Hotline #723 - September 9, 2011

A House appropriations subcommittee yesterday approved a Fiscal Year 2012 funding bill that zeroes-out high-speed rail, slashes Amtrak funding by $357 million—with a 60 percent reduction for operations—and prohibits Amtrak from using federal dollars to fund operating expenses for state-supported routes, endangering short-corridor service in 15 states.

The House Republicans’ transportation and housing appropriations bill for the coming year passed the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation & Housing yesterday evening on a voice vote.

The bill provides $1.1 billion for Amtrak, or just half of the $2.2 billion requested by Amtrak to keep their system in good running order and prepare for increasing ridership.  There is $899 million for Amtrak capital and debt servicing, just a little over half of Amtrak’s $1.6 billion request ($1.28 billion for capital, $50 million for the NEC Gateway project, and $271 million for debt service).  Absolutely crushing is the cut to Amtrak’s operating grant—slashed 60% to $227 million, compared with $563 million this year and last year.

In a release NARP distributed today, NARP President Ross Capon said, “Denying Americans the freedom to choose train travel makes no sense in a world of high gasoline prices and overcrowded highways and airports.  It is equally senseless in a job-starved economy to take jobs away from the public and private sector workers who build, operate and maintain trains—and all forms of transportation.  Amtrak President Joe Boardman was correct yesterday in observing, ‘Amtrak is part of the solution, not the problem.’”

As noted below, the bill prohibits use of federal funds to support short-distance corridors.  Thus, the bill overrides ongoing negotiations among states and Amtrak aimed at complying with Amtrak’s 2008 reauthorization law—and overrides that law’s October 2013 target date for “equal treatment” of all states as to what they must pay for short corridors.

Quoting NARP’s release: “But the bill really would kill all of Amtrak because loss of the short corridors would cut revenues and balloon costs for Northeast Corridor and national network (overnight) trains.  Revenues from connecting passengers disenfranchised by loss of those corridors would disappear.  Overhead costs—such as for station facilities and maintenance back shops—which now are shared among routes would be dumped on the surviving trains.  For example, the Texas Eagle would become the sole user of the St. Louis and Fort Worth terminals and six Illinois stations.  And Amtrak’s Chicago terminal costs would be borne solely by eight overnight trains.”

Additionally, funding for the High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail (HSRIP) Program is zeroed-out in the draft budget.  Thirty-nine states have applied for HSIPR grants, and the program promised to improve (and introduce) modern passenger trains for hundreds of millions of Americans.  This blow to the program comes just as California is set to begin work on a Los Angeles to San Francisco high-speed corridor.

Amtrak Responds to Attack on State-Supported Trains

In light of the above-referenced prohibition on funding short corridors, Amtrak issued a press release headed, House Republican Budget Plan Will Eliminate All State-Supported Amtrak Service For a list of these corridors, go to page three of the July 12 release, “Amtrak to exceed 30 million passengers…” [PDF] the short corridors are listed under the heading “State Supported and Other Short Distance Corridors.”

“The House Republican plan is shortsighted and is the wrong policy for America,” said Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman. “It will result in the loss of jobs and reverses significant progress made to use passenger rail to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.”

According to the statement released by Amtrak, the prohibition on using federal funds for state-supported service endangers nearly 150 weekday state-supported trains, affecting nine million passengers annually.  Fifteen states would be directly affected—California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.  Some of the trains also serve Indiana, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  For the trains to keep running, state governments would have to convene by the time of enactment and come up with money for the operations shortfall—far from certain with states experiencing budget contractions across the nation.

“The GOP plan penalizes states that have made investments in passenger rail, some of which have contributed toward costs for nearly 40 years,” said Amtrak board chairman Tom Carper. “It kills an engine of local and regional economic growth much needed today, harms the future economic vitality of the nation and is unnecessary.”

Subcommittee Action

Democrats reacted strongly to the transportation funding levels, which were dire for programs across the board.  The bill would slash funding to the Federal Highway program by $14 billion compared to current levels—a product of declining gasoline tax receipts, undercut in recent years by decreases in miles driven by Americans and increases in automotive fuel efficiency.

“This bill willfully cuts hundreds of thousands of highway, transit and housing construction jobs,” said subcommittee Ranking Member John Olver (D-MA).  “Now is not the time to be laying off… construction workers. They ought to be earning a paycheck and using their skills to improve our roads, bridges and transit system.”

While subcommittee mark-ups generally do not include the offering of amendments, such was the displeasure at the funding levels that Members did not wait until the full committee markup to propose amendments to the bill, with over 20 modification offered by subcommittee members.

Rep. David Price (D-NC) offered an amendment to restore $1 billion in funding for the high-speed rail program, which was defeated.

Nor was the disapproval divided cleanly across party lines.  Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH)—a longtime passenger train advocate and NARP Golden Spike winner—joined his colleague from North Carolina in attempting to restore funding for high-speed rail.  LaTourette, however, sought a $1 million “placeholder”, which he said would let the House and Senate at a later date agree on an appropriate allocation.  But that also failed.

The next steps will take place at the full Appropriations Committee mark-up for which a date has not yet been set.

Take a minute and let your Representative know you don’t want to see Amtrak shut down!


President Barack Obama unveiled a jobs program that will include $60 billion for investments in transportation at a speech before a joint session of Congress yesterday evening.

The President’s American Jobs Act was presented in outline form only.  While it is heavily weighted towards tax reductions and tax credits—about 60 percent of the plan’s cost—there will be $50 billion in immediate investments for “highways, transit, rail and aviation.”  The Administration is also proposing a $10 billion National Infrastructure Bank, geared towards generating Public-Private Partnerships for the construction of infrastructure; transportation projects would be eligible for the loans.

“Our highways are clogged with traffic. Our skies are the most congested in the world. This is inexcusable. Building a world-class transportation system is part of what made us an economic superpower,” said President Obama.  “And now we’re going to sit back and watch China build newer airports and faster railroads? At a time when millions of unemployed construction workers could build them right here in America?”

Throughout the night, the President’s mantra was “you should pass it right away.”  While the Republican-led House has proved an effective obstacle to most of the White House’s plans in the 112th Congress, there may be enough in this proposal that appeals to hardliners in both parties to muster bipartisan—and bicameral—support.


U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today that the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) will receive $5 million to complete initial engineering and environmental reviews for the Northern Lights high-speed rail project between Minneapolis and Duluth.

The 155 mile corridor will accommodate top speeds of 110 mph, with stops in Coon Rapids, Isanti, Cambridge, Hinckley, Boylston and Duluth, Minnesota, along with a station in Superior, Wisconsin.

The $5 million grant comes from the High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program, which has previously awarded $2.2 million and $500,000 for preliminary work on the line.  MNDOT has committed to providing $3 million in state funds for the project.


Thanks to the website Hipmunk, travelers now have an easy way to compare airline and Amtrak itineraries and prices side-by-side. Hipmunk this week became the first “fare aggregator” service (others include Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz) to include Amtrak along with most major airlines.

Read more at the NARP Blog.

Getting around Miami International Airport (MIA) just got a little easier with yesterday’s grand opening of the Miami Intermodal Center transportation facility.

Located just east of MIA, the huge intermodal facility is connected to the airport by the brand new MIA Mover System—a free, automated light rail system which made its first run with passengers today.  The building houses a rental car center, and—by 2013—will serve as a hub for Metrorail, Tri-Rail, Amtrak, Metrobus, and Greyhound.

The next stage in the development of the $1.7 billion facility will come next spring when Metrorail connects the facility to downtown Miami.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Swiss Transportation Minister Doris Leuthard were joined by a number of French and Swiss officials in Belfort, France yesterday to celebrate a new high-speed rail station and track upgrades that will join Paris to Switzerland by state-of-the-art rail system.

The upgrades to the rail corridor will cut travel times by around 30 minutes; travel between Paris and Basel will take three hours, between Paris and Zurich four hours.  The project, a joint venture between France, Switzerland, and the French train manufacturer TGV, cost around $2.7 billion (€2 billion).  Trains begin running in December.


Travelers Advisory:

Heavy storms drenched the Mid Atlantic this week—still saturated from Hurricane Irene—causing flash floods throughout the region, leading to a number of service disruptions:

• Flooding rains this week in Upstate New York, has lead to closures of track owned by CSX and used by Amtrak trains west of Albany-Rensselaer. While repairs continue, Empire Service trains will operate normally only between New York City and Rensselaer on Saturday, September 10.  [See Inside Amtrak for full details]
• CSX has informed Amtrak of a track closure between Lorton and Alexandria, VA today due to flooding rains. As a result, Amtrak has canceled all trains to and from Washington and Richmond/Newport News, VA. [See Inside Amtrak for full details]
• Flooding conditions west of Lancaster, PA today led Amtrak to reduce the number Keystone Service trains and operate only between Lancaster and New York City, via Philadelphia.  No service will be operated from Lancaster west to Harrisburg. Also canceled is today’s Pennsylvanian (Trains 42 & 43) from Pittsburgh to New York City, via Harrisburg and Philadelphia. [See Inside Amtrak for full details]

The California Zephyr remains suspended between Denver and Chicago.  Service is hoped to resume in late-September.  BNSF crews are continuing to repair tracks damaged by the massive flood damage near Omaha.
Because trains are not running between Chicago and Denver, passengers’ rail option is to ride the Thruway bus between Denver and Raton, New Mexico via motor coach, and the Southwest Chief Raton-Chicago.  Amtrak is temporarily extending what is normally summer-only staffing at Raton during this service disruption.  NARP has urged consideration of a La Junta-Denver bus which would shorten the distance travel and be scheduled to avoid the long layover currently required in La Junta.

In a very prompt response to NARP’s request, starting this week, Amtrak now has a “service disruptions” link on its home page.  Previously, such links were confined to the start of problems, but this made it difficult for prospective passengers to learn about longstanding service outages—such as Chicago-Denver.  The new link is the first item under “Rider’s Guide.”  NARP made the request to Matthew Hardison, Chief, Sales Distribution and Customer Service, who told NARP that credit for the work should go to “Roger Seitzinger [Senior Director, eCommerce] and his eCommerce team for their listening and responding to your suggestions.”