Hotline #936 - June 28, 1996

The House approved H.R.3675, the fiscal 1997 DOT appropriations bill, early this morning. No changes to the basic funding levels were made. Any amendment to restore Amtrak funding would have failed, so prospects for improvement in a House-Senate conference are better without such an amendment vote.

So Amtrak is still cut 28%, transit held constant, aviation cut 0.7%, and highways cut 2.6%.

The information in our post card is still timely -- there was no Senate mark-up in late June. The Senate appropriations process formally begins with a subcommittee mark-up, now tentatively scheduled for the week of July 15. But staff work is already starting, so act soon. Tell Senators you are outraged at the House and that the Senate must move from the present funding level of $750 million towards the Clinton Administration request of $919 million. The Senate must not move towards the $542 million figure in the House bill. Then tell your Representatives that if the Senate does better for Amtrak than the House did, the Senate numbers should be adopted in conference.

Amtrak has been engaged in an intense review of options for service eliminations and additions just to live within Amtrak's own request for $250 million for operations in 1997 -- $50 million more than in the House bill.

New evidence of instability in Saudi Arabia make it even more important that energy-efficient Amtrak service be improved, rather than killed.

Amtrak reportedly is correcting a policy that caused many busy signals on its reservations lines in recent weeks. Also, implementation of yield management in sleeping cars had a rough start, with the highest of three room charges showing for the full 12 months. That, too, was corrected this week. Also, implementation of yield management was causing some double-selling of sleeping car space.

Amtrak should be well positioned for the Fourth of July holiday when record-level travel is expected, even though 2,100 ValuJet flights a week are grounded, bookings are down at most other discount airlines, and most major-airline fares are up.

But a nationwide rail strike could start July 23 or 24 and last maybe four or five days. New Amtrak labor contracts now are not expected until next April, since no one expects any labor progress at Amtrak until after the unions fight it out with the freight railroads.

Problems in getting state funding for the Illinois Amtrak 403(b) trains took an unexpected turn this week. Amtrak says state proposals to increase fares and cut one day a week of service would increase losses. Amtrak made a counter-proposal that Amtrak claims is more advantageous than all existing agreements Amtrak has with states. But Illinois rejected that proposal, claiming it would cost $690,000 more than the state had. Amtrak says the gap is really $520,000 if the state paid cash up front. The state could save another $376,000 in depreciation and maintenance costs by agreeing to a schedule for the Illini that didn't require two train sets.

So Illinois today issued an ambiguous release threatening to end its $900,000 a year contribution to the Chicago-Milwaukee service. The state's fiscal year starts July 1, so Wisconsin got virtually no advance notice on the need to increase its funding to save the trains. Fortunately, the two governors agreed late today to continue Hiawatha service through September 30. It's unclear where that leaves the downstate Illinois trains.