Hotline #140 - May 26, 2000

Two more Senate co-sponsors this week signed onto S.1900, the passenger rail infrastructure bond bill, for a total of 44. They are Senate Minority Leader Daschle of South Dakota, and Kerrey of Nebraska.

Even greater news is that the House counterpart bill, H.R.3700, had a one-third jump in sponsorship this week -- from 60 to 81! This is terrific news, with much credit going to those among you who read this weekly message and act upon the requests for action. However, it's important for this bill to have 100 sponsors in the next couple weeks for the bill to have a strong chance of moving forward this Congressional session. See our web site for a complete list. If your Members of Congress are on there, please thank them -- if they are not, please ask them to support this bill. See our web site for ways to contact them.

Since the House transportation appropriations bill (H.R.4475, approved May 19, see last week's message) does not contain full funding for Amtrak for 2001 (i.e., $521 million rather than $989 million) -- and since every week that goes by without a floor vote on the Senate flexibility bill (S.1144) weakens its chances of passage -- passage of S.1900/H.R.3700 this term is all the more important to the future health of passenger rail.

The San Diegans are now history -- with the May 21 timetable, Amtrak West has renamed the service "Pacific Surfliner." The first new Pacific Surfliner train set began operations today. It will run on various Surfliner schedules over the following week, with a regular assignment in June still pending. Another set will arrive about every six-to-eight weeks. Early reviews by passengers who have ridden the new trains are quite positive.

Amtrak West has released a "draft final summary report" for a five-year plan to improve passenger rail in California. The report was referred to in the April NARP newsletter. Four general service areas are examined -- Capitol Corridor, Southern California (including Pacific Surfliners), San Joaquin, and the Coast Corridor (joining the north end of the Surfliner corridor with the south end of the Capitol Corridor). Proposed, near-term improvements are outlined, along with service levels envisioned in 2005 and 2010. The report can be found at the Amtrak West web site.

The Amtrak board met in Atlanta this week, with the location chosen in part to allow the board to learn more about the State of Georgia's bold plans for intrastate passenger rail service. Gov. Roy Barnes addressed the board on May 24, along with officials from the North Carolina DOT. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the board gave the governor an informal commitment to help the state negotiate the issue of passenger rail service with the freight railroads (Norfolk Southern and CSX). Board members asked the governor to urge his congressional delegation to support the infrastructure bond bills, S.1900 and H.R.3700.

Amtrak is examining its options for a direct return to Louisville, Ky., according to the Louisville Courier-Journal of May 25. The paper said that Amtrak and city officials are favoring a return to historic Union Station, by extending the Kentucky Cardinal three miles south (and across the Ohio River) from its current terminus at Jeffersonville, Ind. A timeline for the project and cost estimates are not yet available. Amtrak's Floridian used Union Station until 1976, when it began using the Auto Train station on the south edge of the city instead. Union Station was renovated in 1979, the same year the Floridian stopped operation altogether. Today, the main occupant of the 1891 building is the Transit Authority of River City (TARC), which also has a bus garage and parking lot on former track areas behind the station.

Much of the trackage in Louisville once used primarily by passenger trains has disappeared in the last 20 years. Nevertheless, it should be possible to design a return to Union Station in such a way as to accomplish one goal of NARP's -- a simple extension of the Kentucky Cardinal south to Nashville.

Tennessee DOT plans to hire a consultant by September to create a state rail plan, one component of which would be intercity passenger rail. In its "request-for-proposals," the DOT says it wants passenger routes to be examined that include the possibility of connecting to the national passenger rail network and to routes being considered by others (i.e., Chattanooga-Atlanta, Bristol-Washington). Two levels of service are to be examined -- top speed 79 mph and top speed 110 mph. The entire plan would be due June 30, 2002. This is a big step forward for a state that has not had the same involvement with passenger rail as many others, including some of its neighbors.