Hotline #235 - March 22, 2002

S.1991, the National Defense Rail Act, a comprehensive, pro-nationwide-system and pro-corridor bill, now has 29 Senate sponsors (four more than last week), with the addition of Specter (R.-Pa.), Dorgan (D.-N.Dak.), Burns (R.-Mont.), Lieberman (D.-Conn.).

This bill is the only bill currently proposed in either house that authorizes resources for running, improving, and expanding all classes of passenger rail -- long-distance, short-distance, and high-speed corridors. Commerce Chairman Ernest Hollings (D.-S.C.) hopes to report S.1991 out of that committee during April. For more, click here. Check to see if your Senator is listed as a sponsor, and if not, urge him or her to sign on.

The Democratic leadership of the Senate Budget Committee released its budget proposal for 2003 on March 20, which was approved by the Committee on March 21. It includes provision of the $1.2 billion Amtrak is seeking, though -- even if the full Senate approves this budget resolution -- that amount will still have to go through the appropriations process. Earlier in the week, fifty-one Senators sent a letter to Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D.-N.Dak.) asking for the full Amtrak amount, in order to keep nationwide service running.

House Railroads Subcommittee Chairman Jack Quinn (R.-N.Y.) told state rail officials on March 18 that he plans to introduce a House Amtrak authorization bill in early April. He said he was working with Bob Clement (D.-Tenn.) on it, and that Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R.-Alaska) had directed that any Amtrak bill must be separate from Young's H.R.2950 ("RIDE-21" bond bill). Quinn plans another hearing on passenger rail on April 11.

NARP has written to Amtrak Chairman John Robert Smith urging Amtrak not to implement the 180-day discontinuation notification process on the long-distance trains. NARP said that intense news coverage has accomplished the purpose originally intended for the notification process, and said that implementation of that process would worsen Amtrak's cash flow problems. If the Amtrak Board decides to go ahead with notification, it likely would take place April 2.

This week's interruption to Sunset Limited service, due to previously announced CSX track work, will be prolonged by repairs to a trestle that burned on March 18, 25 miles east of New Orleans. The train already had been annulled between New Orleans and Orlando. Repairs to the trestle probably will take until April 1.

A Norfolk Southern engineer was killed early March 21 by a passing Amtrak train, near the Claymont commuter rail station, a few miles northeast of Wilmington, Del. The engineer was apparently just climbing up into his locomotive, when a northbound Amtrak train passed and he was drawn into the passing train's suction, according to his co-worker. Amtrak said the train was going about 60 mph.

The Transportation Secretaries of Virginia and North Carolina on March 21 announced an agreement on a Washington-Charlotte high-speed rail route. Narrowed down from nine initial options, the route is Washington-Richmond-Petersburg on the current Amtrak route; then on the mostly abandoned (but preserved and more direct) ex-Seaboard line through South Hill and Henderson to Raleigh; then Raleigh-Greensboro-Charlotte on the current Amtrak route. There will also be some sort of connection to Winston-Salem. The secretaries' recommendation includes support of continued, conventional service on the current Carolinian route through Rocky Mount.

The proposed 110-mph service will cost $2.6 billion and require a federal-state partnership (where none exists today). The announcement follows a process that included 52 information workshops, 18 public hearings, and 14 small group meetings to get citizen input. More than 80% of the feedback the agencies got supported high-speed rail. The next step will be execution of a Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Major airlines have begun a process of eliminating travel agent commissions. Delta dropped them last week; Continental and American on March 18; Northwest on March 19; United on March 20; and US Airways on March 21. Airlines have cut such rates in stages since 1995, in part in order to get customers to use web sites that cost airlines less to run than paying out commissions to others. Amtrak's commissions, which were cut somewhat a couple years ago and then restored, are still in place so far. The travel industry is becoming more do-it-yourself, whether a traveler books one's own travel on a web site, or pays an extra fee to a travel agent (which agents are charging in lieu of airline commissions).

The Austrian Transport Ministry has announced a transportation infrastructure plan that would spend $15.3 billion through 2014. Of that, 63% is going to rail, 36% to highways, and 1% for inland waterways. The government "feels that the country's highway network is now well developed, while the rail network requires major improvements," according to the International Railway Journal (March issue).

That means about $803 million a year gong to rail -- in addition to whatever operating support the government already gives rail -- in a country with 8.1 million people. Austria will spend $99 on rail infrastructure annually for every person who lives in that country, where the U.S. spends about $3 on federal rail programs. Yet Austria's population density is comparable to California, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, or Pennsylvania.

A combined Region 5 and 6 meeting is taking place March 22-24 in Louisville, and Region 8 will meet March 23 in Portland, Ore. Region 3 meets March 30 in Jersey City, N.J.