Hotline #19 - January 30, 1998

The President's 1999 budget will be released on February 2, though parts of it may leak to the media before that. We expect to update this message late that day.

The North America Rail Pass is now on sale. It is good for 30 days' travel on both Amtrak and VIA Rail Canada. For travel through May 31, it costs $450; then through October it costs $645.

Amtrak will impose a higher penalty for changing a reservation or getting a refund for tickets bought on or after February 3. The charge will go from $20 to $30. The charge for children's tickets will be $15. Tickets bought before the deadline can get one change at the old rate. The original $20 fee was imposed two years ago, after NARP complained about a short-lived non-refundability rule. NARP has told Amtrak that $30 is not reasonable because Amtrak's limited inventory forces passengers to book so far in advance, making changes unavoidable in many cases.

The fourth Texas Eagle frequency starts February 6 from Chicago. There will be special banner breakings on February 7 upon the train's arrival at Little Rock, Texarkana, Marshall, Longview, Mineola, Dallas, and Fort Worth.

After a minor derailment involving an Amtrak material handing car on the Capitol Limited in Toledo on January 4, the 1400-series version of these cars has been mostly banned by Conrail, BNSF, CSX, and Norfolk Southern. Conrail said the incident was due to mechanical failure in one of the trucks. But the Journal of Commerce says Amtrak disputes that. Amtrak has withdrawn the cars and is performing safety inspections on them. Amtrak has 72 of these cars, which are about ten years old. The four railroads have allowed some of the cars back into service, and Amtrak says the disruption has not hurt revenues.

The boxcars acquired by Amtrak last year have had a problem of a different sort. The same four railroads have imposed speed restrictions on such cars traveling empty on Amtrak trains because they have questions about the vertical stability of them in operation. Amtrak has been using ballast to weigh the cars down wherever they must be deadheaded.

Greyhound has given $100,000 to the Great American Station Foundation, to be put toward renovating old train stations into intermodal facilities.

The extension of one daily frequency on the Capitol Corridor from Roseville to Colfax, Cal., happened on January 26, as planned.

The Flexliner, which is the self-propelled diesel-car train built by ADtranz, is back on the road, touring North Carolina. There was a tour kick-off today in Winston-Salem, and there will be a public display there tomorrow from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. On February 1 it is in Cary, February 2 in Fayetteville, February 3 in Salisbury, February 4 in Asheville, February 6 in Charlotte and Mooresville, and February 7 in Charlotte.

Amtrak is installing a new braking system for its Auto Train equipment. By late spring, eight locomotives, 64 auto carriers, and 43 passenger cars will get an electronic air brake system that allows the brakes in each car to be set simultaneously, with the aim of eliminating the slacking action common on long trains. The brakes were manufactured by TSM of Kansas City, which is a subsidiary of Rockwell.

The proposed high-speed line from London to the Channel Tunnel is in financial crisis. The previous Conservative government said it would have to be built all with private funding, as was the tunnel itself -- though the tunnel also has bounced from one financial crisis to the next. Now, the private company in charge of building the new link says it needs $2 billion in government funding to proceed, which the Labor government has turned down.