Hotline #108 - October 15, 1999

President Clinton signed the fiscal 2000 transportation appropriations bill into law on October 9. The President had been getting loud protests over the bill from leading environmental groups, because the bill blocked further action to change existing corporate average fuel economy standards, also known as "CAFE" standards. This language has been in the past few appropriations laws. Congress could yet do an across-the-board percentage cut that hits most programs, including those whose funding bills have been enacted, but President Clinton has implied he would veto such a measure.

The Amtrak Reform Council had a two-day meeting in Chicago this week. Council Vice Chairman Paul Weyrich, in discussing the delay in delivery of Amtrak's high-speed trains, suggested postponing Amtrak's statutory deadline for operational self-sufficiency by a year. He also discussed extending the term of the Council by a year. Mark Yachmetz, representing the administration, said OMB would have to approve this for the administration to support it. Clarence Monin, representing labor, said he would have to consult with his people, since the proposal would extend the life of an organization whose very existence labor opposes. The Council will discuss this further at its next business meeting, which may be held in conjunction with the planned November 8 meeting in Dallas.

Also in Chicago, the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative states told the Council that they want to design the service and control its costs, since they don't like the "high" overhead payments some of them now make to Amtrak. States would negotiate a train operating contract with Amtrak, but would themselves provide the train sets and the infrastructure improvements. The states would contract out food services and let cities provide the stations.

The Senate passed its version of a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill earlier this month. The House version, of course, under the leadership of Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.), contains a budget firewall for the aviation trust fund. If enacted, such a firewall would make it even more difficult to keep funding Amtrak. House and Senate conferees are far apart and it is unclear if they can finish their work this session. The key players are Senate Budget Chairman Domenici, who opposes firewalls, and Shuster.

The split of the Lake Shore Limited into two separate New York and Boston trains is on indefinite hold. Apparently, Amtrak, CSX, and UPS could not reach agreement on the change. The present Lake Shore is completely open for booking of future sales.

Amtrak has been test-running a new Acela high-speed train on newly electrified segments of the Northeast Corridor in Rhode Island this week. The train was brought up to 168 mph, which Amtrak said in an October 12 USA Today article was a North American speed record for a passenger train on regular track. The top test speed of the German ICE train when it visited the Northeast Corridor was 162 mph, which was attained twice in July 1993 at Princeton Junction, N.J.

The Vermont transportation secretary announced this week that the Ethan Allen Connection between Burlington and Rutland would not run beyond the scheduled end of its trial run, which is October 31. Ridership had risen lately, but the trip is still an hour slower than driving. The state will use information gained here to study future service.

The office of Sen. Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) announced that Amtrak would begin stopping the City of New Orleans at Marks, Miss., by the end of the year. Marks is in the middle of a 124-mile, non-stop stretch of the route between Memphis and Greenwood. It is 18 miles east of Clarksdale, which is a big town in the Delta region, and only 20 miles west of Batesville, a town that lost train service when the City of New Orleans was rerouted in 1995. The city and county are building a new station.

The NARP board of directors meets in Toronto October 22 and 23. We will try to bring you the hotline as usual on October 22, but it might be delayed from the normal late-afternoon changeover time.