Hotline #100 - August 20, 1999

Be sure that you have thanked your Senators who are co-sponsors of S.1144, the bill that would give states the flexibility to spend some federal TEA-21 funds on intercity passenger rail. The continuing support of these Senators will be important to passing the bill when the Senate returns in September.

For the first time, a section of the Northeast Corridor electrification was powered up on August 18. A substation at Warwick, R.I., was activated and is now providing power to a 27-mile stretch of catenary in the immediate vicinity. This segment is now available for testing, including by new equipment.

A new state-supported train will begin running between Bellingham and Seattle, Wash., on September 2. It will be part of the Cascade Talgo service, and run southbound in the morning and northbound in the evening -- the opposite of the train on that route now. It will make connections in Seattle for Portland. Washington and Amtrak are negotiating with British Columbia right now to extend the train all the way to Vancouver.

Chairman Bud Shuster of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on August 3 introduced H.R.2681, the "Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1999." It would codify several things Amtrak already does after a train accident. It would also make the National Transportation Safety Board the point of contact for families or others wanting information about passengers right after an accident, and prohibit lawyers from contacting families for 45 days after an accident.

Union Pacific is talking to the City of Boise, Ida., Ada County, and Boise Locomotive about selling them 18 miles of former main line for $2.6 million. UP is trying to abandon part of Amtrak's former Pioneer route southeast of downtown Boise. If this line is abandoned, and if the Pioneer is ever restored, such a new train would have to stop far outside of the City of Boise.

The last day of operation for the Thruway bus service between Philadelphia, Bethlehem, and Allentown will be September 5. The bus company with that contract is ending all its service on that route.

Amtrak moved into a temporary station in Salt Lake City on August 7, as part of a downtown track consolidation project. The new site where Amtrak is now will be made into an intermodal facility.

Amtrak began offering a trial coffee service on weekday Hiawatha trains that leave Milwaukee at 6:20 am and 8:00 am, on August 16. The coffee is located at self-service areas on the train. Passengers will be able to fill out surveys about this and other services during the 90-day trial. This is a good step in the right direction, though NARP has been telling Amtrak for years to do something about the Hiawathas, which haven't had a lounge car since 1981. More recent attempts to get a private-sector refreshment cart on these trains have gone nowhere.

The Indiana State Budget Committee last week approved a plan by the Transpo transit agency to move the South Bend Amtrak station downtown, using $1.5 million in state funds.

The former Santa Fe station in Emporia, Kans., that Amtrak used until two years ago burned on August 9, and is described as a total loss.

The 10% discount for NARP members for most Amtrak travel is now available to those who book tickets on-line on the Amtrak web site.