Hotline #29 - April 10, 1998

Last week we named the 18 members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee named to the ISTEA conference committee, as well as the 18 Senators making up the entire Environment and Public Works Committee. In addition, the following 16 Senators have been named -- Republicans Stevens (Alaska), Shelby (Ala.), McCain (Ariz.), Domenici (N.Mex.), Hatch (Utah), Roth (Del.), Grassley (Ia.), D'Amato (N.Y.), Nickles (Okla.), Gramm (Tex.). Also, Democrats Dodd (Conn.), Sarbanes (Md.), Hollings (S.C.), Murray (Wash.), Breaux (La.), Conrad (N.Dak.).

Staffers of the conferees began meeting this week. They will meet again in the coming week, though the actual conferees won't meet until the week of April 20. Now is the time to tell your Representative and Senators to keep state flexibility for passenger trains in the ISTEA bill. Now is the time to write supportive letters-to-the-editor.

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater rode Amtrak's Carolinian on April 6 from Raleigh to Charlotte, N.C. His trip was part of a tour of Southeastern states, and this part was to highlight efforts to close grade crossings and prepare an existing rail line for high-speed service.

In a ceremony in Portland yesterday, Amtrak Northeast President Stan Bagley and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R.) gave the State of Maine the first half of the $23 million in Taxpayer Relief Act money that Maine gets because it has no Amtrak service. Part of it will be used to extend the planned Portland service to Freeport and Brunswick. Because a full construction season is needed, the service may not start until next year. Ironically, the state has an incentive not to start until then -- it would get more TRA money in 1999 for not having Amtrak service.

Amtrak is being sued by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and by eight black employees, a former employee, and a rejected applicant, all of whom are accusing Amtrak of racial harassment and discrimination. They say Amtrak's Northeast Corridor engineering department hires too few black workers, denies them promotions, and disciplines them more harshly. Amtrak has denied the charges. The suit is in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.

As part of a plan to mitigate congestion during a ten-year project to rebuild I-71 between Cleveland and Columbus, the Ohio DOT is considering passenger trains as an option. However, the Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers points out that three or four daily round trips are needed to provide a more practical alternative than the two trips proposed by the state. Public comment meetings have begun in the corridor, and they are listed on the events page of the NARP web site.

The Hartford, Conn., council of governments and City Council both voted, during March, against Hartford light rail, effectively killing a project that has been planned for years. The line would have run to Hartford's airport. The Hartford Courant blamed the "highway-obsessed" Connecticut DOT for sinking the project.

Cincinnati's regional council of governments has approved a two-year study of a light-rail line from the main airport in Kentucky northeast through the city to King's Island amusement park. When the study is done, voters will decide whether it is built. However, the area's local congressmen are saying they do not support more funding to do more studies, and that is giving light-rail enemies an opportunity to become more vocal.

A consulting firm has told a city committee in Fort Worth, Tex., that an urban streetcar line could be built for about $20 million, and could be financed through federal grants.