Hotline #13 - December 19, 1997

A United Transportation Union offer to hold new contract talks with Amtrak West apparently relates to issues specific to Amtrak's West Coast commuter and other services. The December issue of Progressive Railroading reports that UTU International Assistant Vice President Byron Boyd recently said he'd like to negotiate with individual Amtrak business units rather than with Amtrak as a whole.

This week, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R.) signed into law the requirement that at least two crew members be on board before a train may operate in the state. Because of a string of high-profile accidents in Wisconsin, Thompson said the requirement is needed.

The head of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, Julian Burke, says the Red Line subway to North Hollywood should be finished, but that all other rail projects should be stopped indefinitely, according to the New York Times (December 12). He cited financial conditions, as well as a court order to increase bus service to low-income neighborhoods. However, the article also quoted a local official with the Surface Transportation Policy Project, who said stopping rail projects would only encourage people to drive more. Burke's announcement is particularly bad news if it means no East Los Angeles extension of the Red Line. Such an extension would serve a heavily transit-dependent, minority market and dramatically improve Red Line ridership.

Washington Metro rail system handles an average 55% of those who have attended sports events or concerts at Washington's new, downtown MCI Center, according to today's Washington Post. The new arena opened this month and hosts the Washington Wizards basketball and Washington Capitals hockey teams. Overall, Metro revenue and ridership are up 12% after years of stagnation and are projected to grow modestly the next 18 months. The story says Metro General Manager Richard White released a budget that holds the line on fares over the next 18 months, but defers $80 million in maintenance. It postpones for one year the overhaul of 466 Breda rail cars and plans to improve station lighting would be dropped. Sump pumps that keep water from collecting in low areas would go unattended.

CSX and Norfolk Southern filed 3,600 pages of testimony with the Surface Transportation Board on December 15 to rebut critics who don't like the railroads' Conrail acquisition plan. The companies stated that their plan has overwhelming support, and will not result in a service meltdown such as experienced in the west with Union Pacific. Rip Watson of the Journal of Commerce said today that the initial merger application had nearly 15,000 pages. He says this week's filing has an appendix as large as the entire merger application filed by Burlington Northern and Santa Fe three years ago.

Union Pacific workers continue to find bombs from the Vietnam War era at the large, former Southern Pacific yard at Roseville, Cal. A munitions train had exploded there in 1973, but a total of 11 unexploded bombs from that incident have been found since October 7 of this year, including the latest one on December 15.

A project to build an overhead, 15-mile train system in Bangkok, Thailand, got a green light yesterday when the World Bank's investment arm, the International Finance Corporation, and other lenders released funds for the project. The $1.1-billion project is scheduled for commercial operation by late 1999. Other mass transit plans have been shelved because of the nation's financial crisis.