Hotline #991 - July 18, 1997

At long last, acting on NARP's year-old suggestion, Amtrak is extending operation of the Sunset Limited to Orlando, starting with the July 27 departure from Los Angeles and the July 31 departure from Florida.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, chaired by Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.), marked up its DOT bill on July 15. Shelby approved $201 million for operations, the same as the House committee has approved and essentially the same as President Clinton requested, though $44 million short of Amtrak's request. Shelby had planned to provide only $108 million, but relented after Senators Lautenberg, Specter, and others made clear their support for the higher number.

Shelby provided $82 million for mandatory retirement payments, the same as the House committee, but $60 million less than both Amtrak and the Administration requested. Shelby held a hearing yesterday about mandatory payments, which are the difference between the total amount Amtrak pays for Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment and the total burden that Amtrak employees represent to those systems. Shelby heard testimony from the Railroad Retirement Board, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Transportation, and Amtrak. All witnesses agreed that the law requires Amtrak to pay the full $142 million and that there was no validity to charges some have made that Amtrak has been "double-dipping."

It seems likely that, if Lautenberg can find the needed offsets, he will offer an amendment when the full committee marks up the bill on July 22, to add some or all of the $60 million. All members of the full Senate Appropriations Committee need to hear support for this effort. The Capitol switchboard gets you to all offices, 202/224-3121.

For capital investment, Shelby provided $273 million for the Northeast Corridor and zero for regular capital. The committee's report notes that the Amtrak provision in the tax bill would provide $641 million for regular capital. The problem is that the tax bill is not yet a done deal and is likely to condition availability of its funds on enactment of a reform authorization bill.

Shelby has little use for the nationwide Amtrak system. His committee report is not even accurate when it states, "the Northeast corridor is the only part of Amtrak where a meaningful percentage of total passenger trips are taken by train." His bill, like the House bill, increases highway spending 11% -- more than $2 billion. Transit would rise slightly from this year's $4.4 billion to $4.5 billion, rather than the House's $4.8 billion.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) is about to introduce an Amtrak reform bill similar to the one the House approved two years ago. With brighter prospects this year in the Senate, a reform bill now seems like a real possibility, though the trial lawyers still could present a problem.

Today's Washington Post, reporting on last week's sideswipe derailment in Arlington, Va., says a CSX supervisor in Richmond saw that the trailer had shifted. He inspected it, inside and out, and decided it was safe. A passing train in Fredericksburg and another a few miles south of the derailment both radioed warnings to the CSX train that the trailer was leaning, but the CSX crew replied that company managers had decided that the trailer was not a hazard. Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris met July 12 with CSX Chairman John Snow to discuss the wreck.

Meanwhile, because the wreck ripped up the RO interlocking just west of the Potomac River, CSX has moved up a project to completely rebuild the interlocking. Therefore, this is happening at the same time as 53 miles of track work further south on the line to Richmond. Amtrak trains are taking heavy delays here and VRE trains are losing about 15 minutes at the wreck site.