Hotline #241 - May 3, 2002

The Amtrak board has named David L. Gunn the new president and chief executive officer of Amtrak, starting May 15. This happened April 25, with an announcement late on April 26. Gunn replaces George Warrington, who began his new job as New Jersey Transit executive director on April 26. The Amtrak board made Executive Vice President Stan Bagley acting president until Gunn formally takes over his post.

Gunn, 64, worked for the Santa Fe, New York Central, and Illinois Central Gulf railroads (1964-74). He entered the passenger sector at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (1974-79) as director of commuter rail and later all operations. He was general manager of Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (1979-84), president of New York City Transit Authority (1984-90), general manager of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (1991-94), and chief general manager of Toronto Transit Commission (1995-99).

Gunn told the New York Times (April 27) that while he wants to craft a "shutdown plan" in case Congress does not provide adequate funding for 2003, he also is not in favor of cutting long-distance trains. "Anybody who thinks you can solve the problem by truncating the system doesn't understand the numbers," he said. He added that if long-distance trains were cut, "What is that going to do to provide capital for the Northeast Corridor? It'll make it probably politically impossible to get."

Gunn describes himself as a "turnaround artist," saying, "I never get hired unless there's a problem." Indeed, he is widely credited with turning around New York City's transit system while he was president there.

Some clues to the nature of the still unreleased Bush Administration policy on intercity passenger rail were exposed in recent comments by Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. At a speech at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., on April 24, Mineta said that without "structural reforms" at Amtrak, increasing funding for passenger rail would be "more resources down the tube." The Evanston speech featured a large proportion of audience questions (on written cards) that dealt with Amtrak and passenger rail.

Mineta made similar remarks on April 29 at a public forum following an invitation-only "James Oberstar Forum on Transportation Policy and Technology" at the University of Minnesota. Mineta also called David Gunn "a very, very good operational person" and said that "he really turned [NYCTA] around. I think he'll do no less at Amtrak." NARP Executive Director Ross Capon participated in the entire forum, the topic of which was how transportation should change after September 11. Capon called attention to the sharp contrast between government funding policies and demand for Amtrak's service.

S.1991, the National Defense Rail Act, which is the Amtrak reauthorization proposal that does the most to keep and expand nationwide passenger rail service, got its 34th Senate sponsor this week -- Cochran, R.-Miss. The bill was approved by the Commerce Committee April 18.

President Bush made a nomination on April 30 to fill the vacancy on the Amtrak board of Directors. David Laney is a lawyer from Dallas, Tex., and is former chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission. The nomination requires Senate confirmation.

The Federal Railroad Administration put Amtrak under a safety watch in February, according to the Washington Post, April 29. This was in reaction to Amtrak's "operational and financial challenges." At that time, Amtrak identified to the FRA specific actions to be taken to preserve safety in light of proposed staff reductions, and the FRA began reviewing Amtrak's actions to ensure there would be no safety degradation, either in a specific territory or across the system.

Nevertheless, the article said that Amtrak had at least 20 serious rule violations reported during April, the most in recent years, all in stations and yards. (No reported rule violation related to the fatal Auto Train derailment on April 18.) The violations led Amtrak to impose a series of "safety blitzes." For the next three months, Amtrak plans to go into the field for 48-hour safety sessions aimed at employees most involved, starting with engineers and conductors. Amtrak and freight railroads also are doing spot checks in the field to measure how safety rules are followed in practice.

As part of a continuing process of positioning a tightly stretched fleet after the Auto Train accident, Amtrak announced it would discontinue sleeping car service on the Twilight Shoreliner. The Auto Train accident already has caused changes to other trains, including removal of Superliners from the Cardinal. NARP has asked the Senate Appropriations Chairman, Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.), for supplemental funding this year to fix cars.

The Newport News-Boston Twilight Shoreliner, with the southbound departure of May 19 (northbound May 20) will run only with coaches, lounge, and Business class. Except for six months in 1971, the Twilight Shoreliner and its predecessors (Night Owl and pre-Amtrak Federal) have carried Washington-Boston sleepers back as far as April 1917.

Amtrak made its sleeping car cancellation policy more restrictive, effective April 29. Rather than being able to cancel space 24 hours before departure in order to receive a refund, a passenger now muse cancel at least seven days in advance. Passengers who cancel within seven days now will get a voucher good for future travel. Sleeping car charges are forfeited by the passenger if the space is cancelled after departure, or not cancelled at all.

As an efficiency measure, Amtrak standardized its dining car menus nationwide, effective May 1. The current "nationwide" dinner entrees are New York Strip Steak, Center-cut Pork Chop, Chicken a l'Orange, Penne Pasta, and a "regional" seafood dish that varies from train to train. Toast is no longer offered at breakfast (biscuit or croissant only), and there is no more fresh fruit.

There is good news from Missouri. A House-Senate appropriations conference committee has approved enough funding to run both cross-state Amtrak trains for another year. The current level of funding is $6.2 million, which the Senate had cut to $5 million, which would have led to a service reduction. But the House raised that to $6 million, and that's what negotiators have now agreed to. The House and Senate must approve the entire, renegotiated budget and the governor must sign it.

Last week, we reported that a dispute between the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority and Guilford would make it impossible for Amtrak's Downeaster trains to serve Old Orchard Beach, Me., this summer. Since then, an agreement has been reached to allow service to begin late in June, rather than the original June 1 goal. Workers spent this week protecting a buried fiber optic cable so that platform work can proceed. The platform will be adjacent to the chamber of commerce building, about 100 yards from the beach.

There are three transit starts of note this week, all on May 6 -- Metrolink begins a Los Angeles-Fullerton-Riverside commuter rail service called the "91 Line" (after a parallel highway). Most of the route already has some service, but only a few equipment-positioning trips now make this entire run.

In Dallas, DART's Blue light rail line is extended from White Rock northeast to LBJ/Skillman. A Red Line extension from Park Lane north to Galatyn Park (in Richardson) is still projected for July 1, and another Blue Line extension from LBJ/Skillman to Garland is set for November 18. Also in Dallas, the McKinney Avenue Trolley has completed track and wire work northeast to DART's underground Blue/Red Line station at Cityplace, and is expected to begin service May 6.