Hotline #142 - June 9, 2000

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.), has postponed its work on a fiscal 2001 transportation funding bill until June 13. Full committee action could come within a couple days of that, with a floor vote as soon as an opening for it occurs.

Progress on getting S.1144 (flexibility for states to spend TEA-21 funds on passenger rail) to a Senate floor vote continues to be blocked by a hold on the bill by Senator Bond (R.-Mo.). This has been reported in various Washington lobbying publications. Bond opposes any form of Highway Trust Fund money going to passenger rail (even if states want this flexibility and even if such money already goes to other, non-highway modes) and apparently does not want his colleagues to have the opportunity to vote on it. There is a possibility that some "flexibility" language will be attached to the appropriations bill.

S.1900, the Senate passenger rail bond bill, got its 45th sponsor this week -- Tom Harkin (D.-Ia.). See our web site for a complete list.

Federal agents, working with the Amtrak Office of Inspector General, raided the office of two electrification contractors at Old Saybrook, Conn. The agents are investigating the alleged misappropriation of funds by Balfour Beatty Construction, Inc., and Massachusetts Electric Construction Co. Amtrak hired the firms to electrify the 157-mile New Haven-Boston route after Morrison Knudsen, the original construction firm, ran into financial difficulties. Incidentally, this weekend, the last remaining segment of newly electrified track will be energized (in Massachusetts).

Gov. George Ryan of Illinois signed a bill into law on June 2 that allows better tracking of motorist violation records. This bill, HB2883, came in response to last year's incident in which a truck -- driven by a driver whose violation-rich background was not known by all jurisdictions issuing the violations -- drove in front of Amtrak's City of New Orleans, killing 11 passengers. The new law creates a data base of court-supervision sentences available to all courts and prosecutors in Illinois.

June 14 is a big day at the Oklahoma City Amtrak station. There will be a ceremony at 7:45 am to mark the one-year anniversary of the Heartland Flyer, which runs daily to Fort Worth. According to the most recent figures available (June 14, 1999, to April 30, 2000), nearly 61,000 passengers rode the train. That's far above the original first-year projection of 25,000, which was surpassed about October 1. Later the same day, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, the Postal Service's "Celebrate the Century" postal exhibit train will be on display at the station.

The last phase of double-tracking the Tri-Rail commuter route in South Florida got underway with a ceremony June 5 that included Federal Transit Administrator Nuria Fernandez. The FTA had awarded Tri-Rail a $110-million grant, enough to complete the $327-million project by 2005. Of the 72-mile route, about 44 miles are still single track, mostly in the north in Palm Beach County. The double track will allow more trains to run more reliably.

Sound Transit and Burlington Northern Santa Fe have signed an operating agreement for commuter rail service between Tacoma and Seattle. Service should begin in September. An agreement for Seattle-Everett service is still pending.

Washington Metro's chairman, Gladys Mack, on June 5 directed Metro controllers to stop sending trains toward fires or other hazards. This came in the wake of disclosures that a Blue Line train was sent toward a tunnel fire on April 20, even though another train operator had reported the fire to the same controllers five minutes before. Thus a train and 270 passengers were stranded in a smoky tunnel for three hours. The new policy led to three service interruptions in as many days caused by small tunnel fires.

A Eurostar high-speed train partially derailed June 5 at 150 mph outside Arras, in northern France. There were no serious injuries. The train was headed from Paris to London. The train remained upright even at that speed, which observers told BBC was a result of the train's articulated design. Eurostar and Thalys (Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam) high-speed services were interrupted during the clean-up, and other Eurostar trains were being examined mid-week. The apparent cause was a transmission component that broke apart. Passengers reported smelling something like burning rubber for 10-15 minutes before the accident.

The Great American Station Foundation announced on June 5 its grant recipients for 2000. Eleven of the 13 total have Amtrak service today -- Fremont, Cal.; Raton, N.Mex.; Waterbury, Vt.; Hamlet, N.C.; Burlington, Ia.; Hastings, Neb.; Elizabethtown, Pa.; Rome, N.Y.; Sanderson, Tex.; Jesup, Ga.; and Hamilton, O. The 12th, Macon, Ga., will be linked with Atlanta in 2004. The 13th is part of a transit village project centered on the Fruitvale BART stop in Oakland, Cal. Total grants were $250,000; individual amounts ranged from $10,000 to $25,000.