Hotline #1000 - September 19, 1997

The Presidential Emergency Board appointed last month by President Clinton will issue its recommendations on September 22 for a labor settlement to resolve the dispute between Amtrak and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes. Typically, both parties reject what the PEB says and Congress imposes a solution. In this case, Congress may attach the Amtrak authorization to any such legislation.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved S.1173, an ISTEA renewal bill, on September 17. It does not violate the budget agreement and gives states the choice to spend money from three funding categories on intercity passenger trains. Those categories are National Highway System, Surface Transportation Program, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality. Floor debate on S.1173 should start in two weeks.

Full committee consideration of the House counterpart bill, H.R.2400, was postponed due to House leadership objections to the bill's spending levels, which violate the budget agreement. After meeting September 16 with Speaker Gingrich, Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) agreed to a week-long delay, but also said he would renew his fight for higher spending levels if a compromise is not reached within a week. H.R.2400 is silent on passenger trains; flexible use of transportation funds will happen only if the Senate prevails on this in a House-Senate conference.

Next week, Shuster likely will name a new Railroads Subcommittee chairman. The Amtrak reauthorization, H.R.2247, could hit the House floor any time after that, although it seems unlikely to come up before ISTEA.

Amtrak asked the Surface Transportation Board on September 15 to determine that Amtrak's carriage of express traffic is necessary to carry out the purposes of the Amtrak Act. The Act directs Amtrak to increase express traffic without providing a specific definition of "express." Amtrak also asked the STB to order Union Pacific to keep handling Amtrak trains and up to eight cars of express per train until the STB can define "express."

The westbound Pere Marquette on the morning of September 15 struck a large truck that had gone around lowered crossing gates at Gary, Ind. The truck driver was killed, and the train derailed, sending 23 people to the hospital.

Schedule changes for October 26 are now being added into Amtrak's Arrow computer system. Some of the changes will be the result of anticipated increases in express traffic, the revenues from which are meant to make the long-distance trains more financially viable. These changes include terminating the California Zephyr at Emeryville, rather than Oakland, and adding time to schedules of several long-distance trains. For example, the Texas Eagle will arrive at San Antonio at 1:30 am. However, the westbound Empire Builder will be 20 minutes faster and leave Chicago 40 minutes later. The eastbound Lake Shore Limited will leave Chicago 2:15 hours later than now, to improve connections from the West.

There will be a program called "Great Train Stations of America" on the Discovery cable TV channel on September 21; check your local listings for the hour. It lasts 60 minutes and includes profiles on stations in Washington, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

Pennsylvania has gotten a $18.7-million grant from the Federal Transit Administration to help fund new diesel-electric, self-propelled trains for the Philadelphia-Harrisburg line. The state will pay another $4.7 million for the seven train sets.

A 4.5-mile extension of the Baltimore light-rail line opened September 9, from Timonium north to Hunt Valley.

The Surface Transportation Policy Project and the Environmental Working Group on September 16 released a report indicating that state highway departments spend only one-fourth the amount that motorists spend repairing damage to their cars caused by bad roads. The groups blamed the states for diverting money to build new roads, while letting the roads they already have fall apart.