Council Deadlocks on Hiring Consultant to Design Trent/Barker Project

The current railroad crossing at Trent and Barker Rd.

Spokane Valley will not be moving ahead at this time on designing an under or overpass at Barker Road and Trent that would separate vehicle traffic from trains. According to the Spokane Valley News Herald, City Council failed to reach consensus on the agreement and with Council Member Sam Wood absent, the motion stalled with a 3-3 tie.

The council had previously told city staff to seek requests of qualifications from engineering firms to study ways to separate Barker Road from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks just south of Trent. There is a $720,000 federal earmark to do the work, plus the city already committed $300,000 in matching funds.Steve Worley, the city’s capital improvement program manager, was back before the council to approve an additional $300,000 in order to move forward with hiring DEA/HDR to begin the engineering study.

Deputy Mayor Arne Woodard said he would work to bring the issue back before the council at a meeting when there would be seven members present. A similar engineering study request for the Pines Road/Trent crossing is slated for a future council meeting.

Proposed Bill Would Lower Train Speed Through Cities

A bill proposed Wednesday would give Spokane officials the power to make trains slow down through the city.

According to the Spokesman-Review, SB 5098, sponsored by Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, would give major cities and the state Utilities and Transportation Commission the authority to set lower speed limits than the federal government allows in certain cases.

Under federal law, trains can travel as fast as 50 mph through cities, but lower limits can be set for what is referred to as “unique local safety hazards,” according to Billig, who also said trains with flammable materials traveling through commercial and residential areas at 50 mph is a unique hazard and “a recipe for disaster.”

The next step would be for the bill to be scheduled for a hearing by the Transportation or the Energy committee.

Spokane Valley Trying New Tactics in Obtaining Rail Crossing Grants

The rail crossing at Trent and Barker

The City of Spokane Valley has tried repeatedly to get federal grant funding to build over- and overpasses around busy rail road crossings with no luck. According to the Spokesman-Review, the city is now changing tactics on how it applies for those grants in the hope of having more success.

One project involves an overpass and interchange over the rail crossing at Barker Road next to Wellesley and Trent avenues.
The other grade separation project would be an underpass below the mainline at Pines Road just south of Trent.

At both Pines and Barker, vehicle traffic can be delayed by almost 56 trains a day. That means waiting cars are waiting next to a track used to transport flammable oil and other hazardous substances. It also causes problems for emergency vehicles delayed in responding to emergencies and commercial truck traffic.

Together, the grade separation projects, considered key pieces in the plan to separate traffic from rail lines in what is called the Bridging the Valley plan, are estimated at $56 million.

On Jan. 10, the City Council will consider adding $600,000 in city money to the project at Barker and Trent to revise designs, meet current federal standards and advance the project in hopes that the additional work will improve the competitiveness of the Barker Road grant application.

At the same time, City Hall is accepting requests for proposals for a team to complete final design for the Pines Road grade separation project.

Valley officials feel they might have a better response this time because freight movement has become a category for funding from both state and federal transportation departments in recent years and both projects include freight mobility components.

Railroads Say They Won't Work Together On Bridging the Valley Project

From where we sit, this didn't come as a big surprise, but the Spokane Valley Herald is reporting that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads will most likely not partner to work with Spokane Valley to separate train traffic from the roadway for the Bridging the Valley (BTV) series of projects.

Bridging the Valley originated at SRTC. It was a series of over- and underpasses stretching from the City of Spokane to Athol, ID that would reduce the number of at-grade railroad crossings where vehicles could come in contact with trains.

At a recent Spokane Valley City Council meeting, representatives from Sen. Patty Murray's office
and BNSF said a partnership was unlikely. The original  plan was for the two competing railroads to use the same main lines through the region, reducing the number of grade-separations necessary.

Trains servicing and switching cars at the Inland Empire Paper mill in Millwood often  back up traffic to Trent to the south during busy drive times. Other crossings, such as at Trent and Barker, have about 50 trains that go through per day. A BTV project to construct a bridge over that crossing is estimated to cost $29.2 million, and efforts to secure state and federal funding haven't been successful so far.

WA Senators Working On Bill To Provide Money/Planning For Freight Movement

Washington’s two senators are working on legislation to drive more planning and funding to freight. Sens. The Spokesman-Review reports that Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats, are sponsoring a bill called the National Multimodal Freight Policy and Investment Act.

The legislation would be a plan for reducing freight bottlenecks and congestion across the country, and increase funding for grade separations, to build bridges and tunnels to separate roads from rail.

In a news release, Cantwell said the U.S. must improve its freight infrastructure to remain competitive. Freight delays cost the U.S. economy about $200 billion a year, according to Cantwell.

The bill would authorize spending $2 billion a year through 2021 on multimodal freight projects.
There is also a smaller amount of money for upgrading short-line tracks where they intersect with mainline tracks.

The bill doesn't have bipartisan sponsorship, but is supported by the Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors, which is a lobbying arm for government transportation planning organizations, ports, engineering firms and government transportation agencies.

Four Things To Know About Train Derailments

With the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia this morning, there's been a lot of talk about what went wrong. What most people don't know is that train travel is generally much safer than other forms of travel.

In a comparison study conducted in 2013, fatality rates for several different forms of travel were analyzed.

The number of rail deaths from year to year ranges widely (because many can happen in large, sporadic accidents), but between 2000 and 2009, a person was about 17 times more likely to die while traveling in a car, compared to a train, for the same distance.

Vox has three other facts they say everyone should know about train accidents, including how common derailments really are, what's being done to cut down on derailments and what usually causes them.

BNSF to Use Drones to Inspect Railroad Infrastructure and Operations

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. has a new tool for inspecting railroad infrastructure and operations- drones. BNSF recently received approval to use the remotely controlled flying drones to maximize safety in railroad operations, but hasn't said specifically how and where they'll be used.

BNSF did say it will use the drones, equipped with cameras, to inspect track and monitor trains.

Here's more, from the Sioux City Journal.

WSDOT Looking For Input on Proposed Improvements to The Palouse and Coulee City Rail System

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is planning some improvements to
the Palouse and Coulee City (PCC) Rail system, as part of an effort to support area farmers, and is looking for input on them.

The draft PCC Rail System Strategic Plan highlights the benefits of the rail system and lists recommended maintenance and repair projects and polices to boost farm-to-market rail transportation.

The plan indicates that private and public investments in the rail system have not kept pace with preservation and maintenance needs. Trains must run at slower speeds in some areas due to rail conditions. The strategic plan includes a list of capital-project priorities, including several that use lowest-cost options to maximize investments.

The 297-mile PCC rail line consists of three branch lines that carry freight through Spokane, Lincoln, Grant and Whitman counties. Shippers distribute commodities across the rail system to and from hubs of cross-country railroads. The PCC rail system carried 20 percent of state-grown wheat in 2013, saving 37,000 truckload trips on Washington state roadways.

Comments on the draft plan will be taken until Tuesday, March 31.  Comment forms are available online and may be submitted through the link or emailed to freight@wsdot.wa.gov.

Once finalized, the plan will be used to help develop future funding, policy and planning goals.

Fatalities at Railroad Crossings Increasing

The number of fatalities at railroad crossings are starting to creep up after years of decline, and officials say it may be due to the improving economy. Over the past decade, collisions involving vehicles and trains dropped by more than one-third. In 2014, the numbers were going the other way though.

So what does the economy have to do with railroad deaths? Bloomberg.com has the story.

Derailed Train Continues to Block Traffic

A train derailment yesterday is still blocking traffic today, and could be until tomorrow. the grain train jumped the tracks yesterday at Cheney-Spokane Road on the northeast side of Cheney.

Meanwhile, the incident is drawing attention to another risk involving trains, the chances of this happening more often, and more catastrophically, with the increase in trains, especially oil trains, on tracks through the area.

The Spokesman-Review has the story, and the detour to take to get around the derailment.

Grant Aimed at Making Area Railroad Crossings Safer

In the last year, there have been 22 collisions between cars and trains in Washington State. A new grant will pay for signs that should help to cut down on incidents like that in Spokane and Whitman counties.

More than 40 potentially hazardous crossings will be fitted with reflectors and better signs to make the crossings more visible. KREM 2 News has the story.

Amtrak Back To Normal Schedule Starting In January

A while back, I posted an article on how Amtrak trains have been regularly running late because
they're getting bumped from the tracks by an increase in other kinds of trains. Because Amtrak contracts with the railroads for rail space, they kind of have to take what they can get, when they can get it.

Today, I was forwarded a news release from Amtrak that says they will resume operating the passenger train Empire Builder on it's regular schedule starting January 12 and that Burlington Norther-Santa Fee is doing $1 billion in construction that will add capacity on the tracks and improve future service for all trains using the rails. The release also says BNSF is committed to work to improve the performance of the Empire Builder from here on out. Ok, so we'll see how that goes.

If you're willing to give it a try, here's the link where you can check out Amtrak routes and buy tickets.

Rail System Input Needed

The Washington State Department of Transportation will seek the insights of farmers, rail-industry experts, regular citizens and anyone in between at planning workshops this fall on state-owned rail lines in an effort  to improve the movement of goods produced on Northwest farms. 

WSDOT planning staff will consider infrastructural and operational challenges as they develop the Palouse River and Coulee City (PCC) Rail System Strategic Plan for the system. The strategic plan will be developed in partnership with the PCC Rail Authority. The 297-mile PCC rail line consists of three branch lines that carry freight through four eastern Washington counties. Shippers in Spokane, Lincoln, Grant and Whitman counties distribute commodities across the rail system to and from the hubs of cross-country railroads. Last year, the PCC rail system carried 20 percent of state-grown wheat, while reducing 37,000 truckloads from Washington state roadways.

The Spokane workshop is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 13 here at SRTC- 221 W. 1st St., Suite 310 from 2:30 4 p.m. so if you have thoughts, come share them.

Roundup of Local Transportation Topics

People under 30 are four times more likely to ride transit than people over 60, according to a national report from the TransitCenter organization. STA is hosting a telephone town hall meeting to take questions and comments about developing the central city line and high-performance transit. And Airway Heights landed a $363,000 loan and a $175,000 grant to build a half-mile rail siding and a 60,000-square-foot building to support expansion of Seaport Steel and Brown Strauss Steel. The Spokesman-Review has a roundup of local transportation news in today's Getting There column. 

BNSF Upgrading Area Tracks

A lot of people have been noticing the work being done on railroad tracks in the area and asking me what it's about. Well, an article in the Spokesman-Review talks about the $235 million track upgrade that Burlington Northern Santa Fe is in the process of.

The work is expected to help BNSF handle the increase in train traffic tied to more oil trains originating in North Dakota and a recovering economy.

Spokane Valley Wants Bridging the Valley Projects Built

The Bridging the Valley series of projects aimed at making rail crossings through Spokane Valley and into Idaho safer is seeing a renewed interest, despite a lack of funding to build the projects included in it.

An article in today's Spokesman-Review newspaper talks about the project, originally crafted by SRTC, and why Spokane Valley is pushing for those projects to be built a decade later. It also talks about the challenges to getting these bridges built, namely a lack of funding and coordination with railroads.

BNSF Replacing Tracks To Increase Rail Capacity

BNSF Railway is putting some major money into track improvements in our area to increase rail capacity and improve track condition. The railroad plans to spend $235 million to refurbish 1,200 miles of track and hire about forty people in the area.

The Spokesman-Review has the details in it's "Getting There" column.

TIGER Funds Sought For Rail Spur Line Near Cheney

The Washington State Department of Transportation is seeking TIGER funds to upgrade seven miles of railroad track north of Cheney, the extension of Spokane’s Centennial Trail through Kendall Yards is being recognized for overall excellence by an environmental land use advocacy group in Washington, and Spokane Valley is asking for help in coming up with a plan for improvements to Mission Avenue from Barker to Flora roads.

The Spokesman-Review's "Getting There" column has a roundup of local transportation happenings.

The Top Transportation Challenges For 2014

Last week I posted about the top transportation stories from 2013. This week, let's take a look at the challenges expected for 2014. And there are some big ones. According to the "Governing" website, safety and oversight are going to be key topics to tackle in the coming year.

Here are the top five transportation issues for 2014, according to Governing.

Article Predicts Coal Trains Will Cause Major Blockages For Traffic

With debate heating up over coal exports and oil shipments, the Sightline Daily blog is analyzing public at-grade rail crossings from Sandpoint, Idaho to Cherry Point, Washington. An article posted late last week takes a look specifically at the impact an increase in coal trains would have in Spokane County and predicts the trains would close rail crossings an average of between one hour and 47 minutes a day to four hours a day!

Here's the article, which looks closely at many of the railroad crossings in Spokane County and comes with handy maps you can zoom in on.