Jun. 24—Trisha Rea isn't on a quest per se.

But she knows what's coming down the pike, er, railroad track.

Rea is like many Ottumwa residents who are concerned about the effects the potential Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, likely to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, will have on the community. The proposed $31 billion merger will allow goods to move by rail from Canada to Mexico, becoming the first U.S. railroad to do so.

And while that's all well and good from a rail perspective, Rea has reservations, especially considering the traffic increases soon to follow over Ottumwa's CP crossings at Quincy Avenue and 87th Street.

"It's just going to make it unbearable," she said. "We're going to have to do something."

The numbers game

CP trains have always created a conundrum of wait times for travelers on Quincy Avenue, Blackhawk Road and other locales on Ottumwa's west side.

And that's just with four trains — two each way — per day. Wait times can be lengthy, and city and county officials have discussed the issue with CP officials in the past.

For a while, those conversations worked, Rea said.

"Honestly, I think they just moved the trains on down," she said. "So they weren't blocking Quincy. They just blocked (87th Street). I don't know why they don't continue to do that. It was great for quite a few months, and then it just gradually got a lot worse and worse."

By 2027, Ottumwa is expected to see about 18 CP trains per day, but it will be a gradual build-up, with eight more trains per day over the first two years, and about seven in the third year. The section of track along the Mississippi River, through Ottumwa and to Kansas City is about to become a major hub for goods coming from the Great Lakes region and western Canada.

The increase of about 14 trains per day would make it the second-highest increase on any CP line in the country, but the merger is also expected to create about 40 jobs in the area.

'We want to keep these trains in motion'

CP media relations manager Andy Cummings has fielded numerous calls and emails about the blocked crossings in Ottumwa, but he insists that isn't the goal of the railroad company, and certainly won't be when the train count starts to increase.

"We see a lot of public benefits. There's a benefit for taxpayers because we maintain our own rails and ties with the money we earn hauling freight. There's an environmental benefit," he said. "We understand that some individual communities will be affected, so if communities have concerns, we certainly want them to come to us and we want to talk about that.

"But I also think it's important to keep in mind that to the extent possible, we want to keep these trains in motion," he said. "So if you think about a 10,000-foot freight train moving at 40 mph, they're going to pass through any given grade crossing in about three minutes. I don't want to downplay it, but we very much have an incentive to keep those trains moving and to move them as efficiently as we can."

Cummings said CP's goal is to establish more markets, and "offering shippers destinations that we can't offer today," primarily on the way to Kansas City and points south. Ottumwa will still remain a crew change point on CP's line, but he believes more trains will be passing through than not.

"With the merger, companies are anticipating being able to have trains go to places like the Great Lakes. Those cars are coming from the south and going north, and vice versa," he said. "They're not for local industries, so we don't see an increase in setting out or picking up of rail cars. We anticipate those moving through. The crew changes are something we try to do very quickly."

Infrastructure improvements

Eighteen trains per day probably couldn't be accomplished without some serious investment in operations, and that will be occurring, both along the line north of Ottumwa and south of it as it heads into Missouri.

One of the biggest, and most costly, will be the addition or extension of sidings, which will allow trains to be parked as higher-priority trains move through.

For example, from the CP yard to 87th Street, there is about 9,000 feet of siding, and that will be extended out another 3,000 feet to 170th Avenue. Farther south, about two miles of new siding will be built near Moravia, and north of Ottumwa, there will be more siding near Linby and Washington.

However, the improvements in Ottumwa will be among the last to be made, according to the merger proposal submitted by both CP and KCS. The siding extension is scheduled to occur in 2024 and 2025. Most of the CP capital investment improvements will take place in Iowa.

Also, CP will be signaling the entire line with centralized traffic control (CTC), in which signals can be changed at the click of a mouse, and train defects can be spotted quickly.

"Anytime we increase train speed, we have to meet higher standards under the Federal Railroad Administration requirements," Cummings said. "So that means if we were going to higher speeds, and have additional traffic, it affects things like inspection intervals and standards for the track.

"We've been the safety Class 1 railroad for 16 consecutive years," he said. "CTC has the ability to detect broken rails and prevent derailments."

Mixed reaction

Leaders from communities affected by the increased train count believe the merger will help their communities. Former Ottumwa Mayor Tom Lazio, who worked for a railroad when he was younger, was among many officials that wrote letters in support of the merger.

"CP is an important member of our community and economy. They have been a responsive and responsible operator," he wrote. "By giving CP greater market reach, the combined network will provide better transportation options for our businesses and support economic and job growth.

"Ottumwa has a large community of manufacturing businesses, such as John Deere, JBS, C&C Manufacturing, Winger Companies, that may benefit from this consolidation."

However, Appanoose County engineer Bradley Skinner was more skeptical, especially with bridge conditions along the line in his county.

"We have several at-grade crossing that needs adjustments in the approaches. We were recently forced to close a Canadian Pacific-owned bridge (carrying our vehicle traffic) that is in danger of structural failure," he wrote in January in a docket for the Surface Transportation Board, which must approve the merger. "I am concerned that growth of the line will be at county expense. I would like assurances that the railroad will provide necessary upgrades for the increased traffic and current shortcomings."

Rea's concerns are widely felt. In that same environmental study docket, other residents in Iowa and Illinois are skeptical of the merger, saying that train traffic is already congested in those areas.

Making it easier on residents

In Ottumwa, residents may simply be out of luck. It is unlikely Quincy Avenue is able to have a viaduct over the rail line because the road is too short before it turns sharply into Blackhawk Road. Also, CP can't simply move its operations farther west.

Rea, who owns a business on Blackhawk Road and lives on 87th Street, asked the Wapello County Board of Supervisors to look into the feasibility of a bridge over the tracks, but even then, supervisor Jerry Parker said bridges are typically scheduled seven years in advance.

Undaunted, Rea sought out grant funding opportunities through the FRA. She's also concerned about residents near her who might need emergency care, but can't receive it because a train is blocking a crossing.

"Emergencies happen, you know, heart attacks, car wrecks, anything," she said. "People also have to take the gravel, so when it's wet, it's bad, and when it's dry, it's dusty and you can't see people going too fast.

"It's going to get a lot worse, and we really do need to find a solution to the crossings," she said. "Whether it be an overpass, or some other solution, we really just need to find some solution."

Even more dire simply could be the fact that people might have to move. Businesses in that area could be affected if traffic isn't able to get there, but that isn't really something Rea can prepare for.

"I just can't imagine what the residents are going to do out there, because they're already furious as it is," she said. "You just have to take it as it comes though, and I just hope the railroad understands our situation.

"Nobody is going to want to live out there. Nobody is going to want to have a business out there," she said. "It's just unfortunate."

— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury