Hotline #864 - February 10, 1995

Amtrak and the State of Wisconsin reached an agreement on February 8 whereby the state would pay Amtrak $150,000 to continue four of the seven daily Chicago-Milwaukee round trips through June. That arrangement is then renewable through June 1996. For service after that, Wisconsin will open bids for the service as if it were a commuter corridor. Amtrak is expected to be a bidder.

Previously planned rallies in Milwaukee and Chicago by supporters of the Hiawatha service will still take place February 12.

President Clinton's proposed budget for fiscal year 1996 was released February 6. For Amtrak operations, the budget has $300 million, down from $392 million this year. This assumes, apparently, that every element of Amtrak's ambitious business plan will fall into place, including highly speculative revenue retention estimates. If not, it appears to put the national system at risk. There is also $100 million proposed for transitional costs, apparently related to Amtrak restructuring.

Amtrak capital stays at $230 million, far below what Amtrak needs for modernization. Mandatory excess benefit payments to freight employees drop to $120 million. The Northeast Corridor would be $235 million, up from $200 million. In addition, $10 million would go to a Corridor freight track in Rhode Island and the Farley Building in Manhattan would get $50 million. There would be $35 million for FRA's next-generation high-speed rail program, to support high-speed technologies on existing infrastructure. But none of that would go to a maglev prototype or to states for upgrading corridors.

The Administration wants to use the Highway Trust Fund to fund a Unified Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program that would include Amtrak. This is a sound concept, but it already has been criticized by key legislators -- including Reps. Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) and William Lipinski (D.-Ill.) -- as well as the highway lobby and the Journal of Commerce.

The problem is complicated by a simultaneous proposal to cut transit's trust fund share in half. Deputy DOT Secretary Mort Downey, answering a question from NARP at the budget briefing on February 6, said the Administration will stand by its Amtrak numbers whether or not the trust fund proposal wins out. But it is unclear where the money would come from if it does not win out. In any event, Members of Congress need to hear from citizens that buying a gallon of gasoline is not the same as voting for more highways everywhere, forever.

Transportation Secretary Pena appeared before the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee on February 7. Chairman Frank Wolf (R.-Va.) told him that he would have trouble getting the numbers for Amtrak out of Congress that have been proposed.

The first of three Amtrak hearings in the Railroads Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee was held February 7. Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris, Amtrak President Tom Downs, and Ken Mead of the General Accounting Office testified on the new GAO report on Amtrak finances. Echoing the Senate Commerce hearing two weeks ago, many subcommittee members said they wanted passenger trains but wanted guidance on how to save them. The only exception was Jay Kim (R.-Cal.), who thinks Amtrak "should be given to the private sector," and said, "I know of no [other] transportation company that is subsidized." There was no support expressed for the good Administration proposal for a unified trust fund.

Today the same subcommittee, chaired by Susan Molinari (R.-N.Y.), had a hearing for Members of Congress to talk about service cuts. Another hearing is February 13 for other witnesses.

The President's budget also proposed to end parking subsidies for federal workers by making them pay commercial rates -- it's free now.

The third extra Mardi Gras northbound Crescent will leave New Orleans March 2, not March 1 as previously announced.