Cold Train owner sues BNSF Railway

Cold Train owner sues BNSF Railway

Dan Wheat       Capital Press     April 7, 2015

The owner of a refrigerated rail service that went out of business is suing BNSF Railway for failing to provide service therefore messing up sale of the refrigerated service.

SPOKANE — The owner and top official of the company that owns Cold Train, a defunct refrigerated rail service between the Pacific Northwest and Midwest, is suing BNSF Railway for $41 million or more.

The lawsuit alleges BNSF reneged on a contract to provide rail service to Cold Train, misrepresented itself in saying it would improve rail service and did so knowing a sale of the company depended on it, said Dale Foreman, a Wenatchee attorney representing the plaintiffs, Michael Lerner and Steve Lawson.

Lerner is the owner of Overland Park, Kan.-based Rail Logistics, which owns Cold Train. Lawson is president of Rail Logistics. The lawsuit was filed on their behalf in U.S. District Court in Spokane on April 7.

A BNSF spokesman had no immediate comment.

The lawsuit seeks an amount to be proven at trial estimated to be in excess of $41 million, Foreman said. Of that, $31.7 million is for the loss of the sale of Cold Train to Federated Railways of Farmington Hills, Mich., and approximately $6 million is for Cold Train’s acquisition of refrigerated rail cars to build up the business, he said.

Cold Train operated from April 2010 to August 2014 and grew to about 700 refrigerated containers per month headed east, carrying apples, produce and frozen goods.....

...The service was 92 percent on time with 72-hour delivery from Quincy to Chicago, he said. From Illinois, service reached into 18 other states in the East and South.....

.... BNSF’s on-time delivery began dropping, first to 81 percent in September 2013 and then to 54 percent in October and 35 percent in December, according to the lawsuit.

Each month, BNSF kept assuring Lerner and Lawson that service would improve and was enthusiastic about the sale of the business to Federated, the lawsuit states.

“Our belief is the railroad was making so much money shipping shale oil out of North Dakota into Chicago that it didn’t have space on the rails for Cold Train,” Foreman said.....    more here

 

Train Deaths Rise Amid Energy-Driven Rail Transformation

Fatalities reach seven-year high as railroads embark on a record expansion

March 16, 2015 |By Marianne Lavelle     Scientific American

Every week in the United States in 2014, about 16 people were killed by trains—a 17 percent increase over the previous year and adding up to the highest number of rail casualties since 2007, federal government data shows.  

None of these victims died in fiery crude oil explosions like the ones visible for miles around train derailment sites this month in Illinois and Ontario. But in some regions, there are signs that the increasing deaths may be tied to a massive energy-driven transformation underway on U.S. railroads. (See sidebar, "Five ways energy is driving new railroad traffic.")

As the tracks become major conduits for oil, petroleum products, and—not as widely noticed—materials like industrial sand, pipe, and chemicals for the hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas wells, some states are grappling with changed train routes, speeds and traffic patterns that spell new hazards for pedestrians and motorists.

Ready for expansion?
Adding to risk are surging U.S. passenger railroads, which typically operate on the same tracks as freight. The number of people struck and killed by passenger trains last year, about 255, was the highest toll of non-passenger fatalities for those railroads in 40 years of record-keeping by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

The increase in fatalities raises questions whether the nation is prepared for the massive rail expansion already underway. Railroads plan record capital spending of $29 billion this year. They'll lay new track, double existing track, buy locomotives and build terminals.....

....The most populous states had the greatest number of train fatalities. California, with 141 deaths, and Texas, with 65, together accounted for 25 percent of the total. California was one of the few places that the majority of fatalities were due to passenger trains. Across the country, 70 percent of those who died on railroads in 2014, some 575 people, were killed by freight trains.

Freight rail traffic increased 4.5 percent last year, a substantial bump after two prior years of declining carloads. That drop-off was due mainly to falling demand for rail's longtime mainstay commodity—coal. But freight rebounded due to strong shipping of consumer goods and its single fastest-growing commodity, crude oil, up 20.1 percent over 2013 to 493,126 carloads in 2014, the Association of American Railroads reported.


Fracking's broad footprint
The rail industry is quick to point out that crude oil is only 2 percent of total freight traffic. But that understates the far-reaching impact that the changing U.S. energy picture has had in reshaping the railroad business. 

Consider Wisconsin’s 16 deaths on train tracks in 2014—a 167 percent increase over the prior year and double the average of the previous six years.

“Rail traffic in Wisconsin is growing exponentially!” says a warning on the web site of state Railroad Commissioner Jeff Plale.  “Trains are running throughout the state at higher speeds, more frequently, and sometimes on lines that have either been closed or have not seen trains in years."

Wisconsin's rail resurgence is due to its status as the No. 1 state for the mining and hauling of high-quality industrial sand, which is a crucial ingredient for hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells. Sand is one of rail's fastest-growing commodities, and Wisconsin tax revenue receipts from railroads are up 90 percent since 2006.....    more here

US Scabs Being Imported As Canadian Pacific Railway IBT Engineers Go on Strike as Negotiations Break Down

Canadian National’s main line shuts after crude cars derail

via Fuel Fix

Canadian National Railway Co. shut its main line linking western and eastern Canada after an eastbound train carrying crude oil derailed in Ontario.

The train of 100 cars, all carrying crude from Canada’s oil-producing region of Alberta to eastern Canada, derailed just before midnight Saturday in a remote and wooded area about 30 miles north of Gogama, Ontario, spokesman Patrick Waldron said in an e-mail. About 18 freight trains a day use the line, he said. A total of 29 cars were involved in the incident and seven caught fire. The remaining 71 cars were moved from the site, Waldron said. Some oil was spilled.

Shipments scheduled along the affected corridor will be delayed by at least 24 hours, the company said.

A Canadian Pacific rail yard in British Columbia. Managers were to run limited service as workers went on strike Sunday. Credit Ben Nelms/Reuters

Rail Strike May Disrupt Industries Across North America

via New York Times

OTTAWA — About 3,000 locomotive engineers and conductors at the Canadian Pacific Railway walked off the job Sunday morning in a dispute over wages and benefits.

Although the company said it would try to maintain some service by using managers, the strike is likely to disrupt major industries throughout North America, including automakers, oil companies, paper businesses, lumber suppliers and agriculture and mining companies.....

.... The union’s leadership, the company said in a statement, “claims that lack of time off is at the heart of its reluctance to negotiate, yet 72 percent of all engineers and conductors do not take the time off they are entitled to.”....

Teamsters on strike at Canadian Pacific
2/15/15   Source: Teamsters Canada

We are on strike to overcome the culture of fear initiated by CP management Montreal February 15,

– Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) has announced the negotiations process at Canadian Pacific (CP) has failed and there is no agreement reached with the employer's management team. Effective 0001, February 15 the TCRC membership is officially on legal strike across Canada. Despite the efforts of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS) to assist the parties to achieve a negotiated agreement, negotiations ended tonight.

“Late tonight it was revealed how severe the concessionary demands of the employer really are”, indicated TCRC President Douglas Finnson. "Less than two hours before the expiration of the cooling off period, the final package of concessions amounted to much the same thing as the hourly agreement this same management team tried to impose on our Brothers and Sisters at Canadian National (CN) in 2007. Those tactics resulted in a National Rail Strike at CN then, and unfortunately have done so again today at CP.”

"Picket lines are now being set up across Canada and the rail shut down is happening," said President Finnson.

A particularly sensitive situation is the announcement by CP to use other workers to run trains. "During our final discussions tonight we explained to CP Chief Operating Officer, Keith Creel, that we had received reports of American citizens being transported into Winnipeg to perform the work of our Canadian members. Mr. Creel committed to making certain that did not happen and would correct anything like that which has already happened," explained Finnson.

Despite the complete breakdown of bargaining tonight, the TCRC negotiating committee advised FMCS and the CP chief negotiator they remain available to negotiate an acceptable agreement.

"We are on strike to overcome the culture of fear initiated by CP management, to achieve a healthy and safe work environment for the working people, and to introduce effective and progressive fatigue countermeasures within our workplace without diminishing the collective agreement." concluded the union leader.

The Teamsters represents 115,000 members in Canada in all trades. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with which Teamsters Canada is affiliated, has 1.4 million members in North America.

For more information:
Stéphane Lacroix, Director of Communications
Cell: 514-609-5101
Email: slacroix@teamsters.ca

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IBT Canadian Railway Workers Strike

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