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June 1998 Hotlines |
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June 1998 Hotlines |
#36-A - June 2, 1998
#37 - June 5, 1998
#38 - June 12, 1998
#39 - June 19, 1998
#40 - June 26, 1998
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We reported on May 29 that the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee would meet today to approve a fiscal 1999 transportation funding bill. However, that meeting has been postponed until next week. The Subcommittee is chaired by Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.).
Because of Chairman Shelby's previous comments on Amtrak funding, there is great danger that he will give nothing at all to Amtrak for 1999. Please call your Senators right away -- especially if one of them is on the Subcommittee -- and tell them that:
[Continues with text from #36 of May 29.]
The meeting of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee to approve -- or mark-up -- a 1999 transportation funding bill is now expected on June 9. Please keep the pressure on your Senators to fully fund Amtrak.
Germany suffered its worst railway accident in over 50 years on June 3, with 96 confirmed dead at this time and hundreds injured, when an ICE high-speed train derailed. The accident did not take place on one of the new high-speed lines, but rather on a conventional rail line 35 miles north of Hanover. The ICE, which travels at 175 mph on high-speed lines, was traveling at 125 mph on its way from Munich to Hamburg.
The latest news has a report that a piece of a wheel was found nearly four miles back from the accident site. The train rolled along until it reached a set of switches under a road bridge. The front part of the train went through and separated from the rest of the train, but the rear several cars derailed and jackknifed, bringing down the road bridge on top of the train. German Railways imposed a temporary 100-mph speed limit on its trains that was lifted at noon today. They withdrew 60 first-generation ICE trains for inspection, but 30 are now back in normal service.
This is the first time passengers were killed on any high-speed train service since the first bullet train began operation in Japan in 1964. There also have been no Metroliner passenger fatalities in 30 years of operation.
Also, standard American trains are designed to a much higher strength standard than European trains. For example, cars in the U.S. can take 800,000 pounds of pressure from the ends -- "buff strength" -- but European trains only take 460,000 pounds. The American Flyers being built for the Northeast Corridor are designed to take 800,000 pounds at the vestibules, but also have an inner shell that can take 1.2 million pounds, and can hold the weight of another car on top. They will also have airline-style, enclosed luggage racks. News accounts in the U.S. have done a good job of emphasizing rail's good safety record, and NARP gave many interviews this week.
The American Passenger Rail Coalition presented an award to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) last night. In accepting, he said the Senate last year had a choice to make about whether we needed a nationwide passenger rail system. His positive answer to that question was based on conversations with Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith, a lot of experts, and just ordinary people. He also mentioned talking with Sen. Connie Mack (R.-Fla.) just after Mack enjoyed a good trip on the Auto Train.
Thruway bus service is available as of June 1 connecting the Texas Eagle in both directions to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.
In another provision of the new TEA-21 bill that we haven't touched on yet, conferees agreed to repeal 1.25 cents of the fuel tax paid by railroads, including Amtrak, effective November 1, 1998. However, a House provision to repeal the remaining 4.3 cents was rejected, so railroads will continue indefinitely to be the only mode paying fuel taxes for deficit reduction.
The Great American Station Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation on May 18 announced their choices for the "Top Ten Most Endangered Stations." Six of them are active Amtrak stations -- Camden, S.C.; Jesup, Ga.; Berlin, Conn.; Las Vegas, N.Mex.; Mattoon, Ill.; and Sandpoint, Ida. Two others are Amtrak stops, but with no access to the station building -- Bangor, Mich., and Needles, Cal. Finally, two more have no Amtrak service at all -- Central Terminal in Buffalo, N.Y., and the empty concrete shell that once was Union Station in Gary, Ind.
The mark-up of a 1999 transportation funding bill by the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee was postponed again this week, this time to June 16. To help make the case for the full funding request for Amtrak, over 50 Senators signed a letter that was delivered today to Subcommittee Chairman Shelby (R.-Ala.), written by Senators Roth (R.-Del.) and Kerry (D.-Mass.). Click here for a list of those who signed.
The Surface Transportation Board formally approved on June 8 the takeover of Conrail by CSX and Norfolk Southern. Legally, the split-up of Conrail can take place August 23, or anytime thereafter. Norfolk Southern has said it would like to start in September, but CSX is favoring spring 1999.
The three-month experiment to extend some Amtrak Hiawathas west of Milwaukee 48 miles to Watertown, Wis., is now two-thirds over, and is set to end July 11. Through June 8, almost 15,000 rides were taken on the new service. A group of downtown Milwaukee merchants has written to Governor Thompson (R.), saying that ridership has been "impressive," and urging him to extend the trial through the rest of the summer, so that upcoming special events like the Great Circus Parade could benefit.
However, the governor's office has said that could not be done because there is no funding for it, because host railroad Canadian Pacific has said it wants $15-33 million in permanent improvements for any extra service beyond July 11, and because Canadian Pacific has scheduled track work for that time period. Some of the permanent improvements may involve restoring double track Canadian Pacific removed just a few years ago.
The new commuter train service between Stockton and San Jose, Cal., the Altamont Commuter Express, has been delayed once again. Rainy weather has prevented construction of passenger platforms at Stockton, Lathrop, and Tracy. The service was originally supposed to start in March, then in May, then in July, and now it looks like September. Last month, Herzog Transit Services was selected to operate the service. They also operate the commuter lines in South Florida and Dallas.
The Amtrak Reform Council's second meeting will be July 6 in Washington. Meetings are open to the public. One member of the council is Joseph Vranich, who recently became vice president of a big public relations firm, in charge of their British Aerospace account.
Amtrak now has ratified contracts with shop-craft workers who will maintain the high-speed train sets, with the Transportation Communications Union and with the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen.
Once again, the meeting to approve a 1999 transportation funding bill has been postponed by the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee. It was last scheduled for June 16. At this point, there is no new scheduled date, but it could come at any time.
According to Congress Daily, Subcommittee Chairman Shelby (R.-Ala.) has been holding out the possibility of cutting Amtrak funding in order to get more money given to his subcommittee by the full Appropriations Committee. With highway and transit protected by budgetary firewalls created by the passage of TEA-21, the biggest programs left that can be cut are Amtrak, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Aviation Administration. Reports say that out of those programs, Shelby would gut Amtrak first if he didn't get enough funding allocated to him.
A Chicago-bound South Shore commuter train hit a truck loaded with a steel coil that was blocking the track at a grade crossing, early yesterday morning, killing two passengers and one train crew member, all in the first car. The driver, who was unhurt, had been driving a truck with two trailers, apparently without proper permitting, which was overweight. He was waiting at Portage, Ind., for a train at a Conrail crossing, which is also the route of Amtrak's Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited, and Michigan trains. His rear trailer, with a 20-ton coil of improperly secured steel, was hanging back over the adjacent South Shore tracks when that train approached at 45 mph.
Also, yesterday, Amtrak's New York-bound Carolinian struck a tractor-trailer in downtown Durham, N.C., causing the locomotive to derail upright. The truck driver was killed, and ten people on the train were injured.
The German Railways have begun replacing the wheels on all 59 remaining ICE-1 train sets. They will get either new wheels, or all-steel wheels like the ones on the newer ICE-2 trains. A broken wheel has been implicated in the wreck of an ICE-1 on June 3, but an official government investigation continues.
Union Pacific isn't making much headway in resolving its serious service problems, according to the Journal of Commerce. In fact, we are hearing from the Texas Eagle route that train is experiencing growing delays in June.
The Amtrak Reform Council is requesting that its total budget be increased from $50,000 to $1.9 million, according to the Associated Press. Council Chairwoman Christine Todd Whitman, who is governor of New Jersey, wrote to appropriators on June 8 that, "We are charged with considerable tasks and responsibilities, including the development of a comprehensive intercity passenger rail restructuring plan." The proposed budget she submitted includes hiring staff for the Council -- some at $125 an hour and a director at $400 an hour. Charlie Moneypenny of the Transport Workers Union responded that, "we thought [the Reform Council] was just some sort of resting place for Republican ideologues. We didn't realize there was going to be a trough at which folks could feed."
A report from Ottawa suggests that a diesel light-rail service on a north-south route could carry up to 7,700 riders a day and could open in December 1999. It would be the first modern-day application of rail transit in the Canadian capital, which has relied heavily on busways.
The Senate has left for its Independence Day recess, without any progress on a 1999 transportation funding bill. The Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee's mark-up session, which was continually scheduled and postponed throughout June, now cannot happen before July 7. it is still widely believed that Chairman Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.) is planning to zero out or drastically cut Amtrak funding, once again forcing a discussion about whether Amtrak should be kept alive.
Meanwhile, the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), may move ahead with a bill of its own the week of July 14. Recess is a good time to remind both your Senators and Representative that Amtrak needs to be fully funded in the transportation funding bills that will start moving in July.
Right before adjourning last night, the Senate confirmed enough new Amtrak board members to make a quorum. These likely will go to President Clinton in China so he can sign them before the June 30 deadline. In that time, without a quorum in the new Amtrak board, the funding provisions in the Amtrak authorization bill would have evaporated. That would have made the appropriations process even tougher. The Senate confirmed Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R.), Meridian (Miss.) Mayor John Robert Smith, and former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis (D.). Additionally, no confirmation is needed for DOT Secretary Rodney Slater.
A Union Pacific spokesman said in a June 22 Journal of Commerce article that the UP has no plans to appeal the Surface Transportation Board decision a month ago to give Amtrak the powers it was seeking to carry express. In fact, the article said, the STB decision has increased interest at railroads such as CSX and Norfolk Southern to cooperate with Amtrak on its express initiative and possibly even get more revenue for themselves.
The Ohio DOT has announced plans for a passenger rail service between Columbus and Cleveland late in 1999 to run in conjunction with a project to expand the number of lanes on I-71. Pending final approval, the state will spend $32 million on facilities and about $3.3 million in annual operating support. The highway, however, will get nearly a half-billion dollars for the ten-year project. The state, Amtrak, railroads, and localities still need to work out details like station location and scheduling. The Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers has argued that the service should be more frequent and extended to Dayton and Cincinnati. Nevertheless, this would be the first passenger train service to Columbus since the National Limited in 1979, and the first between Columbus and Cleveland since 1971.
The Federal Railroad Administration announced yesterday updated track safety regulations. They include new rules for installation and maintenance of welded rail and for more frequent searches for internal rail defects.
There was a breakdown in Empire Corridor service on June 20 that got some press attention. For some reason, Amtrak's 7:45 pm departure from New York to Albany was annulled, and those passengers had to wait for the 8:50 pm departure. However, that train had a crew assigned to it that had less than two hours to go before it would violate the Hours-of-Service rule. When the train got to Hudson, the crew left the train and its 100 passengers behind, telling them to fend for themselves. Only one conductor stayed with the train, and he had to call the local police to keep order on the train.
Amtrak started four new Thruway bus services on June 24. One connects Duluth with the Empire Builder to and from the west at St. Paul. Another connects Green Bay and Manitowoc, Wis., with Chicago. a group of buses connects Wilmington, Wallace, and Goldsboro, N.C., with Silver Service trains at Wilson and Rocky Mount. Another bus connects Eagle, Vail, and Silverthorne, Colo., with the California Zephyr to and from the east at Denver.
Two Thruways were dropped last week. One was between Wenatchee and Ellensburg, Wash.; the other was the service from New York Penn Station to LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. However, that one may be revived if another contractor is found. Finally, a service from Kingston to Newport, R.I., is in the works.