Bnsf, Up And The Bayport Terminal

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12/15/2004

Two railroads finally reach agreement

By: MARY ALYS CHERRY , Citizen Staff

Clear Lake residents woke today to find their worst nightmare was nothing more than just a bad dream.

The San Jacinto Railroad is kaput.

David Harpole, spokesman for the partnership that planned to build an $80 million rail line from Bayport to Highway 3 said Monday an agreement has been reached between Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads.

Union Pacific, which has a monopoly on rail service to the Bayport industrial complex, has agreed to let BNSF use its lines.

The agreement comes after Houston Mayor Bill White and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, U.S. Surface Transportation Board Chairman Roger Nober met with the CEOs of Burlington Northern and Union Pacific Oct. 25, asking the rail companies to reach an agreement by Nov. 15.

Partnership formed in 2001

The proposed 12.8 mile rail had its beginnings in July 2001 when four competing chemical companies - Lyondell, Equistar, Total Petrochemicals and Basell - went together with BNSF Railroad to form San Jacinto Rail Ltd.

Tired of paying what they considered extremely high rates to ship products out of their plants at Bayport and receiving no relief from Union Pacific, they decided to build their own railroad.

The Citizen first learned of the proposal about two weeks later when Larry Tobin sent an e-mail to the newspaper.

Tobin wanted to know why big parcels of land were being bought up around the northern edge of Clear Lake City.

A call to State Rep. John Davis' office confirmed that he had just received notice that plans were in the making for the railroad.

Once the story was published in The Citizen in mid-August, Clear Lake residents were clearly outraged.

As one put it, "You don't expect to pay a half million dollars for a home and then have someone plop a railroad down in your backyard."

Safety issues

The proposed railroad would sometimes carry hazardous chemicals, the partnership said, as it passed close to the backyards of the upscale homes of Pinebrook, Brookwood, Bay Oaks, Northfolk. Bay Glen, Bay Pointe and Bay Knoll and Brookwood and North Pointe elementary schools.

As the controversy raged, the partnership tried to explain that they were being held captive to only one rail shipper - Union Pacific -- and were often having to pay up to twice as much to ship their products from Bayport as compared to plants with competitive rail options.

"This costs us millions of dollars a year in excess transportation costs and hampers our ability to compete in the global chemical markets, threatening the long-term viability of our operations here," the partners said in a Sept. 17, 2002 letters to residents.

Their complaint fell on deaf ears as community associations hunkered down for battle.

City council joins battle

Several Houston City Councilmembers including Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, Addie Wiseman, Carroll Robinson and Michael Berry hosted a public hearing at the university, where residents decried the proposed rail line they felt would have a negative impact on their safety and quality of life.

Over the months, residents attended scoping meetings, wrote their congressmen, did just about everything they could to bring it to halt, to no avail.

Wiseman, Sekula-Gibbs, Davis, Congressman Nick Lampson, Sen. Mike Jackson, State Rep. Rick Noriega, all Houston mayoral candidates in two city elections, Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and many more elected officials railed against the project.

The City of Houston filed a lawsuit after San Jac Rail attempted through condemnation proceedings to take city land it needed for the rail near Ellington Field, which was upheld by Judge Cynthia Crowe of Harris County's Fourth Civil Court in October 2003, ending the partnership's land grab.

It was on appeal when the agreement was finally reached.