U.S. rail gets an infusion of cash from Maine to Alaska; projects will include new or improved tracks in rural areas

Department of Transportation map via Route Fifty

Almost every state will receive federal money to build or improve its passenger rail, reports Daniel C. Vock of Route Fifty. "President Joe Biden, known for decades as the Senate's most loyal Amtrak passenger, unveiled his administration's vision for a more robust passenger rail network throughout the country, with more than $8 billion in funding for big-ticket projects and grants for better service in nearly every state." The administration has ignored criticism that many Americans don't use rail enough to warrant that amount of funding.

While many allotments will go to bigger cities, more rural areas will also glean new or improved tracks. "The administration will spend nearly $94 million to add capacity to Chicago's Union Station. . . $27 million to upgrade tracks used by Maine's Downeaster Amtrak route and $15 million to eliminate bottlenecks in Montana," Vock writes. "The so-called Corridor ID program’s planning grants include proposals to upgrade 15 existing rail routes, add or extend service on 47 new routes and develop seven new high-speed rail projects, according to the administration."

The administration is also pushing to "lay the groundwork for future passenger rail upgrades," Vock adds. "The Federal Railroad Administration is giving half a million dollars each to 69 projects in 44 states to help with planning for service expansions. . . . Some of the ideas — like restoring service through the southern tier of Montana — have been talked about for decades. Colorado is getting money to plan service along the Front Range, linking many of its major cities."

States can refuse the federal money, but those that accept it are more likely to have a history of passenger rail support, Mike Christensen, the executive director of the Utah Rail Passengers Association, told Vock. "The vast majority of proposals receiving funding have been preceded by years of grassroots organizing that ultimately culminated in the proposal."

What's in the bipartisan infrastructure bill? How's it funded?

What's in the bipartisan infrastructure bill pending in the Senate? The Wall Street Journal reports:

"According to the White House, the bill will include $110 billion in funding for roads, bridges and major projects, as well as $39 billion to modernize and make public transit more accessible to the disabled and elderly. The deal also includes a $66 billion investment in rail maintenance, modernization and expansion. The legislation will provide $11 billion in funding for highway and pedestrian safety programs. A total of $7.5 billion will go to implementing a network of electric vehicle chargers, and another $7.5 billion will be used for zero-emission or low-emission buses and ferries. Ports and airports will be boosted with $42 billion in new spending."

The next paragraph of the WSJ story has more rural resonance: "$50 billion to bolster the country’s infrastructure generally against climate change and cyberattacks," which threaten rural water systems. "$55 billion will go toward clean drinking water and $65 billion will go toward broadband infrastructure and development. The deal invests $21 billion in removing pollution from soil and groundwater, job creation in energy communities and a focus on economic and environmental justice. The legislation will include $73 billion to update and expand the power grid," which will have much rural construction.

And how will it be paid for? "a variety of revenue streams, including more than $200 billion in repurposed funds originally intended for coronavirus relief but left unused; about $50 billion will come from delaying a Trump-era rule on Medicare rebates; and $50 billion from certain states returning unused unemployment insurance supplemental funds. The negotiators also expect about $30 billion will be generated from applying information-reporting requirements for cryptocurrency; nearly $60 billion will come from economic growth spurred by the spending; and $87 billion from past and future sales of wireless spectrum space. A series of smaller pay-fors are expected to make up the difference."

And what's next? "House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Tuesday that House Democrats may want to tweak the bill to include more climate provisions. But he has also acknowledged such a move could put the bill’s chances in jeopardy in the Senate. If the House changes the bill and passes its own version, the Senate will need to vote on the House version. If they cannot pass the House version, the chambers could also go to a conference committee where they would try to bridge the gap."

Quick hits: Amtrak gets $1 billion, some for rural; dispatches from rural hospitals, Appalachia; Ken Ward profiled

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

For rural Texas hospitals, beating coronavirus is personal: 'We feel responsible for one another.' Read more here.

Florida issues 32,000 laptops to rural school districts amid spread of covid-19. Read more here.

The submission deadline for the Society of Environmental Journalists' 2020 Awards is April 24. Read more here.

Ken Ward Jr.

Environment and Energy News profiles Tom and Pat Gish Award and MacArthur Foundation winner Ken Ward Jr. on covering coal with "sustained outrage." Read more here.

Profit over people: Inside an Appalachian struggle to save rural health care. Read more here.

"We Belong to Each Other": Appalachian youth build support amid the uncertainty of the pandemic. Read more here.

10 pioneer-era apple types thought extinct are found in the Western U.S. Read more here.

Amtrak is getting $1 billion in emergency funding from the coronavirus relief bill, and much of it will benefit routes running through rural areas. Read more here.

Pandemic hits Navajo Nation hard. Read more here.

Quick hits: Amtrak gets backlash for proposed cuts in rural routes; 'Stranger Things' gets 1980s newspaper wrong

WSJ graphic shows Amtrak lines and the one a reporter took.

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Amtrak is facing rural backlash over a proposal to cut long-distance routes, Jason Bellini reports in a seven-minute video for The Wall Street Journal, after taking the Crescent from New York to New Orleans. Ted Mann of the Journal wrote a story about the proposal a few months ago; it has a map of all lines and how much each loses.

The third season of "Stranger Things" features a subplot in which a teenage girl, interning at the local paper in 1985, is ridiculed and humiliated by her male colleagues. The show nailed many aspects of '80s life, but it got that one wrong, Kelly McBride writes for Poynter.

A biotech company CEO lays out a roadmap for how the biotech industry could help revitalize rural America. Read more here.

Spending bill has rural resonance: keeps post offices open, funds parks, Amtrak, other programs

Post office in Bon Air, Ala.

The $1 trillion spending package drafted for passage by Congress this week includes funding for several rural programs with rural resonance, but omits funding for several others. The 1,665-page bill also ensures that several programs important to rural areas remain intact.

"The bill prohibits the nation’s mail delivery system from consolidating or closing 'small rural and other small post offices'," Kelsey Snell and Ed O'Keefe report for The Washington Post. The U.S. Postal Service has struggled financially for several years, reporting a loss of $5.1 billion in 2015. That has led to the closure of some post offices and put others in danger of being shuttered.

The bill also denies funding for President Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. "Trump didn’t get the wall money he wanted but Republicans did get $1.5 billion to spend on repairs to existing border fencing and new technology, such as drones and sensors to help agents keep an eye on parts of the border not protected by barriers," Snell and O'Keefe report.

When it comes to "funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the main agency in charge of deportations and immigration monitoring," the spending bill "includes money for 100 new officers and approximately 5,000 more beds," far less than Republicans wanted, the Post reports. "Funding will bring the number of beds available for immigration detainees to about 34,560, far less than the roughly 43,000 beds the Trump administration requested."

"But a $1.5 billion spending increase for the Justice Department will help pay for 'short-term detention space' that Republicans say will help house undocumented immigrants and other federal offenders," the Post reports. "A $20 million increase for the Executive Office of Immigration Review will help pay for 10 more federal immigration judges," and the bill requires monthly reports on the performance of immigration judges.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will get $11 million more than last year "partly to whittle down the endangered-species delisting backlog," reports the Post. Money will "also help fight invasive species and illegal wildlife trafficking."

"The National Park Service would be fully funded, including a modest bump of $81 million for park maintenance and projects related to the agency’s centennial celebration," the Post reports. "The money is also designed to put a dent in an $11 billion maintenance backlog that includes much needed repairs."

Also:

• The U.S. Geological Survey received $23 million more in funding, with nearly half for an early earthquake warning system.
• The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities would see a funding increase of $2 million, bringing each budget to $150 million for fiscal 2017.
• The Food and Drug Administration would be allowed to continue reviewing electronic cigarettes, which are increasing in popularity.
• Western states will receive $407 million in emergency funding to help fight wildfires this year
• Amtrak gets $1.5 billion, a $105 million increase from the last budget year.

The bill does not include "assistance sought by cotton and dairy producers," Philip Brasher reports for Agri-Pulse. Democrats "were seeking to provide milk producers about $840 million over 10 years by reducng the cotton industry's proposal, which was estimated to trigger more than $4 billion in Price Loss Coverage payments."

Instead, the bill directs the Agriculture Department "to prepare a report within 60 days on the 'administrative options for financial relief and recommended legislative actions to provide the cotton industry with a viable safety net," Brasher reports. "USDA also is told to consider providing immediate, direct assistance to dairy producers using the department's existing Commodity Credit Corp. authority. Separately, USDA is urged to allow milk to be covered as a crop under revenue insurance policies."

Trump's budget could end Amtrak in 23 states

President Trump's budget calls for a 13 percent cut—$2.4 billion—to the U.S. Department of Transportation, including eliminating subsidies of Amtrak's long-distance trains, which provide the only passenger service in 23 of 46 states in which it operates, touching many rural areas, Aric Jenkins reports for Fortune. The budget document said long-distance train service long has "been inefficient and incur the vast majority of Amtrak's operating losses."

The Associated Press reports that without funding, many of the routes would probably close, because they are not profitable enough. Wick Moorman, president and CEO of Amtrak, said in a statement: "These trains connect our major regions, provide vital transportation to residents in rural communities and generate connecting passengers and revenue for our Northeast Corridor and state-supported services."

About 4.6 million passengers rode long-distance routes in fiscal 2016, Glenn Evans reports for the Longview News-Journal in northeast Texas. Amtrak said "ridership on the Texas Eagle route—which connects Chicago with San Antonio via Longview—increased 23.2 percent to 110,970 passengers from October through early January, up from 90,099 passengers a year ago." The daily route stops at several rural towns in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, and three times per week continues to Los Angeles, stopping in rural areas in New Mexico, Arizona and California. (Amtrak map: Long distance routes are in orange)

In Alabama, one of the 23 states that would lose service, the budget has forced officials in Anniston to put the breaks on a proposed trail rail extension that they hoped would increase tourism and revitalize the local economy, Eddie Burkhalter reports for The Anniston Star. "Trump’s budget outline would either reduce Anniston’s Amtrak service or end it altogether."

"Anniston’s $138,000 portion would extend the city’s Amtrak station platform by 400 feet and allow passengers to load and unload bicycles," Burkhalter writes. "City officials hope that doing so will attract visiting cyclists to the city’s biking opportunities, such as the Coldwater Mountain bike trails and the Chief Ladiga Trail. The city also plans to extend the Chief Ladiga to the train station downtown, and link the station by bicycle path to the trails atop Coldwater."

John Robert Smith, a former mayor of Meridian, Miss., and the current chairman of the board for Transportation for American—a non-profit alliance that pushes for grassroots support of innovative transportation policy in the U.S.—told John Sharp of Alabama Public Media. "It's very strange that an administration that is supposed to be the infrastructure administration, with great commitments to infrastructure and transportation in particular, starts out by decreasing transportation funding by 13 percent."

Rural Texas landowners on route of proposed bullet train say it mostly only benefits urban areas

Dallas Morning News graphic: Population
growth along proposed bullet train route.
For an interactive version click here.

A proposed 240-mile bullet train between Dallas and Houston is sparking a rural/urban divide, Brandon Formby and Jill Cowan report for The Dallas Morning News. Cattle farmer John Stoneham's ranch, which consists of 1,000 acres of land in Grimes County in the southeast part of the state, "is among thousands of parcels of Texas land that could one day be home to America’s first high-speed rail line. It’s also the site of a likely collision between two of the state’s most dearly held principles: Texans’ right to do what they want with their property and the free market’s ability to solve thorny problems with little government interference."

Privately-owned Texas Central Partners says the bullet train project between downtown Dallas and northwest Houston could travel at 205 miles per hour and reduce the trip to 90 minutes, reports the Morning News. "Company executives and elected officials in the state say connecting two of the nation’s largest business hubs with a landmark transportation project will further grow Texas’ already bustling economy. Many leaders in Dallas and Houston are on board." The two cities have 13 million residents, nearly half of the state's population.

"Texas Central promises to get the $12 billion project done without taking public dollars other than through loans—and vows it will help increase tax revenue for scores of cities, counties and school districts along the route," reports the Morning News. "But landowners along the way oppose the rail project for a litany of reasons. Some doubt Texas Central’s claims about how many riders it’ll attract and the train’s broad economic benefits."

"Others don’t think a company using Japanese technology and equipment for a privately-owned transportation project should have the ability to use eminent domain to buy up their land," reports the Morning News. "Texas Central says it will only use eminent domain as a last-case scenario. But its claims that it has the power to do so have already spurred state legislation that aims to stop the project in its tracks. The company is expected to fight those bills."

"Opponents also don’t see why they should get behind a project that will change the characteristics of their land on its way to benefiting the state’s urban hubs," reports the Morning News.

Stoneham, who said Texas Central's offer of roughly $900,000 for 50 acres of his land was "way too low," told the Morning News, "It’s not going to be an easement, they’re just going to cut and run a path through. So the place is basically going to be cut in half.”

West Virginia official fears decline in coal will lead to permanent closure of Appalachian rail lines

Associated Press photo

One Appalachian official fears a continued decline in coal could lead to a permanent loss of rail lines to the region, Phil Kabler reports for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said coal production in 2016 declined to its lowest level since 1978, 739 million tons, down by 158 million tons from the prior year.

West Virginia Transportation Secretary Tom Smith, newly appointed, "said the concern is that the decline in coal traffic could lead railroads to downgrade or abandon rail lines in Appalachia," Kabler writes. He told Kabler, “I don’t need to tell you all if you lose these lines, they’re gone forever. The good news is there have not been a lot of loss of routes yet.”

Kabler writes, "Last February, Norfolk Southern suspended operations between Columbus, Ohio, and Point Pleasant, W.Va., because of a downturn in rail traffic. While the portion of the line that runs through West Virginia, including through Charleston, remained open, the lack of accessibility to Columbus caused traffic to plummet. In July, short-line operator Watco Cos. took over operations of 309 miles of rail line from Columbus into Wyoming County, West Virginia, operating as the Kanawha River Railroad."

Amtrak plan to speed up travel between N.Y. and Boston causing concern in rural towns

A $120 million federal plan to speed up Amtrak travel between New York and Boston isn't going over well in rural towns in Connecticut and Rhode Island that could be negatively affected by the increased traffic and new tracks, Joseph De Avila reports for The Wall Street Journal. (Journal graphic: Proposed new segment of Amtrak travel between New York and Boston)

Cutting the three-hour and 30 minute trip by 45 minutes would require bringing "four new track lines and as many as 110 trains a day under its historic downtown in a tunnel" in Old Lyme, Conn., a town of 7,600 southwest of Boston, De Avila writes. Lawmakers in Connecticut and Rhode Island said the plan also would "cut through farmland, wetlands and private property along a 35-mile stretch where the new trains could zoom through at speeds of as much as 220 miles an hour. Current speeds are limited to 50 miles an hour in some spots."

The Federal Railroad Administration’s proposal, "the first comprehensive plan to upgrade the northeast corridor rail line since 1978, aims to run more trains, more quickly, but can do that only by drawing a straighter route that would largely run from Old Saybrook, Conn., through Kenyon, R.I., north of the current track," De Avila writes. "The existing track and its stations would continue to operate, but wouldn’t be able to accommodate faster speeds."

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Sen. Chris Murphy, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, all Democrats, have opposed the plan, Don Stacom reports for the Hartford Courant. Blumenthal told reporters, "This plan looks more like fantasy than fact, and we're going to fight it. The feeling in Stamford is similar to southeastern Connecticut: People want safe, reliable and fast trains, but the devil is in the details."

Part of the plan includes smoothing out a curved stretch of railroad in Charleston, R.I. That has residents fearful they could be forced off their property, R.J. Heim reports for WJAR in Providence. "One stretch in particular, between New London and Charlestown, called the 'Preferred Alternative Proposal', would have a major impact on residents, wetlands, and preserves throughout Washington County." (Wikipedia map: Washington County, Rhode Island (Charleston is bright red))

Lack of safety measures at railroad crossings remains a concern and risk in many rural areas

A deadly crash at a railroad crossing last week in
rural Texas (Caller-Times photo by Courtney Sacco)

A lack of safety lights and arms at railroad crossings, especially in rural areas, continues to be a concern in the U.S., Chris Ramirez reports for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Of the 209,000 railroad crossings in the nation, 129,300 intersect with public roads, Only about one-third of those crossings have lights. "In rural areas, it's rare to find railroad crossings with lights and gates to warn drivers of an oncoming train," Ramirez notes.

While the number of crashes at railroad crossings involving vehicles has dropped from 9,461 in 1981 to 2,059 last year—fatalities are down from 728 to 244—data from the U.S. Department of Transportation suggests that is partly because the number of public railroad crossings significantly decreased during that time, Ramirez writes.

The number of crossings without signals and gates has gradually declined on recent decades. "Since 1980, the number of public railroad crossings equipped with automated gates and lights has doubled—from 16,291 in 1980 to 34,296 such crossings in 2000," Ramirez writes. That's also been helped by a move in February from the Federal Railroad Administration to give $10 million to eight states—Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin—so they could install gates, lights and other safeguards at railroad crossings along energy transportation routes.

One state not on that list is Texas, which leads the nation in railroad tracks (10,469 miles) and has the highest number of crossings, about 15,000, Ramirez notes. Illinois is second, with 6,986 miles of track, followed by California (5,295), Ohio (5,288), Pennsylvania (5,151), Kansas (4,855), Georgia (4,653), Minnesota (4,450), Indiana (4,075) and Missouri (3,975).

Train derailment dumps 18,000 gallons of ethanol into Mississippi River in rural town

More than 18,000 gallons of ethanol were spilled into the Mississippi River on Saturday when a BNSF Railway train derailed in rural Alma, Wisc. (Best Places map), Pat Pheifer reports for the Star Tribune. Of the 32 cars that crashed, five broke open, and four damaged tanker cars leaked "an estimated five to 500 gallons of ethanol each, and a fifth one released about 18,000 gallons, BNSF said in a statement. A full tank car holds about 30,000 gallons."

"The effect of the spill on river habitat below Lake Pepin remains unknown, but reports after previous spills indicate that ethanol alone is less toxic than ethanol mixed with gasoline," Pheifer writes. The crash "temporarily closed two state highways and prompted about a 2½-hour voluntary evacuation of nearby residents, the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office said. Crews from BNSF stopped the leaks from all five cars, placed a containment boom along the shoreline and began removing ethanol from the cars, said railway spokeswoman Amy McBeth. Working with cranes and winches, crews hoped to clear the tracks and reopen service along that stretch of rail line by (today), she added. On average, 45 to 50 trains travel that route in a 24-hour period." (Read more)

Rural towns in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico work together to save Amtrak's Southwest Chief

"A group of small, sleepy towns in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico banded together in the past three years" to save Amtrak's Southwest Chief that the railroad company threatened to shut down if aging tracks weren't replaced, Jesse Paul reports for The Denver Post. "Needing roughly $200 million for miles of track repairs on Burlington Northern Santa Fe's line, officials were plotting to reroute the beloved Chicago-to-Los Angeles train into Oklahoma and Texas. With BNSF reluctant to pay for the rail fixes since their freighters lumber along at lower speeds and don't use some of the track, the prospects for saving the Chief—described by one official as 'pushing a rock up a hill'—seemed insurmountable." (Kansas Department of Transportation map)

"But towns that never before interacted, such as Trinidad, Colo.; Dodge City, Kan.; and Lamy, N.M., began pressing their state governments, digging into their pockets and applying for millions of federal grant dollars to prevent the line from leaving for better track," Paul writes. "After several failed fundraising tries, their efforts miraculously worked. A $15 million federal grant was awarded to the initiative in late October, the second such grant in two years, meaning the train will keep rumbling through the foreseeable future. More than $50 million has been gathered to date thanks also to state and local matching efforts, and BNSF has agreed to cover much of the maintenance costs. Millions are still needed to complete the repairs, and work on the line will continue for the next several years. But officials feel confident they will be able to secure the rest of the money."

The Southwest Chief had a record 367,267 passengers in 2014, Paul writes. "Experts say Amtrak's influence in rural communities is mammoth, acting as an advertising tool, a commercial hub and an economic stimulus that reaches over a 70-mile radius at every stop." Simon Cordery, a history professor at Western Illinois University who studies railroads, told Paul, "Many of the smaller communities, this is their only means of public transportation. There's no air service, [and] Greyhound bus service is a skeleton of what it used to be." He said "people who don't use the railroad don't understand the service's importance because it's outside their scope of experience."

Railroads say that if year-end safety deadline is not extended expect some services to be halted

The seven largest rail companies in the U.S. say that if the Dec. 31 deadline to install a new collision avoidance system is not extended, then service interruptions should be expected, Spencer Chase reports for Agri-Pulse. "In letters to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) major rail carriers say they may not be able to legally continue to provide service due to their incomplete implementation of positive train control (PTC), a safety mechanism meant to monitor and control train movements remotely."

"The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandated the installation of PTC across most Class I rail lines by the end of 2015," Chase writes. "According to the Federal Railroad Administration, PTC is supposed to be installed on lines carrying 5 million or more gross tons every year, lines that handle any poisonous-inhalation-hazardous materials, or any lines with 'regularly scheduled intercity passenger or commuter rail services.' Implementation was expected to reach across 70,000 miles of track."

BNSF Railway, the largest rail provider in the country, said in a letter to Congress that it “has serious questions whether it should operate on subdivisions that have not been equipped with PTC in knowing violation of the federal law that mandated PTC as of Jan. 1, 2016," Chase writes. Canadian Pacific Railway said in a letter that “if Congress does not act, actions that the individual rail carriers might take, such as embargoing or rerouting traffic, have the potential to interfere with the fluid operation of the network.”

Union Pacific Railroad said in an email to Agri-Pulse "that without an extension of the PTC implementation deadline, 'neither passenger traffic nor chemicals Americans need and use every day . . . will move on the Union Pacific system by the end of 2015,'" Chase writes.

Railroads that fail to meet year-end safety deadline could face $25,000 fine per day for each violation

Railroads that fail to meet a year-end deadline to install a new collision avoidance system could be facing major fines from the Federal Railroad Administration, Curtis Tate reports for McClatchy Newspapers. "Congress mandated Positive Train Control in 2008, but most of the nation’s commuter and freight railroads won’t have the system ready by Dec. 31. The technology is required for about 60,000 miles of track, including those that carry passengers or chemicals that are poisonous or toxic by inhalation."

"A push in Congress to extend the deadline by three to five years has stalled, and lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return to the Capitol until next month," Tate writes. If Congress doesn't extend the deadline, beginning on Jan. 1, 2016, railroads "that have failed to install Positive Train Control on the required track segments face fines up to $25,000 a day for each violation."

The American Public Transportation Association said only 29 percent of railroads will meet the deadline, and some will need as long as five years to comply, Tate writes. Michael Melaniphy, the association’s president and CEO, told Tate, “Despite the commuter rail industry’s best efforts, implementing PTC nationwide by the end of this year is not possible.” (Read more)

California farmers and other landowners are obstacles for bullet train from L.A. to San Francisco

California's bullet train is having a hard time getting on track. The state's $68 billion high-speed rail system, which is already two years behind schedule, has run into problems over property rights with Central Valley farmers and land investors who are not willing to sell, Ralph Vartabedian reports for the Los Angeles Times.

"When the state chose to start construction of the high-speed rail in the Central Valley, it was based partly on the theory that assembling needed land would be easiest in the state's rural backbone," Vartabedian writes. "As it turns out, some of the farmers most resistant to accepting state offers are proving to be wealthy, highly educated professionals and investors—and formidable opponents in negotiations."

The project, scheduled to be completed in 2029, would have trains traveling upwards of 200 mph from Los Angeles to San Francisco. But officials are having a hard time completing the first 29-mile section. "In all, the state's High Speed Rail Authority needs 525 parcels for the first phase of construction. It has completed deals with owners of 123 properties," Vartabedian writes. "Several other disputes have been resolved in recent weeks. But an additional 154 owners rejected initial offers, and the state began the eminent-domain process to force owners to sell."

"A surge of lawsuits over land acquisition could entangle the rail agency in a bottleneck outside its control: local court systems where attorneys say just getting a pretrial hearing can take months," Vartabedian writes. One problem, rural landowners say, is that "No farmers serve on the high-speed-rail board, and critics contend the state hasn't sought to engage growers in the planning process." (Read more)

Fatal accidents at railroad crossing are declining; from more than 1,000 in 1978 to 231 in 2013

Despite six deaths this week at a railroad crossing in southeastern New York, railroad crossings have become safer in recent years, with deaths at railroad crossings dropping from more than 1,000 in 1978 to 231 in 2013, Max Ehrenfreund reports for The Washington Post. The rate of accidents has also dropped during that time from 18 accidents per million miles traveled in 1978 to 2.8 in 2013.

Chris Pflaum, president of Spectrum Economics, an economic-analysis firm in Kansas City, "attributed the decline to a national effort to close unnecessary rail crossings, forcing motorists to travel up the line in small towns or rural areas to a single lighted and gated crossing," Ehrenfreund writes. "State transportation authorities have added gates and lights at other crossings so that in all there are fewer crossings marked only by a crossbuck." (Post graphic)

"Another life-saving innovation has been equipping locomotives with three headlamps instead of just one," Ehrenfreund writes. "A single light makes it difficult for passers-by to gauge the distance and speed of an approaching train. Meanwhile, the public is increasingly aware of the dangers of crossing the tracks." (Read more)

Rural residents in Calif. and Texas say bullet trains will hurt property values, environment, wildlife

Rural residents in California and Texas are less than thrilled about the prospect of bullet trains rumbling through their neighborhoods at high speeds. Construction of California's voter-approved bullet train began last week. The first phase is a 142-mile segment north and south of Fresno, The Associated Press reports. The $68 billion project, expected to be completed by 2029, will travel 200 miles per hour over 520 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The system will eventually be extended from Sacramento to San Diego, covering 800 miles, says California High-Speed Rail Authority. Texas officials have proposed a bullet train from Dallas to Houston, cutting the 240-mile trip from about four hours to 90 minutes, Aman Betheja reports for The Texas Tribune. (Terrain.org map)

More than 1,000 rural residents voiced their opposition to the California bullet train on Wednesday night in Lake View Terrace, saying the train will hurt property values and harm wildlife, Michael Larkin and Beverly White report for KNBC 4 in Los Angeles. Tujunga resident Bridget Riley said the train will have negative impacts economically and environmentally. She told KNBC 4, "It would destroy the property values. It would destroy everything! And needless to say, the Angeles National Forest."

Equestrian riders also fear that the train will hurt the horse industry, Dana Bartholomew reports for the Los Angles Daily News. San Fernando Valley horse owner John Rigney told Bartholomew, "This is the last bastion of equine life in the city of Los Angeles. This recreation space, with thousands who also visit Hansen Dam, would be destroyed.”

Rural officials in Texas have similar fears, having "expressed concern about the noise from trains whizzing past their quiet towns dozens of times a day and about a track dividing farmland and reducing property values," Betheja writes. Byron Ryder, the county judge in Leon County, located about halfway between Dallas and Houston, told Betheja, "I haven’t heard anything positive about it whatsoever. I’ve talked to other judges and commissioners up and down the line, landowners up and down the line. No one wants it.”

While a federally-required environmental study still has to take place, officials have narrowed potential routes down to two "that appear to be least disruptive," Betheja writes. "One runs largely along the rights of way of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and would depend on Texas Central Railway making a deal with that company. The other route is straighter and travels mostly along electricity transmission lines. That route has fewer people living near it, said Shaun McCabe, a Texas Central Railway environmental and engineering vice president." (Read more)

Amtrak asks Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico to help pay for track upgrades to keep historic route

A piece of American history, along with the future of several rural towns in New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas, hang in the balance in a dispute about who should pay the $200 million bill to upgrade an Amtrak railroad line to allow the Southwest Chief train to travel at faster speeds, Dan Frosch reports for The New York Times. (NYT graphic: Southwest Chief route)

Amtrak has asked the three states where repairs are most needed "to each pitch in $40 million over 20 years to help pay for track upgrades and maintenance it says are needed to keep the route viable. But some state officials are balking, saying that Amtrak, which draws financial support from the federal government, should cover the costs itself." If an agreement isn't reached by the end of the year, "Amtrak says it will potentially drop nine small-town stations in favor of existing track in Texas and Oklahoma."

The route, which has been in operation since 1971 and consistently averages 250,000 passengers a year, runs from Los Angeles to Chicago, stopping at several small towns along the way. Many of those towns rely on the train's passengers to support their economies. Jim Maldonado, chairman of the board of commissioners for Colfax County, where the train stops in Raton, N.M., told Frosch, “We need this train here. Losing it would be devastating for our county. Things have just been dying out here for years.”

Amtrak "says that the tracks that guide the Southwest Chief will soon be unable to withstand the speed that a modern passenger train needs to stay efficient," Frosch writes. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told him, “The train is not viable as a business when it operates at a lower speed, because it ends up being slower than driving.” He said the company doesn't have the funding to pay for the upgrades on its own, a statement that doesn't sit well with the three states being asked to hand over $40 million. New Mexico's transportation secretary Tom Church told Frosch, “We need to look at the cost-benefit of the whole thing. Obviously, we would like to see the route continue, but there is also the issue that Amtrak is funded by Congress.” (Read more)

Rural Californians worry about impact of high-speed rail on farm land

The stimulus package plan to bring high-speed railroads to the U.S. is generally considered to have the most impact on the urban areas they would connect. Some rural Californians say the state's high-speed rail project will have a negative impact on valuable farm land. The area just south of Madera, Calif., "is not much to look at: miles of farmland, a collection of dingy fast food outlets and a gold rush ghost called Borden, where all that remains is a tiny cemetery devoted to long dead Chinese workers," Jesse McKinley of The New York Times reports. "But sometime soon, this flat-on-flat expanse — about 150 miles southeast of San Francisco — may well be home to a first-in-the-nation destination as the initial northern terminus of California’s ambitious high-speed rail network."

The project has generated predictable political opposition from Republicans in the state, but "in the Central Valley, where huge, decades-old government irrigation projects have helped turned California into an agricultural powerhouse, farmers have grumbled about the rail project gobbling up valuable farm land," McKinley writes. Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau, explained, "We’re of the belief that the productive farmland is an environmental and societal benefit, and we ought to be doing whatever we can to keep that land productive. And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever."

"It’s not about today; it’s about the future," Roelof van Ark, the chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, told McKinley. "I hope that Mr. Cardoza and others will see the light." Federal and state authorities have committed $5.5 billion to the first leg of the project, which will connect Bakersfield with the unincorporated area south of Madera. Critics have described the initial route as "the train to nowhere." Ronald W. Haggard,  the city manager of Corcoran, which is south of Madera, worries the big money concerns will dwarf his small town worries. "When they talk about ‘the train to nowhere,’ we’re not nowhere," Hoggard told McKinley. "We’re Mayberry." (Read more)

North Carolina getting more passenger trains

North Carolina, which had more rural residents than any other state but Texas in the 2000 census, is also blessed with several passenger railroad routes, and one of them is about to get more traffic. On June 5, a state agency will add a third daily train between the state's two largest cities, Charlotte and Raleigh, "leaving each city at midday," reports Bruce Siceloff of the News & Observer in Raleigh. "North Carolina recently won $545 million in federal stimulus grants to beef up and speed up the state's passenger rail service. Plans include faster trip times and more frequent trains, with the scheduled addition in 2012 of a fourth daily round-trip" between Charlotte and Raleigh. (Amtrak map)