NARP December 2002 Hotlines

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Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) will hold hearings on Amtrak, according to a release on his web site. McCain will be the new chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, next month. The release says the committee "will hold hearings on the future of intercity rail passenger service, including comprehensive reform of Amtrak, the introduction of competition for the intercity rail market, the extent and nature of the passenger network, state involvement, and long-term funding options."

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported on December 2 that President Bush "did not budge" when appropriations leaders Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska) and Rep. Bill Young (R.-Fla.) met to seek support for increased funds when work resumes on stalled fiscal 2003 spending bills next year. That could mean that Amtrak's final 2003 level will be less than the $1.04-billion level in the continuing resolutions, meaning an increased risk that Amtrak would not make it through the fiscal year.

Amtrak announced the appointment of a Senior Vice President for Operations on December 5. William L. Crosbie comes to Amtrak from FibreTech Telecommunications of Kitchener, Ont., where he had been president since January 2001. Before that, he worked at the Toronto Transportation Commission, serving as general superintendent of subway transportation (1998-2001) and general superintendent of signals, electrical, and communications (1996-1998). Earlier, he worked in signals and communications at the Canadian Pacific Rail System.

Chief Operating Officer E. S. (Stan) Bagley left that post on September 16.

With the departure of Amtrak's two newly appointed regional general managers, Amtrak President David L. Gunn told employees, "I've determined that the [seven division] general superintendents ... will now report directly to Operations Vice President Ed Walker." Western Region General Manager Bill Duggan retired last month after nearly 29 years of service at Amtrak, and will work for New Jersey Transit. Eastern Region General Manager Lynn Bowersox will resign this month. She joined Amtrak in 1998 and had various assignments in the Northeast Corridor business unit (including acting president).

This week's snow and ice storms in the Southeast impacted Amtrak services there. Much of the problem involved trees that fell down across tracks and signal wires. The southbound Crescent that was due into Atlanta Thursday morning was so late that it terminated there to become this evening's northbound train. Substitute bus or train service will be offered southwest of Atlanta (depending on the trip involved). Florida and Virginia trains were delayed as well, and the Carolinian was canceled.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit will open an extension of the Red Line on December 9, from the Galatyn Park station in Richardson to the Parker Road station in Plano (3 miles).

The California Transportation Commission held a public forum in Sacramento today to discuss passenger and freight rail service in that state and ways to improve it. Panelists included Gil Mallery, Amtrak's vice president of planning and marketing, Gene Skoropowski, BART's Capitol Corridor managing director, and representatives from Caltrans, freight railroads, and commuter railroads.

California's Public Utilities Commission released a safety review of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority last month. Based on a series of inspections of MTA's rail network in 2001, the PUC found that the MTA doesn't meet safety standards or needs significant improvement in 29 areas. These include vehicle maintenance and employee training. The MTA has until January to show it is complying with the PUC's recommendations. However, the MTA says analysis of such old data is flawed, and that the MTA already has fixed some of the problems and is working on the rest.

State workers began razing a street bridge over Amtrak's Keystone line on December 2. The Fruitville Pike (State Route 72) bridge, just west of the Lancaster station, had been closed since November 12, when inspectors found widening cracks in bridge supports. City officials pleaded for bracing for the bridge, but state engineers said there was no room for that, considering clearances needed for catenary and trains. A temporary crossing will open in May and all work will be done by September.

Workers are racing to try to open a new commuter rail station in Silver Spring, Md., on December 16. Thus, the last service at the old location will be December 13. The old Georgia Ave. location of the old Baltimore and Ohio station has been repaired for another use. The new station, on Bonifant St., is adjacent to the Silver Spring Red Line Metrorail/bus station (at Colesville Rd.). An open house at the new station will be held the first day of service, 3:30 - 8:00 pm.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission's Transit Study Advisory Committee has released a report outlining costs for various options relating to increasing mass transit between Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee, including extension of Metra commuter-rail service. The cheapest option would be a bus service, with $19 million in capital costs and $3.4 million in annual operating costs. A hybrid bus-rail service, with rail south of Racine and bus north of there, would have $146-166 million in capital costs, and $18.2 million in annual operating costs. An all-rail option would have up to $225 million in capital costs, with $18.6 million in annual operating costs for seven weekday trains (each way), and $26.8 million for 15 weekday trains and three weekend trains. The committee next will consider making a recommendation to the full commission.

New Jersey Transit held two public meetings this week on the "MOM" commuter rail line (in Monmouth, Ocean, and Middlesex counties). Support in Ocean County is strong for the service, though intermediate "NIMBY" resistance remains strong. One citizen told the group, "The highways are crowded and they're only getting worse. More buses are not the answer. The train is the answer" (Asbury Park Press, December 5). A third meeting will be in Freehold Township on December 9. Written comments in support of the proposal can be sent to NJT until January 31.

A new air-rail connection was opened at the airport at Anchorage, Alaska, December 4. However, the airport rail station won't have any service until May, because it will serve only tourist trains that don't run in the winter. This will allow cruise-ship passengers to disembark at Seward and ride a train directly to the airport. The station was built with $28 million in federal funds, apparently with little involvement on the part of state-owned Alaska Railroad.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R.), who will be Appropriations Committee Chairman, and for whom the Anchorage airport is named, spoke at the opening, according to the Anchorage Daily News. He said that the station is "years ahead of its time" and that it would "make Alaska a tourist mecca." Responding to those who label the station a "boondoggle," he said, "It doesn't have to pay for itself. It was a grant from the federal government." The Sierra Club said the intermodal link is a step in the effort to reduce urban sprawl in the long-term.

Boston papers report that the contract to operate Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter-rail service will go to the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company ("MassBay"). That is a consortium made up of French operator Connex, Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, and a transportation consulting firm headed by former MBTA general manager James O'Leary. The contract is for five years, starting in summer 2003. Press reports suggest that MBTA will race the deal to its December 12 board meeting, raising the possibility that the board will ratify this big decision just weeks before a new governor takes office.

MassBay bid $1.07 billion for the contract. The other remaining bidder, Guilford, bid $2.02 billion. Amtrak, which has run the service since 1986, currently gets $180 million a year on what it considers a money-losing contract. MassBay would get an average of $214.4 million a year. The deal includes costs (such as the Greenbush line) which Amtrak did not have to pay. Amtrak decided not to bid this time because of liability and other costs that MBTA is passing on to the contractor, and restrictions on the contractor's ability to change key contract managers.

Today's Boston Globe story includes two seemingly contradictory sentences -- "T officials say the new contract will yield an estimated $50 million in savings over five years ... Other T officials said the increased price probably includes a 15% to 20% pay raise for current commuter rail workers, something rail unions had called for." An October 17 article put contract labor costs at $64 million a year; a 20% increase would mean a $12.8 million increase (to $76.8 million).

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young (R.-Alaska) has a plan for the next highway/transit reauthorization -- a six-year bill with the gasoline tax increasing two cents a year (plus inflation indexing) for a likely total of 15 cents by the sixth year. By that time, he envisions a $60 billion a year highway program plus $12 billion for transit (which means a reduced transit share compared with today). As currently envisioned, there would be nothing for intercity passenger rail. Rail passenger supporters will be making the case that there should be, and that it is time for transportation leaders to take a more modern approach to transportation funding which emphasizes choices.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) voted to pursue raising the gas tax, at a December 6 meeting. A report from an APTA reauthorization study group calls for increasing the federal transit program to $14.3 billion by 2009. The amount in the 2003 transportation appropriations bill, which is in limbo, is $7.3 billion. This would be accomplished by a gas-tax increased to be proposed by APTA, all of which would go into the mass transit account. This would alter the "80/20" highway-transit split for such revenues that has been the case for 20 years (but preserve "zero" dollars from the Highway Trust Fund for intercity passenger rail).

American Road and Transportation Builders and National League of Cities have already called for a higher gas tax. It remains to be seen how a gasoline tax increase will mesh with the types of tax cuts the Bush Administration likely will push.

Amtrak's Pennsylvanian will be cut west of Pittsburgh with the January 27 timetable change, according news reports. The train will operate as a New York-Pittsburgh service, as it did before being converted to a Philadelphia-Chicago, express-oriented service in 1998.

The train was scheduled for the express, but the result was a passenger-unfriendly schedule with unattractive hours and lack of good connections at both endpoints. With express going away, Amtrak had three choices -- NARP's oft-stated first choice (repeated in an October 30 message to Amtrak), which is a New York-Chicago train on a schedule roughly opposite that of the Three Rivers (i.e., running overnight east of Pittsburgh); NARP's second choice, which is to return the train to a passenger-friendly New York-Pittsburgh pattern; or discontinuance. Amtrak has opted for the NARP's second choice. NARP this week asked Amtrak to consider extending the train to Cleveland or Toledo (where there space to store the train overnight).

Amtrak began using a new passenger facility at Kansas City Union Station on December 10. The space will be dedicated on December 17, 11:00 am. Public tours also will be offered then. Special honorees will be Carolyn and Pete McMasters, of the Missouri-Kansas Rail Passenger Coalition. They bought the last tickets sold by Amtrak at Union Station in 1985, and were on hand this week to get the first tickets issued in the new facility. They have volunteered more than 2,000 hours at Union Station since 1996.

Union Station was built in 1914 and its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak upon its creation in 1971. The building already was in decline and it essentially was closed in 1983, due to soaring heating costs and crumbling ceiling plaster. Amtrak operated from a "bubble" structure until the current facility (below Main St.) opened on December 1, 1985. Union Station sat vacant for a long period, until its resurrection as a science museum, which opened in November 1999.

However, an effort began to return Amtrak to the restored station, even before the museum opened. Former Amtrak President Tom Downs, who grew up in Kansas City (and once worked at Union Station) called the 1985 facility a "troll under the bridge" that was hard to find. But Amtrak's return to Union Station was hampered by the abandonment and destruction of the many passenger tracks and platforms. The 1985 facility sits just beyond the end of the old, elevated concourse, which survives and is part of the new museum complex. Much of the former track and platform space has been developed and cannot be reclaimed for rail use.

Therefore, a return by Amtrak to Union Station has involved rebuilding the platform area about where the 1985 platform was built, and the construction of a long, elevated, walkway along the old concourse structure to connect the platform with the main building. The walkway and platform areas are not enclosed, meaning exposure to the elements to passengers. Also, the walkway and platform are connected by stairs and one elevator -- no escalator -- which surely will hamper boarding and detraining procedures. Street entry will be through the majestic Grand Hall, with the Amtrak waiting and ticketing area in the former drugstore and soda fountain area (now next to Pierpont's Restaurant).

With the travel market continuing soft for all modes, Amtrak is continuing some discounts. A winter 25% discount is offered for booking January 7-February 15, for travel January 10-August 28 (except February 14-17 blackout). It must be booked at least three days prior to travel and is non-refundable, and not good on certain services (such as Acela Express, Metroliner, Downeaster).  Ask for discount code H259.

There is also a two-for-one discount, with the same dates and conditions as the discount discussed above. Ask for discount code H255.

Amtrak will restore checked baggage service to Tucson, Ariz., at least temporarily (through the holidays). Baggage for Tucson will be accepted on trains 1 (Sunset Limited) and 421 (Texas Eagle through-cars) through the origin date of January 7; on trains 2 and 422 through the origin date of January 8.

Key Holidays and Amtrak mark the 40th anniversary of the Reno Fun Train this winter. Two round-trips a week will operate January-March (one Fun Train and one Snow Train). Prices include two nights in a hotel in Reno, entertainment coupons in Reno, and entertainment on the train. Tickets are available only as part of a Reno package arranged through Key Holidays; consult their web site.

An upcoming edition of the Capital Region Roundtable television program will feature a discussion called "The Future of Passenger Rail." The program features NARP Executive Director Ross Capon and will be transmitted by the ResearchChannel on January 11 at 6:30 am, 11:30 am, 4:30 pm, 9:30 pm and January 12 at 1:30 am (all Eastern time). The ResearchChannel transmits programs by webcast, by satellite (channel 9400 on EchoStar's Dish500 Network), and by regular cable.

New York City Transit, the largest transit system in the U.S., moving over 7 million people a day, could be shut down by an illegal strike as early as 12:01 am Monday, unless agreement is reached in contract talks. It would be the first strike since April 1980. In the event of a strike, Metro North and Long Island commuter trains would provide more service to Bronx and Queens stations. The city has filed legal papers seeking massive fines from the unions if they strike, and $25,000 a day (doubled daily) from each striking worker. The state appealed for an injunction to block a strike. At a hearing this morning, a Brooklyn judge said his ruling could come as early as tonight. Any media outlet will have updates.

Commuter rail service should be extended from Kenosha to Racine and Milwaukee, according to the Transit Study Advisory Committee of the Southern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The committee recommended commuter rail over other bus-rail or all-bus options. The capital cost would be $152 million, with $15 million in annual, net operating costs. There would be 4,100 weekday trips made. There will be public hearings in February.

Amtrak President David Gunn wrote to Congressional appropriators on December 16, restating Amtrak's need for $1.2 billion in the current fiscal year, 2003. That's the amount the Senate Appropriations Committee approved, though the House Appropriations Committee approved only $762 million. The Bush Administration approves only of $521 million. Gunn wrote that "there are no easy options to any of us if the funding level falls below $1.2 billion."

Gunn wrote, "I have rewritten our [2003] budget submitted by my predecessor, and it is focused on repairing equipment needed for revenue service and making investments in our infrastructure just to maintain current speed and operations. In doing so, I had to cut or defer nearly $200 million in activities and projects critical to this railroad just to get to the $1.2 billion level ... The capital budget for [2003] ... tight as it is, will allow us to hold the existing system together and operate through this year without the threat of insolvency. During that period of time, your and your colleagues in Congress, as well as the Administration, will have the opportunity to debate a meaningful reauthorization bill and chart our future without the constant distraction of financial crises."

He continued, "In May, I took over a railroad that had lost focus and engaged in financial games to make it look like the railroad was making progress toward self-sufficiency. As the DOT Inspector General and others have made clear, no progress was made toward self-sufficiency, and now the railroad is left in terrible shape -- financially and physically. The problem can be fixed, but it will take funding and it will take time."

Amtrak last night eliminated its advance-reservation requirements. On many routes -- including long-distance trains and Midwest Corridors -- Amtrak "walk-up" fares were not competitive.  Amtrak had a 1-, 2- or 3-day advance reservation requirement depending on "fare bucket" (that is, the cheapest fare had the 3-day requirement). This change does not apply to cross-border travel on the Chicago-Toronto train.  Nor does it apply to special promotions. Thus, advance reservation requirements may still apply to web-based Rail Sale fares and to other special promotions. Also, in spite of this policy change, there still may be days you cannot buy out of the "D" (cheapest) bucket on a walk-up basis because all the seats in that bucket are sold out.

Effective January 7, Amtrak will reduce three of its four fare buckets "permanently," with the D bucket or cheapest rail fares down 25%, B down 20%, A down 10% and "full fare" unchanged. These reductions apply to routes where Amtrak has "revenue management," i.e., everything but the Northeast and Empire Corridors, Downeaster, Hiawatha, the West Coast corridors and the Rocky Mount-Charlotte segment.

Amtrak also will reduce many sleeping-car accommodation charges on all sleeping-car trains, but only through March 3 -- D bucket down 30%, C bucket 20%, B 7%, and the top two tiers ("A" and "F") are not changed.

Separately, Amtrak is sharply reducing Acela Regional off-peak fares for travel local to the Boston-Providence and the Baltimore-Washington segments. This is particularly welcome at the south end. Cheaper Maryland commuter trains do not run on weekends; Amtrak's new low, short-distance fares will apply all day Saturday, and Sunday through 10:59 am.

The St. Albans-Montreal Thruway connection will not run after January 6. Vermont Transit, which gets a per-passenger payment from Amtrak, has run many empty buses. On October 27, Amtrak shifted the southbound train earlier, causing the bus to depart Montreal at 4:05 am instead of 5:35 am.

A group called Reconnecting America has issued a report called, "Missing Connections:  Finding solutions to the Crisis in Air Travel." The project is a joint effort of the Great American Station Foundation and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and is funded by the Great American Station Foundation and several foundations.

The general thrust of the report is that small and medium airports have had the quantity and quality of their air service sharply cut in recent years. It also says that rail and bus feeder services at airports to long-distance flights are a much better idea than short-distance flights.

A strike on New York City's transit system was averted when contract negotiators reached an agreement on December 16.

Amtrak equipment was involved in a non-revenue derailment at Lyons, N.Y., on December 14. No one aboard was injured. The train had two locomotives and nine cars; all cars (but not the locomotives) derailed and remained upright. The speed was reported as 67 mph. The train included Amtrak mail cars and an FRA test car. The purpose of the run apparently was to test Amtrak mail cars (MHC's), some of which have been speed-restricted by CSX (on whose rails the derailment occurred).

A possible rail failure was being investigated. Nevertheless, Norfolk Southern issued a speed restriction for Amtrak MHC's, in the 1400 and 1500 number-series, on December 19. Trains using Norfolk Southern lines will suffer delays when hauling MHC's.

Amtrak has awarded a $66.2-million contract for demolition and reconstruction of two ventilation shafts located in Long Island City, Queens, N.Y. Also included will be new sets of stairs in the shafts (for emergency exit and emergency access), a hoist system, a reversible ventilation system, and replacement of existing power substations. The shafts serve the four East River tunnels that connect Penn Station in Manhattan with Long Island. Work will begin next month and should end in December 2006. The contractor is Granite Construction, Inc., of Watsonville, Cal. Amtrak got a $100-million appropriation a year ago, in the 2002 defense appropriations bill, earmarked for life/safety improvements in the tunnels on both sides of Manhattan.

Disney World wants the proposed Florida high-speed rail service to serve its theme park southwest of Orlando -- but only if trains run non-stop between Disney World and the Orlando airport (southeast of Orlando), according to a December 15 report in the St. Petersburg Times. However, that would leave out other important attractions in the International Drive area, such as Universal Studios, Sea World, and the convention center. Disney also has rejected other alternatives, such as having every other train run non-stop to the airport, or having a dedicated set of non-stop express equipment. There are 2.2 million travelers a year between Disney World and the airport. Florida's state constitution says rail construction must start by November 2003, with the first segment expected to be Tampa-Orlando.

The new light-rail extension to Plano, Tex., has been so successful that the service is already running at capacity and the endpoint parking lot is already full at peak hours. The DART Red Line extension opened December 9. DART and the City of Plano have told a bus operator from Sherman, 40 miles north of Plano, that commuter buses cannot drop passengers at the Red Line terminus because it is so busy, and that train and parking capacity need to be preserved for local commuters, who pay taxes locally.

The City of Dunsmuir, Cal., has said that volunteers will make renovations to the former Southern Pacific station there. Amtrak's Coast Starlight stops there, but Amtrak had said the service would end if something weren't done with the dilapidated, abandoned building by December 1. A group of 30 volunteers descended on the station on December 14 and began the work of cleaning and painting. The local Rotary Club offered to provide a bank account for any donations of money that may come in. The city will work to get a lease from the owner, Union Pacific.

The planned December 16 opening of the new MARC station at Silver Spring, Md., (mentioned here two weeks ago) has been postponed, probably to mid-January. Electrical work relating to the elevator is not finished.

Virginia's Commonwealth Transportation Board voted unanimously on December 19 to make a Metro rail extension the preferred alternative in the Falls Church-Tysons Corner-Dulles Airport corridor. Local governments already have supported the rail extension. The Federal Transit Administration, as it has been in several other parts of the country, actively promoted enhanced bus service over rail for most of the length of the corridor.

Nevertheless, the director of Virginia's Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Karen J. Rae, said the rail extension offers "the greatest capacity for moving people, the greatest reduction in congestion, and the greatest reduction in air pollution."

Amtrak's 2003 calendar is available, featuring the New York-Montreal Adirondack. Check the Amtrak web site merchandise section for details.

An Amtrak official has been appointed to a high-profile position by the governor-elect of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich (D.). Cheryle Jackson will be the governor's communications director. She has been regional vice president for communications and government affairs since January 2000. Blagojevich gave up a seat in Congress to run for governor.

New Jersey Transit police will take over patrolling duties from Amtrak police at the Trenton, N.J., station, according to today's Trenton Times.  NJT, which owns the station, had become concerned about thinning Amtrak police staffing levels. The change is effective January 11. Amtrak officers displaced by the change will be reassigned to Penn Station in New York.

The British government has agreed to a $93-million bailout of Connex, the private rail company that runs trains between London and southeastern points in Kent and Sussex. Connex had said it would be unable to keep running the services without more support.  In return, Connex's franchise will end in 2006, rather than 2011. A post-2007 franchise will include high-speed services on a new line between London and the Channel Tunnel. More than half of the 25 train companies have gotten such bailouts, according to the BBC. Connex is a French company that also had a south-central franchise, which it lost in October 2000 after criticism of its management and performance.
 
Connex is one of the partners in the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company, whose bid was accepted this month to operate Boston-region commuter trains starting in 2003. The winning bid, $1.07 billion, was half that of Boston and Maine Corporation, the other surviving bidder. News reports indicate Massachusetts Bay expects to negotiate worker pay increases, but also a work force reduction.

Meanwhile, a private operator of trains and streetcars in Victoria State, Australia, announced it would abandon its operations within a week. National Express, a British company, operates more than half of Melbourne's local trains and streetcars, and all V/Line rural train service. The state must now, suddenly, resume control of these services. National Express is three years into contracts that last 10-15 years. The company's announcement came after failed, emergency talks in which the company hoped for an additional subsidy of $51 million.

An earlier bailout this year had the state government giving an additional $59 million to three private operators, of which National Express got $25 million. The other two operators are Connex (see above) and Yarra Trams.

Unaffected are plans for a National Express-Bombardier consortium to build and maintain trains for a $570-million regional fast rail project in Victoria.

Victoria officials later announced they would combine the contracts so that there would be just one streetcar and one train network, with no guarantees that Connex and Yarra Trams would remain as contractors. The plan would feature higher public subsidies.

Checking baggage on airlines may get worse, according to an interview this morning on National Public Radio's Morning Edition program. Host Bob Edwards interviewed David Field of Airline Business magazine, a London-based monthly for airline executives. The topic was the looming January 1 deadline for screening all checked baggage.

The hassle factor will get worse because "the industry doesn't have enough machinery to automate the process" at all airports, and personnel at airports with manual inspection will break the locks on any locked bags. Field, a former reporter at the Washington Times and USA Today, said that the new procedures would not go over well with the public, which is already alienated from air travel. He said Delta has interviewed former, regular fliers, asking them why they weren't flying anymore. "A lot of them said, 'I just don't want the hassle anymore.'" Edwards countered, "There's got to be a better way to do this." Fields replied, "It's called Amtrak. No, I think as the [Transportation Security Administration] gets more experience, it should smooth out."

Amtrak passengers on the December 26 southbound Ethan Allen Express also had a pretty high hassle factor, as their train suffered an engine failure at Whitehall, N.Y. Passengers were stuck without heat for four hours. A locomotive was added to the rear of the northbound Adirondack at Albany and dropped ahead of the stranded train. But the whole process too longer than expected because the recent blizzard left huge drifts and created problems for switches and signals. Passengers reached New York at 8:21 pm, about six hours late.

The Illinois Zephyr also suffered delays when a cafe car had to be set out because of a fire.

The Montreal-St. Albans Thruway bus, connecting with the Vermonter, is back for now. It has been restored to the reservation system through February 5, while Amtrak, Vermont, and Vermont Transit (the bus operator) explore possibilities for a permanent solution. The bus was to have been dropped January 6, and was removed from Amtrak's reservation system. Restoration came partly as a result of a report on our December 20 hotline message.

Effective January 27, Amtrak will operate the Pennsylvanian between New York and Pittsburgh only, as reported here December 13. The Pennsylvanian will depart Pittsburgh at 7:30 am. Also, the eastbound Three Rivers schedule will change so it is not so close to that of the Pennsylvanian -- 10:30 pm from Chicago, 10:00 am from Pittsburgh, and arrive New York 8:15 pm (instead of the current 7:10 pm).

The Amtrak test-train derailment at Lyons, N.Y., on December 14 apparently was caused by a broken rail, not equipment problems. Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black says MHC's (mail handling cars), such as those being tested that day, have run 370 million miles safely. We understand that the Federal Railroad Administration is questioning a December 19 decision by Norfolk Southern to restrict the speed of Amtrak trains carrying MHC's and may reverse the decision in a couple of weeks.

Sounder afternoon commuter trains between Seattle and Tacoma carried a record 3,369 passengers on December 16, because of major delays on I-5.

Support for maglev is in doubt, according to a December 15 report by the Associated Press. "Support for a high-speed train with a 20-minute run between Baltimore and Washington appears to be dwindling because of a budget crisis and the region's failed Olympic bid. The $4.4 billion magnetic levitation train is being edged off Maryland's transportation priorities list, officials say. 'Maglev right now, with the bumps it's encountered ... just doesn't have legs,' state Senate President Thomas Mike Miller said last week." Other reports indicated the Pittsburgh project is running into problems, as well. A December 16 Associated Press story about that city's project (the other still in the running for federal funds) focused on doubts about whether the federal funding that is needed will materialize.

CSX Chairman John W. Snow's career was the topic of a major story in the December 25 New York Times. President Bush's choice to be Treasury Secretary got mixed reviews. Frank Wilner, spokesman for the United Transportation Union, said, "Snow's legacy is that he is the only railroad executive who tried to break the militaristic culture of railroad managements." Former Amtrak President Tom Downs "said that he repeatedly met with Mr. Snow to express his concerns about safety on CSX's line. 'My experience was pretty uniformly unsatisfactory.'"

The article notes that CSX had a series of fatalities and injuries from 1991 to 1996 due to inadequate track maintenance. "Five major accidents in 1995 alone prompted an audit by the Federal Railroad Administration that accused the company of intimidating workers who raised safety concerns." CSX spokesman Adam Hollingsworth said, "What is important is that [Mr. Snow adopted] every recommendation" of the audit. Investors unhappy with the performance of CSX stock and Snow's growing compensation are quoted, along with the countering view that Snow's vision in acquiring much of Conrail will pay off in the long-term. The article also notes, "In 2000, only about half of CSX's trains departed and arrived on time. Now, more than 90% are on schedule -- a record that has enabled CSX to pick up more shipments of perishable goods, like produce."

"Indians Fight to Regain Lands Lost to Railroad" was the headline of another major story in the New York Times on December 25. A "chunk" of the fortune created by James J. Hill, once head of the Great Northern, "has been dedicated to reassembling ... and returning to Indian control" Indian lands given to industrialists, homesteaders, and the federal government under nine federal laws enacted in 1887.