Hotline #915 - February 2, 1996

The Senate Amtrak authorization bill, S.1318, almost got voted on the Senate floor this week, and is still a strong possibility for February 6. As altered by the Commerce Committee, it now includes the Roth-Biden amendment that would give states flexibility to spend ISTEA funds on Amtrak. That's very good news. Unfortunately, there is still no indication that Rep. Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) will be any more receptive now than during the House-Senate conference on the National Highway System bill.

Sen. Frank Murkowski (R.-Alaska) raised eyebrows when he put a hold on the bill because he was upset with elimination of Northeast Corridor train names.

The Clinton Administration says it is way behind on formulating budget proposals for 1997, since 1996 issues are not out of the way yet. Therefore, the Administration will deliver to Congress only a brief outline by the February 5 due date. The rest would come later, possibly March 18. Appropriations hearings are supposed to start before that, so this time there won't be any specific figures from the Administration discussed at the hearings.

NARP has told Amtrak President Tom Downs and other Amtrak officials that we oppose a new Amtrak ticket policy that starts February 13. It makes most tickets on long-distance trains non-refundable once they are purchased. When combined with the existing requirement that tickets be purchased within two weeks of making the reservation, and the need to reserve months in advance, the result is customer-unfriendly. The new policy has one loophole -- non-refundable tickets can be exchanged for $20 per adult, $10 per child.

A bad freight derailment yesterday in the Cajon Pass continues to block road and rail traffic, including the Desert Wind and Southwest Chief, between San Bernardino and Barstow, Cal.

The Oregon legislature has approved emergency operating funding for the Eugene-Portland Cascadia.

Prospects brightened yesterday for more Amtrak service to Atlanta for the three-week Olympics period. The State of Georgia seems willing to pay up to half the estimated cost of single daily round-trips from Athens and Macon and four trips from Gainesville. Birmingham and North Carolina services also are likely.

The Amtrak board meets next week on the road, at Beech Grove, Ind. There will be a public session on February 6 at 1:00 pm, in the Amtrak training center.

There will be a public meeting sponsored by the Pennsylvania DOT on February 9 on options for the Harrisburg line. It will be 10:30 am at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, in the second-floor conference room. Other meetings will be February 14 in Lancaster and February 22 in Harrisburg.

John Jacobson, a long-time director of government affairs at Amtrak, died of a brain tumor January 31, at the age of 49, in Washington. He had been at Amtrak from 1979 to 1994.

Garth Campbell, a well-known, former marketing executive for Canadian National, died last month at the age of 70. He helped create VIA Rail. Before that, he developed CN's non-stop Rapido trains after the corridor pool agreement with Canadian Pacific ended. He also created the Red, White and Blue pricing scheme that divided the days of the year into three demand-based tiers and was widely admired for its simplicity and efficiency.