Railroad News Brief: March, 2004

OTSEGO LAKE TWP. - Twelve miles of railroad track between Gaylord and Grayling will be improved this summer, with the help of about $2.5 million from the Michigan State Transportation Commission, which recently granted a total of $88 million for road and rail repairs. From rail mile post 103 near Grayling to mile post 116 in southern Otsego County, the track will be getting new ties, stone ballast, and resurfacing. Work on the repair project will start May 1, although crews are already working on the rails, completing last year's repair project. The work will continue through the summer, with a final completion date scheduled for the middle of 2005. In spite of workers tearing up ties and resurfacing the beds, Lake State Rail Company doesn't expect any major inconveniences for trains traveling through the work site. "At the most, there will be a 45-minute delay," said Wil Gamble, vice president of operations for the rail company. "And workers will only block the trains in one direction." Part of the repair process will include disposing of old railroad ties. For the most part, ties are made of wood treated with creosote, and can be chipped and burned. Infrequently, ties were made of "green-treated" lumber, which contains copper, cyanide and arsenic. "There's not much of that in the railroad industry, but if we find some, we'll send it to a landfill," Gamble said. A separate project to rebuild the rail crossing at Dickerson Road is scheduled to begin this summer. From the Gaylord Herald-Times

Amtrak to reopen three ticket offices...

LANSING, Mich., and CHICAGO – Under a new agreement between Amtrak and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), ticket agents are returning to the stations in Flint, East Lansing and Port Huron. The agents will serve passengers traveling on Amtrak’s new Blue Water service between Port Huron and Chicago, which will begin April 25, 2004. Passengers can now purchase tickets and get up-to-date information from an Amtrak ticket agent at the station in Flint at 1407 South Dort Highway and in East Lansing at 1240 South Harrison Road. The Port Huron station, at 2223 16^th Street, will also be staffed with a ticket agent, effective April 23. The ticket agents are on duty in Flint daily from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. through April 24 and 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., starting April 25. The ticket agents are on duty in East Lansing daily from 10:30 to 6:30 p.m. through April 24 and 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., starting April 25. The Port Huron ticket office is scheduled to open by April 23, with daily hours from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.

Amtrak delay...

The eastbound Pere Marquette, Train 370(12MAR) with AMTK 516 reported ground relay problems several times enroute from Chicago, finally was put into siding at Porter. Engine was unable to move train from then on. Consist was coupled to westbound International, Train 365, and returned to Chicago, where it was terminated and passengers were to be put on buses. But Amtrak was unable to get any buses, so AMTK 516 was replaced by AMTK 73 and train departed again. Total delay, Train 370: 3 hr 57 min. Delay to Train 365: 1 hr 05 min. From Mark Tomlonson.

Former Conrail Toledo branch to be downgraded?

There is a rumor floading around that effective April 1, CSX will discontinue through traffic on the Toledo Branch (which leaves southbound from Stanley Yard towards Bowling Green), leaving only locals to ply the route from Ridgeway to Stanley Yard. Through traffic from Indianapolis/Columbus will be routed via Marion and Fostoria to Walbridge, and Stanley Yard will eventually be downgraded, or perhaps closed altogether. From Brian Thom.

Unusual Amtrak Delay...

The westbound Lake Cities, Train 353(05MAR) with cab car AMTK 90215 and AMTK 31 in push mode stopped 18 miles west of Kalamazoo account ITCS problems (that's the dispatch/train separation system). System malfunctioned, which takes traction power offline. Crew unable to reset ITCS but were able to restore traction by cutting out alerter and overspeed controls on the cab car. Per rules, Conductor rode with engineer on head end when train continued. Delay 1 hr 40min. From Mark Tomlonson.

Lake State Railway News...

Business is picking up on the Mackinaw line to where they may need to increase the three days per week service to five. Among this new traffic are movements of particleboard south: LSRC to Central Michigan (Huron & Eastern) @ Bay City, to T&SB @ Durand, to Ann Arbor @ Osmer and finally Norfolk Southern @ Toledo. Strangely enough, everybody makes money on the deal. CSX could have had the entire haul south of Bay City but they priced themselves out of the market. [This is also why Michigan corn from elevators on RailAmerica has been moving to Canada by truck rather than by rail – CSX priced the through rate too high.]

LSRC has received a number of inquires concerning locating or expending business on their lines – more on the Mackinaw line than on the Huron line. An announcement was recently mad of an expansion of a metals recycler in Gaylord that will require construction of a two mile-long spur. The new siding constructed at MP 105 (between Frederic and Waters) was put in for the purposes of serving potential future customers and for storing track equipment. From the Bluewater Chapter, NRHS.

On-time performance for Amtrak in February...

Michigan Amtrak trains were "On Time" in February 64.4% of the time. This means they reached their destinations within 30 minutes of the schedule. (Airlines use a 15 minute figure) This puts Michigan trains pretty much in the middle in terms of Amtrak performance. The highest performing trains in February were the Hiawathas between Chicago and Milwaukee with a 94.9% on time performance. The lowest performing train was the transcontinental Sunset Limited at 4% on time. From Mark Tomlonson.

More News Briefs from February...