Commercial railroads don’t like commuter trains. The easiest explanation is they simply get in the way.
Municipal transportation agencies aren’t too thrilled with commercial railroad companies either because the federal government regulates them as interstate commerce.
As such, municipalities that ordinarily are able to use eminent domain to acquire land at fair market value on projects such as the $7.4 billion FasTracks metrowide rail transit program are on the other side of the equation when dealing with railroads.
“When a local government comes along and wants to do something such as commuter service, the rails aren’t that interested,” said Michael Baudendistel, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus specializing in transportation companies. “They’re not good at it, and it interferes with what they do very well.”
Regulated by the Surface Transportation Board in Washington, D.C., railroads are rarely overruled when they run contrary to a city’s wishes.
In 2005, for instance, the board denied an effort by Lincoln, Neb., to take a mere 20-foot bit of little-used track owned by Union Pacific. Why? Because UP didn’t want the city to have it, documents show.
And the city of Alhambra, Calif., is in a protracted battle with the same railroad for use of its tracks for commuter service. Union Pacific has told the city to look elsewhere.
“UP has consistently told the (Alhambra) Rail Authority it will fight tooth and nail to resist any plans to put high-speed trains near its rights of way,” says Dan Bednarski, a blogger who has tracked the issue. “Conveniently, the federal law is on (UP’s) side.”
Although officials at Denver’s Regional Transportation District say their rapport with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has been good, it appears to be a relationship built more on fear than on mutual respect.
“We’re not the first and only transit agency with delicate negotiations with the railroad,” FasTracks spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas said. “These guys are in the business of making money for their operation — not just for today but down the road.”
From RTD’s point of view, it’s a one-sided affair.
“They don’t need us,” Tonilas said. “We need them.”
