(The following story by Joyce Shannon appeared on the Tribune-Review website on November 16.)
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Residents of Creekside, Indiana, Homer City and other municipalities in Indiana County may hear a sound by summertime that they haven’t heard in about a decade: train whistles.
Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad Inc., a regional railroad of Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Inc., is attempting to purchase 16.8 miles of rail that leads from Creekside to the Homer City Generating Station outside the village of Coral. B&P will buy the line’s property from CSX after approval from the federal Surface Transportation Board.
A document from the federal agency notes that service was discontinued in 1993. The line runs directly through the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus.
The train would deliver coal from Rosebud Mining Inc. in Freeport, Armstrong County. The train will take the coal up through Punxsutawney, Jefferson County, before turning south through Indiana to the generating station.
Kevin Bowser, director of marketing and industrial development with B&P, said the railroad noticed that the power plant in Homer City was looking farther and farther for fuel options. B&P officials approached Midwest Generation LLC, which operates the plant, about having some of the coal delivered via train.
The two groups have been talking off and on for years, Bowser said, before Midwest recently decided to try the rail line.
“Once you get beyond a certain radius, rail makes sense,” Bowser said.
Charles S. Parnell, regional vice president for government and regulatory affairs with Midwest, said the train’s supply would give the company more generating capabilities and make it more competitive.
The station burns between 5 million and 6 million tons of coal annually. The train would add only about 500,000 tons of coal.
“There’s still going to be an awful lot of truck traffic,” Parnell said.
The station has never received coal via rail in its history. Before importing the coal on trucks, the station–built on top of a coal mine–had been self-supplied.
Parnell and Bowser both said the train would be traveling on the line about eight times a week, or making four round trips. But that number is not set in stone since B&P will be competing with trucking companies to bring in the coal.
It is estimated the line will add 50 to 60 jobs to the Rosebud workforce, according to state Rep. Sam Smith, of Punxsutawney. Four railroad jobs would be added, according to one federal document.
Bowser would not comment on how much it would cost to purchase the line. Gov. Ed Rendell presented $2 million to B&P in October to rehabilitate the line, but Bowser said that amount will not cover the total cost of the project. The company will match or exceed that grant amount, Bowser said.
B&P project engineer Dave Baer said officials were measuring crossing lengths last week. Once that is completed, the railroad will be able to begin engineering designs. Those designs should be done sometime in December, he said.
Baer said he also was unsure how much rehabilitating the line would cost, but that it would be a multimillion-dollar project. B&P would have to replace rails and rail ties and update road and pedestrian crossings.
An update of one of the crossings, at Oakland and Grant avenues in Indiana, will be done mostly by District 10 of the state Department of Transportation.
The $1.6 million Oakland Avenue Safety and Mobility Improvement will widen the road to add a turning lane. A stop light will also be added at Oakland (State Route 286) and Grant.
The improvement is a partnership project with IUP, which contributed $880,000. PennDOT has also obtained about $600,000 in federal funds for the project, which will add crossing arms at the railroad intersection.
Jim Struzzi, District 10 spokesperson, said PennDOT will begin construction on the upgrade in the spring and work with the railroad on the project. As for other crossings that will be updated, PennDOT is responsible for road upgrades up to two feet away from the rail.
At a meeting between railroad officials and municipal leaders held in Indiana Monday, several expressed concern about crossing safety. IUP spokesperson Michelle Fryling said university officials are meeting with the railroad to discuss safety concerns and to determine a timeline for the project.
“Our interest is always to make sure that if there are crossings on campus, that they are as safe as possible,” Fryling said. “I’m sure their intentions are also to make sure things are as safe as possible for the community.”
Bowser said B&P will run “Operation Lifesaver,” an educational program that helps students and other pedestrians learn more about safely crossing railroad tracks.
Reopening the rail line might move along IUP’s Regional Development Center, which will be built at the site of a Kovalchick Salvage Corp. scrapyard. The line could be used to haul the scrap away to steel mills, according to Bowser.
But one factor that some residents may have a hard time dealing with is noise. The line runs through several residential areas and is directly adjacent to the IUP tennis courts, near George P. Miller Stadium.
That factor was what led Fred Manecke, of 307 Forest Ridge Road, White Township, to stand in opposition to the train in the first place.
Manecke says he has been “buffaloed” and “given bad information” about the project. He has several questions concerning the legality of the grant award and other issues but, he said, he is still trying to obtain answers.
He also noted that there have been different statements concerning how many trips the train would make per week.
“Why is it conflicting? Are they trying to cover something up?” Manecke said.
Manecke said when he moved into his residence about six years ago, the developer told him that trains would never run on the tracks again. Manecke doesn’t feel the developer was trying to mislead him.
“I think when he told me that, he honestly believed it,” Manecke said.
Had Manecke known that trains would one day pass closely to his property, he said, he would not have bought the house.
Manecke has talked to several of his neighbors, some of whom are not pleased about the train. Some have accepted it as an inevitability, but one neighbor sold his home to avoid the noise.
Manecke, who has written a letter to Vernon Williams, secretary of the Surface Transportation Board, is unsure what recourse residents have to oppose the train.