"Each side with trust and confidence"

My late, esteemed colleague Gus Welty, whose "Lines on Labor" column graced the pages of this magazine for many years, was rarely off the mark when it came to understanding relations between railroad management and labor. Five years ago, he said that the two sides should "find a way to settle differences without disrupting service" and "do a long-term deal, each side with trust and confidence in the other, so that we can have some stability in the industry."

Gus would be encouraged, I think, to hear about the tentative, four-year national agreement the United Transportation Union has worked out with UP, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, BNSF, and Kansas City Southern. Among other firsts for the operating crafts, it's said to include guaranteed pay, and predictable work time and time off-things that many of us take for granted. It would phase out the industry's outdated, complicated, mileage-based pay system and replace it with one where crews are paid a fixed rate for a train run. Now, the rank-and-file must approve the new contract. If they do, it's likely that other railroad unions will follow suit.

Knowing him to be a person who cared deeply about the quality of life of the people who comprise the vast majority of this industry's work force, I'm sure Gus would have encouraged the UTU membership to vote "yes." And he'd have the same reaction toward a similar effort that appears to be getting under way with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, starting with UP. This is a pilot program affecting 140 engineers based in North Platte, Neb. Like the UTU agreement, it promises scheduled work time and days off, and set pay based on trips, not miles. No more crew-calling at ungodly hours.

No strings attached: At about the same time Acela Express service finally gets under way on the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak has moved ahead with another high speed initiative: The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. By Nov. 1, bids should be in for a fleet of 13 125-mph tilting trainsets. What's significant is that this time, there will be no strings-catenary-attached, as these trains will use diesel-electric or turbine propulsion. Amtrak plans to introduce the new trains in 2003 on three routes out of Chicago: Detroit, St Louis, and Madison, Wis. (via Milwaukee). Top speed should be 110 mph, provided right-of-way improvements are done, with 125 mph the goal. Let's hope this project stays on schedule.

Illegitimate no more: If Amtrak has been the stepchild of Congress over the past 30 years, then VIA Rail has got to be the Canadian government's illegitimate child. What else would you call a passenger rail system where over 50% of routes have been hacked away and investments-excuse me, "subsidies"-have been cut in half in the past 10 years?

It appears as though VIA Rail is finally assuming its rightful place in Canada's transportation network. Canadians, like Americans, are disgusted with winglock and gridlock, and Canadian Transport Minister David Collenette convinced the legislature to at least partially reverse years of disinvestment with a $400 million capital infusion. VIA may use some of this to purchase about 100 Alstom Nightstock coaches, sleepers, and lounge-buffet-baggage cars that were built for overnight England/France Chunnel trains but never placed in service. One trainset is testing as this is written.

"Ten transport ministers in the last quarter-century have promised to put Canada's passenger trains on the right track," wrote Greg Gormick in the Sept. 11 Toronto Star. "Nine of them didn't." Collenette, he says, "took his own stand against tough odds" and convinced lawmakers that "starving the iron horse, as government has done in the past-even while investing heavily in air services and highways-isn't the best way to get a good ride." Collenette, saying that "passenger trains do have a role to play" and that "this horse hasn't been fed properly," calls supporting VIA "a policy decision." Sounds a lot like the late, great Graham Claytor.

Maintenance Away! Errors that make it into print can be a source of amusement for most editors (unless, of course, they're your own). One day after seeing this headline in a suburban Chicago newspaper, "Program needs volunteers to help curb adult literacy," a press kit arrived from the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority describing the opening of a new assembly plant for 100 Breda rapid transit cars. The Tucker Assembly Facility, said the press release, "can accommodate up to 16 cars at a time and has a direct connection through the CSX railroad to MARTA's Avondale Maintenance Away Shop." Sorry, but I couldn't resist.