Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
The New
York Times
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January 10, 1999, Sunday, Late Edition -
Final
SECTION: Section 14NJ; Page 6; Column
1; New Jersey Weekly Desk
LENGTH: 980 words
HEADLINE: ROAD AND RAIL;
One Track, Two Loads
BYLINE: By ANDREA KANNAPELL
BODY:
Like the goose that suddenly started laying
golden eggs, New Jersey's rail system has turned from an unwelcome burden to an
invaluable treasure, a vital artery for commuters as well as goods. While that
may be welcome news for the region's economy, it may not be for the commuters
whose trains will face growing competition for track space on crowded
freight lines.
As demand for passenger
service has surged statewide, with little new track being laid, a reorganization
of the region's freight rail system is scheduled to take effect March 1,
splitting the old Conrail monopoly between two national shippers, CSX and
Norfolk Southern. The shift will return competition to the area for the first
time in more than two decades. The effect over the next few years, most industry
experts believe, will be dramatic increases in freight business as the new
competition forces prices down and service quality up. A tug-of-war between
passengers and freight is an almost certain outcome, the experts say.
"It's very difficult to operate freight and passenger service on the
same tracks," said Craig Lewis, a vice president at Norfolk Southern. "With the
speed of passenger trains, it's almost like a Pac-Man scenario." Passenger
trains are so much faster that the space between trains needs to be much
greater.
The struggles are likely to be intense. Irritated commuters can
always complain to their elected officials; after all, the New Jersey Department
of Transportation and New Jersey Transit are state agencies. But as in most of
the country, the majority of existing tracks are owned by private freight lines
and passenger trains pay for the right to run on them.
On March 1, 445
of the 1,000 route miles (multiple tracks can be laid along a single route)
Conrail owns in New Jersey will fall under the jurisdiction of what is called
"new Conrail," a jointly owned subsidiary of Norfolk Southern and CSX, and the
remainder will become the property of one or the other parent company, as part
of a deal worth more than $10 billion. Each parent will get one major northern
and southern route into New Jersey: Norfolk Southern will take over the route
from Bound Brook to Allentown and from North Bergen to Suffern, while CSX will
take the route from North Bergen toward Albany (the West Shore Line) and from
Bound Brook to Trenton.
New Jersey Transit currently operates on a total
of about 850 miles of track, of which it owns 500 miles. CSX and Norfolk
Southern will own about 100 miles and Amtrak owns about 240.
All the
players have anticipated friction, and have tried to foresee ways of minimizing
it. Since New Jersey Transit owns at least some of the track the freights will
run on, it will have leverage in disputes. And there are already carefully
negotiated guidelines that aim to protect passenger service without unduly
hobbling the freights. For instance, the D.O.T. and New Jersey Transit say there
will be no curtailment of current passenger service, so conflict will be
reserved for the expansion of commuter services New Jersey Transit has planned,
particularly in northern New Jersey.
For instance, CSX expects its
freight business to need all the capacity on the West Shore line. But New Jersey
Transit has plans to expand service in that area, and the agency bought some
right of way along the route in 1978.
The conflict has its roots in the
early 70's, when half a dozen freight companies went bankrupt. The Federal
Government stepped in, creating Conrail in 1976. For 11 years it operated the
company, selling off any "extra" land and rights, a downsizing that railroad
watchers now groan over, since it would be prohibitively expensive, if not
physically impossible, to reclaim those resources.
"Once you have people
building pools in the old right-of-way, it becomes pretty hard to get it back,"
said Douglas Bowen, president of an advocacy group called the New Jersey
Association of Railroad Passengers.
In 1987 the Government sold Conrail
to the private sector, so when CSX and Norfolk Southern signed an agreement last
year to pay more than $10 billion for it, they were making an ordinary business
deal, in which the first priority is turning a profit.
Norfolk Southern
has a reputation for accommodating passenger service, according to Mr. Bowen. On
the other hand, he said, CSX "has a reputation for being notoriously
anti-passenger rail."
"I don't want to say it doesn't play fair, because
it's their railroad, they can do what they want," Mr. Bowen added. But some
would call their approach downright hostile."
CSX presents itself as an
asset to an area that needs to make some difficult choices for its own economic
vitality. For the moment, the state D.O.T. agrees. Increasing the amount of
freight that moves by rail gets truck traffic off roadways and allows the
region's economic strength to grow. Local imports and exports should increase,
as should traffic to and from Ports Newark and Elizabeth, both say.
"The
region has grown its industrial base," said Mike Brimmer, a regional vice
president for CSX. "And you still have major facilities that depend on rail,
like the chemical companies, the Ford plant in Metuchen, the G.M. assembly plant
in Linden. And the same population that increases the demand for passenger
service also increases the demands for orange juice and televisions."
Not all the passenger rail companies expect trouble. Amtrak, for
instance, is positively sanguine. Rick Remington, a spokesman, said that freight
on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor generally operates only between 10 P.M. and 6
A.M. and that Norfolk and CSX were already running about six more trains during
those hours without creating problems.
And if a train loaded with
freight could make its delivery schedule only by running during prime passenger
hours?
"It's our call," Mr. Remington said. "It's our railroad."
http://www.nytimes.com
GRAPHIC: Photo: A
train in Port Reading run by Conrail, which will be split between two freight
companies in March. (Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)(
LOAD-DATE: January 10, 1999 
