Hotline #87 - May 21, 1999

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up its fiscal 2000 funding bill as early as May 25. The full Appropriations Committee may act May 27. The House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee may act on a bill of its own May 27. Now is the time to ask your legislators to push for Amtrak's $571 million and its right to spend that money on both maintenance of way and of equipment.

Appropriations leaders don't think the government can be funded without lifting the severe budget caps placed on federal spending two years ago. Appropriators plan to pass most bills -- including transportation -- early, without big funding cuts. This would leave other, huge, "must-pass" bills to the end of the process. Then -- many believe -- raising the caps would be seen as much more acceptable than cutting other things like Social Security payments.

Today there was a ceremony in Austin, Tex., in which Amtrak paid back the loan it got from the State of Texas in 1997 to rescue the Texas Eagle. The $5.6 million repayment is a few months early.

President Clinton visited the Farley Building in New York on May 19 to take part in a ceremony launching its redevelopment into a new Penn Station, and to ask Congress to appropriate another $60 million for it over the next three years. Also on hand were DOT Secretary Rodney Slater, Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and former Sen. Al D'Amato. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, however, boycotted the event, fearing that the city would have to cover possible cost overruns. The President acknowledged that the new station cannot fully replace the majesty of the old station, which was torn down 35 years ago. But he said the new design would "take the best elements of the past and create a remarkable station for the future." He added, "We can honor one of the first great buildings of the 20th century and create the first great public building of the 21st century."

The Mills Corporation, a big real estate developer, has made a proposal for downtown Sacramento that would involve turning the current station into a restaurant. The railroad would be moved 100 yards north and a new station built.

Amtrak is restoring complimentary newspapers and soft drinks to its Business Class service on NortheastDirect trains a week after these amenities were removed.

To facilitate electrification work, Amtrak's Shore Line trains and certain MBTA commuter trains will use the Dorchester Branch and bypass Boston Back Bay station, through September. Shuttle trains to Back Bay will connect with certain detoured MBTA trains at South Station.

The Tri-Rail commuter line has gotten a small portion of the $110 million that Gov. Jeb Bush (R.) took away from the FOX high-speed project. Tri-Rail will use the $2.8 million it got to expedite a double-tracking project, which will benefit some Amtrak trains. The remaining money has gone to many local, non-rail projects favored by state legislators.

The American Public Transit Association announced on May 19 the release of an updated "Manual of Standards and Recommended Practices for Passenger Rail Equipment." The manual conforms with Federal Railroad Administration regulations released last week, and expands on some of them. APTA said that all commuter railroads in the U.S. and Amtrak have agreed to comply voluntarily with the new standards manual.

Sen. John Chafee (R.-R.I.) has introduced S.1056, a bill to establish a federal weight-distance tax on trucks. This would replace the truck sales and tire taxes, and cut the diesel fuel tax rate to the 18-cent-a-gallon level everyone else pays. Chafee's plan would discourage truckers from pressing for still bigger trucks because the tax would remove the attractiveness of running such trucks.

Track work began in Portland, Me., May 19, with an estimate now for start-up of passenger train service to Boston for summer 2000.