Post by crosstie on Apr 25, 2009 19:16:43 GMT -5
A New Sign of the Times
March 16th, 2009
The railroad business is typically pretty low-profile. People who aren’t involved in the industry rarely give much thought to the fact that most of the things in their homes and offices moved by rail at some point.
But these aren’t typical times. In cities and towns from east to west, ordinary citizens are seeing new reminders of the freight railroad industry and some of them don’t like it very much. I’m referring to the miles of railcars that are tucked away on dormant rail lines and sidings across the country right now. They are a standing reminder that the economy is hurting and that demand for railcars has dropped off dramatically from a year ago.
It’s difficult to get precise numbers, but it’s estimated there are several hundred thousand railcars in storage currently. And they aren’t all parked at out-of-the-way railyards, secondary tracks and other facilities. A few are parked within feet of people’s front or back yards.
In Montana, state legislators wanted to censure BNSF Railway for parking hundreds of empty railcars along the scenic Missouri River between Helena and Great Falls. They crafted a bill accusing the railroad of “creating a dumping ground for unused railroad cars.”
BNSF and other railroads are trying to be as sensitive as possible and place the cars in less-populated areas, but the unprecedented number of idle railcars poses a huge logistical problem. A BNSF spokesman said the railroad has broken up the cars to provide public access and access for wildlife and attempted to allow for residential views.
Residents in southern New Jersey were initially alarmed by a two-mile long row of railcars but became less concerned when learning the cars were empty and did not hold hazardous chemicals. A similar situation occurred in Thornton, Colo., when a major railroad parked a three-mile-long string of cars in the small town. After the cars stayed put for about a month, local residents protested and the railroad moved the cars to another location. Similar stories have been reported in Indiana and Michigan as well.
In California, the American Canyon City Council voted to send a formal complaint letter to Union Pacific over railcars that have been parked for weeks on tracks next to a new veterans memorial park. The cars have been marked with graffiti.
In an article in the American Canyon Eagle, Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond explained that her company has had to find room nationwide for 48,000 empty cars, which she calls “an unfortunate sign of the times.”
With the housing, retail and auto sectors still struggling, it’s hard to imagine rail volumes improving dramatically soon. But when they do, one of the first indicators of traffic levels bouncing back to normal will be the movement of those parked railcars.
And that’s a sign we can all look forward to seeing.
–By Kathy Keeney
March 16th, 2009
The railroad business is typically pretty low-profile. People who aren’t involved in the industry rarely give much thought to the fact that most of the things in their homes and offices moved by rail at some point.
But these aren’t typical times. In cities and towns from east to west, ordinary citizens are seeing new reminders of the freight railroad industry and some of them don’t like it very much. I’m referring to the miles of railcars that are tucked away on dormant rail lines and sidings across the country right now. They are a standing reminder that the economy is hurting and that demand for railcars has dropped off dramatically from a year ago.
It’s difficult to get precise numbers, but it’s estimated there are several hundred thousand railcars in storage currently. And they aren’t all parked at out-of-the-way railyards, secondary tracks and other facilities. A few are parked within feet of people’s front or back yards.
In Montana, state legislators wanted to censure BNSF Railway for parking hundreds of empty railcars along the scenic Missouri River between Helena and Great Falls. They crafted a bill accusing the railroad of “creating a dumping ground for unused railroad cars.”
BNSF and other railroads are trying to be as sensitive as possible and place the cars in less-populated areas, but the unprecedented number of idle railcars poses a huge logistical problem. A BNSF spokesman said the railroad has broken up the cars to provide public access and access for wildlife and attempted to allow for residential views.
Residents in southern New Jersey were initially alarmed by a two-mile long row of railcars but became less concerned when learning the cars were empty and did not hold hazardous chemicals. A similar situation occurred in Thornton, Colo., when a major railroad parked a three-mile-long string of cars in the small town. After the cars stayed put for about a month, local residents protested and the railroad moved the cars to another location. Similar stories have been reported in Indiana and Michigan as well.
In California, the American Canyon City Council voted to send a formal complaint letter to Union Pacific over railcars that have been parked for weeks on tracks next to a new veterans memorial park. The cars have been marked with graffiti.
In an article in the American Canyon Eagle, Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond explained that her company has had to find room nationwide for 48,000 empty cars, which she calls “an unfortunate sign of the times.”
With the housing, retail and auto sectors still struggling, it’s hard to imagine rail volumes improving dramatically soon. But when they do, one of the first indicators of traffic levels bouncing back to normal will be the movement of those parked railcars.
And that’s a sign we can all look forward to seeing.
–By Kathy Keeney