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Feds Put Speed Limits on Union Pacific Tracks

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 12:01 CST

By Matt Carter, STAFF WRITER

PLEASANTON -- Federal regulators have imposed speed limits requiring a Stockton-to-San Jose commuter train to travel at just 10 mph through a stretch of the Altamont Pass.

The temporary speed limits imposed on more than a dozen stretches of Union Pacific Railroad track used by the Altamont Commuter Express have the trains running 10 to 18 minutes behind schedule.

Union Pacific crews have made the needed inspections and repairs to get the speed limits lifted on five stretches of track, said Stacey Mortensen, the ACE commuter line's executive director. The company has promised to deal with about a dozen remaining speed- restricted areas in the next two weeks, she said.

The restrictions result from periodic inspections Union Pacific is required to carry out on its tracks.

"The railroad is required by federal law to run detector cars a certain number of times a year, which use instruments like lasers to detect flaws in the track that build up over time, but are not detectable by the naked eye," Mortensen said.

When flaws are discovered, they are flagged, and safety regulators reduce speed limits until repairs are made or an inspection shows the track is safe, Mortensen said.

"The slow-speed restrictions were enacted about a week and a half ago, and Union Pacific construction crews have been working to remove them, but not at the speed we'd like to see," Mortensen said.

A spokesman for Union Pacific, John Bromley, called such speed restrictions a "fairly routine situation," and could provide no other information on the stretch of track used by ACE commuter trains.

Mortensen said in the last several days, ACE ridership has declined from 1,500 riders per day in each direction to 1,300.

"The passengers are frustrated," she said. "A lot of them are saying, 'This is almost getting as bad as driving.'"

A two-mile stretch in the Altamont Pass where trains must slow to 10 mph particularly aggravates passengers, she said.

ACE ridership usually dips in June, so it's difficult to say whether the delays are driving customers away, Mortensen said.

"They usually come back in July. If they don't, we know people aren't riding because of the track fixes," Mortensen said.

Mortensen said she's "keeping her fingers crossed" that the speed limits are lifted by the time ACE begins runs of special promotional trains this summer.

ACE will run promotional trains on the Fourth of July for baseball fans to see the Stockton Ports, to the San Jose Jazz Festival in August and on Labor Day to the Scottish Games in Pleasanton.

Source: Oakland Tribune

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