NARP May 1998 Hotlines

#32 - May 1, 1998
#33 - May 8, 1998
#34 - May 15, 1998
#35 - May 22, 1998
#36 - May 29, 1998

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The Clinton Administration has been complaining recently about the amount of spending in the two ISTEA bills, which are now being reconciled in a House-Senate conference committee. DOT Secretary Rodney Slater, however, has stopped short of a veto threat. Speaking to a legislative conference on Capitol Hill on April 29, he said that the legislation is "far in excess of anything we can afford." Slater said, "The President will support more spending if it stays in line with the balanced budget agreement reached by Congress and the Administration last year."

This is important because the House bill, by taking the Highway Trust Fund off budget and greatly increasing highway spending, would drastically squeeze programs remaining dependent on general revenues for their funding. That includes all kinds of programs -- transportation and otherwise -- including, of course, Amtrak. Therefore, it would be in the best interest of railroad passengers that some sort of ISTEA funding compromise is reached that does not violate last year's budget agreement.

There is still time to urge your Members of Congress to support the Senate ISTEA language on state flexibility to spend federal funds on passenger trains. Conferees will be working all through May.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week denied an application by Enron Power Marketing of Houston to have access to the mid-Atlantic electricity transmission system. Enron wanted this ability so that it could sell discount electricity to Amtrak, which would have lowered the cost of much of Amtrak's electricity by 50%. Amtrak planned to pass some of that savings to commuter operators such as New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, and MARC, and to put the rest of the savings toward improving its own budget. Amtrak said in an April 22 statement that it would continue looking for ways to buy discounted power.

Governor Pataki of New York vetoed $700 million in spending, including $10 million that some state legislators wanted to use to double-track the congested passenger line between Albany and Schenectady. He also vetoed $60 million for multimodal facilities that could have included other rail projects. New Yorkers should tell the governor they don't like what he did and tell state legislators to work to salvage the passenger rail funds.

NARP Executive Director Ross Capon will be on a talk show on May 8 on KFYR Radio 530 in Bismarck, N.Dak., which boasts the nation's largest geographical daytime coverage, including the Dakotas and parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Others can catch the program over the internet at "kfyr.com" by clicking on KFYR Live. The program will air from 10:15 am to 12:00 noon (Central).

The Federal Register for May 4 will have the Federal Railroad Administration's final rule requiring railroads to meet minimum standards for emergency response and to mark, inspect, maintain, and repair emergency exit doors and windows. The new rule builds upon emergency rules issued by the FRA two years ago in the wake of fatal commuter train accidents in New Jersey and Maryland. It also builds upon discussion and recommendations of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee, which was created by the FRA and of which NARP is a part.

Bankrupt Pan Am, which operates only charter flights, says Guilford Transportation Industries, the New England railroad, has agreed to buy the airline for $28.5 million. Court approval is required.

The President of VIA Rail Canada last week announced his resignation from that post. According to a news release, Terry Ivany's announcement comes one month before the end of his five-year appointment, at a time of VIA's "strongest performance in its history." During Ivany's tenure, VIA's operating subsidy was cut by more than 50%, without a massive round of service cuts on the scale of that last seen in Canada in 1990.

You can still contact your legislators about the work of the House-Senate conference committee that is reconciling differences between the two ISTEA bills. Passenger rail has two major concerns. The first is adoption of the Senate's language allowing states to choose to spend some of their ISTEA funds on intercity passenger rail -- the "flexibility" language.

On May 1, 23 governors sent a letter to conferees urging adoption of flexibility. Gov. Tom Carper (D.-Del.) led the effort on the letter, and was joined by the governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Despite this good letter, flexibility is far from a done deal and legislators still need to hear from individual constituents.

The other major concern is to get language clarifying Amtrak's right to spend appropriated capital funds on any type of maintenance. This clarification is essential since it's unlikely Amtrak will get an operating grant in 1999. ISTEA may be the only bill this year where this can get accomplished. Amtrak is working with Rep. James Oberstar (D.-Minn.) and the Administration on this, but -- again -- support from people back home is important.

The big issue in ISTEA negotiations is the spending level. The Clinton Administration has proposed spending $218 billion for ISTEA programs over seven years, rather than six. This creates problems on Capitol Hill because the higher spending levels approved by the House and Senate were designed to allow a higher annual allocation for each state.

The Administration also proposed moving toward adoption of the concept that federal highway outlays should equal fuel tax receipts. This may find greater favor on the Hill, since it is similar to Sen. John Chafee's (R.-R.I.) proposal.

NARP filed comments with the Federal Highway Administration on May 1 endorsing their proposed penalties relating to grade-crossing violations. As described in our April newsletter, there would be penalties for truck drivers and their employers. NARP and Amtrak have both urged FHWA to require employers to ensure that their drivers are properly licensed and that vehicles are in proper working order, or face a fine.

In 1997, Amtrak trains were in 178 grade-crossing collisions. Twenty-nine of them involved tractor trailers, causing all 56 reportable Amtrak-passenger injuries. There were also 31 reportable injuries to Amtrak employees. Vehicle occupants suffered 52 fatalities and 53 injuries. Amtrak equipment damage totaled about $4.2 million. Amtrak also said it already has paid several million dollars in claims to vehicle occupants and passengers injured in these collisions.

Amtrak made its filing on May 4. On May 5, the northbound Texas Eagle hit a garbage truck on a grade crossing near Hutto, Tex., nine miles west of Taylor. The truck driver was killed. Both locomotives and seven cars derailed; the last coach and 10 box cars at the rear of the train stayed on the tracks. Equipment damage is estimated at about $3.5 million, which works out to more than 80% of all Amtrak grade-crossing damages in 1997. Six Amtrak crew and five passengers were injured. The train's two locomotives and a baggage car tipped over. Two passenger cars were derailed and leaning; four others derailed upright.

Amtrak and Oregon DOT will have public meetings this month to discuss plans for the Portland-Eugene line, including presenting information about Talgo trains. There already was one meeting in Salem, but there is also one tomorrow in Portland, one in Albany May 16, and one in Eugene May 30.

House-Senate conferees are working through the weekend in the hope that they can complete ISTEA renewal before the Memorial Day weekend, one week from now. They seem set on a $210-billion total, $10 billion more than the Administration says it would accept. One plan gaining favor this week would keep transit funding at roughly its current authorized levels, but guarantee that funding by not making it subject to appropriations. A House floor vote is tentatively scheduled for May 22.

The flexibility language to allow states to spend some federal transportation money on intercity passenger rail capital seems likely to be one of the last issues resolved. Keep up your work with phone calls and letters-to-the-editor -- it seems to be doing some good.

The General Accounting Office released a report yesterday packed with statistics about Amtrak's 40 routes. Critics may highlight high subsidy-per-passenger numbers on many routes, and falsely conclude that's what would be saved by eliminating those routes. Today's Washington Times has a map showing the five routes with the highest subsidy-per-passenger -- even though this measure has more to do with average trip length than overall economic efficiency. For example, the map includes the Southwest Chief, which, when ranked more meaningfully by operating ratio, ranks 11th out of Amtrak's 40 routes. Operating ratio is total costs divided by total revenues. Costs of other modes are spread over many agencies and units of government, and so thus are so hard to identify that few even try.

Today's related Wall Street Journal story says Amtrak has scaled back projected express profit from $436 million to $140 million over six years, without noting that Norfolk Southern has just agreed to let Amtrak carry certain express on its tracks while those railroads negotiate a possible joint venture on express. Also, there is agreement on how Norfolk Southern and CSX will use Amtrak's tracks and vice versa after those freight railroads acquire Conrail. As part of this deal, the railroads agreed to help Amtrak improve its passenger service at certain points outside the Northeast Corridor. Norfolk Southern will increase Amtrak clearances in Maryland so double-stack trains can serve the Port of Baltimore. Amtrak now will support the freight railroads' application before the Surface Transportation Board regarding the break-up of Conrail.

A new Amtrak RoadRailer service recently began between Chicago and Grand Rapids on the Pere Marquette. The move came 39 years to the day after the old Chesapeake & Ohio started the first RoadRailer experiment between Grand Rapids and Traverse City, Mich.

Effective today, NARP members are eligible for a 10% discount on Amtrak travel. Room and club charges and Auto Train are not included. On Metroliners, the discount is good weekdays for trips starting between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm or after 6:30 pm, and on weekends. This cannot be combined with other discounts. You must carry a valid NARP membership card while traveling and present it when you buy your tickets in person.

New Amtrak schedules take effect May 17. The Texas Eagle regains a third coach as well as Sunset Limited through-coaches and sleepers and a connection to the Empire Builder in Chicago. NARP worked hard on all three items. Also, the added Talgo service in the Northwest begins.

Amtrak and Caltrans on May 17 will mark the 60th anniversary of San Diegan service, with a celebration at Los Angeles Union Station from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm. There will be an equipment display, food, music, vendors, and hourly excursion train service to Glendale.

Dane County, Wis., will fund a commuter train demonstration project later this year. A trial service would run for a few days from Middleton to downtown Madison on tracks owned by short line Wisconsin & Southern.

Today -- perhaps as this is being posted -- the House and Senate are voting on the final, post-conference version of ISTEA. Conferees ended negotiations last night as final agreements were reached in all areas.

The best news out of ISTEA is the improved tax treatment of employer-provided transit payments. Under the new plan, employers will be able to remove $65 a month from a worker's existing pretax salary and give it to them as transit passes that are not subject to federal, state, or local taxes, including payroll taxes the employer pays. The plan calls for increasing the benefit to $100 per month starting in 2002.

Unfortunately, however, two top issues important to intercity passenger rail were not addressed. State flexibility to spend some federal transportation funds on intercity passenger rail capital items was dropped last weekend at the insistence of House conferees. Discussions included giving this flexibility to a limited number of states. Some observers believe this got enough prominence to help future efforts by a smaller number of states eager to get flexibility.

The redefinition of appropriated Amtrak capital to include maintenance -- the definition that already applies to federally appropriated capital for transit -- was in play until yesterday and dropped because time ran out. This redefinition, first proposed by the Administration in their ISTEA bill last year, was strongly supported by James Oberstar (Minn.), ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and was not opposed by Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.).

The push now is to get the right language on the appropriations bills, which indeed is where the redefinition for transit was placed last year. The next move will be in the Senate, where Transportation Appropriations Chairman Shelby (R.-Ala.) has a mark-up hearing scheduled for June 4. All Senators on his subcommittee need to hear that they must fully fund Amtrak and provide for the capital redefinition.

Transit did better in ISTEA than passenger rail. Preliminary calculations indicate that the new bill guarantees nearly 18% of the bill's total funding to transit. By comparison, actual obligations for transit under the 1991 ISTEA law were just below 17%. Both amounts exclude highway funds flexed to transit, which came to about $600 million under the 1991 law, and could exceed $1 billion a year under the new law. On the minus side, however, transit supporters will have to fight to avoid flexing Congestion Mitigation Air Quality funds to highway purposes, something the conferees allowed states to do.

Passenger trains may return next year to Oklahoma, which for nearly 20 years has been the most populous state with no Amtrak service. On May 18, there was an announcement from U.S. Sen. Don Nickles (R.), state DOT Secretary Neal McCaleb, and Amtrak Acting President George Warrington, who all met last week. They said they are working on a plan to start Amtrak service sometime in the spring of 1999. There is no preferred route yet. Oklahoma would pay for part of the service with money it got from the Taxpayer Relief Act as a state without Amtrak service.

President Clinton formally announced his choices for the Amtrak board yesterday. As we announced earlier this spring, they include DOT Secretary Rodney Slater, current board members Amy Rosen and Sylvia de Leon, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, former Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton, and Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian, Miss. However, one earlier choice has been replaced by Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson. The Senate must confirm all but Slater. It is disappointing the Administration took so long to produce these nominations, given the fact that the Amtrak reauthorization law is nullified if three of the nominees are not confirmed by June 30. However, because Amtrak reauthorization provides for expedited handling of these nominations, and because Clinton's slate includes three genuine and prominent Republicans, there is a real chance that confirmation will come in time.

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.), will meet next week to approve a fiscal 1999 transportation funding bill. The meeting has been moved up by two days, and will now be June 2 -- almost immediately after Senators arrive back from their Memorial Day recess.

Because of Shelby's previous comments on Amtrak funding, there is great danger that he will give nothing at all to Amtrak in 1999. This is a great risk. Please call your Senators right away -- especially if one is on the Subcommittee -- and tell them that:

1. Amtrak has funding needs in 1999 beyond the money approved in last year's Taxpayer Relief Act;
2. Amtrak needs the full $621 million request for capital;
3. The bill should clarify Amtrak's right to spend appropriated capital on maintenance, as is already the case for transit.

Here are a few more points from last week's discussion of the end of ISTEA, which now is called the Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century, or TEA-21. The Senate-passed Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) did survive. It means Florida could receive a $2 billion loan for Florida Overland Express. The bill also identifies the Farley Building project in New York City and the Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River below Washington as possible TIFIA beneficiaries. Conferees also approved a loan guarantee program for railroads. Total loans outstanding are capped at $3.5 billion, with $1 billion reserved for non-Class I (smaller) freight railroads.

For general high-speed rail programs, conferees approved $5.25 million a year in contract authority -- that's real money -- for grade-crossing work. In addition, the House's high-speed authorization survived but will depend on future action by appropriators.

There will be a ceremony to rededicate Tampa Union Station on May 30 at 10:00 am. It has been restored with funding from ISTEA sources and the Florida DOT.

A similar ceremony will be May 31 at the Kingston, R.I., station, with festivities from 10:00 am to mid-afternoon to rededicate the rebuilt station. Politicians will speak at noon. A steam train will be towed at 30 mph from Old Saybrook to Kingston. The Genesis diesel will uncouple west of Kingston so the train can enter the station under steam power. The train will return from Kingston at about 2:00 pm.