The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[CityHeart]

This looks promising for Atlanta. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tMOQTn4Y0

[MLBrumby]

Why is this posted in a Nashville forum?  Should probably be moved to the Atlanta forum.  

[CityHeart]

Why is this posted in a Nashville forum?  Should probably be moved to the Atlanta forum.  

 Well others have made mention of what other cities have in place in the arena of transit. I posted that link because it's an interesting project involving transit for our southern neighbor.  I think it speaks to the Mass Transit/biking/walkable infrastructure movement taking place across the southern region.

[Neigeville]

 Well others have made mention of what other cities have in place in the arena of transit. I posted that link because it's an interesting project involving transit for our southern neighbor.  I think it speaks to the Mass Transit/biking/walkable infrastructure movement taking place across the southern region.

Thanks for posting this, I might not have seen it otherwise.  It would be nice if Nashville could find some old rights of way to do something like this with.

[barakat]

We do have some rail spurs around downtown that are not used.  One comes down from Metrocenter roughly along the greenway.  Another comes in from the north and ends in Hope Gardens.  That line is the one that will eventually provide commuter rail to Clarksville. I've wondered, though, why some of these existing spurs have not been targeted for local rail service, with new transit-oriented development planned along the line.  I'm referring to the lines that barely get used, not the heavily used ones.

[rookzie]

Thanks for posting this, I might not have seen it otherwise.  It would be nice if Nashville could find some old rights of way to do something like this with.

 

 

Those of you who have seen my posts, know so well that I have submitted frequent illustrations of scenes and statements concerning transit, of places no where near Nashv'l.  I've done so to make comparisons and to elaborate on technical and "evolutionary" details, even to the extent of composing "micro-topics" within my discussion.  The mention and image posting have been the primary method chosen to emphasize and to clarify my statements for attempting to justify or qualify my "suggestions" and exceptions within the flurry of Nashv'l transit talk.

 

The mayor himself has made frequent references to other locales in a attempt either to compare or to support his claims to action with respect to garnering support for his stands.  I do believe that qualified references to other cities, especially relatively close ones, such as Atlanta and Cincinnati and Memphis, all of which have had, during the previous 2 decades, or are about to have upstart municipal rail projects, are acceptable, as long as the member provides a reason for posting the link (in addition to the link itself).  My thought is that a few words indirectly or implicitly comparing a region to Nashv'l is sufficient.  That's the reason that others, as well as I, have mentioned KCMO, Salt Lake, Denver, Dallas and Buffalo, to name a few, as these towns all have relatively recently been proactive, rather than just being engaged in talk (except perhaps KC), w/r/t rail-based transit.

 

As much as a poster child that Atlanta has been, in terms of being considered by most as a mobility nightmare, and the fact that the only relatively recent addition to the heavy-rail (HRT) MARTA was back in 2000, with the Dunwoody - Sandy Springs - North Springs extension from Buckhead, the political mire and bitter controversy concerning the management and funding of MARTA can be a textbook case from which we all can learn (of what NOT to do).  While the projected value-addition of the new streetcar to the urban core is arguable, as is Nashv'l's AMP route of travel, at least Atlanta is getting one (if you catch my "drift"), as well as is Cincinnati.

 

Cincinnati is not necessarily voted as a most progressive city, however "progress" might be metrically measured, but then, again, it did do something right, to be able to win funding approval of its streetcar project.

 

 

 

We do have some rail spurs around downtown that are not used.  One comes down from Metrocenter roughly along the greenway.  Another comes in from the north and ends in Hope Gardens.  That line is the one that will eventually provide commuter rail to Clarksville. I've wondered, though, why some of these existing spurs have not been targeted for local rail service, with new transit-oriented development planned along the line.  I'm referring to the lines that barely get used, not the heavily used ones.

 

 

We've discussed little-used or rarely used local rail spurs several times in the past – at least I have, since I have had a working knowledge of the region's RR trackage for over 50 years (and have observed transformations, abandonments, and total rip-ups, even before some of us were born).  As with any city and its railroad tracks, many factors must come into play before any utilization plans can become executions.

Edited October 29, 2013 by rookzie

[Neigeville]

...snip...

We've discussed little-used or rarely used local rail spurs several times in the past – at least I have, since I have had a working knowledge of the region's RR trackage for over 50 years (and have observed transformations, abandonments, and total rip-ups, even before some of us were born).  As with any city and its railroad tracks, many factors must come into play before any utilization plans can become executions.

I wonder if any of our developers are aware of these spurs and their creative possibilities.  Back in the days of electric streetcars, developers used to build and operate the street car lines when they built the subdivisions, but since the government went whole hog into supporting automobiles, dealing with transportation has been less a part of the developer's portfolio. 

 

I think a mixed use development with a little tram or monorail or even a low-flying gondola system, nothing huge or regional, just connecting the development to downtown would be a really cool idea.  Metrocenter could use something like this if we're going to see mixed use development there, as seems likely.  Every improvement to public transport doesn't have to be a vast, regional commuting strategy.

[timmay143]

Very true everyone!  I hadn't even thought of that.  Using these spurs, even disconnected, could, hehehe, spur development!  Especially, mass transit stigmas.

[UTgrad09]

We do have some rail spurs around downtown that are not used.  One comes down from Metrocenter roughly along the greenway.  Another comes in from the north and ends in Hope Gardens.  That line is the one that will eventually provide commuter rail to Clarksville. I've wondered, though, why some of these existing spurs have not been targeted for local rail service, with new transit-oriented development planned along the line.  I'm referring to the lines that barely get used, not the heavily used ones.

 

I think if we ever go the LRT route (and I would like to see that utilized, at least in certain areas), that would be a smart and inexpensive way to do it. I'm not as keen on the unused/underused lines as some of y'all are, but I have noticed a number of lines that appear to be barely used. I think it would be great for the city to start making plans for using these rail ROWs in the future.

[rookzie]

Many if not most of us might agree that not every improvement to public transit or public mobility needs to be a major commuting strategy in itself.  Connecting a mixed-use “enclave”, as a number of the currently implemented local municipal recent developments might be categorized, to downtown with a “localized”, mid-to-low volume capacity conveyance would not be unlike the current Metro plan for the East-West AMP.

 

Yes, they could even go the extent of running a modern streetcar from downtown, through the proposed Sulphur Dell Ball Park – Bicentennial State Park area, through Germantown and deep into the MetroCenter “crescent”.  The tracks that currently pass just under I-65 along the west bank of river from downtown, do get traversed during the day and night with occasional industrial switching movements, which serve several customers along that CSX “team” track, as it is referred to, and which had been former Tennessee Central ROW, acquired by the Louisville and Nashville during 1968.  But while the volume of RR freight switching has diminished significantly during the past 45 years, nevertheless, they remain RR property, which cannot be legally operated concurrently with streetcar or light-rail equipment, even though streetcar and LRV track gauge (dimension between the inner edges of the rails) usually is the same as that of RR equipment.

 

But even if a streetcar or some other connector were to be built to serve MetroCenter and downtown, it still needs to be considered as a constituent of a comprehensive regional transit plan.  Otherwise it could be a hard sell for being justified as a standalone project for connecting a mixed-use community to downtown.  That might be more amenable to acceptance, though, if the project were part of some private-sector (developer) – public joint venture.  Still, being subject to public scrutiny, the undertaking most likely would part of a long-range regional plan of intermediate goals.

 

If you comb through the annals of this topic, you will find some rather exceptionally creative and detailed ideas for not-too-distant plans for surface transit in the county.  Even MetroCenter coverage is included in at least one of these concept plans, which I believe was to be interconnected with a major cross-town proposition by the same posting member of this topic.

 

My thoughts are that streetcar routes might be a part of a more value-added transit plan to bolster redevelopment, say, from downtown to Sulphur Dell – Germantown and along the entire length of Jefferson Street westward; and from downtown, along Charlotte Ave, and north along 51^st Ave North and along at least a portion of Centennial Blvd. (to perhaps 63^rd Ave).  Each of these could be extended (at 28^th Ave N. to connect to the MetroCenter crescent; and at Charlotte beyond 51^st).  Both of these lines could follow the paradigm of the District (Wash. DC) Dept. of Transportation (DDOC) Benning Road – H-Street streetcar project, which is about to connect a corridor, determined to be in great need of redevelopment, to Wash. Union Station, which is central to most other regional transit systems there.  Much can be argued concerning potential long-range value-added benefits of connecting underserved sectors of the urban core to the CBD, but I believe that routes of the less glamorous paths are more likely to garner support for redevelopment qualifications.

 

But rather than continued digression from the subject of a mixed-use transformation of MetroCenter, I believe that to create a transit sub-system such as a monorail or a gondola system, effectively isolates that system from the more traditional, less specialized forms of transit, and renders it less likely to win popular acceptance.  The Mud Island Monorail (Memphis Suspension Railway) is in essence a “horizontal elevator” or “people mover”, consisting of cars conveyed along a track by pulley-guided powered cables (although the cables are not constantly in motion as are those of SF Muni’s cable cars).  This “closed” aerial system built during the early 1980s remains in seasonal operation today.  While structurally rather elaborate in its design and construction, this is not well adapted to urban transit as an urban connector, and is suited more as a tourist “conveyor” for entertainment events.  That can be said in general for non-traditional modes of mobility.

 

And back to spurs, a RR spur, by definition, is a secondary line branching from a main line, the purpose of which is to provide storage for freight cars (alongside a main, as a stub or as a siding), to provide placement of freight cars for direct loading and unloading for commercial use, or to provide a branch path (team track) which may in turn contain rail sub-branches or sidings providing service to commercial customers.  The problem with the spurs of Nashv’l is that spurs are in fact industrial, and as such, not many “spurs”, per se, remain extant, which could be of some transformational value to urban transit,IMHO.  Most which do remain are disconnected (as Tim recognizes), and provide little if any real potential for use as a transit path, without the need of additional major supplemental ROW and trackage to provide a reasonable path amenable to practical use.  Indeed, I can think of two or three of “sketchy” potential:

 

West bank industrial -- from downtown – CSX

 

Cockrill Bend industrial – from CSX Bruceton Div. main (at 37^th Ave. to Cockrill Bend Blvd.

 

NWRR – from 29^th and Charlotte to Clifton Ave, Herman, Jefferson, Heiman, Ed Temple (and beyond to Bordeaux and AshCity).  This former Tennessee Central Railroad main is now considered a spur (or more appropriately a short-line RR).

 

It also should be noted that each of the above would need special agreements and shared operating rules for use with transit, and/or would require major upgrade provisions for connecting to existing central mainline trackage, all of which is owned and heavily utilized by CSX.  In lieu of connections to existing central mainline CSX trackage, separated or mixed-traffic street trackage would be needed to connect a downtown terminal or hub to these spurs.  Just remember. The fact that trackage might appear underutilized does not mean that it can be re-purposed for rail transit.

 

In reference to the mention of the branch line that ends near US Tobacco and Goodwill Industries at Hope Gardens, in a long past posting I mentioned that this line used to be part of the TC (now NWRR) and actually crossed 8^th Ave. (Rosa Parks Blvd.) at a timber and steel underpass (until the early 1980s), straight toward what now is the Farmers’ Market building, south of the former Sulphur Dell stadium, past the city slaughter house and stock yard, and natural gas floating storage tank.  It ended at a former connection to the existing west-bank industrial spur.  (you can see a paved trail between 3^rd and 1^st Avenues, where this curve used to be)  It also sub-branched at 11^th Ave to travel also along Harrison Street and ended at the produce and ice tracks (“reefer” or refrigerator car tracks), between 5^th and 3^rd Avenues.  This branch winds along Herman St. westward and connects Herman yard (at 11^th) to Clifton yard (ending at 29^th Ave at Charlotte) continues southwesterly to merge with the former belt line of the TC (from at Charlotte Ave to Bordeaux and AshCity).  The broken continuity of this trackage and its narrow ROW along Herman St. make this path a difficult sell for transit in its entirety.

 

It will be interesting to see what mobility concepts Green Hills comes up with, now that the 22-story mixed-use tower proposal and the announced major expansion of the mall is all but laid in stone [lol].  The best thing to happen to Green Hills is for it to just keep on aiming for a total state of gridlock, until it becomes a case study of the worst that can occur, when a community and its council representation continue to disregard an exponentially mounting need for transit and general mobility solutions, through and within that sector.  While Green Hills has MetroCenter beat for continuous congestion throughout most of a given day, at least overdevelopment has not yet become a stifle to multiple transit plan options for MetroCenter, with its close proximity to the CBD and the existence of potential rail connectivity.

[volsfanwill]

Rookzie

looking at the current RR map around Nashville, I have a question, was there ever a connection between the Belleview area and the Brentwood area?  Roughly following Old Hickory Blvd.   Those two lines basically parallel each other from that point north and It seems logical, or were they owned by different RRs?  I was wondering because we have covered many times that one of the problems using existing RR ROW is how busy the lines in town are, and some sort of by-pass seems logical.  not that building a connection in that area would ever happen today, I mean it is through a nice park and I don't even want to think about the NIMBYs on that one.  so more just a question of the past.

 

As for the conversation about connecting mixed use developments in metro center with downtown, that is actually a problem I run into when I imagine ideal transit for Nashville. I always want to connect it but can never decide the best way.  In my crazy off the wall we get everything map I've been working on since August, I have a Light rail line from downtown, connecting the new ball park, Germantown and Metro center. it is an extension of another line to the south.  (BTW I'm calling my plan the "$5 Billion Plan" cause that is about how much it would cost region wide.)

[UTgrad09]

 (BTW I'm calling my plan the "$5 Billion Plan" cause that is about how much it would cost region wide.)

 

NO! NO! NO! That's not how you pitch something!

 

 

 

 

 

"It will pay for itself through increased tax revenues!"

[rookzie]

Rookzie

looking at the current RR map around Nashville, I have a question, was there ever a connection between the Belleview area and the Brentwood area?  Roughly following Old Hickory Blvd.   Those two lines basically parallel each other from that point north and It seems logical, or were they owned by different RRs?  I was wondering because we have covered many times that one of the problems using existing RR ROW is how busy the lines in town are, and some sort of by-pass seems logical.  not that building a connection in that area would ever happen today, I mean it is through a nice park and I don't even want to think about the NIMBYs on that one.  so more just a question of the past.

 

As for the conversation about connecting mixed use developments in metro center with downtown, that is actually a problem I run into when I imagine ideal transit for Nashville. I always want to connect it but can never decide the best way.  In my crazy off the wall we get everything map I've been working on since August, I have a Light rail line from downtown, connecting the new ball park, Germantown and Metro center. it is an extension of another line to the south.  (BTW I'm calling my plan the "$5 Billion Plan" cause that is about how much it would cost region wide.)

 

 

I don't believe there ever had been any rail connection "chord" between RR ROW through Bellevue and those through Brentwood.

 

Running out of Nashville, in the region of particular concern, the Nashville, Chatta. and St. Louis RR (NC&StL), the main of which ran westerly between Nashville and Memphis and between Nashville (now comprising most of the Bruceton Subdivision of the CSX Nashville Division), was entirely separate from the Louisville & Nashville (L&N), which ran south through Brentwood where it split to Franklin, Columbia, Pulaski, and to Athens, Ala. and to points south; the other part of the split is now the main line of the CSX "South and North Alabama" Subdivision (S&NA) of the Nashville Division to new Castle, Ala. (near Birmingham).

 

Both of the subject track routes of concern became all part of the L&N, upon the L&N-NC&StL merger in 1957 (when I started grade school).  The "NC" tracks once had passenger locals to the unincorporated communities of familiar names: Harding, Vaughns Gap, Hicks, Bellevue (sometimes spelled "Belleview" in past printings), Newsom, and Pegram; the L&N locals served Oak Hill and Brentwood.

 

What you might not have been aware of is the fact that the Nashville and Franklin Interurban Line of the early 20^th century, had been operating in concert with the Middle Tennessee Railroad (MTRR), a steam line which ran passenger locals from Franklin to Mt. Pleasant (southwest of Columbia, Tenn.)  This line, generating its primary revenue from phosphate mines,  ran through Leipers Fork, which was a metropolis compared to the numerous “podunks” along the track to Mt. Pleasant (Carl, Davis, Bethel, Leatherwood, Capers, Bigby,…).  The MT line became financially insolvent and abandoned its line in the early 1940s.  As late as 2002, vestiges of the former MT ROW could be observed as weed-grown remnants  along SR 46 (Old Hillsboro rd.) and Leipers Creek Road south-southwest to the sprawling “Davis” community.

 

While these stretches of ROW might have seemed to roughly parallel each other in a southwesterly manner, they never were connected outside of Nashville, as far as I am aware.  They have been distinctly different lines serving unrelated corridors, although each contained branches, spurring to distant, cloistered communities almost inaccessible by even marginally standard highways.  One thing that can be said is that many small once independent short RRs existed in Tennessee (and in most other states as well).  Tennessee and Kentucky,  however, seemed to have had a lion’s share of lines with twisted, curvy paths (perhaps due to sequestering nature of the numerous streams and hills), many of which either were merged into larger lines as little used branches or were abandoned in part or entirely.  This has resulted in the appearance of spotted, broken stretches of ROW, much of which may seem to follow little, if any, contemporary logical geographic layout.

__________

BTW, I had forgotten that you were one of the gifted creative, to derived the transit plans and graphics, which seem to compel one to wonder even harder why Nashville does not already have some of that stuff in place.

Edited October 31, 2013 by rookzie

[dmillsphoto]

Just curious - what's this "retribution" he speaks of?

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2013/10/lee-beaman-funding-anti-amp-push.html

[mirydi]

^Lord help us if this guy ever tries to run for Mayor or something.

[RandomHero]

Just curious - what's this "retribution" he speaks of?

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2013/10/lee-beaman-funding-anti-amp-push.html

 

 I think he's just referring to many businesses being reluctant to tie themselves to an issue with divisive political underpinnings. 

[smeagolsfree]

He wouldn't have a dog to walk in this parade if he (Beaman) would just move his dealership and let a real downtown business locate there. Just sell it Lee and move it to Dickerson Pike and clean up that end of town. I am sure land is cheap there along with the ladies.

[BnaBreaker]

I don't really understand why he's still there.  Is he just a stubborn guy, or what?  I mean, obviously it'd be great for the city if he moved his giant parking lot/business, but wouldn't it be great for him and his business, too?  I assume he'd seriously cash in on all of that land, and he could move somewhere further out where the land is much cheaper, and really create an automobile buying paradise.  I realize that they've been on that spot for quite some time, but other than some sentimental attachment to that land, what is the advantage of being there as opposed to on Murfreesboro Road, or something?  I don't know much about the car dealership business, but it seems to me that high visibility isn't really that important when it comes to actually drawing in business.  It's not as if people drive down the street, see the dealership, and decide to buy a car on a whim because seeing it put the idea in their heads.  Buying a car is typically a well-planned, highly researched decision for most people.  I would think people would be willing to go to pretty much any part of town if it meant they were going to get their preferred car.  I don't think anybody has ever said 'well, I was going to buy a Toyota, but the Nissan dealership was three miles closer, so I just got one of those.'

[volsfanwill]

I agree, the last time I bought a car, I lived in Mt Juliet. in one day I drove to toyota dealerships in Murfreesboro, Franklin, Downtown, and Rivergate.  I knew what car I wanted and how much I wanted to pay, I was willing to drive to another city if I had to. 

[Neigeville]

I don't really understand why he's still there.  Is he just a stubborn guy, or what?  I mean, obviously it'd be great for the city if he moved his giant parking lot/business, but wouldn't it be great for him and his business, too?  I assume he'd seriously cash in on all of that land, and he could move somewhere further out where the land is much cheaper, and really create an automobile buying paradise.  I realize that they've been on that spot for quite some time, but other than some sentimental attachment to that land, what is the advantage of being there as opposed to on Murfreesboro Road, or something?  I don't know much about the car dealership business, but it seems to me that high visibility isn't really that important when it comes to actually drawing in business.  It's not as if people drive down the street, see the dealership, and decide to buy a car on a whim because seeing it put the idea in their heads.  Buying a car is typically a well-planned, highly researched decision for most people.  I would think people would be willing to go to pretty much any part of town if it meant they were going to get their preferred car.  I don't think anybody has ever said 'well, I was going to buy a Toyota, but the Nissan dealership was three miles closer, so I just got one of those.'

Even if you assume he likes the visibility, that's no reason to store acres of inventory on the site.  I wouldn't be against the showrooms being there if he sold most of the lots to someone who would put it to good use.

 

Another thing I don't understand is the White Castle on the corner of Broadway and the Interstate with about 150' setback line.  Who owns that?

[BnaBreaker]

Even if you assume he likes the visibility, that's no reason to store acres of inventory on the site.  I wouldn't be against the showrooms being there if he sold most of the lots to someone who would put it to good use.

 

Another thing I don't understand is the White Castle on the corner of Broadway and the Interstate with about 150' setback line.  Who owns that?

 

Exactly.  While it still is far from being the ideal place for a car showroom, as long as they're built up to the street and mutli-story, I don't really mind those.  It's the dairy farm sized lots used for nothing but storing stationary cars that I have the problem with. 

[chelovek]

Music City Star, small rail networks face funding pinch from lawsuit

 

A lawsuit filed by two of the nation’s largest railroads challenging Tennessee’s tax on diesel fuel for locomotives could lead to a shutdown of the Music City Star commuter train and a network of smaller railroads that feed tons of cargo from Tennessee companies onto the big carriers’ systems daily, say operators of the smaller lines.

 

A federal judge in Nashville this week sided with CSX Corp. in its suit against the state Revenue Department, prompting the state to freeze the assets in its Short Line Equity Fund, which gets its money from the state’s tax on diesel fuel, leaving operators such as the Nashville and Eastern Railroad Authority without money to pay their bills.

 

The Nashville and Eastern Railroad Authority owns the tracks on which the Music City Star operates, and relies on money from the state rail fund to pay off the $2.5 million loan it took out to upgrade its 30 miles of track between Nashville and Lebanon to accommodate the daily passenger trains.

 

“We have a $255,000 payment due to First Tennessee Bank in January, and until now, the money for these payments was coming from the state rail fund,” said Val Kelley, managing director of the Nashville and Eastern Railroad Authority. “We have no other way to pay it.”

 

The authority, which owns and maintains the stretch of the former Tennessee Central Railroad line to Monterey, also has a $405,000 payment due in June on a $7.5 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture used to reopen the track from Cookeville to Monterey to serve a new sand plant for LoJac, a company that provides raw construction materials.

 

CSX and BNSF Railway Corp. filed similar but separate suits in September in U.S. District Court in Nashville, contending that the state’s 7 percent sales and use tax “on diesel fuel purchased and used for rail transportation purposes is discriminatory and unlawful” under the federal Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 because it does not also apply to highway and water shippers.

 

The want the court to permanently enjoin the state from collecting the tax, which amounted to about $14 million last year.

 

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Kevin H. Sharp sided with CSX and issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from continuing to collect the tax, pending final disposition of the lawsuits and an appeal in a separate earlier case brought by the Illinois Central Railroad. The process could take several years, said Nashville attorney Matt Scanlan, lobbyist for the Tennessee Short Line Rail Association.

 

In response, the state Transportation Department, with Gov. Bill Haslam’s approval, immediately froze the $40 million now in the Short Line Equity Fund, and will not release any of that money to the 18 state short lines that depend on the money for maintenance and improvement projects, Kelley said.

 

That might not necessarily be the case for a handful of projects, though, according to a statement from the Transportation Department on Friday.

 

Through a spokeswoman, the department said: “We issued a stop work notice on Sept. 20, and TDOT will reimburse for any authorized and satisfactory expenditures the rail authorities incurred. Rail authorities were given an opportunity to request that projects be continued. Five projects that were well underway have been approved for completion.”

 

No alternative funding

 

But Kelley and other short-line authorities say they were told in a meeting with Transportation Commissioner John Schroer that there is no alternative funding source, and that, with the fund frozen, none of them will get any state aid.

 

“If we don’t get the money to pay on our notes in January and June, we very well may have to file bankruptcy,” he said.

 

Scanlan said that would effectively shut down the Nashville and Eastern rail line, and put both the Music City Star — operated by the Lebanon-based Transit Solutions Group LLC — and the privately held Nashville and Eastern Railroad Corp. out of business. The authority leases trackage rights to both of those companies.

 

The Nashville and Eastern Railroad Corp., based in Manchester, Vt., is a freight hauler that operates along the entire 130 miles of mainline and spur track owned by the rail authority. It also runs freight on a separate line between Nashville and Ashland City as the Nashville and Western Railroad; those tracks are owned by the Ashland City-based Cheatham County Railroad Authority.

 

Ed Cole, a board member for the Cheatham County Rail Authority, attended the meeting of the short line authorities with Schroer, and Cole said it was his understanding that no more money would be available until the railroads’ lawsuit is settled.

 

“One member asked the commissioner if there was a way the department could help the short-line authorities with some funding during this period of determining what was going to happen with these revenues,” Cole said. “The commissioner’s response was that the department did not have an additional source of funds to provide this. In terms of the Cheatham County Rail Authority, we do not have a reserve account to handle this gap in funding.”

 

The Nashville and Eastern line alone serves more than 50 industrial clients, including Coca-Cola, Kenwal Steel, LoJac Materials, Mid-South Wire, Georgia Pacific and Dow Chemical. The rail company moves more than a half-million tons of cargo each year on the line, which connects to the CSX mainline in Nashville.

 

Motives questioned

 

Most of the short lines are owned by rail authorities that took over sections of track that the major railroads were about to abandon, beginning with the federal deregulation of the U.S. railroad industry in the early 1980s. The boards of the rail authorities are mostly made up of county and city mayors in the areas served by the lines.

 

Kelley, head of the Nashville and Eastern authority since 2000, was a key state Department of Transportation official involved in creation of the rail authorities and the Short Line Equity Fund in the mid-’80s.

 

“At TDOT, we worked to set up this network of rail authorities to be able to save all of these rail lines that the Class 1 railroads wanted to abandon, and we came up with the fuel tax as a way to rehabilitate these tracks that the big railroads had been neglecting for decades,” Kelley said.

 

“Over the past 25 years, we’ve spent more than $80 million to rebuild track, bridges and other structures and create nearly 900 miles of short-line railroads to serve industrial customers from Memphis to Mountain City.”

 

The short lines, which touch 36 counties, have helped bring numerous economic development projects and thousands of jobs to those areas, he said. “When an industrial prospect is looking for a place to build a new facility, rail access is usually one of the requirements.”

 

Scanlan, the short lines’ lobbyist, said: “Ironically, the Class 1 railroads helped create this tax and the mechanism by which local governments could create these rail authorities. The Class 1 railroads said, ‘We’re going to help pay for the upgrade and maintenance of this track, but it will be up to you to run the service.’ ”

 

In the mid-’80s, the big railroads “were eager to spin off these smaller lines that were left needing a lot of track upgrades to run the heavier loads of today,” Scanlan said. “Now, they’ve found a clever way to ensure that the funding mechanism for that effort is no longer effective. Why? I can’t speak to their motives.”

 

New tax bill planned

 

To fix the problem, Scanlan said, the Tennessee Short Line Rail Alliance plans to push a bill through the next session of the General Assembly to change the rail diesel tax to the same formula used for over-the-road trucks, which now is assessed at 18 cents per gallon.

 

“Oddly, by our calculations, the railroads actually save money under the current 7 percent tax plan over what they would have to pay if we go to the 18-cents-a-gallon tax,” he said. “Diesel fuel has to get to about $4 a gallon for the two taxes to be equal.”

 

Until the new tax plan can be worked through the legislature and put into place, the short lines should have access to the money already in the rail fund, even if no new tax collections are being made, Scanlan said.

 

“We hope that the problem now is short-term, and we hope we can solve it, but we’re not sure what avenues we can pursue. There is $40 million in the Short Line Equity Fund, but it has been frozen in anticipation that those funds would have to be paid out in refunds to the Class 1 railroads. But that is a somewhat remote possibility that I don’t think will happen, and it will take up to two years for the appeal to be heard. That’s a long time to freeze those funds.”

 

Scanlan also noted that it’s unusual for a state fund to be frozen just because of a lawsuit.

 

“A lot of state programs get sued from time to time, and we typically don’t stop funding them just because we’re having a little trouble with the funding mechanism,” he said. “We believe we can fix the mechanism. And considering how important the short-line program is to the state of Tennessee, we need to find a short-term solution.

 

“We’re certainly not asking the General Assembly to give us an ongoing appropriation. But the Short Line Equity Fund has worked very well for the past 15 years. That rail service it has made possible has attracted business and jobs to Tennessee.”

 

Staff writer Nate Rau contributed. Contact G. Chambers Williams III at [email protected].

 

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131102/BUSINESS01/311020042/1972/NEWS02

[nashvillwill]

Bollocks

[rookzie]

Some of us read that last Saturday at the Nashv'l Downtown Public Library Provence café, upon leaving from the NAshv'l Forum meeting.  Just let it happen, now that the MCS has gained sizable ridership since Sep 2006.  Let alone the 20-something short lines in Tennessee affected by this, not to mention Alabama also under a separate lawsuit filed by CSX.

 

CSX is as notorious in it's dealings and machinations against governments and the public relations, as Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito is to anyone not part of his own physical body.  So let CSX get its way in this litigation.

 

Then let Tennessee legislation revert to an 18-cents-per-gallon fuel tax for ALL, not just trucks, then see what happens.  CSX and BNSF can only pass so much of that cost increase to their freight clients in the form of tariffs, as there exist competitive routes north-south, east-west away from CSX terrritory (Norfolk Southern, KCS, CN) all of these dogs of which would love lap up the juice from some of the primary container business passing mainly through mid-Tenn. on the CSX (which has had a monopoly in mid-state, since its pre-merger predecessors L&N, and the NC&StL merged during 1957 as a Class-1 railroad, in terms of revenue tonnage).

 

I do have reservations about (and in part agree which CSX in taking exception to) the pooling of the tax revenue for non-railway carriers and infrastructure (such as highways and waterways), although the use of funds for the new S.R. 109 overpass is a publicly welcome expenditure for a much needed separation of grade for the MCS (and freights) and 109 at the city of Martha in Wilson Co.

 

CSX should have left well enough alone.  We'll see, though...

Edited November 6, 2013 by rookzie

[CityHeart]

More opposition to the Amp.

http://m.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2013/11/the-amp-suffers-blow-as-speaker.html