NARP January 1999 Hotlines

#68 - January 8, 1999
#69 - January 15, 1999
#70 - January 22, 1999
#71 - January 29, 1999

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The huge snowstorm in the Midwest last weekend challenged all travelers, including those on Amtrak. The snowfall was big and came during a short time. Milwaukee, for example, had the most snow in one storm since 1947. The following days had bitter cold and wind and brought snow drifts to many areas and additional lake-effect snow in Indiana and Michigan.

Only the Hiawathas and Illinois Zephyr had minor delays. Throughout the week, there were some cancellations -- including two pairs of Detroit trains and one Milwaukee pair today. Many other trains were very late, including most trains to the East Coast. Amtrak's Chicago yards were without electricity late on January 1, into the morning of January 2.

The South Shore was closed January 3, while Metra ran with delays. Chicago's rapid transit system remains hobbled by many cars out of service with snow and ice damage. The O'Hare line has been shut down since early January 5 when a highway snowplow hit a concrete barrier that hit the third rail.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Amtrak may have to pay $12 million for additional right-of-way improvements to let the new American Flyer tilting high-speed train sets meet the required New York-Boston three-hour trip time. The story said the cars are four inches too wide to meet safety requirements allowing two trains to pass safely on adjacent tracks. However, later yesterday, Amtrak issued a release with separate quotes from Amtrak President George Warrington and the president of Bombardier's U.S. subsidiary, Peter Stangl. Warrington said he was "confident that the trains will meet all our travel time goals as specified in our contract." Stangl said Bombardier is "compliant with all performance specifications, including trip times, outlined by Amtrak." Stangl also said the cars' width is needed to "meet certain interior requirements" in Amtrak's specifications.

Incidentally, NARP has learned that Amtrak does not plan to stop high-speed trains at Back Bay station in Boston, and has urged Amtrak to reconsider.

The new Talgo train sets will enter revenue service on the Cascades service on January 11. However, old equipment will be used on the Vancouver train for at least another week.

In Portland, Me., there will be a groundbreaking ceremony on January 11 for the track work needed for Boston-Portland Amtrak service. The ceremony will be hosted by Wayne Davis of TrainRiders/Northeast, and will feature Gov. Angus King, Amtrak Northeast Acting President Stan Bagley, and members of the Maine Congressional delegation.

The Cincinnati City Council on January 6 unanimously approved a resolution in favor of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative.

Officials from the Union Pacific and the City of Sacramento had a closed-door meeting on January 6 to discuss the future of the Amtrak station there. City officials say the UP seems to be reneging on a commitment to cooperate on a $19-million station renovation project. UP recently said it wants to move the main line a quarter-mile further north, away from the station, in order to free up more land for development. Capitol Corridor trains terminating in Sacramento could still pull up to the station. The meeting included talk about a people mover to connect the station to all other Amtrak trains.

President Clinton has appointed William Clyburn to the Surface Transportation Board, replacing Gus Owen, whose term expired last week. The President made this a "recess appointment," meaning Clyburn will serve for a year without the need for Senate approval -- though the White House says it will re-submit his name for a full three-year term. Clyburn comes from the staff of Senator Robb (D.-Va.), and before that was a staff counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee. There is another vacancy on the three-member STB, and later this year Republican leaders are expected to name Wayne Burkes, who is a member of the Mississippi Transportation Commission.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) appointed Wendell Cox to the Amtrak Reform Council, replacing New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. Cox is a St. Louis-based transportation consultant who is one of the nation's leading critics of Amtrak and of most rail transit. He co-authored an anti-Amtrak report for the Cato Institute in 1996. He denies that other transportation is subsidized, while calling the automobile a symbol of freedom. Cox worked against plans for light rail in Milwaukee that were strongly supported by another Council member, Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, and against high-speed rail in Florida. The next meeting of the Reform Council is January 19.

Incoming Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R.) said yesterday that the state will no longer fund the FOX high-speed rail project between Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, effectively killing it. Bush said that the $70 million a year the state planned to set aside for FOX should go instead to moving people or goods between airports and seaports. Bush called the project impractical, citing cultural differences between Florida and Europe. With no investment in passenger rail, Florida will pay an increasingly heavy price for its over-reliance on cars and airplanes.

Winter weather-related problems continued in the Chicago area into this week. On the evening of January 11, more than 100 Metra commuter trains experienced delays, some over an hour, during a snowstorm, due to a variety of factors. These included a broken-down Amtrak Hiawatha train, several grade crossing accidents, and Union Pacific dispatching problems. By comparison, the CTA rapid transit, which performed so poorly last week, did well during the January 11 storm.

Amtrak has been moving out of its temporary trailers at San Antonio, today and yesterday, into a new station nearby. Both trailer and new station are on the grounds of the former Southern Pacific station, and the same tracks and platforms will be used. The local transit agency bought the station in the early 1980's with the idea of making an intermodal facility, but abruptly kicked Amtrak out of the historic station in November 1996, so that the old station could be redeveloped for business purposes. In the meantime, a huge road construction project near the station has delayed many passengers wanting to catch trains, and passengers should plan accordingly.

Vice President Al Gore unveiled a "smart-growth" proposal on January 11 that in fiscal 2000 would exceed TEA-21 funding levels by $300 million each for transit and CMAQ. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.), praised Gore's initiative, noting the environmentally friendly aspects of TEA-21, the bill he helped write. Since pollsters are telling politicians that defense and education is all that voters care about, it is important that Gore get a positive response from this initiative.

A state grant that allowed Thruway bus service between Allentown and 30th Street Station in Philadelphia expired December 31, and was not renewed due to low ridership. Another bus company has taken over the route and reduced service frequency.

VIA Rail has announced that it will make changes to the commissions it pays travel agents, starting January 18. They will move to a sliding scale of commission rates, with higher rates going to higher volume agents.

The City Council of Galion, O., on January 12 passed a resolution in favor of improving Midwestern passenger rail corridors, and designating the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati route as a federal high-speed corridor.

The Clinton Administration last week re-submitted to the Senate its nomination of Sylvia de Leon to the last vacant spot on the Amtrak board.

A new schedule taking effect in California February 21 will feature a fifth San Joaquin that runs from Sacramento to Bakersfield, and a sixth Capitol train between Sacramento and Oakland.

Amtrak announced five new business partnerships on January 20 that are expected to improve Amtrak's finances. First is an agreement with Dobbs International Services, which will take over Amtrak's 11 commissaries in April, with expected long-term savings to Amtrak of $28 million. Dobbs is a leading airline catering company, but Amtrak will still determine the menus. Second is a partnership with Burlington Northern Santa Fe and UPS, in which Amtrak will lease 40 RoadRailers, divert some express traffic from BNSF intermodal trains between Kansas City and Albuquerque, and earn $2.9 million in annual revenue.

Third is an agreement with the US Postal Service to carry more second-class mail worth $15.2 million a year, leading 89 RoadRailers to carry new mail business from Philadelphia and Springfield, Mass., to Los Angeles and Oakland, Cal. Fourth is a new partnership with ExpressTrak for a pilot program using eight refrigerated express cars, with ExpressTrak providing marketing, billing, maintenance, and other services for Amtrak. Fifth is a premium package service Amtrak will operate with the Dynamex delivery system, using Metroliners to provide a one-day delivery system in the Northeast. All these items to provide Amtrak with revenue (in addition to ticket sales) will help Amtrak meet its mandate of operational self-sufficiency by 2002.

The Wall Street Journal (January 19) reported that Norfolk Southern and Amtrak are near agreement on a plan to run more freight trains on the Northeast Corridor. The plan would call for Norfolk Southern to run Triple Crown RoadRailer trains into the New York City area from Chicago on the Harrisburg line, and from Atlanta by way of Washington. This would save about six hours over routes that will be controlled by Norfolk Southern after the final break-up of Conrail and make the service more competitive with trucks.

A crash early January 17 involving three Conrail freight trains tied up the Conrail main line between Toledo and Chicago during the early part of the week. Much traffic was rerouted through Michigan, including some Amtrak trains, though on the first day the Pennsylvanian was annulled west of Pittsburgh. Other Amtrak trains detoured through Fostoria, O. The accident happened near Stryker, O., just a half hour after one Amtrak train had passed through the area.

Another Conrail derailment January 21 shut down the main line west of Amsterdam, N.Y., with the Lake Shore Limited rerouted by way of Binghamton, and Empire Corridor service interrupted.

A storm with powerful winds interrupted Amtrak and commuter train service on January 18 by knocking out electrical power. For about a two-hour period in the early evening, 15 Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor were stranded, as were 20 New Jersey Transit trains on the North Jersey and Raritan Valley lines. Several SEPTA commuter rail lines were affected, and PATH train service stopped for 40 minutes between Newark and Jersey City.

A two-week track work project began on the San Joaquin route on January 18, which required all passenger train service to be substituted between Fresno and Bakersfield. The trains will be restored at the end of the month.

A meeting today was to be hosted by the mayor of Gainesville, Tex., for state legislators and DOT officials from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas to discuss a three-state passenger rail compact.

There was a ceremony on January 19 to mark the 100th anniversary of South Station in Boston. About 200 union members who are Amtrak employees protested during the program, claming that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was planning to award parts of the commuter rail contract to a foreign company. Amtrak currently has the contract, and it is up for bids.

Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater announced extension of the Chicago Hub High-Speed Rail Corridor to Indianapolis and Cincinnati, yesterday in Chicago. He gave Amtrak Chairman and Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson a $200,000 check for a study of the impact of a new high-speed turbine-powered locomotive on the Chicago Hub Corridor. And Thompson announced Amtrak's new commitment of $25 million to Midwestern projects. Key items include:

• $5 million for a South Chicago rail connection at Grand Crossing to let trains from Carbondale and New Orleans move more directly onto the Conrail mainline to Union Station, avoiding the elevated St. Charles Air Line which is circuitous and requires a back-up move and which Chicago wants to tear down;
• $5 million for what Amtrak calls "a demonstration next year of modern, premium trains and technology. This demonstration will generate public interest and spur ridership in anticipation of the new regional rail system. In addition, it will allow Amtrak to obtain customer feedback and more thoroughly test new technology under Midwestern climate conditions;"
• $2 million towards the important, planned St. Louis multi-modal terminal that would at last give Amtrak a good St. Louis station with reasonable visibility and with an excellent transfer to the successful St. Louis light-rail line;
• $2 million towards returning Amtrak to the restored Kansas City Union Station. This will dramatically enhance Amtrak's visibility there, while increasing the distance between tracks and station facilities;
• $1 million to improve the Milwaukee station; and
• $6 million for further research to prepare Chicago Union Station, the Chicago-Detroit corridor, and other projects for future high-speed rail service.

In a release yesterday, NARP praised the Amtrak action as a vital, early step.

Iowa Interstate Railroad President Doug Christy last week told the Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers his company is negotiating with Amtrak about starting a Chicago-Des Moines passenger and express train, separate from efforts to start an Omaha service (as outlined in the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative).

A Thruway bus using an existing intercity bus schedule began service January 1 between Indianapolis, Crawfordsville, Danville, Champaign, Farmer City, Bloomington, Peoria, Galesburg, Moline, and Davenport. Though layover length varies, it connects with the Cardinal in both directions at Indianapolis, the Texas Eagle and other trains at Bloomington, and westbound-only with western trains at Galesburg. Connections with Amtrak at Champaign are also possible, but for now the bus does not stop at the nearby train station.

Kansas City Business Journal says the Branson Scenic Railroad plans to link Branson and Kansas City Union Station, by the time the Science Museum opens in that building late this year.

A new transit authority has been created to build the stalled Pasadena Blue Line. Work on the light-rail project halted a year ago due to Los Angeles MTA money troubles.

A German magazine reports completion of the troubled maglev project will be delayed at least a year, and won't be done before the fall of 2006, due to apparent underestimation of the impact of European Union environmental directives on the Berlin-Hamburg project.