Hotline #966 - January 24, 1997

"Schedule Snafu May Derail Amtrak Trips," is the title of a story in today's Wall Street Journal, highlighting uncertainty about what service changes will happen May 10. The story quotes the NARP August newsletter headline, "Who Shot Dallas?" and has Rep. Tim Hutchinson (R.-Ark.) saying "there is still a window of opportunity" to save some of the routes.

The February issue of Rail News magazine has Amtrak President Tom Downs saying that the Boston-Albany segment "has the best chance of long-term survival" of the threatened routes, and that Amtrak is working with the state on that.

The Travel Committee of the National Press Club conducted a panel on January 22 on the near-term future of passenger rail in the U.S. However, the meeting was not filmed by C-SPAN. The panelists were Tom Downs; Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris; Frank Wilner from the Surface Transportation Board -- who wrote The Amtrak Story; House Railroads Subcommittee chief counsel Glenn Scammel; CSX vice president Mark Aron; Smithsonian transportation curator Bill Withuhn; NARP Executive Director Ross Capon; Surface Transportation Policy Project Executive Director Hank Dittmar; and travel agent and Region 1 NARP Director Carl Fowler.

The most pointed dialog was about long-distance trains, which Wilner dismissed as "rolling national parks." Scammel echoed that sentiment, while Molitoris -- whose enthusiasm is mainly for high-speed rail -- characteristically did not mention them. Capon offered a brief defense of the long-distance trains, noting the low average income of long-distance coach passengers. Downs also responded, noting the service these trains provide to intermediate markets and that mail and express revenues are growing rapidly. He said those factors could produce subsidy-free long-distance trains in the future.

The confirmation hearing for Rodney Slater will be conducted by the Senate Commerce Committee on January 29. He is the current Federal Highway Administrator who has been nominated to be Secretary of Transportation.

The chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, Linda Morgan, earlier this week hinted pointedly that the Board would provide for freight rail competition in the Northeast -- whether Conrail wants it or not. Now, CSX and Norfolk Southern, both of which want control of Conrail, appear ready to talk. Conrail wants to be taken over by CSX and until now has resisted all notions of breaking a piece of itself off so Norfolk Southern could have some Northeastern access. Now, it is looking more likely that Norfolk Southern will get some sort of route into the New York City area from both Hagerstown, Md., and Buffalo, N.Y.

A national rail strike was averted at the last minute January 22 after a marathon meeting between labor and management. The unions had threatened to strike over changes made last month by the Railroad Retirement Board to the disability pension system.

Amtrak will run two extra trips of the Vermonter this month. Northbound trips will leave Washington on January 25 and 30, at 7:30 pm, arriving St. Albans at about 9:00 am the following days. Southbound trips will leave St. Albans at 8:15 pm, arriving Washington at about 10:00 am. The extra trips were made possible by the booking of two large ski groups, but any passenger may buy a ticket, provided space is left. The trains will have all the same stops and fares as the Vermonter.

Amtrak board members Sylvia de Leon and Roy Neel were reappointed to a one-year term this week by Transportation Secretary Federico Pena. They hold the corporate shareholder slots on the board, which means they represent the interests of the DOT.

The Alaska Railroad reports it had a record profit in 1996, and carried a record number of passenger, 518,000.