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November 2003 Hotlines |
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November 2003 Hotlines |
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House-Senate conferees are expected to have their first formal meeting next week on H.R.2989, the fiscal 2004 transportation/treasury appropriations bill (the Senate version is S.1589). Of greatest interest to us is the outcome of the Amtrak funding figure, which is a shutdown level of $900 million in the House and a workable $1.346 billion (plus deferral of $100 million loan) in the Senate. The conferees are the transportation/treasury subcommittee members of both Houses, plus the Republican and Democrat leaders of both full appropriations committees.
Twelve Northeastern House Republicans wrote to Appropriations Chairman C. W. "Bill" Young (R.-Fla.) yesterday urging he support the Senate's figure of $1.346 billion for Amtrak in 2004. They were Castle (Del.), Quinn (N.Y.), Johnson (Conn.), Boehlert (N.Y.), Gilchrest (Md.), Greenwood (Pa.), Ferguson (N.J.), Weldon (Pa.), Gerlach (Pa.), Houghton (N.Y.), McHugh (N.Y.), and Platts (Pa.).
A similar letter to appropriations leaders was sent yesterday by the governors of these nine Northeastern states -- Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The absence of the Rhode Island governor is significant. Rhode Island is supporting a Northeast Corridor privatization plan.
During a hearing yesterday on Amtrak board nominations (see below), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison expressed concern that the conferees were stuck at the House's $900 million level. That House figure must be rejected if we are to avoid a 2002-style cash and shutdown crisis in 2004. Urge your Representative and Senators right away -- even if they are not conferees -- to do everything in their power to urge conferees to stick with the Senate figure of $1.346 billion. Click here for ways to make contact.
The Senate Commerce Committee yesterday held a hearing on the nominations of three men to the Amtrak Board of Directors -- Robert L. Crandall (former head of American Airlines), Louis S. Thompson (former Railways Advisor at the World Bank and former Federal Railroad Administration official), and Floyd Hall (former retail official). All three supported the concept of a nationwide passenger rail service and that this country can afford to do such a thing. They said Congress and the Administration need to agree on a policy for that, and then fund it. For more, see our news release from yesterday.
Several jurisdictions had ballot questions relating to rail transit on November 4:
Striking mechanics who work for the Los Angeles transit system were to vote today on whether to accept the MTA's latest contract offer. If a majority approves, services could resume on November 8, but union leaders have already rejected the offer. Buses, metro trains, and light-rail services have been shut down since October 14.
Amtrak is suing Union Pacific for more detailed billing information, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Amtrak believes UP has overbilled it by over $1 million.
Amtrak and Tri-Rail trains may be delayed south of West Palm Beach through November 15, due to a double-tracking project. The northbound Silver Meteor will miss its stop at Delray Beach during that period.
Sound Transit will have a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow, formally marking start of work on a 14-mile light-rail line from Westlake Center in Seattle to Tukwila. The ceremony is at 10:00 am at the future maintenance facility at Airport Way South and S. Forest St. The line is projected to open in mid-2009.
New Jersey Transit is planning to open an extension of its Hudson-Bergen light-rail line on November 15, south from 34th St. to 22nd St. in Bayonne.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials last week released a document, "Criteria for National Intercity Passenger Rail Reform," which outlines its views on the shape of federal passenger-rail legislation. These include maintaining a network of services with a "substantial multi-year investment," a federal-state partnership, a "stable and fiscally responsible system for funding" operating costs, and a "dedicated, sustainable source" of capital funding.
House and Senate conferees finished their work on the transportation-treasury appropriations bill for fiscal 2004 (H.R.2989) early yesterday. The final figure for Amtrak is $1.225 billion, of which $760 million is for operations and $465 million is for capital (that breakdown according to a Reuters story).
The agreement allows for deferral for another year of the $100-million loan from the DOT that came during the last shutdown/cash crisis, in June 2002. However, the many "strings" that were attached to that loan, which included a ban on Amtrak's planning new services, are continued.
The final amount is somewhat less than what the Senate approved on October 24, $1.346 billion, but far better than the amount approved by the House on September 9 (and supported by the Bush Administration), $900 million, which many considered a shutdown level. It is far below what Amtrak requested, which was $1.812 billion ($768 million for operations and $1.044 billion for capital).
The final operating figure is very close to Amtrak's request, and, as today's Washington Post pointed out, the situation is helped by Amtrak's ability to carry over $200 million in working capital from fiscal 2003. The Post points out that while Amtrak, under President David Gunn, has operated "more businesslike" with Congress' encouragement, "the existence of that working capital allowed the conference committee to cut more from the Senate proposal than it otherwise might have." As former Amtrak President Tom Downs was fond of saying, "No good deed goes unpunished" in Washington.
As for the impact this will have on Amtrak in 2004, Gunn said in a statement yesterday, "This number will allow us to continue to operate the national system. However, we will have to assess the impact of this funding level on our current budget over the next month or so." This will be particularly true in the capital area -- much of that relating to rebuilding rolling stock and the Northeast Corridor.
Many capital items may be pushed into 2005. The funding process for that year will start soon, and the Bush Administration likely is already considering its own proposal. It will be interesting to see if the Administration will again propose a funding cut for Amtrak.
All of you who contacted your legislators helped produce an outcome that allows passenger trains to run for another year. Legislators who worked hard for a positive outcome -- Amtrak's statement thanked Senators Murray, Byrd, Hutchison, Specter, and Hollings; and Representatives Bill Young, Obey, Olver, Quinn, and Sweeney -- also deserve our thanks.
A federal circuit court judge was scheduled to hear Amtrak's request today for a temporary injunction to prevent some of its unionized workers from striking in protest of inadequate federal funding for Amtrak.
A TEA-21 renewal bill, S.1027, was approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on November 12. Initially, a draft had several features unfriendly to rail and environmental policy. A letter from a Surface Transportation Policy Project coalition (including NARP) was sent to Committee members on November 12, outlining the group's concerns with the draft and making recommendations to fix them. Of eight issues outlined by the group, seven were addressed by the Committee.
They include features to maintain "4F" protections (from roadbuilding) for historic landmarks (see Washington Post editorial), increased funding for the Safe Routes to Schools Program (which includes grade-crossing improvement funding), and redefinition of guidelines to allow federal transit funds to cover operations and maintenance for transit projects in federal parks. Sen. John Warner (R.-Va.) was very helpful in addressing these issues.
Striking mechanics rejected a contract proposal from the Los Angeles MTA on November 7. The transit strike has entered its fifth week, and the MTA board has been discussing whether to go to arbitration.
The Travel Industry Association of America has awarded Amtrak the 2003 Odyssey Award, in the category of Travel Facilitation, for Amtrak's "Julie" telephone speech recognition system. Over 22 million callers have encountered Julie in the last 12 months.
A strong cold front moving through the Northeast brought with it wind gusts of 50-60 mph, causing some disruption to some rail services. Yesterday afternoon and evening, trees landed on catenary and signal lines on the Northeast Corridor north of Bowie, Md., delaying Amtrak and MARC trains, some seriously.
PATH will restore rapid transit service between Jersey City and Manhattan on November 23. Governors Pataki (N.Y.) and McGreevey (N.J.) are expected to ride the first train into the World Trade Center station on the same train set that was the last to leave the day of the terror attacks, September 11, 2001. PATH service patterns will be largely as they were before 2001.
Since PATH service connecting New Jersey Transit commuter trains with Lower Manhattan will be restored, crowding on some NJT services using the Amtrak tunnels under the Hudson should be reduced. NJT plans to open the Secaucus Junction station to full service on December 15, using up some of the newly created passenger capacity through the Hudson tunnels.
The Port Authority has spent $566 million since the terror attacks to restore service -- $137 million to repair and improve the Exchange Place station in Jersey City, $106 million to repair and improve the tunnels under the Hudson River, and $323 million on the temporary World Trade Center station. A permanent transit hub on the site, costing $2 billion, is to open in 2006, with improved underground connections to New York City subway lines.
Conferees on H.R.2989, the fiscal 2004 transportation/treasury funding bill, thought they had a deal as recently as November 18, but the Office of Management and Budget has rejected what legislators thought OMB had previously agreed to regarding federal government "outsourcing." This issue is not specific to transportation, so it seems unlikely that its final resolution will affect Amtrak and other transportation dollar figures already agreed to, but nothing is certain until the bill is filed and passed. This delay may result in folding the transportation bill into a larger omnibus bill that includes other departments whose appropriations are not yet complete. Congress now hopes to adjourn for the year by Thanksgiving.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unveiled its proposal for a TEA-21 renewal bill on November 19. This follows the November 12 approval of a parallel bill by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (S.1027) -- which mostly covered highways because jurisdiction for TEA-21 renewal is spread over multiple Senate committees. TEA-21, the surface transportation bill passed in 1998, expired on September 30, but was renewed by Congress until February 29.
The six-year House bill, introduced November 20 as H.R. 3550, authorizes $375 billion over six years for programs covered by the bill, which include highways ($298 billion) and transit ($69 billion). S.1027 would allow $255 billion for highways, and the Bush Administration proposal would provide $247 billion ($195 billion for highways and $46 billion for transit).
It is not clear where the extra funding would come from, though Committee Chairman Don Young (R.-Alaska) supports raising the gas tax by indexing it to inflation. That, however, is opposed by the Administration.
North Carolina DOT rededicated the renovated station at High Point this morning. However, Amtrak service to the station will resume December 9 (a fact not yet known when NARP sent its December newsletter, which mentions today's rededication, to the printer).
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its striking mechanics union agreed on November 17 that they had reached a negotiations impasse and that the outstanding issues (health-care-related) should be sent to mediation. That ended the five-week strike, and the mechanics approved a contract on November 19 covering all areas not going to mediation. Two MTA rail routes (Red and Blue lines) resumed November 18, two more (Green and Gold) started yesterday, and all normal bus and rail service was to be back in place by today.
The Transport Workers Union has been leading an effort, opposed by Transportation Communications Union and some other Amtrak unions, to shut down Amtrak for one day to protest inadequate federal funding for Amtrak. The judge did not issue a decision at a November 14 federal circuit court hearing on Amtrak's request for a temporary injunction to prevent a strike. The union said resolution by House-Senate conferees of Amtrak's funding level for 2004 did not eliminate the reason for the strike. It appears that any strike would come after the judge issues a decision. The union implied that there would be at least the week's advance notice that the union provided before October 3, its original target date for a strike.
A 420-foot trestle on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe north of Madera, Cal., was destroyed by fire early on November 19, with arson suspected. Amtrak San Joaquin passengers were bussed around the site; BNSF hoped to have a temporary structure in place within 24 hours.
Amtrak service between Seattle and Everett, Wash., also was disrupted midweek due to soft earth and small landslides.
The New Mexico legislature has enacted a $1.6-billion transportation package that includes a $6-million project to begin a commuter-rail line through Albuquerque. The line would use existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks (mostly on the Southwest Chief's route), ending at park-and-ride lots at Bernalillo in the north and Belen in the south. In signing the legislation on November 14, Gov. Bill Richardson (D.) said it could start "within 18 months" and would be the first section of eventual service to Santa Fe.
At the same event, state DOT Secretary Rhonda Faught said she would meet with Amtrak soon to discuss a demonstration service to run between Albuquerque and El Paso in summer 2004. It will be interesting to see how much cooperation Amtrak can pledge, given the ongoing federal ban on Amtrak using any resources to plan for new services.
Thanksgiving is upon us. As always, Amtrak recommends arriving at the station at least an hour before departure, especially on the two busiest days, Wednesday and Sunday (or avoid those two days, if possible). All Northeast trains (except for Keystone and Clocker services) and Pacific Surfliners require reservations from Tuesday through Monday.
The American Railroad Revitalization Investment and Enhancement Act of the 21st Century ("ARRIVE-21") was introduced yesterday. It is numbered S.1961. Original co-sponsors are Hollings (D.-S.C.), Collins (R.-Me.), Carper (D.-Del.), Specter (R.-Pa.), Jeffords (I.-Vt.), Lautenberg (D.-N.J.), and Biden (D.-Del.). They expect to offer this as an amendment to the Commerce Committee's portion of TEA-21 on the floor. The amendment would supplant the placeholder portion of the Committee reported bill which establishes a Rail Infrastructure Finance Corporation and authorizes Amtrak at $2 billion annually. (The tax credit portion of the bill was filed as amendment #2220 to the bill.)
In introducing the bill, Hollings said, "We have shown that bipartisan support exists for authorizing a strong rail program, however the main obstacle we have faced has been securing funding to live up to the authorized amounts…ARRIVE-21 creates a non-profit Rail Infrastructure Finance Corporation (RIFCO) to issue $30 billion in tax-credit bonds over six years for the purpose of providing grants to states for capital investment in freight and passenger rail infrastructure and facilities." RIFCO also could issue grants to Amtrak. A fact sheet issued by Hollings says "eligible passenger and freight rail projects include planning and environmental review, rail line rehabilitation, upgrades and development, safety and security projects, passenger equipment acquisition, station improvement, and intermodal facilities development…A 20% non-federal match [is] required; proceeds are deposited in a bond repayment fund."
The bill also authorizes about $1.5 billion a year for six years for Amtrak capital and operating expenses not funded through RIFCO capital grants.
The bill authorizes funds for "improved passenger and freight rail security; [and] emergency passenger safety improvement projects in tunnels, etc." It "authorizes a study of new methodologies to determine Amtrak routes and services" and "defines the national passenger rail system based on existing service and high-speed rail corridors."
It "directs the Federal government to develop a national rail plan and a '50-Year Intermodal Blueprint' to promote an efficient transportation system, creates a new, voluntary state rail planning process, [and] creates a rail cooperative research program through the National Academy of Sciences."
The opportunity exists for negotiations among the Senate's Amtrak supporters to produce a single authorization bill with broad enough support to command 60 votes.
Also yesterday, the Senate approved S.1402, the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act, and the report was filed on the Commerce Committee's TEA-21 reauthorization package approved in June as an original committee bill which should be available on line soon.
The fiscal 2004 transportation/treasury funding bill is still stuck in Congress. It includes Amtrak's $1.225 billion. The House plans to return on December 8 to approve a measure filed November 25 that consolidates the seven appropriations bills (including transportation/treasury) on which Congress has not finished working. Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-Tenn.) wants the Senate to approve this on a voice vote December 9, but Democratic opposition makes that unlikely. Intense disagreements continue over non-Amtrak provisions that would make it easier to use private contractors to do federal work; allow a television network to own stations reaching 39% of the nation's homes (vs. 35% today); and require destruction of background checks on gun buyers after 24 hours rather than the current 90 days. There are no indications so far that the specific program numbers in transportation are in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, a continuing resolution to fund all government departments covered in the delayed omnibus package runs through January 31, 2004.
Action on Amtrak board nominees is possible in December, but we understand that Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D.-S.D.) has a hold on all pending presidential nominees.
The energy bill fell two votes short of passage, putting on hold railroad industry hopes for repeal of the 4.3 cent a gallon ticket tax that railroads (including Amtrak) alone pay into the general fund. The bills' authors said they will bring the measure back early next year, but 2004, an election year, may be an even tougher time to get the bill through. The New York Times reported today that, because the conference committee on the energy bill was dissolved after the House passed the conference report, it would be difficult for the Senate to make new changes and still get the House to approve them.
The Amtrak ticket office in Toledo, O., was robbed early on the morning of November 20. After inquiring about the status of the Lake Shore Limited, the robbers produced a gun and demanded money, then fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash. As of today, no suspect has been apprehended.
A follow up to an item in last week's hotline: it is now known that the trestle fire on Burlington Northern-Santa Fe's San Joaquin valley line near Madera was the work of an arsonist. BNSF is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
Several west coast Amtrak stations are hosting holiday open houses. Donations of non-perishable food items to help those less fortunate at the holiday season are encouraged. Those open houses are: