Hotline #885 - July 7, 1995

The danger to Amtrak from the ongoing dispute between labor and House transportation leaders is still very great. This is a very serious threat and we should not assume it will fix itself. All NARP members should urge their Representatives to urge Chairman Shuster and Chairwoman Molinari to work toward a compromise. It is vitally important that some progress be made in the next week if Amtrak is to get any funding in the House appropriations bill.

The House Transportation Appropriations Committee approved a 1996 transportation funding bill on June 30. The bill cuts transit funding by 13.4%, but raises highway funding by 2.6%. This shows once again that funding decisions are being driven less by pressures caused by the federal deficit, and more by pro-automobile ideology. The Surface Transportation Policy Project, with which NARP is working, has called instead for an across-the-board cut for ISTEA programs, such as highways and transit.

NARP wrote to the chairmen of the House and Senate tax committees yesterday urging equitable treatment of modes in the area of fuel taxes. The airlines are pushing hard to have their fuel tax exemption renewed. Yet Amtrak and intercity buses, which are much more energy efficient than airplanes, have been paying some form of fuel tax for five years. This letter is available to you if you send in a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

NARP also wrote to Amtrak on July 3 to reinforce the case against eliminating Cardinal service between Cincinnati and Chicago. This letter also is available.

Amtrak has gotten a temporary, emergency mail contract between Los Angeles and Oakland in the wake of bomb scares at the Los Angeles airport. Unfortunately, it has meant pulling the baggage cars from the San Diegans, San Joaquins, and Desert Wind. The San Joaquins and Desert Wind are carrying checked baggage in coaches. Checked baggage and express on the San Diegans is temporarily embargoed. Fullerton, Glendale, Oxnard, and Santa Barbara, which are served also by other trains, still have baggage and express service.

A rock slide blocking the CSX mainline near White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., July 2, delayed the westbound Cardinal. The line was cleared the next day.

A Burlington Northern derailment north of Bellingham, Wash., on July 3, blocked the Mount Baker International. The line was to reopen yesterday.

A new CSX bridge at Pascagoula, Miss., now allows trains, including the Sunset Limited, go through the area at 25 mph, rather than 10 mph.

Southwest Airlines will begin selling travel bookings through the internet by the end of the year.

The new conservative government in Ontario, which took office on June 26, has decided to scrap the province's highway photo radar enforcement program, because it was unpopular. The new premier has called it a "cash grab," as though the fact that people getting caught were breaking the law didn't count for much.

Besides the huge costs to the public of building the Denver airport, now the City of Denver's airport-related legal costs have surpassed $1.5 million. The city is defending itself against a federal investigation over the bonds that were issued to help pay for the airport.