Today's Headlines Today's HeadlinesJACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- CSX Transportation Inc. (CSXT), one of America's leading railroads, announced today that it has continued its industrial development activity pace in October, following a record-breaking September in which the company reported the most productive month for industrial development projects in 10 years.
During October, CSXT helped facilitate industrial development and expansion that attracted over $170 million in investment capital and helped create almost 700 new jobs through 18 projects in 10 states along its rail system. CSXT's new customers will generate more than 5,000 carloads annually for rail transport by CSXT.
"We are proud to continue our 1999 industrial development productivity record and success in growing new business in the month of October," said David Hemphill, CSXT assistant vice president of industrial and economic development. "We stand committed to partnering with state and county economic development officials spur economic development in communities along our network."
Working closely with local economic development officials, CSXT cited particular achievement in October in attracting companies from the plastics, metals and agriculture/food products industries.
For example, CSXT assisted Buckeye Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of airlaid nonwoven products, in locating a site and providing a preliminary rail design for the company's new $100 million facility machine in Gaston County, N.C. This new facility will hold the world's largest airlaid nonwovens machine. Buckeye Technologies will employ 220 people when the facility is operational in the third quarter of 2001. The plant will receive 800 carloads of pulp per year transported by CSXT.
"We are pleased with the support Buckeye has received from CSX Transportation, Gaston County communities, and the State of North Carolina," said Robert Cannon, chairman and CEO of Buckeye Technologies. "Buckeye distributes its specialty cellulose and absorbent products worldwide, which makes reliable and cost-effective transportation services very important to our business."
In addition to location efforts, CSXT began transportation for several companies that became operational in October, generating a total of 15,000 carloads annually for CSXT. One new customer, Chaparral Steel began receiving traffic at its new $350 million facility near Petersburg, Va., a project that was initiated as a site search three years ago. CSXT will transport more than 5,000 carloads annually for Chaparral Steel when the mill reaches full capacity.
Through its industrial development program, CSXT has played a key role during the last five years in helping nearly 550 companies locate and expand along its rail lines. Since 1994, CSXT has supported a total of approximately $10 billion in industrial development projects, creating more than 28,000 jobs. While generating new jobs and investment dollars in eastern and midwestern states, these projects provide CSXT with new customers and revenue.
CSXT and its 34,500 employees provide rail transportation and distribution
services over a 22,700 route-mile network in 23 states, the District of
Columbia and two Canadian provinces. CSXT is a business unit of CSX Corporation
(NYSE: CSX), headquartered in Richmond, Va.
MONTREAL -- Canadian National has significantly reduced transit times and improved on-time delivery of carload freight since implementing a service plan a year ago that transformed CN into a scheduled railroad.
"Timely, consistent freight transportation is the Holy Grail of the railroad shipper," said E. Hunter Harrison, CN's executive vice-president and chief operating officer. "Our job is to deliver to them, and we're doing that with our ground-breaking service plan."
CN's conveyor-belt-like schedule of train services fully implemented in the fall of 1998 -- has:
* Achieved 81 per cent on-time performance for carload traffic at a dock-to-dock level of measure, with a 96 per cent on-time performance for deliveries within 24 hours of the prescribed time. CN is making steady progress toward a 90 per cent on-time performance -- with no buffer -- by yearend;
* Reduced the time freight cars spend in key terminals by 18 per cent to 21 hours;
* Reduced overall transit times for carload traffic by 24 hours;
* Increased asset utilization significantly. Since early 1998, CN's active locomotive fleet has been effectively reduced by 33 per cent to 1,320 units, while its car fleet has been cut by 17 per cent to 68,400 cars;
* Increased gross tons miles per available horsepower -- a measure of how efficiently a railroad utilizes its locomotive fleet -- by 33 per cent;
* Increased car miles per car day -- a measure of the velocity of cars on the network -- by 19 per cent to 138.
Harrison said the plan's scheduled freight train products have clear benefits for shippers -- and CN. Shippers gain greater control over production and inventory costs, and car owners and lessors experience greater productivity and lower costs. At the same time CN enjoys reduced costs, better use of assets and greater flexibility in capital spending.
"CN believes the service plan's cost/quality improvements will position the railroad to capture new business from existing and prospective customers and, over time, improve yields," Harrison said. "The service plan is a powerful management tool and a competitive advantage in the freight transportation marketplace."
The strength of the service plan is its focus on dock-to-dock transit times for individual car shipments, not terminal-to-terminal transit times for trains.
In designing the plan from the railhead up, CN took a hard look at reducing "dwell time" -- the amount of time freight cars sit idle -- in its classification yards.
Consistent standards for connections and maximum throughput were established for each terminal. These were then used to anchor main-line train arrival and departure times. By bringing the connection time for major traffic flows as close as possible to the design standard, transit times, car cycles and yard congestion have been reduced. Dwell times at intermediate yards have also been cut by minimizing the number of times cars are classified.
All of this permits specific transit time commitments trip plans, measured in hours, not days -- for carload and intermodal shipments based on delivery capability and backed by those responsible for their day-to-day execution.
To support compliance with the service plan, CN developed a "product catalogue" for its sales and marketing group that defines the railroad's service capabilities for carload and intermodal freight. The catalogue also provides a means for monitoring CN's dock-to-dock transit performance, to drive real-time decision making in the field and to measure how CN's performance stacks up against its customer trip plan commitments.
Harrison said: "A key strength of the service plan is its focus on managing CN as an integrated network. Managers are continually examining opportunities to combine shipments from different business units, such as intermodal/auto-motive and merchandise. The creation of multi-purpose trains allows CN to fill idle capacity and to improve the ratio of tons of freight moved per locomotive."
Keeping track of the progress of shipments is a key aspect of the service plan. Using CN's Service Reliability Strategy (SRS) information system, CN monitors and controls customer shipments and provides timely, accurate information on the status of shipments to meet precise door-to-door scheduling commitments. CN now provides customers with the number of hours required to move a shipment from one point to another and the on-time performance level on a percentage basis on such shipments to date.
Canadian National Railway Company spans Canada and mid-America, from
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports
of Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and key
cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson,
Miss., with connections to all points in North America.
The recent civil jury verdict against Union Pacific and Amtrak in the Sedalia railroad crossing case may, because of its size, draw attention from the issue it should highlight: dangerous railroad crossings, according to Jim Frickleton, Guest Columnist Kansas City Star.
Last year, 431 persons were killed at grade crossings. Hundreds more were maimed and injured. To be sure, sometimes the vehicle drivers bear responsibility for the accident. But too many times, including in the Sedalia case, tragic human suffering resulted directly from the railroad's refusal to accept its corporate responsibility for safety.
Every business has the responsibility to operate in a manner safe for the public. In most cases, safety matters are willingly addressed by responsible businesses and are a cost of operation.
Railroads, on the other hand, have the advantage of federal government subsidies that actually pay for these safety systems. The Federal Railroad Safety Act, enacted in 1973, provides federal money every year to identify and upgrade crossing protection.
The railroads have a legal obligation to actively participate in identifying dangerous crossings. In most cases, this is not difficult.
The safety act provides a laundry list of factors to consider. These include traffic at the crossing, speed of vehicle and train traffic, prior accidents, type of traffic using the crossing, urban vs. rural settings and visibility.
Federal and state governments also provide the railroads with broad assistance in studying and identifying dangerous crossings. Once the crossings are identified, the federal government will provide the money to upgrade crossing protection.
This type of safety subsidy for the railroad industry is unparalleled in the business world -- and often underutilized. If a railroad promptly identifies a dangerous crossing and uses the federal money available to upgrade the crossing protection, it is immune from lawsuits claiming that some different type of protection should have been used.
Still, railroad representatives routinely talk as if accidents are always the driver's fault. Sometimes that's true, but this attitude ignores the many situations in which the railroad has received ample warning about the dangers at certain crossings.
In many instances, local governments have complained to the railroads about high speed, lack of whistles and other unsafe practices. Train operators continue to testify that they are aware of specific dangerous crossings and ones where they have had "near misses."
State statutes require that vegetation around crossings be adequately trimmed, yet many crossings continue to have significant sight restrictions. In the Sedalia case, brush and terrain blocked the driver's view of the train by 90 percent.
Studies have shown that, as a rule, jurors enter the courtroom with the assumption that a driver must have done something wrong to get hit by a train. When a large verdict is rendered, it is almost always because there is overwhelming evidence that the railroad failed to take proper safety measures.
Sworn testimony has repeatedly established that if a railroad wants to upgrade its crossing protection and is willing to do what is necessary to get that accomplished, it can be done in days, not weeks or months. Unfortunately, accidents or even fatalities can occur in the meantime.
Large verdicts make headlines, leading some to claim that the jury system is out of control. Before we dismiss the Sedalia verdict as another example of a system run amok, we should evaluate the evidence that this jury was shown.
Evidence of previous accidents and close calls, complaints from local authorities and a lack of proper safety evaluation convinced jurors that the railroad was responsible for this collision.
The federal system has helped lower the number of accidents at crossings and, of course, drivers should be alert to possible dangers at all times, particularly at railroad crossings. But until the railroads themselves take full advantage of available safety measures, we will inevitably see more suffering and more jury verdicts such as the Sedalia case.
Jim Frickleton is a partner in the Kansas City law firm of Bartimus Frickleton
& Presley. He has tried several railroad crossing cases.
HOLLAND, Ill. -- Holland Energy, LLC, an affiliate of Constellation Power, Inc., today announced that they will donate $25,000 to cover the cost of reconstructing the Holland at-grade railroad crossing.
"This is just one way that Holland Energy can give something back to the local community," said Don Walters, vice president of Constellation Power Development, Inc." during a press conference at the Holland crossing site.
The Holland crossing was the site of a recent fatal accident involving Mr. Robert Kessler, a local Beecher City area resident, when his vehicle was struck by a train while crossing the Union Pacific railroad tracks. The crossing does not meet Illinois Commerce Commission minimum standards. The work will correct the deficiencies at the crossing.
"Thanks to the cooperation of Rep. Bill Mitchell, Senator Duane Noland, Senator Watson, Rep. Chuck Hartke, Effingham County, Shelby County, and Liberty Township and Holland Township officials, the much-needed reconstruction of this dangerous crossing will become a reality," said Walters, "but most of the credit belongs to the local Beecher City community which banded together to rally support for the project. Without their hard work, this project would have never gotten off of the ground."
Mr. Kessler's daughter, Nancy Wolff, and his son, George Kessler, and many of their neighbors led the local effort to obtain funding from the Illinois Commerce Commission to correct the dangerous conditions at the crossing, which is used by Beecher City School District buses to transport children to and from school each day. The Illinois Commerce Commission agreed to fund some of the corrective work. However, area local governments would be required to pay for some of the project. The local governments were hard pressed to come up with required matching funds for the project, and Holland Energy agreed to make up the funding shortfall by donating $25,000 to the project.
Holland Energy is proposing to construct a natural gas fired power plant nearby the Holland crossing. "This project is absolutely necessary for the safety of the local community, the school children, and future employees working at our nearby plant," Walters said. "We want the Beecher City community to know that Holland Energy is going to be a good corporate citizen of the community, and that we will help where we can."
Constellation Power, Inc., is a subsidiary of Constellation Energy Group
(NYSE:CEG) a Baltimore-based holding company that focuses on such energy-
related businesses as power marketing, generation, and energy portfolio
management. Its regulated utility, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, provides
service to some 1.1 million electric customers and nearly 575,000 natural
gas customers in Central Maryland.
OAKLAND -- Labor leader C.L. Dellums, who began his career as a watchdog for the rights of railroad porters and went on to fight for fair treatment of all California workers, will once again stand watch over the rails.
According to the San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle, Oakland officials and Dellums family members yesterday unveiled a larger-than-life bronze statue of Dellums at the city's Amtrak station in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of his death.
"I hope it instills a little fire in younger generations that nothing is impossible," said Dellums' only child, Marva Dellums of Fremont. "My father was a man for humanity, not just for African Americans."
A Texas native, Dellums boarded a train to California in 1923, hoping eventually to study law at the University of California at Berkeley. He ended up in Oakland on the advice of a porter, who told him the African American community was larger there than in San Francisco.
The next year he found work as Pullman porter. After experiencing the arduous hours and low pay, Dellums organized the West Coast chapter of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. His activism soon got him fired, though Pullman officials said it was because he was spreading Bolshevik propaganda from Moscow.
But Dellums did not give up. He rallied the troops with what became his motto: "What have you got to lose? You've only got four things anyway: a hard job, low pay, long hours and a mean bossman."
"He knew it was work that would never be finished, but he knew it was work that could never be abandoned," said William Spires, a labor history specialist at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Dellums, an uncle of former East Bay Congressman Ron Dellums, was vice president of the porters union for more than four decades, until 1968. He then succeeded A. Philip Randolph as president of the union, serving in that role and as a vice president of the AFL-CIO until the mid-1980s.
In 1948, he also became chairman of the West Coast chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Dellums was instrumental in fighting for the state Fair Employment Practices Act and was named one of the first Fair Employment Practices commissioners by Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown in 1959. He served on that commission until 1985.
Brown's son, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, yesterday called Dellums "a real hero and a fighter for justice."
Dellums' five great-grandchildren unveiled the statue, created by Oakland artist Carol Tarzier.
Marva Dellums told the crowd that her father never gave up the fight against injustice. A week before his death at age 89, in December 1989, he told her he wished he could keep fighting.
"As long as there are inhumanities to man," he said, "the
fight is not over."
FOSTORIA, Ohio -- The railroad has rejected a Fostoria law that says it must clean up pigeon droppings under its bridges, according to the Toledo Blade.
A letter received yesterday made it clear CSX Transportation has no intention of complying with a city law that requires owners of a structure to keep the area clean of excrement from pigeons or other animals.
The transportation company owns the bridges over which its trains pass in Fostoria.
The ordinance, passed Oct. 19, is aimed at cleaning up the sidewalk and underpass on East Lytle Street, where hundreds of pigeons roost. The sidewalk below the bridge is described as so thick with pigeon feces that children walking to school must circle it by walking in the street.
Zoning inspector Dale Helms, since retired, told CSX of the ordinance the day after it was passed.
"CSX does not believe, despite the passage of the aforementioned ordinance, that it is responsible for cleaning the public sidewalks near the Lytle Street underpass,'' spokesperson Natalie Rosenberg said in a letter.
Acting zoning inspector Thomas Lonsway said he was disappointed. "I guess they're so big, they don't care about anything in a town like this. They got a monopoly and think they can do what they want to do,'' he said.
Ms. Rosenberg said an agreement was reached June 29, 1950, when the Lytle Street overpass was being built.
"It is the city, not CSX, that is responsible for the maintenance of sidewalks pursuant to the agreement,'' Ms. Rosenberg said.
Fostoria hired Posey Excavating this year at a cost of nearly $6,000 to clean up the underpass, Safety-Service Director Ron Reinhard said. "They went in with protective suits and washed the top, sides, and sidewalk. We were told that when it was done, CSX had agreed to install a screen under the bridge so pigeons could not roost. But they never did come in and do that,'' he said. "We called CSX and they said, 'We changed our mind.' ''
The railroad said it had "entertained'' the idea of installing a screen, "but CSX determined installation of such a screen would be unduly burdensome during periods of federally mandated bridge inspection and maintenance,'' Ms. Rosenberg said.
She said CSX is willing to discuss "installation of a screen by the city, provided the city would be willing to remove the screen in a timely manner during all periods of inspection and maintenance.''
The cost of the cleanup by Posey was assessed to CSX through its property
taxes, Mr. Reinhard said. "Yes, we will press them for cleanup and,
if necessary, we'll cite them into court,'' he said.
WASHINGTON -- Despite legal and operational handicaps, the Teamsters union says it will try to organize thousands of independent truck drivers who haul containers to and from the nation's seaports, the Journal of Commerce reported.
The announcement followed a meeting between Teamsters officials and independent drivers last weekend in Charleston, S.C. The session was sponsored by the United Container Movers Association, a loose organization of truckers in various ports.
"There are an estimated 40,000 truck drivers serving the U.S. ports. The Teamsters represent 1.4 million members. The Teamsters are committed to organizing the port drivers," a union statement declared.
The organizing drive faces an uphill fight. The drivers are a diverse group, and they generally operate not as direct employees but as independent contractors who are ineligible for collective bargaining.
"We're still in the preliminary stages," said Ed Burke, West Coast coordinator for the Teamsters port division.
The Teamsters plan a series of meetings with top officials of other unions, such as the International Longshoremen's Association, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Communications Workers of America.
All of these groups have made jurisdictional claims on segments of harbor trucking, and the Teamsters want the support of these groups for their national effort.
During the last year there have been a series of job actions by harbor truck drivers at North American ports.
Drivers, frustrated by low pay and congestion at marine terminals, boycotted terminals in several ports, including Baltimore; Charleston; Jacksonville, Fla.; Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Montreal.
Past efforts to organize owner-operators in ports such as Los Angeles-Long Beach failed because trucking companies and marine terminal operators refused to negotiate with drivers they consider to be independent contractors. Whenever owner-operators attempt to organize in a port area, employers invariably charge that U.S. antitrust law prohibits them from meeting with independent contractors to discuss and set rates together.
Indeed, the Federal Trade Commission, apparently tipped off about Saturday's meeting in Charleston, subpoenaed three independent truckers even before the meeting was held. The drivers were ordered to testify at a commission hearing later this month and bring with them a list of drivers who attended the meeting in Charleston.
Teamster attorneys, saying the FTC subpoenas would have a chilling effect on the meeting, are attempting to delay the testimony of the drivers to give them more time to prepare for the hearings.
Independent drivers were shocked by the subpoenas. "It's OK for Exxon and Mobil to merge, but when $8-an-hour truckers get together, it's restraint of trade?" said Robert Bates, president of the United Container Movers Association in Charleston. A spokeswoman for the FTC said it is not unusual for the commission to issue what it calls civil investigatory demands.
Although she would not comment on the drivers' case, the spokeswoman said the issuance of such demands normally indicates an investigation is in its preliminary stages and that the commission is attempting to gather as much evidence as possible.
Legal roadblocks aren't the only obstacle the Teamsters face. They must devise a strategy that will appeal to a diverse group of drivers whose only common experience appears to be the frustration of sitting in long lines at container terminals and not getting paid for their downtime.
The Teamsters will attempt to organize Spanish-speaking drivers in ports such as Houston and Los Angeles-Long Beach, Russian-speaking immigrants in Seattle-Tacoma and English-speaking drivers in the Southeast. Operating conditions also vary greatly.
The independent drivers said they are committed to working with the Teamsters. Earlier this year, after taking job actions in Baltimore, drivers there voted to affiliate with the International Lonshoremen's Association, the East Coast dockworkers union. The United Container Movers Association has since reversed that vote.
"We need a union that will look out for us, a union for truck drivers. The Teamsters will serve us best. This is a match made in heaven," said Bill Dickens, president of the United Container/Rail Haulers of America Inc. in Baltimore.
Trucking companies, which contract with shipping lines and shippers to haul their containers and hire owner-operators to do the driving, are caught in the middle. Trucking executives recognize that gate congestion and low productivity at marine terminals are the main causes of the driver frustration, said Larry Malloy, executive director of the American Trucking Associations Intermodal Council.
"The frustration level is starting to reach a rolling boil," Malloy said.
However, trucking company executives believe they cannot compete in the cutthroat harbor hauling business if they have to pay union wages. In the deregulated trucking and shipping environment, non-union operators are free to enter the business and undercut them on price.
Some trucking associations have avoided driver unrest by forming intermodal committees with shipping lines and terminal operators.
The Bi-State Harbor Carriers Conference, for example, has kept gate operations fluid at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by maintaining an efficient chassis pool and convincing terminal operators to open their gates early and work through the lunch hour, said Dick Jones, the group's executive director.
It appears that job actions by drivers are over for the time being. Independent drivers realize they cannot stay off the job and meet their personal financial obligations, so they are letting the Teamsters lead the political and legal charge for better working conditions, said Tony Fernandez, president of the United Container Movers Association in Jacksonville.
But Fernandez said truckers will no longer be content to accept poor
pay and conditions without complaint. "The days of the dumb truck driver
are over," he said.
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