Hotline #31 - April 24, 1998

House and Senate conferees began meeting this week to talk about the differences between the two ISTEA renewal bills -- H.R.2400 from the House and S.1173 from the Senate. These talks are expected to last into May, but any topic can come up at any time from now on. This includes Senate language letting states choose to invest federal money in passenger rail. So keep the pressure up on your Members of Congress.

The NARP Board of Directors has been meeting in Washington the last half of this week. Last night, at the annual NARP reception, three Golden Spike Awards were presented. One each went to Sen. John Chafee (R.-R.I.) and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D.-N.Y.), for their years of work for a balanced transportation system in this country. In particular, the two Senators have worked to make sure that intercity passenger rail be recognized legally as a form of surface transportation at the federal level. Their ISTEA renewal bill, S.1173, would do that, though the House bill, H.R.2400, does not.

The third Golden Spike went to long-time Amtrak government affairs officer Tim Gillespie, who left his post March 31 to begin consulting on his own.

Finally, at the reception, there was a presentation of the annual Dr. Gary Burch Memorial Safety Award. This year it went to Patrick Corcoran, who is a locomotive engineer on the Metra line in Chicago formerly operated by the Chicago & North Western; now Union Pacific. The award is named for a passenger in the 1991 Silver Star accident in South Carolina and is administered by NARP and by Dr. Burch's wife, Bette Burch. Corcoran was recognized for his many efforts, including teaching safe methods of evacuating trains to local police and fire departments.

This morning, Amtrak Acting President George Warrington told the group that he believes that the Administration's budget proposals for the coming years are adequate to get Amtrak back to financial health. He said he is convinced that the Northeast Corridor high-speed program will generate revenues that can be used to support the whole system. He explained that in the next 12-18 months, Amtrak will be developing service standards and a market-based planning process aimed at increasing market share in the routes and corridors Amtrak serves.

Today's luncheon speaker was Jed Dodd, the General Chairman of the Pennsylvania Federation of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes. That section of the BMWE represents some Amtrak, Conrail, and CSX employees in the Northeast and part of the Midwest. Dodd was instrumental in negotiating the labor agreement between the BMWE and Amtrak last fall.

Former Amtrak President Tom Downs has accepted a non-paying position as head of an agency to revitalize downtown Washington, D.C. Downs had remained a Washington resident since leaving his Amtrak post last December. Earlier in his career, he held several posts in city government in Washington, including as Director of Public Works.

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the opening of the first new-start, modern light-rail line in North America. The light rail service operated by Edmonton Transit in Canada began operations on April 23, 1978.