NARP May 2000 Hotlines

#137 - May 5, 2000
#138 - May 12, 2000
#139 - May 19, 2000
#140 - May 26, 2000

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S.1144, the Senate bill with a provision that gives states the flexibility to spend some of their federal TEA-21 funds on intercity passenger rail, could come to a floor vote the week of May 8. Two anti-rail amendments are expected. One is by Bond (R.-Mo.) to remove the pro-rail section of the bill. The other would give the intercity bus industry effective veto power over states' ability to use the flexibility provision; possibly to be sponsored by Gregg (R.-N.H.).

The two amendments are equally harmful to passenger rail. Please contact your Senators right away and urge them to vote against anti-rail amendments and of course for final passage. The highway lobby is working hard to hurt rail by pushing these amendments. You can reach Senators through the Capitol switchboard (202/224-3121), or see our web site for e-mail messages.

On the passenger rail bond bill front, there are eight more sponsors on the House bill, H.R.3700, for a total of 53. The Senate bill, S.1900, has one more -- Byrd (D.-W.Va.) -- for a total of 41. See our bills page for an updated list of the sponsors.

NARP testified at four Federal Railroad Administration safety hearings in Washington May 3, supporting two Amtrak applications and one each by San Diego Trolley and the Maryland Mass Transportation Administration. Amtrak sought extension of the regulatory May 8 deadline for action on its application to "grandfather" continued use of five Talgo train-sets under the federal Passenger Equipment Safety Standards. Four sets run in the Pacific Northwest Corridor; the fifth is planned to enter Los Angeles-Las Vegas service later this year. FRA yesterday extended the deadline to August 31.

The last hearing considered Amtrak's request for permission to run a single Phoenix-Tucson round-trip with a Talgo train today. (It will be on display tomorrow, see our events page). The FRA also acted favorably on this request, though with additional conditions. Following the other two hearings, FRA approved continued use of light rail equipment through August 31, pending decision on a waiver to operated light rail and freight railroad equipment on the same tracks with temporal (time-of-day) separation, pursuant to FRA's joint-use guidelines.

Amtrak ridership overall was up in March and the Heartland Flyer had its second-best ridership level, 6,994. The best was its first full calendar month of operation, July 1999, with 10,986. By the first anniversary on June 15, total ridership could reach 70,000. John Dougherty of the Oklahoma DOT told the Tulsa World, "We have proven people in Oklahoma want the train and want to extend the service." However, the recent defeat in Oklahoma's House Appropriations Committee of SJR 37 casts doubt about whether state support for the train will continue after the state's Taxpayer Relief Act funds are used up. SJR 37 provided for a statewide vote on a one-cent gasoline tax increase to help finance Amtrak service. Sen. Dave Herbert (D.-Midwest City) said the bill's defeat might mean the end of passenger rail service in Oklahoma.

The first Acela Regional cafe car was dedicated May 1 at the Bear (Del.) Amtrak shop by Gov. Thomas Carper, Sen. Joseph Biden, and Rep. Michael Castle. The attractive car features pub-style seating and went into service later in the week, in place of one of the Concept 2000 Metroliner food-service cars now used on Acela Regional. As part of the on-going Capstone project to rebuild Amfleet I cars that are up to 25 years old, about another 65 cafe cars will be rebuilt at Bear in the next four or so years.

The Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit project groundbreaking will be May 8 in Camden. New Jersey Transit plans a diesel light-rail service between Camden (connecting with PATCO) and Trenton (connecting with Amtrak, NJT, SEPTA trains) by way of Bordentown, with a possible opening in 2002.

A draft study of a commuter rail line from Pittsburgh to New Kensington, Pa., shows that with 1200-1500 daily riders, it could cover its operating costs. New Kensington is 16 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, along the Route 28 expressway that is about to go through a five-year rebuilding project. A final report is due in May. The state has proposed $16 million in capital funding, though a local match is required.

While voters in San Antonio vote May 6 on a light-rail measure -- the outcome of which is expected to be close -- a Texas congressman is trying to keep Houston Metro from spending federal money on a light rail proposal there. One of Rep. Tom DeLay's (R.) concerns is that there will be no referendum on the Main Street line, but Metro points out that referenda can be held legally only for bond issues and local tax increases, which are not being proposed for the Main Street line.

Washington Metro officials say that the rescue of passengers on a stalled train after a tunnel fire on April 20 (and service restoration) could have taken 70 minutes -- rather than four hours -- if the fire department's telephones and radios had worked underground. The D.C. fire department now says it will spend $1.7 million to put new antennas in tunnels and stations, and will use military phones (with portable cable spools) next time.

The first step for a fiscal 2001 transportation funding bill in the House was made May 8 by the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee (chaired by Frank Wolf, R.-Va.). The Subcommittee approved a bill with $521.5 million in general funds for Amtrak, the same level proposed by the Clinton Administration. The last authorization law for Amtrak (in 1997) authorized $989 million for 2001. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the new bill on May 18.

The House bill's $521.5 million for Amtrak is unlikely to be exceeded in the Senate, where the amount of money available to transportation is far tighter. The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee may act around June 6.

The huge gap between authorized and proposed general fund appropriations for Amtrak increases the need for other pro-rail bills. S.1144, the flexibility bill giving states the choice to spend some federal TEA-21 money on intercity passenger rail capital projects, may come to a vote the week of May 15 -- please urge your Senators to reject any anti-rail amendments. H.R.3700 and S.1900 would invest $10 billion in passenger rail over ten years -- H.R.3700 got seven more sponsors this week (a total of 60); see our web site.

Redevelopment of Chicago Union Station will get another look, at the urging of Amtrak Board Chairman and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Amtrak broke off talks three years ago with two bidders on an $80-million project to add retail, office, and hotel space. The eight-story main building, built in 1925, was designed to have other stories built on top -- that remains a possibility, though its level of difficulty is not known.

A "railfest" in Janesville, Wis., will be held May 13 (9:30 am - 2:00 pm) by Amtrak to draw attention to the Lake Country Limited that started running last month. The festival will happen at the Wisconsin and Southern yard, downtown (Hwys. 11 & 51/Center & Court Sts.) -- not at the Amtrak platform site. An equipment display and free train riders to/from the Amtrak site are included, along with a ceremony at 11:45 am.

Flash-flooding west of St. Louis the weekend of May 6 disrupted Amtrak's Kansas City-St. Louis service. The line should be reopened by May 15. Alternate bus transportation is offered only for the Ann Rutledge west of St. Louis.

The next Amtrak system timetable change is May 21. Significant changes involve the Texas Eagle, which gets Chicago-San Antonio daily service for the first time since 1993. However, in order to get Union Pacific to agree to more trains, Amtrak agreed to put the southbound train on a new route west of Texarkana, bypassing Marshall and Longview. A new bus transfer will be set up at Gilmer (20 miles northwest of Longview), serving Longview and Marshall (and the current Longview connections for Houston and Shreveport). The northbound train stays on the current route. Union Pacific insisted on this because it divides its freight traffic by direction through the region on roughly parallel routes. NARP has urged Amtrak not to accept future such conditions, and to restore the Eagle to its current route in both directions as soon as possible.

NARP Executive Director Ross B. Capon today received the second annual Robert K. Pattison Partnership Award. The award was presented by the Intermodal Passenger Institute in Philadelphia at the High Speed Ground Transportation Association's annual conference. The first Pattison Award was given last year to Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission was to meet today to discuss whether to ask the state for $50 million to develop a passenger rail service between Cleveland and Columbus. The state had earlier budgeted $32 million, but that was greatly inflated by added requests from CSX for track and signal work. There is concern that the CSX requests are so big as to sink the entire project.

Voters in San Antonio rejected by a 70-30 margin a light-rail plan that involved a new quarter-cent sales tax. San Antonio is the largest city in the U.S. without any rail transit service or plans for one.

The Minneapolis light-rail proposal survived two challenges this week. First, a judge threw out a light-rail-related lawsuit filed by a Republican state legislator against Governor Ventura. Second, Republican House leadership failed to knock out light-rail funding during a conference to reconcile state transportation funding bills. A final vote is still needed in the legislature, but further, significant change is unlikely.

H.R.4475, the fiscal 2001 transportation funding bill, was approved May 18 by the House Appropriations Committee (after subcommittee approval May 8). The bill was approved today by the full House. The general-fund level for Amtrak was unchanged from the level approved last week, $521.5 million. An Andrews-Ney amendment cutting funding for the Amtrak Reform Council by $530,000 (to $450,000) was approved on a voice vote. The Senate is expected to start work on a bill of its own the week of June 5.

In its original form, H.R.4475 had language that would have made up for not including the $468-million Passenger Rail fund proposed by the Clinton Administration (which would have brought passenger rail funding up to the full $989 million authorized for Amtrak in 2001). H.R.4475 would have allowed states to use up to $468 million in excess gas tax revenues ("RABA") through certain TEA-21 programs, much along the lines of the Senate flexibility bill, S.1144. However, that language was struck today on a "point of order" by Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.), as is his privilege when an appropriations bill seems to be altering an authorization act (in this case, TEA-21).

S.1900, the Senate high-speed rail bond bill has one more sponsor (Rockefeller, D.-W.Va.), not totaling 42. See our web site for a full list.

May 21 is a general timetable change for Amtrak Intercity and Amtrak West. The Northeast Corridor timetable that took effect January 31 will remain in effect into July (i.e., there will be no new Northeast timetable dated "May 21"). Among the changes is a daily Texas Eagle (with a new route in one direction in northeastern Texas, as discussed here last week), with more tenuous connections with the Empire Builder. Amtrak will still provide a northbound Springfield-Columbus van (still not shown in the timetable) and a southbound connection in Chicago.

In Michigan, a Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac round trip (trains 350-355) is shown with a future diversion from Dearborn to Toledo, to connect to the future daytime train there (see below). However -- not shown -- is the fact that the pair will continue running to Detroit and Pontiac until the Toledo diversion actually occurs. Another round trip (trains 353-353) runs Chicago-Detroit only -- this is to accommodate RoadRailer traffic at Detroit and in anticipation of running the train through to Buffalo and New York later in the year. Therefore, after trains 350-355 are diverted to Toledo, the only Pontiac service remaining will be one round trip (trains 351-354).

Other changes shown in the new timetable will not take effect right away. The Skyline Connection (previously known as the Manhattan Limited) may start in July on a different schedule than that shown, as a New York-Chicago train. The extension of a Hiawatha to Fond du Lac also may happen later in the summer.

May 26 is the deadline for submitting comments to the Federal Railroad Administration on its proposed "whistle-ban" rule. A common theme of comments received so far is distaste for horns and an unwillingness to pay for the safety improvements FRA proposed as a condition for whistle bans. There is an interesting contrast between pleas of poverty from wealthy Chicago suburbs with existing whistle bans, and the eagerness of Fargo, N.Dak., and some Ohio and Wisconsin communities for the new rule to be put in place so they can make the safety investments with assurance that new whistle bans can take effect. To learn how to submit comments and view comments, go to the FRA web site.

Press reports say start-up of the Boston-Portland service now is postponed to April 2001. Big Dig construction in the North Station area is requiring a temporary reduction in North Station track capacity. The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority apparently accepted the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's request for delay. However, TrainRiders/Northeast questions the need for the delay, and MBTA has agreed to do a track capacity study to see if Maine's trains could be accommodated before next April.

New Hampshire transportation policy should become more multimodal, with the creation of a Transportation Rail and Advisory Council. Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D.) made the announcement May 17 at the future (and onetime) train station in Durham. The council is to "integrate passenger railroad service with current highway and air transportation statewide" (according to one news account). Besides the upcoming Boston-Portland Amtrak service, the State is proposing a commuter service from Massachusetts to Salem and Manchester as part of an expansion of parallel I-93.

The Boston-Scituate "Greenbush" commuter rail line should move forward -- after years of legal wrangling -- after an agreement reached May 15 between the Town of Hingham and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Included is a plan to build a $40-million tunnel under Hingham Square. The other two "Old Colony" branches -- Middleboro and Plymouth -- opened in 1997.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) on May 12 recommended not to proceed with the proposed two-year Cleveland-Columbus passenger rail demonstration project. ODOT and ORDC staff, including its new executive director, Jim Seney, met in Chicago on May 17, first just with Amtrak officials, and then as part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. Seney wants to develop a passenger rail policy for Ohio that includes Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati service. At the May 17 meeting, ORDC raised the issue of including the 3-C corridor in the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative.

Two more Senate co-sponsors this week signed onto S.1900, the passenger rail infrastructure bond bill, for a total of 44. They are Senate Minority Leader Daschle of South Dakota, and Kerrey of Nebraska.

Even greater news is that the House counterpart bill, H.R.3700, had a one-third jump in sponsorship this week -- from 60 to 81! This is terrific news, with much credit going to those among you who read this weekly message and act upon the requests for action. However, it's important for this bill to have 100 sponsors in the next couple weeks for the bill to have a strong chance of moving forward this Congressional session. See our web site for a complete list. If your Members of Congress are on there, please thank them -- if they are not, please ask them to support this bill. See our web site for ways to contact them.

Since the House transportation appropriations bill (H.R.4475, approved May 19, see last week's message) does not contain full funding for Amtrak for 2001 (i.e., $521 million rather than $989 million) -- and since every week that goes by without a floor vote on the Senate flexibility bill (S.1144) weakens its chances of passage -- passage of S.1900/H.R.3700 this term is all the more important to the future health of passenger rail.

The San Diegans are now history -- with the May 21 timetable, Amtrak West has renamed the service "Pacific Surfliner." The first new Pacific Surfliner train set began operations today. It will run on various Surfliner schedules over the following week, with a regular assignment in June still pending. Another set will arrive about every six-to-eight weeks. Early reviews by passengers who have ridden the new trains are quite positive.

Amtrak West has released a "draft final summary report" for a five-year plan to improve passenger rail in California. The report was referred to in the April NARP newsletter. Four general service areas are examined -- Capitol Corridor, Southern California (including Pacific Surfliners), San Joaquin, and the Coast Corridor (joining the north end of the Surfliner corridor with the south end of the Capitol Corridor). Proposed, near-term improvements are outlined, along with service levels envisioned in 2005 and 2010. The report can be found at the Amtrak West web site.

The Amtrak board met in Atlanta this week, with the location chosen in part to allow the board to learn more about the State of Georgia's bold plans for intrastate passenger rail service. Gov. Roy Barnes addressed the board on May 24, along with officials from the North Carolina DOT. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the board gave the governor an informal commitment to help the state negotiate the issue of passenger rail service with the freight railroads (Norfolk Southern and CSX). Board members asked the governor to urge his congressional delegation to support the infrastructure bond bills, S.1900 and H.R.3700.

Amtrak is examining its options for a direct return to Louisville, Ky., according to the Louisville Courier-Journal of May 25. The paper said that Amtrak and city officials are favoring a return to historic Union Station, by extending the Kentucky Cardinal three miles south (and across the Ohio River) from its current terminus at Jeffersonville, Ind. A timeline for the project and cost estimates are not yet available. Amtrak's Floridian used Union Station until 1976, when it began using the Auto Train station on the south edge of the city instead. Union Station was renovated in 1979, the same year the Floridian stopped operation altogether. Today, the main occupant of the 1891 building is the Transit Authority of River City (TARC), which also has a bus garage and parking lot on former track areas behind the station.

Much of the trackage in Louisville once used primarily by passenger trains has disappeared in the last 20 years. Nevertheless, it should be possible to design a return to Union Station in such a way as to accomplish one goal of NARP's -- a simple extension of the Kentucky Cardinal south to Nashville.

Tennessee DOT plans to hire a consultant by September to create a state rail plan, one component of which would be intercity passenger rail. In its "request-for-proposals," the DOT says it wants passenger routes to be examined that include the possibility of connecting to the national passenger rail network and to routes being considered by others (i.e., Chattanooga-Atlanta, Bristol-Washington). Two levels of service are to be examined -- top speed 79 mph and top speed 110 mph. The entire plan would be due June 30, 2002. This is a big step forward for a state that has not had the same involvement with passenger rail as many others, including some of its neighbors.