» S. 294 The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act

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Thanks to NARP member Ed D’Amato of Berea, Ohio for his excellent summary of this bill! Please note that this is a summary of S. 1516, last years bill, and that there are several minor corrections and changes to S. 294.  A corrected summary will be posted soon.

• Authorizes appropriations of $3.335 billion for Amtrak Operations for fiscal years 2006 through 2011 in amounts that range from $455 million to $600 million per year and $6.312 billion for capital in amounts that range from $813 million to $1.231 billion per year.
• Of the amounts above, a percentage is required to be made available for capital grants to the states ranging from 3% in FY 2006 and gradually increasing to 33% in FY 2011.
• Authorizes $5 million per year from FY 2006 through FY 2011 for a rail research program established in the Act. 
• Authorizes $5 million per year from FY 2006 through FY 2011 for a Next Generation Corridor Train Equipment Pool Committee established in the Act.
• Requires Amtrak, DOT, and the Treasury Department to enter into negotiations with the holders of Amtrak’s debt to restructure it in ways that will result in significant savings.  Money to retire the principal on debt is authorized to be appropriated.

TITLE II: AMTRAK REFORM AND OPERATION IMPROVEMENTS

• Defines a national passenger rail system as follows:

  -The Northeast Corridor
  -USDOT designated HSR corridors
  -Long Distance Routes that exist at the time of enactment of the Act.
  -Short distance corridors operated by Amtrak or another carrier.

  The definition does not preclude Amtrak from restoring, improving or developing additional non-high speed intercity passenger rail services.

• Makes the following changes to Amtrak’s Board of Directors

  -Adds the Amtrak President to the Board
  -7 individuals appointed by the president are required to have experience in business, transportation, freight and passenger rail transport, travel, hospitality, cruise line, air transport, or representatives of the users of passenger rail transportation.

• Requires Amtrak to improve its accounting system such that it appropriately assigns revenues to each line of business activity, including operations, distinguishes infrastructure expenses from operating expenses, and allows real-time analysis of ticketing and reservation systems.
• Requires Amtrak to submit a 5-year financial plan and to update it annually.
• Requires Amtrak to develop a standardized methodology for establishing operating and capital costs for state-supported routes that ensures equal treatment of like services and charges only the costs incurred for the benefit of each route.
• Requires the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to use an independent auditor to develop and recommend methodologies, under specified conditions, for determining routes and services, adding new routes, eliminating routes, and contraction or expansion of services or frequencies.
• Requires the FRA and Amtrak to develop, in consultation with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and host railroads, standardized metrics and standards for measuring on-time performance (OTP), service quality, cost recovery, ridership, on-board services, stations, facilities, and equipment.
• Requires monitoring of OTP of Amtrak trains and that the STB develop a schedule of penalties for delays caused by host railroads.  Requires the STB to investigate when the OTP of any Amtrak route falls below 80% for two consecutive quarters.
• Requires Amtrak to monitor the performance of long distance trains and develop and implement improvement plans to eliminate problems. 
• Permits infrastructure-owning railroads to bid to operate any 1 Amtrak route in FY 2008 and any 2 Amtrak routes in FY 2009.  Amtrak is required to make available its reservation system, stations, and facilities to any railroad that is awarded a contract under this provision. 
• Requires Amtrak to submit a plan to return the NEC to a state of good repair and establishes a NEC Infrastructure and Advisory Commission (NEC I&AC) to promote mutual cooperation and planning along the NEC. 
• The NEC I&AC is required to develop a standardized formula for determining and allocating costs, revenues and compensation for NEC commuter rail operations.  The formula must eliminate cross-subsidization of services.  Amtrak and the commuter authorities are required to implement the new formula.
• Encourages (not requires) Amtrak to implement an incentive pay program for employees.
• Encourages Amtrak to increase its operation of trains funded by the private sector in order to minimize federal subsidies. 
• Within two years of enactment, Amtrak is required to conduct a 1-time evaluation of the Pioneer route (Chicago - Denver, CO - Cheyenne, WY - Ogden, UT - Boise, ID - Pendleton, OR – Portland – Seattle route discontinued in 1996) to determine whether a level of passenger demand exists to warrant consideration of reinstatement of the entire Pioneer route or segments of the service.

TITLE III– INTERCITY PASSENGER RAIL POLICY

• Establishes an extensive definition of “Capital Project” to be used as a basis for providing federal matching funds to the states and establishes an 80% federal match such projects. 
• Defines “Intercity Passenger Rail Service” as, “Transportation services with the primary purpose of passenger transportation between towns, cities, and metropolitan areas by rail, including high speed rail.”
• Gives preference to projects that:

  Have high levels of ridership, increased OTP, reduced trip time, additional service frequency, provide intermodal connectivity, improve freight and/or commuter operations, reduce highway or airport congestion, have significant environmental benefits, have positive economic development or employment benefits, and meet other specified criteria.

• Requires USDOT to provide and “appropriate portion” of grants to states that either have no passenger rail service but require freight rail improvements and states in which the rail system is not physically connected to the continental US. 
• States that nothing in the Act applies to commuter rail operations, the Alaska Railway, and Amtrak’s statutory access to railroads rights-of-way.
• Requires states to develop State Rail Plans and specifies criteria that are to be included in the plans.  The plans are subject to DOT approval. 
• Requires the development of a long-range Federal rail policy that is consistent with approved state rail plans and the rail needs of the nation “in order to promote an integrated, cohesive, efficient, and optimized national rail system for the movement of goods and people.”

TITLE IV: PASSENGER RAIL SECURITY

• Requires the Department of Homeland Security to make grants to Amtrak for specified security enhancements. 
• Requires DOT, Homeland Security, and Amtrak to submit a report with recommendations regarding various cross-border issues for trains between the US and Canada. 
• Requires DOT to study the cost and feasibility security screening of baggage, cargo, and people.

• Permits USDOT to designate state issued bonds for capital projects.  The amounts are limited to $1.3 billion per year for each fiscal year from 2006 through 2015. 

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