Stopped in its tracks
02/08/04 - Oregonian, Portland, ORBRENT HUNSBERGER and ALICE TALLMADGE
THE OREGONIAN
A rash of early retirements has left Union Pacific railroad with too few locomotive engineers and conductors to keep pace with brisk business, disrupting rail traffic and commerce from Washington to California.
The worst problems have occurred in the Willamette Valley, where Union Pacific freight trains have sat dead on the tracks for hours at a time while awaiting replacement crews. Railroad workers call them "dead trains," and they've slowed freight deliveries and caused headaches for passenger trains and motorists. The fallout:
The average wait time for a freight railcar at Union Pacific's main transfer yard in Hinkle jumped from 29 hours in January 2003 to more than 40 hours last month, according to the Association of American Railroads.
Amtrak, which pays to run passenger trains on Union Pacific's tracks, saw its on-time performance between Eugene and Vancouver, B.C., plunge from 74 percent in January 2003 to 51 percent last month. Twice since Jan. 24, Amtrak trains have become stuck in and around Portland for five hours behind a Union Pacific freight train, say Oregon and Washington transportation officials.
Oregon Department of Transportation officials say they are preparing to fine the railroad for violating a law that prohibits blocking public crossings for more than 10 minutes during the day. Some motorists have complained about trains blocking public crossings for more than an hour, state transportation officials say.
Union Pacific, the state's largest track owner, has gone on a hiring spree to fix the problems.
"If anybody ever wanted to become a railroader, this is a golden opportunity," said John Bromley, a spokesman for the Omaha, Neb.-based company.
Meanwhile, Amtrak officials say they are losing patience with the delays.
The delays are unacceptable, said Vernae Graham, spokeswoman for Amtrak. "We've been working with them and the state to try to improve it. So far, there has not been any improvement."
Retirements create shortage Many of the problems stem from Union Pacific's failure to foresee the number of early retirements among its engineers and conductors -- and an increase in shipping demand throughout last year, Bromley said.
A change in federal law in 2001 allowed railroad workers with 30 years on the job to retire at age 60, launching a rash of retirements in Portland and elsewhere across the country, Bromley said.
The railroad could not say how many workers had retired in Oregon. But nationwide, the number of applications received by the federal Railroad Retirement Board from all railroads jumped from 6,165 in 2001 to 11,942 in
2002 and about 8,000 last year. In Oregon and six Washington counties, applications jumped from 75 in 2001 to 214 in 2002 and 120 last year, the agency said."That, coupled with the economy, has left us short of people," Bromley said.
Across the nation, Union Pacific's business volume, in gross ton miles, rose 5 percent between 2002 and 2003, Bromley said. Truck trailers and container traffic was up 13 percent. Industrial product volumes, including lumber, were up 9 percent, he said. The railroad employs 1,659 statewide, 505 in Portland.
The labor shortage is not unique to Union Pacific. Railroads nationwide expect to hire thousands of workers in the next five years as a result of retirements and increased demand. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which has a heavy presence in Washington, plans to hire 1,500 conductors a year for the next five years, spokesman Gus Melonas said, including 25 this year in Vancouver and 35 in Seattle.
So far, only Union Pacific appears to be struggling to manage the labor shortage, state officials say.
A local union leader said members have been warning the railroad to replenish its ranks for several years. "They've finally acknowledged what we've been telling them, that they need more people," said Russell Bennett, local chairman of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Division
236 in Portland.To deal with its labor shortage, Union Pacific has brought managers in from out of state to recruit and train new conductors, Bromley said. Systemwide, it expects to hire 3,000 workers this year, 600 more than it hired last year, he said.
The railroad is actively recruiting in Wyoming, California and Nevada, as well, he said.
Union Pacific conductors start at $40,000 a year, can make $79,000 within two years and have a good chance at a quick promotion to engineer.
"Right now," Bromley said, "I wouldn't think it'd take very long."
Anatomy of a delay Adding workers is the key to unclogging the rail lines.
The company's staffing problems are so severe that its two-person crews often have no replacements when they get to the end of their shifts. Federal law prohibits railroad crews from working longer than 12-hour shifts.
"If there isn't a replacement crew there, the train just stays there," Bennett said. "You tie your train down wherever that happens to be." He said he left such "dead trains" on about one-third of his runs last month.
Some trains have sat tied down on a sidetrack for more than a day because the railroad couldn't find a replacement crew or had difficulties reaching the train, state officials said.
With a lot of single-track corridors throughout the Willamette Valley, dead trains slow the entire system, occupying sidetracks normally used to let Amtrak trains pass slower freight trains.
As a result, "Amtrak gets frogged," Bennett said. Amtrak Cascades trains have experienced long delays between Portland and Eugene as recently as Jan. 29, state officials say. The delays have also slowed Amtrak's Coast Starlight run between Seattle and Los Angeles.
"If they're stuck behind a train that's dead on the line, they're stuck," said Claudia Howells, rail division administrator for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Howells was on an Amtrak Cascades train on Jan. 24 that got stuck behind a dead engine for five hours just south of Portland. Her train finally arrived in Salem at 2 a.m., she said.
Last week, a UP freight train went dead north of Kelso, Wash., on a track owned by its chief competitor, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, said Jeff Schultz, rail operations expert for the Washington Department of Transportation.
"Having a UP train without a crew on the BNSF mainline is a really bad thing," Schultz said.
Public frustration grows The backups have triggered a spate of complaints in the Willamette Valley about blocked public rail crossings, Howells said, particularly near Natron, a railroad outpost southeast of Springfield.
"It's terrible, especially on weekends," said Arleen Lentz, who lives and operates a mill along a Union Pacific-owned rail line. "We can be stopped from 45 minutes to two hours. It's been going on for months now."
Lentz said she and her husband sat for several hours in their car one weekend night before they could turn onto their road.
"We're getting really tired of it," she said.
State law prohibits trains from blocking public crossings for more than 10 minutes during daylight hours. Penalties range as high as $3,000 per violation. The Oregon Department of Transportation has alerted the railroad of recent violations and is preparing penalties, Howell said. She could not say how much they would be.
Lloyd Haley, who has lived along the rail line near Natron for 40 years, said the blocked crossings are worse than they've been for years. Before its merger with Union Pacific in 1996, Southern Pacific owned the stretch of track crossing the road, and there weren't many problems, Haley said.
"But since this other outfit took over, there's been nothing but trouble," he said.
Both Haley and Lentz said horse owners who rent stables on the road have had to wait for long periods while transporting horses. The stable owner couldn't be reached for comment.
Businesses have complained about late freight pickups, Howells said, but she declined to name the affected companies.
Weyerhaeuser, one of UP's largest customers, has not seen anything out of the ordinary in rail service to its mills, said company spokesman Mike Moskovitz. Larry Phipps, president and general manager of Portland & Western Railroad, which carries 4,000 cars each month between Union Pacific yards and areas outside Portland and Eugene, also said he's noticed only "typical operating difficulties, but no chronic problems."
Bromley acknowledged that the railroad receives public complaints about the idle trains and that some delays have "cost us money." But he said he can't tell when the problems will clear up.
"I wouldn't guess on when we're going to get it fixed," Bromley said. "It certainly has our attention."
Brent Hunsberger: 503-221-8359; snipped-for-privacy@news.oregonian.com