NARP March 1997 Hotlines

#972 - March 7, 1997
#973 - March 14 1997
#974 - March 21, 1997
#975 - March 28, 1997

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A "dear-colleague" letter is circulating in the Senate this week, asking Senators to join a bipartisan intercity passenger rail caucus. The sponsoring Senators are Baucus (D.-Mont.), Roth (R.-Del.), Kerry (D.-Mass.), DeWine (R.-Ohio), Biden (D.-Del.), and Jeffords (R.-Vt.).

The Administration still has not delivered its draft ISTEA bill to Congress, even though DOT Secretary Rodney Slater appeared at two hearings last week that were called to discuss the phantom bill. He did say the Administration would keep highway and transit spending levels flat, over a six-year period. It is also known that the draft contains flexibility for states to spend some of their federal money on intercity passenger rail, if they choose.

Secretary Slater appeared before the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday. While Chairman Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.) did not mention Amtrak once, Ranking Member Frank Lautenberg (D.-N.J.) did so emphatically. Slater responded that Amtrak has to be part of our 21st-century transportation system. He said the Administration is struggling with how to fund Amtrak and that he does not want to see more service lost.

That means that even though the President's budget came out a month ago, the Administration's final position on Amtrak remains unclear. It might change for the better due to public reaction to the bad treatment Amtrak got in the President's budget.

President Clinton signed into law the extension of the aviation ticket tax through September 30 last weekend. It takes effect today.

Features of an Amtrak plan for long-term service on the Pioneer route got some coverage in the March 1 Denver Post. Amtrak apparently is considering a coach-only train with lots of mail and express to run from Chicago to Ames, Ia., Cheyenne, Boise, and Portland. The whole route would be on the Union Pacific, which would have to approve the operation. It is unlikely that this service would begin as early as May 11.

Norfolk Southern and CSX appear to be heading toward an agreement to divide up Conrail between themselves. Likely features of the ultimate plan were published in various papers this week. For Amtrak routes, these include giving CSX the Lake Shore Limited route from Cleveland to New York and Boston. Norfolk Southern would get the Capitol Limited route between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and Capitol and Lake Shore route between Chicago and Cleveland, the Three Rivers route between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, and the Detroit-Kalamazoo line. The route of the proposed Cleveland-Cincinnati service within Ohio would be split, with CSX getting the portion north of Columbus and Norfolk Southern getting the portion to the south. Norfolk Southern would get freight rights on the Amtrak line from Newark to Washington; and CSX would get the freight rights between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

About 220 Members of the House of Representatives and their families took a special Amtrak train today from Washington to Harrisburg. They were going to a bipartisan retreat at Hershey, Pa., aimed at bringing more civility to Congress.

Service on Amtrak's Cardinal was disrupted this week as flooding affected parts of its route from Cincinnati, O., to Ashland, Ky.

Transport Canada has ordered train speeds through White Rock, B.C., to be lowered from 30 to 21 mph, for about a mile. Amtrak's Mount Baker International uses this route. The action resulted from an Amtrak train hitting and killing a 12-year-old boy who was crossing the tracks near the beach.

Senators William Roth (R.-Del.) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) yesterday introduced a bill to create a half-cent trust fund for Amtrak. Its bill number is S.436.

The Clinton Administration released its proposals for ISTEA renewal on March 12, which it is calling "NEXTEA." The Clinton proposal would authorize $175 billion for transportation programs from 1998 through 2003, an 11% increase over current ISTEA.

The good news for us in the proposal is that it would give states the same choice to spend some federal money on intercity passenger rail projects -- "flexibility" -- that the states already have for highways, transit, commuter trains, bike trails, etc. It also provides for funding Amtrak out of the Highway Trust Fund, which is good news in the sense that only a couple of weeks ago, the Administration was leaning strongly towards not doing that. Failure to do that would have meant a back-handed zero-funding proposal for Amtrak, since the Administration's 1998 budget, released in February, proposed funding Amtrak from the Highway Trust Fund.

The Administration's proposal has problems, however. First, it would provide $1.3 billion less in capital funding over the next five years than the $3.8-billion half cent would provide. Second, by funding all Amtrak-related expenses -- including operations and excess Railroad Retirement -- from the Highway Trust Fund, the proposals makes Amtrak the target of the powerful highway lobby in a way that the capital-oriented half-cent bill does not.

For example, American Trucking Association President Tom Donohue yesterday told a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee that he could support a permanent half cent for Amtrak capital investment. But Donohue ridiculed the use of Highway Trust Funds for Railroad Retirement, and of course was opposed to using it for rail freight, as the American Short Line Railroad Association wants. The Administration's view is that there are already too many segregated categories within the Highway Trust Fund and that their plan is good because it proposes three-quarters of the capital the half cent would provide.

To NARP, that last point sounds like telling a bleeding patient not to worry if his body has nine pints of blood in it, even if he really needs 12.

Three Amtrak-related hearings were held this week. The House Transportation an Infrastructure Railroads Subcommittee met March 12, and the Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Environment and Public Works Transportation Subcommittee both met yesterday. There were many expressions of concern for Amtrak and the condition of passenger rail in general -- especially an impassioned speech by Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.) yesterday. Conditional expressions of support for the Amtrak half cent came from Chairman Shuster (R.-Pa.) in the House and Senator Warner (R.-Va.) of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Their conditions are enactment of Amtrak legislative reforms and transfer of the rest of the 4.3 cents in deficit reduction gasoline taxes to the Highway Trust Fund.

There will be another House Railroads Subcommittee hearing on March 18, this time on rail and ISTEA. On March 20, Amtrak will appear before the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee.

NARP Region 4 meets in Baltimore on March 15 at 12:30 pm at the Streetcar Museum. Region 5 meets at 10:00 am at the Hotel Radisson in High Point, N.C. Region 6 meets at 10:00 am at the Holiday Inn in Sidney, O. Region 1 meets March 22 at 10:30 am at the Portland Club in Portland, Me. Region 7 meets at 10:00 am at the Harbor Cove Hotel in Lake Geneva, Wis. Region 8 meets at 11:30 am at Freighthouse Square in Tacoma, Wash.

NARP President Jack Martin will be at the Tacoma meeting. NARP Executive Director Ross Capon will be at the meetings in Baltimore and Portland.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) announced yesterday he would form a bi-partisan, blue-ribbon commission to address Amtrak's financial problems. He said the members of the commission would be announced soon. "Without decisive action very soon," Shuster said, "the country will have no intercity rail service within a few months."

The hearing on 1998 Amtrak funding in the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee was yesterday. Chairman Frank Wolf (R.-Va.) said he would introduce a bill to create an Amtrak route-closing commission. Wolf has always been a big fan of the military base-closing commission, which acted a few years ago. He sharply criticized Amtrak and the Administration for not supporting his idea in the last Congress. "I want you to succeed," Wolf told Amtrak President Tom Downs, "but you have to look at the numbers you are likely to get." Downs responded that closing train routes is not the same thing as closing military bases, but rather it is more like a business decision. "We have made a decision on routes in the last year," Downs said.

More generally, Downs offered a simple explanation for Amtrak's financial problems, as he has at several other hearings this month. The Clinton Office of Management and Budget and the Congress, through its budget resolutions, have mandated that Amtrak lose its operating grant by 2002. Amtrak has said it was possible if three things happened -- Amtrak internal reorganization, a dedicated capital source, and legislative reforms. Only the first, the one under Amtrak's control, has happened. Unless Congress comes up with the other two this year, all of Amtrak would have to shut down next year under the Administration's budget proposal.

Senators Chafee (R.-R.I.) and Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) have introduced the Administration's NEXTEA bill as S.468. However, both are expected to work on other versions of ISTEA renewal as well.

Amtrak has issued news releases saying that the two-month deadline has passed for states to step in and fund the threatened train services beyond May 10. Amtrak said no state is acting to save the Pioneer or Desert Wind. The Texas legislature is working on a loan to run the Texas Eagle through September. Gov. George Bush (R.) has said he would sign that bill. Massachusetts is working on a plan to expand a mail facility at Springfield to benefit the Lake Shore Limited. The Southern Rapid Rail Transit Commission was to meet today to discuss keeping the New Orleans-Mobile Gulf Coast Limited going beyond March 31.

At a ceremony in the state capitol at Olympia, Wash., on March 19, the Talgo company announced a partnership to build new trains for the Pacific Northwest Corridor. Talgos business partner is a new company called Pacifica, which is a company created by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Pacifica is based in Seattle and will employ 40 people to build five Talgo trains. Three of those will be used in Amtrak service in the Northwest, with Amtrak owning one set, and the State of Washington owning the other two. The remaining two sets to be built by Pacifica may be sold by Talgo for use on other corridors.

The new trains will enter into service in summer 1998 as part of a renamed "Cascade" service. Each set will have 12 cars and seat 251 passengers. The cars include six coaches per set, one lounge-type bistro car, one dining car, two custom class cars, and a service car. One coach and one custom class coach will be wheelchair-accessible. Each car is 44 feet long, shorter than standard Amtrak cars. The trains will be pulled by new F-59 locomotives. The train's tilt feature is expected to be used starting in 1998.

The State of Oregon still has to act to extend the Portland-Eugene Amtrak service beyond June 30, when current funding runs out.

NARP Region 1 meets tomorrow in Portland, Me.; Region 7 meets in Lake Geneva, Wis.; and Region 8 meets in Tacoma, Wash. On April 5, Region 10 meets in Denver, Colo.

The Texas State Senate approved a loan to Amtrak on March 25 to keep the Texas Eagle running through September 30. The vote was 24-5. The measure now goes to the House, which comes back into session on April 4.

The Gulf Coast Limited will make its last run to Mobile March 30, and last run back to New Orleans March 31. It began as a state-funded, three-month experiment last June. The states never renewed their funding in September, and the train has been running on a six-month federal supplemental since then.

Amtrak took its dispute with Guilford Rail Industries to the Surface Transportation Board on March 26, and asked for resolution within 150 days. The current delay in starting track work on the Boston-Portland line is because Amtrak and Guilford cannot agree on liability terms or track maintenance costs. Amtrak has offered Guilford what all other freight railroads get from Amtrak, but Guilford wants more. Amtrak said in a statement, "If Guilford's terms were accepted, there would be no limit on the amount that Guilford could charge the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority -- and therefore the people of Maine -- to allow Amtrak access to Guilford's tracks." All this could mean the loss of the 1997 construction season, and a push-back of the start-up date another year to fall 1998.

The National Transportation Safety Board has reported that it now believes the collision between two New Jersey Transit commuter trains in February 1996 was caused by human error. Two crew members and a passenger were killed. Initially, investigators had suspected worker fatigue or signal problems. But it turned out that the engineer had been concealing from his employers an illness that caused color blindness, meaning he could not read the signals accurately. The Federal Railroad Administration has said it will strengthen requirements for color blindness testing.

Storms a week ago disrupted Amtrak service for several days between Edmonds and Everett, Wash., affecting the Mount Baker International and the Empire Builder. Trains are running now. This stretch of track has been plagued by landslides all winter long.

Governor Rowland of Connecticut seems to be softening his position on deep cuts to the state's commuter rail system so that motorists can get a little fuel tax relief. Rowland proposed cutting all Metro-North service on the Danbury and Waterbury branches, and all Shore Line East service. Now he concedes the legislature probably will reverse that. But Connecticut citizens still need to contact their legislators so there can be a good final outcome to this.

There will be an exhibit and briefing on the Boston rail link on April 1, 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, in the State House in Boston. Anyone may attend, and New England NARP members should encourage their local officials to attend, too. There are many sponsors, including Amtrak, the MBTA, NARP, TrainRiders/Northeast, and many labor, environmental, and tourism agencies.

NARP Region 10 meets in Denver, Colo., on April at 8:30 am, at the Oxford Hotel, across from Union Terminal. The speaker will be Ed Ellis, who handles Amtrak Intercity's mail and express business. There will be a tour of the Rader Railcar plant after the meeting.

Region 3 meets near Cape May at Rio Grande, N.J., on April 12 at 11:00 am, at the Rio Station Restaurant on US 9 and state route 47. The speaker is NARP President John R. Martin. There will be a tour of the Cape May Seashore Lines after the meeting.