(The Associated Press circulated the following on September 21.)
HAGERSTOWN, Md. — CSX Corp. and state transportation officials are closing in on plans for rerouting some freight trains around Baltimore’s century-old Howard Street Tunnel, the site of a derailment and fire in 2001, officials said Friday.
Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Pocari expects a briefing from CSX by the end of October on the railroad’s plan for eliminating obstacles to double-stacked service — flat cars loaded with shipping containers stacked two high — including the company’s 112-year-old Howard Street Tunnel, said David L. Ganovski, director of freight logistics for the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The brick tunnel runs for 1.7 miles beneath Howard Street in downtown Baltimore and is used by trains in the Northeast corridor between Washington and Philadelphia. The tunnel lacks the 20 feet, 6 inches of vertical height needed for double-stacked trains, Ganovski said.
‘We’re currently evaluating some options that may not require using the Howard Street Tunnel,” Ganovski said Friday.
After the fire, which paralyzed the city for days, the Federal Railroad Administration conducted a study at the request of Congress that recommended overhauling the city’s convoluted freight and passenger rail systems. The recommendations included a series of new tunnels, many west of downtown.
CSX, based in Jacksonville, Fla., could continue running trains that don’t need extra clearance through the tunnel, spokesman Robert Sullivan said.
‘It’s not so much that you’re taking traffic out of the tunnel; it’s that you’re trying to find ways to add to the mix in the area,’ he said.
Sullivan said the tunnel is among a number of obstacles to double-stack service the railroad aims to eliminate in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest through its National Gateway initiative. A map that was part of the company’s presentation to state transportation officials at a Sept. 10 meeting in Annapolis highlights routes in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio on which double-stack clearance would increase freight capacity.
The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that, measured by weight, demand for rail freight transportation will increase 88 percent by 2035. An agency study released Thursday estimates that U.S. railroads will require $135 billion in infrastructure investment over the next 28 years, more than a quarter of which will have to be funded by the government.
Ganovski said it isn’t clear whether CSX will ask the state to pay for any changes in the Baltimore-area rail system.
‘What they would prefer, what the expectations are, who benefits, who pays — we’re waiting to hear on all of that,’ he said.