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September 2003 Hotlines |
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September 2003 Hotlines |
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The Senate Transportation/Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee today approved a fiscal 2004 funding bill. It provides Amtrak with $1.346 billion, while also deferring payment in 2004 of the $100 million loan from DOT (from 2002). Counting that deferral, that is a $366 million shortfall from Amtrak's request for 2004 ($1.812 billion, of which $100 million was meant to repay the loan).
Our deep appreciation goes to Subcommittee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D.-Wash.), who worked very hard to get the Amtrak number up as high as it is. The full committee may act tomorrow, September 4.
Subcommittee Chairman Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.) lamented giving Amtrak a funding increase when he said its ridership has not grown in 25 years ("like other modes"). That overlooks several important points. First, increased funding should be a pre-cursor to higher ridership, not a reward for it. Second, though ridership dipped slightly from 2001 to 2002, it is higher than at any previous point since at least 1988. Third, Amtrak funding (adjusted for inflation) is down by over a third since 1982, but federal highway funding has doubled and aviation funding nearly tripled.
While the $900 million that's in the House bill, H.R.2989, is clearly a shutdown figure, $1.346 billion would allow Amtrak to limp through 2004 without making greater progress on deferred maintenance and debt reduction.
[Continues with text from #310 of August 29.]
The House of Representatives today considered several amendments to H.R.2989, fiscal 2004 transportation/treasury funding. Below is a list of amendments that were discussed. Amtrak funding in H.R.2989 will remain at $900 million, for later consideration by the House-Senate conference committee.
The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a fiscal 2004 funding bill. The bill provides Amtrak with $1.346 billion, and also defers payment in 2004 of the $100 million loan from DOT (from 2002). This is what the Transportation/Treasury Subcommittee approved the day before.
Our deep appreciation goes to Subcommittee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D.-Wash.), who worked very hard to get the Amtrak number up as high as it is. She said, "This level is not as high as I would like to see it, given the substantial capital backlog that Amtrak faces, but I don't believe there are other pots of money to cut to further boost the Amtrak figure."
The bill could go to the Senate floor this coming week, and anti-Amtrak amendments are possible.
Assuming such amendments fail, and assuming that House-Senate conferees adopt the Senate figure (both items being far from certain), Amtrak would have to knock $366 million out of the budget that its board has approved. (That budget, $1.812 billion included $100 million to repay the loan).
While the $900 million that's in the House bill, H.R.2989, is clearly a shutdown figure, and the Senate figure is not, the $366 million will have serious consequences, which presumably will become known in the near future.
Summer events have intensified Amtrak's need for capital investment. The Northeastern blackout knocked out one of two remaining, 68-year-old 12,000-volt cables that feed power from Sunnyside Yard in Queens to Penn Station in New York City. (A third cable has been out of service for years.) Now, Amtrak and NJT (for servicing runs) rely on a single cable with no back-up. Elsewhere, this year's heat and humidity have worsened some of Amtrak's 50-year-old wiring insulation.
At the Senate subcommittee mark-up, Chairman Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.) lamented giving Amtrak a funding increase when he said its ridership has not grown in 25 years ("like other modes"). That overlooks several important points. First, increased funding should be a pre-cursor to higher ridership, not a reward for it. Second, though ridership dipped slightly from 2001 to 2002, it is higher than at any previous point since at least 1988. Third, Amtrak funding (adjusted for inflation) is down by over a third since 1982, but federal highway funding has doubled and aviation funding nearly tripled.
Sen. Herb Kohl (D.-Wis.), a subcommittee member, won inclusion of $4 million towards extending Metra commuter service from Kenosha to Racine and Milwaukee, $500,000 for crossing improvements on the Milwaukee-La Crosse line, and $250,000 for a planning and engineering study for the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative.
Another rail earmark was for improving tracks from Portland to Auburn, Me.
The House of Representatives yesterday considered several amendments to H.R.2989, fiscal 2004 transportation/treasury funding (see below). At least two more anti-Amtrak amendments are possible when the House resumes consideration of the bill next week. The House is not in session Monday, September 8, and no recorded votes will happen before 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 9.
One amendment that could come up next week is from Sessions (R.-Tex.), that would have the effect of eliminating all long-distance trains except three Florida services (Star, Meteor, Auto Train), the Carolinian, Southwest Chief, and Empire Builder. Another may come from Mica (R.-Fla.), but at this writing we do not know what it is. At a June 25 hearing, Mica did talk about offering at some point in the future an amendment to take everything away from Amtrak except the long-distance trains. He ridiculed Amtrak on the House floor yesterday, so a "fragmentation" amendment is possible.
Assuming no funding-cut amendments, the House will go to conference with $900 million for Amtrak. These amendments were debated yesterday:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.-Ohio), in a presidential campaign speech at the Downeaster station at Dover, N.H., on August 29, called for a revival of passenger rail in the U.S. "I am determined to bring back passenger railroads in this country and rebuild the American rail system," he said, according to an AP story. After also speaking about infrastructure, pollution, and public mobility, Kucinich rode a train to Portland, Me., for another appearance.
Amtrak was in the process this week of moving into Union Station in Jackson, Miss., which has been undergoing a $20-million renovation. Amtrak had been using a temporary trailer at the site. Greyhound and local bus service will follow.
New Jersey Transit will expand service at its new Secaucus Junction station tomorrow. Weekend service on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line, and Main Line will begin, in addition to the daily Bergen Line service that started August 4. This will allow for the first transfer capability at the station, allowing for two-seat rides from places like Suffern, Paterson, and Rutherford to places like New York Penn Station, Newark Penn, Newark Airport, New Brunswick, and Trenton. Weekday transfers should begin in December, when PATH reopens its Newark-World Trade Center service. That should divert many of NJT's Lower Manhattan passengers back to PATH trains, and free up space on trains into Penn Station for passengers who want to transfer at Secaucus.
The Senate version of the 2004 transportation/funding bill, S.1589, was not considered by the full Senate this week. It is possible next week, and it is important that the bill retain the $1.346 billion for Amtrak that was approved by the Appropriations Committee.
In addition to the Wisconsin and Maine earmarks we reported last week, the Senate bill would provide $5 million for engineering work on the proposed Hoboken-Scranton passenger line. If the Federal Transit Administration approves the project next year, service might begin in late 2006 or early 2007.
The House of Representatives approved H.R.2989, the fiscal 2004 transportation/treasury funding bill, on September 9, on a vote of 381-39. However, earlier that day, there was the threat of two more anti-Amtrak amendments. One, by Mica (R.-Fla.) was ruled out of order. It would have required Amtrak to observe Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP) and to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. However, under existing law, Amtrak already must comply with GAAP, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act generally applies to companies -- unlike Amtrak -- that issue registered securities. The amendment would have diverted scarce resources to an exercise that would have added little or no value to the oversight process.
The other amendment was offered by Sessions (R.-Tex.). It would have withheld funding for Amtrak routes with an operating ratio over 2.0 (comparable to a cost-recovery ratio of under 50%). The amendment specified use of data in the final Amtrak Reform Council report, which is from fiscal 2001 -- and therefore dated -- and which used fully allocated costs that include overhead and thus are not a reflection of the finances of any route's operations. In other words, eliminating those routes would not eliminate overhead, and would just spread those costs to the other, remaining routes, pushing their operating ratios over 2.0.
It also would have triggered massive shutdown costs due to labor protection provisions, probably in excess of any potential savings. The amendment would have decimated the Amtrak network by eliminating most long-distance trains -- Cardinal, Sunset Limited, Texas Eagle, City of New Orleans, Lake Shore Limited, Three Rivers, Crescent, Capitol Limited, Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, Palmetto -- and several short-distance trains -- Pennsylvanian, Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac, Chicago-St. Louis, and Chicago-Milwaukee.
The amendment, fortunately, failed on a vote of 282-130 (click here to see votes, organized by state, for this and the two amendment votes from last week), which can be interpreted as a strong statement of support for nationwide service. Still, its unfortunate that House leadership seems to believe that the only Amtrak-related amendments that are worthy of debate are ones that would cut funding and service, and that amendments that would increase funding are "out of order." The three votes that were lopsidedly pro-rail suggest a House leadership that is out of touch with most Representatives and with most of the American public.
That is even more unfortunate when one considers that yesterday, the day after debate ended on H.R.2989, was the second anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks. Those attacks showed the value of a strong, nationwide rail service as a transportation option, yet so many "leaders" in Washington have done so much in the last two years to block development of that service.
Some of the votes on the Sessions anti-rail amendment were puzzling, in that several Representatives who voted last week against cutting Amtrak funding then voted this week to cut Amtrak service in their own state. Of course, since the concepts in the Sessions amendment were never presented before any appropriations or authorization hearing, it is -- perhaps at the risk of our being overly generous -- conceivable these Representatives little understood what they were voting on. Still, please check the list to thank or protest your Representative's votes, as appropriate.
Amtrak launched an internet-only discount on September 8, good for 5% off the best available rail (not sleeper) fare. For the first time, this is a discount that can be combined with other discounts, including the NARP 10% discount It is valid for booking through December 13 (and travel through April 30) and its promotion code is H345. There are several holiday blackouts.
Amtrak this week launched a new national advertising campaign in six major cities -- Chicago, New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles -- reflecting what it calls its "back-to-basics" pricing strategy. The ads will show sample coach fares to various cities, and will be expanded to 70 cities later in the month. "Amtrak's advertising will promote actual low fares -- not percentage discounts -- to specific destinations." NARP has long encouraged Amtrak to focus more on locality-specific advertising.
Acela Express and Metroliner passengers who are Amtrak Guest Rewards Members can earn more benefits for certain trips, through December 22. For every two round-trips (or four one-way trips) between various stations in the metropolitan areas of Boston, New York, and Washington, members will get a free companion ticket good for a future trip to any Amtrak point.
Amtrak's on-line reservations system will be replaced, according to a September 4 announcement. SITA Information Networking Company, which created the existing system (launched in 1996), will add new functions and capacity in the near-term, including enhanced booking of sleeping-car space and "up-front" pricing views. Later, changes could include the ability to combine other services, such as car rental and hotel bookings, into a single reservations record.
The proposed Atlanta-Macon passenger line will benefit from a $100-million General Obligation transportation bond package passed by the Georgia legislature earlier this year. The line will get $4 million of that money, which will be used to trigger $21 million in federal matching grants. It will not be used right away, as there is still no agreement with Norfolk Southern regarding the new service. Another $10 million in federal and state crossing-improvement grants for the line was programmed last month. Besides an agreement with the host railroad, much more funding has to be found as the project's total cost is about $600 million.
Governor Sonny Perdue (R.) announced the bond package details on September 8. His Administration has been touting bus service as an alternative to rail, but the Atlanta-Macon express bus service that was supposed to serve as a precursor to rail has not been doing well and may be eliminated this fall.
Sound Transit will move the Tacoma stop for its Tacoma-Seattle Sounder commuter service from a platform adjacent to the Amtrak station on Puyallup Ave. to Freighthouse Square on E. 25th St., on September 15. The new Tacoma Dome Station is across from the Tacoma Dome parking garage and adjacent to the Tacoma Link streetcar terminal station (also called Tacoma Dome). Amtrak will remain at its current location, about five blocks east of the new Sounder location, for at least a few more years, as the Sounder location is not on a rail line that currently has a direct connection through to Portland. Greyhound also will serve the new Sounder location.
Tacoma Link, which opened August 22, has had about 3,000 riders a day, which is higher than the weekday ridership projected for 2010.
Hurricane Isabel disrupted many Amtrak services this week, particularly in the Southeast. Here is a list of several routes that were disrupted:
CSX shut down most freight operations in the hurricane zone.
Washington Metro planned to stop rail and bus service at 11:00 am on September 18 in anticipation of winds exceeding 40 mph (in part because of the risk to passengers standing on open platforms). The Miami Metrorail line does the same during hurricanes. Washington Metro reopened this morning.
VRE and MARC both closed on September 18 and 19, partly because the Metro shutdown led to a shutdown of the federal government. Baltimore light rail also was shut down today.
Congress did not meet at the end of the week due to the storm. The Senate version of fiscal 2004 transportation appropriations was not considered on the floor this week.
As TEA-21 is set to expire in under two weeks, and as replacement legislation for it is nowhere near passage, Congress is moving towards shorter-term extensions to keep highway and transit programs going.
The White House nominated three men to fill vacancies on the Amtrak board, on September 12. Robert Crandall was with American Airlines for 25 years through 1998, including as chairman and chief executive of American Airlines. He is credited for his involvement in several improvements there, including modernization of American's SABRE reservations system, creation of a program of discounted, advance-purchase fares, and development aviation's first frequent flyer program. He serves on several boards, including that of the Halliburton Company.
Louis S. Thompson worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation in the late 1960's and early 1970's, was at the Federal Railroad Administration 1978-86 (with deep involvement in Amtrak and Northeast Corridor issues), and at the World Bank 1986-2003. He was involved in concessioning and privatization of rail services in several developing countries (some with stronger passenger-rail services than others). Floyd Hall had a long career in retail at Montgomery Ward, Singer, Dayton Hudson, B. Dalton, Target, Grand Union, and Kmart. He is a prominent Republican fundraiser.
The Western Governors Association met at Big Sky, Mont., recently, and on September 15 approved a pro-Amtrak resolution. In a course that diverges from the Bush Administration plan, the resolution calls for the federal government "to stabilize intercity passenger rail in the short-term, work with the states to determine the structure of the system for the long-term, and provide funding and leadership in the future of national intercity passenger rail." The Bush plan calls for no nationwide system and for states to pay for all operating losses, no matter what the resulting service would look like.
The study of the annual economic impact of Amtrak's Empire Builder in Montana, mentioned here on August 8, is now available on the Montana DOT web site, in pdf format.
Six unions representing Amtrak workers plan a one-day work stoppage on October 3 to protest Congress' failure to approve Amtrak's 2004 appropriations request of $1.812 billion. Amtrak said it would seek an injunction against such a stoppage, which would inconvenience thousands of travelers and increase Amtrak's operating losses. President David Gunn said, "Amtrak has a legal and public service obligation to provide inter-city passenger rail service each and every day. We anticipate that all of our employees will abide by existing contracts and the law."
Amtrak's Downeaster service and Concord Trailways will offer a joint Flexpass starting October 1. For $99, travelers can get a pass good for six one-way trips between Boston and Portland on either carrier, a savings of $27 over rail tickets and $12 over bus tickets. The bus runs 12 times a day each way, and the train four times, so travelers will have more choices of departures using the pass.
Sacramento RTD will open its new South light-rail line, from downtown to Meadowview Rd. (6.3 miles) on September 26.
A Portland-Eugene Cascades round-trip that could have been eliminated as early as this weekend won a reprieve last week, as the office of Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D.) and Union Pacific reached a tentative agreement over future capital improvements. The state and UP had agreed to $15 million in capital improvements as a condition to the last service expansion in 2000. The state didn't make the investments, and UP told the state in May that if the next biennial budget didn't include the money, the train added in 2000 would have to be discontinued. The governor proposed to use $10 million in lottery proceeds for the work, but that was stripped from the final budget in August.
State and railroad officials will meet in Oregon in mid-October to work out details for the investment, according to the Oregonian.
The Senate this week did not consider S.1589, the 2004 transportation/treasury funding bill -- and with fiscal 2004 starting October 1, is increasingly unlikely to do so, as a freestanding bill. S.1589, and the House version, H.R.2989, may get rolled into an omnibus bill covering large sections of the federal government. It is imperative that conferees on such an omnibus give Amtrak nothing less than the $1.346 billion (and deferral of the $100 million loan), as approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on September 4. Even that level would force Amtrak to strip $366 million of capital work from its 2004 budget plan.
Be sure your Senators and Representative are working to support that Senate Amtrak level, and to oppose the $900 million approved by the House (which would shut Amtrak down). Click here for ways to make contact. Also, Senators should be alerted to vote against any floor amendment to cut Amtrak funding below the $1.346 billion level.
A continuing resolution (H.J.Res.69) funding federal programs through October 31 -- one month into fiscal 2004 -- was passed by both the House and Senate yesterday.
The House passed a five-month TEA-21 extension bill, H.R.3087, on September 24. The Senate passed it today.
A hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee on the Bush Administration's passenger rail proposals scheduled for yesterday has been postponed to October 2. Witnesses will include Federal Railroad Administrator Allan Rutter, DOT Inspector General Ken Mead, Amtrak President David Gunn, and Claudia Howells of the Oregon DOT Rail Section.
As rail services recovered from Hurricane Isabel, VRE began running limited service September 22, and MARC ran normal service that day. Amtrak began restoring Northeast-Florida services starting September 22, but the Richmond-Newport News line remained closed that day. The Keystone line and Crescent were restored September 20. Chicago-East Coast services generally were restored September 21.
A second storm late on September 22 -- that actually left more rain than Isabel -- cut off (until today) MARC service to Frederick because of sinkholes near the track.
Track work caused Amtrak St. Louis-Kansas City service to be replaced by bus yesterday, and the same will happen September 29.
A work stoppage by Amtrak employees on October 3 is now opposed by Amtrak's largest union, the Transportation Communications Union. The union, representing half of Amtrak's unionized employees, said in a statement that the strike would cause more harm than good, especially with moderate swing voters in Congress. Amtrak has threatened to file an injunction against such a strike. The Transport Workers Union (TWU), which is taking the lead on the strike, may update their site if the situation changes.
In a letter to employees, Amtrak President David Gunn wrote, "Stopping service, even for just a day, will shift the public focus from our progress in rebuilding Amtrak, to the public's anger in the middle of a shutdown. It threatens to undercut all the progress we've made in the past year and threatens our future." NARP today sent a message to TWU Railroad Division Director Charles Moneypenny, likewise urging that the October 3 action be called off.
The Congressional Budget Office has released a report of the history and status of passenger-rail service in the U.S., at the request of the Senate Budget Committee. The report itself is something of a mixed bag. On the positive side is the clearest indication yet that measurement of passenger-miles is more important than passenger counts, and use of inflation-adjusted federal grant information rather than just nominal amounts -- both concepts long endorsed by NARP.
On the other hand, the CBO report makes it sound like passenger rail's long, 20th-century decline was "inevitable" and bore no relation at all to public policies at the time (or now). It mentions funding amounts authorized for Amtrak by the 1997 authorization law without acknowledging how little of the money was ever appropriated. It explores the ratio of Amtrak funding that comes from public sources without attempting to do the same for other modes, or even acknowledging such support exists in other modes. It talks rather glowingly of diverting long-distance funding into corridors without saying how little corridor service that would buy. It characterizes diner and sleeper services on long-distance trains as "costly" without examining how much of those trains' operating losses are caused by those services -- after accounting for high sleeping car fares. All that serves to blunt the utility and objectivity of the CBO report.
The metropolitan planning organization for Boston rejected, by one vote, inclusion of the North Station-South Station Rail Link in the state's long-range transportation plan. In the September 11 vote, city and town representatives (except the City of Boston) voted to keep the Rail Link listed; state agencies (including MBTA) voted against it. The Turnpike Authority abstained.
The vote was simply about whether to list the Rail Link in the long-range plan (which runs to 2025) as an illustrative project, meaning it would be included in the plan, even if no funding source were available now. State officials, by voting against the Rail Link, brought into question the Romney Administration's own message, which has implied that they would build the Rail Link if funds were available.
A freight car leaking flammable ethanol caused the Tacoma Amtrak station to be evacuated the evening of September 20. About 30 people were waiting for a southbound Cascade train, which was delayed over two hours by the incident.
The tenth anniversary of Amtrak's worst-ever accident was September 22. The 1993 derailment of the Sunset Limited near Mobile, Ala., killed 42 passengers and five crew. It was caused by an errant barge that knocked a rail bridge out of line just before the train's arrival. Since then, the Coast Guard has changed the way it licenses barge operators, and Amtrak has improved visibility of emergency exits. However, according to a recent Associated Press story, while bridge owner CSX says it has investigated ways to improve bridge safety where a rail is disturbed -- but not broken (thus alerting the signal system) -- no technology has shown any promise.
The TRAX light rail system in Salt Lake City will open its University Line extension from Rice-Eccles to Medical Center, 1.5 miles, on September 29.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will avoid deep service cuts, in the wake of a September 24 superior court ruling. VTA can use funds from a future sales tax to keep operations going now.
A groundbreaking for the Oakland Coliseum rail station was September 24. It is expected to open next spring, giving Amtrak Capitol Corridor passengers another direct link to BART, and a shuttle link to the Oakland airport.
Colorado Railcar's DMU (diesel-multiple unit) ran in a test service on September 21 on South Florida's Tri-Rail commuter line, pulling bi-level cars. The company quoted Tri-Rail's chief mechanical officer, Brad Barkman, giving positive reviews to the DMU's performance, including for fuel consumption and noise.
The first phase of Britain's high-speed line in southeastern England opens September 28. Eurostar trains will run over conventional lines from Waterloo Station (as now) to about halfway to the Channel coast, then onto the 46-mile, new line. With a top speed of 186 mph -- the first line in Britain to allow such speeds -- the travel time from London to Paris and Brussels will be cut by 20 minutes. The second, 24-mile phase, which will also involve changing Eurostar's London terminal from Waterloo to St. Pancras Station, will remove another 20 minutes from the schedule and open in 2007. That will bring the London-Paris travel time to 2:15 hours. A formal opening of the new segment was held September 16.