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Line 9 forges on

Railway Gazette International May 2004: City News THE CATALUNYA regional government has awarded a consortium of Dragados, Necso, Comsa, ACS and Soirgué a contract worth €89.8m to build the Sagrera-Meridiana - Onze de Setembre section of Line 9 on the Barcelona metro network. The contract also includes the boring of a 12m diameter tunnel for the largely parallel section of Line 4 between Santander and Sagrera-Meridiana, part of the extension from La Pau, and construction of the new Line 4 station at Sagrera-Meridiana (currently Sagrera served by Lines 1 and 5). This section of Line 4 is to be used by Line 9 trains while work continues on the new line between Sagrera-Meridiana and Zona Universitaria. Spoil will be removed through the parallel tunnel for Line 9. A second contract worth €88.9m covers tunnels connecting Lines 4 and 9 with a new depot to be built east of the high speed station at Sagrera. This has been awarded to FCC, Copcisa, OHL, Ferrovial-Agromán and Copisa. Tunnelling is now underway on Line 9’s two northern branches, with the TBM launched from Can Zam having bored nearly 1.7km to a point between the future stations at Singuerlín and Església. The TBM launched from Gorg has passed Llefia. At the far southern end, work is due to begin by mid-June on the 3.9 km section from Mas Blau to the new terminal at Barcelona Airport, awarded to FCC, Ferrovial-Agromán, Scrinser, OHL, Copisa for €139m. Including three stations, work is expected to take 20 months to complete.

Yarra Trams takes over

Railway Gazette International May 2004: City News At 03.01 on April 18 Yarra Trams became the new name for Melbourne’s entire privatised tram network when the company assumed responsibility for the former National Express Swanston Trams franchise operated under the M>Tram brand. Yarra Trams Chief Executive Hubert Guyot drove the first tram, a Siemens Combino low-floor car, from Malvern depot at 06.16 (right) to form a Route 16 service to St Kilda Beach. A major de-branding exercise had taken place overnight to remove M>Tram and Swanston Trams signage from 275 trams and 1200 stops. All cars were cleaned for the first commuter runs on April 19. Speaking hours after Yarra Trams began its five-year partnership with the government of Victoria to operate the whole 262km network, Guyot promised to increase service frequency from 12min to 10min intervals with an extra 28 daily services. An additional 50 tram attendants have been employed to provide help and information to passengers. Specialist staff from Bombardier Transportation and Thiess-Infraco, who previously provided outsourced maintenance and infrastructure services to M>Tram under contract, are now employed by Yarra Trams. At the same time, Connex quietly commenced as the single operator of Melbourne’s commuter rail services. Only V/Line Passenger, which operates longer-distance services in Victoria, remains in government ownership.

Second Avenue project split up

Railway Gazette International May 2004: City News Chairman of New York MTA Peter Kalikow has confirmed that the $17bn Second Avenue subway will be built in stages to make it easier to secure funding. MTA plans envisage that the first phase will have only four stations before merging with the existing BMT Broadway subway. The line would start at 96th Street and Second Avenue and run south, with stations at 86th and 72nd streets. The tunnel would then veer west, stopping at 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue station before linking up to the Broadway line, which serves Midtown, lower Manhattan and connects to the subway’s Brooklyn network. Three future construction phases would extend the line along Second Avenue north to 125th Street and south to Hanover Square. Optimistic projections have Phase One work starting later this year and being completed in 2011. The entire route would be finished in 2020.

Northrail starts as Line 2 grows

Railway Gazette International May 2004: City News A CEREMONY was held in Manila on April 5 to mark the start of work on the long-planned Northrail project to rehabilitate the former Philippine National Railways Main Line North. Closed since 1982, the single-track 1067mm gauge line is to be rebuilt as a double-track route able to carry 350000 passengers a day in a fleet of Japanese DMUs. Provision will be made for electrification. The first phase, due for completion by 2007, covers the 32km from Caloocan to Malolos with intermediate stations at Malabon, Valenzuela, Bocaue and Marilao. Initial work includes rehousing thousands of squatters who have occupied the alignment. The cost of this is partly covered in a funding package from the ExportImport Bank of China, which is providing US$421m towards the US$503m total cost; the Philippine government is contributing US$82m. A second phase of work will see a branch built to the freeport zone in Zambales, and a third should see the route extended from Caloocan to Taguig. The next stage will cover rehabilitation as far as San Fernando, and the line will ultimately reach Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, the former Clark US Air Force base. April 5 also saw an inaugural trip on LRT Line 2 over the central section between Betty Go/Belmonte Street in Quezon City and Legarda in Manila. Free rides were offered on the following day, with commercial service starting on April 7. Previously, only the 4.5km section between Santolan and Araneta Center had been open. According to LRTA Administrator Pacifico Morales Fajardo, the final section from the interchange with Line 1 to Tutuban will open by October. Meanwhile, the Investment Co-ordination Committee of the National Economic & Development Authority has granted provisional approval for a BOT scheme for Line 7, which would run between Quezon City and Tala in Caloocan City.

Traction equipment for Ukraine

Railway Gazette International May 2004: News UKRAINIAN locomotive builder GP NPK Electro-vozostroeniya has placed a €120m order with Siemens for traction equipment to be installed in 100 DS3 electric locomotives being built for Ukrainian Railways at Dnepropetrovsk. Developed jointly by the two companies, the DS3 is a mixed traffic design able to accept power at 3kV DC and 25kV 50Hz. The traction package includes three-phase asynchronous motors, and Siemens will supply compact IGBT traction converters, auxiliary converters and locomotive control systems; Siemens Ukraine will be responsible for assembly and commissioning. Rated at 4800kW, the 90 tonne locomotives will have a maximum speed of 160km/h. A prototype (above) has already been tested.

Trambaix opens for business

Railway Gazette International May 2004: City News ON APRIL 3 the 12km Trambaix light rail network in Barcelona carried its first passengers. The new system is operated as three services, all running between Francesc Macia and Montesa where they diverge to serve Bon Viatge (T1) and Sant Martí de l’Erm (T2). Route T3 also runs to Sant Martí de l’Erm at present, but is due to be extended to Consell Comarcal in the Sant Just Desvern district. Operated with a fleet of 19 Alstom Citadis LRVs, Trambaix is expected to carry 9million passengers in its first 12 months of operation, with the annual average ridership rising to 16.9million over the 25 years of the concession to build and operate the system held by Tramvia Metropolita SA (MR03 p27). Some driver training took place in Bordeaux where consortium member Connex is also the operator. To the east of the city, test-running was due to start on the two routes of the 14km Trambesas network, expected to open in time for the Forum Barcelona 2004 cultural festival. The main venue for this event running from May 9 to September 26 is a 30ha water-front site close to the boundary between Barcelona and Sant Adria de Besas.

Charleroi restart

Railway Gazette International June 2004: City News WALLOON Transport Minister José Daras has unveiled a €89.4m programme to complete the light metro network in Charleroi within five years. Work on this long-stalled project began in 1970 and is believed to have cost BFr22.5bn to date. The latest proposals would see a new surface alignment to complete the city-centre loop between Parc and the SNCB station at Charleroi Sud, expected to cost €18.8m, and the extension of the Gilly branch to Soleilmont, budgeted at €17.2m. The largest single project is a new route from Piges to Gosselies costing €39.7m, where reserved alignments would replace the currently-disused street tracks. To fund the programme, metro company SRWT would borrow €84.7m with guarantees from the Walloon regional government, which would be responsible for debt repayment including financial charges.

Portland launches Yellow Line

Railway Gazette International June 2004: City News CELEBRATIONS were held in Portland, Oregon, on May 1 to mark the inauguration of the city’s third light rail line. The 9.3km Interstate Avenue extension has been opened four months early at a total cost of $350m. Running north from the city to Expo Center, TriMet’s Yellow Line adds 10 stations to the MAX network, bringing the total route length to 70.8km and 64 stations. Trains run every 10min during rush hours and every 15min at other times. Community celebrations were held at many stations during the opening weekend. Almost 38000 passengers enjoyed free rides over the two days. Revenue service began on May 3, and TriMet reported a total of 12900 passengers on the first day; this is just 1 000 less than the target ridership after one year of operation. Preliminary engineering design is already underway for the Green Line, which would diverge from the existing network at Gateway and run south for 10.5km along the I-205 corridor to Clackamas Town Center, serving eight stations. The project would also include a second east-west link across the city centre, which would also be used by the Yellow Line. TriMet hopes to start construction next year for opening in 2008. In the longer term, TriMet plans to extend the Green Line south along the east side of the Willamette valley to Milwaukie.

Praha extends Line C

Railway Gazette International June 2004: City News JUNE 26 is due to see the opening of a 3.9km northern extension of Praha metro Line C. Section IVC1 runs from Nádrazí Holesovice to Ládví, serving one intermediate station at Kobyliské Námestí. The extension is the first addition to the Praha metro network since the opening of Line B to Cerny Most in November 1998. Built by Metrostav Praha over the past four years, the extension is costed at KC4.7bn, partially funded by a €75m credit from the European Investment Bank (RG 11.00 p700). Line C is now worked entirely by M1 series five-car trainsets built by Siemens subsidiary SKV at Zlicín. Work began in May on a further 4.9km extension running east from Ládví to Prosek and Letnany, which is expected to open in 2008. Around 40% of Section IVC2 will run in tunnel, and the line will terminate at a new bus interchange. The project also includes a light rail feeder serving the northern residential suburb of Bohnice. Construction of the KC9.8bn extension has been split between Metrostav, Subterra and Skanska, with the Swedish company having a 37% share of the contract value. EIB agreed in September 2003 to provide another €75m credit towards the cost of the latest extension.

Champaign — Trolley Temporarily Derailed

Rail Transit Online May 2004 Widespread dissatisfaction with the proposed $178-million fixed guideway transit system linking downtown Champaign with Urbana and the University of Illinois convinced the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District board on Mar. 31 to delay making a decision on whether to seek federal funding for continued engineering and design studies. “We’ve gotten some encouragement from citizens.” MTD board Chairman H. George Friedman told The News-Gazette. “We’ve gotten some discouragement from citizens. It was appropriate to go to the community and say `this is the situation we are facing.’ We have to be thinking ahead to something more than buses. But I don’t think the exact form needs to be decided right now, or the exact costs.” Other board members blamed public opposition on misinformation, contending that the community has to be better educated with more facts. The Urbana City Council voted in favor of further study while lawmakers in adjacent Champaign opposed the plan (see RTOL, Mar. & Apr. 2004). Although streetcars appear to be the preferred mode, guided buses and bus rapid transit would also be considered as the technology of choice. MTD General Manager Bill Volk outlined several factors for the MTD board’s decision. “We frankly are struggling with the weight of the project,” he told The News-Gazette. “Taking stock of where we are is good for the board and for us.” Volk also noted that the FTA is changing its criteria for smaller fixed guideway schemes. “This effectively means starting over with new individuals with little or no understanding of the project,” he said.

Strong interest in abandoned railroad right-of-way

WMC-TV Memphis 25 May 2004 Memphis City Councilman Jack Sammons says there’s strong interest in converting an abandoned railroad right-of-way into a bike trail. He says he’s gotten a lot of e-mails from citizens who support the idea. An anonymous person told the councilman that he’d like to purchase the old C-S-X freight line for possible use as a bike trail. Sammons says the right-of-way could be set aside for possible future use as a light rail line. The track runs 13-point-3 miles from the Poplar/Union viaduct near Midtown, through East Memphis, past Shelby Farms and across Cordova, ending near Macon at Lenow. Last year, C-S-X received federal permission to abandon service on the little used line. Sammons says he won’t reveal the identity of the person who has offered to buy the right-of-way. But he says the person isn’t looking for recognition and made the offer -quote- “from the goodness of their heart.”

Mass transit: The way out of gridlock

North County Times 26 May 2004 I read with great interest and was impressed with the North County Times’ May 19 editorial, “SANDAG must fix spending plan.” The “Our View: Money must be spent where the problems are… on the roads that carry the most traffic,” conveys the crux of the matter. Interstates 5 and 15 and Highway 78 grow worse with each added housing development. That’s where the money must be spent — — not on the Sprinter. The same editorial referred to using eminent domain to acquire land for more freeway lanes. I couldn’t disagree more. Why must we be fixated on the 1960s concept of adding more lanes? This mental posture will eventually have San Diego County carpeted with concrete from the coast to 10 miles inland. Let’s evolve in our thinking and use the space above the freeways and highways. This is not to imply double-tier roadways. Prestressed, reinforced concrete should be arched over the main corridors with north and south rails from which are suspended people-moving cars that travel 100 mph. We need not claim more land. The corridors are owned by the people. We just need to use the space above them. Many dismiss the idea because downtown San Diego has no space to load and unload the commuters. The answer is simple. We place the elevated rails over the main arteries downtown and extend ramps from the second or third floor of buildings for stations, — -which would be claimed by eminent domain — — then add escalators to street level. Commuters could park their cars in North County, get a comfortable seat, use their commuting time productively, arrive at work relaxed and eliminate the parking fees, gasoline costs, maintenance and high insurance rates. Why are we citizens, one per car, shoehorned into a traffic mess that will only get worse? Why burn up the millions of gallons of gas each year, pollute our air, shorten our lives in stressed-out bumper-to-bumper traffic, and worst of all, waste thousands of hours sitting behind the wheel? Think of the commuting time that could be saved each day if we could travel at 50 mph to 100 mph instead of 15 to 60. More time could be spent with our families. Isn’t it time we take control of our future? The technology is available but is the political will power available? We must be aware that politicians are willing recipients of financial assistance from the corporations that benefit from keeping rubber on the road. The automobile manufacturers, the oil and gas corporations, the tire companies all contribute to desecrate our life style. Letters to politicians with these ideas meet with no response, or, as Supervisor Bill Horn said, “Good idea; we’ll put your letter in the file.” If memory serves, Chicago built its El in the 1930s. These antiquated eyesores today convey thousands of commuters. Why must San Diego County wait 75 years to recognize the wisdom of mass transit?

Steep Cost Overruns, Delays Plague Efforts to Rebuild Bay Bridge

Los Angeles Times May 29, 2004 When officials six years ago unveiled their plans to rebuild portions of the earthquake-damaged San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, they said the span would rival even the famed Golden Gate Bridge. They envisioned a sleek, modern design that would have at its center a 525-foot suspension tower rising from San Francisco Bay, providing a distinctive addition to the area’s skyline. But this gem is proving to be costly. The elaborate design, praised at its inception, now is being blamed for ballooning costs and several delays. Caltrans says it will cost about $4 billion to build the bridge — three times more than the agency expected in 2001. This week, officials announced that the suspension tower alone would cost $1 billion more than originally expected. One reason, they said, is the state’s “Buy America” rules, which dictate that Caltrans can use foreign steel on the bridge only if its cost is at least 25% less than domestic steel. In this case, the difference is only 23%, so the state must go with domestic steel. That added $400 million to the price tag. At the same time, the estimated completion date for the project — originally slated for 2006 — has been pushed back to 2010. And many expect that deadline to be missed too. “The whole process has taken a lot longer than anybody would’ve ever expected,” said Joe Haraburda, president of the Oakland Metro Chamber of Commerce. “It’s something that needs to be done. Let’s get it done.” The Bay Bridge has always played second fiddle to the more famous Golden Gate. Though the Golden Gate’s soaring, Art Deco towers are one of the world’s most recognizable symbols, the Bay Bridge has a plainer appearance. The Bay Bridge spans about 4 1/2 miles and is divided into two separate sections connecting San Francisco in the west with Oakland in the east. Bridge tunnels pierce Yerba Buena Island at the center of the bay. The 7.1-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 crippled the eastern side of the bridge. Temporary fixes were made to reopen it. But the temblor provided the community a chance to build a more architecturally dramatic replacement that also would resist a major quake. The new design, selected by the Bay Area Toll Authority in 1998, calls for the Oakland side of the bridge to be demolished after a new bridge is built. The new structure will include a two-mile-long elevated roadway supported by the tower, which in an artist’s drawing is illuminated by lights and a beacon on top. The 10-lane roadway provides a clear view of the San Francisco and Oakland skylines. Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the Bay Area Toll Authority, said officials were fully aware of the costs involved in building an architecturally complex structure. “There was consciousness that we would have to pay,” he said. “We expected to pay. There was absolutely a strong consciousness that an architectural bridge was going to cost more. This was not ignored; it was as obvious as it could be.” San Francisco-based T.Y. Lin International was awarded the contract to design the bridge. Critics, however, say the toll authority made a mistake by not selecting a less ambitious but more economical design. “The construction is so laborious that it’s just very expensive,” said Gary Black, a professor of architecture at UC Berkeley whose design for the bridge was turned down. “It’s not an economical bridge.” Caltrans officials have faced repeated roadblocks since the design was chosen. Much of the project’s costs have been underestimated, and few construction companies have shown interest in building the bridge because of its massive scale. “Not a lot of companies have the financial backing to build a project like this,” said Dan McElhinney, chief deputy director of Caltrans for the Oakland office. The high steel prices that have plagued construction companies in recent years, combined with rising insurance costs for such massive projects, limit the number of companies with the resources to take on this construction, McElhinney said. This week, the agency received only one bid to do the construction. It came from a consortium of firms: American Bridge, Nippon Steel Bridge and Fluor Corp. Caltrans has not decided whether to accept the bid or advertise it again in hopes of attracting more construction firms. The bridge’s construction will be financed by a pool of federal and state funds set aside for bridge replacement. Caltrans officials still have to determine whether the pool can cover the latest price hikes. The western side of the Bay Bridge — which is being seismically retrofitted — is nearly complete.

Camera phones helping to keep an eye on crime; Visual evidence helpful, police say

Houston Chronicle May 29, 2004 When Wade Spradlin caught a thief in his garage on a recent afternoon, he knew that he needed some surefire evidence. He dug in his pants pocket, pulled out his cell phone and snapped two pictures of the man — even before dialing 911. “I thought, `Well, if he gets away, at least I’ll know what he looks like,’ “ said Spradlin, who lives in Fort Worth. “The camera phone actually paid off.” Some quick-thinking victims are finding that out. Cell phones that take pictures are one of the newest ways to fight crime. Snapshots could help police nab criminals, build leads and gather evidence. Introduced in the United States in 2002, camera phones are not yet in widespread use. But as the phones grow in popularity, police and wireless representatives say they expect more citizens to reach for their phones when witnessing crimes. “The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is true,” Grapevine police Sgt. Bob Murphy said. “Any picture is better than no picture.” Technology-savvy folks are catching on. In one of the most publicized cases, a 15-year-old boy in New Jersey thwarted an abduction attempt last year when he took a picture of a man trying to lure him into a car. In Atlanta, a woman snapped a picture of a man who exposed himself to her in a parking lot. That photo led police to arrest a former school principal who worked at a high school. After he was charged with public indecency, he resigned. Whether a person takes a picture will usually depend on the level of crime they are witnessing, Keller police Lt. Tommy Williams said. A victim whose life is in danger will probably not have the wits to snap a picture, he said. But when they are used during less serious crimes, camera phones could benefit police investigations. Texas drivers have also taken advantage of the technology. A handful of motorists involved in car crashes have used phones to take pictures of license plates or cars in case a driver decides to flee, area police say. “They’re small. They’re instantaneous,” said Jimmy Duvall, a Verizon Wireless spokesman based in Lewisville. “They’re perfect for this.” But police officials warn bystanders not to get carried away. “If a guy comes in with a gun, don’t sit there pointing your camera,” Fort Worth police Sgt. Jim Lankford said. “We’d rather have a live witness as opposed to a dead person with a phone full of pictures.” After Spradlin took two pictures of the suspect in his garage, he wrestled the man into submission until police arrived. He later e-mailed the images to police. Although the images were blurry, the suspect could be identified, Spradlin said. Consumers can expect higher-quality pictures from camera phones within the next couple of years, said Alan Reiter, a wireless data consultant in the Washington, D.C., area. Some will include zoom and flash options. “We’ve really just hit the tip of the iceberg,” said Reiter, who also runs his own Web log, www.cameraphonereport.com. In the past couple of years, some people have found less well-meaning uses for their phones. Reports of people taking pictures beneath women’s skirts or in bathrooms, then posting them on the Internet, have surfaced in the United States and overseas. Some gyms, locker rooms and swimming pools have banned the phones, hoping to prevent voyeurs from taking snapshots. Stores have warned of scams involving people taking pictures of shoppers’ credit card numbers. Despite the bad rap camera phones have received, many cell-phone users have found wireless photography beneficial, Duvall said. “The majority of people are using their phones for good, to capture those important moments.”

Monorail train did not slam into fallen tree, says KL Monorail

UTUSAN MELAYU May 29, 2004 KUALA LUMPUR May 27 - KL Monorail System Sdn Bhd Thursday denied its passenger train had slammed into a large tree branch tree that had fallen on the tracks along Jalan Sultan Ismail on Wednesday. Its Director Datuk Ahmad Rejal Arbee said the captain manning the monorail which was travelling from Raja Chulan Station towards Bukit Nanas Station, at a speed of 30 kph, managed to spot the fallen branch in advance. “He immediately applied the train service brake and brought the train to a halt just before the branch, without crashing into it,” he said in a statement. “There was no report of panic from any of our staff on duty, no injuries or damage to the train or infrastructure. Neither was there any damage to third party or property caused by KL Monorail,” he added. Rejal was clarifying media reports that its passenger train had slammed into the fallen tree branch. On Wednesday, at 7.50 pm, it was reported that due to rain, a tree branch on the embankment opposite the Concorde Hotel in Jalan Sultan Ismail fell onto the monorail guideway beam and hindered the train operation. Rejal said after the incident, the monorail infrastructure was inspected, and no faults were found. “..the system returned to normal operation at approximately 9.10 pm,” he said. Rejal said all trains were “parked” safely at the station platforms and public announcements were made at frequent intervals, on all times and across all stations in the network. Ticket refunds to passengers were granted. Meanwhile Transport Minister Datuk Chan Kong Choy wants KL Monorail System Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur City Hall and the Railway Department to look into ways of preventing such incidents of trees or branches falling on roads and railway lines He said steps needed to be taken to ensure trees near the monorail tracks were not harzadous, especially during heavy rain. Chan said he had received a preliminary report on yesterday’s incident which happened during heavy rain.

Breaks in light-rail track studied

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN May 30, 2004 Tracks for the new Hiawatha light-rail line now extend the full 12 miles from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America. But in working toward this milestone, Metro Transit officials have been concerned about unusual breaks in the rail during the past two winters. In freezing weather, segments of the rail pulled inches apart at five welding joints in the south Minneapolis segment of the line. Five breaks on a rail line with more than 2,800 welded joints is not a significant problem; the small gaps don’t pose a safety hazard and can be repaired. Yet the fact that such breaks have occurred before full rail service has started led a consulting firm, Jacobs Engineering Group, to predict that more breaks are likely. “Considering the number of failures to date,” it said, it expects more. The breaks raise concerns about the durability of the rail line, said Mark Fuhrmann, chief of staff of the Hiawatha project. “These pull-aparts of a couple inches, while not a safety hazard, suggest that the rail was not the durability as prescribed in the specifications,” he said. “We continue to be fully diligent in requiring the design builder to deliver the highest quality product to Minnesota.” The rail breaks are another headache for project managers at Metro Transit. Metro Transit also has been struggling with late car deliveries and poor workmanship on the cars. Bombardier Inc. of Canada has been months behind the contracted delivery deadlines, compressing the time managers have to test cars for safety and reliability. Extended warranty Minnesota Transit Constructors, led by Granite Construction, Watsonville, Calif., is building the rail line. RailWorks, a subcontractor with a corporate office in White Plains, N.Y., and a regional office in Lakeville, installed the rail. Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, of Pueblo, Colo., manufactured them. To cover the cost of repairing any future breaks, Fuhrmann has negotiated an extended warranty on the rails. It requires the contractors to fix a break free of charge for five years, an extension of three years, he said. The agreement also would extend the warranty another two years if breaks occur in either year four or five. RailWorks will be on-call at all times to respond to a break, and a $250,000 warranty bond would reimburse Metro Transit for any costs _ damage to train wheels, for example _ not covered by RailWorks repairs. Granite and RailWorks declined to comment. Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, which supplied the rail for the Hiawatha line, is the largest producer of rails in the United States. Bob Simon, vice president and general manager, said, “We have been very extensively involved with the process of trying to determine the root causes of the breaks on this [Hiawatha] rail.” Simon said he has seen this problem in the past, but “nothing to a magnitude that would cause us to be concerned about the quality of the rail itself,” he said. The company turns out close to 400,000 tons of rails a year, Simon said, and “if it was truly a problem with the manufacturer we would be seeing it elsewhere.” What caused breaks? The rail line is made up of 80-foot segments. They are welded into lengths up to 1,600 feet, then pulled into position on the rail line and welded into a single line. The rails are heated to a pliable 90 degrees and then stretched when fixed in place with concrete ties on the rail bed. When the rails cool down, they contract, creating tension in the finished line. The design of the rail decreases the chance of derailment: Should a weld break, it pulls the rail apart instead of forming a hazardous upward kink. During colder weather, tension in the rail line increases as the rail contracts. Colder weather was identified as contributing to the breaks _ all five failures occurred in temperatures below freezing: four in 2003 (two in February, one in October, one in December) and one in January 2004. After the first few breaks, transit officials sent segments of rail to a lab for tests. After the fourth break, Jacobs was called in. Fuhrmann asked the consultant: Do we have a pattern? Why do we have a pattern? Can we predict that it will reoccur? Is there any way to predict where other welds might break? In a report dated April 30, 2004, Jacobs said there was a pattern: all breaks were sudden snaps, all occurred at welding points and all were when the temperature of the steel was low and the steel was brittle. The report said there is no indication that the welding process or the cold weather alone caused the failures. Rather, the problem started with pockets of concentrated carbon, a nonmetallic chemical compound used to manufacture the iron rail. When these so-called iron carbides in the rails were joined by welding, the joint was weak and brittle. This flaw, combined with rail-line contraction in cold weather, caused the breaks, Jacobs concluded. “And there is no method currently available to detect this iron carbide condition prior to failure,” the report said. Simon, of Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, defended the quality of the rail, saying it met all specifications for manufacture and that carbides are part of the makeup of the steel. “A concentration can be driven by other variables outside of manufacture,” including welding, he said. But the Jacobs report raised a question about whether the rail manufacturer had kept iron carbide concentrations sufficiently low to prevent the welding problem. Electronic sensors On the Hiawatha line, breaks will be immediately detected by electronic sensors running along the rail line. Information will register at the rail control center, Fuhrmann said, and train operators will be alerted. Steel train wheels will be able to roll across the gaps without danger of derailment. The gaps in the initial breaks averaged 2.8 inches; if gaps grew to as much as 6 inches, considered unlikely, they would pose a safety hazard. Contractors stitched together the initial gaps by cutting the rail and welding in a new segment. Once fixed, Fuhrmann said, the breaks didn’t recur. When trains are fully running, any break would temporarily be fixed with a cap that would allow trains to run over the break at 5 miles an hour. A permanent fix would be made in off-hours. In Salt Lake City, there were three pull-apart breaks on its new light-rail line before it opened in December 1999, said Paul O’Brien, rail service general manager for the Utah Transit Authority. O’Brien said of the problem: “Is it common? No, it’s not. Is it something to worry about? Probably not. I would just keep an eye on it.” Since opening, the Utah rail line has not had other breaks. Light-rail track welds fail: At five locations along the Hiawatha light-rail line, welded seams in the tracks broke and the rail pulled apart. Jacobs Engineering, a firm hired by Metro Transit to review the breaks, explained what happened. Track specifics: The rails, made of carbon steel, were manufactured in Pueblo, Colo., and shipped in 80-foot segments. Once here, they were welded into longer lengths of up to 1,600 feet before being moved into place on the track bed. They were welded again into one uninterrupted rail. There are more than 2,800 welded joints on the Hiawatha line. Weld failure: The welds broke because undetectable pockets of brittle iron carbides in the rail were lined up in welding, forming a weak connection. When freezing temperatures caused the rails to contract, putting tension on the welds, the flawed welds broke. The gap: When installed, rail segments are heated to a pliable 90 degrees and stretched as they are fused seamlessly together and fixed in the rail bed. The heating and stretching creates tension in the rail when it cools. If the weld is broken, it causes a pull-apart, avoiding a more hazardous kink. Track ties: All five welds failed in segments of ballasted track, where the rail is clipped to concrete ties supported by rock ballast. At the five failed welds, the average gap was 2.8 inches.

MEMO DETAILS RICE CALLS ON CONTRACTS, JOBS/ METRO PRESIDENT ALLEGES THAT COMMISSIONER SOUGHT INFLUENCE

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) May 30, 2004 The Rev. B.T. Rice used his position as a commissioner of the board of the region’s transit agency to seek influence over construction contracts and try to land jobs for at least two people, according to allegations in agency documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch. A vice president of the NAACP’s St. Louis chapter said in an interview that he had counseled Rice about the possible appearance of ethics problems stemming from his conduct. Rice, a community leader and pastor of New Horizon 7th Day Christian Church, resigned last month while he was “under formal investigation” by the board for ethics violations, according to the documents. He previously denied any ethics violations while on the Metro board. Rice’s attorney, Donald Wolff, said Friday afternoon that he had instructed Rice not to discuss the matter until they were able to review the allegations. The newly disclosed allegations were made in a Sept. 29, 2003, memo from Metro President and CEO Larry Salci titled, “Memo to the File.” The Post-Dispatch obtained a copy of the memo Wednesday with several sections blacked out. The copy obtained Friday had most of the text restored. Both versions were released by the agency in response to requests filed under the Missouri Sunshine law. Metro is the two-state agency that runs the area’s buses and MetroLink light-rail system. It is governed by a 10-member board of commissioners, with five from Missouri and five from Illinois. The board sets policy and hired Salci as its top administrator in February 2002. CEO’s file Since at least 1999, minority contractors in the St. Louis area have criticized transportation agencies for not including enough minority contractors in large public-works projects. That year, an association of minority contractors called MoKan organized a rush-hour shutdown of Interstate 70. Nearly 300 protesters seeking more highway jobs for minorities blocked the highway. The protests got results. Minority contractors got more transportation jobs, and a construction trades school geared to bring more African-Americans into the trades opened in Wellston. Similar problems flared again, though, four years later with the cross-county MetroLink expansion. Metro’s board had agreed that 20 percent of subcontractors on the half-billion-dollar project had to be minority- or women-owned firms. On March 14, 2003, Metro awarded a $71.9 million contract to McCarthy Building Companies Inc., to build the first leg of MetroLink’s cross-county extension. But McCarthy’s contract had only 9 percent minority participation. MoKan reacted again. On March 25, 2003, the group publicly criticized the transit agency for low minority representation. That same day, according to the documents, Salci began compiling his “Memo to the File” on his dealings with Rice: - March 25, 2003: MoKan publicly criticized Metro for low minority representation in MetroLink contracts. Rice called Salci later that day to discuss MoKan and expressed a “desire to become more involved in the process,” Salci’s memo stated. - April 26, 2003: Rice called Salci to lobby for a contract for MoKan, but Salci told Rice that “the discussion was inappropriate” and that “any involvement could be deemed tortious interference,” Salci’s memo stated. - May 8, 2003: Rice called Salci to complain that McCarthy didn’t have enough minority subcontractors. During that conversation, Rice said that if Salci could “do something” for two MoKan associates, “that the ‘problem’ would go away,” Salci’s memo alleged. - May 15, 2003: Rice called Salci to complain that the minority contractor issue was the result of Metro staff members “doing a poor job,” according to the memo. - May 20, 2003: Rice called Salci to see if he could help one of Rice’s church members who was out of a job find a position with McCarthy, the construction company involved in one of Metro’s projects, the memo alleged. Salci wrote that he told Rice the requests were “awkward” and he was “not comfortable” with them. Later that afternoon, Rice told Salci that he wanted to meet with Gene Leung, Metro’s director of contracts, to introduce him to a job candidate, Salci’s memo alleged. Rice and a woman met with Leung and two other Metro staff members, including Ty Perry, manager of the office of supplier diversity. “Gene Leung perceived the female friend to be Commissioner Rice’s candidate for replacement of Ty Perry,” Salci wrote in his memo. In an interview Friday, Leung said he speculated that the woman was there as a candidate to replace Perry, but employment was never discussed at the meeting. Perry said Friday that he never knew why the meeting was called, or why Rice had a guest with him. The woman never spoke during the meeting, Perry said. After the meeting, Leung told Perry that Rice wanted Perry replaced. “And that concerned me,” Perry said. That same day, Rice again called Salci and asked if he could find a job for another associate, according to Salci’s allegations. “He stated that ‘his credibility in the black community’ was at stake on this issue,” Salci wrote. “You can figure it out” Salci’s memo also said that on June 26, 2003, Rice asked to discuss a confidential issue. The minister told Salci that Rice had supported him on diversity and Rice needed Salci’s assistance. Salci’s memo to the file said: “I assumed he meant administrative/political strategy assistance. He said, ‘No, I need you to help me, you know what I mean.’ I said, ‘If I understand the meaning of your request, you are only entitled to reimbursement of expenses in carrying out your duties.’ He said, ‘You’re a smart guy; you can figure it out.’ The conversation ended abruptly,” Salci wrote in the memo. The next month, Rice met with Claude Brown Sr., vice president of St. Louis NAACP and asked him for financial assistance, according to Salci’s memo. Brown told Rice that wasn’t proper behavior “and if he continued, he would get himself in trouble,” Salci wrote. Brown did consulting work for Metro on minority issues. He said in an interview Friday that he never believed Rice was asking for money. But Rice did ask Brown to report to him on any minority-related issues, Brown said. “I told B.T. I would report to Salci and not him,” Brown said. “I did sort of lecture him, and I said the director should direct, and board members should serve the role of boardsmanship.” Brown said in his opinion, Rice had overstepped his boundaries as a commissioner. Brown also said Rice had asked him to review the resume of a friend. Brown told Rice that he could fax it to him, but that he should also fax it to Salci. The woman never sent in a resume, Brown said. Salci eventually talked to Brown about alleged ethics problems involving Rice, Brown said. “I thought he would get in trouble as a commissioner,” Brown said of Rice. “This is precisely what I talked to B.T. about.” The Post-Dispatch reported Thursday that Rice also allegedly had solicited and received donations to his church from MetroLink construction companies in apparent violation of the agency’s code of ethics - an allegation Rice denied. Metro was in the process of investigating the alleged ethical lapses when Rice resigned his position on the board last month. Rice isn’t the only commissioner whose actions have been criticized by Salci. He alleged that Commissioner Betty Van Uum had used her position to seek favors for her employer, the University of Missouri at St. Louis. And former Commissioner Thomas F. Hennessy III resigned amid claims that his law firm’s work for a MetroLink contractor had resulted in a conflict of in terest, according to Hennessy’s resignation letter. Van Uum said Thursday that she never had violated any of Metro’s ethics policies. Metro board Chairman Michael Fausz and commissioners decided Friday that the allegations against her didn’t warrant an investigation. Hennessy said in his resignation letter that any claims of a conflict were groundless. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said that they intended to seek more information from Metro regarding the allegations about Rice.

Diesel buses using tunnel, but not for long

Seattle Times May 30, 2004 James Crowley of Seattle says that in the five years he’s been catching buses in Metro’s downtown bus tunnel, he’s noticed hybrid electric/diesel coaches occasionally drive through under diesel power. “Although the thought of diesel fumes polluting the air in the tunnel stations has always made me uneasy, I’ve never been too bothered by the inevitability that mechanical problems will force a small handful of the hybrid buses to use diesel power while in the tunnel.” But lately, he said, regular diesel-only buses have been using the tunnel as well, especially in the evening. The number of diesel-only buses seems to be increasing, too. On a recent Friday evening, he claims, hybrid buses leaving the tunnel under electric power were outnumbered. “I hope that Metro officials aren’t getting overly used to letting diesel buses use the tunnel. This could end up fouling the air and perhaps even damaging the stations.” Jim Boon, Metro Transit’s manager of vehicle maintenance, says there’s a reason more diesel buses had been using the tunnel. The diesel-electric buses currently in use through the tunnel were built in Italy more than a decade ago and, frankly, are at the end of their useful life as dual-mode buses. They are to be replaced soon by state-of-the-art hybrid articulated buses on Metro and Sound Transit routes. Keeping the older buses in top operating shape has become more difficult, Boon said, and parts have become harder to locate. Some must be ordered from Europe, and that’s more involved than receiving parts from U.S. factories. Recently, Metro had to keep many of its older buses out of service while waiting for a special part from France for the front disc brakes. At the height of the problem, about two weeks ago, nearly four dozen buses were out of service and replaced by regular diesel buses, Boon said. While not ideal, he said, Metro’s diesel buses are cleaner than most transit agencies’, since they run on ultra-low-sulfur fuel. Boon said the special parts arrived, and Metro mechanics worked around the clock on repairs. All out-of-service buses awaiting that part are now back in service. Metro recently took delivery of the first two dozen of its new hybrid tunnel- buses. The first ones will go into service Saturday on routes in South King County, and more than 200 others are expected to be on the road by the end of this year.

AN INSIDE JOB ONETIME ACTIVIST GETTING MIXED GRADES IN STATE ROLE

The Boston Globe May 30, 2004 In his past life as an environmental attorney and activist, Douglas I. Foy confronted the state transportation secretary to wring money for mass transit improvements out of the Big Dig. He was a formidable negotiator, as one secretary recalls it. Tough. Likable. And armed with a large stick. “He was constantly reminding me he could take me to court to stop the project,” said Fred Salvucci, who as transportation secretary agreed in 1990 to invest millions in public transportation projects to offset the increased air pollution expected from the Big Dig. Now on the other side of the negotiating table, Foy, 57, is still regarded by many as tough and likable, but he finds himself unarmed. Since he went to work for Governor Mitt Romney 17 months ago, advising him on transportation, environment, energy, and housing issues as secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development, Foy is facing difficulty delivering on some of the causes he long championed, including transit improvements he once negotiated. As a bureaucrat, he finds himself explaining away the delays. “That’s either the blessing or the curse of now being in government,” Foy said in an interview. In his 25 years as chief executive of the Conservation Law Foundation, Foy was regarded as an environmental hero for making government work his way, forcing the cleanup of the Boston Harbor, preventing oil drilling on Georges Bank, and helping map out development on the South Boston waterfront. On the inside, the onetime Olympic athlete is using his well-honed powers of persuasion and registering some impressive wins. While the administration is stalling on those transit improvements, such as connecting the MBTA’s Red and Blue lines and restoring trolley service in Jamaica Plain, Foy is credited with pushing through one of the more costly projects, construction of the Greenbush commuter rail line on the South Shore. He is also regarded as the force behind Romney’s resolve to push regulations launched by the last administration that reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases from the state’s dirtiest power plants. And Foy is reshaping government to focus on smart growth principles, combating urban sprawl by, for instance, encouraging development of public property near transit stops. Much of the effort is focused on making government work smarter and with greater efficiency, high priorities for the cost- cutting, reform-minded governor. The climate-protection plan that Foy has shepherded relies heavily on the state’s cleaning up its own buildings and vehicle fleets. It “didn’t require money that we didn’t have,” he says proudly. As a result, some who viewed Foy as the great green hope of the new Republican administration fear he is fighting alone against an administration that is more conservative than it initially appeared and is limiting his potential to make other advances. “I think Doug Foy is in a very difficult position, because he’s part of an administration that fundamentally is about two things: not raising taxes and being in opposition to the entrenched legislative leadership on Beacon Hill,” said James R. Gomes, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, an advocacy and policy organization. “I’m rooting for Doug. . . . I really feel for him. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.” At the Conservation Law Foundation, his former colleagues gave him mixed reviews in a report card issued in February. They praised the administration for learning to “talk the talk,” but said they are waiting for it to start walking. “It appears that a lot more effort is going into these big-think, big-splash efforts than grabbing the cogs and wheels and gears that just churn out all of these daily decisions,” said Stephanie Pollack, Foy’s longtime colleague at the foundation. Rather than letting the transit projects languish, Pollack suggested, the state Department of Environmental Protection could have used its power over the permit for the tunnels’ ventilation stacks to force action. She faulted the state’s representative on a task force reviewing ocean management to preserve fisheries with voting in a way the foundation contends is promoting overfishing. Despite the state’s support for the concept of smart growth, some critics point out that a state environmental review last year let EMC Corp., whose founder’s son was a top Romney campaign fund-raiser, build a large research facility off Interstate 495, accessible only by car. Foy says he has wide latitude to affect policy, but he has limited resources. The Office of Commonwealth Development he heads is not established by law, and he serves entirely at the pleasure of the governor, with a staff of about a dozen, many of whom are paid by other agencies. Environmental spending has suffered mightily from the cuts made to balance the budget. At the Department of Environmental Protection, state spending plummeted from $70.5 million when Romney took office to a proposed $48.5 million next year, and full-time staff has been reduced 24 percent since November 2002. Bond money for land preservation has been slashed, from nearly $74 million two years ago to $18 million this year. And conservationists are dismayed by Foy’s plans to give priority for land protection money to towns that meet smart growth criteria like building affordable housing, a policy they fear forsakes open space to fulfill a Romney campaign promise to double housing starts. “It’s very clear to me that environment is the redheaded stepchild of the Office of Commonwealth Development,” said Bernie McHugh, coordinator of the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition. But perhaps the advocates misconstrued Foy’s role. He didn’t sign up just to oversee the environment, a post he had turned down in the past, but to draft environmentally friendly blueprints for the state’s infrastructure, from housing to highways. “This is a development job,” Foy said. “This is a job of figuring out where to build the right stuff in the right place and how the Commonwealth should be investing its dollars, both operating and capital, to help make that happen.” Certainly, Foy now has a much clearer vision of what he calls the “balancing act” of state government than he did as an advocate. But he had long been attentive to economic concerns, sometimes using them to advance his environmental priorities. He once halted construction of a Maine hydro electric dam by arguing not against its perils to fish, but rather its flawed economic assumptions. He recalls taking flak from environmentalists for remarking, “Screw the salmon.” Rather than tossing bombs, the Conservation Law Foundation earned a reputation for working closely with government to achieve solutions and for being opportunistic in the high-octane cases it took on. “He doesn’t fight battles he is sure he can’t win,” said Foy’s chief of staff, Alice Denison, who also worked with him at the foundation. “He sees what’s possible, and he rushes to that.” Foy is still picking battles judiciously, avoiding causes on which Romney has drawn a political line. Romney said he should resign in shame if he couldn’t fix Cape-bound traffic jams by building a bypass for the Sagamore Rotary. Though the foundation has criticized the project, saying it would do nothing to expand the bridge’s capacity to handle traffic, Foy does not publicly oppose it. Likewise, the governor, who says he supports renewable energy, has opposed the proposed windfarm off Cape Cod. Foy said they agreed to disagree on the matter. The governor, who calls Foy a “state treasure,” and a “brilliant mind,” seems to share an intellectual camaraderie with Foy, who studied engineering and physics at Princeton and geophysics at Cambridge University before graduating from Harvard Law School. He also was a member of the US four-man rowing crew at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Each man is known for his forceful, penetrating manner of debate. While they say they agree more than they disagree, they admit there are debates between them. “He’ll try and convince me, and I’ll try to convince him,” Romney said in an interview. “He recognizes that ultimately, if there’s a disagreement, that I’m the guy that got elected. He doesn’t begrudge that, and it doesn’t happen very often.” If Foy is disenchanted with his position, he betrays none of it. In fact, he says that he thrives on the challenge of doing more with less and that he prefers to work with a small staff. “I’m actually having about as much fun as I suspect I’m capable of having right now, without doing something that I shouldn’t do,” Foy said. On the transit projects, Foy agrees with advocates that they remain state obligations, though he says that agencies are still deliberating over which ones to build and when. That was not an explanation that would have satisfied him at the Conservation Law Foundation, which won a court order in 2000 that compelled the state to find the money for those projects. Foy’s friends and sometime adversaries alike say they plan to keep pressing him. “I intend to be just as nice but uncompromising as Doug would be about the fact that there is an absolute obligation for them to deliver on these things,” said Salvucci, now a lecturer and research associate at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics. “He’s a charming guy, but people shouldn’t let him get away with it. Doug Foy wouldn’t let him get away with it.”

Bus, rail changes set to go into effect today

Houston Chronicle May 31, 2004 Trains on Metro’s Main Street light rail will run more frequently this morning, and an estimated 16,000 commuters will face new bus routes designed to better tie in to the rail line. The adjustments, the final step planned in the implementation of the light rail line, officially took effect Sunday. But today, the first workday after the holiday weekend, is the first time most commuters will notice any difference. The light rail began service Jan. 1, and this week’s route and schedule changes originally were scheduled to take effect Feb. 15. They were pushed back after a string of train-vehicle collisions forced the Metropolitan Transit Authority to review rail line safety and make dozens of modifications. “This is one of the largest service adjustments Metro has ever made,” said Frank Wilson, Metro’s president and chief executive officer, who marks one month in office Thursday. “We expect the customers to be wanting a helping hand.” Forty-three Metro employees, wearing bright vests and buttons that read “Ask me,” will be stationed at key stops this morning to assist passengers in finding their way. “Men, don’t be afraid to ask directions,” said Jeff Arndt, Metro’s chief operating officer. The changes to 65 bus routes, mostly designed to beef up ridership on MetroRail, will take an estimated 1,200 bus trips out of the Main Street corridor each day. Some of those spare buses will be positioned at transit centers today for use in case of glitches on the rail line, where trains will start operating every six minutes during peak periods. They had been running every 12 minutes. Most commuters will notice only slight changes to their routes. Nine bus routes, however, have been shortened and now end at rail stations. Riders must transfer to the rail to complete their commutes. Some bus users have complained about having to make the switch, potentially increasing their travel time. “With these route modifications, Metro is forcing commuters to use the train by providing no other routes to downtown,” said Zac Nelson, a Route 15 rider. “This is a terrible idea and is nothing but an inconvenience.” Route 15 previously ran from southwest Houston through downtown to Northline Mall. It has been split into two routes, with the south section (Route 14) ending at the Texas Medical Center Transit Center and the north section (the new Route 15) ending at the Downtown Transit Center. Both have rail stations. Nelson, who rides from Main Street at the South Loop to Houston’s north side, will now have to ride the Route 14 bus to the Medical Center, walk across a sky bridge, hop on the train to downtown and then transfer to the Route 15 bus. “This is just a way to force people to use that train,” he said. “Then they can say, `Wow, look at all the people who ride this train every day. Houstonians love the train. Let’s build it all over Houston!’ “ Metro officials say the benefits of having fewer buses running through dense areas such as the Medical Center and downtown outweigh concerns that some riders will be inconvenienced. Maximizing ridership on MetroRail is wise because trains travel faster than buses and can carry more passengers, Metro officials said. While Metro typically adjusts its routes three times a year, these changes have attracted more controversy because of the wide scope of the changes and high number of riders affected: A petition drive by riders of Route 298, which ferries commuters from west Houston Park & Ride lots to the Texas Medical Center, saved that line from elimination. In northeast Harris County, residents of the Atascocita area have tried unsuccessfully to stop the new Route 55 bus from coming through their neighborhood en route from Greenspoint to Kingwood. Hundreds of Midtown residents who had been served by the small Metro buses that resemble old-fashioned trolleys were unable to save their route despite months of protest. Effective today, Metro is rerouting all downtown/Midtown trolley routes to three new paths designed to link sections of downtown with the train stations on Main Street. In the Texas Medical Center, employees who park in the satellite Smith Lands lot will still have the option of taking a shuttle bus rather than light rail, at least for another week. The TMC Red shuttle route was scheduled to end Friday, but Metro pledged to run it until Medical Center officials are satisfied that the trains can accommodate the thousands of workers who must use remote parking. Original MetroRail plans had called for a special Medical Center shuttle train during peak times, but that idea has been scrapped for now because of safety concerns over having extra trains running through the crowded complex. Westchase residents receive long-awaited commuter-bus service to downtown starting today with a new Route 274. It will be slow going, however, because the new Westpark Tollway is not yet ready to accommodate the buses. A ramp from the tollway to the northbound U.S. 59 HOV lane hasn’t been finished, so the buses will travel on city streets to the Hillcroft Transit Center and enter the HOV from there.

Most Medical Center safety measures finished

Houston Chronicle May 31, 2004 The Metropolitan Transit Authority completed a number of safety measures in the Texas Medical Center in time for today’s start of more frequent train service, but it is still studying a key traffic signal issue. Trains begin running today at six-minute intervals during peak hours. In anticipation of that change and in response to train and vehicle collisions since the rail line opened Jan. 1, Metro commissioned an independent safety assessment, which led to upgrades throughout the system. Twelve proposed changes in the Medical Center were saved for last, however, because of the area’s congestion and complex traffic patterns. Most involve adjustments to signals, signs or lane markings. Six jobs are finished, and three more should be done this week, said Loyd Smith, director of traffic management. Two others require equipment that couldn’t be ordered in time, he said. The final recommendation — a proposal to adjust traffic signals at intersections crossed by the rail and stop traffic in all directions when trains pass — remains under review because engineers concluded other changes have lessened the need to re-time the signals. Smith said his safety team is taking a broad look at traffic signals in the Medical Center, considered the most complex part of the rail line because tracks run in some left-turn lanes. The Medical Center stretch is the only portion of the line where cars are allowed on the rails for any purpose but crossing them. Traffic on Fannin parallel to the tracks gets a green light along with the trains and can go through intersections when trains do. Between trains, motorists can drive in left-turn lanes shared with tracks and can turn left across Fannin on green left-turn arrows. Signals north of the Medical Center were modified in March. Cars traveling parallel to trains through the Museum District and Midtown must stop for a red light when the train proceeds through an intersection. But engineers decided to leave the Medical Center signals as they are for now. Metro hopes other changes — such as enhanced lane markings — will prevent more left-turn collisions, Smith said, but staff will monitor the situation and make adjustments as necessary.

Riders shaken when fire breaks out on Seattle Monorail

KING-TV 5 Seattle May 31, 2004 SEATTLE - Passengers were shaken up when a fire broke out in one of the Seattle Monorail trains on Monday afternoon. The fire happened just outside the Experience Music Project, the rock ‘n’ roll music museum at Seattle Center, which was the site this holiday weekend of the annual Folklife Festival. Firefighters used ladders to evacuate dozens of passengers, some of whom were treated for smoke inhalation. The monorail has two trains, the blue train and the red train. The fire was on the blue train. A rider said there was a popping sound and the train stopped. “We managed to get the safety locks open and open all the doors to get some ventilation,” said one rider. “For a while it was pretty scary there ‘cause it was getting warm and the smoke was getting thick … and there’s all of us with babies on there.” Helen Fitzpatrick of the Seattle Fire Department said there were no serious injuries. The Seattle Fire Department determined Monday evening the fire was sparked by a short in electrical wiring to a motor. The monorail was built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair to provide a link between the fairgrounds and the amenities downtown. The trains carry approximately 2.5 million riders every year. Officials said the Monorail will be shut down indefinitely.

Daugherty unlikely insurgent in toll road fight

Austin American-Statesman May 31, 2004 The folks pushing a $2.2 billion toll road plan for Central Texas no doubt expected to hear some dissenting views. What they couldn’t have predicted, however, is that the lead kvetcher would be Gerald Daugherty. After all, Daugherty, a Travis County commissioner since 2001 and a critic of the Capital Metro transit agency for much longer than that, years ago contrived to create an advocacy group called ROAD. He did so even though that meant giving the organization the ungainly and inscrutable name of Reclaim Our Allocated Dollars. Daugherty, a man with an almost mystical attachment to pavement, isn’t exactly comfortable in this role of toll road critic. Nonetheless, there he was on Thursday, standing before a packed house at the Texas Transportation Commission and complaining that the toll plan is a “patchwork” he can’t sell to his southwestern Travis County constituents. “I am not known as someone who is bashful,” Daugherty said, staking an early claim to the Central Texas Understatement of 2004 award. “I will go out if I feel like I have the right marching orders, and I will try to sell something. But I am not interested in going bear hunting with a switch, which is exactly what I’ve had to do with parts of this plan.” The proposal, unveiled last month by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the state Transportation Department, would create nine more toll roads or pieces of toll roads in and around Austin. The list includes at least three highways where construction paid for exclusively with tax dollars is already under way and two others where that is likely to occur. The decision on whether to do all this rests with the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, made up mostly of elected officials (including Daugherty). CAMPO probably will vote on the plan in July. Given that tolls are normally charged to pay back debt, slapping them on roads with no debt has raised some hackles. Many of those hackles belong to Travis County Precinct 3 residents, and Daugherty has heard from them. About 600 of them in three days at one point, he said. In particular, Southwest Austin residents object to paying a toll on MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) between William Cannon Drive and U.S. 290 West. So Daugherty and state Rep. Terry Keel of Austin, both Republicans, held a news conference May 7 to attack the plan. Daugherty has since heard from another unhappy constituency. “Who I’m hearing from is professional people,” Daugherty said, meaning folks in the road-building business. “There’s a lot of money in these projects. And I think they have bought off on the idea that you have to do this plan, 100 percent, and do it now.” That’s where the Transportation Commission comes in. The toll plan, as outlined by Daigh, depends on getting $161 million from the Texas Mobility Fund and almost $500 million from the state Transportation Department for “right of way and professional services support.” And the five transportation commissioners, all appointees of toll road fan Gov. Rick Perry, have passed the message through Daigh that the teller window will remain open for only a short time. Central Texas, we are being told, must decide whether to accept the plan by the end of August or risk losing that money to other parts of the state more willing to build toll roads. A huge delegation from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in fact, including Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, was sitting in the audience watching Daugherty spar with commissioners. North Texas has been prime toll country for at least a decade, and politicians there now make their sales pitches to the Transportation Commission, not the voters. Their slick 12-page brochure proposes adding 100 miles of toll roads to the 50 miles already in the area. On Page 11, there is a none-too-subtle pitch for any money that Austin or other places leave on the table: “The Commission is urged to allocate Statewide Mobility Funds — not leveraged by other communities in Texas — to communities leveraging their resources.” To the Metroplex, in other words. Daugherty insisted that he, in fact, supports creating toll roads. But he said some parts of the plan just won’t fly here. He asked for more time to try to persuade Central Texans to support most of the plan and for some sort of guarantee that the state money will still be available. Commissioner Hope Andrade of San Antonio wanted to know how much time. Six months, Daugherty said. That roughly coincides with the campaign season for Capital Metro’s November commuter rail election. Some of Daugherty’s detractors have said his opposition to the toll plan is really just a rhetorical crowbar for him to try once again to pry away half of Capital Metro’s 1 cent sales tax. If Central Texas is going to be inundated with toll roads, Daugherty will be able to say, it’s mostly because something like $50 million a year in taxes has been going into public transit instead of highways. Others say Daugherty is worried only about voters in his precinct. But he is unopposed this fall for election to another four-year term. In any case, the Transportation Commission didn’t seem to be in the mood to give him either more time or a guarantee about the money. Ric Williamson, a former legislator from Weatherford and chairman of the commission, said that his brother-in-law lives in Daugherty’s precinct and that he’d managed to convince his relative that tolls are needed. “Think how hard it is for us to have to sell it across the state,” Williamson said to Daugherty. “We understand. But at some point, somebody’s got to stand up and lead. Stand up and say, ‘I have a solution; here it is.’ Lead, follow or get out of the way.”

Mind the gap: two views of the MTR’s plans The proposed West and South Island lines have sparked fierce opposition

South China Morning Post May 31, 2004 The MTR Corporation’s proposed West and South Island lines have stirred up angry opposition from the transport trade’s main workers’ union, with threats of more protests if the government decides to subsidise the development of the two lines. On Friday, about 50 public transport workers affiliated with the Motor Transport Workers General Union and various taxi and minibus associations staged a protest outside the Legislative Council while legislators were meeting residents and trade groups over the proposal. Li Wing-sang, chairman of the 30,000-member Motor Transport Workers General Union and spokesman for a coalition of transport trade groups against the rail proposal, said further protests were planned if the lines went ahead. “If the government agrees to subsidise the new MTR lines, we will take further action - I can’t rule that out,” he said. The development has stirred up controversy because the corporation has applied to the government for subsidies of up to a half of the estimated $ 15 billion construction and financing costs to make the lines financially viable. The two new lines, which the MTR wants built by 2010, would form a loop, with the West Island line running between Sheung Wan through the Cyberport to Wong Chuk Hang, and the South Island line running from Admiralty through Wan Chai or Happy Valley, or both, to South Horizons. They would connect at Wong Chuk Hang. Citybus and New World First Bus Services, the two main operators of bus services on Hong Kong Island, have painted a bleak picture of the impact the lines would have on bus drivers. Lyndon Rhees, managing director of the two companies, told legislators development of the lines would lead to the loss of 3,000 bus workers’ jobs as they would be forced to withdraw from present routes in the face of MTR competition for commuters. Kwan Chuk-fai, a spokesman for NWS Holdings, which owns the two bus companies, said he doubted the new rail lines would substantially increase economic activity or the number of daily commuters from the Island South and Western districts, given the expected high fares. Mr Kwan said fares on the two lines would be too high - even with government subsidies for their development - for commuters to happily make the switch from buses. “Without government subsidies, the MTR will have to charge an average $ 14.40 a trip to break even. Even with a large subsidy, it will have to charge $ 9.90, much higher than the present bus fares,” he said. University of Hong Kong professor Bill Barron said: “People will lose their jobs - but that is progress,” he said. “The rail line will rejuvenate the southern part of the island. Those gains are many times greater than the loss of jobs in the short term.” In a recent paper, Professor Barron predicted that the most optimistic scenario of economic rejuvenation in the Island South and Western districts would see the creation of more than 40,000 jobs, while adding $ 330 million a year in taxes, rates and land premiums to government coffers. The windfall would result from increased property values for existing homes and commercial buildings and new property developments, due to the provision of better public transport infrastructure, Professor Barron said. This is a scenario the MTR agrees with. Project director Russell Black said last week that even though its business case for the two lines only took account of the existing 430,000 population in the Island South and Western districts, the rail operator expected redevelopment to raise that figure. Mr Black also discounted the bus companies’ claims that fares on the two new lines would be too high. He said they would be no different than fares on the North Island line between Sheung Wan and Chai Wan. The MTRC has hinted, but not said, that cross-harbour commuter flows from the West and South Island lines would also help keep fares low enough to keep commuters happy, even assuming there was no population growth. Cross-harbour trips are more profitable. MTR estimates indicate that about 30 per cent of the present 780,000 total daily commutes made by Island South and Western district residents are to Kowloon. It expects to capture about 100,000 of these commuters to feed its cross -harbour lines. A large slice of these would be new passengers to the MTR who were now taking buses. Mr Li said: “Look at Tseung Kwan O. As soon as the MTR line opened, buses lost 30 per cent of their riders and minibuses lost 70 per cent.” But he said the union would wait for the government to make up its mind up on the lines before deciding what action to take. “We will look at the government’s attitude before making up our minds about the next step. There’s no need to make everything so controversial. We just feel that more consultation with the bus industry - and us - is needed,” he said.

The little firm that could

The Toronto Star May 31, 2004 When the terrorist attack on Manhattan’s World Trade Center brought the twin towers down, the human and physical destruction was massive and well-reported. But largely unremarked was the damage it inflicted on the New York region’s transportation system and how a GTA rail and transit firm got things moving again. Buried by the collapsed towers was the terminal of a vital subway line that links Manhattan with New Jersey, owned and operated by the same Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) that owned the World Trade Center. Until Sept. 11, 2001, that station enabled 67,000 transit riders to commute daily under the Hudson River to lower Manhattan. One train was crushed, the station was demolished and the tunnel was flooded all the way to New Jersey. Getting the line back in service was urgent. Another trans-Hudson subway to midtown Manhattan and the ferries that cross the river were overloaded by the crowds scrambling for alternate routes. An ambitious rebuilding schedule was set and the big hitters in transit construction were called in. Most demurred; they didn’t think they could meet the deadline, which allowed 16 months for return to operation. But under this pressure, AM/AR Rail Systems, based in Bronte and Milton, was willing to stake its reputation on the job. “We re-equipped the system with our own technology and completed it one month early,” says Bill Mountain, president of the Advanced Railway (AR) Concepts division of the two-pronged firm. “It was a joint effort involving a number of different companies that were all under the gun. We, in fact, were doing our work as a sub-contract to Union Switch & Signal, out of Pittsburgh.” AM/AR designs advanced, multi-processor-based rail and transit traffic control systems and builds, installs and maintains the signals and communications involved. This includes the wayside signals that guide the train crews, grade crossing lights and gates and the safety equipment that scans the trains as they flash by. “We’re a niche company in a business that’s a niche itself,” says Mountain. “It’s a very small and tight world dominated by a handful of very big companies. One day we’re competing with each other, the next we’re sub-contracting with or buying products from each other.” AM/AR’s customer list includes the major freight railways, VIA Rail and Amtrak, short lines and transit and commuter rail systems in Toronto, Ottawa, Philadelphia, and Chicago. As you approach the AR Concepts site in Milton’s north-end industrial zone, you’re confronted by a giant silver shed. Known as a signal bungalow, It is being wired and relay-equipped by AR employees for use at a major junction - known in the biz as an interlocking plant - on Cleveland’s subway and light rail system. Inside the company’s own building, a complete diagram of the track and signals for Philadelphia’s Broad Street subway wraps around two walls in the design office. AR is creating the new train traffic control system that will be at the heart of the $78 million (U.S.) modernization of this heavily-used line. A few kilometers down the road, at the AM Signal manufacturing facility in Bronte, workers are completing grade crossing hardware - flashing lights, bells, gates and the masts and cantilever structures on which they will be mounted - for locations on GO’s Stouffville commuter rail line. Smaller silver signal bungalows are inside the shop, too, being fitted with high-tech gear that will control this equipment out in the field. Mike Sullivan is president of AM Signal and half-owner of AR; the two firms are marketed together under the AM/AR Rail Systems banner. Sullivan started the firm 20 years ago when employed by the Canadian National Railway as signal supervisor on the busy Oakville subdivision, linking Toronto Union Station with Hamilton. He started in 1966 on a signal gang upgrading this line for GO Transit’s first commuter train service. Son of a CN station agent, Sullivan grew up around railroading. His family lived in stations or company houses during his father’s career in Ontario and New England. Says Sullivan, “One of the first jobs I ever had as a kid was . . . loading buckets of iced chickens from the Canada Packers plant in Walkerton on to the CN express cars to go to Toronto. I worked on a signal gang while I was in a co-op university engineering program in Waterloo. But the money was so good I figured I might just as well go into CN full time without my degree.” He met Mountain at CN while rebuilding grade crossing equipment in southwestern Ontario. Mountain is from a railway family too. His grandfather was a CN locomotive engineer in Quebec, and his dad worked for the railway for 46 years. Mountain joined in 1964, digging cable trenches for CN’s electronically advanced marshalling yard at Keele Street and Highway 7. He left CN in 1979 to work in the Toronto design office of U.S.-based Union Switch & Signal, one of the largest firms in the trade. The nucleus of AM/AR was born in 1984. Rail-served industrial plants build and maintain the spur lines and sidings that connect with the tracks of the main-line railways. Traditionally, these companies hired CN or Canadian Pacific Railway to do the work. When the Ford Motor Co. needed to install equipment on three grade crossings within its Oakville complex, Sullivan and some co-workers bid on the job and did it on a weekend off. “We did it faster than the railways would have. When I saw how much we could make from just a weekend of hard work and I realized how many of these industrial jobs might be out there, I kind of knew my days with CN were numbered.” Sullivan continued to work for the railway while his sideline business was in its infancy. Finally, in 1989, he “pulled the pin” and uncoupled from CN, to use railway lingo. His firm had expanded beyond grade crossing equipment, adding heaters and blowers used to keep switches ice-free and specialized detection equipment that inspects trains as they roll by. At the same time, Mountain was contemplating the start-up of his own signal design firm in partnership with electrical engineer John Conti, with whom he had worked at CN and later at Union Switch & Signal. There, Mountain and Conti had been involved in upgrading Pittsburgh’s streetcar network and the start-up of Dublin, Ireland’s commuter train system. When the big U.S. firm was bought out by Italian industrial giant Ansaldo, the Toronto design office was closed. “We could see opportunities because of the increasing outsourcing by the railways and transit systems,” says Mountain. “There was also going to be a lot of very specialized work in upgrading pieces of existing systems, which the heavy hitters in the business really would prefer not to do. They’re geared to all-new systems from scratch. But we could see a market . . . taking on these piecemeal projects and building our name with our own technology and our hands-on knowledge.” The same thing had happened for Sullivan in supplying railway safety and operations hardware. This was the dawn of the short line era in Canada, when CN and CPR were selling off light density lines to new companies which didn’t have signals and communications departments. “Our first big contract was actually with an old short line railway,” says Sullivan. “It’s the Essex Terminal Railway, which serves the industrial plants in Windsor. We put in their new crossing protection equipment at Huron Church Rd., reputed to be the busiest grade crossing in Canada because it’s the main route to the Ambassador Bridge. We also took on the maintenance of their crossings.” By putting AM Signal together with AR Concepts, a one-stop-shopping approach to railway and transit supply was taken further. Says Sullivan, “I bought 50 per cent of Bill and John’s firm because it’s a perfect fit with mine. Between the two, we can take on just about anything and we have product lines that support each other.” An example is the design, construction and installation of the signalling, grade crossing protection and all other gear for VIA’s portion of the former CN main line between Ottawa and Montreal. VIA bought the line after the ice storm of 1998 brought down the wiring that operated the signals. AM/AR won the bid to build an all-new system that would handle more and faster passenger trains. “That was a big win for us,” says Mountain. “When we started AR, we found very quickly that you’re never a hero in your own hometown. We went for a couple of years with no Canadian contracts. Our first job was designing the signalling for the Cincinnati Terminal. Then, we did projects for Amtrak and various U.S. transit systems. Our Canadian breakthrough was designing and installing the signals for CPR’s rebuilding of its Thunder Bay-Portage-la Prairie main line. That was the first big job major Canadian railways let to outsiders.” On the PATH World Trade Center project, the company had to design and build a micro-processor-based control system that would be compatible with the older system that remained on the rest of this subway system linking Manhattan, Hoboken, Jersey City and Newark. The three owners of the interconnected firms see this broad spectrum of software, hardware, design and maintenance services as being keys to profiting in this niche. Sullivan calls it “the multiple pillars of success. The more pillars you build, the better. If it goes quiet on the design side of the business, we have the meat and potatoes stuff to keep us active.” One of the more mundane sides of the AM/AR product line is their track-switch heaters and blowers. To keep switches clear of snow and ice, the devices blow hot or cold air into the moveable track components. AM’s general manager of operations, Dan Fargiorgio, shows a dual-mode heater/blower at the Bronte plant. With a flip of the switch, the ungainly-looking machinery blows a 225-km/hour gust of cold air. Another flip of the switch ignites the gas-powered burner, blowing hot air to melt any snow or ice around the vital points on the rail. “That’s a growth market,” says Sullivan. “The railways and transit systems are definitely looking to increase and improve the use of this technology, especially after the way this past winter disrupted their service and operations.” By building a revenue stream from these products, AM/AR has been able to invest in research and development, says Sullivan. AM/AR invested $5 million in its Train Movement Manager, a point-and-click PC system that has formed the cornerstone of high-profile projects such as the PATH World Trade Center and VIA Ottawa-Montreal contracts. “It’s proved a good investment,” says Sullivan”If we hadn’t developed it, we wouldn’t be able to bid for work on GO’s resignalling of Toronto Union Station, which is the granddaddy of all train traffic control projects right now.” Getting a clear signal to grow is on Sullivan’s timetable for AM/AR. To help make it happen, the company recently hired its first marketing and sales director, Charley Best. The grandson of Dr. Charles Best, co-discoverer of insulin, he agrees when both Sullivan and Mountain say there’s a boom in railway and transit construction coming. “Both the railways and public transit are finally being recognized as under appreciated and underfunded forms of transportation that hold the solutions to problems like highway gridlock, pollution and sustainable economic growth,” says Best. “We have to finally put money into these forms of transportation, just as they have in so many other countries that compete with Canada. We intend being right on the crest of that wave.” With a background in manufacturing systems software, Best says he was attracted to AM/AR because of its innovation. “The discovery of insulin by Dr. Frederick Banting’s team is a good example of how Canadians can innovate and make global contributions,” says Best. “It’s an entirely different field, but the work being done at AM/AR is similar. The rail and transit operators on this continent and elsewhere are looking for innovation in trying to deal with our transportation problems and get more capacity out of our existing rail systems.” Sullivan laughs when he says, “This is going to sound like one of those Dofasco ads, but the strength of this company is its people. Not just old hands like Bill, John and me. But we’ve been able to attract some really bright young guys who have brought new ideas to what is a very old and solid industry.” Jason Fries, engineering manager of AM/AR’s rail control and communications business, is a 1997 graduate of Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology. He never imagined working in something he thought of as old fashioned and low-tech. Fries, who was the point man on the PATH project, says part of the attraction is “being able to work with some fascinating older technology, introducing new ideas and concepts and putting them together to produce something that builds on the strengths of the past and then vaults forward. But there is also a thrill in watching the first PATH train roll into (lower Manhattan), hearing the crowd applaud and realizing you helped make it happen.” Sullivan, who calls himself “just an old railroader at heart,” likes to hear those sentiments from his younger employees. From his second floor office in Bronte, he watches a GO train flash by on the multiple-track main line he helped upgrade for commuter service and later ruled as a CN signal supervisor. He smiles when he ventures the opinion that the time of the train, the streetcar and the subway is here again. “We want our company to be a big part of it,” says Sullivan. “But it’s also a matter of believing in these industries and their potential. When I watch a 100-car freight train pounding by or a GO train winding through the switches into Union Station, I know this is a lot more fun than, say, plumbing or the floor covering business. “

Transit tax plan has a little for everyone, pleases no one

Sacramento Bee June 1, 2004 Faced with huge demand for road and bus improvements, but limited money, a group of transportation officials from Sacramento County and its cities last week made no one happy. They agreed to write a broad new version of Sacramento’s half-cent transportation sales tax that offers money for buses, roads, bikes, the elderly and the disabled, and even for open space preservation. No group will get the services it lobbied for. “We’ve crafted a measure that recognizes many elements go into a balanced transportation system,” said county Supervisor Don Nottoli, head of the Sacramento Transportation Authority board. “But we have finite dollars. We can’t address the myriad of needs. I hope folks will find enough in the measure that they can support.” If approved by the Board of Supervisors and most city councils in the county this summer, the measure will go on the November ballot for voter approval. It would replace the county’s existing Measure A half-cent transportation sales tax, which expires in 2009. Some transportation advocates in the county, including Regional Transit officials, argued the new measure should be increased to two-thirds of a cent or a full cent, given immense transportation needs in the fast-growing county. However, STA officials say their polling shows voters are unlikely to approve anything more than a half-cent tax. That tax, if approved, is expected to bring in revenues of about $5 billion, in today’s dollars, over the next 30 years. Each city gets a share, as do the county and transit and air quality agencies. The money represents the largest pot of transportation funding controlled by local elected officials and is about 20 percent of all transportation money expected to be available for the county from various sources. Most of the rest comes from the federal and state governments. The allocation plan includes, roughly:

38 percent for maintaining, widening, updating and adding safety measures to roads.
38 percent for bus, neighborhood shuttle and light-rail operations.
12 percent for freeway work, including car-pool lanes and interchange upgrades.
5 percent for pedestrian and bicycle-route improvements, as well as streetscape work.
4.5 percent for senior and disabled bus services.

Some funds would be specifically set aside to increase neighborhood shuttle bus service and maintenance for the American River Parkway bike trail. The measure also would include incentives for “smart growth,” as well as funds for air quality programs. A least $25 million would be used to buy land near the Cosumnes River, to be held as permanent open space, as mitigation for a planned connector road among Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova and El Dorado County. Bicycle advocate Walt Seifert lamented that the plan doesn’t seem to guarantee many bike projects. RT officials have argued the amounts will barely allow them to keep up with county growth. Environmentalists had called for the measure to include permanent growth boundary lines. “None of us are completely happy with it,” said STA board member Ken Cooley of Rancho Cordova. But, he added, “when all is said and done, I think this is a fair outcome.” Notably, however, several board members say they believe STA should try to put a second transportation revenue measure on the ballot in the next few years to supplement this measure. The STA board is scheduled to vote final approval of the proposed ballot measure June 10. At that time, the board also is expected to include in the measure a development fee on all new construction in the county to be used for traffic congestion mitigation.

Port Authority to Open Stage II Light Rail Transit Project

PR Newswire June 1, 2004 The modernization of Port Authority’s T light rail transit system will reach another major milestone on Wednesday, June 2, 2004 when the first new light rail vehicles (LRVs) in 19 years begin revenue service over the new Overbrook Line. The 5.2-mile Overbrook Line, closed in June 1993 due to deteriorated trackbed and bridges, and the purchase of 28 new LRVs are among the major elements of the $386 million Stage II Light Rail Transit Project. The project continues the modernization of Port Authority’s 25-mile T system. “We are very pleased to open our Stage II project and fulfill a promise made to South Hills communities more than two decades ago to continue transforming an old trolley network into a modern, efficient light rail system,” said Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Paul P. Skoutelas. “The scope of improvements Port Authority is making under Stage II will result in a system with enhanced capacity, service levels, travel times and park and ride opportunities, among other benefits.” Joining Mr. Skoutelas and the Port Authority Board at a ceremony this morning to celebrate the Stage II project adjacent to the new Willow Station were Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Allen D. Biehler, Federal Transit Administration Administrator Jenna Dorn, American Public Transportation Association president William Millar and local, state and federal elected and appointed officials. “A good transit investment keeps giving back to the community for decades to come,” said Ms. Dorn. “The new light rail line will contribute to the economic and social vitality of the city of Pittsburgh.” Port Authority customers, Allegheny County Transit Council members, representatives from the Committee for Accessible Transportation and officials from local communities along the Overbrook Line were also in attendance to celebrate the project. The Stage II project also includes:

The expansion and modernization of Port Authority’s Operations Control Center at the South Hills Village Rail Center;
The construction of new power substations near the McNeilly, Denise, Castle Shannon and Lytle stations and an increase in overhead power to 650 volts systemwide;
The construction of eight new, ADA-accessible stations along the Overbrook Line and Overbrook Junction, a transfer point between the Overbrook and Beechview lines that will open this Fall;
Six new gated crossings and improvements to current gated and signalized crossings;
New signaling and communications equipment, including fiber-optic communication systems and a new public address system; and
More than 2,600 new park and ride spaces.

“This is a landmark day for Port Authority and its customers, many of whom recall riding old streetcars on the Overbrook Line as children,” said Mr. Skoutelas. “Those memories remain very vivid today, underscoring the important role transit has played in the evolution of our communities over the years. The Stage II project will create new opportunities for those who live in South Hills communities and, along the way, new memories for generations to come.” The Stage II project will produce a more dynamic light rail system that improves the mobility of Allegheny County residents and thus enhances their quality of life. According to formulas developed by the American Public Transportation Association, the project has supported more than 17,000 jobs and will bring the region $2.2 billion in economic benefits through consumer spending, investments and the generation of business revenues, among other economic stimuli. The Overbrook Line has been grade separated from the South Busway and entirely double-tracked for the first time, features 11 new bridges and includes eight new ADA-accessible stations: Willow, Memorial Hall, Killarney, McNeilly, South Bank, Denise, Bon Air and Boggs. These eight stations replace 22 stops along the former Overbrook Line, making possible quicker travel times. Boggs is the northernmost station on the Overbrook Line, which rejoins the Beechview Line at South Hills Junction. Willow, the southernmost station on the Overbrook Line, is located in Castle Shannon Borough and is adjacent to Overbrook Junction, which will facilitate easy transfers when the next phase of the Stage II operating plan is activated this Fall. Until then, customers can transfer between 47L Library - formerly 42L Library - and 42S South Hills Village service at Washington Junction. On June 2, all 47L Library service will operate via the Overbrook Line and make use of the first of Port Authority’s 28 new light rail vehicles manufactured by Construcciones Y Auxiliar De Ferrocarriles, S.A. and CAF USA, Inc. Port Authority’s 42S South Hills Village service will continue to operate over the Beechview Line until the next phase of the Stage II operating plan is activated this Fall. When that plan is implemented, rush hour service on the existing 42S Line from South Hills Village will also operate via Overbrook, decreasing travel times for our customers boarding along the 42S Line south of Castle Shannon. Patrons on the existing 42S Line between Downtown Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon will also be served by trains originating at Castle Shannon, thereby substantially increasing the availability of seats for those customers in Mt. Lebanon, Dormont and Beechview. On Sunday, June 6, Port Authority is offering free rides for all those wishing to see and ride the new Overbrook Line. Customers are reminded that only 47L Library cars will operate on the Overbrook Line and that transfers can be made between 42S South Hills Village and 47L Library service at Washington Junction. Port Authority’s new rolling stock, its first new LRVs since the current cars began service in 1984, includes bi-motor trucks to enhance operating efficiency, significantly increased diagnostic capabilities, LED displays of approaching stops and more efficient AC propulsion technology, among other features. The remanufactured LRVs, which like the new cars are arriving periodically at the South Hills Village Rail Center, are virtually new vehicles. A 3,800 square foot addition to Port Authority’s Operations Control Center and the renovation of 2,500 square feet of existing space have made it possible to install state-of-the-art computer hardware and software that will enable more efficient control and monitoring of the T. The new power substations made it possible earlier this year for Port Authority to operate two-car trains on the Library Line for the first time, further increasing capacity at a time when improvements are expected to attract new riders to the system. The Stage II project is expected to add approximately 13,000 weekday riders to the T by 2015. The Overbrook Line features gated crossings at Killarney Drive, Sleepy Hollow Road, Grove Road and Poplar Avenue, while gated crossings will also be added at Casswell Drive and Rockwood Avenue along the Beechview Line. Also along the Beechview Line, the Donati Road gated crossing will be improved, and traffic signal improvements will be made at Castle Shannon Boulevard and West Willow Street. The park and ride improvements in the Stage II project include new facilities at Library (430 spaces) and Bethel Park (286), which opened in March along with new high-platform stations, and a 2,200-space parking garage is scheduled to open in November on the site of the former lower park and ride lot at South Hills Village Station.

Gold Line Eastside Extension wins funding

Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena, CA June 1, 2004 The federal government awarded MTA $490.7 million Tuesday to extend the Gold Line to East Los Angeles — a major boost to the agency, which ranks the six-mile segment as its highest priority rail construction project. The Metro Gold Line Eastside L.A. A groundbreaking likely will be held this month, and the electric-powered rail system is scheduled to open in 2009. The Federal Transit Administration approved the funding on Tuesday, culminating a mandatory 60-day review of the project by Congress. Today nership that submitted the winning bid to build the Eastside Extension’s systems, trackwork, eight stations and twin -long tunnels. “It’s a pretty exciting day around here,” said Rick Thorpe, MTA’s head of construction. The project appeared in jeopardy last month, because an Oklahoma congressman — chairman of a committee that oversees federal funding of transportation systems — said the Eastside Extension was too expensive. The federal government funding will cover more than half of the rail system’s total cost, $898.8 million. Last Friday, Thorpe took the congressman, Rep. Ernest Istook d to see why we needed these tunnels,” Thorpe said. “The streets are extremely narrow in that area. There’s a cemetery on one side, and on the other side is one commercial business after another. It [would be] extremely expensive to buy out every business, and it would devastate the local economy,” Thorpe added. “We explained to him that L.A.’s growth over the next 20 years is going to be phenomenal, and we’re already struggling to move people along.” The Eastside Extension will connect with the Gold Line’s inaugural segment, between Union Station and eastern Pasadena. That 13.7-mile route opened last July. Now that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has secured its federal funding, it will award a $600.4 million contract today to the joint venture of: - Washington Group International, based in Boise, Idaho; the firm is half of the partnership — Kiewit-Washington — that built the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Gold Line; - Obayashi Corporation, a Tokyo firm with its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco; its resume includes a contract to retrofit the Golden Gate Bridge, and construction of numerous tunnels in Atlanta; - Shimmick r MTA project under construction — the Metro Orange Line, a busway in the San Fernando Valley.

Busway efficient but not in mass transit’s future

Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena, CA June 1, 2004 Thirty people boarded a bus known as the “freeway flier’ and zoomed down a stretch of roadway from the El Monte Bus Terminal to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. It was morning rush hour and the San Bernardino [10] Freeway was slow, congested and irritating. But the bus left automobiles in the dust as it traveled at freeway speeds in its own special lane. Commuters could only gawk as the bus sailed by. “It’s terrific,’ said Arthur Adkins of Rosemead. ‘I’ll bet the commuters are cussing up a storm.’ That was Jan. 29, 1973, and those cruising along were the first passengers to ride the El Monte Busway. Little did they know that they were making history as the first to ride buses on one of the most studied and successful transit lines in the nation. It was the brainchild of the former Southern California Rapid Transit District and the state’s Division of Highways. Today, Caltrans owns the busway , but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Foothill Transit run buses on the roadway. After 31 years of operation, the El Monte Busway is the oldest and most successful high-occupancy lane in the county, and one of a handful in the country. The 11-mile stretch of road ferries more people in one lane than all five lanes of the 10 Freeway combined. Today, experts continue to tout its success. “It is an unheralded success story,’ said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, which studies public policy issues. The busway cost $58 million to build. It transports 42,000-plus bus riders and car-pool drivers per day from the El Monte terminal to downtown Los Angeles. As traffic congestion mounts, experts say such busways are viable options that improve traffic flow. But there are no plans to build more. Busways can handle no more than 70,000 riders per day, not enough to make an impact, some say. “Busways are great,’ said Ed Scannell, an MTA spokesman. “But when the demand for service exceeds the capacity of the busway, the next step is to convert it to light rail or build a subway.’ In January, the Southern California Association of Governments unveiled $213 billion in transit projects slated for the next 30 years. Officials say the plan is great. Yet, transit experts say gridlock will continue. “We are still going to have highly congested freeways and the vast majority of people are going to use cars to get to work,’ said Thomas Rubin, a transit consultant and former controller-treasurer of SCRTD, which is now MTA. “Yet, not a single new busway, like the one in El Monte, is planned. It’s a huge missed opportunity.’ One busway is planned along Wilshire Boulevard to the Green Line and Los Angeles International Airport, known as the “Crenshaw Transit Corridor,’ said Jeff Lustgarten, a SCAG spokesman. Light rail dominates SCAGS’ transportation plans. Some disagree with this focus. “Bigger isn’t always better, ‘Rubin said. “Everyone wants to spend money on the silver-bullet solutions. But sometimes the less glamorous is more successful.’ Residents spend 90 hours per year sitting in traffic. The congestion costs them $1,000 per year in vehicle repairs and gas. “If more busways were built, they would be terribly successful,’ Rubin said.

Reviving the streetcar: with the help of a local Congressman, Portland is leading the charge to bring back this appealing, economical mode of public transportation.

Mass Transit June 1, 2004 Portland’s MAX light rail lines are legendary — within and without the transit industry — but their “little sister” system is catching up quickly. After a 50-year sabbatical in the U.S., modern streetcars returned to service in July of 2001 when the City of Roses completed its $ 59.6 million Portland Streetcar project. In keeping with the region’s creative approach to bringing well-concepted transit projects to its citizens, the City of Portland contracted with Portland Streetcar, Inc., a nonprofit company made up of invested citizens and business and property owners to design. construct and manage the project. Restoring streetcar service, which had been an integral part of Portland’s evolution, emerged in the Downtown Plan of the 1970s and held on as part of the ensuing Central City Plan a decade later. The line really began to take shape in the mid 90s when the City Council approved its alignment and secured the necessary funding — a convivial mix of private and public money. Though the streetcar is not a TriMet service, about 2/3 of its $ 2.4 million annual operating costs are paid for by the agency, fares can be paid at all TriMet ticket outlets and vending machines. The streetcar line runs through the heart of the Pearl District, the city’s trendiest and most rapidly-developing subsection, and has been an integral part of more than $ 1 billion in transit-oriented development — a development-to-transit ratio of 18-to-1 — including 3,600 new housing units and millions of square feet in office, retail, hotel and restaurant construction that have sprung from the former industrial blight. Neighborhood upheaval was minimized via the use of a shallow 12-inch deep track slab design that reined in construction times and the need for utility relocation. The crayon-colored vehicles, manufactured by Skoda-Inekon in Plzen of the Czech Republic, are just 8 feet wide allowing the track to be fitted to existing grades, limiting the need for street and sidewalk reconstruction. The Portland Streetcar and other projects like it in the works across the country have an energetic advocate in Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who served Portland’s project as a City Commissioner. Spurred on by its success, Blumenauer and New Jersey Congressman Christopher Smith have introduced H.R. 1315, aka the Community Streetcar Development and Revitalization Act, which taps the Secretary of Transportation to establish a pilot grant program within the reauthorization of TEA-21 which would provide specific federal funding that could be used to leverage local funds for the capital and start-up costs of streetcar development and expansion. The pilot would be a boon to more than 70 communities from coast to coast that are in varying stages of streetcar planning, design and construction. Unlike other forms of light rail, streetcars work across the board in large cities like New Orleans and Memphis right down to small towns like Kenosha, WI. According to Blumenauer, the program would remain a pilot project for the life of the new bill, with total annual program funds limited to $ 75 million in discretionary funds for the first year, $ 100 million for the second year, $ 125 million for the third year and $ 150 million a year thereafter. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation would determine which projects receive the grants. According to Blumenauer, existing New Starts criteria favor high-dollar, high-volume regional rail projects, putting lower cost streetcar efforts at a disadvantage. Under the new legislation, streetcar projects would be reviewed using a separate set of standards. In part, they state that preference would be given to:

Projects intended to be economical, requiring only up to $ 15 million per project with the capacity for multiyear funding commitments for capital and start-up costs.
Projects that require financial participation of private owners of property abutting the alignment (excluding owner occupied residential properties) for some of the projects’ capital costs. Innovative agreements for public-private partnerships are encouraged.
Projects that demonstrate availability of development/redevelopment opportunities and complimentary land-use policies in close proximity to the alignment.
Projects that demonstrate either how redeveloping or new neighborhoods on vacant or underutilized land will be connected to each other or to major attractors in the central city, or how circulator/connector lines will connect developed neighborhoods with one another or with the business district in the central city.
Projects whose sponsors provide a detailed operating plan, including frequency of service, hours of operation and stop locations and demonstrate the financial capacity to operate the line.

Mass Transit

June 1, 2004 “My way of characterizing what the whole of the system is about is that it really has become a part of what I refer to as the signature of Portland,” says Fred Hansen, the former deputy administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who has served as TriMet’s general manager since the fall of 1998. “I mean, there isn’t a local news program that doesn’t have a shot of Mt. Hood in the lead, but whenever they have any kind of city scene, they have a light rail vehicle or a bus going by. And there isn’t a travel magazine that writes about Portland that doesn’t talk about the TriMet system.” I didn’t need convincing. In fact, the first person with whom I spoke upon arriving at Portland International Airport was a TriMet employee. No, the agency hadn’t sent someone to fetch the transit magazine editor. Following “light rail” signs past the obligatory bank of hotel shuttle phones, I simply turned a corner and there she was, smiling away in her yellow TriMet vest, ready to help me and a host of other travelers negotiate the automated ticket machines and get us on our way. A buck-sixty and a few more steps later, I was admiring that much photographed Mt. Hood from the window of a Red Line car as it sped toward Portland along the route of Interstate 205. Twenty minutes later, I stood at a station a half-block from my Lloyd District hotel. Exactly as it should be, in Hansen’s estimation. “I’ll bet you for most anyone in the greater Portland area who has a friend or relative who is going to come visit, we come up in the conversation,” he asserts. “Do they want to go down to the Saturday market? Do they want to go to the zoo? Let’s hop on light rail to do it. That’s part of its power — that it’s not just about transportation, it’s about defining who we are and connecting us.” I asked him if that ideal is part and parcel of hailing from Oregon, a state that has produced more than its share of notables in the transit field, including Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Federal Transit Administrator Jenna Dorn. He heartily agreed. “People here care a lot about quality of life,” he offers. “One of our renowned local economists often talks about the fact that there are really two paychecks for people who live and work in the region. First is the paycheck in the normal fashion, the money. And the second is the ‘paycheck’ in terms of the quality of life, the closeness of recreation in the mountains and the coast, a whole series of things. That has real value. And I believe that when people value that quality of life, they want to make sure that the physical place in which they are is pleasant and that it connects — that it’s a neighborhood, that you know who your neighbors are and can go to the store and talk to the grocer and have those kinds of connections. That’s what public transportation is a part of. It really connects a community.” New ideas TriMet formed in 1969 from the remnants of its bankrupt predecessor, Rose City Transit. Six years later, the region adopted what it called an Interim Transportation Plan, throwing in the towel on some 54 proposed highway projects and instead seeking better ideas for handling traffic both downtown and on its burgeoning travel corridors. Aiming to reduce car traffic and the resulting air pollution in the city center, TriMet opened Fareless Square, turning the city’s most bustling areas into a “fare free zone” and making bus (and eventually light rail) travel an appealing alternative to gridlock and exorbitant parking fees. The Oregon Department of Transportation also asked the federal government to re-appropriate funds from the ill-conceived Mt. Hood Freeway project to a newly created effort focusing instead on the Banfield freeway. According to TriMet, many residents consider this the turning point in how the Portland region thought about transportation and urban planning. Though “The Banfield” was originally planned as a bus transitway, environmentally conscious Portlanders began to speak out in favor of clean-running light rail, which was only in operation in San Diego at the time. Federal funding for 83 percent of the project’s total $ 214 million price tag was secured in 1980 and an order placed for 26 Bombardier rail cars based on European vehicles. Two years later, TriMet broke ground on the newly christened Eastside MAX (trimmed down from Metropolitan Area Express), a 15-mile line from Gresham to downtown Portland which opened for revenue service in 1986. Housing, business and retail developments followed, culminating in the city building its new City Hall “on the line” a decade later. By 1988, Eastside MAX had more than proven its worth and work began on extending the line west of downtown Portland to suburban Beaverton, where farmer’s fields were fast giving way to residential developments and high tech industry — perfect fodder for transit and transit-oriented growth. This time, however, route planners were faced with an enormous, all-natural roadblock — Portland’s West Hills, which rise 700 feet above the city. Undaunted, the team created plans for twin tunnels through the hills, each three miles long and 21 ft. in diameter. Construction began in 1993, and though the project suffered its share of growing pains, the agency made the most of the experience. “It was actually really fun when they were building this,” says TriMet director of communications Mary Fetsch as the train in which we are riding zooms into sudden darkness, accelerating to a no-obstructions-in-this-baby speed of 55 mph to the Washington Park Station. Built 260 ft. below ground, the station serves the Oregon Zoo, the Children’s Museum, Washington Park and other local attractions. “We’d have hole-through parties, because half of it was drilling and half of it was blasting. Sometimes we would walk all the way in in the mud and the muck. One time I was actually dropped in a bucket all the way down, 22 stories.” To contend with obvious security and maintenance challenges, cross passages between the tunnels were constructed every 750 feet and an offsite control center monitors the station and its elevators and stairwells. From the center, staff can instantly operate fire doors, air vents and back-up electricity in case of emergency. Westside MAX also brought about the advent of TriMet’s investment in local, community-focused public art, which, in the tunnel, celebrates everything from the region’s history and prehistoric geology to the direction in which the train is heading. Arched beams overhead on the westbound side are painted red to signify the setting sun. The arches on the eastbound side — golden as a sunrise. “At first Westside MAX line was only going to go to 185th street,” says Fetsch, as we zoom back into daylight, “but then we had to work with the federal government and say, ‘We want to extend it to another suburban community.’ They were like. ‘Are you crazy? Tell us why we should do that!’ Well, we had exceeded ridership [projections] since day one! I mean, there was standing room only — people were complaining. We were almost a victim of our own success.” The line was successfully extended to the city of Hillsboro and has become a magnet for more than $ 825 million in truly imaginative residential and commercial developments. Among the more notable expansions is Orenco Station, built a few blocks off the rail line near a quaint community that took its name from the town’s Oregon Nursery Company. “Vice president Gore had his open house here, a town meeting, right after we opened in Sept. ‘98,” Fetsch notes. “This is the poster child for smart growth around the country.” The award-winning community’s serene beauty, combined with upscale shops and bistros, quickly attracted employees of nearby Tektronics and Intel plants and sent property values skyrocketing. Bechtel and TriMet See Red As construction of Westside MAX was nearing completion, TriMet, the city and the Port of Portland were collectively approached by Bechtel Enterprises, an international engineering, construction and project management firm that had its sights set on the creation of a MAX extension to Portland International Airport. In exchange for development rights to CascadeStation, a 120-acre mixed-use commercial site near PDX, Bechtel would not only design and build the line, but also contribute a quarter of the project’s funding. The extraordinary cost-sharing venture between the public and private entities — kept in check by some 85 agreements — meant that the $ 125 million project would require no contributions from federal or state general funds and no new taxes. It was an offer TriMet couldn’t refuse. “We always had it in our plan that [light rail] would get to the airport,” Hansen says, “but if it hadn’t been for Bechtel and the private/public partnership, that probably would have been a 20-years-away thing.” Construction of the line, which shares a portion of its tracks with the existing 33-mile rail line, by then rechristened the Blue Line, began in 1999 — the first design-build light rail project on the west coast. Opened for revenue service in 2001, the Red Line’s myriad of accomplishments was horrifically overshadowed when, just one day after its Sept. 10 debut, terrorists leveled New York’s World Trade Center. The ensuing plummet in both air travel and the economy derailed Bechtel’s development plans, but the firm recently hired Portland developer Gerding/Edlen to lure businesses to CascadeStation. The Art of the Interstate Using lessons learned from the