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WASHINGTON — There is a lot of talk, hope and hype about high-speed rail in the United States, but savvy policy analysts, planners and economists expect only a very few of those projects to move forward in the near future.

One such project high on the list of pragmatists is a Florida high-speed rail line linking Tampa and Orlando — and, eventually, Miami.

Florida Congressman John Mica, the Republican who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will have influence over federal funding for the project. This week, he voiced an opinion that for the line to move forward, private sector financing will also be necessary.

The Florida Times-Union newspaper reports that Mica, while supportive of the project — expected to carry an initial $2.7 billion price tag for the Tampa-Orlando leg — wants the private sector, and not the State of Florida, to commit at least $300 million to the project. Much of the remainder would come from federal funds.

“This project includes a link from Orlando International Airport to Disney,” Mica is quoted by the Florida Times-Union. “That should be a money maker for a private company.”

“I think my views are in line with what [Florida] Gov. Scott thinks,” Mica is quoted by the Florida Times-Unions. Scott has yet to indicate whether he supports the high-speed rail line.

The Times-Union notes that “if Scott decides not to build it, the federal government will take the money and give it to a project in another state. Ohio and Wisconsin refused [federal] money after electing Republican governors, and some of their [federal] money is now going to Florida.”

Decades ago, the chairman of New York Central Railroad complained that while freight could move cross country without being transferred from one boxcar to another, transcontinental passengers often had to change trains in Chicago.

Even today, on Amtrak, passengers must change trains in Chicago.

A similar complaint is heard regarding intermodal passenger transportation — the separation of terminals for train and motor coach transportation. In Washington, D.C., for example, an intercity bus terminal is blocks from Union Station, which hosts Amtrak and commuter rail.

In St. Paul, Minn., the intermodal passenger problem is being solved.

The Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority has broken ground on a $243 million multi-modal transportation facility in St. Paul, reports progressiverailroading.com.

The city’s 1920s-era Union Depot train station is slated to bring together rail, bus, motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic by 2012, reports progressiverailroading.com. Local, state and federal funds are financing the project.

Amtrak intends to dispatch its Empire Builder through the renovated terminal, which will also serve as a transfer point for light-rail, Metro Transit and intercity bus service — and, eventually, be a hub for hoped-for high-speed trains between the Twin Cities and Chicago.

WASHINGTON — Two friends of labor — Democratic Senators Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Joseph Lieberman (Conn.) — say they will retire at the end of the 112th Congress in 2012. Conrad is completing his fifth six-year term; Lieberman completing his fourth six-year term.

These announcements follow the retirement announcement of Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, who said she will retire in 2012 when her third six-year term ends. The Senate Commerce Committee has oversight of many rail, transit, air and bus issues. She is considered a moderate Republican.

When we talk about Class I railroads (the largest of railroads with annual freight revenue of at least $378.8 million), most of us can name the carriers in a matter of seconds.

They are BNSF, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific — seven, in all.

When some of our older heads signed on, back in the 1960s, the list was quite longer — and occasionally we see a couple of those names, barely visible, painted on old boxcars or even an aged yard locomotive.

In fact, for rails beginning their careers in 1970, there was 58 separate Class I railroads — 51 more than today.

Following is a list of those 58, with an explanation of their fate in parenthesis. How many do you recall?

  1. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (now part of BNSF)
  2. Atlantic Coast Line (now part of CSX)
  3. Baltimore & Ohio (now part of CSX)
  4. Bangor & Aroostook (downsized and absorbed by a shortline)
  5. Boston & Maine (now part of Pan Am Railways)
  6. Bessemer & Lake Erie (now part of Canadian National)
  7. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (now part of BNSF)
  8. Clinchfield (now part of CSX)
  9. Central RR of New Jersey (merged into Conrail* and New Jersey Transit)
  10. Chesapeake & Ohio (now part of CSX)
  11. Chicago & Eastern Illinois (now part of CSX and Union Pacific)
  12. Chicago & North Western (now part of Union Pacific)
  13. Chicago Great Western (now part of Union Pacific)
  14. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (now part of Canadian Pacific)
  15. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (now part of Union Pacific and regional Iowa Interstate)
  16. Delaware & Hudson (now part of Canadian Pacific)
  17. Denver & Rio Grande Western (now part of Union Pacific)
  18. Detroit, Toledo & Ironton (now part of Canadian National)
  19. Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range (now part of Canadian National)
  20. Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (now part of Canadian National)
  21. Erie-Lackawanna (merged into Conrail*)
  22. Florida East Coast (no longer a Class I railroad)
  23. Fort Worth & Denver (now part of BNSF)
  24. Georgia Railroad (now part of CSX)
  25. Grand Trunk Western (now part of Canadian National)
  26. Great Northern (now part of BNSF)
  27. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio (now part of Canadian National)
  28. Illinois Central (now part of Canadian National)
  29. Kansas City Southern
  30. Lehigh Valley (merged into Conrail*)
  31. Long Island (now wholly a passenger railroad)
  32. Louisville & Nashville (now part of CSX)
  33. Maine Central (now part of Pan Am Railways)
  34. Missouri-Kansas-Texas (now part of Union Pacific)
  35. Missouri Pacific (now part of Union Pacific)
  36. Monongahela (merged into Conrail*)
  37. Monon (now part of CSX)
  38. New York Central (merged into Penn Central; then Conrail*)
  39. New York, New Haven & Hartford (merged into Penn Central; then Conrail*)
  40. New York, Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate) (now part of Norfolk Southern)
  41. Norfolk & Western (now part of Norfolk Southern)
  42. Northern Pacific (now part of BNSF)
  43. Pennsylvania Railroad (merged into Penn Central; then Conrail*)
  44. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (now part of CSX)
  45. Reading Railroad (merged into Conrail*)
  46. Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac (now part of CSX)
  47. St. Louis San Francisco (Frisco Lines) (now part of BNSF)
  48. St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) (now part of Union Pacific)
  49. Seaboard Air Line (now part of CSX)
  50. Soo Line (now part of Canadian Pacific)
  51. Southern Pacific Lines (now part of Union Pacific)
  52. Southern Railway (now part of Norfolk Southern)
  53. Texas & Pacific (now part of Union Pacific)
  54. Toledo, Peoria & Western (now part of BNSF, and also shortline)
  55. Union Pacific
  56. Wabash (now part of Norfolk Southern)
  57. Western Maryland (now part of CSX)
  58. Western Pacific (now part of Union Pacific)

* Conrail was created by Congress to absorb bankrupt Penn Central. Conrail susequently was returned to the private sector and split apart — its separate portions acquired by CSX and Norfolk Southern.

The following update on Amtrak negotiations is from UTU General Chairperson Roger Lenfest (GO 769), who is the UTU lead negotiator. The UTU International is not participating in the talks. Under the UTU’s guarantee of craft autonomy, the International participates in on-property negotiations only when requested to do so by general chairpersons.

The existing UTU agreement with Amtrak remains in force until amendments are concluded under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.  

According to Lenfest:

“Here are some of the reasons why we have not yet reached a settlement.

“So far, none of the crafts who have settled have come close to a net 3 percent increase in pay for their members any year for the next five years. In fact, in the last three years of those agreements, the single-employee contribution to health and welfare could be $230 per month.

“On the other hand, there are several important issues specific to our craft that we are serious about resolving. Certification and the attendant pay for certification is important, as is the issue of the treatment of single-day vacations.

“Furthermore, the meal allowance for conductors who are required by Amtrak to be away from home must be addressed.

“Another important issue to our members is to achieve an adequate amount of time-off for those members who work for long hours.

“In the meantime, there are several economic reports coming in that inflation and increased costs for fuel and groceries are right around the corner.

“It is our goal to reach a reasonable and honorable settlement with Amtrak in the near term; however, we must be vigilant that any settlement is equitable and that we meet our responsibility to place our members in a better economic situation.

“Presently, we are not the only major craft negotiating with Amtrak. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes have yet to reach a settlement with Amtrak.

“In fact, the BMWE recently polled its Amtrak-employed members concerning the acceptance of a contract with Amtrak under similar terms and conditions as those accepted by the crafts who have already signed. We understand that more than 2,000 ballots were sent out to BMWE members; and 85.5 percent of the responses voted to continue to bargain for a better settlement.

“I shall provide further updates as negotiations continue.”

(Editors’ note: In May 2010, Amtrak clerks and carmen represented by the Transportation Communications Union ratified new five-year agreements with Amtrak that, according to the TCU, provided for a 15 percent general wage increase over five years.)

WASHINGTON — The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) says it will sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah, seeking to invalidate those states’ recently passed constitutional amendments prohibiting workers in the private sector from saying “union, yes” through card-check, reports The New York Times.

Bus industry labor relations are covered by the National Labor Relations Act, which is administered by the NLRB.

Labor-friendly congressional lawmakers have been pushing for card-check under federal law — a process that would automatically certify a union when a majority of workers indicate a preference for a union through authorization cards. Currently, card-check is merely an option under federal law, and requires employer acquiescence.

The constitutional amendments of the four states require secret-ballot elections regardless of whether an employer accepts card-check and regardless if a new federal law imposes the card-check result.

“The four amendments differ in language, but all conflict with federal law by closing off a well-established path to union representation recognized by the Supreme Court and protected by the National Labor Relations Act,” said the NLRB in announcing its intention to sue the states.

“The states have no authority dictating which method employees use in deciding whether to be represented by a union,” Samuel Estreicher, a labor law professor at New York University, told The New York Times.

Following an eighth negotiating session in mid-January with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), UTU International President Mike Futhey said, “We continue to make progress through interest-based bargaining toward developing a common framework recognizing the needs of both sides, and we are prepared to reach a voluntary agreement with the carriers.”

The NCCC represents BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and many smaller railroads. Some 40,000 UTU members employed by those railroads are covered by the national agreement. The national agreement came open for amendment Jan. 1, 2010, and remains in force until amendments are concluded under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.

Three additional dates for national negotiations have been scheduled between the UTU and the NCCC in February, March and April.

Interest-based bargaining involves joint problem solving whereby both sides seek to understand the needs of the other. It differs from demand-based bargaining, where each side’s list is endless.

“Our negotiating team has been armed with a solid understanding of carrier economics and fact-based arguments justifying our Section 6 notice that was prepared by our general chairpersons,” Futhey said.

In addition to UTU lead negotiator President Futhey, UTU officers on the negotiating team include Assistant President Arty Martin; National Legislative Director James Stem; UTU International Vice Presidents Robert Kerley and Delbert Strunk; and General Chairpersons John Lesniewski (CSX, GO 049), Pate King (NS, GO 680) and Doyle Turner (CSX, GO 347).

Negotiations also continue between the NCCC and two other rail-labor coalitions.

One, which includes the Transportation Communications Union, the American Train Dispatchers Association, the International Association of Machinists, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Transport Workers Union, previously applied for services of the National Mediation Board (NMB), and a mediator was assigned.

A second coalition, which includes the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths, the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, requested the mediation services of the NMB on Jan. 11.

That leaves only the UTU in voluntary negotiations with the NCCC.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, announced she will retire at the end of 2012, when her third six-year term ends.

The Senate Commerce Committee has oversight of many rail, transit, air and bus issues. She is considered a moderate Republican.

The Senate Commerce Committee, with a Democratic majority, is chaired by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.).

Rail traffic continued its torrid growth the first week of 2011, with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reporting freight carloadings were up more than 20 percent versus the same week in 2010, and intermodal (trailers and containers on flat cars) were up almost 9 percent from the first week of 2010.

This comes on the heels of a banner year for freight railroads in 2010. The AAR said the combined increase in total annual carloads and intermodal in 2010 was equivalent to some 20,000 additional trains moving when compared with 2009.

In the wake of the horror of Tucson, which reawakened among Americans of all races, religions and cultures the knowledge that there is more that binds us in our hopes and dreams than divides us in our politics, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his “I Have a Dream” speech, are as powerful and relevant today as they were on Aug. 28, 1963, when Dr. King spoke them at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

 

I Have a Dream
By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!