Union Pacific altered its tunnels for more cross-Sierra cargo
By Tony Bizjak
tbizjak@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 4, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Friday, Dec. 4, 2009 - 10:06 am
Union Pacific crews spent the last year raising the roof.
The task, now complete, was to gouge notches in the arched concrete roofs of 15 tunnels between Rocklin and Donner Summit so a new generation of taller, double-stacked container freight trains can squeeze through.
Michelangelos, they're not.
The historic tunnels, some more than 100 years old, look like they've had their cheeks scraped by oversized iron knuckles.
It's not about esthetics, UP officials said. It's about economics.
Although rail freight shipments have been down nationally for more than a year, officials at the nation's largest railroad company see light at the end of the tunnel.
With its mountain tunnels no longer impediments, the 140-year-old rail line, parallel to Interstate 80, is expected to handle more freight than ever to and from Chicago and points east, spokesman Wes Lujan said.
"We're using the slow-down in the economy to get this work in," he said.
As for the rough-hewn nature of the fix: "It's functional," Lujan said. "It works."
In some tunnels, where the notching couldn't safely be done, crews temporarily removed the train tracks, dug the floor lower, and then re-laid the tracks. The company also built crossing tracks and upgraded signal systems.
The project is part of $2.6 billion in work UP did on its system in 23 states during the last year, Lujan said.
Until the tunnel project was finished last month, double-stacked trains had to traverse a longer route along the Feather River, limiting the amount of east-west shipments passing through Northern California.
UP officials say the project is the first of several steps to upgrade the historic corridor, route of the first transcontinental railroad.
UP wants to add a second set of tracks in some mountain sections where there currently is only one, and to make changes in the Roseville railyard to move freight more easily there.
The work, national rail officials say, reflects the ongoing resurgence of railroads as movers of commercial goods in the United States.
Ironically, the former owner of the line, the old Southern Pacific company, ripped out many double-track sections a quarter century ago as a cost-saving measure when freight rail was on the wane.
UP officials say they would like state and federal financial help for more improvements. That has proved to be a contentious issue.
UP shares its tracks with Amtrak passenger trains, including, in the Sacramento region and Bay Area, with Capitol Corridor passenger trains.
The entities failed to come to an agreement last year when UP first sought state "goods movement" funds to help pay for tunnel notching and double-tracking.
State officials and local transportation agencies in Sacramento and Placer counties said they would assist UP, a private company, in securing taxpayer money if UP would agree to free up more track space for passenger service.
UP refused, instead scaling back its plans and doing the work entirely with its own money.
UP officials argued that the state funds they were seeking were for goods movement, not passenger rail. Besides, they said, expanding freight-moving capacity frees up highway space by reducing commercial truck traffic.
UP officials remain adamant about putting freight first on their tracks.
"We support passenger rail only if our ability to grow with our customers and increase freight capacity is not hampered by passenger operations," Omaha, Neb.-based spokesman Tom Lange said in a statement e-mailed to The Bee.
In recent weeks, however, UP and Sacramento officials quietly have begun talking once again about cooperating.
UP officials say they would like the Roseville Amtrak station moved to the west to create more space there for the UP mainline.
Capitol Corridor passenger rail officials, in turn, say they would like UP to accommodate plans to run 10 Capitol Corridor train trips daily between Sacramento and Roseville.
The rail company and local government officials say a joint request for state and federal funds could strengthen each group's chances.
Local officials say they are willing to extend an olive branch.
"UP might see we can be helpful as friends," said Celia McAdam, head of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency.
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