NARP April 2002 Hotlines

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Amtrak today sent letters to the 46 governors of the states it serves, and to the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, informing them of its funding needs for 2003. The letter said, "While Amtrak could not be more committed to a national passenger rail system, if funding falls below Amtrak's budget, it is likely that certain trains will be discontinued. Of course some trains require more direct subsidy than others. Eighteen of these already have been identified as being at high risk and, depending on the level of appropriations, other routes, services or programs also are at risk."

Amtrak had announced on February 1 that absent an appropriation of $1.2 billion, Amtrak would discontinue its 18 long-distance trains (but not Auto Train). Amtrak also had said, at that time, that 180-day discontinuance notices would be posted around March 29, giving Amtrak the flexibility to discontinue the trains depending on what funding Amtrak gets.

NARP expressed concern to Amtrak that a formal 180-day notice would harm Amtrak's cash flow by depressing advanced bookings, and so could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Intense media coverage since February 1 seems to have brought much of the "educational" value of the formal notice, and Amtrak's funding needs. Also, the law has exceptions to the 180-day notification rule that would let Amtrak discontinue service during the first 30 days after enactment of an Amtrak appropriation, or during the first 30 days of a fiscal year, if authorization and appropriation are not enacted at least 90 days before the beginning of the fiscal year (presumably July 3).

The urgency of the situation has not lessened -- we still need to work towards an authorization bill that does the most for nationwide passenger rail service (and so far, that's Senator Hollings' S.1991), and for an adequate fiscal 2003 appropriation, which Amtrak says is $1.2 billion.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Railroads Subcommittee will hold its third passenger-rail hearing this year. They have already examined the recommendations of the Amtrak Reform Council and the relative successes and failures of Amtrak and the Amtrak reform law of 1997. The April 11 hearing will look to the future, and has for its topic "Passenger Rail in America: What Should it Look Like?" Federal Railroad Administrator Allan Rutter is the first witness and may unveil the Administration's long-awaited plan for intercity passenger rail.

President Bush on March 29 made a "recess appointment" to fill two Department of Transportation positions, the nominees for which had been blocked by Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.). Recess appointments can be made by a President in absence of Senate confirmation, but they are valid only for the rest of the current Congressional session (January 2003). The two appointees, Jeffrey N. Shane and Emil H. Frankel, were named Associated Deputy Secretary and Assistant Secretary, respectively.

Their nomination had been supported by Biden, but he placed the hold on them because of one or more anonymous holds that had been placed by other Senators on S.1550, the Rail Security Act of 2001. That bill had been approved by the Commerce Committee on October 17 with bipartisan support (including that of Sen. McCain), and authorizes $1.8 billion for Amtrak security and safety measures. Biden had been promised floor action in return for dropping his insistence that this money be part of the aviation security bill last fall.

Here are some of the changes in the April 29 timetable. The westbound Capitol Limited will leave Washington 45 minutes earlier, at 3:20 pm, and arrive Chicago 39 minutes earlier, at 8:40 am. Amtrak says this is necessary, despite the fact that the current schedule is one of the few Amtrak offers that is ideal for overnight travel between major cities, because there are chokepoints at stations (like Cleveland and Pittsburgh) that can handle only one train at a time, and single-track running near Cleveland. The eastbound Capitol will leave Chicago 20 minutes later, at 7:00 pm, and arrive Washington 4 minutes later, at 1:27 pm.

The westbound Lake Shore Limited will arrive Chicago 25 minutes earlier, at 10:45 am (leaving New York and Boston at the same time as now). The eastbound Lake Shore leaves Chicago 35 minutes later, at 7:45 pm, arrives New York 20 minutes later, at 3:30 pm, and arrives Boston 35 minutes later, at 7:10 pm.

The westbound Three Rivers will leave New York 35 minutes later, at 12:15 pm, and arrive Chicago 40 minutes earlier, at 7:45 am. The eastbound rain leaves Chicago 20 minutes earlier, at 9:00 pm, and arrives New York 10 minutes earlier, at 7:10 pm.

The biggest change is the Pennsylvanian, which has suffered since its extension to Chicago from very passenger-unfriendly times at both ends of its route (the other being Philadelphia) and poor connections at both ends. The new schedule will vastly improve times and connections on the east end, while preserving daytime service in Ohio, and be attractive to many more passengers than the current train. The westbound train will leave Philadelphia 1:25 later than now, at 8:00 am, and arrive Chicago 1:18 later than now, at 1:44 am. The eastbound train will leave Chicago at 11:55 pm (6:05 earlier than now), serving as a "sweep-up" train for coach passengers (and sleeper passengers wishing to downgrade rather than spend the night in Chicago) making connections from very late trains from the West -- and arrive at Philadelphia at 8:00 pm, which is 4:52 earlier than now. That makes the eastbound train 1:13 slower than it is today -- an hour of that added time is in the night between Chicago and South Bend to produce better times at Toledo.

The Georgia Senate Appropriations Committee, at the last minute, inserted $12 million into the 2003 state budget to go towards Atlanta-Macon passenger rail, using funds from Georgia's share of the nationwide tobacco settlement. If the provision survives a vote in the full Senate, the House and Governor Barnes still have to go along with it. It had been thought that any funding for the project for 2003 was a dead issue.

Last week, we reported that Amtrak was considering removing the sleeping car from the Silver Palm -- reportedly in order to save money by also eliminating that train's dining car -- but that NARP was urging Amtrak to keep the sleeper on that train and make a test case for delivering sleeping-car meals more economically. Amtrak says it does not have the food service cars that would allow such a test. Effective with May 1 departures, the Silver Palm will lose its dining and sleeping cars and become the coach-only Palmetto (but with a Business Class car, which started April 1, and dinette/lounge car).

Passengers who have bought sleeping-car spaces on the Silver Palm for May 1 and beyond are being contacted by Amtrak. They are being offered space on the Palmetto for the same date as their reservation -- in coach or Business Class -- or sleeping-car space on one of the other two Florida trains, on the same date, if available. Since Amtrak's changes are the cause, passengers do have the choice of getting their money back. NARP is trying to clarify whether "bumped" passengers can book on a Meteor or Star sleeper on another day without paying a higher fare.

The inaugural celebration of the extension of light rail to Denver Union Station began today. The Regional Transportation District recently took over Union Station, and there is a web site dedicated to future plans for this building.

NARP Region 7 meets tomorrow in Champaign, Ill.; Region 10 meets in Omaha.

Most of the nation moves to Daylight Savings Time early on Sunday, April 7. Clocks are turned ahead one hour, meaning Amtrak trains running at that hour (2:00 am) are suddenly an hour late (or more, if they were already late).

The Railroads Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held its third hearing this year on passenger rail. The title of the April 11 hearing was "Intercity Passenger Rail in America: What Should it Look Like?"

Chairman Jack Quinn (R.-N.Y.) said that "we can't envision this country without a national passenger rail system ... I know not everyone here agrees on that" but "we need to forge an agreement and we need to put all options on the table." Ranking Member Bob Clement (D.-Tenn.) said, "Rail is the best opportunity to reshape our transportation network. We need to think about what other countries are doing and that we're not. Amtrak is a true national security issue. Amtrak already is expanding its revenues and ridership while maintaining a safe railroad operation. We need to explore ways to expand upon that."

The only government witness, JayEtta Hecker of the General Accounting Office, spent more time describing current conditions than outlining any vision for the future. Much was made of Amtrak's "low" ridership, compared to airline or bus ridership, ignoring the fact that Amtrak ridership is as much a function of sparse services offered as it is general interest in its services. Hecker pointed out that two-thirds of Amtrak's ridership is in the Northeast, and another sixth in California, as if that had any significance beyond the fact that most Amtrak services are located in those places.

Chairman Quinn asked, "Isn't this an expensive system, outside of the Northeast Corridor, for a handful of riders?", and Hecker answered, "It's not competitive ... The long-hauls can hardly ever be competitive. [Rail service] may be competitive in the 300-500 mile range, but that still won't get people out of their cars." Hecker later described the four western "transcontinental" trains as "rolling national parks" that are "not convenient" and that go "over the Rockies at night" [sic].

Jim RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative, referred to witnesses who talked about privatization, saying, "Many ideas have been presented, some good, some bad. But without funding, all such talk is utterly meaningless."

The day before the hearing, Federal Railroad Administrator Allan Rutter contacted Railroad Subcommittee leadership and asked to be removed from the witness list. Observers speculated last week that Rutter would use the hearing to present the Bush Administration's long-delayed proposals for the future of passenger rail. However, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta wrote to the subcommittee leadership, "Unfortunately, after many meetings with the highest levels within the administration, our work is not yet complete." Several Subcommittee members asked Chairman Quinn to hold another hearing when the Administration's views are known.

There was talk earlier in the week that Railroad Subcommittee leadership was moving toward a House Amtrak reauthorization bill that would last one year and authorize $1.2 billion for Amtrak in fiscal 2003. However, no such bill was introduced this week, and it was not discussed at yesterday's hearing. In any event, the 2003 appropriations process is likely to run ahead of any authorization bill.

S.1991, the Hollings multi-year Amtrak reauthorization bill, got its 30th Senate sponsor this week, with the addition of Collins (R.-Me.).

The Missouri House on April 4 voted to approve funding for continuing Amtrak service between St. Louis and Kansas City. The vote was for $4.5 million from general revenues, and $1.5 million from the state DOT budget, totaling $6 million. The Senate must approve this. Governor Holden had recommended "funding" Amtrak with a loan from the state's Rainy Day Fund.

The Federal Railroad Administration has placed slow orders -- of 10 mph -- where there are switches on the Union Pacific line between Longview and Fort Worth, Tex. This is a long stretch of the Texas Eagle's route, which will subject that train to significant delay until UP addresses the switch issue with the FRA and the FRA lifts the orders.

The Raleigh-Charlotte Piedmont has lost its baggage car. Amtrak still offers checked baggage service on the train, using space in one of the coaches, but no bicycles -- checked or carried aboard -- are permitted.

Last week, we reported that the Georgia Senate Appropriations Committee had added $12 million -- not requested by Governor Barnes -- into the 2003 state budget to go towards Atlanta-Macon passenger rail. However, during House-Senate negotiations on the budget on April 7, the provision was dropped, further delaying an already much delayed proposal.

An empty mail car behind the passenger cars of the eastbound Lake Shore Limited derailed early April 6, near Corfu, N.Y. (between Buffalo and Rochester), according to a wire story. No other cars derailed, and no one was injured, but the mail car apparently was pulled along at least a mile before its derailment was detected by a passing freight crew. The cause is being investigated.

A clarification from last week's report about the Silver Palm losing its sleeping car. Passengers who are "bumped" may -- in addition to being able to take coach or Business Class space on the (new) Palmetto the same day, or sleeping-car space on one of the other two Florida trains on the same date (if available) -- get sleeping-car space on one of the other two trains the day before or after the original date of travel. But if passengers want to get new sleeping-car space earlier or later than that, they will be subject to whatever fare is available then (lower or higher).

Amtrak's Auto Train derailed yesterday afternoon, for as yet unknown reasons, south of Palatka, Fla. Four people were killed (though six fatalities had been reported earlier), and 159 injured, with 27 still hospitalized as of 10:00 am today. Fourteen of the 16 passenger cars, and some of the 23 auto-carrying cars, derailed. Seven of the passenger cars were on their sides, and some were jackknifed. The locomotives and first two passenger cars did not derail. The train had 418 passengers, 34 crew members, and 200 motor vehicles. Auto Train General Manager Sharon Maloney was aboard, and helped direct rescue efforts.

The accident happened on CSX tracks running beside US 17, about an hour after the train left the Sanford terminal. The passenger speed limit in the area is 60 mph, and the train was going 56 mph. A wire story said the northbound train's engineer applied the emergency brakes upon seeing a misalignment in the tracks ahead. CSX said it visually inspected the tracks eight hours before the accident, but the National Transportation Safety Board is looking at the wheels of a coal train that passed by after that inspection.

Clean-up activities continued today, with Amtrak services disrupted in Florida. Yesterday's Auto Train departure from the northern terminal at Lorton, Va., was turned back at Richmond. Today's Auto Train departures from both terminals were annulled. Amtrak sent a "customer care" team to the scene to help displaced passengers.

The accident and the number of damaged Superliner cars reinforce the wisdom Congress would have shown by funding, among many other items, the $17 million Amtrak said last September it would take to bring 32 passenger cars (and seven locomotives) out of wreck storage. Amtrak's fleet is stretched tight. We will soon see the impact this new loss of equipment will have on services and revenues.

The Senate Commerce Committee yesterday approved S.1991, the National Defense Rail Act. The bill was approved in the form of a substitute amendment offered by Chairman Ernest Hollings (D.-S.C.) that had several changes from the original authorization bill introduced March 6. These include increasing the amount of money for Amtrak security needs (excluding tunnels) from $360 million to $515 million; applying Buy America requirements to high-speed projects (as is now the case for Amtrak); specifying that the bill will not affect rail labor protections now in place; stating that any profit from Amtrak non-passenger activities must go to improving Amtrak's working capital (to help prevent service disruptions due to financial problems), or to "high priority capital projects."

Ranking Republican John McCain (Ariz.) introduced several amendments, two of which were rejected. These would have created an "Amtrak Control Board" (from McCain's S.1958 authorization bill; the board would be similar to that which used to oversee the finances of the District of Columbia); and prohibited Amtrak from entering into any new debt without the approval of the Secretary of Transportation. A McCain amendment to make the bidding process on high-speed rail access competitive was agreed to, with the condition that existing labor protections be preserved. A McCain amendment requiring an 80-20 federal-state split on investment was modified to make state funding voluntary. Gordon Smith (R.-Ore.) had some amendments passed, including adding Portland, Ore., to the list of proposed high-speed rail hubs.

Ron Wyden (D.-Ore.) offered an amendment, that passed, requiring the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation to develop "objective" standards and criteria which Amtrak would use for route decisions. This was the topic of a report he commissioned from the General Accounting Office, which was released earlier this week.

Three more sponsors have signed onto S.1991, bringing the total to 33 -- Nelson (D.-Neb.), Dodd (D.-Conn.), Chafee (R.-R.I.).

Amtrak and IBM announced a deal on April 15 that involves Amtrak's reservations system ("Arrow"). Over seven years, Amtrak will pay IBM $229 million to operate and maintain Arrow, from a data center in Manassas, Va. IBM also will manage Amtrak's voice and data networks, including such systems at Amtrak's three reservations call centers (Philadelphia, Chicago, Riverside, Cal.). IBM also will provide support service for 7,500 Amtrak computer work stations and help with emergency planning. Amtrak expects to save $85 million by paying IBM to perform these functions. IBM and Amtrak will market the Arrow system to other transportation companies.

Business travelers will have easier access to Amtrak reservations as a result of a deal announced April 16. GetThere, which is an on-line corporate travel reservation system and subsidiary of Sabre, will integrate Amtrak reservations into its system. GetThere is used by over 800 top corporations (including over half of the Fortune 200), meaning this should greatly increase Amtrak's visibility to business travelers. GetThere will activate the link to Amtrak in the fall. A competitor of GetThere, eTravel, made a similar link to Amtrak last fall.

The Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers will hold a series of public meetings at every Amtrak station in their state, in order "to inform the public about Amtrak's current plight, and to encourage citizens to contact their federal legislators to urge their support of funding for passenger rail. The series starts in Creston on April 29, and ends in Fort Madison on May 3; for a complete list of times and locations, see our events page.

Two passengers were killed in a collision April 23 between a freight train and a commuter train in southern California. A Metrolink train, bound from Riverside to San Juan Capistrano, a push-pull train, was operating cab-car forward and was approaching a junction (Atwood) where it would leave Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Chicago-Los Angeles main line and continue further south into Orange County. The Metrolink engineer saw another train approaching on the same track and brought the commuter train to a halt.

The other train was an eastbound BNSF freight train, about a mile long. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that train disregarded a yellow signal and a red signal on its approach to Atwood, where it was supposed to stop and let the Metrolink train by. Though later signal tests showed the signals were working, the BNSF train did not appear to slow down until the Metrolink train was in sight and didn't have enough room left to stop completely. By the time of impact, the BNSF train had slowed to about 23 mph. It pushed the Metrolink train backwards some distance, caught up with it, and struck it again, derailing the Metrolink train's first two cars.

The NTSB has used this accident as an opportunity to restate past recommendations that all railroads with passenger trains have automatic train stop technology.

Amtrak's Southwest Chief was forced to detour via Metrolink's San Bernardino route (via El Monte and Claremont) to avoid the accident site.

Investigation in the derailment of Amtrak's Auto Train on April 18 shifted its focus from the train's equipment to the tracks, within a couple days of the accident. The NTSB said that investigators had found "nothing remarkable" about the Amtrak equipment after inspecting it. The train's engineer has said he saw a "misalignment" in the track, on a curve, just as the train was on the spot. The engineer, assistant engineer, and conductor all felt a "violent shaking" and all three reached for the emergency brake.

In an April 20 briefing, the NTSB said that CSX had experienced drainage problems at the accident site. The NTSB is considering the possibility that a soft spot in the track bed had formed, and that the track itself had been shifting under the weight of each passing train. Later, investigators appeared to rule out a drainage problem and to focus instead on rail maintenance questions.

The four people who were killed were passengers, ranging in age from 65 to 75, headed from Florida back to New York State and Ontario. Three of them were found outside of the train, suggesting that some of them may have been passing from car to car at the time of the derailment. The cars themselves maintained their structural integrity, leading an NTSB investigator to comment, "The good story is that the cars stood up like champs."

Track was re-laid at the scene, near Crescent City, Fla., and opened on April 21, subject to a 10-mph slow order. CSX planned further improvements this week to allow the speed to be increased to 25 mph. Auto Train started running again with the departures of April 23.

CSX and the Federal Railroad Administration had just met April 16 to discuss a track safety compliance agreement that had been in effect since 2000, which is set to expire May 1. FRA said CSX had met the terms of the agreement and that there were no plans to extend it.

Amtrak will have to shuffle equipment around to replace what was lost or put out of service on April 18. Both the Cardinal and Kentucky Cardinal will be converted to single-level equipment in order to provide bi-level equipment for the Auto Train. The Kentucky Cardinal conversion will be May 5 southbound (and May 6 northbound), when that train will get a Viewliner sleeper. This already had been planned after the decision to remove the Silver Palm's sleeper and diner -- which still will happen May 1, when that train becomes (again) the Palmetto.

The Cardinal will be converted May 5 westbound (and May 7 eastbound), on what is described as a temporary basis. It will have two Viewliner sleepers, a Heritage diner, and Amfleet II coaches (an Amfleet II lounge may be added later). The Cardinal will get the Viewliner sleeper that had been planned to go to the Silver Meteor. NARP has asked that the Cardinal be run through to New York (as it used to do before it had Superliner equipment). It is likely that unboxed bicycle carriage will end on the Cardinal, where bike racks had been installed in the Superliner smoking coaches in 1997.

Plans for a Downeaster summer stop at Old Orchard Beach, Me., are on hold for this year. The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority announced that it and Guilford, the track owner, had failed to reach a land lease agreement for a passenger platform, in time for service to begin on June 1. Maine Transportation Commissioner John Melrose hopes to start a shuttle bus between Old Orchard Beach and the Amtrak stop in Saco as an alternative for this year, and to keep working toward getting a rail stop in 2003. The Portland Press Herald said that the heart of the problem is that Guilford wants to make the Old Orchard Beach lease contingent on revising platform agreements at six other stations in order to change terms outlining snow removal. Guilford claims that other towns removed snow this past winter in an unsafe manner, which the Authority denies.

The four Senators representing New York and New Jersey have asked the Bush Administration to release $100 million that was provided for safety improvements to the Amtrak Hudson tunnels in the defense appropriations bill in December 2001, according to the New York Post. Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y.) told the Post that federal agencies had, unacceptably, cited "red tape" in explaining why the funds had not been released.

Amtrak's eastbound, on-time Empire Builder struck a Union Pacific hi-rail truck on April 23, injuring no one but disrupting Metra afternoon commuter traffic on the Fox Lake line. Not known is why a Union Pacific truck was parked on Canadian Pacific tracks (at Northbrook, Ill.).

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on April 24 was expected to mark-up a one-year Amtrak bill, H.R.4545, authorizing $1.2 billion in funding in fiscal 2003, but with new strings attached to it. All capital funding would be funneled through the Department of Transportation, and all Amtrak capital projects (large and small) would have to be approved there first. That also might give the Office of Management and Budget effective veto power over such projects, making Amtrak's spending decisions more political in nature. Democrats at the hearing expressed concerns over that, and over the fact that the bill had only been introduced the night before, and so the bill was pulled from consideration, for now.

Also up for consideration at the same meeting on April 24 was a revamped version of H.R.2950 (RIDE-21), the high-speed rail bond and freight rail loan bill introduced last fall by Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young (R.-Alaska). The new bill, totaling $59 billion over ten years, includes a rail loan section (like the old H.R.2950 did), $12 billion in high-speed rail bonds to be issued by states but that are federally tax exempt (like the old H.R.2950, but at a reduced amount), and $12 billion in federal tax-credit bonds (like H.R.2329, the Houghton-Oberstar High-Speed Rail Investment Act). The new H.R.2950, like the Amtrak bill, was pulled from consideration, for now.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers is having its annual board meeting in Washington, D.C. Last night, at Union Station, George Falcon Golden Spike Awards went to House Railroads Subcommittee Chairman Jack Quinn (R.-N.Y.) and to Senate Commerce Chairman Ernest Hollings (D.-S.C.), who was unable to attend, but who will get his award in person on May 8. The Dr. Gary Burch Memorial Safety Award for 2001 went to Henry Marcell, of Branford, Conn., for his work as Amtrak's Director of Safety for Northeast Corridor Engineering.

Former Amtrak President George Warrington spoke to the NARP board this morning, as his last official act before boarding a train to begin his job as new Executive Director of New Jersey Transit. A temporary replacement has not yet been named by the Amtrak board.

The Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers meeting on April 13, at Hudson, Wis., was honored by a visit from the new state Transportation Secretary, Tom Carlson. He said that engineering for Midwest Regional Rail Initiative improvements between Madison and Watertown, Wis., is underway and would not take long to complete -- if Congress ever decides to create a federal-state funding partnership for intercity passenger rail projects.