D-Day for Sunrail: CSX-SunRail Deal Faces Showdown in Senate

[FayeforCure]

thelakelander, have you sent the Margate resolution to North Florida TPO Executive Director Denise Bunnewith and city council member Art Graham?

Denise's e-mail is dbunnewith@northfloridatpo.com for anyone else who would like to see the Jacksonville Miami AmtraK service given due priority.

It would be absolutely terrific, if we could have the City Council here do a similar resolution.

[tufsu1]

From the TU...take note of the blog comments

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-06-15/story/high-speed_rail_isnt_even_on_the_tracks_yet_for_jacksonville

[mtraininjax]

CSX's greed was too much to handle. All steam and passenger is subject to the Class 1 insurance liability unless the Class 1's sell the right of way to the states. CSX is a 4 letter word in many states.

[Lunican]

CSX and Massachusetts resolve the liability dilemma.

CSX deal hailed
By Priyanka Dayal and John J. Monahan
September 24, 2009

State officials and CSX Corp. have resolved a years-long dispute about railroad liability policy, which could mean more passenger trains on the Worcester line.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray announced the deal Wednesday during a breakfast address to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, attended by Michael J. Ward, chairman, president and chief executive of CSX.

Mr. Murray has been working on negotiations with CSX, a national freight carrier, since he was mayor of Worcester and has spearheaded negotiations as lieutenant governor.

"I've been working on this issue for twelve years," Mr. Murray said of his effort to secure ownership and control of the CSX tracks between Boston and Worcester.

He said the agreement will make CSX freight operations more efficient, allowing double-stacked freight trains into the region from New York. It will also open up new opportunities to expand commuter rail service from Boston to Worcester, and advance plans to set up new commuter rail service from Boston to New Bedford and Fall River, he said.

After years of negotiations, a tentative deal was announced at a packed press conference on the platform of Union Station last October. Five new passenger trains were added to the Worcester line, but the liability dispute remained unresolved.

The deal was not finalized until Tuesday night, said Jeffrey B. Mullan, who was a key member of the state's negotiating team as undersecretary of the Executive Office of Transportation. Mr. Mullan is currently executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and will become secretary and chief executive officer of the state's new streamlined transportation agency Nov. 1.

According to the finalized deal, the state will purchase the property rights of the Boston-to-Worcester rail line from CSX and take control of dispatching and maintenance on the line. CSX currently dispatches the line and is often blamed for delays to passenger trains.

Liability will be shared by CSX and the state, but CSX will contribute $500,000 to help defray the cost of the liability insurance policy the MBTA carries for the entire commuter system. In the event of an accident in which CSX is clearly at fault because of willful misconduct, CSX will have to pay the deductible on the policy, up to $7.5 million per accident.

The policy is not as strong as the "gross negligence" standard that political leaders had pushed for, but it will protect taxpayers more than the language CSX initially preferred.

CSX previously favored a liability policy in which, in the case of an accident, the company and the state would pay for damages to their own property and passengers, regardless of fault. CSX officials called that the industry standard. Company spokesman Robert Sullivan did not say whether the new agreement was standard.

"We've reached a mutually acceptable solution that allows the commonwealth to advance its vision for safe, environmentally friendly and cost-effective rail transportation," he said.

As part of the agreement reached last year, the state is raising road bridges over railroad tracks between Interstate 495 and the New York state line, and CSX will lower track in several areas so track can accommodate double-stacked trains. When that work is complete in 2012, the state will spend $50 million to buy the track between Framingham and Worcester.

Next spring, Mr. Murray said, the state will pay $40 million to buy sections of track in Boston and track serving New Bedford and Fall River. The entire deal will cost $100 million, including $10 million the state paid toward the initial agreement last year.

The state will continue to help CSX find a new site for its 80-acre rail yard in Allston. CSX has not named any potential sites, but Mr. Mullan said, "They like the city of Worcester, by the way."

Mr. Mullan said the move should happen within five years. When CSX moves freight operations from Allston to Central Massachusetts, fewer freight trains will be traveling into Boston. That means more room for passenger trains.

"The whole thing here is to create additional capacity for commuter rail," Mr. Sullivan said.

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and U.S. Rep James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, became involved in talks with CSX last year. Mr. Kerry, whom the administration said played a key role keeping both sides at the table through complicated negotiations, said news of the agreement was a "fantastic" development that will open up important new mass transit opportunities for Central Massachusetts and the south coast.

"It's terribly important for the state," he said, explaining that throughout the on-again, off-again talks, the lieutenant governor "really expedited a lot of the decision-making and that started to show the good faith" of the state and that Gov. Deval L. Patrick was able to come through with state financing to carry the talks through to this end.

For his part, Mr. Kerry said, when negotiations got bogged down or stalled, he was "able to come in as a fresh face and with some credibility to try to pull the parties together."

"Anyone who has ever been stuck in traffic on the Mass Pike or taken the commuter rail from Worcester to Boston will agree that it was worth every last minute on the phone, every hour in the conference room, and every heated discussion at the negotiation table," Mr. Kerry said.

Despite frequent delays, the Worcester line remains one of the best-used commuter rail lines in the state. In the first two weeks of September, 96.9 percent of morning peak-hour trains on the line were arriving on time, and 84.4 percent of evening peak-hour trains were on time.

Local and state leaders have hailed commuter rail service as a driver of economic development.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090924/NEWS/909240679/1116

[Ocklawaha]

If I Only Had a Brain

I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin' while
my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
I'd unravel every riddle for any individ'le,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts you'll be thinkin'
you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why The ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin' my head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.

OCKLAWAHA