Hotline #215 - November 2, 2001

Two key, immediate goals of passenger rail supporters are enactment of S.1550, the $1.77 billion Amtrak safety/security bill (with good Hutchison and McCain amendments), and S.250, the High Speed Rail Investment Act. Commerce Chairman Hollings (D.-S.C.) yesterday said he hoped S.1550 would be on the Senate floor next week. Hutchison is expected to offer an amendment with $241 million for repair or upgrade of cars that are out of service, scheduled for retirement, or in need of heavy overhauls. She will try either to add new money or divert money already in the bill. McCain will offer an amendment imposing the same harsh penalties on railroad terrorists that have long applied to aviation terrorists.

The Senate Finance Committee could mark up its "stimulus" bill on Tuesday and there is a chance that S.250, High Speed Rail Investment Act, will be included. (S.250 is a tax bill, under Finance jurisdiction.) Sen. Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.), who is developing Senate Democrats' stimulus spending package, is likely to include a smaller, $1.2 billion version of S.1550. He is proposing $19 billion for security, of which $5.8 billion is for transportation -- $2.5 billion for highways, $1.1 billion for transit security, $1 billion for airport security. Sen. Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) had earlier called for $16.2 billion for transportation in any stimulus package, including Amtrak's entire $3.2-billion security/capacity request. However, Reid is now endorsing Byrd's smaller proposal, and is backing away from his own proposal to include high-speed rail funding in the stimulus package.

Legislators need to hear support for all of the above. Phone calls and faxes remain ideal, but e-mail (in light of anthrax) now is preferable to regular mail. Click here for ways to reach legislators. The House last week narrowly passed a $100-billion bill with nothing for rail.

The Senate Commerce Committee had a hearing November 1 on S.1530, the Hollings bill to reauthorize Amtrak and repeal the operational self-sufficiency mandate. Hollings said, "Those who want passenger rail to operate without federal assistance -- ultimately forcing more people onto cars, buses and airplanes -- argue that we should not 'subsidize' passenger rail. But we subsidize the building of roads and highways with tax dollars. We subsidize the building of airports and pay flight controllers with tax dollars. We consider those subsidies to be worthwhile investments in our economy and our quality of life. We must make the same investment that other countries make in creating a world-class passenger rail system."

McCain remains an outspoken opponent of any new funding other than for safety and security and sees rail as working only in the Northeast, "Far West, and maybe around Chicago." He said the California Zephyr loses $500 a passenger (a figure that actually applies to the discontinued Janesville train). Gramm (R.-Tex.), who is not a committee member but appeared as a witness, said, "I have folks in my state who say they like to see the train arrive and depart but the trouble is they don't ride ... We made a mistake to assume folks wouldn't support it if it's not in their state."

But Senate Minority Leader Lott (R.-Miss.) said, "I'm a supporter of the national rail passenger system ... If it becomes an Eastern seaboard system, I'm not going to support it." Other senators making pro-rail statements were Kerry (D.-Mass.), Durbin (D.-Ill.), Carper (D.-Del.), Biden (D.-Del.), and Cleland (D.-Ga.). Speaking about the operational self-sufficiency mandate, Durbin said, "What happened in 1997? There were forces at work who never supported Amtrak and who wanted to eliminate it on the spot.  Supporters were backed into a corner. We didn't think [the mandate] would work, but we did it so Amtrak would survive." Carper said, "At the time [Amtrak was created], people thought the subsidies would go away after a few years. But the freight railroads got out of [the passenger business] because they lost money. It's not clear why people then thought [Amtrak] would start making money." Biden spoke passionately about the need to repair the New York tunnels and Congress' traditional blind spot towards passenger rail's role in transportation.

Federal Railroad Administrator Allan Rutter said that the DOT was working on a "new vision" for passenger rail, that the Bush Administration supports $1.5 million of S.1550 (i.e., the tunnel work and nationwide security upgrades, but not the $254 million for upgrading emergency response access to New York's Penn Station and renovation of the Thames and Niantic River bridges in Connecticut). The Administration believes a new Amtrak reauthorization should be done before Memorial Day, 2002, to be available as guidance for the appropriators, and that no additional funding (including the high-speed rail bill) is appropriate now. Deputy DOT Inspector General Mark Dayton supported all of S.1550 and favored repealing the operational self-sufficiency "sunset trigger" (if not the goal of self-sufficiency), so Congress would not feel forced to reauthorize Amtrak hastily if the Amtrak Reform Council pulled the trigger. The Council is scheduled to meet November 9.

Amtrak President George Warrington said, "Operational self-sufficiency flies in the face of what every developed nation in the world has done. Only the Japanese high-speed line is profitable -- not their conventional service -- due to the $6 billion a year in government investment they get and their very high population density. It's a very unique situation. … We're running [our trains] as a public service and paying for them as best we can with cross-subsidies. But even that is difficult. We've never been capitalized as Japan and Europe has been."

NARP wrote to Chairman Hollings the day before the hearing to praise his bill (S.1530), to ask that whatever passenger-rail funding bill that passes include capacity increases across the nation, and to press for enactment of the High Speed Rail Investment Act.

The fiscal 2002 transportation appropriations bill, H.R.2299, took a step forward this week with the appointment of a conference committee (members of appropriations committees of both houses). That committee will reconcile differences in bills passed by the House on June 26 and by the Senate on August 1, but no schedule for the committee to meet has been set yet. Both bills contain $521 million in capital for Amtrak, with Amtrak getting all of it at once. Fiscal 2002 began October 1; government programs have been operating under Congressional continuing resolutions in the absence of enacted funding bills.

The planned start-up date for the Kentucky Cardinal extension into downtown Louisville is December 4. There will be a ceremony in Union Station at 10:00 am. The Kentucky-Indiana Rail Advocates are planning several activities in conjunction with the event, including a noon bus trip to the Kentucky Railway Museum, where a luncheon is planned.

A bridge project is now under way north of San Jose, causing Amtrak passengers to be diverted to bus from San Jose to Oakland, and Altamont Commuter Express passengers to be diverted to bus from San Jose to Fremont. Repairs to the Union Pacific bridge at Coyote Creek will allow speeds to increase there from 30 mph to 60 or 70 mph, and should be complete by November 9.

Amtrak's Texas Eagle is offering a two-for-one coach offer good from November 29 to December 14. Space must be reserved by December 13 (fare code X109). The offer is not good for travel local to the St. Louis-Chicago segment.

Washington's Maryland suburbs could get a light rail line by 2012, under a proposal announced October 29 by Governor Parris Glendening (D.). The "Purple Line" would run east-west for 14 miles from Bethesda to Silver Spring, College Park, and New Carrollton, and connect with an existing Metrorail line at each of those four locations. This is the furthest any suburb-to-suburb rail transit proposal has gotten in the Washington region, to date. The light-rail line would cost $1.2 billion and would link well established population centers within the Capital Beltway. However, it has been criticized by Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan (D.), who favors an alternative, $4-billion Metro line outside of the Beltway in areas that could see greater development in the longer term. Nevertheless, the Montgomery County Board passed a resolution in favor of the light-rail line on October 30, by a wide margin.

Earlier in October, planners at Washington Metro released a proposal for a new, $6.3-billion, 22-mile, east-west subway line running from western Arlington County in Virginia into the District of Columbia to Georgetown, Mount Vernon Square, Union Station, and Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. This is envisioned as a new routing of the Blue Line through the District, with a branch into Arlington County, roughly parallel to the Orange Line. Planners say the Orange Line will be at capacity by 2020 -- including riders from a new branch to Tysons Corner and Dulles Airport -- and that all of Metro will reach "gridlock" state by 2025, unless capacity enhancements are made.

A bill that would have facilitated construction of an intermodal terminal in downtown San Francisco was vetoed by California Gov. Gray Davis (D.) on October 15. The bill would have transferred the state-owned land, where the Transbay Terminal now stands, to local authorities. Davis said he favored an administrative swap of land, rather than giving it to the authorities. Officials were to meet to decide what to do next.