Hotline #264 - October 11, 2002

Amtrak will discontinue its unconditional service guarantee program on November 1. Amtrak says that "customer satisfaction will remain an absolute priority," and that it will continue to use transportation vouchers and refunds (in some cases) as a response to poor service. Amtrak came to the conclusion that the unconditional guarantee, which began in 2000, was increasingly unworkable due to increasing, freight-rail congestion (causing delays to Amtrak trains) and decreasing heavy overhaul budgets (causing equipment to become worn in a customer-unfriendly manner). Amtrak rejected a retrenchment to the type of guarantee offered on the Coast Starlight 1996-2000, which excluded lateness and mechanical problems. Amtrak will reinstate the survey-based Passenger Satisfaction Index, which was dropped after 2000 due to budget concerns.

With virtually no chance of passing remaining appropriations bills for the current fiscal year (2003) before adjourning for the fall election season, Congress passed another continuing resolution to fund programs through October 18, and likely will pass another one next week. So far, continuing resolutions have funded Amtrak at an amount pro-rated from an annual amount of $1.04 billion (2002's appropriation of $521 million plus this summer's emergency appropriation of $205 million and $312 million of 2001's funding that Amtrak actually received in 2002). That's less than Amtrak's ultimate request of $1.2 billion, but far more than the House's disastrous $762-million level.

The House Transportation Appropriations Committee version of the 2003 transportation funding bill is numbered H.R.5559. In addition to the features described in previous Hotlines, the bill would require Amtrak to file a report to Congress on the "loss per passenger" for every Amtrak route. This does not measure the relative economic performance of a train. It does have sound-bite value for those predisposed to dislike long-distance service. For more, see our September 25 letter to Committee Chairman Bill Young (R.-Fla.).

Colorado Railcar has been touring a prototype, self-propelled, diesel-multiple-unit (DMU) this fall, having already stopped at an American Public Transportation Association meeting in Las Vegas and the Rail-Volution conference in Washington. This car meets current safety standards and can be built in several configurations (including powerless trailers). For future tour dates, see their web site.

The board of the Alaska Railroad met in Fairbanks October 3 and decided not to cut service on the flag-stop-oriented Hurricane service, after what Associated Press called "a storm of public criticism." The board chairman sided with "outraged local residents" and said that the railroad should look elsewhere to save money.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said that the experimental AirTrain equipment that derailed at Kennedy Airport in New York on September 27 was running at 55-58 mph. The train was being run manually by its driver, who was killed when ballast being used to simulate a passenger load shifted forward and crushed him. The trains are designed to run automatically, and are capable of 60 mph, but are planned to run 30-40 mph in automatic mode, and 25-30 mph in manual mode. The NTSB is looking at what instructions were given to the driver, previous testing methods, and whether appropriate ballast and methods to stabilize the ballast were used.

The State of New York and the U.S. Postal Service have reached an agreement to sell the Farley Building in Manhattan to the state's Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation. The Farley Building is across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station, and sits above many of its passenger platforms. The sale, for $230 million, would facilitate a ten-year-old plan to convert the Farley Building into an intercity rail center on a grander scale than the underground remnant of the old Pennsylvania Station. The 2001 terror attacks set the project back, by damaging a facility to which the Postal Service wanted to move some operations now at Farley. The Farley project would take five years to complete.

The New Jersey Transit board approved an environmental impact study for another Hudson River crossing on October 9. The step qualifies the project for future federal funding. The project is conceived of as two tubes leading to Penn Station, below the river bed, to cost about $5 billion, and will require several more years of study. The board also awarded a contract for redesign of the Trenton station, which is also used by SEPTA and Amtrak (and will be served by diesel-light-rail to Camden next year).

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on October 9 approved a plan to restructure management of transit services already provided by the MTA in the New York City area, with the goal of great money savings. Two commuter-rail agencies, Metro North and the Long Island Rail Road, would be merged into a single body called MTA Rail Road. Also, MTA Subway would run all subway service (now run by New York City Transit and Staten Island Rapid Transit). There would be an MTA Bus (made up of the several bus agencies), MTA Capital (to handle major building and expansion programs, including linking the Long Island Rail Road with Metro North's Grand Central Terminal), and MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The planned implementation date is January 1, 2004.

Amtrak's westbound Empire Builder derailed yesterday afternoon just as it was leaving Chicago Union Station, as it was passing over a series of complex switches. A sleeping car and a dining car derailed. After several hours' delay, the train was able to leave without those cars (but with a substitute diner). Many other Metra and Amtrak trains were delayed -- but able to pass through the area on one open track -- and service was normal this morning. Investigators are still looking at the cause of the low-speed derailment.