(The following story by Jenny Fillmer appeared on the News-Leader website on July 19.)
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Freight trains: They block traffic, wake people late at night and have a hard time stopping if something crosses their path.
They’re also a strong indicator of a recovering economy, a cheap and efficient way to ship goods from all over the world, and one of Springfield’s largest employers.
The number of trains traveling to and through Springfield has nearly doubled in the past decade, creating both opportunity and controversy along the tracks crisscrossing the city.
The increase in traffic is a positive sign for the economy, said Ryan Mooney of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s good to hear, because that means the economy is starting to pick up,” said Mooney.
Busier tracks also mean more chances for problems at crossings. Earl Newman, assistant director of Springfield Public Works, said his two biggest concerns with railroads are always traffic and safety. “We want the right type of protection at each crossing,” he said.
Almost all of Springfield’s rails, and the trains on them, are operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the busiest railroads in the country.
Springfield is a busy hub for BNSF, serving as a crossroads for Memphis, Tulsa, Olathe, Kan., St. Louis and points beyond. The rail network connecting these cities is even named after the city: the Springfield Operating Division, reaching as far as Avard, Okla.; Burlington, Iowa; and Birmingham, Ala.
Rail traffic is up throughout the Springfield division, said Steve Forsberg, BNSF’s general director of public affairs.
“What’s happening around there is a result of what’s happening in Memphis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Chicago,” said Forsberg. “Basically, the traffic flowing through Springfield is a result of traffic growth in coal, intermodal containers and, to some extent, carloads shipped by trains.”
What’s on them?
In the past 10 years, Forsberg said, the average number of trains passing through Springfield daily at the peak of the shipping season has gone from 32 to about 55.
Six new trains were recently added to haul coal from the Powder River basin, along the eastern border of Wyoming and Montana, to utility companies in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, Forsberg said.
“More than 20 percent of the nation’s electricity is being generated by coal from the Powder River basin,” he said. “It’s very easy to mine and it’s a much cleaner coal source.”
Some of that coal– about 140 trains a year — goes to Springfield City Utilities, but Forsberg said the overwhelming majority of the coal trains rattling through town are headed to the Southeast.
Intermodal rail traffic — truck trailers and shipping containers — is also on the rise, said Forsberg.
“It’s the fastest-growing traffic segment for railroads, and has been for the last 20 years,” he said. BNSF is the largest intermodal transporter in the industry, shipping 40 percent of the 10 million truck trailers and containers shipped by train per year, he said.
The containers hold a variety of products on their way to and from manufacturers, distributors and retailers across the nation and, by way of coastal shipping ports, all over the world.
“Trucking companies and some major retailers are looking to use the most cost-effective means of transporting the goods they sell,” said Forsberg. “… Trains have always moved large volumes and long distances for low cost.”
It’s cheap to ship on the railroad, Forsberg said, in part because trains require less fuel than semitrucks.
“We move each ton of freight more than 408 miles on a gallon of fuel,” he said. “That’s three times more efficient than a truck. If the average SUV were as fuel efficient as a train, it would get 250 miles to the gallon.”
An economic sign
More trains on the tracks mean more product is being moved, Forsberg said.
“Carload and intermodal traffic are seeing increases because of a recovering economy, and because of a booming economy in China,” he said. “… Springfield has always, historically, been a key rail operations center, and that’s certainly being reflected in the rail traffic growth we’ve seen.”
A busy railroad is also an indication of a healthy local economy, said Mooney, manager of business development for the chamber.
“It’s always good to hear that BNSF is doing good business, because that means all rail users — primarily manufacturers — are bringing a lot of supplies in and sending goods out.”
Access to the railroad is critical to local manufacturers, Mooney said.
“In the industrial parks, the ground that was on the rail lines actually sold for more, for the manufacturers that needed access.”
BNSF is also one of the largest employers in the Springfield Metropolitan Area. Forsberg said the company had as many as 900 employees working the Springfield district. Mooney said his calculations, which may be outdated, show the number of full-time BNSF employees living in and around Springfield at about 425.
“Either way, they are one of our top employers,” said Mooney. “That’s a significant number of people in our community.”
Rail crossings
More traffic on the nation’s railways means more trains crossing roads. Newman said Springfield is no exception.
“When the trains block the road for 15 to 20 minutes, we hear about it,” said Newman. The city takes the complaints, but can’t do anything about the trains blocking traffic, he said.
“Any time we talk to Burlington Northern, they say there’s no set schedule for what they do, so there’s really no way to say they can’t run trains through Springfield at rush hour.”
Newman said the three biggest problem areas are at Chestnut Expressway, near U.S. 65; at the James River Expressway, also near 65; and in various spots in Midtown.
“It does affect the ability to get across the city,” he said.
In areas with grade separations — where vehicles pass under a railroad bridge or travel over the tracks on a bridge — passing trains are no problem. It’s the at-grade crossings, areas where rails and roads meet, that create holdups.
On the James River Freeway, message boards alert approaching drivers when a train blocks the highway.
Forsberg said other cites have built more bridges and closed at-grade crossings to alleviate traffic problems.
A railroad study, currently under way with the city of Springfield, will likely determine the city’s solution for the busiest at-grade crossings.
BNSF is already working with the city to close a smaller crossing, at Broadway Avenue near Commercial Street.
As of January, BNSF had closed 2,000 at-grade crossings as part of a nationwide safety program. An additional 400 closures were set for this year.
Forsberg said the Broadway crossing is considered dangerous because it’s so close to the railroad’s busy switching yard.
“All of the trains in Springfield are going through that crossing,” he said, adding that extra train traffic occurs when long strings of rail cars in the switching yard are assembled into trains. “Not only do you have an increase in freight traffic at the (Broadway) crossing, you also have an increased number of switching operations going on there.”
Neighbors of the Broadway crossing are not happy about the prospect of losing a north-south passage across the tracks. Several letters submitted to the Springfield City Council cite concerns about emergency vehicle access, the division of neighborhoods and safety.
Pauletta Dunn, president of the Grant Beach Neighborhood Association, outlined residents’ concerns about the closure.
“Right now, bars come down, whistles blow and everybody knows when a train is coming,” Dunn remarked after the council tabled the proposal to close Broadway on June 21. “The kids know to stay off the tracks.” If those safety alerts are replaced by a fence, Dunn said, she’s worried that kids will just go around it.
Springfield plans to schedule an informative meeting with the neighborhood later this summer.
Too many whistles
Residents of another rail-side neighborhood are disturbed by the sound of passing trains’ whistles.
Standing in the road just past his driveway, Alan Lockhart talks about trains that pass near his east Springfield home almost every half-hour.
“The train is not that loud,” he said as an approaching train rumbled in the distance. “A lot of people even like the sound. If you’re in the house, you can’t even hear the train.”
As the rumbling grew louder, Lockhart was interrupted by the blast of the train’s whistle, which, by law, must sound at 1,300 feet before all at-grade crossings, including nearby Catalpa Street. In Lockhart’s case, that spot is just beyond his next-door neighbor’s yard.
The whistle cleared the air of any other noise, including Lockhart’s voice, which couldn’t be heard even a few feet away. The whistle lasted less than 10 seconds, followed by the rattle of passing freight cars visible at the edge of Lockhart’s otherwise quiet cul-de-sac.
In the relative quiet of Lockhart’s house, he said, he’s used to the whistle blast. But visitors tend to jump at the whistle, and it still startles his two small children.
“When we’re outside, my son runs up and grabs me, because he’s scared,” said Lockhart.
Only half the trains that pass through Lockhart’s neighborhood sound the whistle, which can register above 90 decibels within 500 feet. The other half, heading the opposite direction, blast their whistle in back yards on the other side of Catalpa.
Lockhart knew there were train tracks nearby when he bought the house four years ago, he said, but at the time, it didn’t really bother him. “There were maybe 18 trains a day, and very few at night,” he said. “It’s just that the volume of trains has definitely increased.”
A group of residents from both neighborhoods are working to replace the use of the train whistle with a stationary one, mounted near Catalpa, that would automatically sound when a train approaches. Known as a wayside horn system, these horns are pointed toward oncoming traffic, yet are significantly quieter for areas off the roadway.
The horns cost $50,000 to $80,000 each. Lockhart, who is secretary of the Catalpa Crossing Capitol Improvement Committee, said the cost could be covered by a special property tax for the neighborhood.
But BNSF must sign off on the idea first. Forsberg said the railroad will wait for new wayside horn regulations, to be approved by the Federal Railroad Administration. New regulations are scheduled to be released in December.
“The railroad isn’t for or against it,” said Forsberg. But if the FRA approves use of the wayside horns, and the neighborhood was willing to make the investment, he said, “…we would have no reason to not cooperate with it.”
Forsberg declined to speculate whether rail traffic in Springfield would continue to grow. Logic would indicate a further increase in rail traffic if the economy continues to improve. CU’s proposed new coal-fired power plant, on the Springfield ballot for the Aug. 3 election, would also generate more train traffic in the city.
“There are more trains, but that’s a good thing, in the long run,” said Forsberg. “Springfield is much better off because of the economic impact, and the opportunity it creates for future rail shippers in Springfield.
“If we could just find a way to eliminate some of the at-grade crossing conflicts, a lot of concern about rail traffic would go away, because people would not notice it as much.”