Albany

The owner of the rail line state officials hope to use for high-speed passenger trains strongly opposes the plan, calling it unsafe, bad for the environment and economically unsound.

CSX Transportation filed its comments as part of a preliminary environmental impact statement on the project. A copy of its filing was obtained by the Times Union.

The freight railroad opposed alternatives that would use its property to boost top train speeds from the current 79 mph to either 90 mph or 110 mph.

It favored an alternative that would see top speeds reach 125 mph, but only because it would require an entirely new rail line separate from CSX's existing corridor.

The line between Schenectady and Buffalo is part of CSX's busiest, handling 70 to 75 freight trains daily. It's part of the Empire Corridor from New York City to Niagara Falls. CSX also calls the corridor the company's "most important line" in its entire network.

CSX said additional passenger trains would only add to the congestion, causing delays and hindering access to freight customers on sidings along the main rail line.

Without adequate separation between the freight tracks and a newly constructed passenger track, high-speed trains also would pose increased danger to CSX track crews, it said.

The corridor turns south at the Capital Region, and freight and passenger traffic are largely separated, with freight trains traveling down a rail line on the west shore of the Hudson River and passenger trains traveling on the east shore. CSX 18 months ago leased the east side line to Amtrak, which now controls operations there.

CSX criticizes the methods used to compile the draft statement, pointing out that projected costs don't include payments for use of CSX property, which it says is worth "billions."

It also doesn't reflect the detrimental environmental impact that would result from shifting more freight traffic from trains to less fuel-efficient trucks as shippers facing delays from the added rail congestion move to the highways.

That increase in truck traffic also would lead to additional road and bridge maintenance costs, CSX said.

CSX is expecting additional freight demand from the widening of the Panama Canal, which is expected to bring more container shipments to East Coast ports from Asia.

CSX also said the statement doesn't consider other, more cost-effective, ways to improve passenger mobility from upstate cities such as Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo that are along the route, including improved bus service and air service.

And it says the study should have considered the Albany-New York City and Albany-Niagara Falls segments as two different corridors, allowing policy makers to proceed with improvements on the first and choosing the "no-build" alternative for the second.

The CSX comments don't acknowledge that scheduled air service along the Albany-Buffalo corridor is nonexistent because carriers have been unable to serve the route profitably. But the comments do point out the relative lack of population density and transit connections around existing stations in Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, Rome and the Capital Region, factors that could affect demand for the service.

The New York State Department of Transportation collected comments from the public during several meetings across the state and through written submissions. On March 21, it extended the deadline for comments to April 30. CSX filed its comments that day.

Those comments, and others submitted by the public, will be included in a final draft environmental impact statement expected to be released six months to a year after the comment period ended.

Another environmental impact statement on the alternative selected will then be produced.

DOT officials declined to comment until they've reviewed all the submissions and a final draft has been issued.

eanderson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5323