(The following article by Ronnie Polaneczky was posted on the Philadelphia Daily News website on December 20.)
PHILADELPHIA — Today, if all goes as planned – which is not a given – some bigwigs from CSX will finally answer many probing questions from pissed-off City Council members about freight-train operations in Philly.
It didn’t have to come to this.
If CSX had just allowed safe pedestrian access across its tracks at Schuylkill River Park, these Council hearings never would’ve been called.
Instead, by arrogantly digging in its heels, CSX has unwittingly brought upon itself a kind of scrutiny that you just don’t want from Philly’s City Council.
And believe me, CSX representatives deserve every hardball hurled their way today. Because what’s come to light these last two months is that CSX is an even-more-contemptible corporate neighbor than we’d ever imagined.
Quick recap: Schuylkill River Park is the new, skinny recreational path that hugs the Schuylkill River from the Art Museum to Locust Street, with plans for further development south. It’s separated from Center City by train tracks owned by freight-train behemoth CSX Transportation.
To get to the path, park advocates want to cross the tracks at Race and at Locust streets, via an electronic gate that will close and lock when trains are on the tracks.
CSX, citing concerns for park-user safety, wanted no pedestrian access across the tracks whatsoever, but recently agreed to the proposed gate at Race Street.
But at Locust, they have continued to insist, a pedestrian overpass is the only safe way to go.
CSX has played the safety card at every turn of park discussions, because they think Philadelphians are too dumb to see that what the company really wants: unfettered train parking on the tracks, whenever it wants, for as long as it wants.
Man, did CSX pick the wrong rubes to underestimate.
The public outcry against CSX’s arrogance has been so loud and sustained, Council’s Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities ordered CSX experts to explain themselves at two hearings this fall.
The experts never showed – even ignoring a subpoena to do so – but a bunch of outraged citizens did. They testified about a broad range of bad CSX behavior that never would’ve risen this far above the radar if the company had just given Schuylkill River Park those darn sliding gates already.
For instance, until the hearings, not everyone knew that CSX’s bridges above 25th Street in South Philly and across the Schuylkill near Montgomery Drive are so thoughtlessly maintained that chunks have fallen off of them.
Not everyone knew that CSX is so poor at maintaining the land alongside its tracks that the rail beds are considered “a corridor of blight” through many neighborhoods.
Not everyone knew that CSX regularly routes hazardous materials and foul-smelling garbage throughout this city – with no neighborhood or city oversight.
Not everyone knew that CSX has allowed unlicensed billboards to be erected on its property, nor that the railroad ties along tracks running past Bartram’s Gardens are allegedly so decrepit that neighbors worry about derailments – especially if the trains are carrying those hazardous materials.
But, thanks to how badly CSX has played its hand at Schuylkill River Park, we know now. And, after today’s hearings – if CSX decision-makers decide to show – we should know even more.
None of which, I suspect, will earn this lousy corporate citizen any new friends in this town.
I’ll admit that I know nothing about the workings of a billion-dollar corporation that runs 12,000 miles of railroad tracks through this country.
But I do know that, if you’re stuck down a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging yourself further into trouble.
CSX could do that by agreeing to grade-level access to Schuylkill River Park, the sooner the better.
It might make them a friend or two. After today’s hearings, they’re gonna need every friend they can get.