(The following column, "Years of inaction later, feds may bend CSX's deaf ear," was written by Michael Dresser and appeared May 18, 2009, in the Baltimore Sun.)
When my colleague Peter Hermann oversaw The Sun's Watchdog feature, he reported on the hazard created by gaps in the fence around the railroad tracks at the south end of Charles Street in South Baltimore.
With most Watchdog complaints, Hermann would end up calling government bureaucrats to report some incidence of broken or malfunctioning infrastructure. In most cases, he was able to rouse them to take quick action rather than deal with unfavorable publicity.
But when he took on the South Baltimore fence problem two years ago, Hermann faced a much more formidable obstacle: the giant freight railroad CSX, which owned the crumbling fence that posed no significant barrier to those who thought the rail yard was a wonderful place to drink, ingest drugs or practice the world's oldest profession.
To say that CSX was recalcitrant is an understatement.
Multiple calls were not returned. When a spokesman was finally reached, he put off reporters with vague assurances that the railroad would send out an inspector. Later he changed his tune to say there might not be a solution. Months dragged on with no action, even as reporters followed up multiple times and neighborhood associations made repeated requests for action.
"They're the ones that just didn't care," Hermann recalls.
Finally, nine months after The Sun first reported the problem, CSX fixed the fence.
Too little, too late.
As Congress prepares to take up a huge transportation authorization bill, city planning officials are asking Maryland's congressional delegation to back a federal crackdown on the railroads.
The request comes in a wish list of transportation projects the city sent to lawmakers last week. The Dixon administration minces no words in describing its frustration with the railroad industry.
"For local government, large railroads are too often nothing more than a nuisance. Problems which seem small or intractable to large national railroads are often major irritants to local governments:trash-strewn rights-of-way, unsightly bridges in need of cleaning and repainting, unsafe bridge structures and grade crossings, and notification of hazardous material shipments, among others. Phone calls and letters from local officials to the railroad, many times offering to handle the problem on behalf of or at no cost to the railroad, go unanswered; it is oftentimes as if the railroads have no regard for the communities through which their trains pass," the city wrote.
If city officials are under that impression, there's a reason: Railroads - particularly those in the freight business - have shown repeatedly that they couldn't care less about local communities or governments. Legally, they answer only to the federal government. In practice, it's the federal government that answers to them.
When Baltimore complains about unresponsive railroads, you'd better believe it has CSX in mind. The city and the railroad have a history. Remember that little tunnel fire that shut down much of downtown back in 2001?
Baltimore is urging the Congress to direct that agency and the Surface Transportation Board to develop "good neighbor" requirements for the nation's railroads. It seems like an innocuous request, but it's the kind of proposal that will mobilize an army of industry lobbyists.
In recent years, there have been some signs of a mellowing of the culture of institutional arrogance in railroad boardrooms. Rep. C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who remembers the difficulties of dealing with CSX from his days as Baltimore County executive, told me recently that he has noticed a new responsiveness in CSX management. Gov. Martin O'Malley recently commented favorably on improvements to the appearance of the railroad's right-of-way in Baltimore.
Garrick Francis, a CSX spokesman, said the company has gone a long way to be responsive to local government and citizen concerns - in Baltimore and elsewhere.
"We're constantly focused on moving our customers' products safely and efficiently and working with the communities we serve to make a positive contribution," he said.
That's all very nice. But it would be better to have something you can enforce in place.
Congress and the Obama administration ought to hold the railroads' feet to the fire in the new authorization bill. The railroads shouldn't be regulated at the local level, but they should face painful federal penalties if they blow off state and local concerns.
Both literally and figuratively, it's time that the railroads mended their fences.
