Hotline #184 - March 30, 2001

Washington Metro's rail system this week marked the 25th anniversary since the first segment opened for revenue service. That was 4.6 miles of the Red Line, Rhode Island Ave.-Farragut North, March 29, 1976.  Segment by segment, the system grew until the last piece was added this year (Green Line to Branch Ave., January 13), rounding out the original 103-mile system envisioned by Congress. Metro now carries 600,000 a day on trains and 500,000 on buses, making it the second-busiest transit agency in the US, after New York City's system.

As pointed out in Washington Post articles this week, Metro's twin challenges are serving the suburb-to-suburb travel market that didn't exist 25 years ago but which now plugs up area roads, and meeting Metro's own capacity needs since ridership could double in the next 25 years, on infrastructure that is already beginning to age. Yet there is no denying the great extent to which Metro has affected development in the places (like Arlington and Bethesda) where local leaders encouraged it.

The High Speed Rail Investment Act (HSRIA), S.250, now has 54 Senate sponsors, with the addition this week of Bayh (D.-Ind.) and Dayton (D.-Minn.). Click here for a full list. The following Senators really should be on that list too; contact them if they are yours -- Cantwell (D.-Wash.), Carnahan (D.-Mo.), Harkin (D.-Ia.), Lugar (R.-Ind.), Wyden (D.-Ore.), Smith (R.-Ore.), Baucus (D.-Mont.). Tell them you support HSRIA and that its passage would benefit the national passenger rail network as a whole. Click here for ways to contact them.

A House version of HSRIA is in final stages and could be introduced in the coming week with as many as 30 original co-sponsors. Contact your Representative to urge him or her to be one of them.

Engineers have completed a seismic evaluation of Union Station in Portland, Ore., and officials are looking for funding to make reinforcements. The project, including improvements to the landmark tower, will cost $30 million.

In Portland, Me., state DOT officials are considering elevating a proposed railroad alignment and downtown passenger station. This would increase the cost from $10 million, to $20 million. The idea would be to keep the passenger-only alignment along I-295 but not create new grade crossings at busy streets that have freeway ramps -- federal officials have told the state officials that such crossings could tie up traffic. But it's unclear just how often and for how long passenger trains would block crossings. In any event, this does not affect the timing of bringing Amtrak service to Portland, since that is expected to use a temporary station in another part of town until the permanent station on the new alignment is completed.

The Albany Times Union reported March 28 that a state budget agreement was near that could be a big step forward for a number of passenger rail projects. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D.-Manhattan) has in his budget proposal a ten-year tax exemption on track improvements for the owners of the track, matching an item in Governor Pataki's (R.) budget proposal. Any agreement is still preliminary, however. Understandably, CSX has said it would not allow improvements that benefit passenger trains (like those needed south of Albany for 125-mph service, or double track in the Albany-Schenectady bottleneck) if CSX will be taxed on the improvements, as is done under current state policy.

Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore (R.) on March 27 signed legislation authorizing a special regional financing district in the Dulles Corridor (Falls Church-Tysons Corner-Dulles Airport). The district -- if created by commercial property owners along the corridor -- could then assess special improvement taxes to help pay for a branch of the Metro Orange line to Dulles. Gilmore also signed legislation creating a Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, which can issue bonds and do long-range transportation planning (and which will be consolidated with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission by 2003).

Oklahoma Senate Joint Resolution 4 was killed by the House Revenue and Tax Committee this week. It would have allowed voters to consider a 10-year, one-cent gas tax to finance passenger rail projects, and had previously been passed by the Senate. Another bill, House Bill 1173, would move about $60 million in motor vehicle registration fees from the general fund to transportation programs. It had been approved by the House three weeks ago with language allowing $17 million to go to various rail projects, including the current Fort Worth-Oklahoma City Heartland Flyer, plus a proposed extension north to Newton, Kans. However, the House on March 26 changed it to apply to transit only and that is headed for a Senate vote. There is still a chance the pro-passenger-rail language could be restored in conference committee.