Hotline #42 - July 10, 1998

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee met July 8 and approved a 1999 transportation funding bill with $555 million for Amtrak -- about 90% of what Amtrak had requested and much better than the zero the Subcommittee long had been threatening. This was a big victory for the Subcommittee's ranking Democrat, Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), who kept delaying the meeting while looking for a solution to the problem.

The full Senate Appropriations Committee will approve the new bill on July 14. Also, the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee will take up a bill of their own on or after July 16.

Thank you, all of you, who have worked hard through this last crisis. But now it is time to turn our attention to the House -- and quickly. Tell your Representatives that the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), must also fund Amtrak in 1999, hopefully at the full, requested level of $621 million.

It is still not clear what the outcome was on the question of getting Amtrak the same definition of capital as transit already has -- in other words, allowing appropriated capital to be spent on maintenance items. That's still important, and should be pushed with House members in any event.

This week, the Senate approved a TEA-21 technical corrections bill that the House had approved earlier. One provision diverts $5 million for low-speed maglev projects from the $60 million in guaranteed maglev funding reported in our June newsletter.

Amtrak will restore the Hoosier State train, effective July 19. It last ran three years ago. It will run tri-weekly between Chicago and Indianapolis on the same schedule as the Cardinal. The result -- in combination with the Cardinal -- is to link these cities daily except Mondays southbound and except Tuesday northbound. The new train will transfer all equipment to and from the Beech Grove shops, eliminating one cause of Cardinal delays. The train will use one reserved Superliner coach, with no food service.

A track washout and freight train derailment June 27 at Port Kent, N.Y., has disrupted Adirondack service between Albany and Montreal until perhaps next week.

The northbound Texas Eagle derailed on July 2 just west of the station in Dallas, Tex. It split a switch at low speed, and there were no serious injuries. However, press reports said there were serious delays in unloading the passengers.

The Illinois DOT signed a $3.75-million contract last week with the Gateway Western Railroad to build a new track along the Mississippi River in East St. Louis. This is expected to cut 20 minutes from the schedule of Amtrak trains running between St. Louis and Chicago. Passenger trains then would use the MacArthur Bridge across the river, instead of the Merchants Bridge.

Due to Conrail track work, Amtrak's Bay State will not run between Springfield and Boston certain days the rest of the month, with alternate transportation provided. The Lake Shore Limited will run subject to delay.

State transportation commissioners approved a project to refurbish the Santa Fe station in downtown Oklahoma City on July 6. The decision was made in light of the proposal to restore Amtrak service to that city next year. Eighty percent of the $1 million approved is from federal sources.

July 8 was the deadline for suggestions to the Surface Transportation Board on how to modify the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger. The July 7 Wall Street Journal had a story on UP's continuing service problems, and another titled, "Bit Railroads Will Post Lower Results As Problems At Union Pacific Linger." Amtrak passengers will not be surprised that the story says, "The rail system in general has been running more slowly than it was just a few years ago." CSX and NS are incurring extra short-term costs related to the Conrail break-up in efforts to avoid UP-type problems.