NARP June 1999 Hotlines

#89 - June 4, 1999
#89-A - June 8, 1999
#90 - June 11, 1999
#91 - June 17, 1999
#91-A - June 22, 1999
#91-B - June 23, 1999
#92 - June 25, 1999

Back to Hotline Archive index page

With Congress on Memorial Day recess, it is still a good time to contact your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to work against any efforts to cut Amtrak funding. House Appropriations Committee consideration of fiscal 2000 transportation funding is tentatively scheduled for June 9. While so far -- in both the House and Senate -- Amtrak's request for $571 million and permission to spend these funds on maintenance-of-way and maintenance-of-equipment has been fulfilled, the House Appropriations Committee could still cut the Amtrak amount.

Also, please ask your Senators to co-sponsor S.1144, which is the Voinovich-Chafee bill to give states the flexibility to spend some of their federal transportation funds on intercity passenger rail.

Canadian press reports say that Transport Minister David Collenette has reversed his plan to privatize VIA by dividing it into three separate franchises. He said here was a "fiasco" in Britain "where you have 25 separate franchises, chaos and a public outcry with only a few real successes." However, he said VIA's long-term operating grant is fixed at $170 million a year, so the private sector must finance new equipment, and might also manage and maintain it.

An Acela high-speed train set began tests this week in Philadelphia. The train will stand in the 30th Street Station yard for the next few weeks while engineers prepare for moving tests. These further tests will start with low-speed running on the Harrisburg line, then night-time running on the Northeast Corridor.

There was an agreement this week between New Jersey Transit, Norfolk Southern, and CSX on a plan to sell the former Conrail line between Trenton and Camden to NJT and operate diesel light rail on it. In response to Federal Transit Administration objections to a previous plan, the parties agreed to restrict freight to 10:00 pm - 6:00 am, similar to what is done in San Diego and Baltimore. Also, NJT has given a $600-million construction contract to Bechtel. This is good news for the nation's first diesel light rail project, which New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers strongly supports, and local NIMBY's strongly oppose.

Passenger service in the Southeast was severely disrupted yesterday evening and overnight, when lightning struck the CSX control center in Jacksonville. Signals from Florida to Maryland went red at about 5:30 pm, with some outages fixed by about 8:30 pm, but others not until 6:30 am today. There were severe delays to eight VRE trains, eight MARC trains, and nine Amtrak trains. In some cases, passengers were unloaded and bused to their destinations.

In general, this week's process of integrating the pieces of Conrail into CSX and Norfolk Southern went pretty smoothly. However, last night's episode shows a major weakness in CSX's highly centralized signal system, which now has been spread to many other rail routes in the Northeast and Midwest.

The extension of the Cape May Seashore Line into Cape May City, N.J., is scheduled for June 12, with the completion of a project to rebuild a drawbridge that had been inoperable for many years. The railroad will provide four daily round trips between the city and Cape May Courthouse.

Ground was broken for a new Amtrak station at Rensselaer, N.Y., serving the Albany capital area, on June 2. It will be directly south of the current station, which is 20 years old. The new station will be two stories tall with four times the floor space. It will cost $43 million and include high-level platforms, retail space, meeting space, a new street and sidewalk bridge over the entire track area, and a new parking garage with 1,300 spaces.

This morning, the House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2000 transportation funding bill with Amtrak's request for $571 million and permission to spend these funds on maintenance-of-way and maintenance-of-equipment. An anticipated amendment to cut Amtrak funding in favor of the Coast Guard did not materialize, though that could still happen when the bill goes to the House floor, maybe three weeks from now. The Senate bill could go to the Senate floor before that.

[Continues with text from #89 of June 4]

The House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2000 transportation funding bill on June 8, with Amtrak's request for $571 million and permission to spend these funds on maintenance-of-way and maintenance-of-equipment.

However, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) is trying to placate fiscal hawks in his party, and decided this week to use floor amendments to trim spending from appropriations bills already approved in committee. The House already has cut the agriculture and legislative branch spending bills. The agriculture bill was cut $102 million, but we hear the cut target for transportation is between $400 million and $800 million.

With highway and transit spending protected by the TEA-21 firewalls, and aviation and Coast Guard levels below President Clinton's requests, any such amendment could be fatal to Amtrak. Please ask your Representative to work for enactment of the $571 million approved in committee and to oppose any effort to cut it. Even though the House bill actually cuts Amtrak by $38 million compared to current levels, the bill increases aviation by $985 million and the Coast Guard by $153 million. The House bill could reach the floor as early as the week of June 14.

Please ask your Senators to co-sponsor S.1144, which would let states spend their flexible federal funding from TEA-21 on passenger rail.

The name of the new Oklahoma train was announced by Sen. Don Nickles (R.-Okla.) this week. It will be the Heartland Flyer. Nickles had a competition for school children to name the train, and received over 500 entries. The winning entry was submitted by Katie Moore, 11, of Del City.

The inaugural special from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City will run June 14; times for each station are posted on the NARP web site under meetings and events. Revenue service begins June 15 with the morning southbound train. At NARP's request, Amtrak has agreed to study running a Thruway bus linking this train with Dallas. The Texas Eagle requires unattractive layovers in Fort Worth and only runs four days a week.

Another issue has been the food service, which, according to plans released a few weeks ago, was to be a vending machine area in the lower level of one of the Hi-Level coaches. The lack of better food service was loudly criticized by State Sen. Dave Herbert, who has been one of the main promoters of restoring train service to Oklahoma. But today, according to a wire story, an agreement for some sort of food service in addition to vending machines has been reached.

Finally, Amtrak and the state need to move forward very quickly on plans for extending the train further north than Oklahoma City. With the current connections at Fort Worth, there will be a very limited appeal for travel from Oklahoma points to others further away on the Amtrak system. An extension to Tulsa and Kansas City would be helpful, and some people even talk about a link to Wichita and Denver.

Tomorrow is the opening of the Los Angeles Metro Red Line branch to Hollywood and Vine. The only other subway construction now happening is an extension of the same branch under the Santa Monica Mountains to North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley. That is supposed to open in May 2000. No other subway projects can go forward since voters in Los Angeles County voted to ban use of the county's transit sales tax on new construction.

The Empire Builder has been running 70 years as of today. The Empire Builder product line has planned some publicity around this anniversary.

The fiscal 2000 transportation spending bill is expected on the House floor probably on June 22. Please urge all Members to oppose any cut to Amtrak's $571 million. Tell them this is already 7% below the 1999 level, while the bill gives highways, Coast Guard, transit, and aviation increases ranging from 4% to 7%. The highway increase is $1.6 billion, or three times the Amtrak total. To reach any Capitol Hill office, call 202/224-3121.

The House Republican leadership wants to cut transportation spending below what the Appropriations Committee approved. The leadership includes Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), Majority Leader Dick Armey (Tex.), Whip Tom DeLay (Tex.), J. C. Watt (Okla.; who chairs the House Republican Conference), and Christopher Cox (Cal.; chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee). The most vocal fiscal hawk is another Oklahoman, Rep. Tom Coburn.

The leadership may not yet know what it will do. They have a tough job because highway and transit spending is uncuttable. It's unclear whether they will see a token Amtrak cut that might be fixed later, or a huge, life-threatening cut.

The Senate may also do its transportation funding bill next week. Negotiations continue over a Shelby provision that diverts some transit funding from New York and California, but no funding cut amendments are expected.

The House on June 15 approved a $57-billion package for aviation, 316-110, that would give it firewall protection. The Washington Post reported that this AIR-21 bill essentially puts airports ahead of all other government priorities such as defense, education, and tax cuts. Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer complained that the bill "would force us to renege on our promise for early tax reduction at just about the same time voters head for the election booth next year." Other AIR-21 opponents include Budget Chairman Kasich, Appropriations Chairman Young, the Administration, and the U.S. Senate.

A ceremonial run of Amtrak's new Heartland Flyer ran from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City on June 14. Katie Moore, who won the train-naming contest, and U.S. Sen. Don Nickles (R.) launched the train at Fort Worth by breaking confetti-filled bottles on it. Nickles, who rode a train from Ponca City to Oklahoma City as a state senator, told the Fort Worth crowd, "I'm delighted to say Amtrak is back in Oklahoma." At each stop, the train split a welcoming banner and there were brief speeches. Ardmore sent more than 50 people on a bus to Gainesville to ride back to Ardmore.

Some people on board also had ridden Amtrak's last Oklahoma train 20 years ago. Nickles, the Senate's majority whip, said a lot of Oklahomans, who are like his mother-in-law and don't fly, can ride the train. Asked what it will take to keep Amtrak service, Nickles said, "I would hope we would get our ridership up. I think for tourism, it will be a great win for the state." Gov. Frank Keating boarded at Ardmore and at every stop urged people to use the train, saying, "You've got to invest in our future." State Transportation Secretary Neal McCaleb said the train "rides like a cloud. Every seat is a first-class seat. It's just a great way to travel." Revenue service began June 15.

Service on former Conrail lines is not going smoothly, although a Union Pacific-style meltdown seems unlikely. UPS this week said it was temporarily diverting some of its traffic to trucks. Amtrak on-time performance also has suffered.

The House's fiscal 2000 transportation bill, H.R.2084, did not go to the House floor today -- but more likely will tomorrow, June 23. House leaders are expected to approve the rules of debate later today, and we do not currently expect any rail-related cuts at that point in the process.

However, we have learned of a possible floor amendment to H.R.2084 by Rep. Joel Hefley (R.-Colo.) that would cut Amtrak funding to $457 million. The amount now in H.R.2084 (which is the amount requested by Amtrak) is $571 million, or 6% below current levels. Hefley's amendment would leave Amtrak with a 25% cut below current levels.

Yet every other major transportation program is due for an increase, ranging from 4% to 7% for highways, Coast Guard, transit, and aviation.

A success for Hefley would be a huge threat to Amtrak's finances and operations in 2000, as well as to Amtrak's achieving its Congressional mandate of operational self-sufficiency by 2002.

Even if you've already done so this month, ask your Representative right away to oppose any amendment to cut Amtrak funding. Your message needs to be short, sweet, and quick. The Capitol Switchboard is 202/224-3121.

[Continues with text from #91 of June 17]

The House today passed its fiscal 2002 transportation funding bill, H.R.2084, by a vote of 429-3. The feared Hefley amendment to reduce Amtrak funding was never offered. This may mean that a count of members showed the amendment would suffer an embarrassing defeat. Our thanks to those whose efforts in contacting members helped make that analysis possible.

The House did approve an amendment cutting funding for the Amtrak Reform Council. This amendment offered by Andrews (D.-N.J.) cut Council funding from $750,000 in the bill to $450,000. The amendment was approved overwhelmingly, with almost 300 votes in favor.

Also this week, the Senate Commerce Committee approved by voice vote the nomination of Sylvia De Leon to the Amtrak board.

[Continues with text from #91 of June 17]

The House approved its transportation appropriations bill for fiscal 2000, H.R.2084, on June 23. Though as late as that morning we were still getting information that there would be an amendment from Joel Hefley (R.-Colo.) to severely cut Amtrak by $114 million, that amendment never actually came up during floor debate. Apparently, a whip count showed that the amendment would be badly defeated, as indeed were Hefley's last attempts at such amendments in 1993 and 1994. There is no doubt that the hard work of many NARP members helped out with such a head count, and, so, many thanks to all of you who contacted your Representatives.

H.R.2084 did have a lot of funding cut from it, however, about $300 million. Much of that came from unobligated funds in the Airport Improvement Program. There is no guarantee that we are out of the woods yet; or that someone down the road won't try to replenish some of the airport money by going after Amtrak. We still have to get the bill passed in the Senate and through a conference committee.

During debate on H.R.2084, the House approved one amendment cutting funding for the Amtrak Reform Council. This amendment, offered by Robert Andrews (D.-N.J.), cut the Reform Council's funding from a proposed level of $750,000 to $450,000. The amendment was approved overwhelmingly, with almost 300 votes in favor.

The Senate Commerce Committee on a voice vote on June 23 approved the nomination of Sylvia De Leon to the remaining vacancy on the Amtrak board. De Leon was a board member before the current board was established last year. This nomination has been delayed by the committee for nearly a year, because De Leon was seen on the committee as someone with a controversial role in the labor situation late in 1997, which contributed to the resignation of Amtrak President Tom Downs.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors approved a resolution on June 22 in support of S.1144, the Senate flexibility bill that would allow states to spend some of their TEA-21 federal funding on intercity passenger rail. A group of 15 mayors sponsored the resolution, many of whom are members of the Amtrak Mayors Advisory Council formed this spring. Other groups who have already passed similar measures are the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of Counties, and the National League of Cities.

Amtrak and Motorola announced on June 22 a $24-million contract to develop a state-of-the-art Automated Fare Collection System. This would include a hand-held device that would allow Amtrak conductors to read ticket barcodes, process on-board credit card purchases, and make instantaneous updates to the train manifest. This is expected to gain Amtrak more than $7 million in revenue annually after full implementation. The system will start on Acela Express service this fall and on the rest of the Amtrak system a year later.

Vermont Gov. Howard Dean announced on July 22 that a new rail service would begin in the western part of his state sometime in August. A daily service connecting with Amtrak's Ethan Allen at Rutland will run 70 miles north to Burlington Union Station, using equipment already delivered for a local commuter service in Burlington. This equipment has been sitting idle because the commuter service has suffered some delays. No word on what happens to the longer-distance service when the commuter service starts next year. Also no word on intermediate stops.

The new train will be operated by the Vermont Railway, which already leases the tracks from the state for freight operations. The train will travel about 30 or 40 mph, so the trip will take a pretty slow two-and-one-half hours, which officials point out will still be faster for Burlington passengers headed for New York than for them to take the Vermonter from nearby Essex Junction.