Hotline #890 - August 11, 1995

The Senate passed its 1996 transportation appropriations bill yesterday, 98-1. There were no amendments specific to Amtrak or high-speed rail. However, a Chafee-Warner amendment raises doubt that a separate National Highway System bill is needed or likely this year. Therefore, the Roth-Biden amendment from the Senate bill may be included in the appropriations conference. Roth-Biden would let states choose to spend certain federal ISTEA funds on passenger rail.

Rail labor unions decided on August 8 to hold firm in their dispute with Chairman Shuster. That leaves it up to other rail passenger advocate to push all members of his Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to urge him to have the Committee vote on his bill, as is.

The Cardinal will run through to Chicago after all, Amtrak said on August 9. From September 10, it will be a Superliner train with sleeper running tri-weekly from Washington to Chicago on the same days as now. The Hoosier State will be eliminated, with its Rensselaer stop picked up by the Cardinal. The Cardinal will leave Washington at 11:00 am, connecting from morning trains from New York. But the eastbound Cardinal will reach Washington at 8:10 pm, connecting with the Night Owl, which arrives New York at a lovely 2:09 am.

Amtrak says it is sill evaluating handling New York-Harrisburg-Chicago through-cars on the Capitol Limited, but the bad appropriations numbers leave little hope.

Amtrak national and northeastern schedules will come out with the main timetable change on October 29. However, new schedule panel cards will be issued for some services September 10. Of course, this includes the Cardinal and Broadway. But it also will include the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited, whose schedule changes are related to the cutback on the Broadway. There probably will be a Vermonter schedule change then.

Amtrak now expects that by the end of fiscal 1995, it will have improved its bottom line by $154.4 million, or 89% of the $173 million it called for in its business plan. Passenger revenues are $27 million ahead of the budget, on-time performance is up, average load factor is up, injuries are down. On the labor front, 96% of targeted management reductions have been carried out; but -- even though these percentages are adjusted for state buybacks of service -- only 44% of the targeted union positions have been carried out.

The Union Pacific and Southern Pacific signed a merger agreement on August 4. Unlike the Burlington Northern Santa Fe deal, a UP-SP merger would involve many parallel lines carrying Amtrak trains, including Oakland-Denver, San Antonio-New Orleans, and San Antonio-Chicago. The former Rio Grande line through the Colorado Rockies may be threatened. UP could review SP's Phoenix line abandonment decision.

DOT Secretary Pena issued a terrorism alertness bulletin for aviation on August 9, and asked other modes to review their security procedures as well.

A panel of experts assembled by the Puget Sound Regional Council released findings about a third runway at the Seattle-Tacoma airport, according to the Journal of Commerce. It said high-speed rail would come too late to alleviate the need for the runway. But it did not reach a conclusion about improvements to existing Amtrak Vancouver-Eugene service.

A feature article about Amtrak Chief Financial Officer Betsy Reveal ran in the July 31 Washington Post business section.

The Los Angeles Green Line opens tomorrow between Redondo Beach and Norwalk, with a 10:00 am ceremony at the Imperial/Wilmington station, transfer point to the existing Blue Line. Free rides are offered this weekend, and there is a special 25-cent fare through August 31.