NARP January 2003 Hotlines

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In the coming week, the House will start its new session and is expected to pass a continuing resolution to extend funding beyond January 11. The Senate Appropriations Committee has scheduled a mark-up meeting for fiscal 2003 spending for January 10. The funding amount is still unknown and changes often. For total domestic spending, the Bush Administration supports tight budget ceilings far below spending levels approved by Senate committees.

In theory, Amtrak could wind up anywhere between $1.2 billion and $762 million for 2003. But Amtrak President David Gunn has called $762 million a shutdown budget, and the Bush Administration is known to want to avoid a rerun of last summer's shutdown threat. Phone calls in support of Amtrak would be helpful, particularly starting January 8. There will be a strong push to resolve 2003 spending issues before President Bush's State of the Union message, scheduled for January 28. The Capitol switchboard is 202/224-3121, or click here for other ways to make contact.

California Zephyr service was disrupted due to a December 31 Union Pacific freight derailment at Blue Canyon, Cal., in the Sierra Nevada range. Adding to the disruption caused by the derailment was a blizzard that closed both main highways between Sacramento and Reno. Amtrak annulled the Zephyr west of Sparks, Nev. (near Reno), and put passengers up in area hotels until either the tracks or roads could be cleared.

The Capitol Corridor in California will get additional service starting January 6. One more weekday round-trip between Sacramento, Oakland, and San Jose begins running. That brings the total Sacramento-Oakland weekday round-trips to 11. The new southbound train provides a better commuting arrival in San Jose, 7:45 am. At the same time, weekday train 525, which arrives in San Jose at 9:35 currently, will be cut back to Oakland, but will have an Oakland-San Jose connecting bus.

A big tie project is disrupting some Pacific Surfliner service south of Los Angeles. Evening trains 588, 592, 796, 593, and 597 will be substituted by buses in a gap between Orange and Santa Ana. Also, train 590 is not running today. From January 10 through February 9, evening trains 591, 593, 597, 588, 590, 592, and 796 will be substituted by buses from Irvine all the way south to San Diego.

Union Pacific is blocking a state request to study an overnight Bakersfield-Los Angeles passenger train, according to today's Bakersfield Californian. A UP spokesman said, "It just doesn't make sense when you compare how quickly you can make the drive." Of course, since the state inquiry involves a night train for passengers who choose not to or cannot drive, a comparison to a daytime drive under ideal conditions is gratuitous.

A more serious question is what improvements would be needed to allow a night train, even at a slow schedule, to use UP's Tehachapi line without interfering with the many freight trains there. UP's refusal to cooperate with Caltrans, the state transportation department, means the question may go unanswered.

An Amtrak assistant conductor has pleaded guilty to federal theft charges, according to another Associated Press story, from December 24. The man was based at the Amtrak station in Shelby, Mont., and worked on the Empire Builder. He was charged with stealing nearly $19,000 from Amtrak by pocketing fares that were paid in cash on board the train -- an average of $540 a month for the 35 months beginning April 1999. The theft was detected when Amtrak officials did a spot check in March 2002 and could not account for money from 250 tickets sold by the man. He could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Gov.-elect Rod Blagojevich (Ill.) will greet the public on a chartered "whistle stop" train from Chicago to Springfield on January 11. The train will make stops at Joliet, Dwight, and Bloomington.

The BART extension to the San Francisco airport has been postponed again, until March. Though the project is 99% complete, the contractor missed a November 7 deadline to turn the line over to BART -- indeed, the line was still in the contractor's possession earlier this week. When the extension opens, a shuttle bus to the Millbrae Caltrain station will be eliminated. It now offers a cheaper ride into the city than BART will. Travelers from the south will have to pay a $1.15 BART fare from Millbrae to the airport, rather than use the free shuttle bus.

A list of such projected opening dates is included in the January NARP newsletter (though our entry for BART is now outdated).

A new high-speed rail segment opened in Belgium on December 15, between Leuven and Liege. This link allows Thalys trains to go more quickly from Paris to Brussels and Cologne, and is also used by ICE trains from Frankfurt to Cologne and Brussels. This is the first time two European high-speed operators have competed head-to-head between two of the same city pairs. The same day, a full level of service was begun on the ICE line that opened between Cologne and Frankfurt earlier in 2002.

The premiers of China and Germany rode a maglev vehicle between the fringe of Shanghai and that city's airport on December 31. Some press reports claimed this is the world's first commercial application of maglev, but in reality, lines in Berlin, Germany, and Birmingham, England, have already been built, entered service, and ultimately dismantled.

The new maglev line is expected to provide an eight-minute ride at speeds of 250 mph over a distance of 18 miles (average of 135 mph). The line cost $1.2 billion to build, with the Germans supplying the technology and vehicles, and the Chinese paying for the guideway. It may be a year before revenue service begins. The "city" terminus of the line is Longyang Road Station, where it connects with Shanghai's subway system, some miles from downtown. The maglev line itself is a simple link between two points, with no intermediate stops.

There is some talk of building a maglev line over a much greater distance, from Shanghai to Beijing. This, according to the Financial Times, is being proposed by China's science and technology ministry, but is opposed by the railway ministry on grounds of cost. However, later in the week, the Chinese granted the Germans a contract to expand the Shanghai line to an 180-mile network serving nearby cities.

In some respects, the situation in China as it regards maglev is similar to that in Germany in the 1990's, when the German science ministry gained the upper hand over the transport ministry in promoting a Berlin-Hamburg maglev line. However, China has a much stronger central government than Germany, and environmental consequences get less consideration. Those factors ultimately killed the German maglev proposal, which led German industrial and technological interests -- both public- and private-sector -- to look for a country to sell its maglev technology to.

This week, the House and Senate passed the sixth continuing resolution, this one good through January 31. As before, Amtrak is funded at an annual rate of $1.04 billion. Continuing resolutions have been necessary because the last (107th) Congress failed to pass 11 of the 13 appropriations bills, including for transportation.

However, Republican leaders hope to have an omnibus 2003 appropriations bill -- good through September 30 -- in place before President Bush's January 28 State of the Union address. These leaders have accepted President Bush's spending ceilings (including $316 billion on domestic discretionary programs), which means they are looking for $9.8 billion to cut from bills pending before the Senate in 2002. However, Associated Press yesterday said that "even" House Appropriations Chairman C. W. Bill Young (R.-Fla.) and his incoming Senate counterpart, Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska), hope "to get White House support to add some funds to the package, including $825 million for the costs of battling last summer's wildfires."

Associated Press also said Republican leaders agreed to cut one-third of the $1.2 billion the Senate Appropriations Committee approved last year for Amtrak. This implies an $800 million level, much closer to the $762 million the House committee approved last year, than to either the old Senate committee's $1.2 billion or the continuing resolution's $1.04 billion assumption. Today's New York Times reports that "aides said the areas facing the largest reductions" included "labor and health, which would be cut by almost $3 billion."

If Amtrak is not on the Young/Stevens "add-back" list, or if the White House spurns that list, a committee (or floor) amendment would be needed to restore Amtrak funding to a "non-shutdown level." [Amtrak President David Gunn wrote to appropriators on December 16, "Adoption of the House Committee mark of $762 million would guarantee insolvency by spring and the shutting down of the railroad at that time."]

Another possibility -- funding Amtrak with a last-minute emergency appropriation -- would be even worse because it would maximize the time period during which the media would report doubts about Amtrak's short-term survival, and thus maximize damage to Amtrak's commercial revenues from this process.

Senate Appropriations Committee approval of the omnibus measure, initially expected today, now is not expected before Tuesday (January 14). Senate leaders have not yet agreed on an organizing resolution, so Democrats technically remain in control. [Republicans have been holding out for 65/35 party ratios on committees, although some committees have already reached different agreements, including Senate Commerce, where McCain is willing to continue the present 50/50 ratio.]

In the transportation sector, so far at least, Amtrak appears to bear nearly all the pain. Associated Press said transportation programs were to be reduced by $400 million from what the Senate approved last year. One-third of Amtrak's $1.2 billion is $400 million.

The Bush Administration's squeeze on domestic programs is outlined in a January 6 Washington Post report. The Administration wants to freeze spending for domestic discretionary programs at $316 billion for fiscal 2003, same as 2002, and the article foresees a similar strategy for the 2004 budget that the Administration will propose next month. At the same time, spending on military programs and terrorism defense is "soaring," and tax revenue is "stagnant."

An Administration budget-office spokesperson said, "We can't make the mistakes of trying to have guns and butter." Yet, an official of the Federal Funds Information for States said, "They're saying we can't have guns and butter, but in fact the butter side is the [Administration's] tax cut."

The article claims that non-trust-fund transportation programs -- FAA, air safety, Amtrak, Coast Guard -- has grown "by more than 50 percent between 1997 and today ... but would grow by only 7.3 percent between now and 2007."  But, in reality, Amtrak funding has not "grown 50%" since 1997, when appropriated funding was $842.5 million.  In fact, President Bush's 2003 proposal of $521.5 million -- which could well be repeated in his 2004 request -- is 38% below what Amtrak got in 1997. Click here for more on Amtrak funding.

The Bush Administration is preparing to locate the new Homeland Security Department in one of three locations, all of which lack rail transit service. One site is in Chantilly, and two in Tysons Corner, Va.  Because many agencies will be taken from existing departments and merged into the new one, this will act to increase the automobile-dependency of the national capital region. For example, the Coast Guard will be taken from the Department of Transportation, which sits atop the L'Enfant Plaza Station, served by four of the five Metro lines.

The National Defense Rail Act, S.104 was introduced January 7 by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D.-S.C.) and 24 other Senators. Essentially, it is a reintroduction of last session's S.1991 (with the same name), with a few technical changes. S.1991 was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee on a 20-3 vote, on April 18, 2002 -- but then languished before the full Senate. The bill would authorize an annual federal investment of $4.6 billion from fiscal 2004 to 2008, plus a one-time $1.3 billion in 2004 for security items. A statement from Hollings' office says that would "develop a world-class, national passenger rail system," "essential to achieve a balanced U.S. transportation system."

The bill authorizes development funding for long and short routes alike, including high-speed rail corridors. It also includes several Amtrak reform measures, such as a new cost accounting and reporting system, more detailed financial plans to be submitted to Congress, development of short-term working capital (to help stave off what are becoming annual "shutdown" crises), and the removal of the failed 1997 operational self-sufficiency mandate.

Discontinuation notices for the Kentucky Cardinal were sent January 6 by Amtrak to Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. Amtrak President David Gunn explained in a letter to employees that this is not a precursor to more extensive route cuts. Rather, he wrote, "The Kentucky Cardinal is unique, because it was started a few years ago as a single coach service based on the idea that the express business would be profitable." The notice is for 180 days, meaning the last run of the train will be on or about July 9.

The train has been hobbled by a number of factors that include the failure of the concept of a rapidly expanding express business, slow running across Indiana (albeit at night), irregular equipment assignments (including long stretches with no sleeping car), and lack of the state funding needed to make the investment necessary to improve things (such as faster running in Indiana or extension to Nashville).

Schedule changes to the Pennsylvanian and Three Rivers will not happen with the January 27 timetable change. Talks between Amtrak and Norfolk Southern, which owns the tracks from Chicago to Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, did not conclude quickly enough to make the new timetable (but talks are still continuing).

A truck drove around crossing gates and derailed a morning-rush-hour Metrolink commuter train on January 6 at Burbank, Cal. The truck driver was killed, and 26 others required a trip to the hospital (including two crew). All cars and locomotive derailed; the two leading cars also tipped over. The train involved originated at the Via Princessa station on the Antelope Valley line. The crossing was Buena Vista St., which is north of the Burbank junction between the Antelope Valley and Ventura County lines, meaning that Metrolink and Amtrak trains on the latter route were not disrupted. The accident led to a major Los Angeles Times story that quoted at length the views of various individuals who think the entire commuter rail system is a mistake.

A 21-year-old man was arrested and removed from the eastbound Texas Eagle on January 5 at Big Sandy, Tex., after wielding a knife and threatening to kill passengers -- who then restrained him. According to Amtrak personnel, he was also intoxicated and screaming profanities. Police charged the man with making "terroristic" threats.

Mudslides closed the line between Seattle and Everett, Wash., earlier in the week, resulting in the Empire Builder being turned at Everett at least once.

New York State Transportation Commissioner Joseph Boardman and Amtrak President David Gunn met January 6 to discuss relations between the state and Amtrak. One recent source of friction has been the state's displeasure with Amtrak not putting a rebuilt Turboliner into immediate service -- Amtrak says it needs more spare parts and instruction manuals from the train's rebuilder, and more training time, in order to provide reliable service. Gunn told Boardman the trains could be running in one-to-three months.

Meanwhile, Governor Pataki has until the end of January to sign a bill (SB 7602) providing tax relief to railroads that make infrastructure improvements in New York State. The bill is an important step toward passenger-related projects proceeding on privately owned rights-of-way.

The entire, worldwide airline industry lost more in the last two years than all its profits in the 45 years before that, according to a January 7 Associated Press story. The source of that figure is Giovanni Bisignani, director of the International Air Transport Association. The loss in 2002 was $13 billion, and in 2001 $18 billion. That probably doesn't account for inflation, but still is not encouraging news for that industry. While airlines have their own problems that are different from rail, both modes are struggling with an overall, reduced travel demand.

The full Senate last night rebuffed an attempt to cut a third of the funding for Amtrak in 2003 that was approved last year by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Consideration of the pending omnibus appropriations bill for 2003 (H.J.Res.2) had been delayed last week because of a delay in making procedural changes related to committee restructuring. Although those committee changes were made by January 15, the omnibus bill did not go through the Senate Appropriations Committee but went right to the Senate floor, where debate began January 15 (and continues through today).

The omnibus bill, as introduced January 15, included only $826 million for Amtrak -- more than the $762 million the House Appropriations Committee approved last fall -- but $374 million less than the $1.2 billion Amtrak has asked for. Amtrak President David Gunn said in a January 15 statement, "Federal funding substantially less than $1.2 billion will take us right back to the near-shutdown we experienced last summer … We are into the second quarter of the fiscal year and we are beyond the point where we can make significant changes to avoid a shutdown. None of us wants to repeat a financial crisis similar to the one we experienced last year."

An amendment to bring the Amtrak amount back up to $1.2 billion was introduced by 13 Senators -- Murray (Wash., Senate Transportation Appropriations ranking Democrat), Hutchison (R.-Tex., Senate Commerce Surface Transportation subcommittee chair), Byrd (W.Va., Senate Appropriations ranking Democrat), Snowe (R.-Me.), Hollings (S.C., Senate Commerce ranking Democrat), Chafee (R.-R.I.), Biden (D.-Del.), Specter (R.-Pa.), Leahy (D.-Vt.), Carper (D.-Del.), Lautenberg (D.-N.J.), Corzine (D.-N.J.), and Jeffords (I-Vt.). This amendment -- the only bipartisan amendment the Senate considered yesterday -- was approved on a voice vote.

A pro-Amtrak "Dear Colleague" letter was circulated to Senators before the January 16 debate.  The letter supported the amendment, and was signed by the first eight senators listed above (four from each party).  The letter said, in part, that Gunn "is reforming the railroad. He has taken practical steps to bring stability to Amtrak; he has opened the company's books and made them available to the U.S. Department of Transportation and each of the oversight Committees in Congress, and he has made tough decisions to shrink the Amtrak workforce and eliminate certain services. He has been straightforward with Congress about the critical shortages confronting Amtrak and the fiscal realities they face."

Ten Senators spoke in favor of the amendment -- Murray, Hollings, Lautenberg, Jeffords, Carper, Durbin (D.-Ill.), Byrd, Schumer (D.-N.Y.), Biden, and Feinstein (D.-Cal.). Senator Stevens (R.-Alaska) made remarks not entirely germane to the amendment (about highway gas taxes and 19th century railroad land grants).

Significantly, Senator McCain (R.-Ariz.) supported the amendment. He also said he understood that state funding for long-distance trains "may be difficult" because of the number of states they traverse.  Nonetheless, he made clear that he still equates "reform" of Amtrak with eliminating long-distance trains.

The omnibus bill still has to go to a House-Senate conference committee, where efforts to preserve the $1.2 billion are likely to be difficult. Please thank your Senators for the $1.2 billion for Amtrak, but also urge them to urge appropriations leaders to defend that level vigorously when meeting with House leaders. Click here for ways to contact Senators.

S.104, the National Defense Rail Act, now has 31 sponsors. Those added since last week are Feinstein (D.-Cal.), Burns (R.-Mont.), Cochran (R.-Miss.), Inouye (D.-Hawaii), Kerry (D.-Mass.), Nelson (D.-Nebr.).

Full funding -- $8.9 million for the Mule and Ann Rutledge -- is in the budget released by Missouri Gov. Bob Holden on January 15, for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Unfortunately, the Mule's last runs this fiscal year will be February 28 unless the state comes up with another $1.2 million.

This week, in a talk to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels made very clear the Bush Administration's opposition to any tax increase. The speech appeared to slam the door on gas-tax increase proposals advanced recently by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young (R.-Alaska). Apparently in search of other ways to increase highway spending, Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley (R.-Ia.) and Ranking Member Max Baucus (D.-Mont.) apparently are considering a plan to reprogram gas-tax funds that now go to transit by disqualifying cities with populations over one million from receiving such funds.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on January 16 released two reports. A 151-page report, "Intercity Passenger Rail Transportation," is the group’s first report on this topic. It says Amtrak's "long-distance trains serve a basic transportation role in many markets throughout the United States" and "provide an alternative form of travel during periods of severe weather conditions or emergencies that affect other modes." There is detailed discussion of corridor development plans. The report costs $84 dollars through the AASHTO bookstore.

AASHTO also released its "Freight-Rail Bottom Line Report," available at no charge. This report "establishes the need for investment of $175 billion to $195 billion over the next 20 years to maintain rail’s share of projected total freight movement” but says the industry will be unable to raise “an estimated $53 billion of the total"; if those funds don't "come from other sources ... billions in additional highway-maintenance and congestion-relief costs will be added over 20 years."

NARP has joined 46 other organizations -- corporations, unions, citizen groups, National Conference of State Legislatures, States for Passenger Rail -- in endorsing the "American Passenger Rail Agreement." It advocates development and preservation of a nationwide passenger rail system and calls on the federal government to fund passenger rail and provide police development and oversight comparable to that given to the other modes.

Responsibility for California's high-speed rail project would be given to the state's transportation department, Caltrans, under a proposal made January 10 by Gov. Gray Davis (D.). The proposal is a small part of proposals to close a $35-billion state budget deficit. Current rail services are not proposed for cuts. The nine-member California High-Speed Rail Authority would still exist, but lose its staff and have to rely on Caltrans for all work. Some high-speed proponents fear that burying the Authority in the mammoth Caltrans, whose main function is roads, will kill it. While the Authority's chairman, Ron Diridon, expressed confidence in the intermodal outlook of Caltrans Director Jeff Morales, he expressed concern with the pace at which work might proceed.

In another development, Caltrans announced on January 10 that it would commission a report, to be done by a consulting company, to look at benefits and problems associated with having an agency other than Amtrak operate the three intercity corridors in California. A handful of possible operators showed interest, but none have Amtrak's statutory right to operate on freight railroads.

The City of Escalon, Cal., has dropped its suit against Caltrans, which involved a proposal to add a second track to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe main line through that town, southeast of Stockton. The line is also used by Amtrak's San Joaquins. City officials said that Caltrans has agreed to look at safety measures, including the use of "quad gates." These gates have been tested successfully in North Carolina.

A temporary massage service is offered on Capitol Corridor train 538, which leaves Oakland at 3:30 pm for Sacramento and Auburn.The service began January 13, is offered Monday through Thursday, and runs through February 6. The fee for neck and shoulder massages is $1 a minute, offered by the National Holistic Institute in Emeryville.

Dedication of the restored station at Norman, Okla., was this morning.

All current and future rail service to downtown Indianapolis would be eliminated, according to a plan proposed by Eli Lilly and Co., a major business in that city. The motivation for such a proposal is to open up more land to development and eliminate an elevated railroad that divides downtown from the neighborhood immediately south of it.

But it also would end the use of Union Station by any rail carrier, including Amtrak (which uses it today), and would preclude any future use of Union Station by high-speed or commuter rail operators. From a transportation point-of-view, that would be a terrible misstep, as one of rail's great advantages is the ability to serve downtown areas. Lilly proposes putting a rail station at the airport. That's feasible, but future train service from Chicago can and should serve both the airport and Union Station.

Lilly has proposed putting all through-freight traffic on a belt line it owns, but which needs significant capital improvements. But Lilly has no plan to pay for that, which has drawn the opposition of CSX.

CSX track work between Florence and Charleston, S.C., will force temporary schedule changes for Amtrak's southbound Silver Meteor (train 97) and northbound Palmetto (train 90). Train 90 will run two hours earlier, departing Miami at 3:00 pm, every day through February 19. Train 97, four days a week -- Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday -- will run 30 minutes earlier than scheduled from Florence to Savannah (and will not stop at Kingstree or Yemassee), through February 19. Train 97 will run on its normal schedule the other days (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday).

MARC introduced quiet cars on two of its Penn Line (Baltimore-Washington) commuter trains (401 and 503) this week, as a three-month experiment. The move comes after many customer requests, and after the popularity of the program on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor trains -- which, unfortunately, is for weekday trains only.

The full Senate last night approved the fiscal 2003 omnibus appropriations package, H.J.Res.2, on a 69-23 vote. The $390-billion bill includes funding for 11 of the 13 appropriations bills that are normally approved separately.

The Senate included a 2.9% across the board cut, which we understand applies to everything but "obligation limitations" -- that is, trust fund accounts. This would mean a $34.8 million cut from Amtrak's $1.2 billion -- making the Amtrak number $1.165 billion. American Public Transit Association reports it also means a $42 million cut from the transit's general fund total of $1.4 billion. (Transit is funded both from general funds and the Highway Trust Fund; the transit total in the omnibus bill as originally introduced was $7.2 billion.) It means no cut at all in the bill's $31.8 billion for highways.

The next step is a House-Senate conference committee. The House earlier this month passed a version of H.J.Res.2 that was a "clean slate" template sent to the Senate with the expectation that the Senate would fill in all the numbers. Although Representatives certainly remember the $762 million their appropriations committee approved for Amtrak in the last Congress, it is far from clear what will happen in conference; Amtrak and other programs might even wind up closer to the Senate's pre-2.9%-cut numbers.

Key players in the conference committee will be the two appropriations chairmen -- Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska) and Rep. Bill Young (R.-Fla.), and the chairmen of the various subcommittees involved. For transportation (and Amtrak), that will be Sen. Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.) and Rep. Harold Rogers (R.-Ky.). Also involved will be committee ranking Democrats, Sen. Robert Byrd (W.Va.) and Rep. David Obey (Wis.) and transportation subcommittee ranking Democrats, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (Minn.).

If you are represented by one of the above, be sure to contact him or her and urge full funding of Amtrak ($1.2 billion). If not, ask your own legislators to contact these people in favor of full funding. Click here for ways to make contact.

You can also tell President Bush to increase funding for Amtrak in fiscal 2004. The President plans to release his 2004 budget proposal on February 3.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors had its winter meeting this week in Washington, and on January 22 was addressed by Amtrak President David Gunn. According to a Reuters story, Gunn "forcefully criticized" the Bush Administration's vision of intercity passenger train service, which focuses on pushing operating costs onto states and privatization. While Amtrak has pursued increasing state payments for short-distance trains, it recognizes that having long-distance trains covered in the same way, as proposed by the Administration, is highly impractical.

"We need some leadership out of the federal government," Gunn said. "They have no policy. There is no planning."  He also said, "There is no one in the private sector dying to take over Amtrak ... There is no quick fix. It's going to take time and money, unless you just want to destroy the company and put it into bankruptcy."

Gunn repeated his claim that Amtrak needs $1.2 billion in the current fiscal year (2003), but also said that over the next five years, Amtrak would need "up to" $2 billion annually. That would fully fund Amtrak's operations and provide capital funding needed to support those operations. "With some stability, we can make the thing a lot better," he said.

Amtrak President David Gunn was a guest on the CNN Moneyline program on January 23. It was clear from the questioning that the orientation of the substitute host, Jan Hopkins, was on Amtrak being a "bottomless pit" -- as if the supplemental funding Amtrak got last summer was meant to run the railroad forever and ever -- and that Amtrak needs to "make money".

Gunn elaborated somewhat on his funding call over the next five years. He said, "The bulk of the money is going into capital. What's happened over the years is, there's been a lot of deferred investment or maintenance in our facilities, for example, in the Northeast Corridor ... We have to restore that facility and our equipment to a state of good repair."

Asked again about "spinning off" routes that are "potentially more profitable" and shutting the others down, Gunn said, "Well, one of the myths surrounding Amtrak is that it can make money. Amtrak was created when the private sector ... gave up on passenger service. They could not make money in a much easier time ... While there may be somebody out there that thinks they can run some of our routes at a profit, God love them ... they're welcome to put forward proposals. But I think, realistically, passenger rail service is not going to be profitable. Even the Northeast Corridor covers its operating costs, but it doesn't generate capital."

Downeaster trains began stopping daily at Durham, N.H., January 20.

The southbound Heartland Flyer will leave an hour later from Oklahoma City temporarily, from January 20 to February 24, to accommodate a BNSF track project.  The train will leave Oklahoma City at 9:25 am and arrive at Fort Worth at 2:05 pm.

Amtrak announced today that it was closing its Chicago reservations center December 31, 2003, because increased used of the internet has resulted in a reduction in call volumes. Amtrak says its excess capacity roughly equals capacity at the Chicago center (which is in leased space), whereas closing either of the other two centers (Riverside, California, or Philadelphia) would leave the company with inadequate capacity.

The Bush Administration announced on January 22 that the new Homeland Security Department would be located in Northwest Washington. Two weeks ago, it looked like transit-unfriendly places in Northern Virginia would be picked, but now the choice is a Navy installation near American University.

Final resolution of the question of whether Amtrak will get a reasonable funding level in the current fiscal year -- and thereby prevent a shutdown crisis in the spring -- is in the hands of a House-Senate conference committee that will consider the fiscal 2003 omnibus appropriations package (H.J.Res.2). The Senate approved the $1.2 billion Amtrak requested on January 16.  The entire House has never approved any figure, though the House Appropriations Committee approved only $762 million in September 2002.

Please ask your representative to sign one of the pro-Amtrak letters (to appropriations leaders) circulating in the House and expected to be sent on or about February 5. If a Republican representative wants to sign up, his or her office should call Steve Stallmer in Rep. Quinn's office at 225-3306. Democratic offices should contact Frank Mulvey at the Railroads Subcommittee (Transportation and Infrastructure), minority staff, 225-3274.

The main, individual players in the final decision are likely to be the "big four" appropriators -- the Senate Appropriations chairman and ranking member (Stevens, R.-Alaska, and Byrd, D.-W.Va.) and House Appropriations chairman and ranking member (Young, R.-Fla., and Obey, D.-Wis.). While many more Appropriations committee members will be in the conference committee, major decisions will rest on these four.

Please tell your senators and representative to urge one of those four to secure the full $1.2 billion for Amtrak, as appropriate. In other words, your Republican Senators should contact Stevens, Democrat Senators should contact Byrd, Republican Representatives should contact Young, and Democrat Representatives should contact Obey.  Click here for ways to make contact.

The Bush Administration will release its fiscal 2004 budget proposals on February 3 and 4 -- even though, for the first time in recent memory, existing year funding levels are still unknown.  The President's State of the Union address on January 28 didn't give any clues as to what will be proposed. Though the address had a section on energy independence, it did not address the potential benefits of passenger rail in that area.

Mounting budget deficits will increase the challenge of funding even a basic passenger rail system -- which, unlike aviation, highways, and transit, does not enjoy the protection of budgetary "firewalls." The Congressional Budget Office on January 29 forecast that the 2003 deficit will be $199 billion -- more than a third bigger than the forecast of just five months ago, and the biggest since 1994. And that doesn't count the possible costs of a war or additional tax cuts.

The Administration's director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., told reporters on January 21 that the proposed increase in discretionary spending in 2004 will be 4% over 2003 (where 2003 is projected to be 9% over 2002 -- Washington Post, January 22). There will be "substantial increases" for defense, veterans, and homeland security, but "other domestic programs will have to be squeezed." It makes one wonder -- if the federal government couldn't figure out how to develop the passenger rail alternative that Americans want during good times, and can't figure out how to develop it during bad times, when will it figure it out?

Some progress has been made in Congressional committee assignments, though most subcommittees are still unassigned. One major change is in the House Appropriations Committee, where a new Subcommittee on Homeland Security has been created, chaired by Harold Rogers (R.-Ky.). To avoid increasing the number of subcommittees, "non-Homeland-Security" parts of the old Subcommittees on Transportation (chaired by Rogers) and of Treasury, Postal Service and General Government (chaired by Ernest Istook, R.-Okla.) were combined into a new Subcommittee on Transportation and Treasury, to be chaired by Istook.

Some observers worry this means relatively bipartisan transportation bills would get bogged down with controversial riders that gravitate to Treasury, but others thought the result would be a bigger constituency to get things through.

As for Amtrak, Istook in 1999 and 2000 spoke out against the Heartland Flyer (which began Oklahoma City-Fort Worth service in June 1999). At one point, he asserted that it would be cheaper for all the passengers to rent a limousine to drive to Texas. However, he apparently has not commented in recent years. Going even further back, to the most recent House roll calls on Amtrak, he voted twice in 1993 and once in 1994 to cut Amtrak funding.

Istook's district, Oklahoma 5th, includes part of Oklahoma City (which is served by the Heartland Flyer) and curves north to Ponca City (a likely stop if the Heartland Flyer is ever extended north to Wichita and Newton, Kans.) and Bartlesville (a Thruway bus stop).

At a ceremony in Beech Grove, Ind., January 30, Amtrak put two Superliner sleeping cars back into service. They are the first in a backlog of 105 cars awaiting repair at Beech Grove, and at Bear and Wilmington, Del.  Such work has been deferred since 1999 due to Amtrak's financial situation. If Amtrak gets the $1.2 billion it says it needs for the current fiscal year, $20 million is set aside for such repairs. Amtrak's plan calls for repairing 21 cars over the next 18-24 months at Beech Grove.

The Federal Railroad Administration announced an agreement to make permanent repairs to the Acela Express power units, according to a January 28 Reuters report. The plan, to which the FRA expressed no objections, would have the Bombardier consortium replace steel suspension system brackets with new ones. The new brackets will be reinforced and the surface over which they are attached to the power units will be larger. Bracket installation will begin next week, with testing the following week. It is not known when all brackets will be in place.

Temporary repairs have kept the Acela Express train sets and HHP-8 electric locomotives running since a cracking problem was first identified on August 12, 2002. There also has been regular inspection of the components. The prototype JetTrain also will get the new brackets.

Acela Express service to Boston increased with the new January 27 Northeast Corridor timetable. There are now ten weekday New York-Boston round trips (up from nine, but still fewer on weekends). Northbound, new weekday train 2158 leaves New York at 12:03 pm. Southbound, new weekday train 2163 leaves Boston at 11:15 am, and takes over the former Metroliner 119 slot from New York at 3:00 pm, running through to Washington. Because of some minor slot-exchanges south of New York, there are still 12 weekday New York-Washington round trips.

In an equipment-balancing move related to this service increase, a new Acela Express train 2118 will run weekdays from Washington to New York, leaving Washington at 8:30 pm. Because this is a low-demand slot for such premium service, Amtrak is offering a $59 introductory business-class fare on this train through April 25. This is less than half the lowest fare available on other Acela Express trains. Fares for intermediate segments will be less than $59.

The Pennsylvanian now will become a New York-Pittsburgh train -- rather than a Philadelphia train -- starting February 10. This was postponed from January 27. The westbound Pennsylvanian will run daily on the same Philadelphia-Pittsburgh schedule, but Monday-Friday it will be train 43 leaving New York at 7:10 am; weekends train 45 departing at 7:00 am.  Eastbound train 42 leaves Pittsburgh 7:30 am and arrives New York at 4:43 pm (Monday-Saturday); on Sunday, train 44 leaves Pittsburgh at 1:30 pm and arrives New York at 10:50 pm.

On the same weekend (February 9 from Chicago), the eastbound Three Rivers will run later than it does now, departing Chicago at 10:30 pm, departing Pittsburgh at 10:00 am, and arriving New York at 8:04 pm.

The State of North Carolina has temporarily discontinued food service on the Raleigh-Charlotte Piedmont.It is in the process of finding a new vendor to provide that service, and is providing complementary beverages and snacks in the meantime.

Amtrak ridership at the new Albany-Rensselaer station, which opened September 22, was up 3.6% the last three months of 2002, compared to the same period in 2001. However, shuttle bus service linking the station with downtown Albany is being discontinued, according to the Albany Times Union (January 28), due to lack of riders. Though the bus ran 8-10 times a day, as few as five people a day were using it, according to the Capital District Transportation Authority (which also built and owns the station). Regular bus routes (#14 to Albany and #24 to Troy and Albany) remain.

The Montreal-St. Albans Thruway bus now is slated to continue indefinitely.