It Is Just A Question Of Time.

Home for "Old Smokey" or for something else?

Long time readers will remember that I am really into trains and try to closely follow what R. J. Corman is doing in town.  Sometimes that is easier thought of than done, especially when Corman is doing so much here lately.

Recently, the guys from Corman approached the City and requested a Certificate of Occupancy for the new "glass house" that they have been building in the Lexington Center Parking lot (see photo above).  As a common carrier, the railroad is generally exempt from rules that apply to you and me and are allowed to build just about anything that they want in the name of rail commerce. 

Such is the case in the building of the "glass house".  The prep work and excavation for the rail spur under the Oliver Lewis bridge began over two years ago.  I speculated then that it could be for a Lexington based version of the Corman Dinner Train, but not a mention was made by the railroad itself.  Articles have appeared in the local paper and still no mention of anything but "a place to the steam locomotive".

The "glass house" facility has no obvious ability to service such a locomotive as the mechanical equipment is missing .  Even the firing of the boilers looks to be problematic, since the ceiling is that bright pristine white.  This structure is definitely designed for some level of public access.

This brings me back to the request of the Certificate of Occupancy which all public building should have and is the final paperwork in the permitting process.  Just one hitch, there has been no permit issued for the "glass house".  There have been no plans filed for the building and no inspections, you know, that whole "exempt from the rules" thing. 

My question is, if they have not bothered with any Permits or Certificates for any of their other buildings (or improvements), why are they now asking for this one?  Will this building be host to a steady number of visitors from the public?  Why is this a priority now? 

This building, from all indications (and the rendering shown accompanying the request) is for the local rendition of a dinner train.  From Lexington to the wye at Christiansburg, by way of Midway and Frankfort, and return.  More than two and a half times as far as the Bardstown version, though maybe not as interesting in terms of scenery.

We will have a dinner train in Lexington.  It is just a question of time.

Another Traffic Rant?

I guess that it is about time for my semi-annual traffic rant. It has been about six months since the last discussion on our propensity to want one thing and do another, especially when it comes to transportation matters. 

In that time the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has conducted a national poll on transportation. Well, what timing.

This bipartisan team of pollsters held a the telephone survey, calling 800 Americans (yeah, a very small number, but it matches some other similar surveys) and found that most of them believed that the nation's current transportation system is in need of major change. I have long thought that the current model and mode share is skewed and possibly broken. A large majority of them said that what we need is more transportation options. Not more transportation, but more options.

The poll results show that Americans would prefer new transportation options and that includes rail, instead of additional highways. Granted, that does not mean that they all want some sort of passenger rail, though many are edging in that direction. It could mean that they want more freight rail and toget the big trucks off of the road. That could bring back the thrill of the open road that you see in all of the car commercials, but may be considered a “war on trucking” by the trucking industry. Some of the folks that I hear complaining seem to feel that a solution to the country's traffic congestion problems, is getting everyone else off the road.

Among the results, 59 percent of respondents believed the transportation system is "outdated, unreliable and inefficient;". I must say that this has me puzzled. Is it the roadway system, the cars themselves or the method in which we propel them? Are we at that time when they feel we should have the so called “cars of the future”?

Fifty eight percent of them said they would use transit more often, except that it is woefully inconvenient and not available in many places. In Lexington, we failed to maintain the system we had or ignored the prospect of expanding in a thoughtful manner, until the expense of adequately providing appropriate service is out of reach. A similar amount, 59 percent, just want more transportation options than currently available.

And most surprisingly, an astonishingly high 64 percent, nearly two thirds of all respondents, believe their community would benefit from an expanded and improved rail and/or bus system. Where have these people been for the last decade? Why do we have to have polls to find out where they are?  Where are they at the actual ballot box?

The survey shows that Americans want to drive less, and "want to shake up the status-quo mindset when it comes to relieving the traffic congestion they say they deal with all too frequently," stated the pollsters' report. 

If they could spend less time driving, how would commuters spend their extra minutes?

21 percent said they would spend more time with their family;

20 percent would cook, garden or work around the house;

13 percent would take up a hobby;

11 percent would exercise;

9 percent would get more sleep;

4 percent would volunteer; and

3 percent would work more.

Given the average commute time here in Central Kentucky, I have to wonder if our answers would be different.

Then again, if we did not feel that we had to live such a far distance from our places of employment, the commute times would be much more manageable and “getting through town” would be a thing of the past. More on this in a later post.

Another topic of much discussion has been the one-way/two-way streets downtown. 

When family and friends, who know where I work, ask about it it is always on whether it is really proceeding or not. My fellow bloggers and forum members seem to be quite adamant about making their feelings, on getting through town quickly, well known. I point out that the key word in their argument is “through” town and if others wanted to rush through their neighborhoods, the cry for speed bumps and stop signs would ring from the mountain tops.

The question also arises about where the traffic is going to “go”, when a lane or so of our currently one-way streets is reversed. Since the conversion is to be done in street pairs, the simple answer is; half of it will be on the other street. The traffic is going to “go” to the same place that it went when they closed Rose St at the Medical Center or when they took Euclid Ave from four lanes to two and a turn lane. It will “go” to the same place it “went” when they reacquired street space for pedestrians in Times Square in downtown Manhattan. It will probably “go” to some of those other options which I spoke of above.

My last transportation topic, one not so much seen here in Lexington, is the growing investment and usage of the nation's freight railroads. Several of the major Class 1 rail companies are now making their quarterly reports.

The Union Pacific is reporting that business is good. Despite a decline in coal volumes (Hey, it is not just in Kentucky, you guys) and significantly weaker steel and scrap metal markets, the railroad generated its best-ever financial results on total. The southern Powder River Basin coal tonnage dropped by 13 percent to 44.7 million primarily because of low natural gas prices and high utility stockpiles, so total coal traffic fell 12 percent. If it were not for China taking all that we can ship over to them, the totals would be even smaller. On the other hand, crude oil business jumped 300 percent. 

Railroad officials, though not sounding optimistic, say that they “will play the hand the economy deals us”and “The fourth quarter will look much like the third”. Still that would give the railroad record earnings and a sub-70 operating ratio. A first in the railroad's history.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad is having a similarly good year. They continue shipping millions of barrels of crude oil from the prolific Bakken oil play, and will, even if the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is built. BNSF’s oil shipments out of the Bakken have grown exponentially, from 1.3 million barrels in 2008 to 90 million barrels in 2012. They have invested billions of dollars in new locomotives, tank cars and track improvements to ship oil. Last month BNSF announced that it would spend $1.1 billion on locomotives, freight cars and related equipment. Somehow, this has escaped the notice of both Presidential candidates.

On a personal note, I don't like the Keystone XL pipeline and not for environmental reasons alone. The Canadian company constructing the pipeline cannot or will not give assurances that all of the oil will be refined or used in the U.S. Recently, a number of Louisiana pipelines running between ports and the refineries now are pumping away from the refineries and U.S. exports of refined petroleum products hit an all time high last year. Who is to say that Canada will not be exporting their tar sand oil by way of Louisiana?

By shipping the oil by rail, multiple local destinations and refineries for U.S. consumption could be more likely. To me, that translate into more U.S. jobs and should be encouraged, yet from the candidates and even the administration officials, we hear nothing.

Does anybody else have something to add?

93% Say A Plan Does Not Exist

Did you know that there is a company with a specialty in infrastructure strategy and product development on a global scale? No, they are not located in Lexington nor are they planning to move here, but the fact that they exist encourages me. That means that someone is looking out for the built environment of the facilities that connect us or enable us to connect with others.

CG/LA Infrastructure, Inc., which has been around for 25 years and is considered by some to be an industry leader, has just released their latest survey on infrastructure priorities in America. The survey questions were asked of high level executives from all regions and disciplines of the building industry. So, were their conclusions surprising to most folks? Maybe not.

93% believe that the US has no overall infrastructure plan. Wow, that is not news to just about everybody.

Why is it that when we have such huge systems as the Interstate Highways, the national power grid, massive pipeline connections for both oil and natural gas, multi-state water supply lines for our larger cities and even our renewed and growing freight rail network, there is NO overall plan to coordinate them? Do the systems not compliment each other as a whole?

Without a plan there seems to be “…potential for disaster at every turn." as one executive put it. As we have seen in California in the last few weeks, just a small number of minor inconveniences to the petroleum refining system have caused huge headaches for motorists of that state and for many others. A small “glitch” in one system can be magnified through the interdependence of other systems.

57% of respondents encourage public-private partnerships as an important action which can be taken to solve our present situation. 47% favor increasing the gas tax, which has not increased since 1993 and now buys about half of what it did then in infrastructure improvements. (Very politically unpopular) 44% mention the creation of a national infrastructure bank which in this political landscape of gridlock, both in Washington and around the country, may be extremely difficult to do.

In terms of highest or above-average priority for infrastructure investment, it should surprise no one that 79% list our nation’s bridges as needing repair. There is a growing list of sub-standard bridges right here in Fayette County and Central Kentucky. Transportation for America has a map which shows some of the worst. Water and waste-water systems are also high on this list. Our own experience with the EPA Consent Decree stands in the bright spotlight as evidence of this national need. We are not alone in neglecting things which we cannot see yet rely upon so much on a daily basis.

Two-thirds of the respondents mentioned highways as needing more funding, and perhaps they do, but we are already spending massive amounts on soon to be out-dated or obsolete highway projects. If we were to limit our thinking to just this element, could it be that in our desires for high gas mileage and the thrill of driving the open road has left us with clogged roadways and no way of funding improvements? I wonder if those who are able to afford the high mileage auto and live the furthest form their work are the same ones demanding more and better highways.

And how do you think that they felt as to the satisfaction with federal government's role in infrastructure development? 93.5% think that federal government's handling of infrastructure is a job which needs improvement (an understatement?) or just plain poor (abysmal may be a better assessment). Just what is it that we want the federal government to do? Is it government’s job to identify the shortcomings in infrastructure and repair them or should they guide the planning phase of facilities repair? Either way this seems to smack of “big brother” control or influence which our fiercely independent residents would balk at when it comes time to pay the tab. I can hear some of my friends now crying out that private industry can do it cheaper and better than government and yet private industry does not do it because the return on investment is not there.

Shorter approval processes and enabling legislation to allow private sector investment were cited as actions which could be taken to aid the necessary repairs and expansion work. I could assume that faster approval times will indicate a much more lax regulatory environment in which the private sector may reap higher profits yet result in a familiar product. The electric grid and the oil/gas pipelines which need the repair are presently in private hands, are they not. Many of them do not have the best track records in safety and environmental concerns, which may be the way that we got into this shape in the first place.

Government, and especially the Federal government, cannot be solely blamed for the pipeline leaks or the refinery fires and outages. The rail industry, despite its governmental regulations, is again growing and expanding, in major part with private dollars and an improving safety record. The electric grid, as robust as it may seem, is still a delicate lacework which is very much vulnerable to the whims of nature and the evil intentions of terrorists both foreign and domestic.

Remember still that this survey was of the high level executives who are concerned with major elements of life as they know it. What about the portion of citizens who are less than privileged and barely above the government's guidelines of poverty or those who are directly in poverty. What infrastructure is required for them to live a better life and how much do these “high level”executives concern themselves with the systems designed strictly for them?

There was a passing reference to multi-modal systems as associated with freight rail, but no mention of public transportation either locally, regionally or nationally. Should there be a 'potential disaster at any turn' as we have seen predicted above, what back-up (or possibly redundant) system will be available to aid in restoring normalcy? The disruption of oil/gas flow can upset just about all of the Interstate travel and the airlines could not mobilize enough to compensate and travel by rail would be non-existent even though it is the most efficient of the three. The destruction of a few major air control centers will hobble the airline industry, more-so internationally than cross-country, with resultant slowdowns of service.

On the local level, a robust public transportation system would save more than enough fuel to weather an extended slow down. Regional rail systems could suffice for the lack of highway and truck capacity for some freight deliveries. Regional and local farming should sustain the populace until new systems can be put in place. An ultra reliable water supply will prove extremely valuable.

93% of the survey respondents believe that the US has no overall infrastructure plan. I know that we have no real local plan. We have a response plan which may work for he short term, but a plan to rebuild our systems should something happen disastrously or they wear out incrementally, I do not believe exists.

I do believe that one should be developed.

Rail Progress And What It Means To Us

There is an awful lot of talk going on here at the end of the year about what to expect from the railroad industry in 2012. Much of it has to do with further expansion of the freight rail system as we try to come out of this past recession.

Railroad.net is reporting that next year will come with a ton of new jobs and cites the tremendous year that BNSF posted for 2011. Some 700+ jobs in one state alone and 415 of them are new jobs. It looks like we are trying to rebuild some of our decaying infrastructure, though the railroads have been doing a decent job of that in the last few decades.

On the subject of High Speed Rail, at least a couple of the funded projects will begin actual construction in the next year and there is no hope of seeing anything being done close to here.

Inter-modal shipping is picking up in a great way here in America and the railroad are again adding capacity. 

The last five years or so have seen several projects to enlarge tunnels and bridges to allow the bigger double stack trains. Norfolk-Southern is preparing to spend $60.5 million over the next two years, add 48 new employees and possibly create 400 other jobs by the end of 2014. Another expansion project could add 50 more jobs in a second location.

In Virginia, the recent holiday weekend saw the demand for Amtrak exceed the current capacity and talk is going around about the increased need in North Carolina. Even our closest Amtrak route along the Ohio River to Chicago or Washington is looking to add another trainset to the mix.

All of the above is happening in other locales, not in Kentucky. Other states are talking about adding some sort of rail facilities, both freight and passenger types. Little is being talked about in Kentucky.

One of the latest off hand comments came from Nick Nicholson, the president of Keeneland. It looks like he wants a light rail line to the track for two months of racing. Oh, and maybe an extension to the airport. I am not sure where he would like it to run and if it would use new or existing track. Maybe he is expecting R. J. Corman to operate it for him. There are numerous logistical problems to solve in that deal. It can be done but it will be a complex deal.

Speaking of Corman and his property, it appears that the Arena Area Arts and Entertainment group thinks that appropriating a necessary portion of a busy, functioning rail yard for an inter-modal passenger transfer station is an easy task. I think that Mr Corman has said that they are not bringing enough money to the table for that to occur.

Local investing in properties which could bring more rail activity is really at a standstill save for the Smucker's people. I have seen where they have purchased several pieces of property adjacent to the existing JIF plant. This gives them about 27 acres in total and space to expand to about double the production. Whether this includes expanded rail sidings I don't know, but anything is possible.

I also have been watching the Lextran situation with their remodel of their garage building. I have heard that the locals are asking for more restoration than redo and upgrade which could cost more than they have in funding. The old GE lamp plant on the other side of Broadway is empty, has plenty of room for a facility and sit on a rail line. Could this be an impetus for Lextran to think about rail.

Hold on, That is just too much wishful thinking. Lets get back to reality and savor the small gains that we are making.

What Do You See In Your Wallet?

The American economy is coming back. At least according to most of the news reports that you hear. Wall Street is again climbing to within a thousand or two of its peak in October of 2007 and the corporate bigwigs are getting their outrageous bonuses, despite the so-called limitations that were enacted. It seems like these guys are winning the lottery every year. But I have not seen this recovery in my wallet.

In this recently completed first fiscal quarter, many of the railroad companies that I follow are now reporting that they have done very well. Over at CSX, the reported revenue climbed 13% to a record $2.8 billion, operating income at an all-time high of $773 million(up 22%) and an operating ratio at 72.5 compared with last year and also a record. Not bad for having many severe winter storms to deal with and a steep rise in diesel fuel prices.

Union Pacific also had problems with the weather and fuel prices but that didn't prevent them from chalking up some equally impressive record gains in revenue, operating income and ratio. Overall U.S. Rail volumes have remained above the typical carload growth rates for the first quarter. Shipments are up, revenues are up and profits are up, but I have not seen it in my wallet.

The workforce headcount for all 7 of the Class I railroads increased by 4.4% over last March's count and the majority of that came in the maintenance of way and structures group. Our railroads are beginning to upgrade and expand their infrastructure for the anticipated uptick in demand for freight. Remember that these guys are not interested in passenger rail, high speed or not. Rail travel of every kind is growing all across the U.S. But I don't see the benefits of that growth showing up in my wallet.

I read someplace the other day that the large multi-national corporations based in America have roughly $1.3 trillion in liquid assets which they are holding on to. That is trillion with a T, and yet they are not actively working on creating jobs or investing in America's growth. They are just sitting on it.

Are they waiting on the government to create to jobs? I don't think so. If the government began creating service jobs then the TEA Party would claim that they are expanding government. If the government began creating construction jobs then the taxes would have to help fund the building projects. Private industry will not create these service or construction jobs because the general public is unwilling to pay the full and unsubsidized cost of such a venture nor can the return on investment be fully realized in the now standard depreciation timetable. We have let the Wall St economy call the shots for so long that they can no longer help the little people while failing to maintain a reasonable, or sustainable growth rate. They have taken us to the brink in the past and we seem willing to let them continue an their merry way again.

Wall St has led an effort to subtly bring about a stealth redistribution of wealth and we have willingly bought into the apple. Mass production and automation have consistently brought lower production costs and cheaper prices but have also resulted in fewer jobs and social benefits are the first to be affected. We want the former and complain about the latter. And we go along with it. The Wall St CEOs eat from the big table and we wait for the trickle-down to reach us. I haven't seen it in my wallet.

I saw on the news this morning that John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, was in Libya to meet with the rebel coalition and discuss some sort of aid. There was also some comment about using the frozen assets of Gadhafi and supplying weapons and medical aid. Is this not a redistribution of wealth in the country of Libya? From the rich and powerful to the working masses? I guess it is good enough for them but not for America. And what about the comments from The Donald the other day? That the Libyans PAY us for the moral support(and a few specially aimed Cruise missiles) so that when we win the war for them, we would take( not pay for) all the oil that we need. Don't you just love where Trump's heart is at? I'll bet that I never see that show up in my wallet either.

What I DO see in my wallet is a pending 10% (Mrs Sweeper says probable) pay cut in an effort to balance the budget.

Sometimes, One Can Make A Difference

I received a comment today to an older post about the trolleys and Chevy Chase. I infer that this reader found the scuttlebutt going around, concerning the alteration of the Blue Route trolley, was suspiciously the similar to what I had proposed. I too, thought the same thing when I read the 5th District newsletter which came out last week. Does the Councilman read my stuff or does he have friends that do. Either way, the thought of being useful gives me a good feeling.

Below is the text from the newsletter;

For the past several weeks, I have been working with LexTran to devise a Colt Trolley route that would circulate through Chevy Chase then back downtown with a stop by the Lexington Farmers Market. I am pleased to inform you that on April 30th, the Blue Route Chevy Chase “Hop” will do just that.

The trolley will run from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., and LexTran estimates that a full loop will take approximately 20 minutes, arriving at either end of the loop in 10-minute intervals. The Blue Route will maintain its Main and Vine Street course with the following deviations:
• Old Vine to Woodland Ave.
• Right on Woodland Ave.
• Left on Maxwell/High St. to Euclid
• Right on Euclid to Ashland Ave.
• Right on Ashland Ave.
• Left on Main St. to Jefferson St.
• Right on Jefferson St. to 2nd St.
• Left on 2nd St.
• Follow Regular Route to Old Vine at Woodland

There are some discrepancies in the newsletter and the posted trolley routes and times on the LexTran site. First, while April 30 is a Farmers Market day, if the route begins at 10 (the LexTran site says 11:30) those who get downtown after that will find far fewer good choices to pick from. Second, the route needs to go beyond 1:00 (LexTran says 2:00) if those who ride from downtown for lunch are to get back in a timely manner. And lastly, I hope that LexTran quickly updates their list of destinations along the route as this new alignment greatly expands the current list.

I guess that I can also claim at least a 66% success rate in being right about the Corman railroad display track at the corner of W. Main St and Oliver Lewis Way. I had theorized that they might place their existing large boxcar along with the two locomotive shells, or they might place the steam locomotive there. As it is they just put the two display units, so I was somewhat right.

This Weeks Rail Thoughts

I have been kind of quiet on the subject lately, but the things that I have been reading in the past week have brought the regional rail idea more to the fore.

First off, the work that R. J. Corman Railroad is doing along side the Rupp parking lot and the intersection of W. Main St and Oliver Lewis Way is progressing smoothly. They have installed a fairly short (and steep) section of track that branches off of the main line just south of its crossing at Second St. This track then runs up a nearly 6% grade until it levels out parallel to the crest of the embankment which overlooks the rail yard.

This clearly has one sole purpose. To display some of the various rail equipment used by the Central Kentucky Lines portion of Corman rail group. They are also almost ready to place the rail under the new bridge now that the drainage and electrical line placements have been resolved. There is a location for a transformer pad and what I'm told will be a “glass house”. I am supposing that this will look similar to the architecture of the aviation facility in Nicholasville and will be used to protect some railcars (and /or people) should they establish a dinner train style operation. A Corman spokesman has continued to say that the railroad has “no formal plans for an excursion train”but all the construction, both here in Lexington and in Midway are some of the many pieces that “need to come together before an excursion train becomes reality.”

In Midway, if you don't know, the track runs right through the middle of Main St. and leaves little room for a long train to stop without blocking one of two city streets. The right of way for the railroad actually is wide enough for two parallel tracks without eliminating traffic or parking. The railroad is working with the City of Midway in building such a parallel track and doing some streetscape improvements.

Neither of these two track work projects are part of the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant recently awarded for track upgrading on several of the Corman lines in a few states. One more piece of the puzzle was the wye that they re-established near Christianburg and provides a beautiful place in which to turn a train.

Corman has nearly quadrupled the amount of rail traffic on the line to Louisville in the 5 or 6 years that he has controlled it and its soon-to-be-completed upgrading will allow more freight traffic just in time for the price of fuel to make long-haul trucking cost prohibitive. The trucking industry has not made their trucks any more fuel efficient than the auto industry has cars. That said, the idea of a regional commuter rail service to Louisville, though interesting, is made just a little bit harder.

I hear of many commuters who travel from Lexington to Frankfort or Louisville daily who say that they are willing to go by rail, but I am not sure that they have thought it completely through. Many of them have found their efficient route via auto, and many of them avoid the normal rush hour snarls of downtown. If they were to go by rail and the station is downtown, then they are now a part of the traffic that they have so far avoided. There is also an added level of commute time involved which needs to be considered. For all of their talk, we are still at least ten years late in beginning to think about commuter rail service.

On the topic of High Speed Rail, it now seem clear that the Republican majority in the House is set on erasing all gains that the present administration has attempted to make. Without requiring vastly more fuel efficiency in autos and trucks and better alternatives to the fossil fuels we currently use, I think that they are wanting the country to live in the status quo. Other countries are not so conservative about it.

We cannot let the market decide about these things. Consider this. Based on extensive research Airbus committed, back in 2000, to build a massive 4 engined aircraft seating 500-800 passengers. The demand would come from the Asian market and a large part of that from China. Boeing, interestingly enough, came to a eerily similar decision. With the emergence of the Chinese market and the need for large numbers of people to travel between China's major cities and internationally, this looked like a sound decision. Now, 11 years later, one and just one southeast Asian airline has taken delivery of any of these super jumbo jets. That is one A380 out of the five ordered. Boeing has sold none of the passenger models but has orders for the freight versions What, pray tell, is the difference in the past 11 years. China's high speed rail.

This decision was basically an economic one. One 16 car-long 300 km/h train set costs roughly $80 million and seats 1050 while one Airbus A380 costs $360 million and seats 650. You can do the math.

Although the A380 is perhaps the most fuel-efficient large airliner in the sky today on a per-seat/km or seat/mile basis, figures from Airbus and Siemens show that at A380 burns nearly six times as much energy per seat/km as a modern high-speed train. The Chinese will buy from the Western world, but not if what they can build is cheaper. The Chinese have built over 6300 miles of high speed rail line in the past 10 years and the Europeans are continuing to expand their high speed routes while we worry about who will or will not benefit from building it. The answer is definitely the Chinese, they win if the build their own and the win if we don't build ours.

Rail Accomplishments

Well, here is an interesting piece of information. Norfolk-Southern, in 2010, has played a big role in industrial development and generated a lot of new jobs. Not bad for a years worth of work.

Out of 67 new industrial sites and 28 plant expansions, was even one in the Lexington area? Has Lexington industry added any new carloads to the more than 132,000 mentioned in the announcement? Were a few of those 2,000 jobs in the Central Kentucky area? I don’t think so.

It appears that roughly a third of those location and expansions dealt with alternative fuels production or distribution. I doubt that we will have any of those here as long as “Coal is King”. As for coal being hauled by rail, there are still many rail abandonment requests, in Kentucky, made annually. We talk of growing crops for bio-fuels and research on production, but I don’t see it moving very fast.

Lexington does have a growing industrial area on the north side, just where Citation will cross the N-S mainline and there were 2 new or expanded facilities placed in operation recently. Our very own Big Ass Fan Company, manufacturers of some of the largest industrial ventilation fans known, sits right along the rail line and nary a rail spur in sight. Will they be shipping everything by truck? God, I hope not.

Then, basically next door, we have the relocated Kentucky Eagle beer distributor who, I would think, could benefit from a rail spur also. Ironically, they moved from Angliana Ave. and direct access to the rail yard. We don’t brew this stuff here. It has to be shipped in from somewhere else and if it is not coming by rail (we know it can’t come by pipeline) then it must be by truck.

Our local factory for construction cranes, Link-Belt out on Palumbo Dr., removed their rail spur a few years ago but are in the expansion mode themselves They will be unveiling more of their telescoping crawlers in the near future. These must be shipping by truck as well. Thankfully, the industrial lead that is there services International Paper, Kentucky-Indiana Lumber and the Young warehouse complex on that road.

Lexington is losing some of their industrial customers, but that doesn’t mean that we have to lose the industrial spaces or facilities. Things like incandescent light bulbs are a thing of the past and maybe the existing building cannot be re-fitted to the newer technology, but whatever may replace the products/buildings could still use an efficient shipping/receiving mode that rail provides.

The railroads, or at least N-S, appear willing to assist in the work. Is our economic development effort working closely with them and others? I don’t see any evidence of it but I could be mistaken.

In terms of some positive railroad news, the R.. J. Corman rail group is working hard in the Rupp Arena parking lot with what looks like the anticipated boarding site of a Lexington version of the “Old Kentucky Dinner Train”. Honestly, I saw what appears to be drainage and sub-base work under the Oliver Lewis Bridge. As you can see here, we are looking back at the Arena with clearly some drains, set just wide enough for some tracks and at the lowest point of the earthworks. The alignment veers left and then back right and parallel to the parking lot pavement with just enough length for several cars while leaving the locomotive under the bridge.


Looking in the other direction it sweeps in a curve right into an existing track of the yard. This track has been the location of the unloading of the sand train, but it seems to have been shifted to the right in this photo.


I have also noticed that at the corner of W. Main and Oliver Lewis Way, they have leveled a spot for, probably, some corporate identity display. If it is similar to their display in Nicholasville, I would expect the current Corman boxcar and two locomotive shells, all decked out on a gorgeous red livery, set on rails to proudly proclaim that they are in Lexington to stay. This is not as exciting as an announcement about regional rail but if this will bring revenue service to Corman rail, then I am all for it

How nice would it be that, if next year, Lexington could be one of those N-S locations and the recipient of some of those jobs? Something to work for.

Things That Maybe We Should Be Doing

There are some things that we should be planning for, especially during this mayoral election cycle, rather that bickering about who has or has not done enough in the past four years. We should be talking about looking to the future in concrete terms, not just rosy sounding platitudes.

This past weekend, the state of Indiana and Progress Rail Services Corp. announced the intention to reopen a long closed industrial plant in Muncie, Ind. Progress Rail Services Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., a U.S. heavy equipment maker that has been moving aggressively into the rail business lately.

Why is this important to Lexington and Central Kentucky? Well, for one, it displays a coming revitalization of American industry. Something that our region desperately needs.

Caterpillar has long been known for their bright yellow construction and mining equipment, but recently they have been looking to get more into the railroad business. To that end, Caterpillar purchased Progress Rail Services in 2006 to repair and rebuild locomotives and freight cars for Class Is, passenger railroads and private owners. Although started in 1983, one reason that we may never have heard of them, is that much of their business is in other countries. They have more than 130 facilities and most are overseas. The Muncie plant will be largest project tackled by Alabama-based Progress Rail.

The situation took a sharp turn back in August when, due to an advantageous position of the autos bail-out, Progress Rail bought Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. (EMD) from General Motors Inc. Funding for the $820 million purchase came from the private equity firms Berkshire Partners LLC and Greenbriar Equity Group LLC. I see no direct connection between Berkshire Partners and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. other than they both see American railroads and their attendant corporations as good business investments.

Although EMD's headquarters, engineering facilities and parts-manufacturing operations are located in LaGrange, Illinois, just west of Chicago, they do all final assembly in London, Ontario CANADA. So much for a “buy American” plan for our American railroads. EMD has also languished a distant second to GE in the American locomotive industry. This new plant will give Progress Rail locally produced locomotives to comply with the “buy American” requirements of publicly-funded passenger rail contracts.

Reports have it that this 740,000 square-foot facility and its 75 acre property will have a test track and allow the company to pursue transit-rail business. The site originally was home to a Westinghouse transformer factory and will require minimal redevelopment as it has rail lines built-in and rail access.

Transit/rail, would that be the streetcar or regional light rail that we see spoken of by the Obama administration and so easily dismissed by the Republican leadership of Congress? Will these 650 new jobs, which should come on line sometime in 2012 or later, be ascribed to the recovery efforts of Democrats or the Republicans? Will these 650 employees and their resultant boost to the local economy be a legacy of the “disastrous auto bail-out”?

When will Lexington seek out these types of developments? When will Central Kentucky realize that we need these types of jobs, not just high-tech or medical jobs? Toyota works well for us but they are not the only transportation manufacturing game in the world. We have one of the foremost rail building companies in the central U.S. and we should be looking toward their view of the future.

According to Association of American Railroads, through 2010’s first 42 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads originated 15.7 million carloads, up 9.8 percent, and 11.4 million containers and trailers, up 15.1 percent year over year. If the oil prices do rise steeply, as others have predicted, then the long haul trucking industry will be hit hardest first. Rail has been proven to be ten times more efficient than trucks per ton/mile traveled and we should be jumping toward this future, not shying away from it.

A Follow-up On American Railcar

I posted back in February about the American Railcar Industries (ARII) efforts to expand the country’s rail infrastructure and the increase of passenger rail. It appears that they have been busier than I thought.

American Railcar expanded their plant in Marmaduke in 2007-08, probably on the anticipation of an increase in rail traffic that did not materialize. Instead it moved the other way with the beginnings of the current economic recession, the expansion was downsized and operations consolidated. However they did leave themselves in a good position to think “outside the box”.

ARII is now one of four Arkansas businesses receiving stimulus money for clean energy manufacturing and will be reconfiguring the plant to produce structural towers for large scale wind turbines. Combined with others in the state, they will now be able to configure complete wind generating systems.

Kentucky, on the other hand, is continuing to push coal and the immense carbon footprint that it carries along with the environmental damage created by its mining. If Arkansas can transition into a cleaner type of industry then so can Kentucky.

TIGER, Stimulus and The Corman Group

The R. J. Corman Railroad Group, one of my favorite rail companies, is on the receiving end of some of the TIGER funds of the stimulus package. Funds that will rehabilitate some of the aging trackage that they lease from CSX, trackage that CSX let deteriorate as they lost freight market share to the trucking industry. Yes, it is the same trucking industry that has been propped up by the highway subsidies since the early '50s.

The funds will be used to rehabilitate roadbed and ties on the three short lines, the Central Kentucky line, the Bardstown line and the Memphis line. The amount of work will require approximately 100 additional positions and be spread from Winchester to Louisville and Bowling Green to Tennessee.

These rail infrastructure upgrades will allow more freight to be hauled at a cheaper cost in terms of our carbon footprint if not actual drayage fees. Such upgrades may also allow the possibility of regional passenger rail but I think that it is too soon to tell on that one. Some other recent upgrades, that did not involve federal dollars, included the tunnel expansion in Frankfort and several new sidings along the route to Louisville in anticipation of some type of increased rail movements and excursions.

If my hunch is right, this may not be the only contact that the Corman Group has with stimulus money. Another big award was for The National Gateway Rail Corridor on the CSX System in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio that totals $98 million. This project involves enlarging tunnels to allow containerized freight moving in double-stack trains to be able to shave off about 200 miles and up to a day’s transit time between the East Coast and the Midwest. Coincidentally, Corman has recently completed three good sized tunnels for the Norfolk-Southern Heartland Corridor project. The National Gateway Corridor also feeds several of Corman's short lines in Pennsylvania. It would only be logical for Corman to pick up some of this work.

How all of this ties into the plans of Warren Buffet and the BNSF or the CN expansion plans along the former Illinois Central corridor, I can only speculate but I would love to be proven right on some of my earlier hunches.

What Does Mongiardio Think Of Lexington Transit

I don't endorse any candidate for office on this blog.

That is not its purpose, but I do bring some of their speaking points to the fore and would hope that they will pick up on some of the points that I bring up.

Last Thursday US Senate candidate Dr. Dan Mongiardo addressed a group of public transportation advocates at Louisville's Union Station. There he unveiled a plan for Louisville's multi-modal public transit system that his web site calls "very detailed". As a candidate running for state wide office, I hope that this is not his only public transit plan, or that this just his endorsement of someone's plan that he can really get behind. And particularly, can this plan be adapted for Lexington?

What really got my attention was the plan for a renewal of state-wide PASSENGER rail travel, see here. This plan does not seem as detailed, but this is more of what I think that a US Senator should doing for his state. Our two current Senators have done more than enough to try and kill what little rail travel( freight or passenger) remains in this state.

I am bringing this to your attention so that, if you are interested in public transportation as I am, we can find a way to get more details in the form of a presentation to some of our folks. So Dr. Dan, if you are reading this, will you give us a chance to get behind your passenger rail plan? Will you give us in Lexington a little help with our transit planning and keep some our tax dollars here in the state?

Is there someone else out there who has any better ideas? Let me know.

Lexington's Future Should Be On Track?

By now everyone has heard the news, the Oracle of Omaha has bought himself a railroad. Warren Buffet has bought the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. I am so jealous that he gets to play train--with real trains.

I have known several model railroaders over the years and many of them have had elaborate set-ups and layouts. Each one had a different goal in mind when they started their design phases. Some wanted be able to run their railroad in a manner best fitting their interests; operating a train using the historical methods and rules of bygone days, bringing their favorite prototype into the present using an alternate reality or using some specialized equipment related to a facility that they were familiar with. The common thread in all of these is a remembrance of days gone by and the thoughts of what might have been.

Mr Buffet is now going to tread where few railroaders have dreamed to go--he is going to march proudly into the future, with the idea of renewing the promise of what rail transportation can do and creating new possibilities of fond memories in younger generations. And he is not going alone, one of our local rail professionals is moving into the future right there with him, R.J. Corman.

Corman, with his recent acquisition of the Railpower Co. and their industry leading GenSet locomotives is working with other railroad companies to make rail transportation services once again the best in the world. Some of us have watched in wonderment as the Corman Railroad group has steadily built a reputation of excellence and said that he is just doing it to please his own ego. His purchase of a steam locomotive and rumors of excursions/dinner trains have fueled dreams of more tourist attractions, but I think that it is much more than that. I am just waiting for the next hint of the wonderful things to come.

With such railroad visionaries as that, why is it that the State of Kentucky and the City of Lexington don't see more possibilities for rail in the future? Why are we finding more ways to remove ourselves from any remote possibility of re-establishing rail service to our downtown. We still herald the removal of the downtown tracks and the redevelopment of rail related industries as though they will no longer be needed as our fossil fuels depletion drives up transportation costs.

Warren Buffet did not buy a railroad on a whim or as a way to play with trains. $34 Billion is a lot of money to play with but Buffet does not like to lose money and if he thinks it is a good bet, then maybe the city, state and the rest of the country should listen. Buffet thinks that this a bet on the country and I'm following him.

More Thoughts on Lexington's Rail Situation

As buoyed as I am about the possibility of R. J. Corman bringing his dinner train(or a second one, it is unclear which) to Lexington, I am a little unsure just why he is asking for the boarding area to be in the Lexington Center parking lot. I do understand that they would be using the parking for the dinner train patrons and that it is an existing paved area, but it is a bit of a way from any other existing or proposed uses and at the east end of the working rail yard.

I would think that it would make more sense being on the west end of the yard and across from the developing Distillery District. There is a triangle of property at the intersection of Thompson Rd and Old Frankfort Pike, just west of the yard throat, that could hold the station and a boarding platform. The property itself does not have room for parking, but the area directly across Old Frankfort is slated for a parking lot.

The property to the north is currently occupied by the LFUCG recycling center whose relocation is being considered. Its redevelopment could include another platform for boarding or servicing the dinner train. If Rick Corman and Barry McNeese could come to terms on this, I think that it could kick start that end of the Distillery District. I can also see this as a boarding point for the regional rail to Frankfort and Louisville.

While on the topic of regional passenger rail, I see where the CEO of Norfolk Southern Corp. Wick Moorman is looking to the future of railroading, including passenger rail.

The railroad is also looking at passenger rail. In an interview last week with The Norfolk- Virginian Pilot, CEO Wick Moorman was open about NS’ new receptivity to passenger rail projects:

“Moorman didn’t just offer his opinion on the matter.” wrote the Pilot, “He signaled in an interview that his company is open to becoming an active partner. Said Moorman: “If we think that it makes sense for us financially to take some role in the ongoing operation, we’d be willing to at least consider that; we certainly are more than willing to be engaged in the dialogue.”
Destination:Freedom

If Norfolk Southern is really ready to embrace passenger rail, then we may have our direct route to Cincinnati and the Mid-West HSR network.

Finally, after this and all the other talk nationally about passenger rail and High Speed Rail and the like, I don't see how Kentucky's usually fiscally conservative congressmen are still funneling Federal dollars into the regional airports of Somerset and Owensboro for flights to destinations the present administration says are ideal for the HSR network that they envision. I myself can see that fuel prices will continue to rise and there is no alternative aviation fuel on the horizon, so why are they spending so much money of a possibly "dead end" transportation mode. At the very least it will be priced out of the means of the common family.

If anybody has other thoughts on this, drop me a line and we'll talk.

A Lexington Dinner Train?

I have been waiting for this for a few years now. R. J. Corman wishes to bring his dinner train into downtown Lexington.

Several years ago when I first learned that Mr Corman had acquired the line to Versailles, I hoped that a Dinner Train could run to Versailles and back, even though at that time there would have to be an interchange across the Norfolk Southern tracks to reach the old Louisville & Nashville yard in west Lexington. I mistakenly thought that no one would allow the connection across Old Frankfort Pike that had been removed well before I became interested in trains. The plans soon became known and the connection was built along the old alignment into the yard.

Then came the rumors of Corman buying a steam locomotive. This also came to pass and then I felt "Is there anything that he won't do to increase railfanning?" People started talking about using the steam loco for the dinner train.

When the Chinese locomotive arrived and the crew began working with and learning its peculiar ways, a bunch of us railfans talked hopefully of excursions to Frankfort and Louisville. Mr Corman disappointed us by announcing that the loco would not be making more than a few trips a year and that the upkeep was much more than expected. As I understand it, the lease with CSX does not allow any revenue producing passenger service on the line to Louisville. Therefore when the steam train made its run from Louisville it could carry no paying customers.

Today the chairman of the board of the Corman Railroad, asked the board of the Lexington Center to consider using some of the space in the Cox St parking lot, for a boarding station for the Dinner Train to operate out of Lexington. Those dreams that I and others have had for five years or more look closer to becoming a reality. The wishes of establishing some sort of passenger service in Lexington to anywhere, look to be considered by some to be possible.

Mr. Corman, again I thank you for all that you are doing for the transportation needs of Central Kentucky, the University of Kentucky, the folks in Jessamine County and the rail industry in general. If there is anything that I can assist with, I hope that I will be allowed.

Passenger Rail in the 2035 MTP

Today I would like to take a look at the recently adopted 2035 Metropolitan Transportation Plan for Lexington and the MPO. My particular focus will be on one or two of my pet peeves, anything concerning rail.

Beginning in Chapter 3 the plan details an assessment of the present state of the transportation system and I am unaware of the reasoning behind the order of their sequencing. Obviously, the surface road network is of first priority as it has been since the '40s or before. This is followed by, and I don't know why, school transportation and taxi/limousine services. Passenger rail, which is next, does come before a practically, insignificant water transportation element(the Valley View ferry). Aviation, freight(road and rail) and transit(Lextran) make up the last items in the assessment. This order does not seem to fit any currently perceived hierarchy of transportation thought.

The initial paragraph of the passenger rail section states the AMTRAK operates the Kentucky Cardinal service from Louisville to Chicago daily while the highlighted link shows that the service was discontinued over 6 years ago. There is then a detailed(?) breakdown of the three closest AMTRAK stations, Cincinnati, Maysville and Louisville. The information given is apparently from a six+ year old schedule as the times and frequency data does not agree with the AMTRAK website and nowhere is it clarified that there is only ONE train a day(in alternating directions). The Louisville information, besides being old, does not show that the connection is made by motor coach and all the departure times for all stations are for service to Chicago. I have taken this route to Washington and on to New York(and back) in the past two years and can personally testify that there are very few empty seats.

This assessment does not include any estimations of current usage or demand nor does it contain any AMTRAK projections or on-time statistics. I don't see how any proposals could be set forth in the form of recommendations using this inventory of data.

Chapter 6 of the document contains the plan recommendations for each plan element. Their listed order is: Highway (of course) both short and long range, Transit(Lextran), Mobility(primarily rideshare/carpool/vanpool and awareness of transit/bike/ped/telecommuting), Bicycling/pedestrian, and other transportation modes.

At this point transportation by air is placed before rail despite ongoing consolidations in the airline industry and the demonstrated willingness of the new administration to push passenger rail, especially high speed rail. This new commitment to HSR(High Speed Rail) is mentioned yet any and all leading of the effort is left to the state Transportation Cabinet. What with the mayors of Louisville, Cincinnati and Nashville each touting regional rail in their areas, Lexington's mayor and Council are very quiet about the subject in public.

The one type of urban mass transit that is being discussed is, as most of should know I am not in favor of, the Automated Guideway Transit or AGT. These highly automated, elevated transit pods do enable a higher level of flexibility than the traditional streetcar model, but may not be able to be used in the case of failure of the automation system. The elevated guideways would alter the streetscape and the look of the downtown and may not fit with the proposed Downtown Master Plan, which though not adopted yet, is still in the minds of many urban citizens. An AGT wold certainly make Lexington a bit more unique, but the more traditionally minded Lexingtonians and others in Central Kenucky may be a roadblock. The AGT, although it may be next to last in the priority if recommendations, does have an impressive amount of information for something with so little publicity.

What you may have noticed over the foregoing paragraphs is the the mostly Federally funded, local MPO agency has little or no control over the planning efforts of Lextran, the Airport, Amtrak or, as I may get into later, the freight hauling modes of rail and trucking. As the umbrella transportation planning agency through which the Federal dollars should flow, there is little that they can do to influence how, where and when the funds will be disbursed.

I have not scrutinized the rest of the plan, nor do I intend to, as I dont want to get into which of the highway projects should get priority over another when I feel that they both could obtain the same results with a different mode as the solution.

Feel free to let me know if you believe some other solution is better.

Some thoughts on transit

There are transportation statistics galore flying around these days. The more you read them the more confusing they get.

First there was this snippet from the San Francisco Chronicle

Amtrak, the passenger rail service that struggled for years to attract riders, drew a record 28.7 million in the year ending Sept. 30. That is 11 percent more than the year before and the sixth straight year that ridership has increased. Ticket revenue hit a record $1.7 billion, a $200 million increase from a year earlier.

Last year's high gas prices caused many to find other ways to get between cities.

Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., said higher gas prices and concern about dependence on foreign oil have made people more willing to invest in passenger rail.

"There is an appetite for city-to-city rail," Rendell told reporters recently. "Why should we be different than any other country in the world? You go to Europe and you can't get an airplane to a city less than 200 miles away."

Then came this from the same source. Transit ridership up, highway travel down in 2008

People made 10.7 billion trips on public transit in 2008, a 4 percent increase over 2007, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Over the same time, Americans drove 3.6 percent less on the nation's highways. Gas prices peaked at more than $4 in July before falling, but ridership remained strong.

In 1956, Americans made nearly 11 billion trips. However, the percentage was much higher because the country had far fewer people — about 170 million compared with some 306 million today — and not as many cars.

The date 1956 is significant because that was the year that the Interstate Highway System was enacted and the Highway Trust Fund was created. It was also the year that the Thunderbird and the Corvette became established as America's dominant sports cars. Two years later the word "sprawl" was coined to mean the unfettered growth along these new Interstates.

Public transportation use in America peaked in the 1940s and steadily declined after World War II as more Americans moved to the suburbs and highways were built. The number of people taking transit bottomed out in 1972 at about 6.6 billion trips.

Lexington was little different than the rest of the country. Here the streetcars closed down in the late '30s, as I have said before. The buses held sway as the shape of the city was small and compact. It was the mid-'60s before Lexington began to wildly expand develop.

1956 brought IBM to Lexington and more importantly a class of corporate executives that were used to the types of suburbia in the New York/New Jersey area. Larger ranch style homes on lots of about 1/3 of an acre and a little farther from the downtown district. Land and houses were(and still are) cheaper here and these people didn't mind driving at all.

IBM was just the opening of the industrial expansion for Lexington. We wanted clean manufacturing and took just about any industry without a smokestack. Ohh...for those days again. We now need the manufacturing plants and jobs that really make things.

The one thing that the Yankees did not bring with them was a willingness to use public transit and the local transplants(from eastern and southern Kentucky) brought their "drive to the big city and back home" style of transportation mind set. Therefore, is it any wonder that Lexington is one of the highest driving metropolitan areas in America?

The Brookings Institution released this study in December. The Road…Less Traveled: An Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled Trends in the U.S. in which Lexington is identified as 89th in the top 100 metropolitan cities in the U.S. in terms of total Vehicles Miles Traveled(VMT). Eighty-ninth! Out of 100. That means the 88 other cities drive more than we do. Until you look at the population differences. Lexington rates #87 in terms of VMT per capita. Thats 6,892.1 miles per person, in 2006. There are only 12 other metropolitan areas that drive more per person than we do.

But there is some heartening news here too. In looking at the Lextran ridership numbers I am glad to see that every month, in a year over year comparison, that the percentage ncreases have been mostly in the double digit range and the year end totals 16.2% for 2006-07 and 11.5 for 2007-08.

I'm sure that there is more to be learned from all this but it may take some time.

The driverless car

The other day, our favorite transit hater, Randal O'Toole brought up the subject of "the driverless car" in which he points out that research on the matter has apparently stalled. I guess that the boom in "mega" SUVs and the hybrid movement took up too much of the research dollars. Maybe it was the need to have the Federal Government become part of the implementation process.

There was one successful demonstration of an automated highway system in 1997 and since then the efforts have focused on more intelligent vehicles, not roadways. The designers are making the autos capable of recognizing passive road markings and talking to each other. This should allow them to "socialize" and then "run in packs" so as to relieve roadway congestion. Or, at least that is the theory.

I am not so sure that I want my car talking to others. I don't want my car talking to anybody without me knowing what is being said, but then I have a sneaking suspicion that most autos made today have the circuitry installed for a cell phone. That's right, those cars that charge premiums for Onstar, already have the circuitry and only have to uncover the little blue button. They can sell it all they want on safety, and it has been used for that, but when the car can tell someone( that infamous someone) where you are, what you are saying and with whom you are associating without your knowledge, I kind of worry a little.

Twelve years ago when they started, 9/11 had not occurred, Homeland Security did not exist and they assured everyone that only they would let the information out to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. At one point, you had to allow them to release the information, now if you report a car stolen, the police call for the information and track the car. (The car thief does not push the blue button)

I once thought that the greatest danger of this system was from the business community. Buying the information of where you shopped, at what time of day, cross-tabulating with the merchant for what you bought and then targeting you with specialized video billboards when you were in the proximity of your usual haunts. Now the biggest villain may be the Government, not commerce.

O'Toole postulates that of the two technologies, the automated highway may be the easier and cheaper.

I suspect the first paradigm has a lower cost and higher benefits, partly because (again, just a suspicion) the benefits of driverless cars may be greatest if they are not integrated with driver-operated cars. But the first paradigm has the biggest chicken-and-egg problem. Other people think the second paradigm makes the most sense, partly because the cost of computer processing power is falling rapidly. The second paradigm does not have as big a chicken-and-egg problem, but state laws that require drivers to be fully in control of their cars at all times would need to be changed and, I suspect, highway owners might need to better maintain signage, stripes, etc.

In both of these cases, The Antiplanner has mentioned that the Government must have some level of involvement and that meas that Government planners will get their hands on it. And according to O'Toole, the planners have screwed up just about everything that they have touched.

Take for example two of the greatest advances in transportation in America, the transcontinental railroad and the Interstate Highway System. The railroad was devised and completed without government funding(lots of free land, but no Federal subsidy) and fulfilled the idea of "Manifest destiny" to most Americans. It wasn't until about the start of the 20th century that the government started to exert some sort of control.

Interstate Highways are another story. President Eisenhower brought back the idea of high speed, divided highways from Germany, as a way to travel between cities. It was the planners at the state and local levels who messed up the game and drove them straight in to the hearts of cities, ripping out great swaths of established neighborhoods, and in cases like Louisville and Cincinnati, separating the downtowns from their historical lifebloods , the rivers. Thankfully, Lexington kept I-64/I-75 on the periphery. And all of it financed(subsidized) by the federal government taxpayers.

What did I just hear? A loud cry of "Wait, We pay for what we get". Well, apparently not enough. The national infrastructure has received a failing grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

American Society of Civil Engineers says under-funding has caused the nation's infrastructure to crumble - and stimulus won't do enough.

We cannot maintain what we have and still we want to build more. More lanes to carry more single occupancy vehicles heading to same mass storage spaces instead of mass occupancy vehicles heading to no storage space at all.

The solution is not to have more of the same option to similar problems but to have more options to the one problem. Mr. O'Toole is heading in the wrong direction.

Railroads and the economy

I was directed to a link the other day in relation to transportation issues and found an entry about freight railcars. The author uses another story from much earlier in the year to explain how the railroads are not shipping as much goods as the once did and that thousands of railroad cars are sitting idle somewhere in the wilds of Montana. This is to show that the economy is not as robust as it once was.

As one who tries to keep up with what is going on in railroading, I have seen many posts from others asking about cars that are stored in various places in Kentucky. There times during the year that some autorack cars are stored, for weeks at a time, along the Norfolk-Southern tracks near Waller Ave. I can even recall, when the tobacco industry was strong in Lexington, that Southern used to store boxcars in the fall, in order to be ready to transport the leaf to the cigarette plants elsewhere. It makes good press, to say that approximately 1.5% of a railroads entire fleet is in storage, but I think that it is just standard industry practice.

Hunter Harrison, president and chief executive of Canadian National Railroad, recently in a keynote speech to the third annual Canada Maritime Conference, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, explained his views on the future of American railroading. He sees the need for an expansion of freight rail and the need for moving more freight, from trucks, to rail. Fuel economy and reduced emissions are only a few small points where efficiency may be gained.

• “If only 10 percent of North America’s (road) freight moved to the rails it would save $1 billion in fuel and give a big reduction in emissions,” he said. “Fuel savings, fewer emissions and reduced highway congestion: We are on the right side environmentally.”



• Harrison said rail carriers can move one ton of freight 423 miles on one gallon of fuel. “Imagine your car giving you that kind of performance.”

Harrison and Canadian National have made a big difference in railroading in the last ten or so years, so he may be on to something here.

The second part of this story, is the need to expand our manufacturing base here in America. By making more of our own goods and shipping them by rail, we could reduce our dependence on a global economy and re-localize our lives.

We, as a nation, are doing ourselves no good deal if we import dangerous, possibly lethal goods, pay shipping by inefficient means, then ship back recalled goods and finally, discard or destroy the contaminated refuse at our expense. Is it any wonder that our balance of payments is so out of whack?



Lexington's largest beer wholesaler is in the process of moving to an expanded location, and while they are currently adjacent to a rail line and will be along side the same rail line in their new location, they do not receive any product by rail. It would not be a major undertaking to make a siding at either of these two locations, yet they choose not to. Big Ass Fan Co. could also ship and receive by rail but don't. Should we ask why?