Hotline #63 - December 4, 1998

When reading about the recently released DOT Inspector General's report about Amtrak finances, passenger-rail supporters should not panic just because the media has focused on one negative sentence from the report. That sentence is, "The bottom line is that the March [Amtrak Strategic Business Plan] would not achieve Amtrak's mandated goal of operating self-sufficiency by 2003."

However, the report later says such failure to achieve self-sufficiency is a "worst-case" scenario that the Inspector General does not expect to actually happen. That's because the report recognizes that Amtrak has already made changes to its business plan since March, and that Amtrak will make more changes in the future. Also, the report notes that Amtrak has shown an ability to compensate for missed projections. Additionally, the report makes clear that Amtrak, starting in fiscal 2001, will need more appropriated funds than the Clinton Administration has promised for that period.

The report was mandated by the 1997 Amtrak reauthorization law to assess Amtrak's plans and financial condition and how they affect Amtrak's ability to meet mandates in that law (such as operational self-sufficiency). The Inspector General will do a more up-to-date report next spring.

Despite what the newspapers (and some critics) have focused on, the Inspector General's report is about as positive a report as one is likely to see from an agency whose job is to find faults in the programs it studies. The report approves of Amtrak's actions in areas like bidding practices.

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, at a meeting in Charlotte, N.C., on December 1, announced an expanded designation of the proposed Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor. The corridor was initially defined as Washington-Richmond-Raleigh-Greensboro-Charlotte. Now it is extended in two directions -- Charlotte-Spartanburg-Greenville-Atlanta and Raleigh-Columbia-Savannah-Jacksonville. These routes are eligible for federal funds to enhance highway grade crossing safety, to be matched with state and local funding.

The California Transportation Commission, in a unanimous vote on December 2, approved $38 million to improve the former Southern Pacific line between Sacramento and Stockton, via Lodi. However, when the fifth San Joaquin starts running early next year, it will have a temporary routing over the former Western Pacific line that skips Lodi. Sometime in mid-2000, after the track work is done, the train will be rerouted.

A golden spike was driven at Willow Creek, Ind., on November 20, marking the completion of a $220-million capacity expansion project along the CSX mainline between Chicago and Greenwich, O. The project was part of a larger program related to CSX's absorption of part of Conrail. This is the route of Amtrak's Three Rivers, whose operation should improve.

A wire story earlier last week suggested that the incoming administration in Florida might seek to change the existing agreements between FOX and the state. A spokesperson for Gov.-elect Jeb Bush (R.) said Bush thinks taxpayers are "footing too much" of the cost. Bush reportedly wants unspecified parts of the existing agreement re-examined.

Union Pacific and the City of Reno on November 16 announced agreement on funding for a project to place 2.2 miles of the former Southern Pacific mainline into a below-grade trench through the casino district of downtown Reno, subject to the city's successful issuance of bonds. The city had been unhappy that the merger between the UP and SP allowed more trains through downtown.