Hotline #126 - February 18, 2000

S.1144 is expected on the Senate floor next week. This bill lets states spend their federal gas-tax dollars on intercity passenger rail. Meanwhile, continued pressure in support of the Amtrak provisions in the Clinton budget is important, as is support for S.1900, the Lautenberg-Jeffords High Speed Rail Investment Act. A House counterpart, H.R.3700, will be introduced by Reps. Amo Houghton (R.-N.Y.) and James Oberstar (D.-Minn.).

A hearing about the findings of the January 24 Amtrak Reform Council (ARC) report will be held February 23 by the Senate Commerce Committee. It will be chaired by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Tex.), who chairs the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee. The following witnesses are expected -- Rep. Chip Pickering (R.-Miss.), Wisconsin Governor and Amtrak Chairman Tommy Thompson, DOT Inspector General Ken Mead, ARC Chairman Gil Carmichael, American Public Transportation Association President Bill Millar, and Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Katharine Ross.

Chairman Hutchison hopes to resolve ARC's question of whether Amtrak must cover the cost of depreciation and of progressive overhauls in order to meet the "test for self-sufficiency." As a key Commerce Committee staffer for Senator Lott when he chaired the subcommittee, Pickering drafted a provision virtually identical to the relevant language of the 1997 Amtrak reauthorization law. ARC's legal counsel believes that the reference in the law to "generally accepted accounting principles" (GAAP) means Amtrak must cover depreciation and preventive maintenance to meet its test. Chairman Hutchison, NARP, Amtrak, the Clinton Administration, and others believe that this reference simply refers to an evaluation of Amtrak's bookkeeping. GAAP is not mentioned in the later section of the law that deals with operational self-sufficiency. Federal operating grants have never covered depreciation, and Congress has allowed Amtrak to use capital funds for progressive maintenance since the early 1990's.

A Baltimore MTA light rail train hit the safety barrier at BWI Airport on February 13, sending 23 to the hospital, including the driver. The impact caused the lead car and the barrier to wedge upward a few feet and sent passengers, who were already standing to get off at the end of the line, to go flying. Though the speed limit in the area is 13 mph, investigators have determined that the train was going about 10 mph more than that. They said that all signals and brakes were in working order.

The state-of-the-art grade crossing at Mystic, Conn., has been malfunctioning too often, according to local residents quoted in the February 15 New London Day. The quad-gate system was installed in 1998 with sensors that were tied into the train control system and can bring a train to a stop if necessary. The Day said that there have been 27 documented malfunctions; the longest one was five hours in November 1999. Amtrak said it is working on the problem, which appears to be in the computer software. Overall, the crossing has been judged a success and the technology will be replicated elsewhere on the New Haven-Boston line.

A controversial plan to convert the Sacramento station into a retail complex has collapsed, according to the February 11 Sacramento Bee. The developer is blaming the city for lack of interest. Whatever the cause, the collapse removes the threat (at least until a new idea comes along) that the station will be made less passenger-friendly.

Project officials with the downtown Boston Central Artery project (including the Third Harbor Tunnel) -- hours after having their $10.8 billion finance plan approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation -- said that the project would cost an additional $1.4 billion. Federal funds are covering 70% of the project cost. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater then gave the state to March 15 to show how it will fund the Central Artery without threatening other state highway projects. The project already consumes 79% of the state's federal highway funds, so the state is in an uproar.

Meanwhile, House Transportation Appropriations Chairman Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), a longtime Central Artery critic, also plans to grill officials at a March 8 hearing on a $180 million cost overrun on the MBTA's South Station-South Boston Waterfront bus "Transitway." This project -- also supervised by Central Artery officials -- has gone from $413 million to $601 million. NARP continues to press Amtrak and public officials on the need to build the North Station-South Station Rail Link, which has far more transportation value than the Central Artery or Transitway projects.

Greyhound and Amtrak are near agreement on a deal to build a new bus station across the tracks (to the north) of Baltimore Penn Station, to be connected to the station by a pedestrian bridge over the tracks. Amtrak is also planning to get a hotel chain to turn the upper three floors of the station into hotel rooms.