Hotline #245 - May 31, 2002

Amtrak's Chicago-Toronto International has been disrupted since a May 27 freight train derailment at Potter, Mich., 12 miles southwest of Lansing. Canadian National freight traffic has been rerouted, and the town of 2,200 evacuated all week. Some of the derailed cars were tanks filled with liquid propane, one of which was leaking. Amtrak service could resume June 1.

The pro-Amtrak-funding letter referred to in last week's Hotline was held into this week in order to gain more signatures; the current deadline is June 5. The letter, with 130 signatures so far, asks House appropriations leaders to fund Amtrak at $1.975 billion (Amtrak's $1.2 billion request plus safety and security money) in fiscal 2003. That is the amount in H.R.4545, the Amtrak reauthorization bill released by the House Railroads Subcommittee on May 8. Many thanks to those of you who honored our e-mail requests to ask your Representative to sign onto the letter.

A similar letter to Senate appropriations leaders now has 30 signatures; the deadline for collecting more is June 7. This letter refers to $1.2 billion, the amount called for in the Senate budget resolution.

The Association of American Railroads apparently has been trying to delay full-committee passage of the Young-Oberstar high-speed rail bill (H.R.2950) until rail labor agrees to help AAR on its issues, particularly on repealing the 4.3 cent-per-gallon tax that railroads alone (including Amtrak) pay for deficit reduction. H.R.2950, like H.R.4545, was approved by the Railroads Subcommittee on May 8.

Many observers think the tax repeal effort is a losing cause. Many also think that railroads long ago should have started to push the idea of directing the 4.3 cents to a rail trust fund -- an idea that Congress understands very well, when it comes to other modes. Interestingly, Thomas Donlan (the anti-Amtrak, ultra-free-marketeer editorial page editor at Barron's) likes the rail trust fund idea. Speaking in Washington on May 14, he cited this idea as perhaps his only point of agreement with NARP's Ross Capon, who spoke before Donlan.

Bridges over navigable waterways continue to be at risk, as shown dramatically by the May 26 collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Oklahoma, which killed at least 14. A May 30 Associated Press story says that 104 people have died as a result of barges hitting and damaging bridges, including 47 on the Sunset Limited in Alabama in 1993. While newer highway and rail bridges are built to withstand barge strikes, many older bridges are not as well protected. Another factor is the increasing amount of barge traffic, and the increasing size of individual barges.

The National Transportation Safety Board asked federal transportation officials, after the 1993 Amtrak accident, to list rail and highway bridges most vulnerable to collisions with barges. Then the Coast Guard installed markings at bridges considered vulnerable. That's improvement, but not enough to prevent all situations causing bridge damage, as was seen in Oklahoma.

BART officials on May 29 endorsed proposals by local officials to have the planned BART extension serve the Santa Clara Caltrain station, rather than the San Jose airport. The extension would run a total of 22 miles from the existing terminus at Fremont, south through Milpitas, southwest through downtown San Jose (past the Caltrain/Amtrak station), then northwest to Santa Clara, by about 2012. A terminus extending directly into the San Jose airport was rejected for its additional cost and for not attracting enough riders. Instead, a fixed connection from the Santa Clara station to the airport is favored. This fixed connection, possibly a monorail, is expected to carry more passengers than a direct BART connection alone, by virtue of its ability also to bring commuter rail passengers to the airport.

This approach is similar to what is being worked on at the Oakland airport now (where a link from Amtrak and BART should be ready in 2003). It's also similar to a proposal rejected in 1997 for the San Francisco airport. There, Caltrain passengers (and, one day, high-speed rail passengers) will have to connect to BART to reach the airport, when the next BART segment opens this fall, rather than having an airport station serving all modes with a dedicated connection into the airport proper.

A bill promoting issue of $9 billion in bonds for California high-speed rail was approved by that state's Senate on May 29, 21-9. That vote allows the bill to be sent to the Assembly, meeting a deadline for bills introduced this year to be approved by at least one house of the legislature. Ultimately, the bill will need two-thirds support in both houses (and the governor's signature) to pass -- and then the question will have to be approved by California voters.

Also in California, the Planning and Conservation League was successful in getting enough signatures to put its initiative on the November ballot. The measure -- the Transportation Relief and Safe School Bus Act -- would permanently dedicate 30% of the state share of the sales tax on motor vehicles to a variety of transportation purposes. This amounts to $800 million a year. Transit and rail are well represented in the measure along with highways.

CBS-TV's network news this evening will feature Amtrak's financial problems and the Empire Builder as part of the broadcast's "Eye on America" segment.

King County Metro Transit in Seattle will observe the 20th anniversary of the Waterfront Streetcar service on June 1, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm. The service began June 5, 1982. See Metro's web site for more details.

Norfolk Southern and Delaware have agreed to a plan regarding future passenger and freight traffic in that state. The plan allows the state to run passenger trains between Wilmington and Dover, possibly within six years. It also creates a financing plan for repairs to the Shellpot Bridge, which spans the Christina River on the freight bypass around the south side of Wilmington. That bridge, built in 1888 and closed for about 10 years, needs $13.5 million in repairs. Reopening the bridge will allow Norfolk Southern to serve the port and industrial sites without facing the restrictions of moving through downtown Wilmington on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (and even then, only at night).

The Macon City Council in the next week is expected to vote on a proposal to buy that city's historic Terminal Station from Georgia Power Co., for future use as an intermodal station. A plan to buy the station for $2 million was approved by a council committee on May 28. If the council approves the purchase, the city would own the property after 60 days. It could become a hub for local buses as soon as next winter. The city owned the building once before, from 1977 to 1982.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Department of Transportation on May 16 approved a plan to borrow $151 million to pay for engineering and right-of-way work on the Atlanta-Macon passenger rail line and for a downtown Atlanta intermodal station. This is good news that follows unsuccessful attempts to get $12 million into the state budget for the projects, earlier this spring. The entire project will cost about $236 million -- about half the cost of adding one highway lane the same distance, according to Amtrak Chairman John Robert Smith, who was in Macon this week.

The Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers also reports that the Georgia DOT recently announced it would apply fees it already gets for utility permits to the intermodal projects, including passenger rail. This is less than $5 million a year, but is the first time the DOT has had a dedicated funding source for anything other than roads or bridges.