http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?a=308923&z=2
A congressman puts in his 2 cents. In the article, Mayo states facilities are 800 feet from the tracks. I believe the distance to the mainline is twice that. Also note the comments at end of the article.
Maybe the Mayo Clinic ought to be moved because of the ever increasing threat of hazardous bio-medical waste from a research hospital winding up on railroad R/W. [?] Hmmm…Medical degree somehow instantly entitles bearer of said degree to become land measurement expert?[sigh]
Mayo will lose this one BIG time here. This transaction is a minor one before the STB and not subject to the normal procedures. Unless they being Mayo get their lobbyists to REWRITE the ICC termination act of 1995 they will be faced with dealing with the CP next year. Just a hint for the CP send the First coal train after you get your PRB expansion built thru at say 645 am and wire the horn wide open with every car having flat spots on the wheels plus send it thru at 10 MPH. Then send the next one thru at 50 MPH no problems and then say here is the DM&E way with MAYO fighting us and here is the way CP runs coal trains.
I think if you read more carefully, you will see that it was the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure who was posing as a land measurement expert.
Sounds like they are gearing up to replay the last 10 years of bawling.
I am sure that more lawsuits are in the works from the angle that since CP took over the project everything will need to be re-studied again. Should be real boring.
Ober-what?
Seems to me that his only area of real expertise lies in the realm of being re-elected! Not that the reporter who put the original story together seemed to have a handle on it, either (read quickly, it seems that unit coal trains carry toxic material!)
Isn’t it interesting that all the nay-sayers were present, but nobody invited the CP to the affair. Sounds sort of like the mice planning to bell the cat…
Chuck
Oh, boy, here we go again…
“Toxic material” Ohh pulllleeezzee…
I have to agree Solz, it looks like they are ramping up to re-run the last 10 years of bawling…
I find it interesting that “Andy” here, felt that the games were over. heh heh.
In america, one doesn’t have to be “right”, nor even have a leg to stand on, to litigate a point. All you need is $$$ and an angle
The Mayo Clinic and Rochester aren’t in Oberstar’s district. I think that he will support them, but only to a certain point. I think a realistic study of a bypass will be made, the numbers will come up to be very expensive, and that will be the end of that.
Batooski, CP has deeper legal pockets in this matter than the Mayo Clinic, they also have the better position. The Mayo may have higher annual legal expenses, but they can less afford to direct a high proportion to this matter, I suspected that the main business of the legal department is defense against malpractice lawsuits. CP will spend $6-7 billion on this project, an extra $100-200 million in legal fees won’t break the bank. I don’t think Rochester or the Mayo clinic would be willing to take the matter that far. They could easily outdo the DM&E but failed, CP would be much tougher. Indeed if necessary CP could finance a significant amount to PR firms to enhance their position. It could get interesting, but I think CP will win.
I’m sure those tracks were there sometime in the 1800s? And Mayo started WHEN and in what part of Rochester. And way back when that rail line brought them a majority of their customers, and supplies. AND Mayo continued to build buildings closer to the tracks with plans for this use and that use, using these types of machines and instruments. And and and, by the way they do run some coal trains by here to our power plant and others on through to Winona and they have been doing this for how many decades? And when a new building is in the plans I’m sure every single management level person on Mayo, every construction engineer, every person with the local governments liscencing agency for construction KNOWS theres a train track just ___ feet away and the ground can shake. I’m sure everyone who lives in Rochester knows this. But a bunch of people are wining, crying waaaaaaahhhhhh waaaaaaaahhhhh and having a temper tantrum by way of lawyers cause they didn’t plan 20 years ago for greater use of a rail line right next their buildings.
AND, someones gotta tell the public there how much quieter Continuously Welded Rail makes a train. Sitting in my truck down by the tracks on 61, north of 494 in St.Paul I did not hear a northbound train with idling engines until it was about 20 feet from me. I just about ruined my underwear as I was next to the tracks.
Anyone on here know exactly what year that line reached Rochester?
My money is on Canadian Pacific for this go-around. Mayo has expended much more than its share of rhetorical overstatement and political nudging.
So what’s Mayo gonna do now? Nuke Calgary?
From the above article:
"For about a decade, DM&E, Mayo and local officials have been deadlocked over the railroad’s proposal to expand its rail line into Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin. The expansion would increase rail traffic in Rochester, though DM&E and local officials have disagreed over the amount. "
What I don’t understand is that if Mayo does not have a leg to stand on, how were they able to deadlock DM&E? Why didn’t DM&E just tell them to take a hike?
All the rail news from Minnesota isn’t bad:
State to get $5.6 million for Minneapolis rail hub
9/24/2007 11:15:16 PM
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS – The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded Minnesota about $5.6 million to extend the Hiawatha commuter rail line to a planned Northstar commuter rail station in Minneapolis, Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s office announced Monday.
The Hiawatha line is an 11-mile stretch that extends from Minneapolis south to the Mall of America and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The Northstar line, which is set to open in late 2009, will be a 40-mile line from Minneapolis northwest to Big Lake.
“This project will help provide reliable service for thousands of Minnesotans traveling on our roads and rail, easing congestion and providing more transportation options,” Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a prepared statement.
The grant will be used for an easement payment to the BNSF Railway.
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?a=309070&z=2
Mayo lost EVERY court case they tried to stop the DM&E expansion. The only thing that ended up stopping the DM&E was the simple fact they could not get the money to build it. Now here comes a Class one RR worth more than 6 Billion dollars and Mayo is going to try the SSDD to stop them. Canadian Pacific can and will just out spend Mayo on the PR department and make Mayo look like the fools they are. Sorry Mayo you can not get in the way of progress. The STB and the courts have all said that it can go forward and be built you LOST keep bending over your patients and telling them to breathe deeply as you overcharge them it won’t hurt.
Mayo Clinic was founded in 1883. I have a 1871 RR map showing Rochester on Winona & St. Peter RR.
CP has a very good track record of working with on-line communities and I don’t think this will change at all once we acquire the DME/ICE. But make no mistake about it, if push should come to shove, CP will make minced meat out of the Mayo Clinic.
when i was waiting for the winona steam, i was discussing this mayo vs DME incident with another railfan. he claims mayo is also complaining that “the vibration from the trains will interfere with the healing processes with their patients.”
that, to me, also seems ridiculous. America has, indeed, become lawsuit-happy. why work for money when you can just sue people for it? sheesh…
toxic spill from a derailment? oh please… CP will more than likely maintain that track. this is CP, not CSX…
Mayo’s claim specifically was that the vibrations of the trains would interfere with their sensitive medical equipment. I certainly can’t claim to be any kind of an expert on that, though I will say that the STB examined that issue and found it to be without merit.
Again, on the lawsuit thing, I’m just not seeing what Mayo is going to challenge. They challenged the STB over the approval of the DM&E project, and they lost. So what else do they sue over? Trains running over a privately owned railroad right-of-way? I think the railroad’s on pretty solid footing there, as it happens thousands of times a day all over the country.
CP isn’t going to pony up for a bypass. Mayo isn’t going to pony up for a bypass. Mayo’s best hope now is that CP studies the coal project, talks to utilities, and decides it just isn’t worth the money it would cost. I suspect the likelihood is that CP will eventually build it, but there’s certainly no guarantee of that.
Andy Cummings
Associate Editor
Trains Magazine
Waukesha, Wis.
I’d be highly reluctant to make the same speculations as you.
The Mayo clinic does not HAVE to have merit to it’s concerns to make a sore thumb out of themselves, and it appears toward that end they are a headin’.
All they have to do is whine about concerns for public welfare, and with their reputation they are assured to at least get a hearing.
Obviously there are those here who felt they had heard the last of Mayo’s contention, while I suspected immediately that was more than just a tad overly optimistic. I was singled out as ‘non-responsive’ simply because I refused to speculate what specific strategy mayo would decide to pursue next. The possibilities are really infinite so long as you have a public health entity determined to make a problem of themself who is willing to play the " public safety" card. Mayo may correctly realize that CP has more interest in being seen as a good corporate neighbor, than DM&E, and (may be) whittling away at that sensitivity.
I think it will boil down to which alternatives are available.
Batooski writes:
“I’d be highly reluctant to make the same speculations as you.”
And I reply:
Great! Does that mean we can agree to disagree?
Andy Cummings
Associate Editor
Trains Magazine
Waukesha, Wis.