Hotline #284 - February 28, 2003

The States for Passenger Rail Coalition held a well attended Capitol Hill briefing on February 27. The speakers were Reps. Jack Quinn (R.-N.Y., Railroads Subcommittee Chairman) and Howard Coble (R.-N.C.). Quinn said that he and Ranking Democrat Corrine Brown (Fla.) "approach rail in a real nonpartisan way ... I can't imagine America without a national passenger rail system ... You probably never make a profit as a public service.  I've said we've always given Amtrak just enough money to fail." Quinn said that Amtrak President David Gunn is "the right person in the right place at the right time." He said he was "even" encouraged by the Administration's request of $900 million for Amtrak in 2004 -- "I think [Secretary] Mineta and [Deputy Secretary] Jackson 'get it.' They know we can't send Gunn into negotiations with the workers if they don't know a stable system will be there ... I'm encouraged that we're heading in the right direction."

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials circulated a statement calling for federal funding to let Amtrak keep running for at least two years, a moratorium on higher state payments to Amtrak, and a passenger rail policy to be developed by the federal government.

Jean Kirby, of the Greater Atlanta Chamber and the Southeastern Economic Alliance (14 chambers of commerce from Richmond to Birmingham), cited a consultant's finding that the southeast would have to spend $4.5 billion a year on highways just to keep congestion from getting worse, and that Atlanta -- in danger of going from "serious" to "severe" on air quality -- is limited in what it should spend on roads. The business community hopes for a high-speed network using dedicated tracks because the freight railroads "feel strongly we can't run over 90 mph on their tracks."

The Southeastern high-speed rail concept has the support of Reps. Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.) and Johnny Isakson (R.-Ga.), who announced at a February 26 Capitol Hill news conference that they will seek $10 million in study and analysis funding as part of the TEA-21 surface transportation reauthorization.

David King, Deputy Secretary of North Carolina DOT, chaired the session and ended by summarizing the message, "We need the feds to fill the gaping hole in transportation policy!"

A joint hearing of the Aviation and Railroads Subcommittees of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committees was held February 26, entitled, "Planes, Trains, and Intermodalism -- Improving the Link Between Air and Rail." It was chaired by Aviation Chairman John Mica (R.-Fla.), who called for high-speed rail investment, and an "embrace of new technology" -- a Washington-New York maglev, on a new right-of-way, which he claims will be cheaper than upgrading the Northeast Corridor. His focus on an expensive, untried technology seems to rule out the alternative of providing proper funding (for the first time) to develop a network of fast passenger trains, as other countries have done and are still doing.

Hank Dittmar, of the foundation-supported Reconnecting America group, called for replacing short-distance flights with trains, noted that 2003 is an opportunity for a coordinated approach, since reauthorization of air, highway, transit, and rail programs is on the table. NARP believes that such a system, also tied together with trains going longer distances, is in the interest of the traveling public and of national security. NARP filed a statement for the record, and indicated general support of Dittmar's testimony.

The National Rail Defense Act, S.104, got its 32nd sponsor this week (Kohl, D.-Wis.). This bill authorizes investment in corridors and nationwide service alike.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on February 26 approved H.R.874, the "Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance Act Of 2003." It was introduced the day before. This bill would require the National Transportation Safety Board to provide an assistance phone number for family members of victims of intercity passenger train accidents, and bars solicitation of family members and injured parties for 45 days after an accident. While it largely codifies Amtrak's current practices, it would apply to potential future carriers as well. A similar bill was approved by the House two years ago but never considered by the Senate.

The threat to one of the two St. Louis-Kansas City trains has been postponed. Funding for the Mules was set to run out today, and Amtrak had been saying today would be the last day of service. However, Amtrak has been encouraged by movement of supplemental appropriations bill HB15, which contains $800,000 to continue running both daily round trips (Mules and Ann Rutledge) for the rest of the fiscal year (ending June 30), and has decided to keep running them for now. The Missouri House approved the bill, and the Senate may vote on it on March 3.

The $400,000 difference between bill's funding level and the $1.2 million originally sought by Amtrak is to be made up partly by unstaffing the Kirkwood and Jefferson City stations. A $5 fare surcharge on each ticket also is under discussion, but it is unclear what impact that would have on the service's bottom line.

CSX's weather-related problems continued last weekend with 15-mph, passenger-only slow orders in many places north of Savannah to Washington and west to Cumberland and towards Huntington. Freight slow-orders were 40 mph.  Norfolk Southern routes from Alexandria and Raleigh to the southwest were not affected. CSX also imposed a flash-flood warning from New Orleans to Mobile, again at 15 mph, which caused Amtrak to annul the Sunset Limited and replace it with buses. Richmond line trains were severely delayed on February 22 and 23, some taking up to ten hours to complete a two-hour trip from Washington.

Perhaps the 15 mph dictate came from the CSX legal department. In any event, there is no engineering basis for running freight trains 25 mph (167%) faster than passenger trains on the same track. Indeed, given identical speeds, a heavy freight train is more likely to derail on certain substandard track.

Virginia officials, along with officials from CSX, Amtrak, and Virginia Railway Express, met on February 25 to talk about the closure of the CSX Washington-Richmond line February 16-18 (when Amtrak north of Washington and Norfolk Southern kept running). The meeting was described by the Washington Post (February 28) as "sometimes testy." The Post said that CSX insisted it had to shut down during the storm, but that they could do better in the future.  CSX avoided answering VRE's questions about why the short Washington-Alexandria segment, equipped with state-funded switch heaters, could not have remained open, and about why local CSX officials couldn't make some decisions now made at CSX's center command center in Jacksonville, Fla.

The southbound Texas Eagle, running over nine hours late on February 25 due to Union Pacific slow orders, freight interference, and inability of UP to dispatch crews in icy conditions, terminated in Fort Worth and originated there the next day.

A Norfolk Southern freight derailment west of Johnstown, Pa., on February 25 resulted in disruptions to Amtrak trains between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, including annulments and bus substitutions.

Amtrak has a healthy share of the Northeast Corridor market, according to a quote in a Boston Globe (February 26).  Amtrak says that from April to June 2002, it had a 53% share of the combined air-rail market between Washington and New York (endpoint-endpoint) -- more than the airlines combined. Using the same measures, Amtrak had 37% of the Boston-New York market (more than any single airline), and 25% of the Boston-Philadelphia market.

During a session with reporters on February 26, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Tex.) repeated her desire to keep Amtrak going (San Antonio News-Express, February 27). "I just don't want to give up on Amtrak, but I want it to operate efficiently," she said. Amtrak has been "starved" for resources, she said.

The Amtrak station at High Point, N.C., will close after March 28 for the duration of its reconstruction project, and trains will not stop there again until the work is done in July. Work on the two-level station has been a challenge while it remains in service.

The Canadian Transport Ministry unveiled a long-term transportation plan on February 25. Among other things, it seeks a "VIA Rail Act" which would be analogous, roughly, to an Amtrak reauthorization act in the U.S. Congress. One Ministry goal for that act would be to give VIA Rail the ability to make more service decisions without government permission than it can now.

The Champlain Flyer commuter service in Vermont made its last run today, closed by order of Gov. Douglas. It could be reinstated later if delayed US 7 reconstructions begins -- which was the service's original purpose.

NARP Region 2 will meet on March 1 in Schenectady, N.Y.; Region 9 will meet in Fort Worth, Tex.