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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. |
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