Hotline #143 - June 16, 2000

The Senate this week completed its transportation appropriations process -- subcommittee and committee approval (June 13) and floor debate and approval (June 14 and 15). The Senate version of H.R.4475 contains $521 million for Amtrak in fiscal 2001.

On June 15, Sen. George Voinovich (R.-Ohio) offered as an amendment the rail-language part of S.1144 (the TEA-21 state flexibility bill for passenger rail). Sen. Bob Smith (R.-N.H.) moved that the amendment violated Senate Rule 16 ("germaneness") and the Senate voted 52-46 to endorse his view. Unfortunately, this was the first vote since reinstatement of this particular rule, so some (including four S.1144 co-sponsors) voted with Smith. There is some small comfort in the fact that some Senate leaders (focused on the rule and not transportation policy) were disappointed that the vote was so close.

Thank you for your work on this. Before the vote, Senators Voinovich, Cleland (D.-Ga.), Lautenberg (D.-N.J.), Biden (D.-Del.), and Schumer (D.-N.Y.) delivered eloquent speeches in favor of flexibility. If you live in one of their states, you may wish to send a note of thanks and appreciation.

This vote increases the importance of passing S.1900/H.R.3700, the High Speed Rail Investment Act bills. Congress has slammed the door shut on significant new passenger rail capital investment through the appropriations process and now through flexibility. The bond approach may be the only one left.

H.R.3700 now has 109 sponsors (and S.1900 has 47; see our web site for the complete list). It is expected to figure prominently in a June 21 hearing of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, chaired by Rep. Amo Houghton (R.-N.Y.). Amtrak Chairman and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson will be among those testifying.

Charles Moneypenny of the Transport Workers Union of America was named to the Amtrak Reform Council June 14 by President Clinton. He replaces Clarence Monin.

Flooding has forced the detour of the Empire Builder over the direct "Surrey cut-off" between Fargo and Minot, N.Dak.

Amtrak and Pennsylvania DOT have agreed to begin a ninth Keystone train starting July 9. New train 605 will leave Philadelphia weekdays at 7:25 am; new train 618 will leave Harrisburg 7:45 pm.

Amtrak announced June 14 the opening of a new Detroit joint shipping facility. It was built at the former Michigan Central station site by Amtrak and Canadian Pacific. It will provide space for handling RoadRailers as well as car maintenance.

Amtrak's Chicago-Janesville Lake Country Limited had a stop added to its schedule June 15. While the May 21 timetable indicated the stop would be Walworth, Wis., the new stop instead is at the tiny hamlet of Zenda, Wis., a few miles east of Walworth. While this is a few miles closer to Lake Geneva -- which sits on the far east end of the lake of the same name -- it is less convenient to other lake towns in Walworth County such as Fontana, Williams Bay, and Delavan. We understand that local government was more cooperative at Zenda than at Walworth.

Construction on Los Angeles Metro's newest light-rail segment began July 9, with a groundbreaking ceremony in Los Angeles' Chinatown section. The Blue Line Union Station-Pasadena segment (13.7 miles) is to open in July, 2003.

Kenosha Transit opens its downtown streetcar line June 17. Except for a museum, this is the first electric traction service in Wisconsin since the 1963 closure of the North Shore Line (which served Kenosha's west side). The streetcars will run a loop on two parallel streets from the Metra (ex-North Western) commuter rail station, east to the new Harborpark development, using refurbished PCC cars that once ran in Toronto.

The Sunset Limited was blocked by a Union Pacific freight derailment west of Casa Grande, Ariz., on June 12. Amtrak trains were halted at Yuma and El Paso. The Sunset's former route through Phoenix would have been a viable detour, but UP downgraded it and virtually abandoned it a few years ago.

A radio program on the anti-transit Initiative 745 in Washington State has been rescheduled for Friday, June 30. The Dave Ross Show on Seattle station KIRO-AM (710; with live web feed) will feature Tim Eyman, the chief proponent of last fall's Initiative 695, which repealed a state vehicle tax that was a primary source of revenue for the state passenger rail program. Eyman is pushing the new initiative for this fall's ballot. Other guests will be Lloyd Flem of the Washington Association of Railroad Passengers to discuss the need for balanced transportation, and Aaron Ostrom of the 1000 Friends of Washington to discuss the negative effects of the proposed initiative.