|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Feb 03, 2006: Hotline #435It appears that the Bush Administration will propose $900 million for Amtrak in Fiscal 2007 in the budget that is to be unveiled on Monday. That’s what Reuters reported earlier this week, and Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-MT) has a Feb. 1 news release stating flatly, “The Administration today proposed spending $900 million for the passenger rail service in its fiscal 2007 budget proposal.” An Associate Press report, however, did not give a firm figure. In current dollars, this is what the Administration proposed two years ago and three years ago, for Fiscal 2005 and 2004, respectively. In real terms, of course, inflation has reduced the value of $900 million, which in any event is much lower than Amtrak needs to survive. At $900 million, Amtrak would have little or nothing for capital investment, much of which the Administration repeatedly has said it supports. It will also be important to see what conditions the budget attaches to the $900 million or whatever figure they actually propose. The kindest thing one can say is that this is an improvement over last year’s proposed zero. It also gives the Administration somewhat more credibility in the budget debate this year than last. The House Ways and Means Committee stripped tax (funding) provisions from H.R. 1631, intended to help finance high speed rail infrastructure projects. The same thing happened in 2003. The action reflects the reality that passenger rail does not currently have a champion on the House Ways and Means Committee. Thus, the message to your legislators continues to be: support for a full Amtrak appropriation, as well as passage of Amtrak reauthorization (S. 1516) and introduction of companion House legislation. Go to our Action Alert Center for full details and to contact your elected officials. Rep. John Boehner’s (R-OH) victory Feb. 2 in the race for House Majority Leader could have a positive impact on passenger rail, since Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), a strong Amtrak supporter, publicly supported Boehner when Boehner trailed Roy Blunt (R-MO) in public commitments by a margin of 101-51 (the tally available the morning of the vote at the website of The Hill magazine). Of course, our work as rail advocates is still cut out for us. The New York Times reported today that Boehner’s victory “is unlikely to lead to any substantial change in direction on most policy issues.” In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, President Bush made no specific mention of Amtrak or passenger rail. But he did say: “Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” NARP issued a media advisory the next morning highlighting the need to invest in passenger rail to curb our nation’s oil addiction. Media discussion has focused on how to make vehicles more fuel efficient, while generally neglecting the equally important question of how improvements in land use and community planning could reduce vehicle miles driven, reduce vehicle trips, and increase transit’s market share The United States Department of Transportation will begin a program to send federal railroad inspectors to “safety hot spots.” In announcing the DOT “National Rail Safety Action Plan,” Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said that the plan, ““ensures our rail network and our economic growth can continue to move forward at a robust and record-breaking pace.” The program will use accident data to identify specific safety problems—be it by individual railroad, type of accident, or location of accident. Inspectors will then be deployed accordingly to address the issues; corrective action taken will reduce the likelihood of future incidents. Texas Rail Advocates hosted the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor Conference last Friday in Dallas, TX. TRA President (and NARP Board member) Peter LeCody reported on the event:
Despite strong public support, a slew of public hearings and affirmative votes by the State Transportation Board, the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority, and Boards of County Commissioners, some legislators in Georgia now want to put the Atlanta-Lovejoy commuter rail project to a public vote. State Representative John Lunsford (R-McDonough) said that his referendum proposal “aims to protect citizens from an ‘unfunded mandate’ for a transportation project that they may or may not support.” Referenda are not required for proposals to build new roads or to make other traffic improvements in Georgia, or to subsidize bus service, and rail supporters see in Lunsford’s proposal a double standard that victimizes commuter rail compared with roads. In a news release, Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers President Steve Vogel denounced the proposed referendum requirement as “just the latest attempt by the highway lobby to block commuter rail service at all costs…If this bill becomes law, it will be used to fight commuter train service not just to Lovejoy, but to Athens, Gainesville, Marietta, you name it. It will be used to deny thousands of Georgians the option of using trains instead of cars.” The long-planned intermodal station at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, RI, (near Providence) may be closer to reality. The crucial rental car agreement is not yet signed, but apparently is nearing completion. In anticipation of that, the site is being cleared; two buildings were demolished this week. Gov. Don Carcieri says that a groundbreaking could occur as early as next month, with revenue service in about a year and a half. Other observers estimate revenue service (for commuter rail) starting in 2009. Los Angeles International Airport will begin a park-and-ride service from Los Angeles Union Station to the airport, an important step to improve transfers between the airport and Amtrak/local rail transit operations. Station-Airport round-trip bus ticket will be $6. For those who park at the station, the parking charge will be $6 a day. The goal is to remove traffic from the LAX service lanes; a similar park-and-ride service from Van Nuys to LAX removed thousands of vehicles a year. More mudslides have affected the Cascades service in the Pacific Northwest. A slide between Everett and Seattle has forced cancellation of Sounder Commuter Rail service and termination of the Empire Builder at Everett. The Portland section of the Empire Builder derailed on Saturday morning about 45 miles west of Spokane. The cause of the derailment is under investigation, however, a track defect is suspected. There were no serious injuries. Amtrak Guest Rewards redemption rates increased on January 1. Coach and business class redemption rates, including Acela Express and Metroliner, increased 500 points. Acela Express and Metroliner First Class increased 500 points as well, while sleeping car redemption rates remain unchanged. This is the first increase in redemption rates since the program’s implementation in 2000. Members were advised via their e-statements in November/December and the new redemption levels were available on “Program News” section of the AGR website in December. Guest Rewards members are reminded to sign up for e-statements and e-mails to receive bonus offers. Many Chinese use the train to travel to their native communities for celebration of the Chinese New Year. However, there is one problem: Chinese railroads overbook the trains, to the point of selling two tickets for each seat. As a result, bathroom usage becomes problematic. According to the Associated Press, some passengers have turned to an interesting solution: adult diapers. Supermarkets near railroad stations report as much as a 50% spike in sales since January 14. Feb 10, 2006: Hotline #436A Harris poll released February 8 found that, “as personal travel and freight transportation grows in the future, the American public would like to see an increasing proportion of that traffic going by rail…The modes of transportation which the largest number of adults would like to see ‘have an increasing share of passenger transportation’ are: commuter trains (44%), long-distance trains (35%), local bus service (23%), and airlines (23%).” The comparable percentage for “long-distance travel by car” was just 10%, long-distance bus service 6%. Freight rail received strong support in the survey: “Freight railroads (63%) come far ahead of all other modes that adults would like to see have an increasing share of freight transportation. They are followed by: Air freight (35%), and Trucks (24%).” 47% of respondents were primarily concerted about safety, while 44% were concerned about energy efficiency and 29% by cost. Survey participants also want to see federal government involvement to continue, “When it comes to the transportation system ‘in the nation as a whole,’ two-thirds (68%) of adults believe this should be a responsibility of the federal government.” President Bush has requested $900 million in federal funding for Amtrak in fiscal 2007. The proposal calls for $500 million for operating and debt service and $400 million for “Efficiency Grants” (which is presumably operating costs). This is a shutdown budget. Moreover, the budget narrative is laced with attacks on long-distance trains, including this at page 222: “The Administration believes Amtrak, working with DOT, could achieve needed savings by moving aggressively in a number of areas, including phasing out costly overnight trains and restructuring its train schedules to emphasize regular short trips.” Page 221 highlights a December 3 Washington Post editorial that claims long-distance routes “make little sense today but that have entrenched political support in Congress.” Also on this page is an attack on “the disproportionately high cost of running sleeper cars on long-distance trains,” and a condescending reference to “Amtrak’s 15 long-distance trains that travel along World War II-era routes.” There is also a reference to a “several billion dollar backlog of capital projects” on the Northeast Corridor, and the statement that, “because Amtrak has not made the highly populated corridors its top priority, operating performance has suffered.” This is nonsense. The Northeast Corridor gets the lion’s share of Amtrak’s capital funding; a dramatic improvement program in the Corridor has been underway for over three years. That quotation is followed by a non-sequitur—citation of a decline in systemwide (not corridor) on-time performance. In addition, the Office of Management and Budget has begun a new website, “ExpectMore.Gov” in which it rates government programs based on performance. Amtrak is rated as “Not Performing/Ineffective.” NARP has begun “Fact Check 2006” (to follow up on our very successful Fact Check series from last year). The first entries respond to several statements in the budget narrative and the ExpectMore site. Its located in the Amtrak released a statement from Acting CEO David Hughes which said, in part, “While the growth in our operating deficit has been halted and ridership continues strongly, we must seize the opportunity presented by the growing demand for passenger rail service around the country and make improvements to our customer service. If we can do this, and do our jobs well, we will have made the best case for continued public support for Amtrak. This is the first step in a nine-month process. Last year, Congress voted and the President signed an appropriation for Amtrak of $1.3 billion for FY06. This year, we again look forward to working with Congress and the Administration as we make the case for federal support.” The full budget, released on Monday, is one of the tightest in recent memory, with draconian cuts to education, agriculture, Medicare, and Medicaid, among other programs. Some observers also see it as the most unworkable, especially since this is an election year. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, told Bloomberg news, “If you look at history, every time you have a choice between policy initiatives and the budget, the budget lost.” The same article also pointed out that a vast majority of Bush’s budget cuts and outright program eliminations—including Amtrak—has been rebuffed by Congress. The fact that the budget cuts or eliminates so many programs means that Amtrak supporters on Capitol Hill will be unusually busy defending other programs. Rail advocates should be mindful of that—and contact their House and Senate members to encourage full funding of Amtrak’s fiscal 2007 funding needs. Go to our Action Alert page for full details. Transit would take a $100 million hit in the President’s budget. SAFETEA-LU guaranteed a funding level of $8.97 billion for fiscal 2007. According to the American Public Transportation Association, “funding transit below the authorized and guaranteed level means that needed improvements to the transit infrastructure will occur at a slower rate, thus prolonging what the President correctly described in his State of the Union Address as America’s addiction to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” A new report that points to increased pollution from trains is misleading, according to the American Association of Railroads. The report, “Danger in Motion: It’s Time to Clean up Trains and Boats,” was published jointly by the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials. The report claims that “locomotive and marine diesel engines today are legally permitted to emit pollutants at much higher rates than trucks, buses or non-road diesel engines. A typical train, for example - even one that meets new railroad emissions standards - will emit as much particle pollution over its life as nearly 500 trucks.” AAR argues that the report, “failed to include EPA data which show that locomotives contribute less than 2% of fine particulate matter pollution, while industrial plants, agriculture, utility plants, and other stationary sources produce a whopping 72%” The Transportation Security Administration conducted a transit screening pilot project on PATH trains between New York and New Jersey this week. The program, which tested airline-style baggage x-ray machines and metal detectors, is intended as a pilot project, much like the three-phase TSA project last year with Amtrak. Larry Orluskie, a DHS spokesman, told the Washington Post, “What they are expecting out of this project is to collect information on customer wait times and impact on operations…The idea is to not hinder people.” Amtrak and the Long Island Railroad have come to an agreement in principle that would permit LIRR trains to tunnel under Amtrak’s Sunnyside Yard into Grand Central Station. LIRR President James Demony and Acting Amtrak CEO David Hughes announced the agreement this week. A funding source for the $7 billion project has yet to be identified. Super Bowl XL put the spotlight on Detroit this past weekend as (with all apologies and sympathies to our friends at WashARP and NARP members in Washington State), the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks 21-10. Of particular note in several media articles was Detroit’s almost total lack of transit infrastructure. The Detroit News said, “Detroit’s lack of comprehensive mass transit was shown throughout Super Bowl week in the overfilled People Mover and shuttle buses ferrying people between the city and suburbs…Larry Alexander, president of the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, said mass transit is critical to luring more big-name events to the region.” Studies have commenced on a variety of transit options for Metro Detroit, including Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter rail and a link between downtown and Metro Airport. More mudslides continue to hamper rail service in the Pacific Northwest. Full Cascades service was expected to be restored this evening, with cancellations most of the week between Seattle and Portland. Trains began running between Seattle and Vancouver, BC again on Monday. An equipment shortage suddenly developed a week ago after Amtrak inspected cars in its Sunnyside Yard. The southbound Silver Meteor today was cancelled today for the fifth straight day. An expanded Silver Star is running (today with five coaches, and three Viewliner sleepers plus Heritage dorm), but “no alternate transportation” is provided to passengers along the Charleston route of the Silver Meteor (where the Palmetto currently is not running Monday-Thursday due to CSX track work). NARP has protested the train cancellations and apparent inadequate attention to alternate transportation needs. Travelers to Santa Barbara, CA can take advantage of a new program called the “Car Free Experience.” The program includes two-for-one bus or Amtrak coupons to the city, discounts at hotels and restaurants, and special pricing for tours, trolley rides, whale watching and other activities. Full information is available on the program’s website. Feb 17, 2006: Hotline #437Twenty seven House Republicans sent a letter to Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) requesting adequate funding for Amtrak in fiscal 2007. The letter states, in part, “While the President’s FY07 budget request for Amtrak is a significant step forward in providing sufficient funding for passenger rail, we are concerned that this funding proposal would leave the rail system incapable of providing effective service for its 25 million annual passengers.” This year’s letter had seven new signatories when compared to last year’s letter. Signers this year are (new signers indicated by *):
Congress will be on recess next week for the President’s Day District Work Period. Take advantage of your legislators being at home—ask them to oppose the Bush shut-down Amtrak budget request of $900 million, and to support at least a continuation of this year’s $1.3 billion. Go to our Action Alert Center for full details. Here’s the math. In FY 2007, debt service will take about $295 million. Amtrak’s FY 2006 appropriation limits the operating grant to $495 million. That is a very aggressive target, considering that the FY 2005 baseline was $586 million (as set by the DOT inspector general). Even if Amtrak hits the $495 million target in both FY 2006 and 2007, $900 million for 2007 would leave just $110 million for capital investment—a sharp decline from last year’s $496 million budgeted ($455 million actual) at a time when a big, critical project (Thames River Bridge replacement) is beginning to gather momentum. Such a capital budget likely would halt heavy overhauls and quickly lead to a decline in service quality and reliability. The Amtrak Board has not yet approved a specific request for Fiscal 2007, although it could do so at its next meeting March 2. In a January 5 letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees, DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead (who left DOT for private law practice on February 10) established $586 million as the operating grant baseline for judging whether Amtrak achieves the “operational savings” mandated by the FY 2006 appropriations law. “This baseline represents Amtrak’s FY 2006 budget results before implementation of new strategic reforms.” Under the 2006 appropriations law, the DOT Inspector General must certify by July 1, 2006, that operational savings have been achieved, or Amtrak could be forced to eliminate sleeping car and on-board food services. Mead’s letter states, in part, “We recognize that Amtrak closed out FY 2005 with an operating loss of $475 million, which is significantly lower than the operating baseline established for FY 2006. However, it is important to point out that the FY 2005 operating loss incorporated one-time adjustments that may not be repeated, such as a casualty insurance accrual reversal of $49 million. In our view, a valid and fair assessment of Amtrak’s progress requires a baseline that does not include such one-time adjustments.” The letter appears to mean that Amtrak could achieve substantial operational savings and win the IG’s certification while still falling short of the $495 million funding target in the appropriations law. In pursuit of increased payments by Northeast commuter rail authorities for use of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor facilities, the administration announced in the February 10 Federal Register that the increased payments will be enforced by docking Federal Transit Administration grants to the authorities, somewhat analogous to garnishing the salaries of parents who fail to make child support payments. Efforts continue in Illinois to increase the number of state-supported Amtrak trains. Bills have been introduced in the Illinois House and Senate to raise the state’s contribution to $30 million a year. This would allow the state to operate two more Chicago-St. Louis trains and one more daily roundtrip each on the Chicago-Carbondale and Chicago-Quincy routes. 39 of 118 House members have cosponsored HB4978 and 29 of 59 Senators have cosponsored SB2848. Residents of Illinois should visit the Environmental Law and Policy Center website for an easy-to-use webform to express support for the increased funding. If you do not live in Illinois, you can write a letter explaining how often you would visit Chicago if there were better train service to: Mayor Richard M. Daley, City of Chicago; 121 N. La Salle, Room 1006; Chicago, IL 60602. Please send a copy to the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. CSX Transportation and the City of Baltimore have come to a settlement over the July 18, 2001 train derailment and subsequent fire in the Howard Street Tunnel under downtown Baltimore. Martin O’Malley, Baltimore Mayor, and Michael Ward, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of CSX Corporation, said in a joint statement, “Rather than continuing to litigate, both parties have agreed to dedicate shared resources and energy to further enhance safety and security in the city.” CSX will pay the city $2 million for costs incurred from the accident and will develop a plan to increase communications about hazardous and non-hazardous rail shipments through the city. High speed rail service between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv should be up and running by 2010. This is according to the Jerusalem Municipaltiy, as reported in The Jerusalem Post. The $750 million project had been scheduled to open in 2008 but several factors, including the current political situation, has delayed the work. Conventional train service was restored last year, but the journey takes nearly an hour and a half versus a planned 28 minute trip for the high speed train. The high speed line will also serve Jerusalem’s airport. The Corridor One Commuter Rail project, which would link Lancaster and Harrisburg, PA, has been placed on “warning status” by the Federal Transit Administration. The designation gives Capital Area Transit until September 30 to submit a written statement of how it intends to fund the project. John Ward, president of the Modern Transit Partnership (MTP), characterized the warning as “the biggest non-event you’ve ever seen” and the meaning of “warning status” as “a list of projects they’d like to see expedited. We’re one of many.” Amtrak is reviewing all its stations regarding what is needed to bring them into a state of good repair generally, and into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifically. The review also includes staffing, installing more Quik-Trak machines, and ways to increase revenues at smaller stations. There are no immediate plans to unstaff any stations.
[As implied above, the full-length level-boarding platform requirement does not apply where the existing platform is structurally sound enough to support railings and tactile strips.] On-time performance of Amtrak’s Crescent should begin improving. CSX’s overhead trackage rights on Norfolk Southern’s New Orleans-Birmingham line expired on Wednesday. Feb 24, 2006: Hotline #438The legislative “ask” of your Congressional delegation continues to be: 1) support at least a continuation of this year’s $1.3 billion Amtrak funding, 2) oppose the Bush shut-down Amtrak budget request of $900 million, and 3) pass a bi-partisan Amtrak reauthorization (S.1516 and introduction of companion House legislation). A new Action Alert flyer—great for handing out on trains or in stations—was uploaded to the NARP website today; it reflects the $900 million Administration requests and urges rail passengers to contact Congress. Go to our Action Alert Center for full details. The Midwest High Speed Rail Association will host a lobbying day in Springfield, IL on February 28 (next Tuesday). The day will begin with a press conference to support SB2848 and HB4978 (the two bills intended to fund Amtrak service expansion in Illinois, as discussed in last week’s hotline) at 12:30 pm in the Blue Room of the Capitol Building. MWSHR staff and volunteers will then help you meet with your Representative and Senator to ask them to support and co-sponsor the legislation. The day will conclude with a House Mass Transit Committee hearing on HB4978. The events are timed for arrival and departure of Amtrak trains from the north and south. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by email or by calling 773-334-6758. Karen Rae has resigned from the Virginia Department of Rail And Public Transportation to become the Deputy Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Under Rae’s leadership, VDRPT became a bigger player in developing passenger rail in Virginia and formed the Commonwealth’s first Rail Investment Fund. The first $65 million of this fund was awarded late last year and includes several passenger rail-related projects. Corey Hill has been appointed Acting Director while a search takes place for Rae’s replacement. The American Public Transportation Association has honored Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) as the system that contributed the most money to the APTA Hurricane Katrina Transit Employee Relief Fund. HRT employees went above and beyond the call of duty, even canceling their annual banquet. They used that money to help support their Gulf Coast transit colleagues. APTA President William Millar traveled to Newport News and Norfolk on Thursday to congratulations the HRT board, staff, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1177, and HRT President/CEO Michael Townes. Amtrak’s Kansas City Mule, train #311, derailed on Wednesday in Morrison, MO (east of Jefferson City). The minor derailment sent one truck of the first passenger car off the rails. No injuries were reported and passengers continued their trip by bus. The southbound Silver Meteor struck an automobile at a crossing in Boca, FL. The car’s two occupants were injured, but survived. Eyewitness accounts indicate that the crossing gates were not working and CSX Transportation, in a public statement, said that maintenance workers had been called to inspect the crossing after reports of false activations earlier in the day. No passengers on the train were injured and the train eventually continued into Miami. A trackwork project on Norfolk Southern tracks between Tuscaloosa, AL and Meridian, MS that had been delayed due to Hurricane Katrina-related CSX freight detours will take place in March and April. Train 19 originating at New York March 5-8, 12-15, 19-22, 26-29, April 2-5, and April 9-11, terminates at Atlanta. Train 20 that would have originated at New Orleans March 6-9, 13-16, 20-23, 27-30, April 3-6, and April 10-12, originates at Atlanta. No alternate transportation is being provided and passengers are being contacted to reschedule. There is now a Spanish version of Amtrak’s website, which provides all the functionality of the English version. Matt Hardison, Amtrak Chief of Sales Distribution and Customer Service, said, “With 400 million Spanish-speaking people around the globe, we are very excited about expanding our on-line reservation and information system to this audience.” Amtrak and MotionPoint Communications worked together on the project. NARP Regional Meetings begin this weekend. Tomorrow, Region 7 meets in Chicago, with NARP Executive Director Ross B. Capon and James Howard Kunstler, (author of “The Long Emergency” and “The Geography of Nowhere: The rise and decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape”) speaking. Region 12 also meets tomorrow in Sacramento, with former NARP intern Matthew Melzer and Congressman Jim Costa (among others) speaking. The March issue of NARP News is now available on-line to those members who have registered for on-line access. Click on “login” or “register” to the top left on this page under “E-mail signup”. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Printable Version