Hotline #887 - July 21, 1995

H.R.2002, the House transportation appropriations bill, may be on the House floor next week. Please urge your Representative to support the Foglietta-Fox amendment to increase transit funding; and to oppose any effort to reduce Amtrak funding. Remind Members concerned about labor reforms that this bill's Amtrak funds are conditioned on passage of Amtrak authorization.

The logjam blocking H.R.1788, the House Amtrak reauthorization bill, may be breaking. Republicans from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee met July 19 and a mark-up of the bill could come quickly.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved their Amtrak reauthorization bill yesterday. It cuts labor protection from six years to six months. On contracting-out, it applies binding, last-best-offer arbitration. Both contracting-out and the liability provision may change further. The freight railroads want to make sure that -- even where grossly negligent in an Amtrak accident -- they are liable only for damage to their own property. They want to be able to pass on to Amtrak the full cost of any passenger-related insurance for gross negligence. There is no mandated reduction in the number of unions.

The bill creates an Amtrak Reform Council to evaluate Amtrak's performance. The Council also must develop an action plan within five years, covering both continued operation and possible liquidation. The Council makes a crucial decision within three years on whether Amtrak is meeting financial goals and is likely to be free of federal operating grant needs by the fifth year. However, Senator Lott (R.-Miss.) said yesterday that if Amtrak were making significant progress, he did not believe it would be shut down.

Only Senators Packwood (R.-Ore.) and McCain (R.-Ariz.) voted against the final bill. McCain said he thought Amtrak subsidies could be reduced more quickly.

Amtrak President Tom Downs and Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R.), at the Milwaukee station on July 18, signed an agreement to keep the six Hiawatha round-trips running through September 30, 1996. Wisconsin will pay $2.3 million towards the operation, from federal traffic congestion funds. Wisconsin DOT will study its options for service beyond 1996 in the meantime, and is interested in some sort of rail diesel car demonstration. Marketing efforts will be stepped up. There is a Kids-Ride-Free promotion through Labor Day.

Our occasional news releases now go out through the Capital NewsLine service of PRNewswire. This gives us good coverage of wire services and Washington news bureaus of 31 major newspapers. It also gets us on many on-line computer services, such as America Online and CompuServe, and makes releases permanently accessible to journalists and other subscribers of Lexis-Nexis. Our June 22 release on the House logjam and July 6 release on fuel taxes went out this way.

Pennsylvania NARP members are urged to support the Pennsylvania Passenger Rail Act. The Senate sponsor is Bud Belan and the House sponsor is Mario Severa. It would create a passenger rail fund and direct the Pennsylvania DOT to ensure at least ten daily round-trips between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, four between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and a commuter service between Johnstown and Pittsburgh.

Amtrak will offer a discount program for college students beginning with this school year. It's part of a larger program called the Student Advantage Card, which costs $20 a year and entitles the bearer to discounts on many products. The Amtrak discount will be 15% off of rail fare, except certain Metroliners and first-class supplements.

Metro-North has requested a second Presidential Emergency Board, so that probably postpones any strike until the fall.

The Interstate Commerce Commission yesterday unanimously approved the Santa Fe-Burlington Northern merger.