Hotline #938 - July 12, 1996

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation is expected to mark up its 1997 DOT bill on July 16, with the full committee likely acting two days later. Please keep up the pressure on your Senators to urge Senators Hatfield and Lautenberg to fund Amtrak at the highest possible level, however, do not make a distinction between capital and operating numbers. Just talk about total Amtrak funding.

Knowledge Exchange of Santa Monica, Cal., on July 3 issued results of its survey of customer-oriented companies. In transportation, Delta Air Lines was rated most customer-sensitive and Amtrak was rated as having the most-improved customer service. Eighty percent of participants stated that the single worst customer-oriented company was the U.S. Postal Service.

Just when business is beginning to pick up solidly, Amtrak expects to be hit by as much as a three-day strike starting around July 23. Today's Journal of Commerce says last-minute talks between the freight railroads and the Transportation Communications Union ended without a contract but the parties agreed to meet again July 17. The situation is complicated because the railroads must come to terms with three unions that are the subject of three separate sets of Presidential Emergency Board recommendations. Besides the TCU, they are the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and the shop workers. The unions presumably assume that if there is a strike, Congress will impose the PEB recommendations. Deputy DOT Secretary Mort Downey ruled out any legislative efforts before July 24 to postpone a work stoppage. Downey said, "Even if the administration and Congress were of a single mind to reach a legislative outcome, it could not happen instantly. There is likely to be some disruption."

Opponents of the UP-SP merger met this week to plot next steps. They reportedly talked about seeking an increase in truck sizes and weights to help shippers keep transportation options open, but no concrete action is likely for a month because a court challenge cannot begin before the Surface Transportation Board issues its written decision on August 12. The Journal of Commerce identified these groups as participating in a meeting on July 10 -- Society of the Plastics Industry, National Industrial Transportation League, three railroads, a coal-shipper group, and two government agencies.

Ridership on the Dallas light-rail line was 18,900 a day the first week of operation, compared to a projection of 15,000. Today, the Cleveland light-rail line to the Flats opens. Tomorrow, the Los Angeles Red Line will be extended two miles, which is expected to boost ridership on that line significantly.

The Federal Railroad Administration published rules late in June that tighten standards for the reporting of accidents by railroads. It also published another set of rules dealing with passenger-equipment safety, covering areas such as emergency windows, crashworthiness, and standards for equipment inspection and maintenance.

The National Transportation Safety Board held a three-day hearing at Rockville, Md., the week before last, hearing testimony about the February 16 crash between a MARC commuter train and Amtrak's Capitol Limited on CSX tracks. Much attention was devoted to the lack of government safety oversight when CSX used federal and state funds to upgrade its signal system a few years ago.

June 29 was the 40th anniversary of the Federal Aid [Interstate] Highway Act of 1956.

Frequent Amtrak critic and Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson actually wrote on June 26 that all fuel taxes do not need to be dedicated to highway spending and should be treated like any other tax.