National Association of Railroad Passengers: www.narprail.org

Hotline #402

Amtrak’s first appropriations markup (“bill-writing session”) of the fiscal 2006 funding period is likely to occur next Wednesday (June 15) when the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, The Judiciary, District of Columbia will “markup” (write) the Department of Transportation funding bill.  If your House member is on the committee, please call (do not fax, email or write) their Washington, D.C. office with a word of support for full Amtrak funding ($1.82 billion).

The latest in a series of Amtrak oversight hearings was held Thursday in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s subcommittee on railroads.  Panelists included William Crosbie (Amtrak’s Senior Vice President, Operations), Fred Weiderhold (Amtrak Inspector General), JayEtta Hecker (Government Accountability Office), Danny Biggs (International Vice President, Transportation Communications Union), and NARP Executive Director Ross B. Capon.

Subcommittee Chairman Steve LaTourette (R-OH) acknowledged the necessity of food service and said that, “It is difficult at best to compare Amtrak and restaurant services.” He did expressed concern that the current Amtrak-Gate Gourmet contract is not the best contract for Amtrak.  Crosbie assured the subcommittee that Amtrak will not simply sign an extension of the current contract (when it expires next year); rather they want many substantive changes.  Rep. Corinne Brown (D-FL) applauded Amtrak’s food service and stated that the availability of a full, hot meal was critical to her mother who is diabetic and recently traveled from Jacksonville to Lakeland.  She also noted that, “the last time we did this (a statutory requirement for Amtrak to slash food service in the early 1980’s), the food service suffered greatly.  Rep. John Mica (R-FL) had a series of aggressive, negative questions for Crosbie and Weiderhold and symbolically threw dollar bills into a trash can to illustrate his points.

Crosbie had significant disagreement with the GAO Report that gave life to the hearing and said that despite a four hour teleconference between Amtrak and the GAO, they did not correct several factual errors—many of which became headline grabbers.  Chairman LaTourette expressed displeasure with the fact that the GAO did not address Amtrak’s concerns, “In this era of 24 hour news, I’m concerned about the sound bite nature of (the accusations that Amtrak paid) $3.83 for a beer or $7.00 for a steak.”

Despite record ridership toping 100,000 passengers, Amtrak service in Michigan is again threatened by the actions of Michigan House and Senate leadership.  Cuts of between $1 and $2 million dollars are proposed for Michigan’s subsidy to Amtrak for the Blue Water and Pere Marquette.  “This makes no sense to cut funding for these trains,” said John DeLora, MARP executive director. “Both trains are performing very well and Michigan travelers want the service.”  House Democratic Leader Dianne Byrum (D-Onondaga) said, “Any proposal that threatens the viability of passenger rail service in Michigan is short-sighted, unwise and just doesn’t make sense at a time when more and more people are riding the rails.”

Bombardier has said that they plan to have limited Acela Express service restored by the end of June and the full fleet restored by September.  An instrumented test train has been observed operating on the Northeast Corridor and Amtrak Vice President of Operations William Crosbie confirmed this timeline in a brief update on the Acela situation at the Food and Beverage hearing (above).

The Acela situation and complete lack of federal government funding has dampened Bombardier’s interest in pursuing future North American projects.  “For the time being, there is no project which is close to being promoted,” he said. Asked about the potential for its once highly touted JetTrain technology in North America, he replied: “As there is no high-speed corridor for the time being, there is no JetTrain.”

A passenger on an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train caused the suspension of all service through Richmond, California on Wednesday and prompted the evacuation of both the Richmond Amtrak and BART stations.  The 27-year old Pakistani man boarded the train and, according to the Associated Press, “began praying, chanting and claiming the train ‘would disappear’ after he passed his stop in Martinez. He boarded in Sacramento and reportedly appeared nervous, speaking erratically and sweating profusely.”  There were severe delays to Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains and the westbound California Zephyr was delayed as well.

Despite a challenging day on Wednesday, the Capitol Corridor results for May are an all-time single month record for the service.  Ridership was 115,802 (+9.5% growth above May 2004) and revenue was $1,288,611 (+19.9% growth above May 2004).

The State of Montana rallied around the Empire Builder on June 1 and 2 in events held across the “Hi-Line.”  Town Hall meetings and rallies were held in Glasgow, Havre, and Whitefish and rallies/press events were also held in Shelby (at the crew base for Montana’s Empire Builder service).

Among the politicians participating in the event were United States Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D), Montana Lieutenant Governor John Bohlinger (R), and Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT).  Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) was not able to attend the event, however, he hosted Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) and Amtrak President David L. Gunn on a ride from Whitefish to Cut Bank a couple of weeks prior.  NARP President George Chilson and Assistant Director David Johnson attended the events and spoke on behalf of America’s railroad passengers.

Governor Schweitzer urged the citizens of Montana to take action.  “It doesn’t start and it doesn’t stop here.  We can’t talk amongst ourselves.  Write letters to your congressional delegation, send emails, and make phone calls.  If they get 25 letters, calls and emails on a specific issue, that’s an avalanche.  If they can then take that onto the House or Senate floor and say, ‘This is important to Montana,’ that’s critical.”

Lieutenant Governor Bohlinger touched on the national importance of the current fight.  “We are developing a message that will be carried from Glasgow to Whitefish and will travel across America and be delivered to President Bush’s desk.  The message is simple.  Amtrak and the Empire Builder provide essential transportation services to the people of America.  The notion that this service serves a low population base and that it doesn’t pay its way and thus it must be eliminated is riddled with false conclusions.

State officials were involved in the rally and press conferences as well.  State Senator Jerry Black (R-Shelby) emphasized the role Amtrak long distance trains play in national transportation.  On his trip over earlier in the day from Shelby to Havre, “We had (lunch) with a woman from Illinois and one from New Jersey that traveled Amtrak the whole way.  They were absolutely delighted with the service.  She had read that story about (Mineta) wanting to make the states pay 50-50 and she said, ‘What can I do to change this?’  (The train) exposed them to Montana; they were absolutely thrilled with traveling through Glacier National Park.  As a result of that, I got the impression that they would be back to Montana.”

The rallies and events in Montana were a huge success.  Encourage your state government officials to consider similar events!  It is more important than ever to show the importance and utility of the long distance train network.

Michigan rail passengers will rally to save their Amtrak service next weekend.  Join with members of the SEMG Sierra Club, Transportation Riders United (TRU) and Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers on Saturday, June 25, 2005 for a day long excursion from Pontiac to Kalamazoo to show support for full Federal funding of Amtrak.  Organizers will meet at the Pontiac Amtrak station (free parking available) at 10:00 a.m. for a press conference/rally after which they will board Wolverine Service train #353 (departs at 11:05 a.m.) bound for Kalamazoo.  Return will be on train #352, arriving at 8:44 p.m. in Pontiac.  You will need to make a reservation to ride the train and either board with a ticket or present a reservation number to the conductor for ticket issuance (Pontiac, Birmingham, Royal Oak, and Albion are unstaffed).  For further information, contact Mike Whims, Chairman of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers.