NARP January 2002 Hotlines

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Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R.) told mayors along the Florida East Coast (FEC) route on December 20 that he had asked the Florida DOT to fund fully plans to introduce Amtrak service along the coast from Jacksonville to Miami. A total of $82.5 million is needed. Bush said, "The September attacks on our country showed us that we must fully develop alternative modes of transportation in and out of Florida. This restored passenger rail service is just the ticket." Transportation Secretary Tom Barry said, "We're pleased to be a partner in the restoration of this vital rail service to our citizens and visitors."

A first phase would use $23.5 million in Florida DOT funds (of which the legislature still must provide $8 million in fiscal 2002/03) to allow one daily train in each direction. A second phase amounting to $37.6 million and two daily trains, would wait until fiscal 2005/06. Funding is needed for 23 miles of second track, a new track connection from the FEC to the current Amtrak/Tri-Rail route at West Palm Beach, and eight new stations -- St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Titusville, Cocoa, Melbourne, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, and Stuart.

A bill that would drastically reduce the amount of passenger train service offered in the U.S. was introduced in the House on December 20 (the same day as Governor Bush's pro-rail remarks). H.R.3591 would transfer all Amtrak assets relating to the Auto Train and Northeast Corridor (Washington-Boston only) to the Department of Transportation, which then, ultimately, would transfer ownership and/or operation of the services to states and/or private parties. A release from the bill's lead sponsor, John Mica (R.-Fla.), singled those two routes out as being "profitable Amtrak corridors."

Mica's release is silent on what would happen to the rest of the country, as is the bill itself. However, he told a House Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on July 25, 2001, that Amtrak needed to be dismantled. He said long-distance trains "should go to tour operators," ignoring the fact that American Orient Express already runs such tours -- but only by virtue of Amtrak's existence and its right of access to freight railroad tracks -- at such high prices as to not constitute a transportation service at all. (AOE contracts with Amtrak, which handles relations with the freight railroads, who could be expected to fiercely oppose efforts to make Amtrak's access rights outlive Amtrak.) Mica claimed that the private sector "can build high-speed rail," apparently without government support -- a view widely discredited in the industry, particularly after the private sector's unhappy experience in Florida just two years ago.

Mica is joined by ten co-sponsors, all Republicans -- Collins (Ga.), Kingston (Ga.), Linder (Ga.), Hefley (Colo.), Petri (Wis.), DeLay (Tex.), Miller (Fla.), Stearns (Fla.), Pombo (Cal.), Graves (Mo.) -- who as a group generally voted anti-passenger rail in the 1990's. Hefley several times proposed amendments to cut Amtrak funding. Had they not been soundly defeated, they would have made Amtrak even weaker than it is now and likely would have resulted in less service than we have today. Ironically, of the group, Mica had the best voting record in the 1990's. Graves is too recent an arrival to have a record.

If you are represented by one of these 11 sponsors, let him know you object to his sponsorship of the bill, and you support a nationwide passenger rail service that receives public-sector investment like all the other modes do.

Mica takes a more generous view towards aviation, as reflected in H.R.3347, the General Aviation Industry Reparations Act of 2001, which he introduced November 27. This bill would provide $7.5 billion for general aviation -- $5 billion in loan guarantees "to compensate general aviation entities for losses incurred ... as a result of the terrorist attacks" and $2.5 billion in compensation for "direct losses incurred beginning on September 11, 2001, by such entities as a result of any Federal ground stop order issued by the Secretary of Transportation or any subsequent order which continues or renews such a stoppage" and "the incremental losses incurred beginning September 11, 2001, and ending December 31, 2001, by such entities as a direct result of such attacks."

The December 20 test train between Louisville and Nashville went well. A wire story said Rep. Bob Clement (D.-Tenn.), CSX passenger integration vice president Paul Reistrup, and Amtrak acting government affairs vice president Joe McHugh all said that the Kentucky Cardinal could be extended to Nashville as soon as this fall. The last train on the route, the Floridian, was a victim of the 1979 Carter Administration cuts. Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker remarked that communities all the way from Atlanta to Chicago -- including his city and those visited by the Kentucky Cardinal test train -- need to be connected by a passenger-rail alternative.

A major North Carolina track work project will move forward with the December 19 signing of an agreement between that state's DOT, the North Carolina Railroad, and Norfolk Southern, to improve the line between Cary and Greensboro. This segment is used by Amtrak's Carolinian and Piedmont. Work on the $24-million project will begin this summer, and will take 18-24 months to complete. It will include longer passing sidings, improved junctions, curve banking (there are many curves), and a new centralized traffic control system. This will allow the top speed for passenger trains to rise from 59 to 79 mph, allowing 20 minutes to be cut from running times on that segment.

The major Greensboro junction will be improved for better traffic flow, and a second track will be added to accommodate eventual restoration of service to the former Southern station downtown, not currently used by Amtrak. This station is being made into an intermodal station, to be open for local and intercity buses later this year, and for passenger trains in 2004 or 2005. Amtrak moved to the current location west of downtown in 1979.

Separately, track work began in November 2001 between Raleigh and Selma. When complete next month, it will cut 7-10 minutes from the running times of Amtrak's Carolinian and Silver Star. Planning continues for restoration of nine miles of second track between Greensboro and High Point.

A new Thruway bus service, Augusta-Savannah, Ga., will begin January 14. There will be a ceremony at the Augusta bus terminal at 4:00 pm to mark the event, featuring Mayor Bob Young, NARP President Alan Yorker, and Ray Lang from Amtrak Intercity. There is also local interest in a Thruway bus connecting Augusta to the Crescent, possibly at Greenville or Spartanburg, S.C. Mayor Young, and others, are eager to get Augusta onto the Amtrak map and see Thruway bus service as a first step.

An Acela Regional train, northbound 174, derailed near Canton Jct., Mass., on December 27. The cause of the derailment was unclear, and the train was thought to be moving at a low rate of speed. No one was injured. The locomotive and first two cars (of 11) derailed upright and in line. The train was about 90 minutes late when the incident occurred.

Amtrak's northbound Silver Star was involved in an accident early January 2 after a stolen road grader struck and damaged a CSX track about 15 miles south of Columbia, S.C. One wheel on a mail car derailed, but the rest of the train did not. However, power to the train was lost and it was some hours before passengers were removed from the cold train.

Neighborhood protests north of Baltimore Penn Station have led that city's mayor, Martin O'Malley, to cancel plans for construction of a Greyhound station there. The bus station would have had excellent intermodal connections to Amtrak, MARC, and MTA light-rail trains. The station was to have opened in summer 2003 on a parcel immediately north of and across the tracks from the Amtrak station.

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D.) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D.) helped cut the ribbon today on the new MARC commuter rail station in downtown Frederick. Glendening said it was wrong to "just keep building more roads" and that more mass transit, such as rail, is needed.

Tomorrow is the grand opening of the Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center, located at 9th and Jones, just north of the current Amtrak station (Union Station). The station will be used by local buses and Trinity Railway Express commuter trains (from Dallas). The portion of the new station that will be used by Amtrak is not quite ready, but Amtrak could move in sometime next month.

The Amtrak Reform Council met today and voted on its preferred option for restructuring passenger rail. After discussing nine options in December, the Council had directed its staff to produce three options. Under any remaining option, a three-part structure would replace today's Amtrak. First, a new, independent oversight organization ("National Railroad Passenger Corporation," the legal name for today's Amtrak) would -- among other things -- disburse federal funds, plan corridor development, manage any franchising of train operations, implement plans to bring the Northeast Corridor (NEC) to a state of good repair, and hold the statutory franchise to access freight railroad rights-of-way.

Second, a new government-owned infrastructure company would maintain and manage the NEC, with "operating shortfalls covered by track use fees" and capital funds coming from "a mix of federal and state funds."

Third, operations would occur under three scenarios -- "national or regional monopolies," "competition [only] for the long-haul market," and "competition for all intercity passenger markets" (with a 2-5 year transition). Prior to voting to recommend the third, "competition-for-all" scenario, the Council approved two amendments. The first amendment requires allowing current workers to "follow" their jobs in seniority order, with existing contracts intact, and normal Railway Labor Act bargaining to follow expiration of said contracts. The second amendment makes "franchising" optional (seemingly blurring the distinction between the first and third options). The Council's vote in favor of the amended third option was 8-1, with labor representative Charles Moneypenny voting no, and James Coston abstaining.

The third ("preferred") option also says, "Operating shortfalls on long-haul trains [are] funded by the federal government; after transition, states [are] responsible for funding losses on existing and new corridor trains. Train operators [are] responsible for privately financing new equipment. If necessary, [there is] federal funding of long-haul equipment and state financing of corridor equipment."

More detail will be developed by staff over the next ten days. The Council has already announced a final vote on February 7, the deadline for the Council to make its advisory recommendation to Congress. However, there may be another meeting, by telephone conference, before then. Chairman Carmichael said that to comply with the sunshine requirement, a room would be set up where the public could listen.

Milwaukee Mayor and Council Member John Norquist made a pitch for flexibility in use of both highway and aviation trust funds on passenger rail. He also observed that Congress might decide not to change the existing Amtrak structure but almost certainly wants to find a different way to provide funding.

In public comments at the meeting, and in talking to reporters, NARP's Ross Capon emphasized that ideas about how to insure Congress gets "value for money" and provides the right incentives to Amtrak -- and ideas about funding sources -- are far more valuable than ideas about restructuring. If "operational self-sufficiency" is history, some may see a choice between ending funding altogether and pouring money down a black hole, so devising credible incentives for Amtrak may be critical.

Clearly, separating operations from infrastructure does not magically create federal funding resources and a meaningful federal-state funding partnership, nor does it create the will to do those things. We have not seen credible evidence that operations and infrastructure under one agency (like Amtrak) is a problem with any significance applicable to the U.S. (not European or British) policy environment.

NARP is concerned that separating Amtrak into an operating agency that is viewed as requiring operating grants mostly for its non-Northeastern trains and an infrastructure agency that is viewed as requiring capital grants for its mostly Northeastern-situated holdings threatens to break apart political support for a passenger-rail network with national reach. It also raises a question of whether a majority of votes in Congress will exist for either of the two separate remnants of Amtrak.

The States for Passenger Rail Coalition (SPRC) had this to say in a January 10 letter to the ARC:

"SPRC believes that the success of a rail corridor structure will be severely limited if the corridors are not connected by a national system framework. The states believe that regional corridors offer the best opportunity for passenger rail development in the United States. However, a series of unconnected corridors, while serving regional needs, will not form a coherent, national system. Connectivity has been the basis of success for the interstate highway system and, as the events of September 11 have so clearly demonstrated, the security and resilience of our national transportation system require that such connectivity and redundancy exist within and between modes. A national intercity rail network should be supported by the federal government, as the federal government has supported such investment and operation of the interstate highway, aviation, and maritime systems."

Amtrak ran the first two 90-mph trains in revenue service on a 40-mile segment of the Chicago-Detroit route in southwest Michigan, on January 7, after the Federal Railroad Administration gave its approval for running at that speed. It is not know when all four daily round-trips will operate at that speed. The experimental positive train control signal system was installed in 1999, and Amtrak trains have been using it to run at 79 mph.

Amtrak is running a contest at its web site (click on "On Track to Win Sweepstakes"). Grand prize is a round-trip ticket for two to any Amtrak destination (including Air-Rail), with two nights in a hotel, Hertz car rental, and $500 cash. There are other prizes as well, listed at the web site. Entries are accepted through February 28; the drawing will be "on or about" March 12.

The intermodal station at Spokane was the scene of a police shoot-out early January 7. Police had been chasing a suspect from an earlier shooting in the area, and entered the platform area and began firing an assault weapon "wildly," though, fortunately, the only person injured was the gunman himself. Still, bullet holes were found in a Greyhound bus and in Amtrak's Empire Builder, which was in the station, and a bullet was found in a dinner roll inside the (closed) dining car. There were 250 people on the train and 100 on three nearby buses at the time, and more in the terminal. Police didn't fire at the gunman until they chased him back outside, away from the passengers.

The new Augusta-Savannah Thruway bus, reported on here last week and set to begin January 14, will connect in Savannah in both directions with the Silver Star and Silver Palm (but not Silver Meteor). The southbound bus leaves Augusta at 4:30 pm and arrives Savannah at 7:10 pm, with a nearly two-hour layover to the northbound Star, and four-hour layover with the southbound Palm -- with the Savannah station lying far out on the west edge of the city. The northbound bus (leaving Savannah at 7:25 am and arriving Augusta at 10:10 am) involves a two-hour layover for both the southbound Star and northbound Palm.

A new Northeast Corridor timetable will appear January 28.

Ohio rail improvements will be discussed at the Northeast Fast Track Summit 2002, on January 31, in Cleveland. This event, to be held at the City Club of Cleveland, is open to "regional public officials and corporate executives;" click here for more information. The main sponsors are the 3-C/CTC Corridor Campaigns and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. Speakers include James Seney, Executive Director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission; Patrick Simmons, Director of the North Carolina DOT Rail Division; and Rich Harnish, Executive Director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Coalition.

New Jersey Transportation Commissioner James Weinstein will become an Amtrak senior vice president, responsible for Northeast Corridor operations, starting February 4. He has been in his current post, which includes acting as chairman of the New Jersey Transit board, for three years. He replaces Stan Bagley, who was the Northeast Corridor business unit president until 2001, but who now is national Executive Vice President for Operations.

Monterey County, California, will begin a study in March of extending Caltrain commuter rail service from Gilroy south to Watsonville (in Santa Cruz County) and Salinas. If the study is favorable and there are no further delays, service could start in 2005 or 2006.

Continental Airlines and Amtrak have announced a code-sharing arrangement centered on Continental's hub at Newark, N.J., where an airport-rail station opened this fall. The plan will take effect in March, and will involve four rail stations -- Wilmington, Philadelphia, Stamford, New Haven. Air passengers making reservations through Continental can ticket travel to those four cities via Newark airport all on one reservation, set of tickets, and fare, just as if the train were a connecting flight. This sort of thing is increasingly common in Europe, but rare here. It was attempted ten years ago, when Midway Airlines had an arrangement to use Amtrak trains from Philadelphia airport to Atlantic City -- but neither that airline nor Amtrak's Atlantic City trains exist today.

Travel will involve Acela Regional and Keystone trains. Travelers on segments using Continental tickets will be able to earn Continental OnePass miles or Amtrak Guest Rewards points (but not both).

December figures show the air-to-rail shift continuing. For airlines, domestic passenger-miles fell 13.2% from a year ago; ridership fell 14.7%. Amtrak passenger-miles rose 3.8%, while ridership was down 0.8% -- taking out the New York-Philadelphia Clockers (a handful of peak-hour trains), ridership was up 1.6%.

Amtrak's Chicago-Toronto International is suffering from harsh policies imposed on its westbound riders at the U.S. Customs station in Port Huron, Mich. Passengers and their luggage are forced off the train at Sarnia, Ont., driven across the border on buses, processed by U.S. Customs, and then reboarded at the Port Huron Amtrak station. This procedure takes the same time as examinations did earlier (which were already quite slow), but it's extremely inconvenient to passengers. This new procedure was on-again, off-again in the weeks following the September 11 terror attacks, but an Amtrak bulletin this week suggests it is occurring steadily now, leading one to wonder how much longer it will go on. It appears to be occurring due to fewer Customs agents available (who are busy taking care of the backed-up highway crossing). Eastbound (entering Canada), the procedure remains as it had been, with riders staying aboard the train.

As a result of the U.S. Customs procedures, passenger crossings by rail have dwindled. Therefore, the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers last week recommended to the Michigan Department of Transportation that the International be replaced with a Port Huron-Chicago train, similar to the Blue Water in the 1970's (early morning westbound, evening eastbound). The Michigan DOT has been considering moving its Chicago-Toronto service closer to Detroit anyway, for some time now. NARP believes the superior routing for such a train would be via Dearborn, Detroit, and Port Huron (not via Windsor, which means skipping Detroit and awkward trackage in Windsor), if it weren't for the miserable U.S. Customs situation at Port Huron. VIA Rail, for its part, has considered sending at least some of their Windsor trains into Detroit, but might face the same Customs problems.

In California, the budget proposal for 2002-03 proposed by Gov. Gray Davis (D.) keeps funding for intercity passenger rail fairly constant, at $73.1 million. Another $8.5 million is proposed for the California High-Speed Rail Authority (largely from the State Highway Account). Though the authority only got about $1 million in the current year, it benefited from additional funding from Congress (the first federal funds for high-speed planning in the state).

The Ohio Senate now has a bill to allow that state to join the Midwest High Speed Rail Compact. The bill was introduced last week by Jeffry Armbruster and nine other sponsors. Armbruster is the chairman of the Highways and Transportation Committee, and he will have a hearing on the bill on January 29.

Test results from the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colo., indicate it is safe to run passenger trains at 79 mph on the Boston-Portland run, according to Amtrak and the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority. The current limit is 60 mph, imposed by Guilford (owner of the tracks north of Plaistow, N.H.). Guilford had reported a few weeks ago that raw data from the September tests indicated quite the opposite. The final report apparently indicates that the track exceeds standards for running on more than 99.95% of the track over which Amtrak seeks to run over 60 mph. The rail authority has asked for a meeting with Guilford. Failure to reach agreement could send the entire matter (for the third time) to the Surface Transportation Board (which ordered the tests) for resolution.

As part of their annual Washington conference, the U.S. Conference of Mayors will hold a news conference at Union Station on January 24, followed by an Acela Express trip to New York.

Since December 17, Amtrak Northeast Corridor passengers boarding at stations that are unstaffed -- or are closed at train time -- have been able to buy tickets on board (with photo identification). If a Quik-Trak machine is available, Amtrak prefers -- but does not require -- passengers to use that instead.

The Northeast Corridor will have a new schedule on January 28. Generally, New York to Boston will gain some weekend Acela Express service; New York to Washington will gain two weekday and Saturday Acela Expresses and three on Sunday. There is also some shifting in time slots among various trains. The Empire Corridor will lose its earliest weekday-morning New York-Albany round-trip (a Rutland train will be moved to connect from the Maple Leaf).

The Acela Express product line plans a series of on-board events to be called "Live on Acela Express." The first will be January 19, with a cooking demonstration and book-signing by New York chef Mark Strausman. It will happen on train 2290, departing New York at 8:03 am, with the cooking demonstration upon departure from Providence. Strausman will be headed to the Boston Cooks! festival, of which Amtrak is a sponsor.

One of the New York City area's leading rail transit advocates, Dr. Stephen Dobrow, of Woodside, Queens, died unexpectedly on January 13, at the age of 58. At the age of just 19, nearly 40 years ago, he formed the Committee for Better Transit, and maintained a profile as a voice for the transit user. He was also a professor of electrical engineering and urban studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J.

Delaware's General Assembly Consumer Rail Task Force heard a consultant's report January 9 on the feasibility of commuter rail service between Wilmington, Middletown, and Dover. The report found no "fatal" flaws in the idea, stating that existing track was adequate. Capital costs were estimated to be up to $477 million, and annual operating costs up to $13.8 million. The report was requested by the state Department of Transportation. Further studies are expected, and it could be another eight years before trains begin running.

The Utah Transit Authority was expected to announce a deal with Union Pacific on January 17, under which it would buy certain segments of right-of-way and get permission to use others. A commuter-rail proposal from Salt Lake City to Ogden (and later Brigham City) would benefit, as would a light-rail proposal to West Jordan and South Jordan.

The British Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers, presented the government's ten-year plan for the Strategic Rail Authority to the House of Commons on January 14. In doing so, he said that the rail network had suffered from lack of investment for 30 years. The new plan, at $48.9 billion, would be targeted at infrastructure improvements to Railtrack, Britain's beleaguered rail infrastructure company, or whatever succeeds it. However, that money depends on $33.3 billion in private investment.

For its part, passenger rail in the U.S. (i.e., Amtrak), also suffers from decades of disinvestments. Critics would have one believe that Amtrak has been a black hole of taxpayer money, but only about $11 billion in the last 30 years has gone to passenger-rail infrastructure investment in the U.S., much of that to address capital investment needs deferred in the decades before Amtrak was created. The U.S. spends a tiny fraction of what other developed countries spend on rail capital. Until that changes, Amtrak in its current form cannot improve its position, nor can any Amtrak restructuring plan -- including the Amtrak Reform Council's -- work.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors pledged its support for Amtrak on January 24, during their annual winter meeting. They urged it be built up, not broken down, and that any homeland security planning should include investment in passenger rail.

About 200 mayors met at Washington Union Station for a news conference and went to New York on a chartered Acela Express train provided by Amtrak. At the news conference, Conference of Mayors president Marc Morial, mayor of New Orleans, called proposals to liquidate Amtrak "rubbish," and called for "a strong, unequivocal commitment to building passenger rail in America." Morial said, "We support the idea of Amtrak being the primary passenger rail system in America. I don't see that any of the other alternatives would offer better service or more efficiency. Why create a system of artificial competition?" The mayors on January 23 wrote to President Bush and Congressional leaders urging they reauthorize Amtrak and develop a national rail policy.

President Bush's fiscal 2003 budget (to be released February 4) is not expected to give a definitive view of administration policy on Amtrak.

DOT Inspector General Ken Mead today released his assessment of Amtrak's fiscal 2001 performance. He wrote that Amtrak "has significantly improved passenger revenues and ridership [but] has not been successful in slowing its expense growth ... cash losses have not decreased and Amtrak is no closer to operating self-sufficiency now than ... in 1997 ... Amtrak's operating loss [including depreciation] in 2001 of $1.1 billion was $129 million higher than the 2000 loss ... Amtrak's cash losses [basis for measuring operational self-sufficiency] were $585 million in 2001 [$24 million worse than in 1998] ... [But] factors other than Amtrak's financial performance should be considered ... including the role Amtrak has played since September 11 in providing an alternative to airline travel."

As in earlier months, Amtrak in December posted strong sleeping-car increases -- ridership was up 3%, passenger-miles up 7%, and revenues up 13%.

The 11 rail unions with membership in the AFL-CIO on January 22 filed suit in federal district court, seeking an injunction to bar the Amtrak Reform Council from filing its Amtrak reorganization report to Congress on February 7. A statement released by the unions called the report "unlawful" and said that the proposed break-up of Amtrak was "in defiance of the ARC's explicit statutory mandate."

The States for Passenger Rail Coalition named a new slate of leaders on January 16. The new chairman is David King, Deputy Secretary, North Carolina DOT; vice-chairman is Ken Uznanski, Rail Office Manager, Washington State DOT; and secretary/treasurer is Randall Wade, passenger rail implementation manager, Wisconsin DOT. The departing chairman is Terry Mulcahy, who is stepping down from his post as Wisconsin DOT Secretary. The coalition is made up of 21 state DOT's who support both corridor development and long-distance services.

The National Building Museum in Washington is hosting an exhibit through October 27 called, "On Track: Transportation and the American City." Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Federal Transit Administrator Jennifer Dorn were among the speakers at an opening lecture January 24, entitled, "Rail Transit in a New Era." The exhibit explores three phases in the history of the relationship between American cities and rail transit -- "Expanding City" (development and dominance of rail transit), "Suburban City" (decline of rail transit), and "Regional City" (rebirth of rail transit). Among the sponsors of the exhibit are the Federal Transit Administration, American Public Transportation Association, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Amtrak, Amalgamated Transit Union, and several construction and architectural firms.

The museum itself, in the spectacular former Pension Building, is well worth a visit. It is located at 401 F St., N.W., across from Judiciary Square Metro Red Line Station (one stop west of Union Station). Admission is free.

Amtrak and Yahoo! Inc. rolled out several "interactive" train cars on January 23. The cars, "wrapped" in purple and yellow, with Yahoo! logos on them, are equipped with wireless modems and Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC's, mounted in cafe cars or coaches, giving Amtrak passengers the ability to web surf free-of-charge. The cars will run on Acela Regional services in the Northeast, on Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawathas, and on the Capitol Corridor in California, for about six months.

On January 18, Amtrak formally notified CSX of Amtrak's interest in providing a Louisville-Nashville passenger service. This begins a discussion process with CSX to see what issues need to be addressed before the Kentucky Cardinal can be extended south to Nashville.

The Georgia State Senate on January 15 approved a resolution honoring John R. Martin, the late president of NARP. Among other things, the resolution notes that the "extensive knowledge, understanding, and commitment he demonstrated throughout his advocacy earned him a position of national respect and a network of train enthusiasts and supporters who valued and admired this distinguished Georgian."

Once again, Georgia Governor Roy Barnes has cut funding for Atlanta-Macon passenger rail service from his budget plan, according to the Barnesville (Ga.) Herald-Gazette, raising questions about whether it can be completed by 2005. By cutting $12 million in state funds from the budget, Barnes proposes foregoing a possible federal matching grant of $68 million in 2003. Barnes has called for borrowing $1.3 billion, through bonds, for an array of other initiatives, including rural highway projects.