase a $60 million deficit.
One of the big reasons the votes aren't there is the disagreement on the board over parking, and whether BART riders should have to pay for it.
Urban directors — who don't have parking lots at their stations — won't go for a fare increase unless the system starts charging for parking.
But directors from the suburbs — where riders drive to the stations — aren't going to go for charges.
Bottom line: While there probably won't be a fare increase, there probably will be five votes needed for a simple majority to approve cuts. Cuts like employees being assigned to lower-paying jobs.
And if the unions can't go with the cuts, then they'll have to live with the next step.
Layoffs.
It's that simple.
(NOTE: note comment about track for New Orleans)
Scotland on Sunday
04/14/2002
WEST Lothian engineering firm Edgar Allen is forecasting turnover of £25 million by 2004 after winning a number of new domestic and overseas contracts.
The Bathgate company, which is the sole UK manufacturer of the V-shaped manganese/steel crossings used throughout rail networks, is working closely with Railtrack as the troubled firm seeks to upgrade lines following the Hatfield disaster in October 2000.
Railtrack has increased the number of contracts it has placed with the firm from around five units per week two years ago to around 20 units per week today.
In addition, Edgar Allen won a GB £2.5 million contract to manufacture units for the high-speed airport transit link in Hong Kong in December 2000 and a GB £2 million deal to work on five miles of light railway track in New Orleans.
Managing director Bob Laird said the company was also keen to play a part in proposals to reintroduce tram lines in Edinburgh and Glasgow. He said: "One of my disappointments is that we do very little business in Scotland. We are a unique player and if anything is going to happen (with the trams) we would like to be a part of it."
Edgar Allen's machining capacity has increased by around 150 percent in the last 12 months, whilst its workload has grown by up to 75 percent. Turnover is forecast to reach GB £16 million this year, with the US export market a growing sector for the firm.
Staff numbers in Bathgate have grown by around 15 percent to 110 in the past 18 months. The firm also employs 90 people in Sheffield.
Peter Hughes, chief executive of Scottish Engineering, praised Edgar Allen's achievements. He said: "The fact that they have built from zero a huge market in the USA is indicative of the depth of knowledge and resourcefulness that we have in the engineering industry in Scotland.
"I would be very surprised if Edgar Allen were not brought on board by Edinburgh or Glasgow city councils should either of them decide to reintroduce a tram system for the city centre."
Although it operates as a stand-alone business, Edgar Allen is owned by John Mowlem group, the rail and track installer, after it was bought out two years ago.
The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri
04/14/2002
A group of train operators in the Tokyo metropolitan area have reached a basic agreement to issue multiuse passes valid for travel with five railway companies to foreign visitors during the soccer World Cup finals.
The Tokyo metropolitan government's Transportation Bureau, East Japan Railway Co., Teito Rapid Transit Authority, Saitama Railway Corp. and Keisei Electric Railway Co. will issue the multiuse passes, it has been learned.
Each pass will be effective for five days between late May and early July, and will be sold to foreign visitors at Narita airport. The firms planned to set the price at ¥6,000.
Holders of the passes can ride trains for unlimited periods of time on the following lines:
JR lines in Tokyo's 23 wards.
Toei subway lines run by the metropolitan government. Eidan subway lines.
JR and Keisei lines connecting Narita airport and central Tokyo, excluding additional fees for limited express. Saitama Railway lines connecting Tokyo and Saitama, where games will be held in Saitama Stadium.
Other JR lines connecting central Tokyo with the International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama and the Kashima Stadium in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture.
The passes are not magnetic cards, so passengers will have to show them to station clerks.
An official of the metropolitan government's Transportation Bureau said, "I believe that foreign soccer fans visiting high-priced Tokyo will be glad."
Officials at some railway companies said that the pass system was good because it would save them time as they would not need to explain to fans how to buy tickets.
Canberra Times
04/14/2002
A LOTTERY system based on public-transport tickets could be used to fund a new light-rail system for Canberra.
ACT Planning Minister Simon Corbell said the idea of bus and rail tickets also being lottery tickets for a prize was among several proposals being considered by the Government to help fund transport projects.
The idea was raised in a report by the Australia Institute, Taxes and Charges for Environmental Protection, saying bus tickets doubling as lottery tickets were 'the answer to debt-ridden public transport systems and environmental problems in Australian cities'.
Mr Corbell said there were concerns involved in gambling, but nevertheless the report suggested using lotteries for things like major capital-works projects or to improve public transport.
The Government would commission a private-sector, public-transport study to consider the benefits of light rail for Canberra and ways to improve the city's transport infrastructure.
It would include having a dedicated right of way and priority lanes for public transport. The ACT Legislative Assembly had requested the opportunity to comment on the terms of reference, and he would write to MLAs for their comments.
The Government flagged its intention to carry out a study of light rail, starting with a link from Gungahlin to Civic.
It is estimated to cost $82 million but the building could take 10 years.
The Liberal Party has indicated its support of the light-rail project.
But Liberal MLA Helen Cross said Mr Corbell was showing a lack of appreciation of problem gambling, which could have a damaging effect on children. Canadian research had shown adolescent gambling to be four times more prevalent than among adults.
"Having bus tickets double as lottery tickets will promote gambling to a young and impressionable market," she said. "Australia did not become a prosperous nation because it gambled, rather because its people worked and saved and invested.
"We need to continually build that ethic into our youth, rather than encouraging them, and giving them the opportunity, to waste their resources. Mr Corbell responded by saying Ms Cross was selectively reporting his comments, adding that he would consider anything that improved the funding equity of public transport.
"She has got the wrong end of the stick and taken my comments out of context for political gain," he said.
"I have also said in public comments that issues about public gambling are serious social issues." Recent Canadian research showed close to 8 percent of all teenagers were rated as pathological gamblers, and some from nine years old.
Squeaky Wheels
The Salt Lake Tribune
04/15/2002
The Utah Transit Authority, which sometimes has been characterized as a bully for running roughshod over citizens, should be applauded for its efforts to rectify a noise problem at Brewery Hill — the S-curve at the 400 South to 500 South area on the transit company's new light-rail line up to the University of Utah.
Since the line first opened last fall, neighborhood residents in the area complained of loud, screeching noise of metal upon metal as the steel-wheeled trains went up and down the curve. Several even wrote letters to newspapers, including The Tribune, about what they described as a deafening noise ruinous to the tranquility they long had enjoyed in the neighborhood.
It would have been tempting for the UTA to slough off the complaints as coming from disgruntled residents unhappy about the TRAX line itself. This would not have been too difficult, unless there were lots of complaining residents or some of them had a lot of social or political influence in the community.
Instead, UTA officials checked out the complaints. Even when the noise was not forthcoming because inspectors showed up just after snowstorms and the snow was lubricating the tracks and muffling the noise, they persisted. UTA now "greases" the inside edge of the tracks through the S-curve with a lubricant mixture on a weekly basis.
Moreover, the agency as well as city and state highway officials have pledged to alleviate community concerns about such things as unfinished landscaping, parking, neighborhood access and street lighting along the 2.5-mile TRAX route to the U.
If UTA's reaction to the Brewery Hill area residents' concerns is indicative of the way it plans to handle neighbors' complaints throughout its light-rail net, the transit agency will prove it is, in fact, a good neighbor rather than a disrupter of communities.
New York Daily News
04/15/2002
The City Council is asking Mayor Bloomberg for $5 million to subsidize four ferry lines — with MetroCard links — between Brooklyn or Queens and Manhattan, a councilman said.
Under the plan, ferry passengers would be able to transfer to city buses and subways, according to David Yassky (D-Greenpoint), chairman of the Council's Waterfront Committee.
"Ferries are the wave of the future," he said Friday, and "the easiest and cheapest way to expand mass transit."
The mayor's office did not immediately return calls for comment. The plan seeks $5 million this coming fiscal year to implement the East River boat service. It proposes the city contract out the routes to private ferry operators.
If the money is approved, the ferry lines — all connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan's Pier 11, near Wall St. — could be running as soon as August, he said.
Under the Council plan, boats would run from Greenpoint to Manhattan; from Williamsburg's north side to the Fulton Ferry Landing, which services DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights, and on to Manhattan, and from the Brooklyn Army Terminal, servicing Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, to Manhattan.
A fourth route is proposed for the Rockaways, though no departure area has been assigned.
Transportation advocates championed the proposal, as long as money is not drained from existing mass transit systems.
"There's no reason why a private ferry system from Greenpoint should not get city support," said Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives. "But what the city should focus on is improving the train service it already provides."
The plan was submitted last week as part of the Council's response to the mayor's proposed budget for next fiscal year.
The ferry expansion has been spurred by the attacks of Sept. 11, but many also see them as a boon to economic development on the city's neglected waterfront.
City News Service
04/15/2002
The husband of woman killed after a hijacked MTA bus collided with her minivan last year filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit today against the transit agency.
A representative for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Guadalupe Arevalos died almost instantly when her van was struck by an MTA bus in the area of San Pedro Street and Fourth Street last May 2, according the Los Angeles Superior Court suit filed on behalf of her husband, Antonio Rodriguez.
A passenger, Carlos Ray Garcia of Reseda, is awaiting trial on capital murder and a dozen other charges that could bring the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Rodriguez' suit alleges the driver of the bus, Emma Gutierrez, did not deal with the hijacking properly because she had been inadequately trained by the MTA to respond to the volatile situation.
Gutierrez should have followed the MTA's policy "to always maintain control of the steering wheel even when confronted by hostile or armed hijackers," but failed to do so, the complaint alleges.
Turning over the wheel to Garcia allowed the bus to "pos(e) a high risk of serious injury and/or death to all persons on the bus as well as pedestrians, unoccupied vehicles and other occupants of motor vehicles," the suit states.
Rodriguez is seeking unspecified damages and legal fees.
Garcia allegedly shot and critically wounded a man near the headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Protective League before comandeering the bus at gunpoint and leading police on a chase that ended in the fatal crash.
Authorities say Garcia got on the bus with only one shoe and asked passengers for bus fare.
He allegedly told the MTA driver to drive or he would shoot her, then forced her out of the seat and held her at gunpoint. He then sped through the streets of downtown Los angeles at up to 60 mph.
The suspect allegedly ran a red light and smashed into the minivan driven by the 34-year-old Norwalk mother of three, who was on her way home from work at the downtown Central Library.
A United Parcel Service truck was also hit.
Following the crash, Garcia allegedly escaped from the bus, climbing through the shattered front window, and then tried to force his way into a nearby car before being caught by police.
Business Wire
04/15/2002
Fitch Ratings assigns an 'A' rating to the approximately $3.0 billion Metropolitan Transportation Authority, NY (MTA, or the authority) transportation revenue refunding bonds, series 2002A, which are scheduled to sell May 7 through negotiation by a Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. led underwriting syndicate. Some or all of the series 2002A bonds are expected to be insured by one, or more monoline insurers whose insurer financial strength is rated 'AAA' by Fitch Ratings. A list of the series of bonds expected to be refunded by the series 2002A bonds and by the expected near term issuance of subsequent series of transportation revenue refunding bonds as part of the MTA's debt restructuring program appears at the end of this press release. A detailed list of bonds to be refunded by both series and maturity is expected to be available from the MTA in the near future.
This is the first of several expected transportation revenue bond issuances in 2002, which will eventually refund all $4.5 billion in outstanding bonds under the existing 1982 transit facilities special obligation resolution, the 1984 commuter facilities special obligation resolution, the 1990 New York City Transit Authority transit facilities special obligation bond resolution and the 1995 commuter facilities special obligation subordinated bond resolution (underlying rating of 'A-' for both 1982 transit facilities resolution and 1984 commuter facilities resolution bonds by Fitch Ratings). It is also part of the MTA's $13.9 billion debt restructuring program that will allow the authority to streamline its credit structure from thirteen debt resolutions into four primary resolutions, of which the transportation revenue bonds is one. The MTA adopted the new bond resolutions at its March 2002 board meeting.
The transportation revenue bonds are to be secured by a trust estate consisting of all operating receipts and operating subsidies, including transit and commuter rail fares and other operating revenues, surplus toll revenues and certain dedicated tax sources, state and local operating subsidies and reimbursements. Pledged revenues are to be deposited into the revenue fund as soon as practicable, and then transferred to the debt service fund on a monthly basis (a gross lien on pledged revenue). Surplus revenues will be available for any subordinated debt service, and then to the authority for capital and operating purposes of the transit and commuter rail systems. Until the existing transit and commuter facilities revenue bonds are totally refunded, which the MTA expects to occur by July 2002; however, debt service payments on the new transportation revenue bonds will remain subordinate to the bonds under the existing resolutions. The existing transit and commuter facilities lien will be extinguished once the existing bonds have been refunded based on the terms of the resolutions and upon the authority's filing of a notice with the trustee that the covenants, agreements and other obligations of the authority to the bondholders are discharged and satisfied.
The existing 1982 transit facilities revenue bonds are secured on a gross lien basis by transit operating receipts and an allocation of operating subsidies, including surplus toll revenues, dedicated taxes, allocations of general fund subsidies and reimbursements. The existing 1984 commuter facilities revenue bonds are secured on a gross lien basis by commuter rail operating receipts and a similar allocation of operating subsidies. Debt service on the 1990 transit facilities bonds and the 1995 commuter facilities bonds are subordinate to the 1982 transit facilities resolution and 1984 commuter facilities resolution bonds, respectively. The new transportation revenue bonds combine the pledged revenues and debt service of the transit and commuter rail systems on a parity basis. While some bondholder covenants under the new resolution are legally weakened (no debt service reserve fund, lower additional bonds test), the pledge of the trust estate; ample debt service coverage; the essentiality and performance of the transit services supported by pledged revenues; and a strong track record of prudent financial management are expected to provide bondholder protection consistent with this rating. Fitch expects the MTA to issue additional debt secured by pledged revenues under the transportation revenue bond resolution to finance a portion of the authority's 2000-2004 $17.2 billion transit and commuter capital program. However, debt service coverage is expected to remain ample given the significant demand on pledged revenues to fund the operating needs of the transit and commuter rail network, which are paid after debt service.
Key credit strengths leading to the assignment of an 'A' rating on the transportation revenue bonds include the gross lien on consolidated pledged revenues, continuing improvements to the performance, efficiency and demand of MTA's services, the importance of the authority's transit and commuter rail networks to the economy of the New York region, and its proven track record in managing financial challenges. In the past, the MTA closed expected gaps through a combination of cost-reduction measures, fare adjustments and increased subsidies from its funding partners. Key credit risks include periodic financial challenges during economic downturns, and a continuing reliance on debt to finance the bulk of its enormous and unending capital needs. The rating also reflects a belief by Fitch that the MTA will successfully complete its near term plans to refund and extinguish the lien on the transit and commuter facilities bonds and issue additional transportation revenue bonds as part of its debt restructuring and 2 000-2004 capital program. Fitch expects the MTA will need to seek additional resources from its governmental funding partners in order to fund its capital plans beyond 2004.
On a consolidated basis, pledged transit and commuter revenues equaled $5.4 billion in fiscal 2001 with operating receipts representing 54.6% of total, while operating subsidies were 45.4%. If the consolidation had taken place in 2001, debt service coverage would have equaled 14.4 times (x). Last year, coverage on a separately secured basis was 17.0x for the transit bonds and 9.6x for the commuter bonds. Coverage for the consolidated transportation revenue bonds is expected to be 16.7x in fiscal 2002, primarily due to near term debt service savings associated with the restructuring. Nevertheless, the combined debt service and operating needs of the MTA thoroughly consume the authority's vast annual resources, as surpluses generated in one year are typically used to cover deficits in succeeding years; a not uncommon practice among transit systems.
The MTA is responsible for North America's largest transit network, serving 2.3 billion annual riders, or one in four transit riders in the United States. The authority's network is essential to the economic well being of the region, handling 80% of all daily trips to Manhattan's business district.
Bonds to be refunded by MTA transportation revenue refunding bonds series 2002A and subsequent series of transportation revenue refunding bonds expected to be issued in the near future:
Business Wire
04/15/2002
Pacific Coast Steel Inc. (PCS) has begun the reinforcing steel work for the 2.2 mile extension of the San Diego Trolley Light Rail Transit (LRT) from the Mission San Diego station at Ward Road to the west end of the San Diego State University (SDSU) tunnel.
The estimated completion date for this section, running along Interstate 8 (I-8) from Mission Valley into East County, is January 2004.
Pacific Coast Steel's role in constructing this elevated section of LRT consists of three cast-in-place, reinforced concrete bridges, reconstruction of the eastbound Waring Road interchange, an elevated passenger station serving the Grantville area, several soil nail and mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls, and a parking lot at the SDSU end of the line. Also, unique to this project is the requirement of a constant weld for the conduction of the electricity required for trolley operation. This massive project, entailing the erection of nearly a hundred bents and unusually long (130 to 190 foot) casings, will require approximately 11.5 million pounds of rebar.
The Pacific Coast Steel Inc. team includes General Project Foreman Brian Briggs, Estimator Lenn Koontz, Detailer Kenny Lamoureux, and Mike Alves as the San Diego field superintendent. The general contractor for the project is Modern Continental.
Hong Kong iMail
04/15/2002
THE MTR Corporation (MTR Corp) is chasing its second tram contract in Britain after being part of a group short-listed to bid for a 500 million (HK $5.60 billion) project in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
The corporation is already part of a consortium bidding for the 593 million Manchester metrolink extension, due to be awarded later this year.
The MTR Corp is part of the Leeds Tram Link consortium which includes United States engineering giant Bechtel and British contractor Amey. These are the same partners in MTR Corp's joint venture for the Manchester metrolink extension which includes new lines to Oldham, Rochdale, Manchester Airport and Ashton-under-Lyne. The MTR Corp is advising on the future operation and maintenance of the lines.
The winner of the Leeds project will be awarded a 30-year concession to design, build, maintain, operate and part finance a 28-kilometre, four-line tram network with 49 stations.
Rival bidders for the Leeds project are: Airelink joint venture which includes Arriva Passenger Services and Siemens Transportation Systems; Leeds Tramways whose partners comprise Stagecoach, which owns Citybus in Hong Kong, contractor John Mowlem and consultant WS Atkins Investments; Momentis created by FirstGroup which is linked to New World First Bus and New World First Ferry, Bombardier Transportation UK and French outfit Bouygues.
The groups were short-listed by Metro, the Leeds Supertram board of directors, which has been formed by the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive to oversee the scheme.
Metro chairman Mick Lyons said two final contenders would be chosen later this year from the four consortia. These two will be asked to submit their best and final offer by the end of 2002 with the contract due to be awarded by summer 2003.
The routes will cover Leeds city centre and suburbs in the north, south and east of the city including Headingley and St James's hospital. There will also be four large park and ride sites accommodating about 4,500 vehicles. Leeds Supertram is due to begin operating by December 2007.
The 500 million project cost includes the installation of track and associated infrastructure works, trams, the diversion of electricity, gas, water utilities, land acquisition and the development of the park and ride sites. Construction work is estimated to cost up to 300 million.
While the winning group is expected to partly finance the scheme, cash will also be provided by the central government along with Metro and Leeds City Council. About 75 percent of the tram network will be built on a segregated route with the remaining 25 per of the system running in the street with other traffic. The low floor trams are expected to carry up to 200 passengers. Metro estimated a total annual passenger count at 22 million a year.
The MTR Corp has been developing its consultancy business since it started to advise the Guangzhou Metro Corporation on its mass transit project in the early 1990s.
Initially, former operations director Bill Donald was appointed to seek international opportunities, but since his retirement the MTR Corp has appointed a team headed by Jonathan Dring. Advisory assignments won by MTR Corp include deals with the Kaohsiung and Taipei city administrations in Taiwan.
UK Newsquest Regional Press
This is Local London
04/15/2002
A CONNEX guard was knocked unconscious when he intervened in a punch-up on a morning commuter train.
The rail operator has not named the staff member but says it is treating the incident "very seriously".
Passengers on the 6:09 am Ashford to Victoria service were told to get off at Swanley after the assault, which took place as the train approached the station.
Apologising for inconvenience to commuters, a Connex spokesman said: "We consider the safety of our customers and staff to be paramount. We're helping British Transport Police (BTP) in any way we can to assist the investigation."
BTP says an argument which started on a platform further down the line continued on board the train. The guard tried to step in when a fight broke out and it is alleged he was punched in the jaw.
A 30-year-old man from West Malling was arrested and taken for questioning. He was released on police bail until later this month.
Anyone with information should call BTP on 020 7391 5275.
Mon, 15 Apr 2002
CN plus
Railtrack has defended its decision to close a key section of one of Britain's busiest railway lines every weekend for more than four months.
Representatives of the Rail Passengers Council met the company last week to protest about the work on the West Coast Main Line between London and Scotland, but were unable to persuade it to alter its plans.
The closure of a 25-mile stretch of the line between Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire and Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire will now begin on the weekend of August 10 and weekly shutdowns will continue until Christmas.
"We are very concerned about the impact this will have on services," said an RPC spokesman. "We were hoping Railtrack could undertake work on this line without causing massive disruption."
The closure will hit the services of both the Virgin West Coast and the Silverlink train companies as well as freight services.
A Virgin spokesman said: "We will be seeking compensation from Railtrack. We will have to hire a huge number of coaches to replace the services on the closed stretch of track.
"We would have liked Railtrack to find a way of keeping part of the line open while the work went on."
But Railtrack chief executive John Armitt said: "The upgrade of the West Coast Main Line is a major and very large piece of civil engineering. We have to take long possessions [of the track] every so often. If we did not, we would simply take longer to finish the work and it would be more expensive."
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Ill.)
04/16/2002
Light commuter rail is feasible with this plan
We have property in central Kane County and are not thrilled with the planned outer-belt expressway, though we recognize it will be built. The current plan is to plant less corn and put down more blacktop.
Everyone talks about the need for a light-rail system. Nobody seems to have a workable solution.
My suggestion is that all limited-access highways, including the new Kane County road in our megatropolis, should have light-rail easements in their right of way.
Please examine the success of the CTA operating trains in the center of Chicago's expressways. And, no, there is no need for a modern rail system to make as much noise as the CTA does on its century-old rails and steel wheels. Please picture modern, near- silent trains bisecting the metropolitan area. A rail line along I- 88, another along I-55, I-90 and I-94 all interconnected. Now consider including I-355 and I-294. These easements already exist. And we have the basis of an interlocked system that makes sense.
Possibilities? Less traffic, less dirt, less smog and few complaints, because no homes will have to be torn down and little reason to say, "Not in my back yard." And even less dependence on oil imports. Aren't we tired of keeping Arab princes in the comfort to which they have become accustomed?
Yes, I know this will have to be taxpayer-supported until it becomes viable. Congress will have to sign on to this, and there will be thousands of small complaints. But it is a plan, and it will work if we have the vision.
I'll wager that if Peotone's airport comes to fruition there will be a rail line in the plan.
Once upon a time, Chicago had such a system. Called the North Shore, South Shore and Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin railroads. Government policy and cheap gasoline did them in. Where, now, is that cheap gas and is there any federal policy on light rail? Yes, I know the South Shore still exists. One leg of what was once an important part of Chicago transportation. R.S. Fisher
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Col.)
04/16/2002
Watch out, car thieves and vandals. The Regional Transportation District may soon be spying on park-n-ride lots with the same surveillance system used by the CIA.
The RTD board is set to vote tonight on a pair of contracts to install and operate a high-tech video camera system that would keep watch at 10 transit lots with the most crime.
The system will cost $3.63 million, and can be expanded to add other park-n-ride lots as more cameras are installed. Here's how the system would work if the board approves it:
Six lots will have stand-alone systems, each with six to 25 fixed-view cameras, that continuously record scenes. The tapes would be reviewed for evidence any time an incident is reported.
The other four lots, all of them along the light-rail line, will be linked live to a new central security room downtown. Those lots will have between 10 and 32 cameras each, some movable by remote control.
When any camera's motion sensor is triggered, an image is automatically displayed on the screen in the security room. The guard can take action such as notifying police if the activity is suspicious.
Each lot will be covered from border to border. The cameras can be programmed to ignore movement in certain areas, such as aisles where cars are always coming or going. Instead, they focus on the spaces between cars where criminals would most likely be working.
The CIA uses this system in its surveillance in several foreign countries, according to Boeing Autometrics, which makes it. A CIA representative told RTD that the spy agency helped Boeing develop it.
The largest installation — 32 cameras — would be in the Mineral Avenue light rail park-n-ride in Littleton, where most of the vehicle crimes have been reported. Last year, there were 65 reported property crimes there.
In addition to Mineral Avenue, the lots at Alameda Station, downtown Littleton and Broadway / Interstate 25 will have the enhanced live-action surveillance.
The six lots scheduled for the on-site systems are Avoca, Olde Town Arvada, Thornton, Wagon Road, Westminster Center and Flatiron Circle.
Vehicle break-ins at park-n-ride lots have brought numerous complaints to RTD.
Last year, there were 243 property crimes reported to various police departments in 13 major RTD park-n-ride lots.
Currently, the transit agency has seven of its 65 park-n-rides outfitted with camera systems. This contract would replace those.
Next to be added to the live system will be 175 cameras at rail stations and park-n-rides as part of the T-REX transit project.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
04/16/2002
Drivers on some Metro buses are getting the digital equivalent of eyes in the backs of their heads.
The county is installing digital video-recording systems on 160 buses to monitor safety and security. Transit police will be able to view near-real-time images from up to 1,000 feet away or download images when the buses return to base. Signs will alert riders whether a bus has a camera. Federal grants are paying 80 percent of the cost. More cameras might be added when money is available. Metro has about 1,300 vehicles and serves 100 million riders a year.
The Oregonian
04/16/2002
GRESHAM, Ore. — U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer is seeking $3.5 million for a covered light-rail station that would connect the halves of Gresham's Civic Neighborhood.
Blumenauer, D-Ore., asked a congressional transportation subcommittee to approve money for the idea, hatched last year as five teams of architects brainstormed ways to develop the station and adjacent Metro-owned land in ways that support the use of light rail.
Gresham always planned a Civic Neighborhood station where light-rail tracks cross Civic Drive. Rather than a simple platform, the architects sketched out a shop-filled station built over the tracks. The train would drive into the building, let passengers on and off, and drive out.
Train sheds that protected passengers from the elements used to be common, but they aren't used on light rail because it is an inexpensive system, said Phil Whitmore, supervisor of Metro's transit-oriented development program. Planners hope to make an exception in Civic Neighborhood.
Right now, developers can't build on the 120-foot right of way that surrounds the tracks. Planners think that empty space discourages walkers. Civic Neighborhood is supposed to be a transit-oriented development that encourages walking, rather than driving, with a mixture of housing, shopping and offices.
"It's a big gap for pedestrians to want to go from one end of Civic Drive to another," said Max Talbot, community and economic development director for Gresham. "If that gap were to remain, people would just not be comfortable. (Many) would go from Division to light rail, and... it's like, 'That's the end of it.' A lot of them may just turn around and leave."
The station would function as a visual bridge that would entice people across the tracks, Whitmore said.
If the money is approved, the station could be built within 18 months, Whitmore said.
The Regulatory News Service
04/16/2002
The Nanjing Metro Company Ltd. of the People's Republic of China has selected ALSTOM, in partnership with Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Stock Works, for the supply of 20 metro trains for its Phase 1, North-South Line project. The contract is valued at approximately €160 million.
Located 300 kilometres west of Shanghai, Nanjing is the capital of the Jiangsu province. With a population of over 5 million, it is the second largest business centre in East China, after Shanghai.
As technical leader, ALSTOM is responsible for the design, engineering, production of the pre-series train and traction equipment as well as for project management and procurement. For the order, the consortium will supply 20 six-car metro trains based on technology from ALSTOM's METROPOLIS product range.
The first trainset will be produced in ALSTOM's unit in Valenciennes, France, and all subsequent trainsets will be produced at the Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Stock Works in China. ALSTOM's best selling ONIX traction will be produced in China in ALSTOM's joint venture — SATEE Company — located in Shanghai.
In announcing its selection of ALSTOM, Nanjing Metro Company officials cited their confidence in ALSTOM's service-proven, advanced technology, the competitive price of the product and the company's local presence in Nanjing, via its partnership with Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Stock Works, as the primary reasons for their choice.
The contract was signed in Nanjing on 16th April in presence of Nanjing Mayor Luo Zhi Jun and Michel Moreau, President of ALSTOM's Transport Sector. M. Moreau said: "We are delighted with this order, our third metro contract for a Chinese city, and are also very pleased to be collaborating with Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Works. I hope this will be the foundation for fulfilling further opportunities in Nanjing and throughout China."
The signed contract will come in force on 31 May 2002. First delivery is scheduled for May 2004 and final delivery in June 2006. The metro service is planned to begin in June 2006.
AFX.COM
04/16/2002
Siemens AG unit Siemens Transportation Systems (TS) said it has won an order worth €27.5 million to supply 14 five-section Combino trams to the mass transit authority for the Polish city of Poznan, as well as the option for a further 10.
Delivery of the vehicles will start in Autumn 2003 and will be completed by early 2004, Siemens said.
They will be manufactured at the Siemens plants in Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany.
This is the first Combino order in Eastern Europe, it added.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
04/17/2002
The people of Edgewood know the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway is going to run through the middle of their borough.
They can't deny that the construction crews are there every day. But at a meeting Monday night, residents took turns pleading with borough council not to give up the fight with the Allegheny County Port Authority over the busway.
The council meeting was standing room only as 67 people filled the spectators' seats, sat on the floor in the aisle and lined the walls.
Council President Regis Griffin started the meeting by telling the audience there would be no vote on the agreement between the borough and the Port Authority concerning the busway. Instead, the council listened to residents for nearly two and a half hours, many speaking two and three times, and then discussed the latest agreement in a closed session.
"We are in a powerful position now. We have the upper hand. Why give that away?" said Katharine Luckett, who asked the council to delay any approval of the busway to give her group of residents more time to find issues on which to fight the construction.
Luckett has attorneys ready to conduct title searches to see if there are any grounds to stop the construction. Her neighbor, Patrick McArdle, has been busy researching the history of an abandoned railroad station in the borough to see if it can win designation as a historic structure.
Residents said that, if the borough does sign an agreement to stop fighting the busway, it should include a provision requiring the port authority to turn the busway into a light rail line within a specified time period. The agreement as proposed says, instead, that the authority would study the possibility of light rail.
Residents said they were concerned about the noise and the pollution they expect from the busway and the storm water runoff from the stretch of concrete roadway through their borough. All of the speakers at Monday's meeting said they preferred light rail vehicles to buses. The busway is being built next to the tracks of the Norfolk and Southern Railroad.
Residents want trails to be built and want promises from the port authority that recognized historic rehabilitation methods will be used to restore the train station.
Jean Pletcher noted that, in the 1970s, the port authority discussed the idea of running light rail into the East End, but that idea was replaced with the busway.
"If a busway is in our future, I ask that whatever Edgewood wants is carved in stone," said Jeanine Sismour. "The little people lost along the way in the 1970s, and to think that can't happen again is a delusion."
The port authority has offered to provide a park that would run the length of the busway in Edgewood, improved pedestrian underpasses and $250,000 for emergency response vehicles if the borough drops its opposition to the busway. If no agreement is reached, the borough will receive none of those things, while the busway already is scheduled to open in November.
Under the agreement, the port authority would receive emergency response from the borough. "We get a good working relationship with them," port authority spokeswoman Judi McNeil said. She said the authority is no longer planning to refurbish the train station.
The port authority has been planning the extension since funding for engineering studies was granted in 1978.
The busway between Wilkinsburg and Downtown opened in 1983.
Early objections by residents of Edgewood and Swissvale to the extension shelved those plans until 1988, when the port authority again decided to look into extending the busway to Swissvale. Edgewood residents again objected, and those objections have continued since.
Edgewood is the only community along the route that has not signed an agreement with the port authority on conditions regarding the construction of the busway. And, while the borough has issued an order to stop the construction, the work has continued, with the authority claiming it is not bound by borough ordinances because transportation issues are involved.
Daniel Abeshouse asked how long the construction crews could violate the borough's stop-work order before they would be arrested. The borough's solicitor, Tim Barry, said the crews would not be arrested because the stop-work order is a civil order.
"So if I was to build a McDonald's in my house at what point would I be arrested? Never?" Abeshouse said.
Abeshouse, a vegetarian, assured residents that he would not open a hamburger eatery in his house. Then he asked the council not to approve an agreement with the port authority.
"I would ask you all to stand your ground," he said.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
04/17/2002
Carnegie police have issued more than a dozen tickets as part of a crackdown on spillover parking around the Port Authority's West Busway park-n-ride lot on Logan Street.
The 200-space lot has been filled by 8 a.m. since the April 6 shutdown of the outbound Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel.
Carnegie Police Chief Jeff Harbin said when he arrives at work before 7 each morning the park-n-ride already is half full.
"We knew this was coming," Harbin said. "We're glad the busway is a success and people are using it. But the commuters are like ants — they keep spreading out in search of parking places."
Police have been aided by a new ordinance adopted unanimously last week, which gives them the ability to write $15 tickets for violators.
It also creates a two-hour parking limit between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at these locations:
Fifth Avenue between Campbells Run Road and Doolittle Street.
Church Street between Campbells Run and Steen Street.
Sixth Avenue between Campbells Run and Steen Street.
Steen Street between Sixth and Fifth Avenues.
Dick Street between Sixth and Fifth Avenues.
Residents of those areas are exempt from the restriction provided they display the plastic parking permits distributed by the borough.
Another option for commuters is to purchase a parking pass from Carnegie's parking authority.
Coordinator Margaret Partee said monthly permits sell for $25. She said parking is available in the S.P. Kinney lot on Second Avenue about two blocks from the busway station. Each patron has an assigned spot.
Partee has sold 10 monthly permits since the bridge closing.
Meanwhile, the ordinance has relieved congestion in the Fifth Avenue neighborhood. Wendy Shoppe last week thanked Harbin and Carnegie council for implementing the ordinance.
Riverfront Times (St. Louis)
04/17/2002
Enough already with the whining about MetroLink. It's here, it's getting bigger and it'll cost more than expected. A lot more. Sometime before most of us die — say, in five years or so — new trains will be connecting downtown with Clayton and the Galleria before heading south to Shrewsbury.
In the short term, light-rail systems such as MetroLink are the public-transit equivalent of a SUV — a status symbol on wheels, an inefficient use of resources but, boy, do they look spiffy.
Every city wants one.
In the long term, MetroLink is like the mythic promise of the electric car — what a wonderful world it would be if everyone used it, all the time. But of course they can't, because its sparse 34.4 miles of track only makes it feasible for folks going to the airport, or Busch Stadium, or a Blues game, or Fair St. Louis. In this River City, most people ride public transit both to and as a special event.
The travail of light rail is that for most taxpayers, who live in the short term, it looks like a civic extravagance. Yet for planners and politicians, who at least have to pretend to care about the long term, it's needed for the future.
Work is expected to begin this year on Bi-State's cross-county extension of MetroLink, and the weeping and gnashing of teeth has begun. Back in '99, the crystal-ball-gazers over at the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council said the new spur would cost $404 million. Then the engineers at Bi-State took over, and, wouldn't you know, the price tag shot up to $550 million. That's where it is, for now, before any new rail has been set in place.
The culprits behind the jump in cost litter the landscape. Whom you blame depends on what agenda you want to push. People and planners in the process all seem to have axes to grind — and several to throw, too.
Defenders of the current plan say the East-West Gateway projection was dated, left out necessary elements (ticket-vending machines, for one) and didn't include enough money for street reconstruction. Some MetroLink backers blame the extra expense on the cabal of neighborhood groups who wanted the route to zig this way and that so trains wouldn't run too close to their back doors. Those same nagging neighbors didn't want their tranquility disrupted by the bells and whistles triggered by crossing gates, so at Skinker, Big Bend and Forsyth, the trains go under the street.
Many neighborhood groups along the new route wanted MetroLink underground, and many wanted Bi-State to bury the idea of the extension altogether.
They still do.
Their latest tactic is to attack the finances. The original East-West Gateway projection provided a budget to build the extension, with enough money left over to run MetroLink for six years. With the increased costs added by Bi-State's design, that cushion is gone.
But don't be fooled by these folks. The opponents who now complain about the finances are many of the same people who drove up the price of the project by demanding below-grade crossings, overpasses and rails laid on the side of Forest Park Parkway instead of down the median.
At the same time Bi-State is expanding rail service, it is eliminating and shrinking its bus routes. Buses are klutzy and belch smoke. They're full of poor people who don't regard mass transit as a special event and can't hire lobbyists.
A prime suspect for the Bi-State blamers is Gregg Northcutt, an engineer with the Midas touch who worked on MetroLink for Bi-State. He left last year under several clouds to take over engineering work on Spokane's proposed light-rail line. Recent reports from the frontier show the cost of that town's rail project spiking to $540 million from an original estimate of $300 million.
One of the alterations to MetroLink's cross-county extension, done on Northcutt's watch, was to change the grade at which trains descend to go under a street and then rise again to return to street level. Under the East-West Gateway plan, the grade was close to 6 percent, meaning the tracks would rise 6 feet for every 100 feet covered.
With the revised Bi-State plan, those grades dropped to 3 percent. The trains are designed to handle grades of as much as 9 percent, but concerns over icing led Bi-State to cut it back. When the distance it takes for a train to complete a below-grade crossing is stretched, more underground utility and sewer lines must be moved, thereby increasing the cost.
The Bi-State design allots $37 million to move utilities, more than $31 million over what was budgeted in the East-West Gateway plan. That's just one example of a discrepancy in the plans.
Sure, East-West Gateway underestimated some of the costs, and there's inflation to consider, but no one can explain away a $146 million jump. Bi-State overengineered the extension, assuming that if the system runs out of money, local taxpayers or the federales will bail it out. As for those anti-rail philistines along the route, the only way this train will be stopped is if you tie someone to the tracks. But don't expect any Dudley Do-Right to save that damsel in distress in the nick of time.
Once construction is done and the trains roll, money will be an issue.
"They're going to be bankrupt the day they open," says one insider. "They'll have to figure out something. They'll either cut back the bus system or by that time there'll be a tax increase that gets passed."
Short Cuts predicts bus cutbacks, a tax increase and a slightly more fuel-efficient SUV.
SF Weekly (San Francisco)
04/17/2002
I was sitting in a smallish, undecorated conference room with a city bureaucrat, discussing a plan to lease the city's fleet of light-rail cars to private investors, when the walls came alive with ancient spirits. I saw images of former government officials from Nevada County to Pittsburg, from Tehachapi to Palm Springs. Their legs clanked with the shackles of creative municipal financing deals long ago gone sour; they moaned in voices deeper than the deepest city coffer: "Everybody's doing it. It's standard industry practice."I had arrived at the offices of the Municipal Railway to ask Muni Deputy Manager for Finance Gigi Harrington about a Cayman Islands shell company that will be the city's go-between in an offshore corporate tax shelter involving a complex lease/leaseback of the city's 118 Breda streetcars.
"Tell me everything you know about Premier International Funding Corporation," I said, referring to an entity that will handle more than $1 billion in Muni money over 27 years, an entity that takes its mail in care of QSPV Limited, which is — apparently unbeknownst to Harrington — a subsidiary of the same Cayman Islands law firm that set up the "LJM Cayman" shell companies that played a role in ruining Enron.
"They exist, as I understand it, for purposes of, um, the payment, and they're, uh," Harrington said, before pausing to start over again. "I don't know. When we went to procure the surety, and the, um, debt portion of the transaction, all these components were bid together, so the entity in the Caymans is part of FSA, who bid on this proposal." Harrington's voice trailed off into an unfinished haze of inaccurate statements, then she abruptly said she had another meeting to attend.
And that's when the ghosts entered the room. It's only trivially relevant that Maples and Calder, the Cayman Islands law firm that owns QSPV Limited and set up Enron's Cayman Islands shell firms, appears to be involved in Muni's shell firms, too. But it's deeply troubling to me that Muni's finance director doesn't seem particularly interested in knowing who we're dealing with in this complex plan to lease, and then lease back, city rail cars, or what, exactly, the 2-inch-high pile of contracts that she's recommending the city enter into will commit the city to do. Harrington's attitude, shared by other Muni officials and advisers, seems to be underpinned by a type of logic that has driven financial fads through time, whether tulips or Internet stocks or junk bonds: As long as everyone else is doing it, ignorance is bliss. In this case, the attitude says that it isn't important whether Muni bureaucrats truly understand the details of a deal (approved Monday by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors) that has Muni leasing its Breda light-rail cars to wealthy investors, who will lease them right back to the city, in the process gaining what they hope will be the privilege to write off on their federal tax returns tens of millions of dollars of streetcar wear and tear, or depreciation.
What matters most, Muni officials have said in interviews, in testimony before the board, and in documents summarizing the leasing transaction for the public, is that Muni will receive $33 million in immediate benefit from the deal; that 60 other transit systems have already completed similar deals; that many elements of the Muni deal are "standard industry practice"; and that neither the public nor its elected representatives ought be concerned with facts beyond these.
But there are facts, and risks, that can't and shouldn't be ignored.
This series of contractual agreements, which ties Muni to the aforementioned Cayman Islands shell companies, to a group of foreign banks, to their trusts, their trustees, and their lawyers, appears to place the city in a truly amazing situation, even by the high-wire-act standards of creative municipal financing.
The agreements make the city legally responsible for guaranteeing private investors a perfect tax shelter, one that must consistently pass muster with the IRS, one that must not fall apart in a few years, one that does not contain details that will somehow cause investors to achieve less of a tax write-off than they had initially hoped for. If, for a laundry list of reasons spelled out in the agreements, the IRS does not allow the investors as big a tax break as they had planned, these contracts explain in excruciating detail how we, the taxpayers of San Francisco, must pay the investors enough money so that their balance sheets read as if they did have the perfect tax shelter they had hoped for. If the tax shelter fails, and the investors take the IRS to court, we pay their legal fees. If the investors claim their tax write-off is faulty, and we don't believe them, we are specifically prohibited from examining their books.
In signing these agreements, the city has entered a legal house of mirrors. If the IRS determines that the great Breda lease/ leaseback is purely a tax shelter of the type prohibited under the U.S. tax code (and there is at least one recent IRS ruling running in that direction), the Breda deal will become less of a tax shelter for investors, and taxpayers will, apparently, have to pay the investors enough to offset the increased taxes the investors will owe. And "enough" could wind up being tens of millions of dollars.
"It's laid out in text that the City and County of San Francisco is expected to indemnify all the trust holders and the equity investors from this risk, and that doesn't make any sense," says Greg Dorbeck, a financial consultant who specializes in leases, and who reviewed the contracts in question at SF Weekly's request. "This whole deal is predicated on an authority (the IRS) that hasn't given its blessing to the transaction. Someone has to get a ruling that the trust will work, and it's incumbent on the investors to do so. It's not the city's problem."
But the pile of contracts Muni is poised to sign say it is the city's problem. Our city officials don't appear to understand, or be willing to admit, this risk to taxpayers. Everybody else is doing these kinds of deals, they say. It's standard industry practice.
But standard industry practice has a history of biting the practitioners. Sitting in the bleak conference room after Harrington excused herself to leave, I recalled the last time California embarked on a creative-municipal-financing craze, the so-called "dirt bond" boom that peaked in 1990. I recalled how financial advisers told municipal officials that it was perfectly reasonable to shackle themselves in risky business partnerships with private investors they knew very little about. I remembered how, during the next seven years, $317 million worth of these "Mello-Roos" bond-financing deals went sour, and how by the late '90s municipal bond analysts had described a "default line" consisting of 29 failed special-financing entities that roughly paralleled the San Andreas fault.I remembered how my former father-in-law, California real-estate-tax-shelter-limited-partnership king Michael Montross, bankrupted Nevada County in a 1990 fraudulent dirt-bond scheme, then went on the lam. I recalled how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission next launched a California-wide inquiry in which municipal officials from Nevada County to Antioch, along with their San Francisco financial advisers, were called to task for entering into risky, complicated municipal financing deals without having a clear idea what they were getting themselves into.
The dirt-bond craze differed in important ways from the lease-leaseback transactions that have recently beguiled officials in San Francisco and elsewhere. Dirt bonds depended on the profitability of real estate developments; lease-leasebacks rely on the effectiveness of corporate tax shelters. But both types of transaction are alike in that they put the fate of millions of dollars in government assets in the hands of private investors, creating a situation where municipalities may lose control of their own destinies. These transactions have another important trait in common: Defenders of both types of deal have lured municipal officials by using the "everybody's doing it" justification, and the "this is standard industry practice" rationale that underpins many a dubious creative-financing boom.
I spoke to Walter Borny, who was Montross' top salesman before becoming a whistle-blower and joining a class-action lawsuit against Montross' firm, to ask if he also saw any ghosts emanating from this week's Muni-Breda leaseback deal. Borny is now a registered representative at Whitehall Parker Securities in San Francisco, and he is familiar with the lease-leaseback tax-shelter deals that cities such as San Francisco have been entering into during recent years.
"When you are giving control away to other people, it's not something the government or municipalities should be involved in. It creates the temptation or the risk of potential corruption," Borny said. "These municipalities are doing this to attract funds by investors, but it's probably going to end up in a similar mess that we've seen since the mid-'80s with Mello-Roos bonds, of loss of control, and perhaps even the loss of the equipment itself, to the parties that do control it."The last time I'd given a thought to Michael Montross was five years ago, when he was awaiting a 100-count securities fraud trial in San Mateo. His once-sprawling real estate empire now existed only in the memory of myriad court files. Twelve years ago he had imagined a grander future. Back then, he was chasing the possibility of creating housing-tract gold out of dirt in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in a scheme that became infamous in New York finance circles. In 1990, Montross proposed that Nevada County designate a 286-acre property he had bought as a special, Mello-Roos tax district, named for the California lawmakers who sponsored legislation allowing such districts in 1982. Under that legislation, a developer could borrow money by selling bonds; the developer and home buyers (as they moved into the new subdivision) were expected to pay off the bonds through special property taxes.
But if a developer failed to complete a subdivision, or went bankrupt, then the county that had authorized the bonds might be left with no way to repay the debt.
Nevada County supervisors hired a San Francisco investment bank to underwrite the bonds and the vice president of another San Francisco investment banking firm to act as financial adviser, and issued $9 million in Mello-Roos bonds. According to SEC files, Montross lied to officials and advisers about his supposed personal ownership of the land. He said he was an experienced real estate developer, when he wasn't. Montross' statements to Nevada County suggested he had enormous financial worth when, in fact, by 1989 his firm was nearly broke. Montross failed to complete the subdivision, filed for bankruptcy, and left the county up a financial creek.
He went on the lam for two years before he was arrested in Southern California for trying to obtain a phony passport. He was subsequently sentenced to state prison on securities fraud charges related to his collapsed limited partnerships.
In 1995 the SEC notified Nevada County officials and other deal participants that it was considering filing securities fraud charges against the county and its entire financing team. Following a three-year probe, the SEC reached a negotiated settlement with the county that resulted in a "cease and desist" order specifying that, even though Nevada County hired lawyers and experts, it violated U.S. securities law by failing to adequately supervise the creative-financing bond deal itself.
The San Francisco investment banking firm that underwrote the bonds agreed to pay $700,000 in penalties to settle a federal civil suit connected with the Montross deal.If Nevada County tied its fate to that of Michael Montross, San Francisco is marrying its interests with those of a group of investors and trustees. In the case of Nevada County, sound city finances relied on the promise of a successful real estate deal. In San Francisco, our partners must build the perfect tax shelter.The deal is supposed to work like this: Muni will lease 118 of the city's Breda rail cars to a group of private investors, mostly foreign firms. For the right to deduct the value of the cars' annual wear and tear from their federal taxes, the investors will lease the cars back to Muni — at a $43 million discount. Muni will pay $10 million to lawyers and financial consultants, and keep $33 million for itself.
If the IRS somehow determines that the investors can't take the tax deduction they had hoped for, however, it becomes S.F. Muni's responsibility to make it whole, according to the Tax Indemnification Agreement Muni is entering into with CIBC, one of the investors. According to this agreement, the taxpayers of the City and County of San Francisco are liable for helping create the Breda tax break (or sham, depending on your point of view). If the IRS gets wise, and disallows the tax break, the agreement provides a laundry list of ways the decision might be considered Muni's fault. In such an event, the citizens of San Francisco must pay the investors what they say we have to pay, in taxes, because of the loss of the tax shelter — and we won't even be allowed to inspect the investors' records to make sure they're telling us the truth. Theoretically, the city could be liable for millions, or even tens of millions, of dollars.
It would seem important, therefore, that Muni officials and their advisers achieve a solid understanding of how, exactly, the tax shelter is supposed to work, and who, exactly, we're dealing with.
Harrington, for one, did not seem conversant with these details during our meeting in the conference room, or in a subsequent half-hour conversation. To answer my questions, she looked up documents and read from them; she gave incomplete, misleading descriptions; she obfuscated in other ways. At the same time, however, she insisted that this tax shelter, which Muni has sold to the Board of Supervisors as a tax shelter, not be referred to in the press as a tax shelter.
Harrington told me she would take my request to speak with attorneys from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, who advised the city on the Breda leaseback deal, "under advisement." In other words, she refused.
The city's financial adviser, Peter Ross, a principal of Ross Financial, seemed more knowledgeable about the transaction. Still, he parried questions about the tax shelter's details. "These are quite complicated, and the questions you raise are the ones you are very much aware of," he said. "It's a complicated aspect, and counsel for the investors have concluded that the transactions do comply with the tax code, and our counsel is satisfied that the tax risk is borne by the equity investor rather than Muni."
For Walter Borny, who during the early 1990s spent months poring over court and financial records trying to determine what, precisely, Montross had done with investors' money, the evasions and temporizing sound all too familiar: "Anybody who says, '"Everybody's doing this' — those are buzzwords for '"Don't look into what we're doing.'"Having scrutinized spirits past, I thought I'd visit ones from a possible future of lease-leaseback deals. I traveled by phone to Ontario, Canada, where the provincial government is drawing up municipal leasing guidelines after a lease-leaseback deal for a proposed sports complex in the city of Waterloo blew up into a series of lawsuits when a journalist determined last year that the deal would cost the city $228 million over 31 years, twice what officials first thought. As it happened, the tax shelter part of the deal fell through, and the city of Waterloo was liable for the money lost to investors. Since then, several other government entities in Ontario have launched inquiries into troublesome lease-leaseback transactions similar to the Muni-Breda leaseback. The city of Toronto has hired leasing expert Greg Dorbeck to conduct a detailed review of a lease agreement involving $68 million of computer equipment.
"At the end of the day, we came to a conclusion that the best types of protections were to require the full light of day to be shone on these things as they were being entered into. You've got to have high levels of disclosure at the front end," said Dan Cowin, director of municipal finance for the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. "We want to require clearly that municipalities' treasurers and their councils come to grips with what a leasing policy ought to look like, how they're going to manage risk. All these things would be part of such a policy."
What's going on in Ontario might be of interest to S.F. officials who have been so eager to push through a multimillion-dollar lease of Muni's Breda light-rail cars that they seem to have closed their eyes to precisely whom or what they are getting involved with.
Newest U. TRAX Extension May Not Be Done Until 2004
The Salt Lake Tribune
04/17/2002
Construction of a new TRAX extension through the University of Utah campus to University Hospital begins in mid-May and could take until late 2004 to complete.
The project will have three stations, the last serving Primary Children's Medical Center, the U.'s health-sciences complex and the new Moran Eye Center. The line will begin at the current TRAX station west of Rice-Eccles Stadium, run down South Campus Drive to Wasatch Drive, then turn uphill on Medical Drive toward Primary Children's Hospital.
Last month, Utah Transit Authority officials were talking about a Friday ground-breaking, but they decided to wait to begin closer to when a full-funding agreement from the federal government arrives, probably in the next three or four weeks. The agreement would assure planners that funds will be available in successive federal budgets through the project's life.
The federal government is paying $54 million of the project's $90 million cost. The U. is paying $1 million in cash and $7 million in rights-of-way and other facilities, and UTA will pay the balance.
TRAX contractor, SLC Rail Constructors, built the 2 1/2-mile University line extension from downtown in just 19 months because it had a multimillion-dollar incentive to complete the work before the Winter Olympics in February. The University Hospital line is not on an accelerated schedule and there is no financial incentive for rapid completion.
University construction coordinator Tom Christensen said UTA and the contractors have agreed to keep at least one lane in each direction open along South Campus Drive, Wasatch Drive and Medical Drive.
One feature will be a traffic roundabout at the three-way intersection of South Campus Drive and Guardsman Way, in part to best accommodate motorists heading for the Huntsman Center — the road's predominant flow. When a TRAX train comes through, crossing arms will stop traffic from three directions.
One station will be built on South Campus Drive between the new parking structure and the Huntsman Center. Curves in the road precluded a station farther to the west that could more easily serve Marriott Library and the University Book Store.
A second station is set along Wasatch Drive at the base of the U.'s new pedestrian overpass. It will serve new Fort Douglas student housing on the east and main-campus student housing to the west. At Primary Children's, passengers will get off on the west side of Medical Drive and use a pedestrian walkway to cross to the medical complex. From there, an indoor path will go to Primary Children's and the Moran Eye Center. Another interior walkway will go up a level to University Hospital.
University officials see the current TRAX University line and its extension as a way to avoid building new parking structures. The train already has eased congested campus parking, said Alma Allred, director of parking services.
"Many students are turning in their parking passes and are using TRAX," Allred said.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
04/17/2002
The wording of a draft agreement allowing streetcars to cross the Main Street Bridge threatens the viability of the River Rail project, an attorney for the Central Arkansas Transit Authority said Tuesday.
And the drawn-out negotiations over the agreement between CATA and the state Highway and Transportation Department also threaten funding for future phases of the project, officials said.
Construction of the $18.35 million River Rail project is dependent on CATA securing an agreement with the Highway Department over tracks and electric power on the bridge.
CATA officials at a Tuesday morning board of directors meeting said two new draft proposals submitted April 2 and on Friday gained ground, but there has been no agreement on a final draft.
Negotiations between CATA, which will operate the streetcar system, and the Highway Department, which maintains the bridge, have lasted almost a year.
If an agreement is reached, the wording could still have a bearing on whether the system can be operated as planned, attorney Hal Kemp warned CATA board members.
"I'm concerned we might not get there," Kemp said. "(Highway Department attorneys) have taken such a harsh posture that it could render it impossible for you to operate your trolley on (the bridge)."
The project could still go forward, Kemp said, "but from a legal standpoint, you'd be at risk for the operation of it."
Highway Department officials countered Kemp's claim saying the department is "working in a good-faith and timely manner" with CATA to resolve the differences.
"There's also more than just the two of us involved," Highway Department spokesman Glenn Bolick said. "Every time we make a change, we may be adding another federal agency to the mix for approval."
But the Highway Department's legal language would grant it supervision of every aspect of construction and operation, Kemp told board members. Seeking approval for even "routine maintenance" could take months, he said.
"In my view the bridge permit and the conditions under which we would be authorized to construct and operate on the bridge affects the viability of the project," Kemp said after the meeting.
Plans call for the River Rail's electric streetcars to cross the bridge on a 2.2-mile route within the downtowns of Little Rock and North Little Rock by early 2004. A $7.5 million second phase is planned to connect the project to the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock.
Community leaders say the streetcar project is a forerunner to a regional light-rail system.
But the agreement with the Highway Department is needed before CATA can begin construction. Requests for construction bids on the bridge work and building of a trolley maintenance barn are "virtually ready to go," CATA Executive Director Keith Jones said. But all work is pending the bridge agreement.
"We're going to have an agreement. I'm confident," Jones told the board. "It's still a question of when, rather than if."
Modifications to the bridge would take a year of the 18-month project.
Some board members said they are concerned that they are running out of time to move forward with the project.
"I am, and most of the board is, very frustrated with the delay in the agreement," Chairman Bob Major said.
"Is there an outside date where we're in trouble?" board member Jennifer Love asked. "Is there a critical timeline where if we don't have this by a set date we have to throw in the towel?"
Federal Transit Administration officials are scheduled to be in North Little Rock late next week for a quarterly review of the project, Jones said.
"There will be talk on this issue of how much longer can we go" before affecting funding for planned expansion of the rail system, Jones said.
The battle over the bridge could have been avoided if local county and city officials had taken up an offer from the Highway Department.
In April 2000, the Highway Department began talks with CATA and Pulaski County about donating the bridge to the county. Making the bridge a local structure would have negated the need for the Highway Department's approval for River Rail.
The Pulaski County Quorum Court approved the deal in an 8-7 vote, with the stipulation that Little Rock, North Little Rock and CATA each agree to contribute $25,000 annually to a bridge maintenance fund. None ever brought the issue to a vote.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
04/17/2002
The Bi-State Development Agency has enough money to extend MetroLink from Forest Park to Shrewsbury, but after 2006 or 2007, it have to make deep cuts to operate the transit system, the agency's leader said Thursday.
Speaking to the St. Louis County Council, Larry Salci, Bi-State's executive director, strongly defended the design of the extension and ruled out a proposal to seek federal money to cover part of the $550 million cost of building the extension.
A group of residents of neighborhoods in St. Louis, University City and Clayton who live adjacent to the expansion route have urged Bi-State to seek federal money to pay for adjustments to the design.
"The design problems they speak of are really design preferences," Salci said.
Council members listening to Salci appeared to find themselves in a quandary. They noted that the public approved a quarter-cent sales tax in 1994 to expand MetroLink. But they said they must preserve the bus system that serves their constituents.
"We can't forsake the bus system for MetroLink," said Councilman Richard "Skip" Mange, R-Town and Country.
The council took no action on Thursday.
Bi-State needs to find new state or local money because the federal government no longer subsidizes transit, Salci noted.
Critics have urged Bi-State to seek $300 million in federal money to free some money for changes in the design of the extension.
Salci said that was not feasible; Congress has not authorized money for the extension, and the region would have to compete with more than 100 projects across the nation.
Bi-State is asking the County Council for help because it wants to issue up to $400 million in 30-year bonds using money from the quarter-cent sales tax to retire them. However, the council can only a ppropriate money for bond payments one year at a time.
John Noce, Bi-State's chief financial officer, told the council that Bi-State did not need the council's permission to issue the bonds. But selling them would be difficult without the council's promise that it would provide a subsidy yearly, he said.
Tom Shrout, executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit, said after the meeting that the county could ease Bi-State's financial problems by allocating to mass transit more revenue from a half-cent transportation sales tax it collects.
Dan Schesch, president of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council, said the problems residents want fixed are serious, involving access to neighborhoods, safety and privacy of nearby residents. Changes that cri tics have suggested are not too costly and, in some cases, may save money, he said.
The Houston Chronicle
04/18/2002
THE Houston Heights Association will hold a town meeting Sunday to discuss a study about running a rail line through the Interstate 10 corridor.
The Inner-Katy Transit Oriented Development Study is a preliminary effort by the city of Houston to determine the feasibility of adding a light rail component to the Katy Freeway expansion project. The study will last through September.
"This corridor is a logical connection between future high capacity transit operations along US 290, Loop 610 West, and the Katy Freeway west of Loop 610," according to a report about the study on the city's Web site. "An initial feasibility analysis of various transportation modes and definitive analysis of the potential benefit resulting from high capacity transit will likely affect local decisions regarding transit mode (bus, enhanced bus, and light or commuter rail), alignment and investment in the Inner Katy Corridor."
The study area is bounded by Pecore and West 11th Streets on the north, Interstate 45 on the east, Buffalo Bayou on the south and Loop 610/Silber Road on the west. The study is being conducted by Wilbur Smith and Associates, with public outreach and data collection supported by District H councilmember Gabriel Vasquez, Metro and the Houston Galveston Area Council.
Vasquez held a meeting March 25th to discuss the study with area groups. Among the issues discussed was a proposed route along the old Katy/MKT tracks on 7th Street, a route currently slated for a hike and bike trail. Then the Heights Association's land use committee heard a presentation at its April 1st meeting about Heights neighborhood participation in a possible rail and/or trolley link to any future I-10 rail project.
All of this has led association leaders to call the Sunday meeting both to inform residents further about the study and gauge neighborhood sentiment about the issues involved.
"First off, the plans right now are tentative at best," said Heights Association president Mike Easley. "If in fact a light rail system goes down the I-10 corridor, it will be the biggest transportation issue since I-10 itself was pushed through the Heights, cutting off the southern tip of the neighborhood.
"The key point is that no one's building anything yet. This is just a study. But it is critical to be involved in the process now, which is why we are having this meeting. Councilmember Vasquez is heading a series of meetings over the next five years to take input from various community leaders. So this kind of town meeting is a way for us to get down to the grass roots level of the issue and find out what people think. The issue of rail in the Heights impacts everyone."
Heights Association land use committee chair Laura Thorp also emphasized that the meeting is both to inform and gather information.
"We want to discuss the light rail issues in the Heights and put the neighborhood input together," she said. "This is a brainstorming workshop to get a feel for what the community wants. Then those ideas are the ones we will take to the study's steering committee."
Easley agreed that the various "what ifs" and "if, thens" are almost too numerous to mention.
"Where would you put a station?," he said. "What are the density issues? What are the environmental impacts? Do we really want another dividing line that would cut right through the neighborhood? How would it benefit us?
"On the one hand, we don't want to be like a ghost town, where a train just passes us by, but I don't think anyone wants the rail line in their back yard either. That's why it's critical to be involved in the process, so we don't suffer any inconvenience."
"Eventually, it seems clear there will be some kind of mass transit along the corridor and it will influence the Heights," Thorp added. "Instead of just letting it happen to us, we want to be proactive in the process.
"This is kind of what we did last year with the Heights Library when the strategic plan came out (calling for the library's eventual demolition). We started meeting with the library to make sure the neighborhood's wants were considered to change that plan."
The 7th Street route would tear up plans that have been over a decade in the making regarding the installation of a hike and bike trail. The city of Houston received $3.6 million in federal funding administered through the Texas Department of Transportation in January of 2000 for the Katy MKT/Nicholson SP Rails to Trails project. That project would convert the old Southern Pacific line on Nicholson from West 26th to West 7th and the Katy/Missouri, Kansas and Texas line from the Durham Street bridge along 7th Street to downtown into a green trail. Bidding is active on the project right now.
"That's another issue to be dealt with as well," Easley said."Seventh Street has been promised as a green space with a bike trail. There are many people I have talked to who would prefer to see that as a green space rather than a rail line."
Thorp said the town meeting is an outgrowth in a way of a proposal put before the April 1 land use committee meeting. Transportation engineer Gonzalo Camacho, a Woodland Heights resident, and urban planner Keiji Asakura presented a plan to the committee that would establish a "capillary" feeder system through the Heights to a rail line, which could possibly include a trolley line back on Heights Boulevard for the first time since 1940.
"Gonzalo and Keiji presented a plan that we felt merited a more serious discussion," said Thorp. "So we decided to have a neighborhood meeting about it. The bike trail is going forward, but we need to know where the community stands when it comes to something like this. This is a very different idea."
"Of course,the Heights was a street car community when it was first built and this would recreate that," Asakura said. "Whether it's Heights Boulevard or not, those are the things we still have to talk about. Obviously, the line would have to connect to something, but connect to what?"
Asakura recognized that the plan is provocative, though not necessarily unique to the general area.
"This is very different from what Metro has been talking about,which is a light rail project," he said. "What we're talking about is something complementary that would serve at a community neighborhood level,rather than taking you from downtown to the airport or downtown to the Medical Center.
"The idea about this sort of line is not really new. It's done all over the country even as close as Dallas. There's even a version of it in Galveston,though that system is not linked to any other. It's nothing that other cities don't look at as well. Still, now's the time to be proactive and talk about these things in relation to the Inner Katy study."
The last point is one with which Easley and Thorp agree.
"I guess the critical point is that by no means are any plans definite," Easley said. "These are discussions and studies, not firm plans. The positive side is the timing and the meetings gives us enough lead time to find out what the community wants and act on that."
The Macon Telegraph
04/18/2002
NASHUA, N.H.The trucking industry is threatening a lawsuit that could derail the return of commuter trains to the city.
The New Hampshire Motor Transport Association claims it would be a violation of the state constitution to earmark money from state highway funds for anything but the maintenance and construction of highways.
Robert Sculley, a lobbyist for the association, said his organization wants to stop the state from dipping into the highway funds to "fund a competitor."
Sculley said his organization, which represents 400 trucking businesses, isn't opposed to the rail project, but objects to drawing several million dollars from state funding for highways.
"They have to find another source of revenue for the state match, whether through the general fund or elsewhere," Sculley said.
However, Christopher Morgan, the administrator of the state Bureau of Rail and Transit, defended the spending, saying rail is part of the bigger transportation picture.
"It's part of the whole transportation system," Morgan said of the proposed commuter rail connection between Nashua and Lowell, Mass.
Studies are under way to extend the commuter train service run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. It would be close to an 11-mile extension to Nashua, since the trains now stop in Lowell. Officials hope to have trains rolling in the latter half of 2005, at an estimated cost of between $60 million and $77 million.
Consultants briefed members of the Nashua-Lowell Commuter Rail Task Force on Tuesday morning. The joint project involves transportation officials in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, with the bulk of the cost to be paid by federal tax dollars.
However, the federal transportation programs that would pay for the project are designed with a 20 percent match coming from the state.
If a lawsuit were successful, that would be a big hurdle to overcome, since the state is looking to the highway fund to pay its required share of the project, close to $7 million to date, Morgan said.
"I don't see how we'd fund it. We can't go to the general fund" for the money, Morgan said.
Mayor Bernie Streeter, a supporter of the project, said the trucking industry would be fighting a project with broad support from the Statehouse in Concord to Congress in Washington.
"If they pursue it, they are getting involved in a battle they shouldn't," Streeter said.
Sculley sees the constitutional issue revolving around Part 2, Article 6-a of the state constitution, which is entitled "79 Use of Certain Revenues Restricted to Highways."
Passed in 1938, the language states that money raised by "registration fees, operators' licenses, gasoline road tolls" is to be "used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of public highways within this state, including the supervision of traffic thereon."
The state is relying on the highway funds, which are collected from an 18-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline and vehicle registration fees, to pay its share of matching money to receive the federal transportation money for the rail project.
Sculley called the highway system "user-based," so when people fill their gas tanks, the tax money pays for the roads on which they drive. Filling a gas tank, he said, shouldn't help to pay for a train system.
Sculley testified a few weeks ago against a bill including the funding, but didn't change enough minds.
Any lawsuit would not be filed until the state makes the first payment for trains and other equipment, which is expected to be a couple of years into the future, Sculley said.
So if the state highway money is removed, Morgan said the state's application with the Federal Transit Administration wouldn't be as promising. The federal government likes to see a mix of money paying for projects, not just one sole source, he said.
Nancy Girard, the vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, said rail is seen as part of the state's "transportation system," so it makes sense to use the highway money.
The funds are already broadly used for other transportation-related matters, such as funding the state police and student-driving programs, said Girard, an attorney in the Concord office of the environmental law organization.
Los Angeles Daily News
04/18/2002
SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, Calif. — A Metropolitan Transportation Agency committee voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of recommendations to break bus service into five sectors — with the San Fernando Valley area as one of them — to be run by local boards.
The full MTA board will vote April 25 on the recommendations, which would take effect July 1.
The move to break up bus service comes on the heels of a stalled, two-year effort to create a separate transit zone for the San Fernando Valley. Some see MTA-run but locally controlled sectors as an alternative to the transit agency break-up.
The MTA's Ad Hoc Service Sector Committee approved recommendations to create governing councils of up to nine members each. The councils could keep structures already in place, such as the San Fernando Valley Service Sector Council, reflecting the current makeup of the San Fernando Valley Interim Joint Powers Authority Board.
The committee also recommended that the governing councils be composed of elected officials or their appointees who would receive stipends for their service and meet regularly, possibly twice a month.
The sector councils should have authority regarding bus routes, scheduling, service quality and expenditures of funds, according to the committee, whose members said MTA Chief Executive Officer Roger Snoble and Deputy CEO John Catoe should confer annually on the performance of the sectors' general managers.
Thursday, April 18, 2002
Courier-Post
Average weekly ridership on the PATCO Hi-Speedline is experiencing its deepest decline in more than 20 years, but revenues are holding, thanks to a hefty fare increase.
First quarter data showing a 6.5 percent decline in the average number of riders each week, from 201,089 in 2001 to 188,858 in 2002 was released Wednesday at the monthly commission meeting of the Delaware River Port Authority. PATCO is a subsidiary of DRPA.
Most of the reasons for the decline are beyond DRPA's control, said spokesman Joseph Diemer.
"Ridership is down due to the economy and the shifting of jobs to the suburbs. More people are not driving to Center City and paying to park their cars instead of riding the train. They're just not going."
The unemployment rate in the Philadelphia metropolitan area increased from 4.2 percent in February 2001 to 5.5 percent in February of this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Diemer said he did not believe last year's 45 percent fare hike chased away riders.
Another reason for the decline is the path of the Locust Street line, which was built in the 1920s and is shared by PATCO.
"Eighth and Market isn't what it used to be," said Diemer" Growth areas have moved west of City Hall along Market and JFK Boulevard, but we haven't."
DRPA is studying where and how to expand, though some say the bistate agency has waited too long. It also is studying ways to update its antiquated fare collection system.
"That is definitely a limitation and we're way behind the curve on that But I don't think people avoid the line because of it," he said.
Since DRPA can't invent more commuters, it is trying to attract those who drive to the city for shopping, dining and recreation. One way it hopes to do that is by refurbishing the stations, a project that is under way.
DRPA also is counting on next year's opening of the NJ Transit light rail line between Trenton and Camden to increase ridership among Burlington County residents who work in the city.
In other business at the Wednesday meeting, William Nicholas Bodouva + Associates of New York was hired to design a second dock for the RiverLink ferry just south of the RCA pier for $860,000. It will include rest rooms, office space and a passenger waiting area. DRPA also plans to build a third ferry dock farther south, near the USS New Jersey and the Tweeter Center.
DRPA also approved spending $8.5 million to expand PATCO's West head house at Broadway station into a convenient interchange for PATCO and the light rail line.
In addition, the authority agreed to guarantee a $2 million loan to University Technology Park Inc. to build a $6.5 million office building in Chester, Pa. Technology Park is a nonprofit organization created by Widener University and the Crozer-Keystone Health System for the purpose of revitalizing Chester, which has been sinking into poverty for decades. Five years ago it bought a city block and built one office building. This will be the second.
John C. McMeekin, president and CEO of University Technology Park, called Chester "a tough sell" despite its riverfront location and accessibility to I-95.
"It's down about as far as it can go, with a bankrupt school system and a population of aging, economically deprived people," said McMeekin. "We're hopeful this project will make a difference."
The Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
04/18/2002
Faced with increased competition from Salt Lake suburbs, Davis County leaders are amplifying their fight for federal and state transportation dollars.
As part of that effort, mayors countywide are being asked to lobby state and federal leaders to make sure Utah's light-rail and commuter-rail dollars don't all go south to West Valley City, West Jordan and Draper.
County leaders, then, want to present a united front in the cutthroat battle for federal rail money that is increasingly pitting cities and counties along the Wasatch Front against one another.
"We want the message to be unified by this group," Davis County Commissioner Dannie McConkie said. "We don't want it to fade.... We can't let the voice south of Ensign Peak become louder than ours."
Utah Transit Authority spokesman Kris McBride said there doesn't seem to be any ranking of Davis County and Salt Lake County bids for rail money. "I think its a good question, and it's a hard question to answer," he said. "I haven't seen a list that says this lists (rail) projects one-two-three-four-five."
Davis leaders already feel as though they have a leg up on their Salt Lake competition. The right of way along the existing Union Pacific line has already been secured, and a quarter-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects is being collected.
Still, as the voices from Salt Lake suburbs grow louder, Davis County leaders want their voice to be loudest since the same federal pot of money will be used to secure rail projects all along the Wasatch Front.
"We've got to stay on our toes," McConkie told the Davis Council of Governments Wednesday. "We've got to make sure we lobby even harder."
Mayors, then, are being coached to schmooze senators, congressmen, state legislators, the Utah Transit Authority's board members — anyone who has a say in where transportation dollars are allocated.
Part of that coaching will happen at a workshop later this month designed to teach the county's 10 mayors who are serving their first terms how transportation dollars trickle down from the federal to state to local levels.
The county is also enlisting mayors to take a two-day trip to Southern California to ride light- and commuter-rail trains from Orange County to Los Angeles to San Diego this May. The efforts are aimed at making the mayors more educated about rail so they can speak more intelligently when lobbying officials.
Most mayors agree that lobbying is of supreme importance.
"It's important that you get your voice heard and don't depend on someone else to do it for you," Clearfield Mayor Thomas Waggoner said.
State Sen. David Steele, R-West Point, told the COG that transportation funds will be hotly contested and that they need to continue their efforts.
Davis leaders hope Rep. Don Bush, R-Clearfield, can use his influence as co-chairman of the state House's transportation appropriations subcommittee to benefit the county's fight.
"Transportation remains an important issue — whether it's getting to and from Rockyville or wherever we've got to go," Steele said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times
04/18/2002
A pair of recommendations to state regulators this week would clear the way for construction of most intersections along the Pasadena-Los Angeles light rail line. But the design of at least one street crossing remains in dispute — potentially adding years and millions of dollars to the project.
The $725-million project has distinguished itself from most mass transit projects in Los Angeles County by proceeding on budget and on schedule — with the first passengers expected to board in the summer of 2003.
But the public authority building the 13.2-mile rail line took a significant risk — launching construction before the state Public Utilities Commission had approved the design of about 70 junctions where rails will cross roadways.
Several community groups have said pedestrians and drivers will not be safe if trains cross roads at street level. The activists asked that the tracks either be raised onto bridges or sunk into the ground, to move them away from cars and people.
One PUC member recommended this week that all 14 disputed crossings on the 13.2-mile track be built as designed — without expensive "grade separations." An administrative law judge who has studied the dispute for the commission agreed that 13 of the crossings are fine as designed. But on another, at Del Mar Boulevard in Pasadena, he recommended that the tracks cross over or under the street.
The five-member PUC is expected to decide next month which option to follow, as builders work to finish the so-called Gold Line.
Officials for the construction agency remain hopeful that the PUC will approve the recommendation by Commissioner Henry Duque that construction be completed as designed.
"When the commission votes on this thing next month, hopefully we will be able to move ahead with it," said Rick Thorpe, executive officer of the Los Angeles to Pasadena Metro Blue Line Construction Authority. The project was renamed the Gold Line earlier this year.
So far, Thorpe said, the authority is still operating within its budget. But he warned that, even as builders wait for next month's PUC decision, more than $2 million could be added to the cost of construction. It's unclear how much costs could grow after that if the construction authority is forced to build a major crossing at Del Mar.
If the PUC accepts the recommendation of administrative law Judge Sheldon Rosenthal requiring an alternative route around Del Mar, Thorpe said, delays could be substantial.
"That could push the process back a couple of years," he said. "We would have to redo the environmental impact reports, redo the design. Right now there is no money for that, so we would have to find the funds to do it. All of that would certainly take quite an amount of time."
San Francisco attorney James D. Squeri, who represents the Pasadena group Citizens Against the Blue Line At-Grade, said he is happy that both reports at least recognized the safety concerns at Del Mar.
The citizens group advocates construction of grade separations at six Pasadena crossings, including Del Mar.
Rosenthal said the Del Mar crossing could be hazardous because a proposed development of apartments and shops next to the tracks would obstruct motorists' and pedestrians' views of oncoming trains.
The judge said the line won't be safe unless the tracks are separated from Del Mar by either a bridge or a tunnel.
The commission will accept comments on the two proposals for 30 days and is expected to vote next month on how the crossings should be designed.
Asia Pulse
04/18/2002
Four Asian countries have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to pool their resources to find new ways to relieve transportation-related problems in their key cities.
Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines will create a common research committee to undertake the feasibility studies, said Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez.
The research committee will be composed of public and private transportation sector experts, especially in the field of railway and urban development, from the four countries.
The committee will prepare within two to three years an Implementation Manual which will include all the issues involved in the construction and improvement of urban railways.
The research will study the urban railway systems in Bangkok, Jakarta, Tokyo and Manila.
According to Alvarez, the elevated railway system has been introduced in Bangkok and a subway is under construction.
In Jakarta, the Jabotabek railway is successfully operated, using the existing national railway a an urban mass transport system. An MRT subway will be introduced shortly.
In Manila, Alvarez cited the LRT and MRT lines, which are now being extended to cover other parts of Metro Manila and surrounding areas, including Cavite.
The most successful urban railway network by far, is that of Tokyo, which is classified as the most highly developed.
The greater Tokyo urban railway network has been cited as the most successful example even from the global point of view.
Alvarez said the Philippines has a lot to learn from the Japanese experience.
The recently concluded First Policy Initiative in Transport (1st POINT) meeting in Bangkok had recommended to the four countries concerned the construction of urban railways systems as the long-term solution to burgeoning metropolitan population, traffic congestion and global warming.
Urban railway systems, however, pose several technological problems, especially for developing countries, especially Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, Alvarez said.
These problems include the construction of railways and related structures, equipment to manufacture and maintain rolling stocks, and electricity for signal communications.
Other problems include integrated operation plan spanning many different facilities, realization of profitability, large scale fund raising for investment, and preparation for long-term repayment schedules.
Another cooperative project entered into by the four countries is the launching of a survey to determine the carbon dioxide emissions.
John: The game being played here is to say that "If we install the European Railway Train Management System [ERMTS]we have to do it throughout the entire 12,000-mile system." In other words, it is inconceivable that you would have Automatic Train Stop on main lines where speeds exceed 75 mph (the point where Railtrack admits that its preferred Train Protection and Warning System [TPWS] loses its ability to stop a train in time to avoid a collision with another train) and not on every obscure branch line or freight-only line in the country. The bill has been deliberately inflated to give the Treasury an excuse for not funding a rational program.
Evening Standard
Thursday, April 18, 2002
Rail chiefs are today set to reject a key safety requirement recommended at the Paddington and Southall disaster inquiry. The ERTMS system would halt a train automatically if it went through a red signal. But a report to be published next week from the rail industry, which includes the train companies and Railtrack, will conclude that the £10 billion cost of installing it nationally in one go will be too expensive.
Instead the industry is looking at a version of ERTMS that could take 15 years to implement.
CN Plus
Thursday, April 18, 2002
London Underground has selected five teams to work up bids for the second major contract on the £600 million East London Line extension project.
Mowlem, Hochtief, Murphy, Birse and Norwest Holst are all bidding for the £11 million contract to upgrade bridges between Whitechapel and Finsbury Park.
Tenders will be returned tomorrow (Friday, April 19, 2002) with contract award expected in June. Work will start on site in July.
Murphy took the £5 million first phase package of work last October. This includes demolishing the former Bishopsgate Goodsyard site but it has been delayed by the listing of the Braithwaite viaduct that backs onto it
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
04/19/2002
A Senate committee endorsed a big increase in federal funds for passenger train service Thursday while also complaining about Amtrak, a chronic money-loser for the government.
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted 20-3 for a bill that would keep Amtrak operating for five more years and spend $4.6 billion a year on improving and expanding rail service.
The bill goes to the full Senate.
Sen. Ernest Hollings, the committee chairman and bill sponsor, said the Sept. 11 attacks showed that America needs alternatives to flying and driving. Hollings, D-S.C., said Congress has treated Amtrak "with benign neglect" for three decades.
With Congress due to vote this year on the future of passenger rail service, the Hollings bill represents the most comprehensive and Amtrak-friendly of several proposals. Thirty-two senators, mostly Democrats, have signed on to the bill.
Should it pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, it has a tough road in the Republican-controlled House.
House transportation leaders from both parties are working on a short-term solution that would give Amtrak the $1.2 billion it says it needs to keep all the trains running for another year.
Some lawmakers support a plan by the congressionally created Amtrak Reform Council to break up Amtrak and franchise out its routes to introduce competition.
One supporter of that plan is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Commerce Committee. He pleaded with his colleagues not to give Amtrak additional money without requiring major reforms.
"We have a responsibility to fix a program that has consistently fallen woefully short of the goals Congress has set for Amtrak, and that Amtrak has set for itself," McCain said.
McCain's colleagues agreed in principle to his amendment requiring that any new high-speed rail projects be open to competitive bidding — a potential challenge to Amtrak's monopoly on passenger service. The committee asked its staff to study the legal implications of such an idea.
McCain saved some of his displeasure for the Bush administration, saying it "has failed, utterly, to say one word" about Amtrak's future.
The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on railroads, Rep. Jack Quinn, met Thursday with administration representatives. Quinn, R-N.Y., said only that the White House "has a solid grasp" on the issues surrounding Amtrak's future.
Under the Hollings bill, $4.6 billion per year would be spent on Amtrak operations, renovations to Amtrak-owned tracks in the Northeast, and development of new high-speed corridors.
The bill would add Los Angeles-Las Vegas as the 11th federally designated high-speed corridor.
The bill would provide a one-time infusion of more than $1.4 billion for safety and security improvements, including money for X-ray machines, bomb-detecting dogs, and a satellite-based system to shut down any locomotive not under control of its crew.
To make the bill more palatable to some colleagues, Hollings revised it to require Amtrak to submit a detailed five-year financial plan along with its annual budget request to Congress. He also added money for security upgrades outside the Northeast.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a critic of Amtrak since it canceled the Chicago-Portland-Seattle "Pioneer" route in 1997, added an amendment to force Amtrak to use objective criteria when making route and service decisions.
The Dallas Morning News
04/19/2002
June 18, 1998: A Chicago-bound commuter train slams into a tractor-trailer carrying large steel coils in Portage, Ind., hurling one of the coils into a rail car, killing three passengers and injuring four others.
March 15, 1999: An Amtrak train collides with a truck and derails near Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 13 people and injuring more than 100.
Sept. 20, 1999: An Amtrak train rear-ends a freight train in a rail yard in Cumberland, Md., injuring 37 people.
March 15, 2000: An Amtrak train derails alongside a cornfield near Carbondale, Kan., injuring 29 passengers.
Nov. 4, 2000: An Amtrak train derails after hitting a truck near Moorpark, Calif., killing the truck driver and injuring about 30 people on the train.
Feb. 5, 2001: An Amtrak train collides with a freight train on the same track in Syracuse, N.Y., injuring 61 people.
March 17, 2001: An Amtrak train carrying 210 people from Chicago to California derails in southwest Iowa, killing one passenger and injuring about 90 others.
The Houston Chronicle
04/19/2002
Road construction in downtown Houston has caused daily inconveniences to workers, but it has proven especially painful to disabled people who work in the courthouses and office buildings.
Stripped of nearby handicapped parking, court employees like trial coordinator Betsy Wall, who wears leg braces and suffers from back problems, must park blocks away from 301 Fannin.
"The city would rather give construction workers free parking spots than bring back the four handicapped spaces we had before. This has been going on for more than a year now," Wall said Thursday.
"I can't feel my feet. I'm doing good to walk a city block before my legs and hips go into spasms," she said.
Handicapped ramps have been removed because of construction on the Metropolitan Transit Authority's light rail line on Main Street and the Cotswold Project that includes the county courthouse complex along Preston.
Construction workers block entrances with their heavy equipment and park their cars in spots close to the county buildings by 6 a.m.
Some county workers are coming to work at 5:30 a.m. to beat the construction crews to the accessible spots.
Wall, as well as judges and other county employees, have requested help from the city, but to no avail, they said.
"Basically, I was told it was a Harris County problem," said Administrative Judge Mark Davidson at the Harris County Civil Courthouse.
"I'm looking out my window now and see three lanes of Congress Avenue taken up for storage of concrete bags, pipes, rebar and construction workers' cars," Davidson said.
Davidson, taking a short break between a trial, said disabled jurors, lawyers, court employees and those ordered to appear in court have the right to expect accessible parking.
"I know these construction projects are important and I know you have to break eggs to make an omelet. But you don't have to break two dozen eggs to make a three-egg omelet," Davidson said.
Despite myriad complaints, city officials said they had not been aware of the lack of handicapped parking around the courthouse complex.
"I heard about the problem an hour ago. We're working with the traffic and transportation division of the city's Public Works (and Engineering Department) to address the issue," said Joel Albrecht, the chief clerk for the city's Municipal Court administration.
Albrecht said a possible solution may include "appropriate signs to assist motorists with disabilities."
San Jacinto Street has finally reopened after construction, but parking on that side of the courthouse is not allowed until after 9 a.m. to avoid further traffic problems, workers said.
But most county employees and others with court summons must report to the courthouses by 8 a.m.
"The city workers are right there giving out parking tickets if you try to park before 9 a.m. I've been in my car there two minutes early and they tell me to go around the block again or I get a ticket," said Mary Nichols, a district clerk employee.
Wall said she has received two parking tickets in the past few months even though she was parked in handicapped parking blocks away.
"I was told the spaces had been reserved for construction, although it was still designated handicapped parking," Wall said as she held her bright green ticket and payment envelope.
"I think I'm going to fight this one," she said.
State District Judge Caroline Baker said she also has tried to get a city response to the worsening parking situation for the courthouses.
"It looks very bad for a government building where people are required to appear, including lawyers and jurors in wheelchairs, not to provide them with access," Baker said.
"It sends a horrible message that we have no handicapped spaces available."
Newsday (Long Island, NY)
04/19/2002
When controversy surfaced a couple of years ago about massive cost overruns at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's renovation of its new offices in Manhattan, the agency said the project was a good deal for the public.
But now its looks like the MTA — and taxpayers — might have been getting their pockets picked.
Yesterday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced the indictment of a Manhattan developer and several other men, including an official of a Flushing union, on charges they ripped off the MTA for $10 million over two years.
The scheme was carried out, prosecutors allege, through a labyrinth of shell companies and deals that inflated project costs.
A 55-count indictment alleges that developer Frederick Contini, 40, who was once named "Developer of the Year" by a trade group, conspired with union officials and others to reap gains from the fraud at the project.
Some of the ill-gotten gains, prosecutors charged, went to the acquisition of a winery in Italy for Contini and another suspect, Constantine Vafias, 63, a contractor from Brooklyn.
Among those indicted was James Roemer, 35, the treasurer of the Flushing-based Local 14 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, and two members of Local 1 of the International Union of Elevator Constructors.
After prosecutors alleged he was a flight risk and that he had told a witness to flee to Ireland, Roemer was ordered held without bail yesterday. Contini and Vafias were freed on $500,000 bail.
The MTA in 1998 signed a 50-year lease for space at 2 Broadway, which is owned by the Zar Realty Management Corp. through a subsidiary. In the rental, Zar was supposed to repair the core and shell of the building, while the MTA was to improve its office space. The MTA would finance the core project up to $55 million and pay for its own office improvements. According to the indictment, Contini worked for Zar and oversaw its work at 2 Broadway.
But after a legal dispute, the MTA terminated Zar as developer and in 1999 contracted directly with Contini to fix the shell and core of the building, the indictment stated.
The indictment charged Contini schemed with others in March 1999 to enter into a sham agreement with a company owned by Vafias. Prosecutors contend the contract funneled money to the conspirators through kickbacks and shell companies.
According to officials, the MTA and Zar were cheated out of more than $10 million on the project.
In a statement, the MTA said that to help the probe it did not fire Contini until yesterday.
Agence France Presse
04/19/2002
Amtrak confirmed Friday that four people died and 133 were injured when an auto train traveling to Washington derailed just 96 kilometers (60 miles) into its journey from Orlando, Florida.
Federal investigators descended on the nearby town of Crescent City in the pre-dawn hours to determine how the 41-car train derailed.
Initial reports put the casualty toll at six, with more than 200 of the 468 people onboard reported injured, but Amtrak, with help from the Florida Highway Patrol, revised the figures substantially downward.
Chick Williams of the highway patrol said that preliminary investigations seem to suggest that something went awry with the "emergency braking mode," but, he added, "we don't know why" it happened.
From the southeastern state's capital, Tallahassee, Governor Jeb Bush, younger brother of President George W. Bush, issued a statement sending "thoughts and prayers" to those involved in the "terrible accident."
The Florida-Washington auto train, among the most popular routes run by Amtrak from the resort city of Orlando, apparently jumped the tracks shortly after pulling out from the Sanford station.
Preliminary investigations from the National Transportation Safety Board suggest that only baggage-carrying cars managed to remain upright. Fourteen of the 16 passenger cars derailed, with seven having flipped over, their metallic bodies forming a wobbly W that snaked alongside the track, images broadcast by local television revealed.
The other 23 train cars, packed with baggage and automobiles, suffered only superficial scratches.
Hospitals across north-central and central Florida were tending to the injured.
"We've had (rescue) people working all night here and we'll stay here until everybody is accounted for," Captain Keith Riddick, a spokesman for the Putnam County Sheriffs Department told a Tampa radio station.
Many of the survivor were eager to share their experiences with reporters describing scenes of horror they witnessed in the aftermath of the derailment.
"I rolled over, my bags rolled over, people rolled over me, windows all over the train broke, and everything was just a big mess," Terry Weishaus, a passenger on the train, told a St. Petersburg TV station.
The train had been inspected by Amtrak authorities just eight hours earlier, and the train owner and operator, the CSX Corporation, reported nothing was amiss.
The derailment was the second-deadliest crash to hit the cash-strapped railway company in a decade.
Amtrak's worst incident occurred in 1993, when an passenger train plunged into an Alabama bayou, killing 47 people.
Business Wire
04/19/2002
Federal Railroad Administration Conducted Special Audit of CSX After Series of Derailments — Some in Florida
According to NTSB officials on the scene in Florida, the engineer of the Amtrak Auto Train that derailed on Thursday tried to stop when he saw the tracks ahead were misaligned. CSXT spokesperson, Susan Keegan, has been reported as saying they "have had no problems with this area of the track."
In 2000, the Federal Railroad (FRA) conducted a special audit of CSXT track, after a series of derailments the agency had become concerned about their condition. Under its significant findings, the FRA cited a derailment of a CSXT freight train on main line track in its Sanford, Florida Subdivision, not far from the site of Thursday's Amtrak derailment. The FRA attributed this derailment, which occurred on December 31, 1999, to a warp condition in the track. That derailment occurred despite the warp condition having been reported to CSXT by the FRA's special auditors prior to the derailment.
The FRA went on to report that the leading cause of the track related derailments was wide gauge, a condition where the distance between the rails exceeds the allowable standards.
While CSXT is required to inspect its most heavily used lines twice weekly, the FRA reported that the "failure of CSXT track inspectors to detect many of the conditions found during the FRA audit indicates a lack of quality in the track inspection programs of many CSXT divisions."
Additionally, the FRA referred to the failure of CSXT to initiate remedial actions. As an example the FRA cited a March 1, 2000 inspection where it found 23 locations of wide gauge in the Florida panhandle which had been reported by CSXT employees three weeks earlier, but no remedial action had been taken.
The FRA noted that the company reduced the number of inspectors and increased the amount of track the remaining employees had to cover and that some CSX inspection reports "did not reflect the conditions" found by the agency's employees.
Nolan Law Group filed a lawsuit in March on behalf the family of a woman killed in Amtrak's last derailment. The California Zephyr derailed on March 17, 2001 near Nodaway, Iowa. Amtrak and Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railroad were named as defendants.
The Evening Standard (London)
04/19/2002
LONDON commuter trains costing £1 billion are being built in Germany because British manufacturers failed to meet either the delivery deadline or the price.
South West Trains, which runs on the busiest routes in the country into Waterloo, will unveil the first of its high-specification Desiro trains at a test track at Wildenrath, Germany, next week.
The decision to order from Siemens disappointed train manufacturers here who competed for the lucrative contract, Britain's biggest ever single order for rolling stock. Moving to Germany, however, illustrates the poor state of the UK train-building industry.
Train-maker Bombardier — Midlands-based but French-Canadian owned — which has taken over the former British Rail engineering works, said: "We competed for the contract and when we failed it caused a lot of upset because it would have guaranteed jobs in this country.
"We always try to push the fact that we are a UK-based manufacturer but it is cheaper elsewhere."
A second company, Alstom, which has its British headquarters in Birmingham, also failed.
Jane Lee, spokeswoman for Stagecoach-owned South West Trains, said: "We invited British and European companies to tender in the way we are required to do. The winning bid was chosen on the basis of price, specification and the ability to meet the tight 2004 deadline." But an SWT source said: "We went to Germany because of the unreliability of trains built in this country.
We would have been happy to award the contract to someone here but, frankly, they were beaten on price and delivery. You only have to look at the situation at Connex to see what we mean."
Siemens said: "The reason why we won the contract and are able meet the tough deadline is because of our special test track. We know from experience that trains need to be proven before they are delivered.
That is our trump card."
There is no equal test track in the UK — instead trains, once they are delivered, have to be run for thousands of miles without passengers which all adds to the time taken before they go into service.
Siemens says that because its trains are fully tested under operating conditions they can very quickly go into passenger service.
Connex has ordered trains worth £180 million from Bombardier but they are more than a year late coming into service because of faults with onboard computers, doors and coupling mechanisms. Another deadline to introduce 16 trains was missed on Monday.
SWT has already ordered 30 fourcarriage trains from Alstom, which describes itself as a global company with headquarters in Paris, but not all of these are in service. There have been various problems including ride quality and faulty air-conditioning.
The first of the Desiro stock is due to come into service at the end of this year and the remainder during 2003-2004, to meet government deadlines for the replacement of 40-yearold slam-door stock.
The Transport & General Workers Union said of the decision to go to Germany: "It is disappointing when train operating companies don't use UK-based manufacturers, especially as we have the skills and ability to produce the goods."
Meanwhile, SWT commuters have launched a campaign to prevent the Alstom-built stock being used during peak periods because, they say, they are so unreliable.
The April newsletter of the Alton Line Users Association said the trains have made the line "the worst performer on the network".
In Kent, Connex commuters have launched a fight to keep the 1960s slam-door stock rather than have them replaced with newer but "unreliable" Networker trains.
THOUSANDS of Tube commuters suffered long delays on the Central line yesterday after a signal failure. Some trains were stuck in tunnels for more than an hour. There was further disruption on the District line because of a signal failure at Wimbledon. Earlier this week LU announced its services had hit "an all-time high" with "journeys getting faster and fewer train delays and cancellations." Commuter Rob Wilshire, 28, said: "I suggest LU managers leave their ivory tower once in a while and get out onto the system to see what it is really going on."
The Tribune-Review
Sunday, November 11, 2001
The first day of the new year will mark the 100th anniversary of one of the most significant elements in Pittsburgh-area mass transit. It was on Jan. 1, 1902, that a maze of trolley lines, holding companies and corporate identities were wrapped into the Pittsburgh Railways Co. operation.
Even today, surface transportation is making news with the upcoming decision and some controversy over maglev, the innovative magnetic levitation transportation system.
But a century ago, trolleys were the key to area transportation.
Horse cars had made their debut in Pittsburgh in 1859 and McKeesport in 1887. Prior to 1874, all charters for street passenger railways were granted by special state legislative acts.
First was Citizens' Passenger Railway, from Market and Fifth downtown on Butler Street to Sharpsburg. Next among four companies chartered in 1859 came Pittsburgh, Allegheny & Manchester Passenger Railway to Woods Run.
Two others that year were the East Liberty Passenger Railway "to the village of East Liberty" and the Pittsburgh and Birmingham Railway to what is known as the South Side.
Many others came in the 1860s and succeeding years.
The first electric line was built from Carson Street on the South Side to Knoxville in 1887. Its heavy grade was destined to be a failure, as was the second, Observatory Hill Passenger Railway, in 1888.
First successful lines were the Federal Street & Pleasant Valley and the Second Avenue Passenger Railways, which began operations in 1890.
That same year, electric railways began functioning at Greensburg and Washington. The Greensburg & Hempfield Electric Street Railway operated from downtown out to the later hospital area and through Southwest Greensburg to the South Greensburg industrial district.
Washington's first trolleys also operated in the downtown area, distance transmission of electricity still a problem.
From a total of 87 miles of electric trolley tracks in 1890, the total in the Pittsburgh area rose to 337 miles by 1896. The proliferation of small, most quite local lines created problems. Some competed with one another.
In 1895, the Consolidated Traction Co. was chartered and secured control of several lines. In 1897, the United Traction leased and purchased several lines.
That same year, the West End Traction Co. was formed and acquired control of a number of lines.
Then, in the winter of 1899, the Philadelphia Company, a utility holding company, acquired control of United. The process continued with numerous acquisitions, such as Southern Traction (became Pittsburgh Railways) addition by lease of the properties and franchises of West End Traction.
The process was climaxed with the Jan. 1, 1902, takeover of practically all of the railways in the district.
By that time, there were many lines. Extensions and other changes continued, with the interurban lines to Charleroi and Washington leased in 1905.
The history of Pittsburgh Railways was an eventful one until, with the trolley business declining dramatically, Port Authority Transmit took over in 1964 and abandoned a number of additional lines, substituting buses.
However, many remember the colorful days of the trolleys, and their transport to such as Pitt Stadium and Forbes Field, some using the incomparable "Flying Fraction" (77/54 trolley)!
A familiar name in Fayette County is Leisenring as a town and three former mines.
The 8,900-acre Leisenring coal field had the three mines, opened first in 1882 by Connellsville Coal & Coke Co. The name came from the president of the company, John Leisenring, a native of Philadelphia who lived at Mauch Chunk, Pa.
The three mines were sold to H.C. Frick Coke in 1890. Between 35 million and 40 million tons of coal came from them before shutdown in the late 1950s.
Born in 1819, Leisenring's family moved to Mauch Chunk in 1828. A civil engineer, he was involved in canal and railroad construction before getting into coal mining, first with eastern anthracite.
Looking afield, they chose the tract of Connellsville coal in 1880 and formed a corporation to develop it as was the custom.
The product is similar, but the advertising for it has changed.
In the mid-1930s, the printed advertising for the Tarr brewery in southern Westmoreland County, said: "Tarr beer is not only a beverage of superior quality but a tonic as well. In addition to its nourishing constituents and probable high vitamin content, the hop extracts which it contains are believed to act as a stimulant of the bile secretion.
"In convalescence after a long or acute illness, when vitality is low, sleep disturbed, digestion impaired and nerves bad, the vitalizing properties of Tarr beer have proved to be of immense help."
Robert B. Van Atta is history editor of the Tribune-Review.