Hotline #950 - October 4, 1996

The omnibus spending bill discussed here last week was passed by the House on September 28 and passed by the Senate and signed by the President on September 30, just hours before the new fiscal year began. The bill provided additional funds to Amtrak, aviation, and highways, beyond what was in the normal DOT funding bill, which passed a couple of weeks ago.

Amtrak got $22.5 million in operating funding meant to go toward running threatened trains for another six months. Amtrak announced yesterday that the Pioneer, Desert Wind, Texas Eagle, and Boston Lake Shore Limited will run through May 10 and the Gulf Coast Limited will run through March 31. The bill's report language says the new funding is to "support service until the affected state legislatures have an opportunity to meet and decide whether to 'buy back' services, or take other actions necessary to permit the services to continue." We are hopeful that Massachusetts will condition its funding on retention of the existing Boston-Albany service. Elsewhere, of course, state funding is hard to come by for long-distance, interstate, overnight trains.

Amtrak also announced yesterday what it plans to do with remaining features of its August 8 service change plan. Trains that were to run daily -- Empire Builder, California Zephyr, City of New Orleans -- will have that improvement postponed until May 11. However, Amtrak released a separate statement saying Amtrak "is firmly committed" to begin daily service as soon as possible on the Empire Builder. The statement said an internal task force will report to President Downs on the fastest means to implement a daily Empire Builder. The Three Rivers will be extended to Chicago, but will not offer sleeping-car service initially. When it does, and no one knows how soon that will be, it will be renamed the Broadway Limited.

Service changes planned for Florida -- cutback of the Sunset Limited to Sanford and introduction of the Silver Palm -- will go ahead.

Amtrak's stated inability to restore daily service to certain trains is disappointing. Amtrak has based this in part on a questionable claim of equipment shortage. After all, the Superliner II order was supposed to provide for daily operation of all Superliner routes existing today, except the Sunset Limited. We are pressing Amtrak for more information on where all the Superliners are.

Amtrak also -- and more logically -- cites its funding shortage and the diversion of operating funds to the threatened trains. Even with improvement of the finances of the trains that were to have gone daily next month, those trains still would have lost money. This is particularly true since the new mail contracts Amtrak expects daily service to produce to not come instantly upon the inauguration of daily service.

There was also an additional $60 million for Northeast Corridor capital items in the omnibus bill. That should keep Amtrak on schedule for providing high-speed rail service on the Boston line in the fall of 1999. Amtrak expects revenues from that new service to make an important contribution to the rest of the system if Congress keeps its threat to keep cutting Amtrak's operating grant.

With the adjournment of Congress, there is no longer any chance for the Amtrak authorization or the half cent to pass this year. We expect bills to be introduced soon in 1997, but enactment may be delayed by simultaneous efforts to renew ISTEA. Of course, ISTEA will, we hope, include some Amtrak items, like state funding flexibility.

Amtrak and Burlington Northern Santa Fe have signed a 15-year operating agreement.

An unusual train was spotted in the BNSF yard in Cheyenne, Wyo., this week. It turned out to be a test train, using some Amtrak equipment, of the Marlboro Express train that tobacco company Philip Morris hopes to start next year. The train was carrying Philip Morris employees along a proposed route between Denver and Montana, stopping at possible attractions along the way, with the employees posing as passengers.