Hotline #224 - January 4, 2002

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R.) told mayors along the Florida East Coast (FEC) route on December 20 that he had asked the Florida DOT to fund fully plans to introduce Amtrak service along the coast from Jacksonville to Miami. A total of $82.5 million is needed. Bush said, "The September attacks on our country showed us that we must fully develop alternative modes of transportation in and out of Florida. This restored passenger rail service is just the ticket." Transportation Secretary Tom Barry said, "We're pleased to be a partner in the restoration of this vital rail service to our citizens and visitors."

A first phase would use $23.5 million in Florida DOT funds (of which the legislature still must provide $8 million in fiscal 2002/03) to allow one daily train in each direction. A second phase amounting to $37.6 million and two daily trains, would wait until fiscal 2005/06. Funding is needed for 23 miles of second track, a new track connection from the FEC to the current Amtrak/Tri-Rail route at West Palm Beach, and eight new stations -- St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Titusville, Cocoa, Melbourne, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, and Stuart.

A bill that would drastically reduce the amount of passenger train service offered in the U.S. was introduced in the House on December 20 (the same day as Governor Bush's pro-rail remarks). H.R.3591 would transfer all Amtrak assets relating to the Auto Train and Northeast Corridor (Washington-Boston only) to the Department of Transportation, which then, ultimately, would transfer ownership and/or operation of the services to states and/or private parties. A release from the bill's lead sponsor, John Mica (R.-Fla.), singled those two routes out as being "profitable Amtrak corridors."

Mica's release is silent on what would happen to the rest of the country, as is the bill itself. However, he told a House Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on July 25, 2001, that Amtrak needed to be dismantled. He said long-distance trains "should go to tour operators," ignoring the fact that American Orient Express already runs such tours -- but only by virtue of Amtrak's existence and its right of access to freight railroad tracks -- at such high prices as to not constitute a transportation service at all. (AOE contracts with Amtrak, which handles relations with the freight railroads, who could be expected to fiercely oppose efforts to make Amtrak's access rights outlive Amtrak.) Mica claimed that the private sector "can build high-speed rail," apparently without government support -- a view widely discredited in the industry, particularly after the private sector's unhappy experience in Florida just two years ago.

Mica is joined by ten co-sponsors, all Republicans -- Collins (Ga.), Kingston (Ga.), Linder (Ga.), Hefley (Colo.), Petri (Wis.), DeLay (Tex.), Miller (Fla.), Stearns (Fla.), Pombo (Cal.), Graves (Mo.) -- who as a group generally voted anti-passenger rail in the 1990's. Hefley several times proposed amendments to cut Amtrak funding. Had they not been soundly defeated, they would have made Amtrak even weaker than it is now and likely would have resulted in less service than we have today. Ironically, of the group, Mica had the best voting record in the 1990's. Graves is too recent an arrival to have a record.

If you are represented by one of these 11 sponsors, let him know you object to his sponsorship of the bill, and you support a nationwide passenger rail service that receives public-sector investment like all the other modes do.

Mica takes a more generous view towards aviation, as reflected in H.R.3347, the General Aviation Industry Reparations Act of 2001, which he introduced November 27. This bill would provide $7.5 billion for general aviation -- $5 billion in loan guarantees "to compensate general aviation entities for losses incurred ... as a result of the terrorist attacks" and $2.5 billion in compensation for "direct losses incurred beginning on September 11, 2001, by such entities as a result of any Federal ground stop order issued by the Secretary of Transportation or any subsequent order which continues or renews such a stoppage" and "the incremental losses incurred beginning September 11, 2001, and ending December 31, 2001, by such entities as a direct result of such attacks."

The December 20 test train between Louisville and Nashville went well. A wire story said Rep. Bob Clement (D.-Tenn.), CSX passenger integration vice president Paul Reistrup, and Amtrak acting government affairs vice president Joe McHugh all said that the Kentucky Cardinal could be extended to Nashville as soon as this fall. The last train on the route, the Floridian, was a victim of the 1979 Carter Administration cuts. Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker remarked that communities all the way from Atlanta to Chicago -- including his city and those visited by the Kentucky Cardinal test train -- need to be connected by a passenger-rail alternative.

A major North Carolina track work project will move forward with the December 19 signing of an agreement between that state's DOT, the North Carolina Railroad, and Norfolk Southern, to improve the line between Cary and Greensboro. This segment is used by Amtrak's Carolinian and Piedmont. Work on the $24-million project will begin this summer, and will take 18-24 months to complete. It will include longer passing sidings, improved junctions, curve banking (there are many curves), and a new centralized traffic control system. This will allow the top speed for passenger trains to rise from 59 to 79 mph, allowing 20 minutes to be cut from running times on that segment.

The major Greensboro junction will be improved for better traffic flow, and a second track will be added to accommodate eventual restoration of service to the former Southern station downtown, not currently used by Amtrak. This station is being made into an intermodal station, to be open for local and intercity buses later this year, and for passenger trains in 2004 or 2005. Amtrak moved to the current location west of downtown in 1979.

Separately, track work began in November 2001 between Raleigh and Selma. When complete next month, it will cut 7-10 minutes from the running times of Amtrak's Carolinian and Silver Star. Planning continues for restoration of nine miles of second track between Greensboro and High Point.

A new Thruway bus service, Augusta-Savannah, Ga., will begin January 14. There will be a ceremony at the Augusta bus terminal at 4:00 pm to mark the event, featuring Mayor Bob Young, NARP President Alan Yorker, and Ray Lang from Amtrak Intercity. There is also local interest in a Thruway bus connecting Augusta to the Crescent, possibly at Greenville or Spartanburg, S.C. Mayor Young, and others, are eager to get Augusta onto the Amtrak map and see Thruway bus service as a first step.

An Acela Regional train, northbound 174, derailed near Canton Jct., Mass., on December 27. The cause of the derailment was unclear, and the train was thought to be moving at a low rate of speed. No one was injured. The locomotive and first two cars (of 11) derailed upright and in line. The train was about 90 minutes late when the incident occurred.

Amtrak's northbound Silver Star was involved in an accident early January 2 after a stolen road grader struck and damaged a CSX track about 15 miles south of Columbia, S.C. One wheel on a mail car derailed, but the rest of the train did not. However, power to the train was lost and it was some hours before passengers were removed from the cold train.

Neighborhood protests north of Baltimore Penn Station have led that city's mayor, Martin O'Malley, to cancel plans for construction of a Greyhound station there. The bus station would have had excellent intermodal connections to Amtrak, MARC, and MTA light-rail trains. The station was to have opened in summer 2003 on a parcel immediately north of and across the tracks from the Amtrak station.

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D.) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D.) helped cut the ribbon today on the new MARC commuter rail station in downtown Frederick. Glendening said it was wrong to "just keep building more roads" and that more mass transit, such as rail, is needed.