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Congressional Testimony
December 6, 2000, Wednesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 2414 words
COMMITTEE:
SENATE COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION
HEADLINE: TESTIMONY RAIL PASSENGER SERVICE (F. H.)
TESTIMONY-BY: STEPHEN A. CROSBY , PRESIDENT,
AFFILIATION: CSX REAL PROERTY, INC.
BODY:
December 6, 2000 Statement of Stephen A.
Crosby President, CSX Real Property, Inc. Before the United States Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Thank you Senator Cleland. I
am Steve Crosby, President of CSX Real Property, Inc., a subsidiary of CSX
Corporation. I represent CSX in discussions concerning the introduction of
commuter rail onto CSX's rights-of-way in metropolitan Atlanta. These lines are
part of the 30,000 mile rail freight network CSX operates in 23 states, two
Canadian Provinces and the District of Columbia. I appreciate the opportunity
afforded us today to explain our approach to potential passenger operations on
our freight lines in Atlanta and elsewhere. With increasing congestion on
American highways and concerns over air quality, more communities than ever
before are looking to rail as an environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient means
to move people. CSX works with communities, including Atlanta, to provide
technical expertise and operations analysis to local planners and policy makers.
Where feasible, we also attempt to make our right- of-way available at fair
market value for the construction of commuter rail systems. We currently have
six commuter operations on our network and 28 others being studied. Our
experience has shown that there is no "one size fits all" solution. In Atlanta,
my colleagues and I have worked for several years with various agencies that
have an interest in furthering the concept of commuter rail. We are now working
jointly with Norfolk Southern and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority
(GRTA) to study the combined freight network in order to evaluate the impact of
the potential imposition of commuter service. The results of this study will
yield important feasibility and cost analysis of alternative proposals and will
provide a greatly needed decision tool. While Atlanta is an extremely complex
situation given the convergence of rail lines and the volume of freight trains
moving through, it also can be an exciting model if creativity is used in
addressing these challenges. The issues presented by adding commuter rail
services to a main line freight network are extremely challenging. Poorly
planned implementation will degrade existing freight service while providing a
level of passenger service that does not meet public expectations either. We are
committed to working cooperatively to determine whether there are answers that
work for everyone. To that end, we have guiding principles we use when working
through this process with communities on our system, including Atlanta. You
already have heard about issues communities and public officials look at, so I
would like to share with you these principles which guide our thinking and
analysis. First, safety must be the pre-eminent consideration. CSXT is committed
to operating with the highest degree of safety for both our employees and the
public. Put simply, the risks to our employees and the public must be no greater
after a passenger rail system is put in place than the risks are today. Since
1989, CSX has reduced train accidents by 40% and employee injuries by 63%.
Despite this record, the possibility of an accident cannot be dismissed. The
Federal Railroad Administration has authority over the introduction of rail
passenger operations onto the freight network. CSX also undertakes its own
review and in some cases our policy may be more stringent and restrictive than
federal guidelines. Among the critical issues we examine are train operations;
integration between freight and passenger rail; grade crossing safety;
passenger/pedestrian safety at station stops; and, derailment risk and intrusion
detection. Second, any relationship with passenger rail services must give CSX
the ability to effectively serve current customers and to meet the future
demands of new an4_gLowing customers. This capacity issue is particularly
critical in the Atlanta region, which is our busiest hub in the Southeast. CSX
serves more than 200 Atlanta-area companies and moves over one million carloads
of freight into and out of the region each year. Our primarily single-track
lines in the region are at or near capacity today with our Atlanta terminal
handling up to 120 trains daily. Commuter rail could further limit our capacity
and force some of the freight we move back to the highways increasing the number
of trucks on metropolitan roadways. This has the potential to be more harmful to
the environment because railroads have a clear environmental advantage over
trucks. Locomotives emit one-tenth the hydrocarbons and diesel particulates as
trucks do, and each rail car carries the equivalent of approximately three
trucks. When passenger trains squeeze out freight trains, more trucks are added
to the highways and more pollutants are added to the atmosphere - an extremely
important matter for regions such as this that are not in compliance with
federal clean air standards. Capacity studies are critical to our ability to
analyze a particular proposal. We need to understand current and future use, and
we need to know whether specific lines are able to accommodate regular passenger
service. If not, can those lines be expanded and improved to meet commuter
needs. In some cases, such improvements and additions can be achieved and
passenger rail can be accommodated. Studies, property acquisition (if needed)
and construction have a high cost. CSX does not play a role in funding commuter
operations. We are an investor- owned company, operating on private property
that is maintained by private investment. We are not a public utility. As a
result, we simply cannot ask our shareholders and freight
customers to subsidize the cost of commuter rail operations.
The commuter agency needs to pay the costs associated with obtaining operating
and property rights as well as building and maintaining infrastructure
associated with the passenger service. So putting a realistic estimate and
funding package together is a critical early step. With advanced engineering
almost anything is possible. The question becomes quite simply: How much does it
cost and how much is it worth to those who will use it? Building and maintaining
additional rail infrastructure - even assuming an existing right-of-way has room
- can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Communities must be realistic about
funding needs when they set out to develop a passenger rail system. A proposed
16 mile- system in Orlando that we worked on recently, for example, would have
cost in excess of $600 million A 30- mile system in Bordentown, New Jersey that
we were involved in is budgeted at approximately $700 million. In both of these
cases we worked closely with the local, state and federal agencies to ensure
safe, and compatible operations. These were very different systems than
envisioned for Atlanta, but I use them as examples simply to illustrate that we
can work successfully together to design solutions that meet the needs of all
parties. However, as we found in both cases, unless safety, capacity, funding
and timefrarne expectations are realistic, a positive outcome cannot be
achieved. We are working closely with GRTA to ensure they have access to
information generated by our experience in these and other communities. The
lessons learned are that commuter operations require considerable resources,
cooperation and flexibility to achieve productive and workable solutions. The
final matter that must be considered in a new passenger proposal from the
railroad's perspective is liability.. Although the likelihood of a catastrophic
derailment is low, the potential does exist for a freight accident to occur
simultaneously with the passing of a commuter train. The imposition of thousands
of passengers into a freight rail corridor creates risks that do not exist
today. Consistent with sound business practices, CSXT currently requires a
minimum of $ 500 million insurance coverage as a condition to any new use of its
properties for passenger purposes. On another front, I understand that high
speed rail and possibly mag-lev are being considered in Georgia in addition to
commuter rail options. My colleague Paul Reistrup, Vice President, Passenger
Services, has been actively involved in discussions with Amtrak and other
entities concerning these types of operations. As with commuter initiatives, we
take a fact-based, analytical approach to high speed rail, which presents some
unique challenges of its own Importantly, the greater the difference in the
speed of trains, the more capacity is used up on a railroad. To illustrate the
point, we all know what the term Sunday driving is all about and the havoc that
a slow driver can cause on a busy road. Traffic always moves more smoothly if
everyone is generally going the same, speed. Freight lines are generally
analogous to two lane state roads while high speed lines need to be like super
highways. We know that you can't turn a state road into an interstate by simply
raising the speed limit. The super-elevation needed for high speed passenger
trains requires different engineering and significantly more maintenance than
the track structures freight trains use. In addition, in the interest of public
safety, all grade crossings need to be eliminated over tracks where trains
operate above a designated speed threshold, as has been done on the Northeast
Corridor. As a result, while every situation is unique, our basic proposition is
that high speed trains travelling above 90 MPH should be on separate tracks that
are grade separated. In conclusion, we remain actively engaged with communities
across our system in a fact-based approach to explore transportation options.
Locally, we are committed to continuing our involvement in the studies and
dialogue that have been initiated in Atlanta. I will be pleased to answer any
questions you may have.
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 2000,
Wednesday 
