NARP October 1999 Hotlines

#106 - October 1, 1999
#107 - October 8, 1999
#108 - October 15, 1999
#109 - October 22, 1999
#110 - October 29, 1999

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The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on September 29 approved S.1144, the bill that -- among other things -- would allow sates the flexibility to spend some of their federal TEA-21 funds on intercity passenger rail capital projects. However, there was an unsuccessful amendment to strip the bill of the pro-rail language. This came in the form of an amendment from Senator Bond (R.-Mo.).

The Bond amendment, fortunately, failed on a 6-12 vote. The anti-rail votes were Bennett (R.-Utah), Baucus (D.-Mont.), Bond (R.-Mo.), Inhofe (R.-Okla.), Smith (R.-N.H.), and Thomas (R.-Wyo.). The pro-rail votes were Boxer (D.-Cal.), Crapo (R.-Ida.), Graham (D.-Fla.), Hutchison (R.-Tex.), Lautenberg (D.-N.J.), Lieberman (D.-Conn.), Moynihan (D.-N.Y.), Reid (D.-Nev.), Voinovich (R.-Ohio), Warner (R.-Va.), Wyden (D.-Ore.), and Chafee (R.-R.I.). If any of those was your Senator, please thank them or express your displeasure as appropriate.

Congress approved a continuing resolution on September 28, good for three weeks, funding many federal programs into fiscal year 2000. The first day of the fiscal year is today.

Conferees for H.R.2084, the transportation appropriations bill, were all selected by September 21. Conferees completed their work yesterday, but the final bill still needs House and Senate approval and presidential signature. The final bill includes $571 million for Amtrak, including the flexibility to spend its capital funding on preventive maintenance items. The bill also has $27.2 million for the "Next-Generation High-Speed Rail" program, which is actually more than was in either the House or Senate bills. There is another $5.2 million for grade crossing improvements authorized by Section 1103 of TEA-21, most of them on passenger rail corridors.

Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson was appointed to a second term as chairman of the Amtrak board this week when the board met in Washington.

A nine-member task force began work September 29 on a study of passenger rail needs in the State of Kansas. The panel's chairman is State Rep. Ed McKechnie (D.-Pittsburg), from the southeast corner of the state. He would like to see work on three routes -- Kansas City-Topeka-Abilene-Denver, Kansas City-southeast Kansas-Tulsa, and Kansas City-Topeka-Wichita-Oklahoma City-Fort Worth. He also wants the state to coordinate efforts with the nine-state Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, which would connect with the Kansas routes at Kansas City. The task force is to submit an interim report with recommendations to the governor next year, and a final report in two years.

Two teenage boys were killed at McLean, Ill., on September 26 when their car collided with an Amtrak train. What was unusual about this accident was that it occurred at the US 136 crossing, which is one of three in Illinois equipped with experimental "dragnet" technology. That is supposed to lower steel mesh nets down over the road when the crossing signals are activated. The Bloomington Pantagraph said that the dragnet system had been shut off at the time of the accident because of road construction, and that there were reports that the gates and flashing lights had not been working.

Amtrak Intercity is offering a "two-for-one" deal that must be purchased between October 2 and 11 for use by December 16. It's good on most long-distance trains, some Chicago hub trains, and the Heartland Flyer.

Amtrak West plans to remove attendants from business class on the San Diegans effective October 17. The fares will drop by $1.00 and beverages will still be available.

The House approved the final version of H.R.2084, the fiscal 2000 transportation appropriations bill, on October 1. The Senate did the same late on October 4. It was presented to the President for his signature on October 5, which could happen any time.

In the world of Amtrak operations, the big news this week has been reports of the imminent splitting of the Lake Shore Limited into completely separate New York and Boston sections. This would be made possible by Amtrak's getting a big UPS contract and could happen as early as October 16.

The New York section would remain pretty much as is. The Boston section would run with its current equipment through to Chicago, except that it would run via CSX west of Cleveland, making stops at Fostoria, O., and Nappanee, Ind. These two stations are also served by the Three Rivers.

The new train -- if it gets CSX approval -- would leave Boston in the late evening and run in the daytime west of Albany, and arrive Chicago around 9:00 pm. Eastbound, it would leave Chicago around 9:00 am, run in the daytime into New York State, and arrive Boston around 7:00 am. There would be possible, but lengthy, connections at Cleveland with the Pennsylvanian for Toledo and Detroit.

The greatest downside is the lack of Chicago connections for New England passengers. NARP President Jack Martin has urged Amtrak to keep the Boston section of the existing Lake Shore to accommodate these people.

The House approved a bill, H.R.2681, the Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance Act, on October 4. The bill requires Amtrak and other potential intercity passenger railroads to present written plans of action for dealing with accidents. It also prohibits attorneys from soliciting victims' families for 45 days following an accident, and requires the National Transportation Safety Board to assign a liaison to work with families. The bill requires the railroads to provide as complete a passenger list as possible.

S.1144, the bill giving TEA-21 flexibility to states who want to invest in passenger rail, has picked up some more sponsors recently. They are Specter (R.-Pa.), Hollings (D.-S.C.), Schumer (D.-N.Y.), and Biden (D.-Del.). The bill should be more attractive to Democrats now that a labor-sensitive, non-rail provision has been removed.

The appropriations bill has some funding for the Orlando light rail project, $5 million. Last month we reported that Orange County withdrew its vital support from the project. Now there is a shorter version of the plan moving forward that can be extended later.

More than 200 spectators turned out October 2 at the Kingston, R.I., Amtrak station as a test train of one electric locomotive and three coaches ran past the station at 110 mph. Later, the train returned and they were all allowed to tour the refurbished Amfleet coaches. An Acela high-speed train was brought through to Boston earlier this week.

A press report indicates that talks between Amtrak and the Florida East Coast Railway have stalled. Amtrak has been talking with the FEC for over a year about sending a Silver train down this route between Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, serving many important coastal communities along the way.

On the ballot in Kansas City, Mo., on November 2 will be an issue called Question 5. It would extend for 15 years two half-cent sales taxes -- one for roads, bridges, and sidewalks, and the other for light rail running from south Kansas City, through downtown to the airport. However, city officials are promoting a different issue, called Question 1, that would not include the light rail funding. So clearly, Question 5 is better.

The Amtrak Reform Council will be meeting in Chicago on October 13 and 14, both days open to the public.

President Clinton signed the fiscal 2000 transportation appropriations bill into law on October 9. The President had been getting loud protests over the bill from leading environmental groups, because the bill blocked further action to change existing corporate average fuel economy standards, also known as "CAFE" standards. This language has been in the past few appropriations laws. Congress could yet do an across-the-board percentage cut that hits most programs, including those whose funding bills have been enacted, but President Clinton has implied he would veto such a measure.

The Amtrak Reform Council had a two-day meeting in Chicago this week. Council Vice Chairman Paul Weyrich, in discussing the delay in delivery of Amtrak's high-speed trains, suggested postponing Amtrak's statutory deadline for operational self-sufficiency by a year. He also discussed extending the term of the Council by a year. Mark Yachmetz, representing the administration, said OMB would have to approve this for the administration to support it. Clarence Monin, representing labor, said he would have to consult with his people, since the proposal would extend the life of an organization whose very existence labor opposes. The Council will discuss this further at its next business meeting, which may be held in conjunction with the planned November 8 meeting in Dallas.

Also in Chicago, the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative states told the Council that they want to design the service and control its costs, since they don't like the "high" overhead payments some of them now make to Amtrak. States would negotiate a train operating contract with Amtrak, but would themselves provide the train sets and the infrastructure improvements. The states would contract out food services and let cities provide the stations.

The Senate passed its version of a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill earlier this month. The House version, of course, under the leadership of Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.), contains a budget firewall for the aviation trust fund. If enacted, such a firewall would make it even more difficult to keep funding Amtrak. House and Senate conferees are far apart and it is unclear if they can finish their work this session. The key players are Senate Budget Chairman Domenici, who opposes firewalls, and Shuster.

The split of the Lake Shore Limited into two separate New York and Boston trains is on indefinite hold. Apparently, Amtrak, CSX, and UPS could not reach agreement on the change. The present Lake Shore is completely open for booking of future sales.

Amtrak has been test-running a new Acela high-speed train on newly electrified segments of the Northeast Corridor in Rhode Island this week. The train was brought up to 168 mph, which Amtrak said in an October 12 USA Today article was a North American speed record for a passenger train on regular track. The top test speed of the German ICE train when it visited the Northeast Corridor was 162 mph, which was attained twice in July 1993 at Princeton Junction, N.J.

The Vermont transportation secretary announced this week that the Ethan Allen Connection between Burlington and Rutland would not run beyond the scheduled end of its trial run, which is October 31. Ridership had risen lately, but the trip is still an hour slower than driving. The state will use information gained here to study future service.

The office of Sen. Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) announced that Amtrak would begin stopping the City of New Orleans at Marks, Miss., by the end of the year. Marks is in the middle of a 124-mile, non-stop stretch of the route between Memphis and Greenwood. It is 18 miles east of Clarksdale, which is a big town in the Delta region, and only 20 miles west of Batesville, a town that lost train service when the City of New Orleans was rerouted in 1995. The city and county are building a new station.

The NARP board of directors meets in Toronto October 22 and 23. We will try to bring you the hotline as usual on October 22, but it might be delayed from the normal late-afternoon changeover time.

The NARP board is meeting in Toronto. This morning we heard from Amtrak Northeast Corridor President Stan Bagley. He said that new Acela uniforms were unveiled in Providence on October 20, that work allowing the first electric through-service to Boston would be complete by December 21, and that the Northeast Corridor beat its 1998 budget goal by $23 million.

At lunch, VIA Rail Canada President Rod Morrison told how his railroad has had its funding cut in half since 1992, and yet has kept up service standards without reducing train service. We will hear from Transport 2000 President Harry Gow tomorrow.

There is late word that the Surface Transportation Board has decided in Amtrak's favor to allow Boston-Portland service to run at 79 mph on 115-pound rail, with a few conditions. Track owner Guilford had held out for stronger, 132-pound rail, or for Amtrak to run only at a non-competitive 60 mph. NARP filed a brief and successfully argued that Amtrak already does what it proposes to do on the Portland line in several other places with no problems.

The westbound Southwest Chief derailed in the early morning hours of October 16, due to an earthquake. The train was traveling very near -- or maybe even right above -- the epicenter of an earthquake at Hector, Cal., which is deep in the Mojave Desert. The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.0 on the Richter scale, which is even bigger than the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake or the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. The Southwest Chief remained upright, and there were four minor injuries.

There will be an Amtrak oversight hearing on October 28 before the Ground Transportation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Subcommittee chairman is Thomas Petri (R.-Wis.). This subcommittee only got jurisdiction over Amtrak this year, after the dissolution of the former Railroads Subcommittee. Among the witnesses will be Amtrak Board Chairman and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, officials from the General Accounting Office and DOT Office of Inspector General, Amtrak Reform Council Chairman Gil Carmichael, and NARP Executive Director Ross Capon.

Hurricane Irene earlier this week caused some disruption to Amtrak service in the southeast. The Silver Palm and Silver Meteor had bus substitution between Florence and Richmond some days, with no train originating October 17. The Silver Star and Auto Train detoured between Columbia and Alexandria on October 17 and 18.

The new Amtrak station at Modesto, Cal., opens October 31, replacing the current station at Riverbank.

The top ranking state transportation official in California suggested last week closing down Caltrain north of Millbrae after the BART extensions to Millbrae and San Francisco Airport open two years from now. Commissioner Jeremiah Hallisey told a session of the California Transportation Commission's Public Transit Committee that it should be looked at before even considering electrifying Caltrain. Some of the concern seems to be that more job growth is occurring in the South Bay area around San Jose than in San Francisco proper. However, closing half of Caltrain and making commuter passengers change to BART at Millbrae doesn't make much sense. There's probably no need to ask the Commissioner if the parallel US 101 freeway also should be shut down with a forced transfer to BART.

Sen. John H. Chafee (R.-R.I.), who chaired the Environment and Public Works Committee, died October 24. He championed S.1144, which would let states spend their federal transportation dollars on intercity passenger rail. Congress will adjourn soon, so please ask your Senators to urge their leaders to get floor time for S.1144 in November in honor of Chafee, who enjoyed broad, bipartisan respect. Republican Senators should contact Senator Lott; Democrats should contact Senator Daschle.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D.-N.J.) unveiled a High Speed Rail Investment Act at a Capitol Hill ceremony October 28. This authorizes Amtrak to sell $10 billion in high-speed rail bonds over ten years to develop high-speed corridors across the nation. The Act would let the federal government give tax credits to bondholders in lieu of interest payments. States would provide a match of at least 20%. The bill's initial co-sponsors are Jeffords (R.-Vt.), Moynihan (D.-N.Y.), Cleland (D.-Ga.), Kerry (D.-Mass.), Biden (D.-Del.). Please ask your Senators to co-sponsor the Lautenberg-Jeffords high-speed bill (which has no bill number yet).

Amtrak released some fiscal 1999 results on October 27. Ridership was up 2%, passenger-related revenues up 5.8%. Mail and express revenues together totaled $98 million, up 18%. That evening, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer had an Amtrak segment with snippets from one-on-one interviews made over several weeks. NARP's Ross Capon was on camera saying that air system troubles were increasing public demand for decent passenger rail.

The House Subcommittee on Ground Transportation held an Amtrak oversight hearing October 28. Amtrak Chairman Tommy Thompson, Vice-chairman Michael Dukakis, and President George Warrington all appeared. Warrington talked optimistically about splitting the Crescent in Mississippi and running a Dallas-Fort Worth section over Kansas City Southern tracks. DOT Inspector General Ken Mead said, "We still believe that it is possible for Amtrak to achieve operating self-sufficiency by 2003. However, this will depend on Amtrak filling the $692 million gap in its 1999 Strategic Business Plan." He said Amtrak's fiscal 1999 cash loss was $569 million, $8 million better or $9 million worse than plan, depending on how one defines operating expenses, and $44 million worse than in 1998. He said Intercity ridership fell 1.6% due to fare increases, reservation system glitches, and residual effects from the Bourbonnais accident. Tom Till, Amtrak Reform Council executive director, said that through 11 months, Intercity passenger revenues were 7% under plan.

NARP's Ross Capon said Amtrak has a long way to go to get consistent service quality and Norfolk Southern has a long way to go to get decent on-time performance.

Nick Rahall (D.-W.Va.) noted Capon's on-time performance comments and asked Association of American Railroads President Ed Hamberger about delays to the Cardinal near Chicago. Hamberger said railroads were working to improve reliability in the Chicago area of trains in general and the Cardinal in particular. He said Chicago's Belt Railway was getting more authority to hold freights outside the area so they don't get stuck with crews violating the Hours of Service Law while blocking lots of tracks. He said a local freight had been rerouted to avoid frequent delays to the Cardinal.

Last week we said Jeremiah Hallisey spoke for closing Caltrain north of Millbrae after BART is extended to Millbrae and San Francisco Airport. Hallisey is merely one of nine members of the California Transportation Commission. We incorrectly called him the state's top ranking transportation official.