Hotline #876 - May 5, 1995

The House and Senate Budget Committees are expected to pass fiscal 1996 budget resolutions next week. A draft floated out of the Senate this week is even worse than the House draft we saw in March. The Senate draft completely eliminates new Northeast Corridor improvement funding. This could seriously impact nationwide capital investment, given the liabilities and obligations that accompany Amtrak's ownership of the Northeast Corridor.

The transportation subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved its National Highway System bill on May 3. It is expected to go before the full committee on May 10.

At that point, the Roth-Biden bill to include potential high-speed corridors as part of the National Highway System, S.733, may be introduced as an amendment to the NHS bill. Please ask your Senators to tell committee members they strongly support S.733. Senators Chafee (R.-R.I.), Warner (R.-Va.), Graham (D.-Fla.), and Reid (D.-Nev.) need to hear messages of support from their fellow party members.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released its bill to take transportation trust funds off-budget on May 3. The purpose is to protect transportation programs from budget cuts, but Amtrak is left behind by not being in a trust fund.

The southbound Silver Star derailed early on May 2 after it hit a truck at a crossing at Sycamore, S.C., 20 miles south of Denmark. The front two-thirds of the train derailed at a speed of 79 mph, and seven cars went on their sides. No one was killed, but there were 50 minor injuries. The truck had attempted to cross the tracks, but because the trailer was slung low, and the crossing itself is raised, it got stuck and the driver couldn't free it before the train arrived.

Amtrak's last regional public forum in Philadelphia on May 3 was well attended. The arrival of some was delayed when 30th Street Station was evacuated around 3:00 pm because of a false bomb threat.

Here is an anecdote from the forum held at Dallas last week, from the newspaper in Marshall, Tex. Rep. Joe Barton (R.-Tex.), who has not been a friend to Amtrak, told the group, "I'm not going to support things that are nostalgic." When he said he was "probably the skunk at the party," he drew a loud chorus of "yes's" from the audience of 200.

NARP Region 3 will meet in Philadelphia May 13, 9:30 am to 2:00 pm, in the DVRPC conference room in the Bourse Building, at the Fifth Street Market-Frankford subway stop. Scott Leonard of NARP will speak.

There will be a new San Diego line timetable on May 15. The first southbound train -- train 568 leaving Los Angeles at 4:55 am weekdays -- will be dropped. Also, the last northbound train, train 587, will run only on weekends and holidays.

The official inaugural run of the Vermonter was May 1, though it actually began running a month ago, after the Montrealer was discontinued. The State of Vermont is funding this service. The inaugural was a badly needed publicity effort for the train, which has not had much publicity in Vermont. Crowd sizes at the stations were encouraging. Speakers included Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.), and Sen. Jim Jeffords (R.), who told a crowd in Waterbury that this was "the train that would not die -- we have brought it back three times now."

Also encouraging were newspaper quotes from state officials saying that Vermonter ridership in April was 80% of the level of the old train. However, the complicated track maneuvers at Springfield and Palmer take up too much time. In the long-term, a way needs to be found to streamline then, or run over the old route by way of Northampton.