Hotline #891 - August 18, 1995

A news conference at the railroad station site at Portland, Me., on August 15, included Amtrak President Tom Downs, Sen. Olympia Snow (R.-Me.), and Gov. Angus King (I.-Me.). Governor King pledged to appoint the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority by the end of next week, which is necessary to preserve federal funding for Boston-Portland track improvements.

CSX closed down its railroad between Richmond and Jacksonville on August 16, causing Amtrak to suspend passenger services there. Hurricane Felix was stalled off the North Carolina coast and the CSX signal system is prone to wind damage. Service was running again yesterday.

Unfortunately, news accounts only reported that Amtrak had shut down the route. ABC News went so far as to report erroneously that Metroliners between Washington and New York also had been suspended. Apparently, ABC got its bad information from UPI.

A letter from Ross Capon of NARP in the August 17 New York Times noted how much more generously the appropriations committees have dealt with highways than with Amtrak and transit. Capon noted that House-Senate conferees are "likely to listen if the public speaks up." The heading was "Amtrak Faces Cuts It May not Survive."

An anti-Amtrak diatribe called "The Featherbed Express," by James Norman, is in the August 28 Forbes. The article has many misleading or false statements but shows the high political cost of the generous labor protection payments made to certain Amtrak and freight railroad workers.

Amtrak will make some schedule changes September 10 -- besides the Cardinal changes already reported. The replacement train for the Broadway, called the Three Rivers, is an extension of a Harrisburg train with only unreserved coach seats and no baggage car. The Lake Shore Limited will run 45 minutes later eastbound and 30 minutes westbound. The Capitol Limited will run later eastbound.

The Vermonter will run earlier in both directions, and faster. There will be a Thruway bus between Rutland, Vt., and Whitehall, N.Y., connecting to the Adirondack. The last run of the overnight train between New York and Toronto is September 8.

The reroute of the City of New Orleans will take place. Crescent days of operation will change -- it will leave New Orleans Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, and Atlanta Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. The replacement bus for the Houston section of the Texas Eagle will run express from Houston to Longview, rather than through College Station and Corsicana, as had been announced.

Amtrak will spend $947,000 on satellite positioning equipment for 80 locomotives for continuous, direct communication between trains and Amtrak operations centers. Much data can be moved this way, including real-time train location and emergency messages. Amtrak hopes to recover most of the money in one year just from re-selling no-show space.

There will be a ceremony opening the San Diego East Line's Santee extension on August 26 at 12:00 noon, with other events throughout the day. There will be free rides on August 27 from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Los Angeles Metrolink will begin a one-year trial of Saturday service on the San Bernardino line on September 9. This would be the system's first weekend service. Four round-trips are planned.

Bicyclists and their bikes are now transported on the English Channel tunnel shuttles.