Cross-border railway project under scrutiny

By Diana Washington Valdez \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 06/08/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT

A group of U.S.-Mexico border residents is asking the U.S. Justice Department to look into whether the BNSF Railway did anything improper to influence a massive railway project in Juárez in violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"We have petitioned the U.S. Department of Justice to consider opening an investigation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and its corporate family under the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," said El Paso businessman Javier Ortiz, a spokesman for the group.

Ortiz, who did not specify any alleged improper acts, said he represents a group that filed the petition on Monday. He said the group includes people from Juárez, El Paso and Southern New Mexico who are concerned about environmental and safety issues.

"The group is opposed to the Mexican federal government paying for cross-border trains to continue traveling through the urban spread of Juárez and El Paso because of the traffic safety problems they create and due to the dangerous chemicals that trains transport through the cities," Ortiz said in a telephone interview.

"Our suspicion grew from the BNSF's continued and sustained insistence for five bridges and overpasses to be built in Ciudad Juárez in order to continue the international rail cargo exchanges between Mexico and the United States in the downtown areas of Juárez and El Paso, and in contradiction of Mexican President Felipe Calderón's directive to construct a rail bypass from the south of Juárez to the San Jeronimo-Santa Teresa, N.M., border," Ortiz said.
Mexican federal officials have said that the rail bypass also will connect Juárez to the east at the planned Guadalupe-Tornillo border crossing.

Concerning the petition, "The department declines comment," said Alisa Finelli, a Justice Department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C.

Joseph Faust, spokesman for BNSF in Fort Worth, said, "BNSF Railway has not seen the petition in question and has no comment on its merit."

The group also sent a copy of the petition to Berkshire Hathaway, BNSF's parent company. No one at Berkshire was available for comment.

Calderón announced plans for the railway project in July 2007. For the past four years, the BNSF, in coordination with Ferromex, has actively promoted the construction of the overpasses and underpasses in Juárez.

Juárez officials said they approved five overpasses and underpasses to make rail crossings safer for residents. Construction on the first bridge is supposed to begin next month.

The trains currently cross over the "black bridge," which is near the BNSF rail yard in South El Paso.

Ortiz's group said in a news release that the Mexican Ministry of Communications and Transportation, which oversees railroads in Mexico, has an office in the state of Chihuahua that has worked with the BNSF to push the overpasses and underpasses at the cost of delaying the rail bypass.

BNSF representatives have told the Mexican press and New Mexico officials that the company supports the rail bypass as a project for the future.

"I believe the BNSF is seeking to delay the rail bypass because of what it might cost them to extend their railway on the U.S. side of the border to connect to New Mexico," Ortiz said. "Mexican officials said it would cost $80 (million) to $100 million to build the bypass on the Mexican side. We've seen estimates attributed to BNSF that an extension for the bypass on the U.S. side might cost the U.S. railway $500 million, although we think it can be done for the same or close to the same price as Mexico."

Last week, El Paso city Rep. Beto O'Rourke organized a meeting at City Hall to discuss how train traffic will affect neighborhoods in South El Paso during the construction of the rail bridges in Juárez.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.

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