By Laura Stevens
Every day, as up to eight freight trains pass back and forth on
the outskirts of historical downtown Savannah, Ga., they blow their
horns at every single one of the 24 rail crossings along the
three-mile stretch.
That is making the Genesee & Wyoming Inc. railroad anything
but popular along tracks that, until four years ago, were
essentially dormant.
Noble L. Boykin Jr., whose law firm is on East 38th Street, said
he and other attorneys have to take "train breaks" during
depositions. He has to step into a closet for phone calls. He also
lives near the tracks, so he can't escape them--even at 5 a.m.
"Everybody hates it," he said.
Railroads are facing a growing backlash--not just against
dangerous oil trains, but against the noise, delays and traffic
jams caused by rail's rapid expansion and recent success. Rail
shipments have increased by more than 6% in the past three years,
but a bigger problem is that trains are getting longer, slower
and--in many places--more frequent. At least one railroad now
averages trains more than a mile long.
Community resistance has historically been just a nuisance to
railroads. The rails own their own right of way and operate under
federal authority that typically supersedes local ordinances.
Lately, though, public pushback has gotten both serious and
costly. It is forcing expensive improvements, interfering with
expansion plans and curbing growth. In March, BNSF Railway Co.
voluntarily slowed oil trains to 35 mph from 40 mph or higher near
populated areas due to community safety concerns, effectively
cutting capacity. Canadian National Railway Co. might be on the
hook to pay $47 million for an underpass in Barrington, Ill.
CSX Corp. won a major legal victory in April allowing it, after
six years, to finally start construction to expand its 110-year-old
Virginia Avenue tunnel in Washington, D.C. That is critical to
completing its $850 million "National Gateway" project so that it
could double-stack containers from the Eastern Seaboard to the
Midwest.
CSX adjusted its plans (and paid a little more--it won't say how
much) to mitigate noise and vibrations, speed construction, and
keep the tunnel enclosed, said Louis Renjel, CSX vice president of
strategic infrastructure initiatives. "You have a lot of people and
businesses in the area, so you have a lot of concerns to work
through," Mr. Renjel said.
In the past, if communities didn't like what railroads did,
railroads did it anyway. Between October and December, Norfolk
Southern Corp. received more than 180 traffic citations from the
Elkhart County Sheriff's Department for interfering with traffic in
Dunlap, Ind. Trains blocked major intersections often daily,
sometimes up to five hours, according to Capt. James Bradberry of
the department. The tickets carried fines of up to $500 each.
So far this year, though, it's gotten only a dozen tickets, said
Mr. Bradberry. He added the railroad "is responding to our presence
and working to mend it." A Norfolk Southern spokesman said the
railroad has invested in the area, including hiring 100 more crew
members, to reduce the delays. It doesn't like blocking roads
either, he said, because it means freight isn't moving.
The friction has grown as freight patterns have shifted. Oil
trains that barely existed six years ago, are now a critical part
of the energy boom. Container shipments grew 5% in 2014 to record
levels as consumer goods shifted to rail.
Savannah became a thoroughfare for wood pellets from
Southeastern forests as European power plants came under an EU
mandate to use renewable resources. The city has struck a
gentleman's agreement preventing trains from blocking traffic at
rush hour. "We're like the Saudi Arabia of pine," said Joseph C.
Shearouse Jr., a city employee who fields dozens of complaints
about the rail traffic.
Cities and towns are getting more demanding. When Canadian
National was ordered by regulators in 2011 to fund overpasses in
two Illinois towns as part of its purchase of a Chicago-area
short-line railroad, that was unusual. Nearby Barrington, Ill.
wanted an underpass but didn't get it.
Now, Barrington is renewing the effort, telling regulators that
CN's acquisition has resulted in more rail traffic than expected,
which CN denies. CN said it has complied with all 184 of the
regulators' conditions.
Communities along the planned 42-mile Tongue River Railroad in
Montana plan to copy Barrington's effort. Critics of an expansion
of the Louisville & Indiana Railroad, connecting Louisville and
Indianapolis, won concessions in December that include limiting
disturbances to local endangered mussels and other species.
Petitioning the Surface Transportation Board is the conventional
way to make the rails change. The regulatory agency resolves
service and rate disputes and adjudicates rail mergers. A spokesman
said it has seen a definite uptick in community activism, though
can't quantify it.
Increasingly, though, little places are taking big rail matters
into their own hands. Sandpoint, a city of about 7,500 in northern
Idaho where three major rail lines come together to squeeze through
town, is in talks with the railroads about a planning grant for an
underpass and has been approached by an attorney to take legal
action, said Mayor Carrie Logan. She's working on a way to assess
rail fees to fund track inspections because she said about 60
trains come through the town daily. "Every load that gets over to
Washington and Oregon comes through here. We have everything to
lose and nothing to gain," she said.
Some communities are taking even more drastic measures. In
Crystal, Minn., county officials closed on the purchase of a
2,000-foot stretch of land for about $1.7 million this week to keep
BNSF from connecting track that would allow trains to bypass Twin
Cities congestion. Now, they're seeking a state law to block the
railroad from using eminent domain to seize the land, said
Commissioner Mike Opat.
BNSF said it is expanding to solve capacity problems, fulfilling
a request last year from Minnesota state officials. But Mr. Opat
said the changes would divide and block intersections along the
proposed route, seriously affecting emergency response efforts.
Write to Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com
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