Jun 19, 2009: Hotline #609

Administration officials unveiled the much anticipated interim guidance for their high-speed intercity passenger rail program this morning, revealing more detail about what President Obama’s vision for a new network of high-speed trains will look like when it becomes a reality.

“The time has finally come for the United States to get serious about building a national network of high-speed rail corridors we can all be proud of,” said U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “High-speed rail can reduce traffic congestion and link up with light rail, subways and buses to make travel more convenient and our communities more livable.”

Secretary LaHood, along with Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo, released the interim guidance, development of which included outreach to almost 1,200 stakeholders—state officials, non-profit advocates, rail industry representatives, and members of the public working to rejuvenate—or interested in rejuvenating—the nation’s train system. 

“The result of this outreach shows a clear understanding of what makes trains successful, by using passenger-miles [one passenger transported one mile]; convenience of intermodal connections to local transit, airports, and bus terminals; and an appropriately broad definition of benefits that includes energy efficiency, environmental, and quality-of-life improvements as key measures in evaluating applicants” said NARP’s Director of Communications, Sean Jeans-Gail.  “This plan lays the groundwork for something that can truly transform the way Americans move about in their lives.”

Details about the interim guidance are in NARP’s release.  A PDF of the HSPIR Guidance document is at on the FRA website.


Michigan’s state-supported trains clung to life in Lansing as the House Transportation Appropriations Committee recommended the governor’s figure of $5.7 million, lower than needed to preserve all service but higher than the counterpart Senate committee had approved.  The bill requires service to continue on both the Grand Rapids and Port Huron/Lansing lines, but does not require daily service.  There has been speculation that, should the $5.7 million survive, service could drop to quad-weekly on both routes with staffing eliminated at Port Huron, Flint and East Lansing stations.  Michiganders should continue to contact their state legislators demanding continuation of daily service on both routes.


NARP Council Member Kenneth Joseph will be among the witnesses testifying Monday, June 22, at a Pittsburgh field hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.  The hearing topic is “Expanding Passenger Rail Service” with a special emphasis on western Pennsylvania.  The 10 am hearing will be at U.S. Federal District Courthouse, 700 Grant Street (corner of 7th St. and Grant St.).  Acting chair will be Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA).


Congress gave final passage to a supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday with a provision to allow transit agencies to flex 10% of the funds they receive from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to cover operating costs—which had been previously prohibited by the law.  The supplemental also includes a “cash for clunkers” provision many have derided as a subsidy to auto manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and purchasers.  Interestingly, a provision which had been in both the House and Senate versions would have allowed clunker-disposers to receive public transit vouchers instead of credit for purchase of a new car. This language was not included in the war supplemental bill, however.


The Obama Administration has come out in favor of an 18 month interim fix for the expiring surface transportation program, setting up a showdown with leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who are determined to pass a full five year reauthorization before the current program expires.

In a June 17 release, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood admitted the primary motivation was to cover the five to seven billion dollar shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund (HTF).  The HTF—which provides federal highway funding and 80% of federal transit funds—is funded by the per-gallon gasoline and other user taxes.  Inflation has been eating into its value since the last tax increase in 1993, and in recent years the HTF has fallen short even more due to the ethanol exemption, increased use of high-mileage cars and recession-induced reductions in driving..  The Administration has vociferously opposed raising the gas tax to close this gap.

LaHood, however, did acknowledge the many dysfunctional elements of the current Surface Transportation Program, saying the 18 month stopgap should include critical reforms to improve cost-benefit analysis, focus on more investments in metropolitan areas, and promote livable neighborhoods.

The next day, June 18, Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN) and Ranking Member John Mica (R-FL),  of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, held a joint news conference denouncing the 18 month delay as unacceptable, saying setback would cause uncertainty and costs jobs.  Several other Members from the Committee were in attendance.

“There are folks at the economics gang at the White House who have never had a shovel in their hands or a callus on their fingers,” Oberstar said.

They released the outline of a $500 billion, five-year reauthorization, which includes $50 billion for high speed rail.  Their white paper included this: “Unlike other major industrialized nations, Americans have limited transportation choices.  The United States has almost no high-speed passenger rail service, even though it is widely recognized that high-speed rail can significantly reduce congestion on our highways and in the air, decrease our dependence on foreign oil, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  We invest only a fraction of the amounts invested by European and Asian countries in high-speed rail.”

The high speed rail discussion is encouraging because only a few weeks ago Oberstar told a reporter he had not considered a major rail title for the bill.  However, it appears that the envisioned high-speed rail funds would not come from the HTF.  Thus it remains unclear where either rail funds or the money needed to fix the HTF will come from.  Exact language of the bill is expected to follow next week.

However, Oberstar faces more than just the Administration’s opposition; his Senate counterpart, Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA), has supported the Administration’s plan.  LaHood anticipated resistance to his 18 month interim reauthorization:  “I recognize that there will be concerns raised about this approach.  However, with the reality of our fiscal environment and the critical demand to address our infrastructure investments in a smarter, more focused approach, we should not rush legislation.  We should work together on a full reauthorization that best meets the demands of the country.  The first step is making sure that the Highway Trust Fund is solvent.  The next step is addressing our transportation priorities over the long term.” 

NARP will continue to work with our allies and the Legislative and Executive branch to ensure that federal policy is reformed to promote greater balance and connectivity between modes.


The inspector general of Amtrak offered his resignation to the company’s Chairman on Thursday night in an unexpected move. 

Fred Weiderhold is a long-time employee of the office that is responsible for discovering and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in Amtrak. There is an Inspector General for each federal agency.

“As Amtrak’s first and only Inspector General, Fred has made important contributions in helping the Board of Directors understand key issues facing the railroad and made useful recommendations to improve how we do business,” Amtrak Chairman Thomas Carper said in a prepared statement on Friday. “We thank him for his dedicated service to Amtrak and wish him well in his retirement.”

Lorraine Green, a veteran Amtrak official, has stepped in as the interim inspector general. 


Metrolink Los Angeles announced that they will run no trains on July 3, in observance of Independence Day. July 4 will see normal, limited Saturday operating service.


Amtrak’s on-time performance has soared on lines in Missouri, following a nationwide trend for the company.

In May 93% of Amtrak’s trains running between St. Louis and Kansas City arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, up from 1% in May 2008.  And 77% of trains traveling between St. Louis and Chicago this May arrived with 15 minutes of when scheduled, up from 26% from the same time last year.

The changes come from the addition of an extra track to a bridge spanning the Gasconade River constructed by Union Pacific, a public-private partnership between UP and the state and federal government to improve track conditions, as well as UP’s evident decision to improve handling of all Amtrak trains after enactment last October of the federal reauthorization of Amtrak, including provision that permits the Surface Transportation Board to assess damages against railroads that don’t keep passenger trains on schedule at least 80 percent of the time.

“It really comes down to how well we operate on their tracks under their control,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari to the St. Louis Dispatch.


Amtrak ridership dropped for the seventh straight month according to statistics released by the company July 17, with long-distance routes showing a decline for the first time in over a year.

Overall ridership for May of this year fell 9.8% from May 2008.  The total number of passengers on long-distance trains fell 9.4% during May compared to the same period the year before.  That is the first decline on long-distance routes since April 2008. 

“We still feel that the current economic climate is the overriding factor,” Amtrak spokesman Clifford Cole told Bloomberg News.

Amtrak has set records for ridership for the past six fiscal years.


In response to last week’s drug bust at an Amtrak station in Springfield, IL, Amtrak officials say it wouldn’t be feasible to institute the same kind of security procedures that exist in airports.

Responding to the media inquiry that followed the arrest of a man transporting 183 grams of marijuana from Chicago to Springfield, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told the State Journal Register that, while the company has security procedures designed to fight drug trafficking and ensure the safety of passengers, airport-style screening would be impractical given the number of stations Amtrak services.

In the release of President Obama’s Vision for High-Speed Rail in America, the President was notably quoted as saying “Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city.  No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays… no taking off your shoes.”  Amtrak is unlikely to move away from the existing security procedures with that kind of endorsement.


The Surface Transportation Board released statistics on Tuesday showing that total railroad employment is down 8.33% from May 2008, and a down 1.77% from April 2008.  Total Class I railroad employment in May stood at 151,136 jobs.

The position that took the biggest hit was train crews.  Employment in that profession fell to 56,370 in May, down almost 18% from May 2008.

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