Hotline #926 - April 19, 1996

Most of the original agreements between Amtrak and the freight railroads expire May 1, but most railroads have signed one-year extensions of existing agreements. Conrail, however, on April 10 signed a ten-year agreement that includes, for the first time ever for Conrail, an on-time performance incentive clause. Illinois Central signed a 15-year agreement last year.

Two parties have not signed anything yet. Metra must take its draft contract to its board. BNSF might not sign at all, so there may yet be some work that the new Surface Transportation Board must do to keep some Amtrak trains running next month.

The Surface Transportation Board, incidentally, will raise user fees to cover all its operating costs. That has cost implications for Amtrak, which must use the Board when unable to reach compensation and access agreements with railroads.

The House approved a measure on April 17 to take transportation trust funds off-budget. Passage of the bill, H.R.842, by a vote of 284-143, was a big victory for Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Although key Appropriations leaders fought hard against the bill, there was some bi-partisan support for it from other appropriators, such as Richard Durbin (D.-Ill.) and John Myers (R.-Ind.).

The Senate is not expected to approve similar legislation, though Majority Whip Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) supports it. After the House vote, Senators Hatfield, Domenici, and Chafee circulated a letter against going off-budget. If the trust funds did go off budget, Amtrak could be harmed if highway and aviation spending escalated, while nothing was done to protect discretionary spending for Amtrak.

On another trust fund matter, if the issue of restoring airline ticket taxes is not resolved, there won't be a trust fund balance for aviation at all. The aviation trust fund is being spent down at a rate of more than $500 million a month, and will hit zero by late summer.

The United Transportation Union and the large railroads have agreed to binding arbitration on their disputes. However, the Transportation Communications Union cooling-off period still ends May 9. Also, four other unions have ended mediation talks.

Earlier this month, the Illinois House Appropriations Committee cut $1.9 million in rail funding from the pending state DOT appropriations bill. This money was intended as the state match for $7.6 million in federal funds to replace the antiquated signal system on the Chicago-St. Louis line. Now the whole project is threatened. Illinois residents should call their state legislators right away to get the money restored as the appropriations bill advances.

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train derailment blocked the route of the Empire Builder earlier this week. The accident was at Dodson, Mont., just west of Malta.

The North Carolina DOT at Raleigh has taken delivery of six business cars formerly owned by the Chicago and North Western. They will be altered and renovated in the next 12-18 months to make them compatible with the other cars the state owns, the ones used on the Piedmont.

The first California Cars built for food service are arriving. A special introductory trip will run on the San Joaquin line. It leaves Emeryville at 5:00 am on April 25, is on display at Fresno from 9:00 am to 10:00 am, Hanford from 10:30 am to 11:15 am, and Bakersfield from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. On April 26, it leaves Bakersfield at 8:00 am, is on display at Merced at 10:00 am, Riverbank at 11:45 am, Stockton at 1:00 pm, and Oakland at 5:00 pm.