2012 MATC Fall Lecture Series: David Connell
Larissa Sazama
Author
11/08/2017
Added
9
Plays
Description
2012 MATC Fall Lecture Series
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [00:00:02.175]Thank you all for coming to both
- [00:00:04.148]the University of Nebraska Lincoln and at the remote sites.
- [00:00:07.733]It's my pleasure to introduce David Connell
- [00:00:11.822]who's regional vice president of operations
- [00:00:13.828]for the northern region of Union Pacific.
- [00:00:17.018]He's worked in the railway industry for about 30 years
- [00:00:19.215]at a variety of jobs including
- [00:00:21.569]vice president for engineering,
- [00:00:23.340]assistant vice president for construction,
- [00:00:25.032]chief engineer of maintenance.
- [00:00:26.599]So a great wealth of experience.
- [00:00:29.103]He has a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering,
- [00:00:31.822]the crafty engineering degree
- [00:00:33.831]from North Carolina State University
- [00:00:36.320]and has attended Harvard Business School.
- [00:00:38.563]He serves on a number of committees.
- [00:00:40.002]Chair of the Association of American Railways,
- [00:00:41.730]head of the Axle Committee.
- [00:00:43.430]A member of the Railway Technology Working Committee
- [00:00:45.201]of Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo.
- [00:00:48.190]He's a governor in the American Railway,
- [00:00:50.007]Engineering and Maintenance Association or REMA.
- [00:00:52.329]And I know a lot of the students and faculty
- [00:00:53.921]have gone to that meeting in the past couple years.
- [00:00:56.492]And from our perspective most importantly
- [00:00:58.761]he's part of our Master Advisors Board.
- [00:01:00.686]We appreciate his service on that.
- [00:01:03.016]He's married to his wife Barbara
- [00:01:04.398]and they have three grown children.
- [00:01:05.948]So David we're looking forward to your talk and thank you.
- [00:01:08.859]Well very good, thanks.
- [00:01:10.917]Thanks, Larry and Valerie.
- [00:01:13.495]Good to be with everybody today.
- [00:01:14.492]I'm gonna talk to you about a subject today
- [00:01:16.832]that I don't spend a lot of time talking about,
- [00:01:19.433]'cause it's not really part of our core business.
- [00:01:21.807]But it is a topic that it is a lot of interest I think
- [00:01:25.843]to the folks in the room here as well as online.
- [00:01:28.733]And that is the high speed project that Union Pacific
- [00:01:31.338]has been participating with,
- [00:01:33.664]with the Illinois DOT And FRA,
- [00:01:39.102]through the stimulus funds that the administration
- [00:01:42.223]released several years ago to support high speed rail.
- [00:01:47.613]What I want to talk about to you today,
- [00:01:50.169]I'm gonna talk a little bit about
- [00:01:51.002]US passenger train history.
- [00:01:53.525]Obviously,
- [00:01:55.554]many of you probably on the phone have never
- [00:01:57.343]ridden a passenger train, but that surely wouldn't
- [00:01:59.240]have been the case
- [00:02:00.884]if you had grown up 40 or 50 years ago.
- [00:02:05.289]Gonna talk about the high speed rail stimulus,
- [00:02:08.075]just to get everybody grounded on how that came to be.
- [00:02:11.814]And then we'll get into quite a bit of detail
- [00:02:13.288]on the Illinois high speed rail project,
- [00:02:16.223]how we designed it, how we've built it,
- [00:02:18.925]what the status is and how we're gonna be moving forward.
- [00:02:25.136]All right, so when did people travel by train?
- [00:02:27.066]When you look back in the heydays
- [00:02:28.497]of passenger travel by rail back in the 1910s to
- [00:02:35.080]really the late 1940s.
- [00:02:37.730]It surely is a different layout today,
- [00:02:39.819]but in 1940, close to 67% of all travel was by rail,
- [00:02:46.196]of inner city travel.
- [00:02:47.627]You can see in World War II the railroads
- [00:02:49.377]played a huge part in moving troops.
- [00:02:51.899]Nearly all troops moved by rail to get from
- [00:02:54.889]hometown America to training camps, to port facilities.
- [00:03:01.498]But when you look from 1944 to where we are today,
- [00:03:05.771]most of those passenger miles have gone away.
- [00:03:10.213]And what's really caused that?
- [00:03:11.576]It's really three things.
- [00:03:12.574]Number one, it's the Eisenhower interstate system
- [00:03:15.340]that came into being
- [00:03:18.225]in the '50s through the '70s.
- [00:03:22.446]The US love affair coming out of World War II
- [00:03:24.585]with the automobile,
- [00:03:26.657]surely took people off the rails.
- [00:03:29.748]And,
- [00:03:31.464]the railroads lost the US Mail contract
- [00:03:35.699]in the late '60s that really took a lot of revenue
- [00:03:40.024]off of these passenger trains.
- [00:03:43.094]And that was really the beginning of the end at that point.
- [00:03:47.555]So, then came along Amtrak.
- [00:03:50.215]So like I said throughout the 1960s the railroads were,
- [00:03:56.371]wanted out of the passenger business just because
- [00:03:59.104]it was not lucrative for,
- [00:04:01.256]for their operations any longer.
- [00:04:03.732]And came along Amtrak with the
- [00:04:06.170]Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970.
- [00:04:10.465]The freight railroads as I said wanted to get out
- [00:04:13.159]of the passenger business, donated most all
- [00:04:16.195]of their passenger equipment
- [00:04:19.046]to the newly formed Amtrak
- [00:04:24.089]branch of the government.
- [00:04:28.199]And the freight railroads at that time were required
- [00:04:30.869]to grant Amtrak access to their tracks.
- [00:04:34.945]And
- [00:04:36.259]actually give them priority over their own trains,
- [00:04:38.918]and that continues today.
- [00:04:41.367]So today's Amtrak you see the route structure here.
- [00:04:44.627]Big inner city passenger lines across the north,
- [00:04:48.078]two across the mid-part of the country,
- [00:04:49.727]and across the sunset route and of course
- [00:04:53.815]what you hear most about with Amtrak
- [00:04:55.447]is the Northeast quarter from Boston down to Washington
- [00:04:58.325]that they actually own, operate and maintain.
- [00:05:01.998]And then there's several lines
- [00:05:04.763]that crisscross the East Coast, north south as well.
- [00:05:08.494]22, 000 miles of route structure for Amtrak,
- [00:05:12.670]but most all of that as you can see
- [00:05:14.801]is on the freight rail roads' lines.
- [00:05:20.449]But Union Pacific is really no stranger to passenger service
- [00:05:24.809]before this project that we're doing in Illinois.
- [00:05:28.257]We handle about
- [00:05:30.820]650,000 passengers a week
- [00:05:36.541]along
- [00:05:38.569]various commuter services that use our tracks,
- [00:05:43.951]around the system.
- [00:05:44.808]Chicago being the biggest over a half a million
- [00:05:47.828]riders a week,
- [00:05:49.428]commute to and from the suburbs into the city
- [00:05:52.559]on one of three Union Pacific lines.
- [00:05:55.758]That is on our route structure,
- [00:05:58.089]that is operated by our crews,
- [00:06:01.499]with Metra equipment.
- [00:06:03.711]The other three big commuter opportunities
- [00:06:05.638]that Union Pacific plays in,
- [00:06:09.477]are in California, there's two in the bay area,
- [00:06:13.173]Capital Quarter as well as ACE.
- [00:06:16.395]And then Metrolink usages our trackage down
- [00:06:18.972]in the Los Angeles basin.
- [00:06:21.095]So overall you see Amtrak hauls about
- [00:06:23.765]90,000 passengers a week on us.
- [00:06:26.656]And when you couple that to our commuter business
- [00:06:29.335]it's close to 3/4 of a million routers a week
- [00:06:32.560]that UP's handling.
- [00:06:33.515]So we're really no stranger to passenger rail.
- [00:06:35.544]It's a different, very much different
- [00:06:37.034]business than freight rail.
- [00:06:40.794]But we do fairly well at it.
- [00:06:44.605]All right, so we're gonna talk about high speed rail
- [00:06:46.695]and you saw the name of the presentation
- [00:06:48.854]was really higher speed rail,
- [00:06:50.535]because for those of us who have traveled to Asia
- [00:06:52.996]and traveled to Europe, you've really experienced
- [00:06:54.863]real high speed rail.
- [00:06:55.821]And it's much faster than 110 miles per hour.
- [00:06:59.733]But Amtrack today, for the most part in this country,
- [00:07:01.695]runs as fast as class four speeds allow them to run,
- [00:07:05.814]which is 79 miles per hour.
- [00:07:09.456]But when you compare that to what they can run
- [00:07:11.160]in the Northeast Quarter,
- [00:07:13.154]at 150 miles per high with their Acela service.
- [00:07:16.466]And then with the various
- [00:07:20.015]high speed trains in Europe and Asia
- [00:07:22.935]that are for the most part around 200 miles per hour.
- [00:07:27.695]Although the speed record is much higher than that
- [00:07:30.136]with the TGV that was accomplished here
- [00:07:33.765]recently at 357 miles per hour.
- [00:07:36.319]So 110 and 357,
- [00:07:39.776]didn't really seem right to call that high speed.
- [00:07:42.606]But it's definitely, it will make a difference.
- [00:07:46.245]And it does require us to build a railroad
- [00:07:48.370]much differently even for 110.
- [00:07:51.355]The big difference in these operations
- [00:07:55.287]greater than 110,
- [00:07:57.876]the railroads we really believe that you got to have
- [00:08:00.229]a dedicated quarter to do that for many reasons,
- [00:08:03.727]namely for
- [00:08:05.653]neighbor safety, trespasser safety,
- [00:08:08.684]as well as train to train safety.
- [00:08:10.610]When you get faster than 110, we don't believe that
- [00:08:14.652]those two traffics mix very efficiently
- [00:08:17.833]or safely with one another.
- [00:08:21.313]All right, so.
- [00:08:22.640]Let's go on and move onto the really the creation
- [00:08:25.644]of the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program.
- [00:08:29.187]This was President Obama's
- [00:08:32.741]American, or part of President Obama's
- [00:08:35.042]American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
- [00:08:37.664]Otherwise known as the Stimulus.
- [00:08:41.052]High speed rail
- [00:08:43.024]received eight billion dollars,
- [00:08:45.810]back in 2009 I believe.
- [00:08:49.794]And it was created to address the nation's
- [00:08:51.734]transportation challenges by making strategic investments
- [00:08:54.648]and a vision network of passenger rail quarters
- [00:08:56.778]that connect communities across the country.
- [00:09:00.172]You see the map, the map are those quarters
- [00:09:02.892]that have some plans against them,
- [00:09:05.391]some much further along than the other.
- [00:09:08.192]We're gonna be talking about Chicago to St. Louis today
- [00:09:11.097]in much more detail.
- [00:09:14.588]But there's also quarters underway
- [00:09:18.478]in North Carolina, there's quarters underway
- [00:09:22.242]in California that, its really much more like
- [00:09:25.128]true high speed rail.
- [00:09:29.119]If that project gets off the ground.
- [00:09:33.082]Okay, so now we're gonna kind of drill in
- [00:09:34.627]into the Illinois High Speed Rail Project.
- [00:09:37.344]Talk a little bit about what it's about and why.
- [00:09:41.463]We were approached by the
- [00:09:42.418]Illinois Department of Transportation back in mid-2009
- [00:09:46.963]about whether we would be interested in cooperating
- [00:09:49.590]with their project of running 110 mile an hour traffic
- [00:09:53.540]between Chicago and St. Louis.
- [00:09:56.185]That is a quarter that we have operated
- [00:09:58.582]since our merger, it was a former,
- [00:10:01.554]former Illinois central line
- [00:10:04.117]that went short line that became a part
- [00:10:06.241]of the Southern Pacific network.
- [00:10:08.258]And then we acquired it with our merger
- [00:10:09.773]with the Southern Pacific back in 1996.
- [00:10:13.541]The purpose of the project was to,
- [00:10:15.251]or is to enhance the passenger transportation
- [00:10:17.014]obviously between those two cities.
- [00:10:19.352]The immediate benefit was the job creation
- [00:10:21.528]of over 1,200 jobs.
- [00:10:23.960]Of passenger trains running 110 it's important
- [00:10:26.189]for me to mention here that the Union Pacific
- [00:10:28.928]will continue to operate our freight trains
- [00:10:31.449]at the existing speed which is at 60 miles per hour.
- [00:10:36.000]But the faster trains, the more reliable infrastructure
- [00:10:38.981]should drive increased ridership.
- [00:10:40.599]Their forecast is close to 70% increase in ridership.
- [00:10:44.298]Should drive travel time between the two cities
- [00:10:46.530]down between 45 and about 55 minutes.
- [00:10:50.060]Should take a few cars off Route 66 and the Interstate 55.
- [00:10:55.559]There's a lot of benefit to,
- [00:10:58.520]all the communities along the line,
- [00:11:01.242]all of their great crossings were upgraded
- [00:11:03.840]as part of this project.
- [00:11:05.010]That's pretty much been done now.
- [00:11:07.651]And they'll be a side benefit of a better passenger
- [00:11:10.989]experience with new rolling stock on these train sets.
- [00:11:14.812]Overall the project is right now funded
- [00:11:16.971]at 1.5 billion dollars.
- [00:11:19.348]And we spent somewhere around 1/4 of a million,
- [00:11:22.680]1/4 of a billion to date
- [00:11:25.220]on the upgrades that we've done.
- [00:11:26.450]And I'll tell you about what those include.
- [00:11:31.001]All right, so status quo on this line between
- [00:11:33.534]Chicago and St. Louis,
- [00:11:36.216]we call the SPSL which was
- [00:11:39.057]from its original heritage of the Southern Pacific
- [00:11:42.111]and the Short Line name.
- [00:11:44.281]But the status quo is that it currently operates
- [00:11:47.264]four, state supported train pairs at 79 miles per hour
- [00:11:51.155]that run completely between Chicago and St. Louis
- [00:11:54.335]at different times during the day.
- [00:11:55.761]And it supports the Texas Eagle Amtrack train
- [00:11:59.415]that runs between Chicago and San Antonio
- [00:12:02.158]on this route as well, and it runs 79 miles per hour.
- [00:12:08.197]When this project is done
- [00:12:10.310]three of the four trains will be running
- [00:12:11.965]at 110 miles per hour, one will continue at 79,
- [00:12:15.767]and the Texas Eagle will continue at 79 miles per hour.
- [00:12:23.050]All right, so let's get into a little bit more detail
- [00:12:24.520]all about how the project lines out.
- [00:12:27.909]What you see in the top right is downtown Chicago.
- [00:12:31.855]This route between Chicago and St. Louis
- [00:12:34.675]runs over the Canadian National Railroad
- [00:12:36.923]for about 35 miles between downtown Chicago
- [00:12:40.118]and Joliet, to where it then
- [00:12:42.726]transitions over to Union Pacific ownership.
- [00:12:46.253]And our ownership precedes
- [00:12:48.338]all the way down to really the river crossing
- [00:12:51.168]at St. Louis for the most part.
- [00:12:55.395]Overall it's 847 million dollars of investment
- [00:12:59.770]that will happening on UP to facilitate class six track
- [00:13:02.742]and 110 mile per hour operation.
- [00:13:07.076]It involves 266 miles of track rehab,
- [00:13:09.550]you can see where we're gonna be rebuilding 15 sidings
- [00:13:12.395]at proper spacing,
- [00:13:14.394]we'll build 36 miles of second main track
- [00:13:16.886]to give us the additional capacity needed
- [00:13:19.350]to allow these faster train sets
- [00:13:22.431]and not interfere with our freight operation.
- [00:13:25.596]Multiple bridges will have to be rebuilt,
- [00:13:27.807]nearly all the bridges will be rebuilt along this line.
- [00:13:31.334]And we're gonna be installing PTC
- [00:13:33.781]that will be a requirement for operating anything faster
- [00:13:36.414]than 90 mile per hour, although there is another way
- [00:13:38.503]we're doing that short term that I'll talk about
- [00:13:40.171]with you in just a minute.
- [00:13:42.411]So what have we done to date?
- [00:13:43.244]217 track miles of new rail's already been installed,
- [00:13:46.289]50 new turn outs have been put in,
- [00:13:48.922]27 bridge structures have been replaced,
- [00:13:51.023]235 new road crossings.
- [00:13:53.388]And like I said close to a 1/4 of billion dollars
- [00:13:55.656]invested through this year.
- [00:13:57.631]You see the schematic as to what we have already completed.
- [00:14:02.011]Pretty much the track has been rehabilitated.
- [00:14:04.531]The single main track, the existing single main track
- [00:14:07.217]has been rehabilitated, all the way from Joliet
- [00:14:10.524]all the way down to Bloomington, Bloomington, Normal.
- [00:14:14.077]A big ridership
- [00:14:16.218]location for Amtrack with the university there at Normal.
- [00:14:20.587]And then everything down from Bloomington
- [00:14:21.919]through Springfield,
- [00:14:24.246]all the way down to,
- [00:14:26.627]really to the bridge at St. Louis.
- [00:14:28.208]Now there is a portion in here around the KCS,
- [00:14:32.866]we jointly operate the railroad,
- [00:14:35.275]the double track railroad between want and St. Louis
- [00:14:38.012]with the Kansas City Southern railroad.
- [00:14:40.334]And negotiations are still ongoing with the KCS
- [00:14:44.025]and the state of Illinois on
- [00:14:47.226]working out an agreement for high speed rail
- [00:14:49.575]over their route between those two places.
- [00:14:54.313]Okay, so that's kind of a high level look
- [00:14:56.016]at the project, where we are with it, the scope.
- [00:15:00.255]Let's talk a little bit about track design.
- [00:15:03.757]This is a corridor that lends itself very nicely
- [00:15:07.832]to high speed rail for the most part,
- [00:15:10.169]it's a straight as an arrow railroad.
- [00:15:12.558]215 miles are tangent,
- [00:15:14.090]there's 29 miles of curve, most of it's on the south end.
- [00:15:18.297]So how do we deal with the curves?
- [00:15:21.468]Obviously curve speed is set by degree of curve
- [00:15:24.105]and set by elevation.
- [00:15:26.722]And at the risk of talking beneath some of you,
- [00:15:29.159]I'm gonna tell you a little bit about
- [00:15:30.028]how we elevate railroad curves.
- [00:15:32.706]It's not exactly how we elevate highway curves.
- [00:15:38.008]We actually superelevate curves somewhere between
- [00:15:41.137]zero and about five inches,
- [00:15:43.280]we don't typically like to go anymore than five inches
- [00:15:45.436]because when you get much more than five
- [00:15:49.215]and the train goes under speed there's so much weight
- [00:15:51.553]thrown on the low rail it can make
- [00:15:53.580]for an instable situation.
- [00:15:56.785]So for the most part we don't want to go above five,
- [00:15:59.488]we really don't want to go above four in lots of cases.
- [00:16:02.510]But we will on exception.
- [00:16:07.042]For the most part highways are elevated to equilibrium.
- [00:16:11.205]So at a balanced speed on the rails,
- [00:16:13.976]we very seldom elevate a freight railroad to equilibrium,
- [00:16:17.823]just because there's so much variation and speed
- [00:16:20.400]that would produce way too many over balance situations
- [00:16:24.952]to where there's too much weight riding on the low rail.
- [00:16:30.346]For the most part our standard at UP is that
- [00:16:32.336]we'll elevate track to two inches,
- [00:16:34.615]less elevation, then equilibrium.
- [00:16:39.138]The federal government allows us to go up to three inches
- [00:16:42.385]on a freight equipment set.
- [00:16:44.640]But with passenger sets we can sometimes go
- [00:16:47.566]as much as five inches.
- [00:16:49.509]That equipment can handle five inches
- [00:16:51.776]with a waiver from the FRA.
- [00:16:54.083]We pretty much have,
- [00:16:56.825]currently UP has a way of where four inches,
- [00:16:59.459]pretty much for all Amtrack equipment now.
- [00:17:02.158]So how we've elevated this railroad,
- [00:17:04.652]we've elevated freight for equilibrium
- [00:17:07.245]which is gonna cause us some risk with under speed trains.
- [00:17:10.993]And we hope with the reliability of this infrastructure
- [00:17:12.941]and the signal system that we won't see
- [00:17:14.398]too many under speed trains.
- [00:17:15.686]We'll power them up sufficiently.
- [00:17:18.907]We're gonna elevate for 110 mile per hour
- [00:17:21.371]at four inches in balance.
- [00:17:23.238]So there's four inches less elevation
- [00:17:26.922]than equilibrium and that will dictate
- [00:17:29.971]the passenger speed.
- [00:17:31.894]For the most part
- [00:17:35.910]I think 20,
- [00:17:38.198]about 20 miles of that 29 miles
- [00:17:40.575]will be still at 110 miles per hour, all right?
- [00:17:45.418]Okay.
- [00:17:46.426]So let's move on to a little bit about what we're
- [00:17:48.401]building this railroad out of.
- [00:17:51.720]Obviously you've seen that we're gonna built it
- [00:17:53.973]out of concrete track.
- [00:17:55.289]We believe at UP that concrete track
- [00:17:57.027]will consistently hold the integrity of these line
- [00:17:59.423]much better than it would over the long term.
- [00:18:03.722]The entire route will be constructed with concrete ties.
- [00:18:08.236]Elastic fasteners, for those people that aren't
- [00:18:10.417]that familiar with rails,
- [00:18:12.293]these are these curly Q clips that actually put
- [00:18:14.675]a spring load down on the base of the rail
- [00:18:17.335]that pushes on the rail seat that actually holds the rail
- [00:18:20.810]laterally as well as that friction holds
- [00:18:23.732]the rail longitudinally.
- [00:18:26.053]136 pound rail, that's 136 pounds every yard,
- [00:18:30.103]every three feet.
- [00:18:30.936]This is a cross section of 136 pound rail.
- [00:18:34.380]We separate our signal system circuits
- [00:18:36.685]with glued, mechanical insulated joints,
- [00:18:39.574]that is a picture of one here
- [00:18:41.295]in the bottom left of your screen.
- [00:18:44.249]And what you see is one of the great crossings
- [00:18:46.842]after the upgrading that the public enjoy
- [00:18:51.225]because it is a fairly smooth transition
- [00:18:53.835]from highway to highway.
- [00:18:58.139]So turn outs.
- [00:18:59.039]How do we get the train from one track to the other?
- [00:19:01.124]We are using a different type turnout there
- [00:19:03.534]that is made for enhanced ride quality.
- [00:19:06.682]These are number 24, which is a 24 to one ratio
- [00:19:10.124]on the frog angle, that's what a number 24 turnout,
- [00:19:12.587]or what any number turnout means.
- [00:19:15.135]It is a semi-tangential design,
- [00:19:17.586]which means it has very long, thin switch points that
- [00:19:22.349]sometimes are tough to maintain
- [00:19:24.736]with the various kinds of wheel profiles that we have
- [00:19:27.207]in the freight environment, but we think
- [00:19:28.816]we're gonna be successful here in maintaining those
- [00:19:31.903]long, thin switch points,
- [00:19:34.114]so the coffee doesn't spill when they take the turnout.
- [00:19:37.948]We'll primarily use these at all of our siding
- [00:19:40.079]and double track locations,
- [00:19:42.221]we'll use smaller turnouts in all of our other
- [00:19:43.956]industry operations that break off the main track.
- [00:19:48.820]And this is,
- [00:19:50.875]center, middle bottom of the slide is what we call
- [00:19:54.612]in-tie switch rodding.
- [00:19:56.923]So this is a switch machine.
- [00:19:59.050]This is actually what throws the switch points out here
- [00:20:02.325]and moves them from one track to the other.
- [00:20:05.239]And for the most part, they usually fall in this crib.
- [00:20:09.425]The crib is the area of ballast in between two ties.
- [00:20:13.761]We at UP on high tonnage turnouts have a design here
- [00:20:17.442]to where these rods are actually embedded
- [00:20:19.558]in a trough-like steel tie.
- [00:20:23.662]And what that allows us to do is when our
- [00:20:26.063]tampers come through in raising and leveling
- [00:20:28.400]and lining the track, that they can span this tie here
- [00:20:32.827]and tamp it just like any other tie.
- [00:20:34.909]And we can have
- [00:20:36.575]improved track support in this critical area of a switch.
- [00:20:41.837]This is not unique to this line,
- [00:20:43.922]it is unique pretty much to Union Pacific in
- [00:20:46.927]pretty much all our turnouts that carry over,
- [00:20:50.367]I think it's 50 million gross tons a year,
- [00:20:52.937]use this design.
- [00:20:56.551]All right, so how did we built it?
- [00:20:58.022]We just talked about what we built it with,
- [00:20:59.659]this is how we did it.
- [00:21:01.667]Well first of all let me say,
- [00:21:02.966]this is how we're dividing up who's doing what
- [00:21:04.770]as far as the project.
- [00:21:05.962]UP responsible for,
- [00:21:07.924]for all the infrastructure other than,
- [00:21:10.652]basically stations and platforms.
- [00:21:13.116]All the track, all the bridges, all the signal systems.
- [00:21:16.698]We're proud that back in,
- [00:21:19.497]back in 2010 when we got the green light
- [00:21:21.720]from Illinois to proceed with the work,
- [00:21:24.996]that within six weeks from the ink on that page
- [00:21:27.146]we were out actually installing and rehabbing track
- [00:21:31.933]with our forces.
- [00:21:35.495]First stimulus related high speed rail project
- [00:21:37.218]to go to construction anywhere in the country.
- [00:21:39.851]It has also benefited
- [00:21:41.913]from various states like Florida and Wisconsin
- [00:21:44.758]pulling out of the high speed arena.
- [00:21:46.415]And this project has grown in scope because of that.
- [00:21:50.018]You can see in 2010, 76 miles, 120 miles in 2011
- [00:21:54.560]and close to 50 miles so far this year
- [00:21:57.681]have been upgraded with what we call
- [00:22:00.481]the TRT 909 machine and I'll tell you a little bit
- [00:22:02.469]more about it here in the next slide.
- [00:22:06.713]So.
- [00:22:08.348]TRT, Track Renewal Train.
- [00:22:10.590]The Track Renewal Train converts wood tie track
- [00:22:12.902]to concrete tie track at a rate of about two miles a day.
- [00:22:17.165]So far that machine has done over 237 miles
- [00:22:20.413]of wood track converted to concrete track,
- [00:22:23.611]installed north of 600,000 concrete ties with that,
- [00:22:27.041]over a million tons of ballast, 234 road crossings
- [00:22:29.686]and I've already talked about the switches.
- [00:22:33.339]Do you want to play that again?
- [00:22:34.475]Yeah.
- [00:22:36.901]We're gonna run through this video one more time
- [00:22:38.790]for the benefit of the folks online.
- [00:22:41.855]Again this is our TRT 909 machine
- [00:22:43.953]that hopefully comes to life here
- [00:22:46.139]in a second in the bottom right hand corner.
- [00:22:51.671]This si the machine that takes out wood tie track
- [00:22:54.833]on one end and leaves concrete track behind it,
- [00:22:57.535]dropping one tie at a time,
- [00:22:59.355]laying the rails in place on the rail seat,
- [00:23:01.689]installing the clips after the rail is heated
- [00:23:04.093]to the proper temperature.
- [00:23:05.420]So on hot summer days we don't have issues in Illinois.
- [00:23:09.257]Top left is the finished product.
- [00:23:10.645]We're very proud of it.
- [00:23:11.826]It's some of the best track in the country.
- [00:23:18.238]This is a little shot of before and after.
- [00:23:20.522]Top left is what the class four railroad looked like,
- [00:23:23.451]good for 60 mile per hour.
- [00:23:25.424]For freight trains, good for 79 mile per hour
- [00:23:28.262]for passenger trains.
- [00:23:30.479]And the bottom left is the finished product.
- [00:23:32.523]That's a class six railroad,
- [00:23:34.566]good for 110 mile per hour passenger trains,
- [00:23:38.157]but still we're only running
- [00:23:43.793]60 mile an hour freight trains.
- [00:23:45.814]One thing to note here is that UP takes on
- [00:23:47.522]the maintenance responsibility
- [00:23:48.630]with this upgraded track for class six,
- [00:23:51.053]with all the enhanced signaling,
- [00:23:52.945]without really realizing any substantial operating
- [00:23:55.587]benefit to our core business which is freight.
- [00:24:01.098]All right I'm gonna talk a little bit about now,
- [00:24:02.498]about the signal infrastructure.
- [00:24:03.995]It's very different on this project,
- [00:24:05.102]especially when it comes to road crossings.
- [00:24:08.294]The signal portion of this project
- [00:24:13.475]included overlaying the existing signal system
- [00:24:15.787]which was a CTC, centralized traffic control,
- [00:24:20.095]dispatched, sidings every 12, 15 miles,
- [00:24:24.146]controlled by a dispatcher in Omaha.
- [00:24:26.362]Which is where all of our dispatching happens.
- [00:24:30.475]Install necessary great crossing warning devices,
- [00:24:32.728]that's flashing lights, gates,
- [00:24:34.814]on the over 200 public crossings,
- [00:24:37.527]and 25 field to field and 14 private,
- [00:24:40.261]which are usually driveway
- [00:24:42.125]going to business type scenarios.
- [00:24:45.967]So there are gates on all private field crossings,
- [00:24:48.396]what you see here, this is a corn field
- [00:24:50.188]or a bean field this was about three weeks ago.
- [00:24:53.228]There's not too many bean fields on our railroad
- [00:24:54.920]that we actually have crossing warning devices,
- [00:24:56.951]so the tractor doesn't run out in front of the train,
- [00:24:59.038]but we will do it on this line
- [00:25:00.294]because of the high speed train sets.
- [00:25:03.736]On all public crossings what you see here
- [00:25:05.798]are what we call four quad gates.
- [00:25:07.618]And these are gates that actually come down on both sides,
- [00:25:09.775]that actually block any egress into the crossing
- [00:25:13.703]when a train approach is detected.
- [00:25:17.973]And you can see there are signs posted here
- [00:25:20.302]that try to warn the public
- [00:25:22.678]that there's a really fast train coming,
- [00:25:24.521]you need to respect the situation.
- [00:25:28.062]So let me tall you a little bit how that technology works.
- [00:25:32.122]This is what we call,
- [00:25:34.448]ITCS, I think that's called intermediate
- [00:25:36.295]train control system.
- [00:25:37.608]It was first used up on Michigan.
- [00:25:40.298]But this is the four quad gates here
- [00:25:42.133]that protect all access into the crossing.
- [00:25:45.214]Conventionally, that's usually a quarter mile away,
- [00:25:48.196]is how long that track circuit goes to provide the public
- [00:25:50.784]20 seconds warning time before the train arrives.
- [00:25:54.873]Because of these high speeds,
- [00:25:57.591]the state of Illinois and the
- [00:26:00.263]Public Utility Commission there,
- [00:26:02.609]wanted much longer warning time.
- [00:26:05.191]And what that set out is that 80 seconds warning time
- [00:26:08.535]and 2.4 miles out when this crossing first learns
- [00:26:12.475]that there's a train approaching.
- [00:26:14.849]Now that's problematic,
- [00:26:16.307]because a track, we did not want to have
- [00:26:18.251]to go in and put track circuit in that long.
- [00:26:21.278]There's a frequency that rides on both rails today
- [00:26:23.335]in modern great crossings,
- [00:26:25.394]as soon as that track circuit is shunted
- [00:26:27.717]it actually looks at it, predicts the speed of the train,
- [00:26:30.266]and knows when to lower the gates.
- [00:26:32.663]There's lots of things that can go wrong
- [00:26:34.037]on a track circuit as long as 2.4 miles,
- [00:26:36.024]there'd have to be lots of repeaters.
- [00:26:37.608]So how this technology works
- [00:26:39.441]is there, with GPS there is a radio signal that is sent
- [00:26:43.289]at that GPS location to the crossing,
- [00:26:46.450]that an equipped train, which is one that's running
- [00:26:49.567]faster than 80 mile per hour,
- [00:26:51.067]hopefully somewhere around 105, 110,
- [00:26:53.516]that I am approaching you
- [00:26:56.253]start to activate.
- [00:26:57.570]At that point the crossing activates,
- [00:27:00.004]provided that there's no vehicle in the area.
- [00:27:03.951]And it will beam back to the locomotive,
- [00:27:07.887]electronically via radio, that the crossing is activated,
- [00:27:11.148]there's no vehicle inside of it,
- [00:27:12.982]everything looks healthy, come on at full speed.
- [00:27:16.063]If there is something wrong with a gate that's hung up,
- [00:27:19.410]a broken gate, a gate that's,
- [00:27:22.978]that is not completely down,
- [00:27:24.669]or there's a vehicle backed up on the crossing,
- [00:27:26.965]because a lot of this railroad is next to Route 66.
- [00:27:31.789]That it will send a signal to the train
- [00:27:34.219]and actually have it start to slow down
- [00:27:36.247]to where it can approach the crossing prepared to stop.
- [00:27:38.981]This is much different technology
- [00:27:40.883]that we use in the rest of the railroad
- [00:27:42.817]as far as
- [00:27:44.329]outside the normal 1/4 mile 20 second warning time.
- [00:27:49.648]All right Positive Train Control.
- [00:27:51.803]You've probably heard a lot about that,
- [00:27:54.171]we call it affectionately PTC.
- [00:27:56.057]It's the unfunded mandate that we got
- [00:27:58.085]from the Rail Safety Act that all came from,
- [00:28:00.957]or the straw that broke the camel's back was a collision,
- [00:28:05.357]back in 2006, I believe it was, in Chatsworth, California.
- [00:28:10.561]To where an engineer on a Metrolink commuter train
- [00:28:15.268]was texting when he left the station to a friend,
- [00:28:18.978]completely missed the wayside signal,
- [00:28:22.393]and collided with one of our Union Pacific freight trains
- [00:28:25.444]coming around the curve at great loss of life.
- [00:28:29.951]So we've been mandated to install positive train control
- [00:28:32.290]over the majority of our network now.
- [00:28:34.030]By the end of 2015.
- [00:28:37.214]It does rely on GIS as well as the existing signal system.
- [00:28:42.166]So there will be
- [00:28:43.849]all of our locomotives that at least
- [00:28:45.784]the lead locomotive on the train
- [00:28:47.198]will be equipped with special technology.
- [00:28:49.350]When the process of equipment our wayside signals,
- [00:28:52.697]with radios and different equipment that can radio
- [00:28:55.918]and be in constant communication with the train.
- [00:28:58.132]This signal aspect will be radioed back to the cab.
- [00:29:02.626]And a proper breaking curve and a warning curve
- [00:29:05.970]will be calculated to prevent this train,
- [00:29:08.506]engineer willing or not,
- [00:29:09.960]will not be able to go by this signal with PTC.
- [00:29:14.747]This is gonna be required, and I think you're gonna
- [00:29:16.431]have a followup presentation on this subject
- [00:29:18.865]in much more detail later on in this lecture series.
- [00:29:23.346]But we will have to use PTC over all of this line
- [00:29:27.538]for all trains operating on this line.
- [00:29:29.931]But you may have noticed on a previous slide I said
- [00:29:32.480]we're gonna be using cab signals.
- [00:29:34.653]Cab signals is an older technology
- [00:29:36.514]that does allow the rails,
- [00:29:38.883]railroads to run faster than 90 mile per hour today.
- [00:29:43.381]And that is actually there's a circuit running
- [00:29:45.931]in the rails.
- [00:29:47.317]There's pick up devices on the locomotive
- [00:29:49.576]that actually give this signal
- [00:29:51.969]and the current signal in the block
- [00:29:54.025]a display in the cab of the locomotive.
- [00:29:55.832]So we're gonna be installing cab signals
- [00:29:57.762]on the pilot project, which I'm gonna get into now
- [00:30:02.446]on this high speed line.
- [00:30:05.022]So the first Hi-Speed Segment's going in between
- [00:30:07.051]Dwight and Pontiac, Illinois.
- [00:30:09.194]It's around a little bit north of 15 miles
- [00:30:11.079]this is the demonstration segment.
- [00:30:13.603]It is set to cut over within a couple of weeks.
- [00:30:17.161]We did run a VIP train about three weeks ago now,
- [00:30:22.500]on October 19th,
- [00:30:25.219]with the secretary of transportation,
- [00:30:27.689]the governor, the
- [00:30:28.838]FRA administrator as well as many other folks
- [00:30:31.214]that were stakeholders in this project.
- [00:30:34.506]And it was a successful trip
- [00:30:37.763]over this 15 miles at 110 miles per hour.
- [00:30:41.674]What we had to do to get ready for this,
- [00:30:43.134]there was 14 great crossings in this 15 miles,
- [00:30:45.582]we had to put
- [00:30:46.545]various right of way fencings up in the small towns
- [00:30:48.787]to keep folks from casually walking across the tracks.
- [00:30:51.307]We want to funnel them into these pedestrian crossings here
- [00:30:54.806]that actually have gates for the sidewalk itself.
- [00:31:00.348]And,
- [00:31:01.181]extensive coordination we've done along this project
- [00:31:03.457]with IDOT, with local municipalities,
- [00:31:06.755]with the ICC in Illinois.
- [00:31:08.282]I can't say how great a partner IDOT has been with us
- [00:31:11.183]in this project,
- [00:31:12.780]and the FRA's worked very well to make this happen,
- [00:31:15.569]very, very quickly when you think a project
- [00:31:17.119]this magnitude, how fast it's happening.
- [00:31:22.288]Okay, so what we've done today here for this,
- [00:31:24.637]these 15 miles, all 15 miles are good for class six now,
- [00:31:28.166]110 miles per hour.
- [00:31:29.243]We've rebuilt the siding at Odell for 2.7 miles long,
- [00:31:32.295]which is the entire piece of the little double track
- [00:31:34.489]there is good for 50 mile per hour.
- [00:31:36.330]It's all built on 20 foot track centers
- [00:31:38.723]and that is really for worker safety to where
- [00:31:40.779]people working on one track don't casually
- [00:31:43.696]get into
- [00:31:45.780]the foul of a track that could be running
- [00:31:47.571]as fast as 110 mile per hour.
- [00:31:50.177]We did that with 24 turnouts
- [00:31:51.579]and all the bridges and culverts.
- [00:31:54.052]So this is kind of what the product looks like,
- [00:31:56.098]this is in Odell, Illinois and this is
- [00:31:57.911]110 mile an hour passenger train.
- [00:32:03.784](train horn blaring in distance)
- [00:32:13.037]You notice that was a push, pull operation.
- [00:32:15.082]You might want to do that one more time.
- [00:32:17.314]All right we're gonna try to play this one more time for
- [00:32:20.126]hopefully you people that are on the line
- [00:32:22.570]can see this.
- [00:32:26.291](train horn blaring)
- [00:32:35.868]We've got sound on this end and it sounded
- [00:32:37.156]like it was going fast, too. (chuckles)
- [00:32:42.675]All right, so what's going forward here,
- [00:32:44.391]what work we still got left to do?
- [00:32:46.629]There's various tiers of project.
- [00:32:48.219]We just talked about tier one between
- [00:32:50.053]Dwight and Pontiac.
- [00:32:53.767]I'm not gonna get into these in detail, but we're,
- [00:32:57.465]these are tiered projects with
- [00:33:00.749]prospective start dates,
- [00:33:02.082]really based on environmental NEPA permitting.
- [00:33:05.198]Is when we expect we're gonna be able
- [00:33:06.430]to get a green light to move forward
- [00:33:08.000]with these various projects.
- [00:33:10.029]And this is for the second main track.
- [00:33:12.577]What you see here, is there's really four sections
- [00:33:14.666]of second main track,
- [00:33:15.993]there's one coming out of Joliet for about five miles.
- [00:33:20.901]And then there's some between Lincoln and Elkhart here,
- [00:33:24.287]just south of Springfield around Girad.
- [00:33:26.810]We've got a section, a double track
- [00:33:28.170]and then down between Godfrey and Shipman.
- [00:33:30.336](man mumbles)
- [00:33:32.091]Again,
- [00:33:33.700]five tier, or six tier project here
- [00:33:35.435]based on environment permitting.
- [00:33:38.320]What you see here is our project that
- [00:33:41.079]we've already completed.
- [00:33:42.871]And then the four double track sections
- [00:33:44.730]are where most of the environment footprint
- [00:33:47.324]permission needs to happen.
- [00:33:49.158]And we're well underway in
- [00:33:51.399]progressing those permits.
- [00:33:57.862]Okay, I'm gonna transition real quickly
- [00:34:02.331]to a little bit about our company.
- [00:34:04.169]I don't want to, there's probably nothing more
- [00:34:06.091]than I like more than
- [00:34:07.508]talking to people who are interested in our industry.
- [00:34:09.974]And if they're students who are looking for employment
- [00:34:13.583]that are interested in our industry I really like that.
- [00:34:16.277]So basically we're a large railroad,
- [00:34:19.148]we're a freight hauling railroad,
- [00:34:21.079]45,000 folks,
- [00:34:22.705]Fortune
- [00:34:24.160]140 company near about.
- [00:34:26.443]And we're a West Coast railroad,
- [00:34:28.065]pretty much Mississippi River west.
- [00:34:30.943]We're very diverse, probably one of the most diverse
- [00:34:32.105]railroads there are as far as what we haul.
- [00:34:34.587]Lots of energy, coal, lots of crude these days,
- [00:34:37.442]frack sand in relation to the crude.
- [00:34:39.682]Industrial products,
- [00:34:42.021]lots of grain.
- [00:34:43.893]Intermodal is growing everyday.
- [00:34:45.474]We're one of the largest
- [00:34:47.226]transporters of automobiles
- [00:34:49.693]and we are the largest transporter of chemicals,
- [00:34:52.051]primarily because of our footprint
- [00:34:53.182]down on the Gulf Coast.
- [00:34:55.356]We're large, 32,000 miles, I'm not gonna go through this.
- [00:34:59.522]It's a big operation that really translates
- [00:35:02.160]to lots of opportunity.
- [00:35:05.225]The message I wanted to leave you with is that
- [00:35:08.734]the freight rail industry is vibrant and it's growing.
- [00:35:12.644]Most folks don't understand that
- [00:35:16.223]we're down from 254,000 miles in 1916,
- [00:35:20.263]to 138,000 miles today.
- [00:35:23.091]But we're hauling more than we've ever hauled
- [00:35:26.187]on a lot less track.
- [00:35:28.312]And it's a great value proposition for our customers.
- [00:35:31.100]And you look back when this industry got deregulated,
- [00:35:34.014]this is all railroads, this is not just Union Pacific.
- [00:35:36.125]When this industry got deregulated
- [00:35:37.721]with the Staggers Act back in 1980,
- [00:35:40.198]our productivity has gone up, rates have,
- [00:35:43.531]have actually gone down,
- [00:35:46.811]and volume has gone way up.
- [00:35:48.067]It's been a great new story.
- [00:35:49.832]Which again operates, or translates into
- [00:35:51.922]a great opportunity for lots of folks
- [00:35:53.526]who want to get plugged into this industry going forward.
- [00:35:56.308]We look for bright people we look for leaders.
- [00:35:58.786]We like civils, Larry,
- [00:36:00.368]we like construction management folks, electricals,
- [00:36:02.289]electronic, industrial, structurals and mechanical.
- [00:36:06.097]And that concludes my presentation.
- [00:36:07.466]I'll be happy to take any questions.
- [00:36:10.695](audience applauds)
- [00:36:15.637]Thank you, folks who are joining online
- [00:36:17.742]please enter your questions in the chat box.
- [00:36:23.320]All right, so does anybody have any questions
- [00:36:25.314]while they're typing in, Steven?
- [00:36:34.761]What is the maximum speed that you think
- [00:36:36.922]it can go,
- [00:36:38.098]in case of any emergencies?
- [00:36:40.645]Okay, what's the maximum speed the train can?
- [00:36:44.207]Your train can pull?
- [00:36:46.505]Train goes pretty icy, on any emergency case?
- [00:36:50.467]Say you need this for--
- [00:36:52.648]We don't think of too many emergencies
- [00:36:54.215]that calls the train to speed up.
- [00:36:56.141]Normally emergencies we call the train
- [00:36:57.751]to slow down and stop, all right.
- [00:37:00.322]So.
- [00:37:01.861]You know I can give you some stories of how much
- [00:37:03.760]trains have gone over speed that I'm not gonna
- [00:37:05.498]get into today,
- [00:37:06.331]that they shouldn't have. (everyone laughs)
- [00:37:09.368]But that railroad you saw that's good for 110 mile per hour,
- [00:37:12.966]it can probably take a train running a little bit faster
- [00:37:15.120]than that and nothing bad happen, all right?
- [00:37:19.244]Other questions?
- [00:37:26.780]David you mentioned a lot of
- [00:37:28.749]road crossing work and the concrete pads
- [00:37:30.818]at the crossings for the highway.
- [00:37:33.009]Did you do anything special to transition
- [00:37:34.386]either the new bridges or the
- [00:37:36.695]crossings
- [00:37:38.418]We did. train.
- [00:37:39.427]We did.
- [00:37:41.135]Especially when you're, oop, I'm sorry.
- [00:37:42.978]It works. Am I good now?
- [00:37:44.368]Okay, good, yeah. All right.
- [00:37:48.983]Dr. Farager asked about
- [00:37:51.167]transitioning between crossings in bridges.
- [00:37:54.904]For those of you who understand rails,
- [00:37:57.877]a tremendous amount of mass, a lot of energy,
- [00:38:00.524]especially in this case it's going fast,
- [00:38:02.878]we don't have a lot of experience in UP with
- [00:38:06.427]what kind of problems we may see from
- [00:38:08.595]a fast train
- [00:38:12.938]approaching a crossing.
- [00:38:15.152]So there's always, we try to manage
- [00:38:18.765]the stiffness, we try to manage the modulus.
- [00:38:21.752]And with concrete ties it's much different track
- [00:38:24.029]than wood track.
- [00:38:25.315]When you put a concrete crossing board on the top of it
- [00:38:27.636]that has inherent mass in itself, it makes it even stiffer.
- [00:38:32.257]So we were concerned.
- [00:38:33.890]And we spent a lot of energy and resources
- [00:38:37.294]on our freight operations in
- [00:38:41.746]right on the edges of road crossings.
- [00:38:43.776]Because they're,
- [00:38:45.274]they go down and settle at,
- [00:38:48.277]because they're exposed to higher loading
- [00:38:50.293]then lots over open track.
- [00:38:52.980]So long story short.
- [00:38:56.868]What we did was,
- [00:38:58.530]in trying to transition from a tie spacing of every two feet
- [00:39:03.736]to, we wanted to go in and...
- [00:39:07.998]We did not want the crossings to settle.
- [00:39:10.252]So we actually went in to actually tighter
- [00:39:12.664]tie spacing within the crossings.
- [00:39:14.227]Which in itself make even higher modulus.
- [00:39:17.034]And then we transition over
- [00:39:20.344]what, 50 feet or so, maybe 25 feet,
- [00:39:23.000]I forget exactly what that answer is.
- [00:39:25.040]But there is a transitional zone outside the crossings
- [00:39:27.265]to where we went go from two foot tie spacing,
- [00:39:29.343]Dwight, so you remember
- [00:39:30.176]what the tie spacing is? Down from,
- [00:39:31.560]Two foot down to 17 inches.
- [00:39:33.681]17 inches.
- [00:39:34.514]So we go from 24 to 17 inches over a transition
- [00:39:37.309]of about probably 25 feet or something like that.
- [00:39:40.749]Do the same for bridges.
- [00:39:44.510]Because track is so,
- [00:39:45.915]because concrete track is so stiff actually
- [00:39:47.792]on what we call ballasted bridges
- [00:39:50.474]where we actually have ballasted track on top of
- [00:39:52.809]concrete panned bridges.
- [00:39:54.915]We actually
- [00:39:56.443]install a thin layer of elastimaric rubber
- [00:40:00.166]on the bottom of a concrete tie,
- [00:40:02.249]to where there's not this huge stress area sandwich,
- [00:40:06.254]where the ballast is sandwiched in
- [00:40:08.087]between concrete and concrete and it degrades too fast.
- [00:40:10.637]So we learned over the hard way,
- [00:40:12.357]over the long haul that we invest in a rubber pad
- [00:40:15.542]and these bridges will have that as well.
- [00:40:18.854]Got a question from the online audience
- [00:40:21.013]stating, what is the timeline for high speed rail
- [00:40:23.848]on the route to Chicago, Denver?
- [00:40:27.067]Well I'm not sure I'm in
- [00:40:28.105]the position to answer that.
- [00:40:30.358]It was on the map.
- [00:40:33.487]That's all gonna be subject to funding.
- [00:40:39.538]That's a particular route that I haven't heard much about.
- [00:40:46.739]Union Pacific is in any negotiations with anybody
- [00:40:48.823]about that route.
- [00:40:51.489]Another question from the University of Iowa.
- [00:40:54.104]What are you not designing,
- [00:40:55.776]why are you not designing for 200 or 250 miles per hour?
- [00:41:01.238]Good question.
- [00:41:06.076]We're a freight railroad, this is a freight quarter
- [00:41:09.051]between Chicago and St. Louis.
- [00:41:13.491]As I mentioned earlier in the presentation
- [00:41:15.956]we believe at Union Pacific that it is
- [00:41:21.821]irresponsible to try to mix
- [00:41:25.614]freight traffic that could be moving as slow as
- [00:41:28.438]25, 30 miles per hour
- [00:41:31.364]with very, very high speed train sets.
- [00:41:34.601]So the industry's pretty much taken a tact in this country
- [00:41:38.230]that anything faster than 110, and some might say even 90,
- [00:41:42.449]needs to be on a dedicated quarter.
- [00:41:44.379]At Union Pacific we're willing to entertain
- [00:41:45.964]110 miles per hour because this was predominantly
- [00:41:49.971]a passenger quarter at the time.
- [00:41:52.786]Although it could grow in freight business.
- [00:41:55.236]Again when you're dealing with speeds
- [00:41:57.275]like 200, 250 miles per hour
- [00:41:59.532]you're talking about a dedicated right of way.
- [00:42:02.863]You're talking about a dedicated operation completely.
- [00:42:06.152]And we surely weren't willing to donate our railroad,
- [00:42:08.925]that's the core of our business to that dedicated operation.
- [00:42:12.936]So we got the speed up as fast,
- [00:42:16.475]as we thought was prudent.
- [00:42:20.156]And that's kind of where we are.
- [00:42:22.283]David when you say
- [00:42:23.355]dedicated right of way,
- [00:42:24.563]can it be next to each other?
- [00:42:26.212]Get a microphone.
- [00:42:28.206]Can they be 25 feet on centers
- [00:42:29.434]when you say dedicated right of way?
- [00:42:30.727]Or do they have to be separate, separate?
- [00:42:35.030]They have to be separate, separate,
- [00:42:36.118]but they could be parallel.
- [00:42:38.959]But there is a separation threshold
- [00:42:41.969]that I'm not sure I could tell you right now what we've
- [00:42:44.493]have set at UP.
- [00:42:46.153]But there is a,
- [00:42:47.941]threshold of separation,
- [00:42:49.919]but it is off our right of way for the most part.
- [00:42:52.334]Our right of way is pretty much
- [00:42:54.918]100 foot wide with a track down the enter of it.
- [00:42:58.328]For the most part.
- [00:43:03.838]So I guess my first question.
- [00:43:05.314]So the freight rail, freight trains
- [00:43:08.099]use this track as well?
- [00:43:09.425]Is that correct, okay? They do.
- [00:43:10.505]So I'm just wondering,
- [00:43:11.338]do you do anything different maintenance wise
- [00:43:13.620]as far as the wheels, the bearings, et cetera
- [00:43:16.276]for the freight trains that are on this track that you
- [00:43:19.135]maybe wouldn't do otherwise?
- [00:43:22.753]Well.
- [00:43:23.586]The freight trains that are on this track
- [00:43:24.552]are on every other track in the country,
- [00:43:27.001]three days prior to being on this track.
- [00:43:29.491]So the answer is no.
- [00:43:31.003]But you have to realize and many of you in this room
- [00:43:33.205]and online know that the industry
- [00:43:35.971]has a much better handle on, due to technology,
- [00:43:41.198]due to freight car condition that it's ever had.
- [00:43:44.622]Whether that's a bearing,
- [00:43:45.788]whether that's a wheel profile,
- [00:43:47.847]whether that's a super structure of the car.
- [00:43:50.952]We've got much better visibility to it.
- [00:43:53.108]But still there is a risk.
- [00:43:55.254]That's one of our biggest risk in this operation
- [00:43:56.755]is there's a catastrophic failure on our rail car
- [00:43:59.698]that goes down and takes out quite a bit of this line.
- [00:44:02.620]And it's gonna take us awhile to get it back.
- [00:44:05.285]That's one of the largest risks.
- [00:44:06.686]We're not sure we know exactly it's gonna do,
- [00:44:09.019]how much maintenance it's gonna take
- [00:44:10.708]to keep it running at class six, because UP
- [00:44:12.943]unlike Amtrack, doesn't have a lot of experience
- [00:44:14.905]with class six railroad.
- [00:44:15.789]We're pretty good at class four and class five.
- [00:44:19.472]So this is gonna be a little bit of a learning.
- [00:44:22.098]We're gonna start maintaining the whole line
- [00:44:24.104]of class six here pretty much now,
- [00:44:25.951]to kind of get a good feel,
- [00:44:27.354]so we do go to revenue service on a broad footprint.
- [00:44:30.439]It should be pretty seamless.
- [00:44:36.085]You mentioned earlier that
- [00:44:37.919]the United States and the president start
- [00:44:40.451]recondition of the train line, about 50% of it.
- [00:44:44.709](voice fades)
- [00:44:48.083]Is there a main track that could be dedicated
- [00:44:51.070]to high speed rails and a fleet by the train companies?
- [00:44:54.007](voice fades)
- [00:44:55.446]Well that's a good question.
- [00:44:59.174]There's lots of rails to trails,
- [00:45:03.204]right of way, you know,
- [00:45:05.532]all of us in the infrastructure world know
- [00:45:07.614]that right of way's the precious thing here.
- [00:45:12.000]And quite frankly that's
- [00:45:14.761]why this operation is on a freight rail is
- [00:45:18.858]trying to forge through corn fields in Illinois
- [00:45:21.772]and take private land owners land,
- [00:45:24.004]you just don't get re-elected at that.
- [00:45:26.507]All right?
- [00:45:27.813]So.
- [00:45:29.922]But having enough rails to trails that would
- [00:45:33.066]in an efficient way
- [00:45:34.580]get from point A to point B to where high speed rail
- [00:45:36.513]would actually get there a whole lot faster,
- [00:45:39.083]they're far and few between.
- [00:45:40.494]But that could happen in some cases
- [00:45:41.810]to where there was a long between city line
- [00:45:44.470]and during mergers.
- [00:45:46.226]One railroad was completely abandoned
- [00:45:47.563]and all the traffic put on the other one,
- [00:45:49.141]that could happen in some cases.
- [00:45:51.087]But it's rare.
- [00:45:52.330]A good question.
- [00:45:55.265]Are there other questions online
- [00:45:57.105]or in the live audience?
- [00:46:00.300]On some of your photos
- [00:46:02.372]it looked like there's trees next to the tracks.
- [00:46:05.404]Is there a certain clear zone?
- [00:46:07.304]If there is, do you have to clear trees of certain heights
- [00:46:09.911]so they don't fall on the tracks?
- [00:46:11.042]How do you deal with that?
- [00:46:13.695]Well, good question.
- [00:46:15.085]If you noticed a couple before and afters,
- [00:46:17.153]hopefully you noticed that the trees look like
- [00:46:19.047]to be a little further apart.
- [00:46:20.484](man laughs) It wasn't just one
- [00:46:21.375]was spring or one was fall or winter.
- [00:46:24.464]So we did go in and clear brush back.
- [00:46:26.201]But that is a risk.
- [00:46:29.636]For the most of this rail line
- [00:46:33.053]it's a six foot cornstalk that'd come get us.
- [00:46:35.735]But there's probably about 15 miles of this alignment
- [00:46:39.258]that does have tall trees.
- [00:46:40.905]That was one of them that was shown here.
- [00:46:42.693]It is a risk in ice storms.
- [00:46:45.180]We are talking to IDOT about maybe going in
- [00:46:49.281]and clearing that back to where we don't have
- [00:46:50.950]that risk for the operation.
- [00:46:51.948]But good question.
- [00:46:54.450]There's some questions
- [00:46:55.444]from the University of Iowa.
- [00:46:57.027]How much would a dedicated high speed rail route cost?
- [00:47:04.045]A lot.
- [00:47:04.878]Yeah. (everyone laughs)
- [00:47:05.826]Gonna write this one down. (David laughs)
- [00:47:11.638]You know that's
- [00:47:13.147]I wish I'd came prepared with those numbers.
- [00:47:17.179]And I'm just not.
- [00:47:18.616]I'll be happy to get back to them
- [00:47:20.337]if I can find out who they are
- [00:47:21.670]and have a conversation with them.
- [00:47:25.256]It all depends on what you have to do.
- [00:47:30.131]We see here that we spent about 1/4 of a billion dollars
- [00:47:34.282]and we've done about 200 and
- [00:47:37.189]17 miles, so you do that rough math,
- [00:47:39.130]you kind of come up with that answer.
- [00:47:40.624]But the signal piece is not on top of that yet.
- [00:47:47.238]Another question is,
- [00:47:48.663]what would it take for Union Pacific
- [00:47:50.672]to get into passenger rail transportation?
- [00:47:53.853]About a $400 ticket between
- [00:47:56.566]Chicago and St. Louis.
- [00:48:01.413]Most passenger rail in this country
- [00:48:03.406]and most passenger rail in the world is subsidized.
- [00:48:07.084]We're in the business of using our network
- [00:48:09.926]to produce a positive net cash flow.
- [00:48:15.353]And that's why we go out of it.
- [00:48:17.267]And that's why we don't want to get back into it.
- [00:48:19.554]But we are willing to talk to people about
- [00:48:21.205]working out arrangements
- [00:48:23.230]in certain cases to where we might be able
- [00:48:25.461]to share our alignment if we can work out the proper,
- [00:48:29.294]the proper relationship.
- [00:48:32.143]A question from the audience here.
- [00:48:36.101]You mentioned this corridor,
- [00:48:39.000]on this corridor is running both freight and passenger.
- [00:48:50.417]Do you think,
- [00:48:55.982]is that two different systems for the train warning?
- [00:49:01.339]Good question.
- [00:49:02.242]For this corridor.
- [00:49:03.487]All right, good question.
- [00:49:05.000]So our core system,
- [00:49:06.817]for train warning for road crossings
- [00:49:08.437]or train warning, or
- [00:49:10.971]train control to keep trains apart?
- [00:49:13.448]The question is, you know we have our,
- [00:49:15.809]our signal system that keeps trains
- [00:49:18.419]a certain distance away from each other.
- [00:49:21.260]And then you have the crossing warning devices
- [00:49:23.102]that we showed with the gates that actually keep
- [00:49:25.398]the public away from the approaching trains.
- [00:49:29.576]Which were of the two were you asking?
- [00:49:32.305]I mean how you (drowned out by coughing)
- [00:49:34.181]how warning systems for freight and passenger trains?
- [00:49:37.480]Okay, so train warning for the road crossing,
- [00:49:40.476]train warning, so good question.
- [00:49:44.754]The trains that are running
- [00:49:48.307]high speed, higher speed,
- [00:49:50.423]all those locomotives will be equipped with technology
- [00:49:53.257]that bring those gates down much sooner.
- [00:49:55.717]Our freight trains will not.
- [00:49:57.802]And our freight trains will continue to work
- [00:50:00.269]conventionally because they're running much slower.
- [00:50:03.353]That answer the question?
- [00:50:04.669]So you are using
- [00:50:07.327]separate
- [00:50:09.279]system for the freight trains warning?
- [00:50:14.960]All of our freight trains
- [00:50:16.610]will be equipped with positive train control
- [00:50:19.806]in this quarter to run on this quarter.
- [00:50:23.134]All right?
- [00:50:24.679]So all of our trains, high speed passenger trains,
- [00:50:28.178]as well as our slowest freight trains,
- [00:50:30.386]will have positive train control
- [00:50:31.586]on board the locomotives in due time.
- [00:50:35.249]2015, after 2015, unless it gets extended.
- [00:50:39.301]But those freight trains will not carry the technology
- [00:50:41.857]that activate those road crossings any sooner,
- [00:50:44.534]like the high speed trains will do.
- [00:50:49.305]Do you think the highway road closings
- [00:50:52.265]now in communication for
- [00:50:55.400]high speed?
- [00:50:58.443]The question is, the great crossing closure?
- [00:51:01.413]Yeah.
- [00:51:03.198]I mean if you want to
- [00:51:05.595]increase the speed higher how do you can?
- [00:51:12.108]Do you need (voice far from microphone)?
- [00:51:15.404]In my opinion yes.
- [00:51:16.623]When you look Asia, when you look at Europe
- [00:51:18.796]there's very few trains that are running faster than
- [00:51:21.975]you know 150 mile per hour especially
- [00:51:24.837]that have to deal with a great crossing to where
- [00:51:27.777]some guy or gal could
- [00:51:30.839]be backed up on a road crossing
- [00:51:31.876]with a 200 mile an hour train approaching.
- [00:51:34.023]It just doesn't happen.
- [00:51:34.856]That's the dedicated right of way,
- [00:51:36.663]everything is straight separate in that case.
- [00:51:42.441]All right I think we have time
- [00:51:43.713]for one last question online.
- [00:51:50.750]And this is, how does the integration of high speed rail
- [00:51:53.775]affect intermodal traffic demand in the near future?
- [00:52:01.109]Could you read that again, Valerie?
- [00:52:03.627]So how does the integration
- [00:52:04.590]of high speed rail affect intermodal
- [00:52:07.088]traffic demand in the near future?
- [00:52:09.564]Well intermodal,
- [00:52:11.558]you know intermodal's a pretty broad term, so.
- [00:52:14.954]I'm not sure if the question is about intermodal
- [00:52:17.531]truck to rail or intermodal
- [00:52:20.393]bus to passenger train?
- [00:52:22.351]Bus to passenger.
- [00:52:23.307]Bus to passenger train.
- [00:52:27.931]If you get that core feeder network that's reliable
- [00:52:30.778]and you can get from the center of Illinois
- [00:52:32.515]to Chicago or St. Louis
- [00:52:34.406]much faster than you can drive it,
- [00:52:36.951]I think it will be successful provided it's reliable.
- [00:52:40.501]And it will, when you look at what's happened
- [00:52:42.436]at Normal, Illinois,
- [00:52:43.816]they built and intermodal center there
- [00:52:46.876]around the high speed train station.
- [00:52:49.293]So I think you'll see more of that.
- [00:52:53.510]Are there any last questions?
- [00:52:57.261]All right, to Dr. Rilett.
- [00:53:00.739]Thanks David that was a fantastic talk.
- [00:53:03.061]For the folks in Lincoln we're gonna be having
- [00:53:04.967]lunch and David will be around to answer more questions.
- [00:53:08.735]I should also mention that,
- [00:53:10.825]the sponsor for our series is Union Pacific Foundation.
- [00:53:13.276]We appreciate that.
- [00:53:15.084]I think it's been very good to have
- [00:53:16.960]a different perspective than we normally do
- [00:53:18.792]and having the railways come in.
- [00:53:19.788]We're gonna continue that in the near future.
- [00:53:21.825]So thank again David.
- [00:53:22.926]You bet, you're very welcome, thank you.
- [00:53:25.402](audience applauds)
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<!-- To force a 16x9 aspect ratio use 'padding-top: 56.25%;' instead of 'padding-top: 75%;' --> <div style="padding-top: 75%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/8729?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: 2012 MATC Fall Lecture Series: David Connell" allowfullscreen ></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments