Hotline #969 - February 14, 1997

Two important Senate bills will be introduced the last week in February. Senator Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) will introduce his ISTEA reauthorization, generally keeping what we liked in the first ISTEA, and adding flexibility for passenger rail. Senator Roth (R.-Del.) will introduce his half-cent-for-Amtrak bill. Please ask your Senators to co-sponsor that bill. We are particularly interested in seeing these Senators sign on as co-sponsors before the bill is introduced -- Baucus (D.-Mont.), Chafee (R.-R.I.), D'Amato (R.-N.Y.), Moynihan (D.-N.Y.), Lott (R.-Miss.).

The Clinton Administration needs to hear strong reactions to three bad decisions on Amtrak. First, the budget funding levels are too low. Second, the budget has all Amtrak funding -- including operations -- coming from the Highway Trust Fund. Even though that sounds good, in budgetary terms it means Amtrak really isn't funded at all -- just like two years ago. Third, it appears the Administration has decided or is about to decide not to include an Amtrak reauthorization in the Administration's ISTEA bill. Tell your Democratic Senators that they should tell the President he is going the wrong way on Amtrak.

The first Amtrak hearing will be in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on February 25. It will focus on a GAO report that will outline the very serious financial problems Amtrak is facing, which include the possible need to borrow almost $100 million before the end of fiscal 1997.

Hearings in the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee include public witnesses February 25 and 26 and the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak on March 20. Chairman Frank Wolf (R.-Va.) is expected to criticize Amtrak management sharply for its involvement in developing the legislation that included a six-month postponement of the discontinuance of the five "threatened trains."

Amtrak resumed train service between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., yesterday. Both the Mount Baker International and the Empire Builder are running in normal service again.

With the nation's largest airline, American, under a strike threat tonight, Amtrak says it will honor the face value of American tickets, provided space is available on the train an airline traveler wishes to take, and that the ticket is presented at a station staffed by an Amtrak agent.

Recent newspaper reports indicate there may be agreement soon on rail transit access to New York City airports. The Port Authority, which owns the airports, has proposed a light rail line from Kennedy to the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station, with connections to several subway lines. Now, the city may drop its opposition to that plan, in exchange for state funding to extend the subway's N line to La Guardia.

The NARP web site will be one year old tomorrow. An average of 40 people a day have visited it in recent weeks, which is more than double its use last spring and summer. The web site generates two or three requests for membership information per week. More NARP members are getting access to the internet, and since the fall of 1995, NARP has built up a list of e-mail addresses for NARP members that has over 350 people on it now.

NARP Region 2 meets February 22 in Albany, N.Y. The location is Jack's Oyster House at 42 State St., 11:00 am - 4:00 pm. The guest speaker is NARP Director John Heffner, who is a railroad lawyer, and he will talk about the proposed takeover of Conrail by CSX.

Last week, the Newark Star-Ledger revealed that Amtrak workers were aware of problems with the Hackensack River bridge in New Jersey as long as a year ago. But they did not take appropriate action, and face disciplinary action or dismissal, according to Amtrak Northeast. The bridge was involved in the derailment of the Fast Mail on November 23, which injured 36 people.