Hotline #976 - April 4, 1997

The House Appropriations Committee of the Texas Legislature met yesterday without acting on the loan for the Texas Eagle. However, the Committee did not complete its work on the larger emergency supplemental bill that it was working on. Texas citizens have a few more days to contact their legislators. Any hotline callers who have friends or relatives in Texas and want the NARP office to fax or e-mail them more information should contact this office. We sent a letter to our Texas members today.

The 13-member "blue ribbon" Amtrak panel, announced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) on March 20, has been appointed. It is disappointing that there are no passenger representatives on the panel, and that only former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio (D.) strikes us as unabashedly pro-Amtrak. Other names include former Amtrak board member Bob Kiley, who was a frequent critic of long-distance trains; former Reagan DOT official Nancy Connery, who is a frequent critic of the proposed Boston-Portland service; Alan Landes, an official of the Herzog Contracting Corporation, which competes with Amtrak on commuter rail contracts; and Thomas Larson, a former Federal Highway Administrator.

Chairman Frank Wolf (R.-Va.) of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee introduced his bill for an 11-member Amtrak route-closing commission, H.R.1210, on March 20. Co-sponsors are Packard (R.-Cal.) and Delay (R.-Tex.), both on Wolf's subcommittee. The bill's aim is "to provide an equitable process for strengthening the passenger rail service network of Amtrak through the timely closure and realignment of routes with low economic performance." The Wolf commission would assume no operating funding in 2002, and no need for a national rail system. The bill does not discuss ways to increase or improve Amtrak service.

However, the truth is that even Amtrak management is convinced they can't downsize their way to profitability, and that another round of cuts would leave Amtrak too small to command support on Capitol Hill.

Amtrak was the subject of segments on the PBS television "NewsHour" show, and the Monitor Radio morning show, both on March 31. Both programs seemed to make the point that train travel has declined historically just because people began choosing to drive and fly more often. No mention at all was made about the massive government investment in airports and roads, and the resulting decline in private-sector rail services, that did so much to push people off of trains and into planes and cars.

The experimental one-day hold limit for the Capitol Limited has been lifted. All reserved trains now have seven-day limits, except for no limit on Metroliners, a continuing one-day experiment on the Southwest Chief, and a continuing three-day experiment on the Crescent.

The IC-3 Flexliner train will be on display at St. Louis Union Station tomorrow from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm; Kansas City Amtrak station April 6, 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm; and at Jefferson City April 7 at the Missouri DOT garage at 601 W. Main St., 9:00 am to 11:30 am and again from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The Flexliner will run as the Mules between Kansas City and St. Louis this month.

Amtrak President Tom Downs will be one of the witnesses talking about ISTEA renewal at a field hearing in New York City on April 7. The hearing is sponsored by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and will be at 10:00 am at the Customs House in Bowling Green, Manhattan.

NARP Region 10 meets in Denver, Colo., tomorrow at 8:30 am, at the Oxford Hotel, across from Union Terminal. The speaker will be Ed Ellis, Senior Director of Mail and Express Business Development at Amtrak Intercity.

Region 3 meets near Cape May at Rio Grande, N.J., on April 12 at 11:00 am, at the Rio Station Restaurant on US 9 and state route 47. The speaker is NARP President John R. Martin. There will be a tour of the Cape May Seashore Lines after the meeting.