I was sitting in my truck this morning about 8:30 and heard an air horn. Saw the GP35 and three center beams cross Corona Road heading south. Besides the fact I haven't seen a train running up hear in years, it was also very cool to see a GP35 in such nice shape. NorCal, c'mon up! Ya might get lucky and see something!
tie work complete, ballasting commences http://northwesternpacifictoday.blogspot.com/2009/08/tie-work-complete-ballasting-commences.html Includes photos
This morning, around 7:30, several pieces of track repair equipment crossed Corona Road heading south.
Anyone know what they plan to run for power? I know there are various units strewn about the system, but aren't they required to use newer emissions friendly units with the Novato Deal? Have they figured that out yet? Could we see the first Caddy ECO conversion? or are they looking at truck engined units
Ya know, you'd think I'd remember to bring my camera to work with me when there might be trains running around!
awaiting inspection NORTH COAST RAILROAD AUTHORITY 419 Talmage Road Suite M Ukiah, Ca 95482 707-463-3280 Phone 510-915-2656 Executive Director Cellular 707-463-3282 Fax Mitch Stogner, Executive Director Allan Hemphill, NCRA Chairman ncra.mstogner@sbcglobal.net vinguru@comcast.net NWP RAIL REPAIRS SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE – Ukiah – October 22, 2009 North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) Chairman, Allan Hemphill today announced that $40 million in repairs to 62 miles of the Northwestern Pacific (NWP) railway between Napa County and Windsor have been completed. He said Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) inspection of the repairs to trackway, crossing signals, and bridges between Windsor in Sonoma County and the national rail interchange (Lombard), located North of American Canyon in Napa County, will take up to 90 days. Hemphill said the NCRA’s contract rail operator, the Northwestern Pacific Company (NWP Co.), expects to be operational on this 62 mile stretch of the NWP line no later than March of next year. “The return of freight service to the NWP line will take trucks off of 101, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce transportation costs for North Bay businesses and agricultural interests,” said Hemphill. He said one immediate beneficiary of freight train service will be Marin and Sonoma dairymen who are suffering from escalating costs of feed grains that must be trucked in from the Central Valley. “The delivery of livestock feed by rail will substantially reduce transportation costs and provide an immediate life line for Marin and Sonoma County dairymen and ranchers,” said Hemphill. Other commodities expected to be moved on the line in the first year of service include wood products, building materials, cases of wine, and other general merchandize. Hemphill said the NWP Co. estimates operations of 3 roundtrip trains per week in 2010, increasing to 3 roundtrips per day in 2011 and beyond. Train service was stopped by the FRA in 1998 due to safety concerns. The California Transportation Commission (CTC) released about $40 million in state funds to repair 62 miles of track from Lombard to Windsor in 2006. NCRA started work in 2007 to repair 55 crossing signals, replace 50,000 crossties and 23,000 tons of ballast, shore-up levees in Schellville, and repair 43 rail bridges between Windsor and the train connection with the Union Pacific (Lombard) located North of American Canyon. A lawsuit by the City of Novato objecting to the repairs delayed work for 14 months. The lawsuit was finally settled and work resumed in November 2008. Hemphill said that the FRA will begin inspection of the track in November. He said that before freight operations can begin, the FRA must lift the emergency order that stopped train service in 1998. He said the NCRA must also certify a $2.5 million Environmental Impact Report (EIR) originally issued last March. The draft EIR will be reissued in November, with the goal of final adoption in January or February 2010. The EIR, which is required under the California Environmental Quality Act, evaluates the impacts of train operations on the Russian River Division, defined as Lombard to Willits. “Trains are good for the environment, good energy policy, and good for the local economy,” said Hemphill. “Impacts from the return of train service are overwhelmingly positive. One rail car will remove 4 trucks from 101, and 1 gallon of diesel will move one ton of freight over 400 miles,” he said ~~~~~~
more The Press Democrat A freight train runs along the Northwestern Pacific Railroad line north of Highway 37 near Infineon Raceway. Sonoma County has not had freight service since 2001. By STEVE HART THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 4:03 a.m. Last Modified: Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 4:03 a.m. After years of delay, a state-funded rail agency has finished repairing the Northwestern Pacific freight line in Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties, paving the way for a return of cargo service early next year. But barriers remain before trains roll again on the 102-year-old railroad. "It would be foolish to say there are no obstacles," said Allan Hemphill, chairman of the North Coast Railroad Authority. "That's not the history of this railroad." U.S. rail regulators shut down cargo traffic in 1998 after the storm-battered railroad failed safety inspections. They must certify that it's now safe for trains. Meanwhile, three environmental groups are threatening legal action to stop the freight service, arguing the rail authority hasn't weighed all the impacts. And questions remain about whether there's enough shipping business to support cargo trains. Still, the completion of $50 million in repairs to 62 miles of rail line between Napa County and Windsor is a major step toward improving the North Bay's transportation network, Hemphill said. The railroad will take trucks off Highway 101 and give businesses a lower-cost option for shipping products, he said. "It costs 30 percent more to ship by truck to the East Coast compared to rail," Hemphill said. The railroad will be a lifeline for North Bay dairy farmers and ranchers who pay high rates to import feed by truck, he said. Freight service could start by next March, according to NCRA. The railroad's private operator, NWP Co., will be ready when it gets the go-ahead, said John Williams, the company's president. But the timing remains uncertain, he said. "I'm reluctant to tell anybody -- including the shipping community -- that we're going to start on a specific date," Williams said. "They're not going to shift from trucking if they're not sure we're going to be there." Williams, who said he's already invested $5 million in the project, said there's enough demand that the railroad could turn a profit after two or three years. Besides animal feed, the railroad will haul rock, lumber, wine and other commodities, he said. It also could carry Sonoma County's solid waste, which has been shipped by truck to out-of-county landfills since the dump closed in 2005. The Northwestern Pacific has had plenty of ups and downs since its founding in 1907. The route to Eureka was completed seven years later and flourished with the region's timber industry, hauling lumber from North Coast sawmills to markets across the country. But the 300-mile railroad was repeatedly closed by floods, fires and landslides. Owner Southern Pacific Co. tried to abandon the northern half in the 1980s, saying it cost too much to maintain. State lawmakers created the rail authority in 1989 to take over the route, calling it a vital transportation link. The rail authority contracted with private operators for freight service. But the railroad's problems continued. Storm damage closed the line in 1998, although traffic was briefly restored on the southern segment in 2001. The entire route has been mothballed since then. It took five years for the rail authority to get state funding to begin repairs, said agency director Mitch Stogner. Some of the work was held up in 2007 and 2008 when the city of Novato sued the rail authority over environmental issues. That case was settled last year, but environmentalists are still fighting the railroad. Last month, three North Coast groups told federal regulators the rail authority hasn't considered impacts on the environmentally sensitive Eel River Canyon between Willits and Eureka. The groups -- the Environmental Protection Information Center, Friends of the Eel River and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics -- also said the authority has taken no action to clean up polluted rail yards. The groups said it is "very likely" they'll challenge the authority's environmental impact report, which must be certified before freight service starts. The rail authority said it hasn't ignored environmental concerns. The Eel River Canyon wasn't addressed because there are no plans to run trains there, Stogner said. The authority has started cleanup work on toxic sites, but has been stalled by a lack of state funding, he said. "If somebody sues us, we have legal remedies," said Hemphill. Meanwhile, critics doubt there's enough business to support North Bay freight service, which gets no subsidy from the rail authority. "It's not economically viable," said Mike Arnold of Marin Citizens for Effective Transportation. The railroad is so thinly capitalized that it couldn't survive another storm, he said. "They should be honest with the public," Arnold said. "There's no additional state funding out there." Still, the project has backing from Sonoma County's agriculture industry, said Lex McCorvey, executive director of the county's Farm Bureau. "Ag is very much looking forward to the return of freight rail service," he said. "It's long overdue." NWP Co. doesn't have contracts with shippers yet. County officials say shipping garbage by rail is a long-term option, but it's currently cheaper to truck it to Bay Area landfills. So far, workers have repaired 55 rail crossings and 43 bridges between Windsor and the rail junction at Lombard, south of Napa, where the Northwestern Pacific links to the national rail system. Crews shored up levees, replaced 50,000 ties and rebuilt the railbed with 23,000 tons of rock ballast. Service will start with three round trips per week, growing to three trips per day in future years, the authority said. In the Highway 101 corridor, the freight line will share track with Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART), the commuter service that's scheduled to start in 2014. The authority hopes to extend cargo trips to Cloverdale in 2011 and Willits in 2012. There's no timeline for service from Willits to Eureka, where repair costs could exceed $500 million. "It's going to be a very cost-effective, modest start," Hemphill said. You can reach Staff Writer Steve Hart at 521-5205 or steve.hart@pressdemocrat.com.
Not again. Yup. Again. Meanwhile, costs escalate, time moves on, and on, and on... There comes a point when such efforts become no less than incurable cancer to our society. And we're well past that place now, on this project. They had years to make a case, and failed. Enough- And it's time for the courts to say exactly that. :thumbs_down: Boxcab E50
If you read down far enough, NWP says they aren't even planning on running trains in the Canyon. So why do they need an enviroment impact study? Rediculous!!!
I did read about the canyon. Eventually that will need to be faced. Meanwhile, those people are causing yet more money to be squandered, time wasted, on what is less than mindless trivia. Maybe I should become one of them. It must be a very comfortable way of making a living. Must be fun to devastate the lives of others under the guise of..... :thumbs_down: Boxcab E50
Trains delayed to July http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100303/BUSINESS/100309841/1350?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar
