Hotline #65 - December 18, 1998

A tri-state legislative task force to promote passenger train service in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas took another step forward this week when a special Rail Transportation Committee of the Kansas Legislature approved a motion to introduce a resolution in the regular 1999 session in favor of such a task force. The Kansas effort is being spearheaded by State Rep. Ed McKechnie of Pittsburg, which is in southeastern Kansas on a possible route between Kansas Cit and Tulsa. Amtrak Intercity has said it welcomes the formation of such a task force. A study commissioned by Amtrak on Oklahoma service in general should be ready in about a month.

Amtrak, state, and local officials celebrated the reopening of the renovated train station in Ocala, Fla., on December 11. The station was built in 1917 as a Union Station for the former Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads. It is now an intermodal station that includes Greyhound and local transit buses, as well as Ocala Police Department mounties and bike police. The $2-million project was funded from a variety of state, local, and federal sources. The Ocala station is served by Amtrak's Silver Palm.

VIA Rail Canada has hired a British company, Hambros Bank, to advise it on the possible sale of stock to the public in order to raise money to allow VIA to improve service, according to wire stories earlier in the month. Transport Canada also said that VIA could be split into regional, franchised operations. These likely would be the Ontario and Quebec corridor, plus Atlantic Canada and the West. However, it is not clear who would buy stock in VIA or take over a franchise if there did not continue to be government money involved. After all, government support for rail in Britain doubled after the national railway was split into private franchises there. VIA received $110 million last year from the Canadian government.

Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R.-N.J.) was on hand on November 30 for the removal of the last HOV sign from I-287 in that state. The former HOV lanes on that highway highlight the problem that many critics see with HOV lanes that are built as new, rather than built from existing lanes -- as the normal lanes fill up, politicians apply pressure to lift the special status of the HOV lane. In other words, new highway capacity gets built, disguised temporarily as mass-transit, HOV lanes. In New Jersey's case, Whitman was able to use here state's influential Congressional delegation to get an exemption that forgives New Jersey from the obligation of repaying the federal government for federal funds that were spent on the construction of the HOV lane. All in all, an unpretty spectacle that hurts the environment and promotes sprawl.

The Tri-Rail commuter service in south Florida will have its tenth anniversary in January. It plans and ambitious $500,000 marketing campaign and it will start the next phase of its double-tracking project. By the time double-tracking is completed in 2004, Tri-Rail will have spent $338 million on the project. The marketing campaign expands on efforts that began last fall that included a monthly newsletter for riders and the promotion of the train as a way to get to the region's three international airports. There will also be a "Friends Ride Free" campaign.

Today was the inaugural run of the extended Cape May Seashore Lines service into downtown Cape May, N.J. However, more work on the bridge over the Cape May Canal still needs to be done, and so regular service will not begin until April.