Hotline #119 - December 30, 1999

As the Year 2000 approaches, Amtrak, in a December 29 release, said, "Amtrak customers will usher in the new millennium in style with on-board celebrations ... All 49 regularly scheduled trains will stop as briefly as possible in the nearest convenient station or location just prior to midnight before resuming operations ... On-board celebrations will include complimentary food and beverages and souvenir train whistles specially crafted for the event ... In the Northeast Corridor ... trains will be held in stations an average of 30 minutes while systems are validated. [Elsewhere], trains are expected to stop in most instances between a few minutes to two hours. If the length of a delay becomes unacceptable, a contingency plan would be implemented with buses on standby."

At the direction of Canadian Transport Minister David Collenette, who responded to complaints from unhappy Members of Parliament, VIA Rail scrapped its planned January 16 timetable changes, except that (happily) an overnight Montreal-Toronto train will begin operating (daily except Saturday nights), with 11:30 pm departures from both cities and with Montreal arrival at 8:00 am; Toronto 8:20 am. There are good connections with Maple Leaf, Adirondack, Canadian, London-Windsor, Quebec westbound. There is no Chicago connection but VIA canceled plans to move the westbound Monday-Saturday International departure from 7:50 am to 6:30 am -- disregard the relevant paragraph in our January newsletter, which is to be mailed January 3.

Sens. Lincoln Chafee (R.-R.I.) and Richard Durbin (D.-Ill.) sent a December 23 "Dear Colleague" letter seeking signatures for a letter asking President Clinton to include in his fiscal 2001 budget the full authorization level of $989 million for Amtrak. (Twenty-six governors sent such a letter on November 17). To sign, Senators should contact [Republicans] John Seggerman (Chafee's office, 224-2921) or [Democrats] Pat Souders (Durbin's office, 224-7029). Please ask your Senators to sign!

A new report -- "Estimating Important Transportation-Related Regional Economic Relationships in Bexar County, Texas" [San Antonio] -- says "each 1% of personal trips shifted from automobile to public transit is estimated to add 226 regional jobs and $2.9 million in regional value added. Each million dollars shifted from automobile to public transit expenditures generates nearly $900,000 in regional income and 53.8 jobs. This reflects the fact that automobile expenditures provide less economic development and employment than most other consumer expenditures." This and other helpful reports are posted at the web site of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute.

Norfolk Southern Senior Vice President James W. McClellan, in a December 23 letter to NARP, responding to our complaint filed with the Surface Transportation Board (STB), said NS "on-time performance for Amtrak has improved from a low of 55.7% in October to 73.6% in November and further improved to 82.0% in December (though the 19th). There are some positive notes from this experience. First, the Northern Region has adequate capacity to handle these Amtrak trains on time. Second, NS retains its commitment to run Amtrak trains on time; the performance of Amtrak trains on the 'old' NS underscores this fact. Third, we have increased our focus on passenger train performance. Amtrak performance is subject to every daily regional operational review by our general managers. We believe that we are well on the way to restoring the kind of service that our customers expect from NS and that Amtrak and others will see continued improvement in the coming months."

Unfortunately, CSX plays a major role in all Amtrak's Chicago-East Coast runs (except the inconveniently scheduled Pennsylvanian); unacceptable on-time performance will continue until CSX can report similar improvements.

Canadian National and BNSF announced a merger on December 22, but said they would maintain their Montreal and Fort Worth headquarters. No centralized dispatching is planned, but the two will coordinate operations. CN President Paul Tellier said locomotives will continue to be painted in current colors because "we have to be sensitive to the regional dimensions of this." National Industrial Transportation League Chairman Edward M. Emmett said, "Shippers are not going to be happy. I defy them to find one shipper who said, 'Why don't you two combine?' It just doesn't make any sense."

STB Chairman Linda Morgan's immediate reaction included, "I am surprised by the timing of this proposal. Railroads, together with their customers and employees, have not yet fully adjusted to recent mergers, and this proposal may represent the beginning of another round of major rail mergers." In a December 28 release on the STB's December 27 Decision and Notice, the STB says a formal application is expected between March and June, 2000. "The notice indicates that the applicants will be expected to include in their application evidence on the 'cumulative impacts and crossover effects' that are likely to occur in the wake of the proposed transaction," including likely future mergers. Union Pacific called the STB's decision "reasonable. It is fair to ask the question whether or not this proposed single transaction will, in fact, trigger a second round of mergers. Given the importance of the rail sector to the health of the economy, the Board is to be commended for looking at the future of the rail industry and how best to serve its customers in the long run." The Federal Railroad Administrator's December 22 statement focused primarily on safety.

Western Europe -- especially France -- was hit by severe storms December 26 and 28, with unpredicted, record-breaking winds (95 mph in Paris, 120 mph in parts of Switzerland) and over 100 deaths (at least 66 in France). All transport was disrupted. The December 27 New York Times reported that seven of Paris' 14 subway lines and most commuter rail services were out. French Railways' web site has a detailed December 29 notice on service recovery (in French). Today's Times says "most of [France's] airports were back in working order today, but train service remained at about 80%. The head of the national railroad, Louis Gallois, said he expected service to be virtually back to normal by the weekend. The bill for damages, he said, would probably come to about $83.3 million."