Amtrak Train Crash Leaves 2 Dead, Officials Say

By NATE SCHWEBER, PATRICK McGEEHAN and MIKE McPHATEAPRIL 3, 2016

CHESTER, Pa. — An Amtrak train, southbound at high speed on Sunday morning, slammed into construction equipment on the tracks near Philadelphia, killing two track workers and wounding more than 30 passengers, the authorities said.

A team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the scene on Sunday afternoon to determine why the equipment, a backhoe, was on an active track. The backhoe was struck by Amtrak’s Train 89, known as the Palmetto, which left New York City on schedule about 6 a.m., bound for Savannah, Ga.

Passengers said the train was hurtling along with no sign of trouble before the sound of a crash, followed by a shuddering deceleration. The crash left the front of the engine crumpled, its windshield shattered and riders in the front two cars thrown to the floor.

“The direct impact was big,” said Adriene Hobdy, a passenger. “It was terrible, absolutely terrible. All you felt was boom, boom, boom, boom. Our windows flew out.”

The crash disrupted train service between New York City and Wilmington, Del., for much of the day, but Amtrak was working to restore service in time for the Monday morning commute.

The two Amtrak workers killed were an operator of the backhoe and a supervisor, said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, who said he had been briefed by Anthony Coscia, the chairman of Amtrak. Mr. Coscia declined to comment to a reporter before the safety board investigators had arrived.

Beatriz Muñozcano, 29, said she and her husband, Alonso Ortiz, were braced together in the third row of the train’s second car. “We were waiting for something to hit us,” she said. “The train was moving from side to side like a roller coaster.”

Officials said they did not know yet how fast the train was going.

Ms. Muñozcano, who was making a day trip to see the cherry blossoms in Washington, said that after the impact, she saw a window fall onto a woman across the aisle. Dust from the crash was so thick that passengers could not see out of the train, she said.

Passengers who were able to walk were escorted out the back of the train and taken on foot to a nearby church, Trainer United Methodist, where they gathered in a gym and were given food and water. In turn, they were put on regional buses and taken to Philadelphia, Amtrak officials said.

At the church, Ms. Hobdy, 33, who was given ibuprofen for injuries to her knees, recalled scenes of panic and confusion after the train came to a halt.

People started saying: ‘Get up and walk toward the back. Leave your luggage. Get up and walk toward the back.’ So we did,” she said.

Ms. Hobdy said that she did not observe any injuries that appeared serious, but that some people seemed to have back pain, and that others were using clothing to try to stop the flow of blood from cuts.

People who live near the tracks bore witness to a more unsettling scene. Tiara Boyd, 27, and her mother, Trena Boyd, 54, looked out separate windows of their house and caught the aftermath.

The women recalled seeing a worker running frantically along the west side of the tracks yelling, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!”

Another worker was lying on the ground on the east side of the tracks, Trena Boyd said, his orange hard hat nearby. Trena Boyd said she saw him rise, pick up his helmet and stagger to a metal pole, where he slid to the ground and waited for emergency workers to arrive.

Mr. Schumer said that Mr. Coscia, Amtrak’s chairman, told him that the railroad had a rigorous 20-step procedure for obtaining clearance to place equipment on the tracks. Mr. Schumer said it sounded like the accident could be blamed on human error, possibly a breakdown in communication between the maintenance team and train dispatchers.

An investigator for the safety board, Ryan Frigo, said on Sunday evening at a briefing near the scene that he did not yet know how fast the train had been moving or what efforts the engineer had made to avoid a crash.

Mr. Frigo said his team had obtained the train’s event data recorder and video cameras that face inward and outward from the driver’s cab, which should help answer those questions. He described the object the train hit only as “heavy equipment” and said he could not say why it was on the tracks.

The crash came the same day that a man died when another Amtrak train struck a vehicle at a crossing in Somonauk, Ill., according to local media reports.

Safety concerns about Amtrak flared last year after the derailment of a New York-bound Amtrak train in Philadelphia left eight people dead and more than 200 wounded. The safety board determined that crash, the deadliest on the Northeast corridor in more than 25 years, was probably caused by speeding. The train was found to have been traveling at 102 miles an hour.

Deaths have been relatively rare, however, with trains derailing about 30 times a year over the past decade, according to government data.

Last month, an Amtrak train derailed in southwest Kansas, sending more than 30 passengers to hospitals.

Gov't Proposes Requiring at Least 2-Member Train Crews

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MARCH 14, 2016, 2:33 P.M. E.D.T.

WASHINGTON — Trains would have to have a minimum of two crew members under rules proposed Monday by federal regulators. The move is partly in response to a deadly 2013 crash in which an unattended oil train caught fire and destroyed much of a town in Canada.

The Federal Railroad Administration is also considering allowing railroads that operate with only one engineer to apply for an exception to the proposed two-person crew rule, according to a notice published in the Federal Regulator.

The proposal is opposed by the Association of American Railroads, which represents major freight railroads. Many railroads currently use two-person crews, but some industry officials have indicated they may switch to one engineer per train once technology designed to prevent many types of accidents caused by human error becomes operational.

Most railroads expect to start using the technology, called positive train control or PTC, between 2018 and 2020. It relies on GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor train positions and automatically slow or stop trains that are in danger of colliding or derailing.

A 2008 law requires PTC technology on all tracks used by passenger trains or trains that haul liquids that turn into toxic gas when exposed to air by Dec. 31, 2015. After it became clear most railroads wouldn't make that deadline, Congress passed a bill last fall giving railroads another three to five years to complete the task.

There is "simply no safety case" for requiring two-person crews, Edward Hamberger, president of the railroad association, said in a statement. Single-person crews are widely and safely used in Europe and other parts of the world, he said.

There will be even less need for two-person crews after PTC is operational, he said. PTC "is exactly the kind of safety redundancy through technology for which the (railroad administration) has long advocated," he said.

But Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said two-person crews are needed on trains in the same way it's necessary to have two-pilot crews on planes.

"The cost of adding a second, skilled crewmember pales in comparison to the costs of avoidable crashes and collisions," Blumenthal said. It's important that the railroad administration impose what safety regulations they can now since railroads "have dragged their feet" on implementing PTC, he said.

On July 6, 2013, a 74-car freight train hauling crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota that had been left unattended came loose and rolled downhill into Lac-Megantic, a Quebec town not far from the U.S. border. The resulting explosions and fire killed 47 people and razed much the downtown area. The train had one engineer, who had gone to a hotel for the night.

Railroad Retirement annuities not taxable by state

February 11, 2016

According to Section 14 (45 U.S.C. Section 231m) of the Railroad Retirement Act retirement annuities are not taxable for individual state income tax purposes.

Bruce Rodman, of the Public Affairs/Office of Administration of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board says, “Both of our primary enabling statutes – the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act – specifically exempt the benefits paid under them from state income taxes. However, if a person doesn’t know this – and sometimes this might stem from people using free tax-prep software or obtaining volunteer assistance in filing their returns – and declares it as taxable income, the state tax collection agencies probably won’t know any better.”

The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) also states on the FAQ section (see #18) of their website that railroad retirement, unemployment and sickness benefits paid by the RRB are not subject to state income tax. However, these benefits are taxable on the federal level.

Many tax preparers and even states are not aware of these statutes and may attempt to tax your annuities. It is up to us to make sure that our annuities are not taxed by the states in which we live.

Railroad mum on other train contents in Brownsville derailment

Winona Daily News

 

Workers empty the contents of a freight car Thursday as the cleanup continued after a Canadian Pacific train derailed late Tuesday in Houston County, Minn., sending parts of the train into the frozen Mississippi River.

As cleanup of a derailment south of Brownsville, Minn., continued for a third day, questions remained about whether the Canadian Pacific freight train was hauling crude oil, ethanol or other dangerous materials.

The 68-car train was en route from St. Paul, Minn., to Kansas City when 15 cars left the tracks Tuesdaynight, sending six tank cars and about 850 gallons of vegetable oil into the Mississippi River.

Three of the 15 cars that left the tracks were carrying sodium chlorate, a strong oxidizing agent that poses significant health and safety issues when being loaded and unloaded, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A small amount of the material spilled, though there was not what the EPA calls a “critical breach” and no sodium chlorate has been detected in the river, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Canadian Pacific has not provided a list of what other cargo the train was hauling.

Spokesman Andy Cummings said Friday that other products on board included scrap metal, malt and flour but cited “security reasons” for not disclosing any other dangerous goods that may have been present.

Cummings said CP shares details of hazardous materials “confidentially” with first responders.

A spokeswoman for the EPA said she did not know whether the railroad had provided a manifest to the agency, which is one of several monitoring the cleanup.

Phillippa Cannon referred questions about the train contents to the railroad.

A Federal Railroad Administration spokesman would only say that the incident is under investigation.

Railroads have come under increased scrutiny in recent years with the rapid growth of crude oil shipments. A CP train carrying crude oil derailed Nov. 8 in Watertown, Wis., one day after a BNSF train derailed near Alma, Wis., spilling up to 20,000 gallons of ethanol into the Mississippi River. It was the 10th North American derailment of 2015 involving oil or ethanol, according to the McClatchy news service.

According to the latest available reports, about nine trains per week run on the CP line through Houston and La Crosse counties, carrying more than a million gallons of crude. CP reported less than one train per week on the line where Tuesday’s derailment occurred.

Citizens Acting for Rail Safety said that while Tuesday’s derailment did not result in a major release of hazardous material, it “brings to light the potential for serious accidents that can cause disastrous consequences to our communities and environment.” The rail safety group noted that hazardous materials besides oil and ethanol traverse the area daily.

Cummings said CP is required by law to accept all shipments that meet federal standards and the railroad carries a wide variety of goods, including hazardous materials.

“We take our responsibility for safe handling of these materials very seriously,” he said. “Railroads are the safest way to move goods over land. When an incident does occur, we have personnel on staff with the training and expertise to respond to an incident involving any product that we handle.”

Cleanup continues

Cleanup was expected to continue into the weekend as workers unloaded the overturned tankers and awaited a specialty contractor to handle the sodium chlorate.

The railroad reopened the line running south from La Crescent into Iowa around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, a little more than 30 hours after the derailment.

Railroad contractors believed Thursday they had contained the leaking oil and unloaded three tanker. They planned to unload the remaining three Friday. Barriers were placed in the river to contain any oil that made it into the river.

Though it’s not considered a hazardous material, vegetable oil can coat aquatic animals and prevent them from absorbing oxygen, said Sabrina Chandler, refuge manager for the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

Chandler said no visible impacts to wildlife had been detected as of Friday.

Three 55-gallon drums of spilled sodium chlorate were recovered from the site. According to the EPA the railroad is awaiting a contractor from Manitoba, Canada, to unload the remaining cars with specialized equipment to prevent the release of dust.

CSX, Union Pacific against final series of mergers

January 14, 2016

CHICAGO — Top executives from two of the largest railroads in the country both said yesterday that they are against any more mergers within the industry.

Union Pacific President and CEO Lance Fritz told Reuters that he didn't want to see Class I railroads merging when he was asked about Norfolk Southern and Canadian Pacific combining.

"We'll do everything in our power to make them not happen."

Fritz was addressing a group of rail shippers in Chicago on Wednesday and said that the railroad was talking with federal and state legislators, along with customers and the Surface Transportation Board about why future mergers would be bad.

He said that mergers would create problems in Chicago. When the last set of mergers happened in the 1990s, it created huge service issues.

Meanwhile, CSX Transportation Chairman and CEO Michael Ward told the Associated Press that he also doesn’t think mergers were a good idea.

"I really don't think mergers within the industry, in any form, make much sense," Ward said.

He also said there are no significant benefits to companies combining, and regulators would most likely not approve such actions without making changes that would increase costs.

Ward said that Class I railroads can expand their capacity and already have room to improve without needing to merge.

"I don't believe it's needed. I think each of the existing Class I railroads have an opportunity to create great shareholder value without a merger."

SMART TD sends letter to STB opposing CP/NS merger

January 15, 2016

Previsich

In a letter dated, January 14, SMART TD President John Previsich wrote the Surface Transportation Board opposing a Canadian Pacific Railway proposal to acquire Norfolk Southern Railroad.

See the letter in its entirety below or click here to read the letter.

“Dear Chairman Elliott, Vice Chairman Miller and Member Begeman:

“I am writing to you on behalf of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART TD), regarding Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CP) proposal to acquire Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS).

“As the representative of more than 125,000 active and retired railroad workers, I am writing to convey that we are strongly opposed to this takeover proposal. This action has the real potential for a far-reaching, detrimental impact on America’s rail network, including lost jobs and an equally negative impact on those who ship by rail. We also strongly oppose CP’s scheme to circumvent the regulatory requirements through the establishment of a voting trust to assume control in advance of regulatory approval. Such a trust would violate existing statutory and regulatory prohibitions regarding unlawful control.

“CP’s relentless pursuit of short-term profit with little regard to the impact on the greater good—workers, communities and our nation’s rail shippers is well known. History shows what happens when railroads harvest revenue for immediate self-enrichment of officers and stockholders at the expense of investing in maintenance and capital projects to ensure a viable industry well into the future. If approved, this merger would mean fewer railroads and less competition in the industry. The certain results will be fewer rail jobs, higher freight rates and diminished rail service.

“E. Hunter Harrison, CEO of CP, has already boasted in the press that NS will be a “cash cow” because he will be able to sell off what he says are “excess” rail yards for real estate development. He has also stated that NS has a “gold plated” infrastructure that is overly maintained and he could greatly reduce capital investment on that road. Such a disinvestment in the nation’s rail network could only occur in a merged environment with diminished competition among carriers. The end result is higher costs and reduced service for the nation’s shippers.

“In addition, Harrison recently announced that he will reduce capital spending on CP in 2016 by $400 million and extend his moratorium on purchasing new locomotives until 2018 or longer on that railroad. His strategy is clear; use up the current railroad infrastructure and wear out the locomotives, leaving a railroad that will need dramatic investment once he leaves. The railroads’ officers, investment bankers, consultants and stockholders will walk away greatly enriched at the expense of the future health of our nation’s rail service. In fact, a January 12, 2016 white paper issued by CP in Calgary reveals that CP’s scheme for NS is to improve service by reducing investment, a plan that they note in their closing remarks may not produce the desired results: “CP’s forward-looking information involves numerous assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information” and that “forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance.”

“In summary, if Harrison is allowed to take his CP model to the NS, through either a voting trust or with regulatory approval, the end result will produce an irrecoverable disinvestment in NS’s infrastructure, substantially diminished freight service, and a marked loss of jobs.

“We urge members of the STB to safeguard our jobs and protect our nation’s freight rail infrastructure and those who ship by rail by advocating for the public interest, not enabling short term profits for the benefit of a few at the expense of the future viability of our nation’s rail system. We ask that the STB reject the proposed acquisition and also take legal action as required to prevent the circumvention of your regulatory authority through the establishment of a voting trust.”

BARGAINING ROUND UNDERWAY FOR U.S. FREIGHT RAILROADS

Washington, D.C., November 3, 2014 — The nation’s major freight railroads today announced the start of a new round of national bargaining covering more than 142,000 employees.

“We have a fresh opportunity to work together to support the industry’s continued success for many years to come,” said A. Kenneth Gradia, the Chairman of the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), which represents the railroads in bargaining. “With serious long-term challenges on the horizon, we look forward to sitting down once again and charting a future that benefits us all.”

In their bargaining proposals (so-called “Section 6 notices”) delivered to the industry’s 13 labor unions, the railroads seek changes to compensation and benefits that would fairly reflect economic conditions and the mainstream American workplace, and reforms to work rules that would improve customer service and employee utilization.

Health care remains a significant challenge. The railroads propose continued reforms to national health care plan designs and funding responsibilities, areas in which the national plans remain substantially outside mainstream norms. Their proposals also address significant concerns and additional costs associated with health care reform.

The freight railroads and unions negotiate under the 1926 Railway Labor Act, which includes safeguards to minimize service disruptions because of labor disputes. Under the law, collective bargaining agreements remain in force indefinitely until the parties agree to change them.

Formal negotiations will begin early next year. Twenty nine railroads participate in the bargaining, including BNSF, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific.