Train meeting brings new tensions, promises to light

WASHINGTON — A meeting between a handful of community leaders and Canadian Pacific (CP) representatives revealed rising tensions over a proposed railway merger, but also prompted new promises from the company.

“The whole purpose of us being so assertive is we want to work together, we want to get good results for both you and for us,” Washington Mayor Jaron Rosien said. “Our desire isn’t to be angry all the time, our desire is to solve some of our problems here.”

One point of contention was the railroad’s previously unreported plan to change train speed limits through Washington from 40 to 60 mph.

“As far as raising the speed, there will be a study done,” said Bruce Wold, CP’s director of track inspection from Chicago to Kansas City. “We have to look at sight lines at crossings, we’ll have to look at the signal system … it will increase from a class III railroad to a class IV, which will increase inspections and thresholds for defects as far as measurements go. So any speed increase will be a track upgrade, there’s a lot that goes into doing speed increases.”

County Supervisor Richard Young said he had safety concerns about such a change.

“When you increase those to 60 mile an hour … I know the kids that go by my house, because I live north of the tracks, some of those little kids do not pay attention,” he said. “If a train’s going from 40 to 60, they’re not going to really know that difference.”

A point of contention — and more frustration — was the company’s communication with local officials on maintenance and construction issues, including a railroad crossing that was torn up and repaired with asphalt instead of the county’s preferred concrete.

“In the past, you guys have had some poor notice, notification efforts, letting us know when you’re working on tracks, it’s the day before or the day of when we notice you close a road,” Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius said. “It’s frustrating when you say you want to work with us, but then you do things like that where you don’t.”

Wold said CP would do its best to mitigate that problem moving forward.

“There are times quite honestly that we’re just not going to have that advanced notice,” he said. “I will take that back to my team though, as far as routine scheduled maintenance, that we’re letting everybody know ahead of time.”

Wold promised to come to Washington and Ainsworth in the near future to work with local engineering officials.

“Give me some advanced planning and me and some of the local management will come down and walk through some of these spots,” he said. “I’m booked two weeks out, but we can definitely come up with a plan and set a schedule.”

Third, some officials, including Ainsworth City Clerk Cheryl Smith, expressed confusion over the availability of funding for municipal impact mitigation measures, especially quiet zones.

CP Supervisor of Public Works Matthew Miller said in general, federal support for quiet zones was lacking.

“You can’t use federal funds to put in four-quad gates, but you can to put in two-quad gates and then the city could put in the other quads,” Miller said. “As far as raised medians or lane delineators, you can’t use Section 130 funds for that.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com