Hotline #906 - December 1, 1995

The House approved H.R.1788, Amtrak reauthorization, yesterday on a vote of 406-4. Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) opened debate by showing concern that failure to pass a tough reauthorization would doom Amtrak to bankruptcy. Several amendments were debated, including a Collins (Ill.) amendment on liability, striking the $250,000 cap on non-economic damages, which failed 239-164. A Nadler (N.Y.) amendment to give freight access on the Northeast Corridor to carriers other than Conrail failed 249-161. A Hefley (Colo.) amendment to repeal authorization of the Penn-Farley project failed on a voice vote.

One item of concern in H.R.1788 that was touched on in debate is the language affecting the Amtrak board. This was the subject of a lengthy colloquy between Representatives Mascara (D.-Pa.) and Lipinski (D.-Ill.), who praised the work of the current board. As worded, H.R.1788 dissolves the current board and replaces it with a board whose make-up Congress would influence and that would exclude the Amtrak president, who now chairs the board. Amtrak does not need the new uncertainty this change likely would cause. S.1318, the Senate bill, ignores the board and we hope that point-of-view prevails in conference.

Also, if the board were not appointed within 60 days of enactment of H.R.1788 -- which is a strong possibility -- a special court could appoint a director general who would act like a one-man board and run the whole company.

The vetoed budget reconciliation bill included a House provision taking Washington Union Station air rights away from Amtrak and selling them to provide a one-time budgetary offset for $40 million, replacing rail safety user fees now paid by freight railroads. This would deprive Amtrak of a valuable, continuing source of lease revenues. Efforts are underway to have this resolved the Senate's way in the final reconciliation bill, letting Amtrak keep the air rights.

President Clinton signed into law the National Highway System bill on November 28. It removes the national speed limit signed into law by President Nixon in 1974, an action that is widely expected to increase highway fatalities and fuel consumption.

The New York Times ran another, good, pro-Amtrak editorial on November 27, the second in two weeks. The Times lamented how highway forces have succeeded in getting the interests of local transit and passenger rail pitted against each other. It said Amtrak "deserves a sound financial base from a capital trust fund such as highway construction enjoys." It would be nice if other major dailies, such as the Washington Post, would join the New York Times in its support for Amtrak.

The Teamsters hit Metro North with a strike at Poughkeepsie, N.Y, on November 28, but it did not appear to affect Amtrak.

A passenger-car-building plant was opened today at Plattsburgh, N.Y., by Bombardier. Its first order will be 34 commuter cars for Metro North. Bombardier also has plants at Auburn, N.Y., and Barre, Vt.

The 17-volume, 1,000-page merger application for the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific was delivered to the Interstate Commerce Commission yesterday -- likely the last such delivery in that agency's 108-year history. But with the ICC set to disappear very soon, probably the merger will be handed over to a three-member board within the Department of Transportation, for decision during 1996. The DOT board would be created by legislation now before Congress.

The chairman of the other big company undergoing merger, Gerald Grinstein of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, announced his retirement this week. Grinstein was head of the Burlington Northern. The chief executive of BNSF is Robert Krebs, former head of the Santa Fe.