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Mar 03, 2006: Hotline #439Continue to press your members of Congress for 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). Go to our Action Alert Center for full details. Northeast commuter rail authority payments to Amtrak is heating up as an issue, since the FY 2006 appropriations law requires the Secretary of Transportation to “determine and assess appropriate fees on the commuter railroads based on” use. The American Public Transportation Association sent two letters to Bush Administration officials, and DOT this week sent invoices for a total of $59 million in increased payments from the transit authorities whose trains use Amtrak-owned portions of the Northeast Corridor.
On February 9, the governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, wrote Mineta complaining that he had not been “open and transparent” in explaining the added charges. The February 27 New York Times reported, “As a result of their concerns and other complaints, representatives of 10 agencies, including three from the New York area, will meet with federal transportation officials here next week to discuss the charges and how they should be calculated. ‘The states feel their pocket is being picked,’ said Peter A. Peyser Jr., an aide to Mr. Rendell.” The Times also reported an administration proposal for a novel way to enforce the added payments—“deducting the amount of the additional fees from [federal] grants to the states…‘They’re fixing to garnish Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grants, much in the manner you’d hit up somebody for failing to pay child support,’ said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Rail Passengers.” APTA Chief Counsel and Vice-President for Government Affairs Daniel Duff wrote on February 22 to FTA Chief Counsel David B. Horner, questioning FTA’s authority to do this. FTA claims authority under 49 U.S.C. 5334(a)(9), but Duff wrote, “We find no authority in this provision to make grant conditions designed to enforce other laws outside chapter 53…We respectfully request FTA to reconsider its decision. Our concern in this matter is not simply related to the Amtrak provisions. Rather, our members are concerned about the precedent that hereby could be created – that the federal transit program could be the means to enforce any number of extraneous provisions of law.” Meanwhile the Federal Transit Administration will receive comments for another week or two on planned changes in how its New Start grant program is administered—changes that, as now described, seem designed to kill the development of new rail transit projects. This comes in spite of the fact that, during the last quarter of 2005, while highway vehicle miles actually declined, the only new travel produced in the USA was by transit, with rail in the forefront and New Starts in the forefront of rail. Any dramatic changes are a ways off—they first would be the subject of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that FTA is expected to issue late this year. Mexico is considering passenger rail service between Tecate and Tijuana to connect with the San Diego Trolley. The 70 mile line will serve a dual purpose: daily commuters and American tourists. The initial investment is 15 million pesos ($1.5 million US). Fares will be $5 US one way. Amtrak has added additional sleeping cars to several trains. A full Los Angeles-New Orleans on the Sunset Limited will begin March 8 eastbound and March 13 westbound. A second sleeper will run on the Seattle section of the Empire Builder effective March 31 westbound and April 2 eastbound. A second sleeper was added to the Crescent effective both north and southbound on March 1. Six sleepers—the normal winter consist—will remain on the Auto Train until at least mid-May due to heavy demand. Business class will return to several Midwest trains that have been operating with Superliners. Finally, the Heartland Flyer will operate with one additional coach during March. NARP wrote to Amtrak Chairman David Laney and Acting President and CEO David Hughes yesterday urging “Amtrak to restore service between New Orleans and Orlando as soon as it is operationally feasible.” CSX is replacing the diamond, switches, and signaling system at Doswell, VA (between Richmond and Fredericksburg) tomorrow. As a result, there are several service modifications for Amtrak trains between Washington and Richmond. Check with Amtrak before you travel; some trains are cancelled and others replaced with busses. Next week, trains may experience up to 60 minute delays in the Doswell area due to the signal cut-in process (presumably in addition to the delays that are normal for CSX). Additional CSX trackwork south of Richmond will affect the northbound Silver Star and the Palmetto and Carolinian in both directions for the month of March. For departures of the Silver Star from Miami on Saturday through Tuesdays (arrival in Richmond on Mondays through Wednesdays), the train will bypass Tampa (bus provided) and operate two hours earlier from Kissimmee to New York. Both the north and southbound Palmetto and Carolinian will have a bus bridge from Richmond to Rocky Mount, but the bus will not stop at Petersburg. The two trains will operate combined between New York and Richmond: southbound on train 79’s schedule, northbound on train 90’s schedule. Amtrak has chosen new management for its Amtrak Vacations label. Yankee Holidays will begin accepting reservations on April 3 and the domain amtrakvacation.com will also be reactivated that day. The previous Amtrak Vacations manager, Private Label Tours, went bankrupt in late 2004. A pilot program offering at-your-seat beverage and snack service will take place during March on Acela Express trains #2109 and #2122. Coffee, soft drinks, and snacks will be sold on both trains, and alcoholic beverages will be offered on #2122. NARP Region 5 (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN) meets tomorrow in Atlanta. Speakers include NARP Assistant Director David Johnson and Amtrak’s Drew Galloway (Chief, Corridor Project Planning/Development in the Planning Department). There also will be updates on the Atlanta Commuter rail project, Atlanta Streetcar and Beltline projects, a MARTA update and a special workshop on development of State Rail Passenger Associations. Mar 10, 2006: Hotline #440The first appropriations-related hearing on fiscal 2007 transportation funding was held this week in the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, The Judiciary, District of Columbia (TTHUD) of the House Appropriations Committee. The subcommittee’s intent this year was to handle all of transportation in a single hearing, thus Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta was accompanied by Federal Aviation Administrator Marion Blakey; Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Joseph Boardman; and two deputy administrators—J. Richard Capka of the Federal Highway Administration (where the top position currently is vacant) and Sandy Bushue of Federal Transit Administration. Mineta called DOT General Counsel Jeffrey Rosen out of the audience to answer an Amtrak question. Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI) acknowledged in his opening statement that $900 million in President Bush’s budget was a “significant increase” above his fiscal 2005 proposal of zero for Amtrak. Knollenberg said Amtrak accounts for 1.4% of transportation funding and 0.7% of the entire TTHUD bill. He called Amtrak “one of our most challenging issues. Some love it, some hate it. I support reform. We’re going to push that hard. I appreciate that, for the first time in years, Amtrak has not uttered the bankruptcy word.” Ranking Member John Olver (D-MA) noted that Amtrak was funded $394 million below the Fiscal 2006 level, “Last year it was starve Amtrak to reform it, this year it’ business as usual. If President Bush took his comments about imported oil seriously, maybe we would already have a rail passenger network.” Olver asked how Amtrak would pay its nearly $300 million in debt service obligations. Mineta blew off the issue, saying “I don’t think it was ever anticipated that debt would come from appropriated funds,” although debt service has been funded this way for several years. Mineta also made the wildly incorrect claim that Amtrak pays interest “at Treasury rates, as low as you can get.” The high interest rates Amtrak pays on some of its debt has been discussed at length on Capitol Hill in the past. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a member of the Congresssional Black Caucus, asked if there had “ever been a study done as to who really travels on Amtrak.” Mineta used this as an opening for an anti-long-distance train innuendo, saying, “as I recall, less than 30% use the entire route. There are a lot using 300-500 mile segments.” Clyburn persisted: “I want demographics of the people who travel [in the Southeast]. I hear from my constituents how much they appreciate and need Amtrak, and feel threatened by questions about Amtrak’s future.” Rep. Steven Rothman (D-NJ) said there is a “fundamental disagreement between the Administration and a majority in Congress. We should have a first class national passenger rail system as a matter of economic vitality and national security. I understand the concern about food, and that it is a well meant effort to reduce costs, but it loses a sense of the importance of the national system. It’s sort of like regulating the size of the hamburgers they sell on the interstates.” So far, Amtrak itself has not submitted its own grant request. It’s important that Amtrak do this before Chairman David Laney and Acting President & CEO David Hughes testify before the Senate appropriations subcommittee, a hearing which could come as early as the week of March 13. Presumably, any responsible request would equal or come near the $1.8 billion that Amtrak requested for the current year. That should be your message to your legislators, along with enactment of a bi-partisan Amtrak reauthorization similar to S.1516, the Lott-Lautenberg bill. Go to our Action Alert Center for full details. House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) has announced his retirement from Congress. The Committee’s next most senior Republicans are Reps. Clay Shaw (FL) and Nancy Johnson (CT), so they are candidates to succeed Thomas next year. This committee is important to passenger rail because it must approve a funding mechanism such as the one it stripped earlier this year from H.R. 1631 the high speed rail bill. Legislation that aims to save energy is now circulating on Capitol Hill. S. 2025, the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act, introduced by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), and HR 4409, the Fuel Choices for American Security Act of 2005, introduced by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) are similar but not identical bills. The House bill aims to meet President Bush’s target of reducing Middle East oil imports by 75%. Both bills rely heavily on bio-fuels, including switchgrass. Section 308 of both bills requires the DOT secretary to designate ten transit-oriented development corridors within 10 years; 20 such corridors within 20 years. This is regarded as a “transit placeholder,” and the possibility exists to strengthen the bill’s public transportation provisions as it moves forward. As of today, the Thomas web site reports that 42 co-sponsors have joined Kingston, while 11 co-sponsors have joined Bayh. For both bills, the majority of supporters are Republicans, as this approach has attracted a number of conservatives who see the nation’s addiction to oil as a national security problem. The DOT Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act is in the Federal Register, February 27, pages 9761-70 (this was discussed in Hotline #437 and the March issue of NARP News). It is available at the Federal Register website (PDF file; relevant parts are on page 4). Comments are due April 28, except that the due date for certain special questions is May 30. DOT pursues a definition of accessibility which seeks full length level boarding platforms. DOT proposes to require that “new cars purchased for commuter rail systems…have floor heights identical to those of Amtrak cars serving the area in which the commuter system will be operated,” hence 48 inches above top of rail “in the eastern part of the U.S.,” and 15 inches “in the western part.” There is no acknowledgement of the many places where Amtrak operates both high (single-level) and low (Superliner/California) platform cars, or of the fact that the Capitol Limited uses low platform cars in the “eastern part of the U.S.” As reported in our March newsletter, however, it is our understanding that DOT will require the 15 inches where both types of equipment operate. The big unknowns here are who will pay for all this work, how strongly the freight railroads will object to either type of platform and, perhaps ultimately, whether those objections will be persuasive to a judge, given the ADA prohibition against unreasonable withholding of cooperation. All Amtrak stations must be compliant by July 26, 2010, although we understand the DOT will not require the rebuilding of structurally sound platforms so long as disabled persons are able to use trains at these stations. Groundbreaking for the new St. Louis Intermodal Terminal will take place on March 30, 2006 at the site adjacent to the current Amtrak station; the time has not yet been set. All are invited to attend this long-awaited event! The TSA and Amtrak have partnered again for a security pilot project, this time at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. The program, similar to a project last December (see hotline #429), puts both TSA personnel in the station and federal air marshals on the trains. A new light rail line running from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City has been approved by the Federal Transit Administration. The “Exposition Line” will share trackage with the existing Blue line in downtown (Metro Center and Pico stations), then turn west towards Culver City. Total length is 8.5 miles and the project will cost $420 million. A second phase, not yet approved, would extend service to Santa Monica. Taking a logical approach to grade crossing accident prevention, Metrolink will create two “sealed corridors” on its Ventura County and Antelope Valley routes. The project, modeled after the very successful Raleigh-Charlotte project in North Carolina, will install four-quadrant gates, “Z” pedestrian crossings, median separators, locked gates, and fencing along 65 miles of railroad. Metrolink is seeing additional federal funds for this project. Two new commuter rail services were named this week. The Salt Lake City-Weber County service will be called “FrontRunner” and the new Charlotte light rail system (the first segment of which opens in 2007) will be called LYNX. The Attorney General of New Mexico has approved the state’s purchase of BNSF right of way between Belen, Albuquerque and the Colorado-New Mexico border. With the deal’s approval, station construction for RailRunner service can begin. Service between Bernalillo and Albuquerque could begin as early as June and full stage 1 service between Albuquerque and Belen by August. The major compromise in the Attorney General’s decision is that trackage from the New Mexico border into Colorado will not be purchased at this time, rather, an option to purchase it in the future is included. This was perhaps the most controversial part of the deal. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) held its Annual Legislative Conference here in Washington this week. As part of the APTA meeting, Cubic Corp. and GE Security demonstrated an automatic ticket machine that includes explosion detection capabilities. The ticket vending machine has been selected for a transit pilot program that will begin soon. APTA also honored retiring Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his “tireless and successful advocacy of public transportation.” Union Pacific is about to begin a major rehabilitation program on its St. Louis-Kansas City line. Amtrak service will have to be modified, however, it is not yet clear what changes will take place. The project begins in about two weeks, so a decision will be made soon. NARP Region 2 (New York State) meets tomorrow in Schenectady. Speakers include NARP President George Chilson, Lenore Slimbock (Amtrak New York Division General Superintendent) and John Egan (New York State Senate High Speed Rail Task Force). Mar 17, 2006: Hotline #441Amtrak this week unveiled its Fiscal 2007 grant and legislative request, available on their website. Amtrak seeks a $1.598 billion grant but also outlines $275 million in additional “strategic investment options,” bringing the total implied request to $1.873 billion. The $275 million includes:
Amtrak Chairman David Laney testified yesterday morning before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.” You can read more about the hearing by clicking “News Releases” to the left of this hotline; our coverage is the second item to appear there. Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Bond (R-MO) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) both highlighted the big budget holes the subcommittee faces in the wide variety of programs it covers, as a result of the Bush Administration’s budget. This included $400 million for Amtrak (just to get it back to this year’s $1.3 billion) and $1.557 billion for aviation. Bond referred to a “$2 billion rescission of Section 8 funds that I don’t think are available,” and said the Administration budget assumes many “fees and rescissions that Congress will not approved.” But Murray also acknowledged that DOT, with overall spending up almost 5%, fared better than many other departments. Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman, testifying on Amtrak for the first time, trotted Mineta’s tired old rhetoric…“Amtrak’s business model is flawed and must be reformed. Amtrak does not yet have effective budget discipline…” Dayton did credit Amtrak with making “strides in reforming its food service provision and may have in place a process that will achieve break-even or marginally profitable provision of food service on its trains.” He said “Amtrak has made some progress in controlling its cash operating loss, excluding interest.” He also said Amtrak needs $1.4 billion just to keep the existing system in tact, without any significant improvement in state of good repair, and with little margin for error—insolvency could result from any serious unanticipated problem. He suggested consideration of a separate working capital appropriation of $125 million, which should not be available to Amtrak for ordinary business activities. Amtrak Chairman David Laney raised a lot of eyebrows with comments to reporters after yesterday’s hearing. AP reported that Laney “said the railroad will scrutinize all of its long-distance routes this year for efficiency and could scrap, reconfigure or add lines as it tries to prove to Congress and the Bush administration that the rail system is reforming itself. ‘There’s nothing, as far as I’m concerned, that’s off the table.’” A Reuters report said Laney “also told reporters…the board probably will not name a new Amtrak president before mid-May but could consider someone from the airline industry…” The Amtrak Working Group formed by House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young issued a report very late this afternoon. In essence, the five Republicans issued their own report since the three Democrats issued their own response. Neither group explicitly calls for the creation of a Task Force (determining that need being the mission of the group), but the Republican report has predictable innuendos about elimination of long distance services, saying, in part, “Amtrak could save $250 million a year without affecting its service in the Northeast Corridor.” The Republicans call for a GAO study of “private and public accountability standards” that could apply to Amtrak and is unduly negative about the potential for freight and passenger trains to operate on the same railroad. NARP’s initial comments about the report can be found in our media advisory, issued late today. As stated above, Democrats issued their own report. It says the Subcommittee on Railroads “has shown that it is concerned about Amtrak’s management and performance and that it has the resources to oversee implementation of the recommendations of the report recently issued.” They also noted that “Amtrak has developed—or is in the process of developing—planning and management practices, which accomplish the same results as many of the Government Accountability Office’s recommendations.” They stated their intent to “request that the DOT IG conduct an investigation of whether the [Amtrak] Board of Directors is adequately carrying out its legal and fiduciary responsibilities.” Two weeks ago, we reported incorrectly that the DOT had sent bills to commuter agencies for increased payments for use of the Northeast Corridor. The issue is still hot, but no such bills have been sent yet. In yet another sign of the bursting bubble of discount airfares (that have been so touted by the Department of Transportation in their campaign against Amtrak), Southwest Airlines has raised all its fares, some by as much as $10, to offset $600 million in additional fuel costs for the remainder of this year. Most airlines quickly followed suit and raised their own fares. This is the second increase this year for Southwest. Spokesman Ed Stewart told the Associated Press, “There comes a point where you have to be realistic,” said Southwest. “Even the most savvy (sic) of analysts would agree that fuel is something we just have to keep an eye on.” Plans have now been finalized for the summer trackwork between St. Louis and Kansas City (as reported in last week’s hotline). Effective April 1-September 1, the schedules of the four trains will be modified as follows. The time added will be distributed throughout the trip:
In addition, the trackwork program will result in bussing of part of the route on specific dates:
Amtrak’s reservation system will be updated with this information very soon. CSX has completed part of its trackwork project in the Rocky Mount, NC area early. As such, the disruptions to trains 79, 80, 89, and 90 (as discussed in our March 3 hotline) will not take place on March 19-20 and March 26-27. However, the changes to the Silver Star (bypassing Tampa and operating two hours earlier, Kissimmee-New York) will take place March 18-21 and March 25-28. NARP launched its own blog yesterday. You can view it by clicking “NARP Blog” above and to the left. Comments and suggestions are welcome! Three NARP Regions hold their annual meetings tomorrow. NARP Region 4 (Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Washington, D.C.) meets in Baltimore. Speakers include NARP Executive Director Ross Capon, Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee, Dave Snyder, Superintendent—Operations, Safety & Security, Virginia Railway Express, and Richard Cogswell, Staff Engineer, Federal Railroad Administration. NARP Region 6 (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana) meets in Detroit. Speakers include NARP President George Chilson. NARP Region 9 (Arkansas, Texas, Missouri) meets in Little Rock. Speakers include NARP Assistant Director David Johnson and Amtrak’s Manager of Media Relations in Chicago, Marc Magilari. Mar 24, 2006: Hotline #442Continue to urge your legislators to support full funding for Amtrak($1.56 billion and $275 million in Strategic Investment Options) in fiscal 2007. Our Action Alert center has all the information you need to contact your elected officials. The Department of Transportation and the Transportation Technology Institute conducted a collision test yesterday at TTI’s Pueblo facility. A push-pull commuter train operating in the push mode was sent head-on into another parked train. The push-pull train had been retrofitted with new crash energy management technology. The test was deemed a success and will be the platform for further efforts to improve cab car safety. A similar test conducted in 2002—without the new technologies—crushed the first 22 feet of the cab car. In direct contrast to our yearly battles to properly fund Amtrak here in the United States, China has announced plans to construct $22 billion (US) worth of high speed rail routes. The two primary lines would connect Shanghai and Beijing and Shanghai and Hangzhou. Trip times on the Shanghai-Beijing segment would be cut from 13 hours to 5 hours. According to the Associated Press, “China has invested billions of dollars in expanding its railway network in an effort to ease congestion and promote economic growth in isolated areas.” Stagecoach Group, a British bus company that also operates train franchises the United Kingdom, has announced plans to start an American intercity bus hub in the Midwest called “MegaBus.” The company will offer daily non-stop, express bus services between Chicago and eight other Midwest cities, including Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and St. Louis with internet fares for as low as $1. Besides the obvious question of the profitability of such a low-cost service—and that fact that if Amtrak offered such fares there would be howls of protest—MegaBus apparently plans to use no intercity bus terminals. Rather, stops will be at other facilities such as Chicago Union Station (which is already at peak passenger capacity) and Cleveland RTA’s Terminal Tower. Metrolink will begin a major reconstruction project on Tunnel 26 (between Chatsworth and Simi Valley) on April 4. In order to minimize disruption to Metrolink trains, Pacific Surfliners, and the Coast Starlight, work will take place in a 10:00pm to 5:00am work window over 10 months. No train schedules are effected, except that if the southbound Coast Starlight is operating more than 2 ½ hours late, it will terminate at Santa Barbara and passengers will be bussed to Los Angeles. Norfolk Southern will finish its trackwork project between Atlanta and New Orleans early, permitting the Crescent to resume full operations to/from New Orleans on March 30. Trains that were scheduled to not operate south of Atlanta in April will operate. The Crescent originating in New York on March 26-29 will still terminate in Atlanta. Three more NARP Regions hold their annual membership meetings this weekend: NARP Region 1 (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont) meets in Portland. Speakers include NARP Executive Director Ross Capon; Wayne Davis, NARP Northeast Vice President; Gordon Fuller, CEO Maine Eastern Railroad. NARP Region 8 (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) meets in Havre. Speakers include NARP President George Chilson. NARP Region 10 (Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) meets in Denver. Speakers include NARP Assistant Director David Johnson, The Honorable John Hickenlooper (Mayor, City & County of Denver), Bob Briggs (President, Front Range Commuter Rail), and a FasTracks & Union Station Redevelopment Update from Henry Stopplecamp and Dave Shelley (Regional Transportation District). Mar 31, 2006: Hotline #443The NARP Action Alert center has been updated with new information, a revised sample letter to send to your legislators, and tips for communicating with Washington. Be sure to visit it and urge your Members of Congress to support Amtrak’s full appropriation request. Ground was broken yesterday at the St. Louis Gateway Transportation Center’s Multi-Modal Terminal Building and Concourse.
Many dignitaries, including Acting Amtrak President and CEO David Hughes (sixth from right, above), attended the event. The facility, due to open in about 15 months, will provide a modern, integrated facility for Amtrak, local bus, intercity bus, and light rail services. St. Louis has been without a proper station facility since Amtrak was evicted from St. Louis Union Station in 1975. A newer interim building was opened in January 2005 and will remain in use until the new facility is completed (it will then become the train and engine crew facility within the new complex). While in the Midwest, Hughes visited with legislators in Springfield, IL and promised to support Illinois effort to boost train service in the state. Hughes told the Bloomington Pantagraph, “The ridership on these trains in the Midwest has been growing by double digits for the last couple of years. The market is telling us that there is demand. I think this is a perfect place to do this.” Midwest High Speed Rail Association Executive Director Rick Harnish accompanied Hughes on his trip to Springfield. A proposal to build an all-new, $6 billion freight rail line from North Texas to the Mexico border was presented to the Texas Legislature on Wednesday. The line, part of the proposed Trans Texas Corridor, would be built and managed by Cintra-Zachry, a private Spanish consortium of engineering, construction and financial firms. The entire 600 mile line would be double tracked and totally grade-separated. While a passenger rail line would not be part of the initial plans, space in the right of way would be preserved for a future passenger operation. One of the major benefits of the project would be to remove freight trains from urban areas and eliminate or reduce the effect of many choke points, including Tower 55 in Fort Worth. BNSF Railway Company has closed the 3,000th highway-rail grade crossing in a six year crossing elimination program. Since 2000, according to FRA data, BNSF’s grade crossing incident rate has decreased more than 30 percent from 3.34 incidents per million train miles to 2.33. BNSF pledges to continue the project and even further lower its accident statistics. The highly successful Capitol Corridor in California carried its 10 millionth passenger this past week. The lucky passenger, Kirk Swenson, received a free monthly pass, as well as a Delta River Cruise and Oakland Athletics tickets. Amtrak’s Piedmont struck a dump truck at a grade crossing east of Greensboro. No passengers were injured, but the engineer suffered a cut hand. The dump truck driver has been ticketed for the incident. The Silver Star will begin its stop at Cary, NC on April 10. Train 91 will stop at 9:27pm and train 92 will stop at 5:11am. NARP Region 3 (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey) meets in Bordentown, NJ tomorrow. Speakers include NARP President George Chilson. This is the last membership meeting of 2006; thanks to all NARP members for the excellent turnout at our meetings this year! |
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