(The Lorain Morning Journal posted the following article by Alana J. Roberts on its website on July 13.)
LORAIN, Ohio — Reports that Norfolk Southern may abandon its tracks running along Lake Erie between Lorain and Cleveland are beginning to ripple out among the communities, businesses and workers affected by the trains.
The move would result in considerable savings for the railroad, which ended up with two sets of tracks running roughly parallel across the region after it acquired part of Conrail’s assets in 1999. Choosing which line to abandon is made easier by an agreement between Norfolk Southern and several western Cuyahoga County communities that drastically limits train traffic along the northern set of tracks.
If the northern Nickel Plate line is abandoned, the question of whether the tracks themselves stay or go would have a big impact on communities along the route. The answer is crucial to the city of Lorain’s dreams of an eventual commuter rail link with Cleveland.
Norfolk Southern is sticking to a public position of keeping the tracks open.
”At this point, we have no plans to change the status of that line at the moment,” said Rudy Husband, a spokesman for the company.
However, rail industry sources, local and state officials and the company’s own workers have a list of convincing reasons why an announcement on closing the northern leg is imminent.
The southern leg, called the Chicago line, is considered to be in better condition, has more tracks and is permitted to carry more traffic than the northern Nickel Plate line, according to Ken Prendergast, director of the Ohio Corridor Campaigns, a subsidiary of the Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers.
Besides freight trains, it carries Amtrak passenger trains.
The Chicago line can serve such Lorain County customers as Ford Motor Co.’s Lorain Assembly Plant and the Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake as well as or better than the northern Nickel Plate line, said Prendergast.
Thanks to a short connector track on the west side of Vermilion, the railroad can transfer trains from one line to the other and Prendergast said it would enable the railroad to still serve customers on a relatively short section of the western end of the northern leg that would remain open.
There is also a spur emerging near the Elyria railyard on the Chicago line and running up east of Lorain by which trains can serve customers along isolated segments and sidings of the Nickel Plate line that would be preserved.
Railway workers said improvements are being made to the spur to permit heavier use.
Abandoning the northern line would save the company considerable amounts required to maintain the track, bed and related facilities, according to railroad workers.
Norfolk Southern workers said the company has been making moves such as closing rail yards and consolidating jobs that would indicate it is planning to abandon the northern line.
These include transferring jobs from the South Lorain yard, which Husband refused to confirm, and plans to permanently raise the Lorain Lift Bridge that carries the Nickel Plate line over the Black River.
Railway industry sources also said the closing and consolidation of facilities along the Nickel Plate line indicate the company intends to abandon that line.
Some state officials said they have heard the talk about possibly abandoning the tracks.
”We’ve been getting reports from all over of how they’re rerouting traffic to other places so they can get off that line,” said Lou Jannazo of the Ohio Rail Development Commission.
However, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said Norfolk Southern hasn’t made any moves toward filing for an abandonment of the Nickel Plate line.
”We haven’t heard anything,” said Matt Butler, a PUCO spokesman. ”They would have to petition us before they can close that line. We haven’t heard anything here.”
Officials at the Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency that oversees the railroad abandonment process, said they couldn’t comment.
Local officials have also heard the reports and are wondering if the tracks will still be available to use if the railroad abandons them.
Norfolk Southern could sell the land along the abandoned line, some of which would be prime lake front property, but Husband said the company would consider the needs of the communities in any decision if an abandonment happens.
Rick Novak, executive director of the Lorain Port Authority, said he has heard the rumors and is especially interested because of Lorain’s stalled commuter rail plans
”We are trying to track that and we have contacted our sources and we have not been able to confirm that rumor yet,” said Novak.
He said if the rumors are true it could have a positive impact on commuter rail.
”That would depend on how the abandonment occurs,” said Novak. ”On the one hand it can be extremely advantageous for us, because it opens up opportunities for commuter rail use.”
Lorain wants to use the Black River Landing to anchor a commuter rail link with Cleveland. The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency issued a study in December 2001 stating that a Cleveland-Lorain rail link would be the most feasible of several plans to link the areas.
However, besides the cost — NOACA puts it at as much as $200 million — the proposal has hit obstacles.
The mayors of several western Cuyahoga County suburbs, along with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland, have fiercely protected a 1998 agreement between Norfolk Southern and the mayors calling for the railroad to reduce the amount of traffic on the Nickel Plate line to 14 trains a day.
Railway workers said traffic has now been reduced to as low as 1.4 trains a day.
Some say the commuter rail proposal would violate that agreement, and NOACA cites lack of regional agreement as a reason for withholding funds from the proposal.
”From Norfolk Southern’s standpoint nobody has approached us about commuter rail. Nobody has raised this issue with us,” said Husband. ”Having said that, we try to cooperate with any community that is interested in establishing some type of commuter services. In this particular instance it hasn’t reached that level yet.”
Unanswered is how much would have to be added to the commuter rail pricetag to replace the money Norfolk Southern wants to save by not having to maintain the track, bridges and other facilities
Still, Jannazo and other proponents of passenger rail are optimistic.
”If they get off that line it’s like winning the lottery for passenger service,” he said.
Prendergast said there are major differences between the primarily freight traffic that the Nickel Plate line has compared to commuter traffic.
”Kucinich claims he is afraid of violating the agreement between cities and railroad. I think that’s a bit of an overstatement, particularly if they get rid of nearly all the traffic of the Nickel Plate line. If freight traffic is diverted off of the Nickel Plate line, then it is no longer part of the agreement anymore,” Prendergast said.
What leaders do agree on is that without regional support the transportation hub at Black River Landing may never take shape.
”I think it’s important to think about it regionally,” said Lorain County Commissioner Betty Blair.
”You need support, you need buy-in. The reasons why we’re so interested in Kucinich is he seems to have put a little damper on it,” she said. ”Commuter rail was not addressed in that agreement as I see it.”
Blair, who is president of NOACA, said the project will not happen quickly and should be pursued with diligence.
”This is not going to happen overnight. There are a lot of pluses. NOACA paid over $90,000 for that study. I don’t think that needs to be thrown in the waste basket. There is always more than one way to do something if in fact it is good to do at all,” Blair said.
”Feasibility is not in question,” added Prendergast. ”The question is, what are the folks along the route going to do about it. Are they going to let it slip by or are they going to seize it?”
In the meantime, Elyria’s efforts in building its own transportation hub around the old New York Railroad Co. station could be enhanced by a move to abandon the Nickel Plate line. The Chicago line goes right through Elyria.
However, officials say the two hubs won’t necessarily be in competition with one another because each will serve a different niche.
”I don’t know we have to make a choice,” Blair said. ”I think we could have both if we wanted to pay for it.”
”I think they’re two different approaches,” Novak said. ”Ours would be commuter rail service between Lorain and Cleveland and perhaps to the Solon area and their (Elyria’s) intermodal would be the Amtrak line and so forth.”
”It’s two different approaches. Couple that with our potential for excursion rail service and the fact that we have the water accessibility, you could do both water transportation and rail transportation,” he said.
A few months ago, Novak said, the Lorain Port Authority acquired a portion of the CSX line that runs north and south along the Black River.
The piece of track runs from the Charles Berry Bascule Bridge to the Frank Nardini Gateway and cost about $7,696, he said, and it would help connect the Black River Landing site to the Nickel Plate line.
Novak said purchasing the track also opens the possibility of other forms of rail service including excursion or trolley service.
”It would run between the Norfolk Southern line and the Charles Berry Bascule Bridge. We could not do anything until that was done and now it’s done. Now we have these other opportunities,” Novak said.
”We’ve continued the dialogue and the discussions as well,” he said. ”We’re not letting this die.”
Vermilion Councilman Greg Butchko said abandoning the Nickel Plate line could affect what his city does as far as making emergency services more accessible in the city.
”I think the train traffic has actually decreased,” he said.
However, if one track’s traffic is routed onto the other, Butchko said he expects the other set ”is still going to have a lot of traffic.