Hotline # 745 - February 10, 2012

UPDATED FEB. 11

It was a hectic week for rail and transit advocates (along with organizations focused on smart growth, labor, environmental protection, domestic equipment manufacturing and supply, and so on and so forth), who have been fighting tooth-and-nail to oppose a House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee transportation reauthorization that would gut funding for public transportation and continue to starve the Intercity and High-Speed Rail program.

[You can read “Forces rally around stopping House’s transportation bill” on the NARP blog for a clearer picture of how H.R. 7 would harm passenger rail and transit.]

Sometime next week, the U.S. House will vote on H.R. 7, the so-called “American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act.” NARP joined a coalition of transportation allies—including Transportation for America and the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association (along with countless others)—in opposing the bill yesterday.  So many people called in that House lines were jammed, and our servers briefly went down under the strain!

It’s not too late to call your Representative today and urge him or her to vote “no” on H.R. 7, mentioning specifically your opposition to the drastic transit provisions, the California high-speed rail prohibition, and the provision penalizing transit systems that operate rail lines. Please ask you Representative also to support the two likely pro-Amtrak amendments described below.

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Representative’s office. Click here to find out who represents you (enter your 9-digit ZIP code in the top right corner of the page).

If you can’t reach your Representative you can use this link to send their office a letter—although contact by phone is better, given the short timeframe involved.

Please tell your representative you support two pro-Amtrak amendments that may be offered when H.R. 7 is on the House floor. One amendment would strike from H.R. 7 the possibly unconstitutional prohibition against Amtrak suing competing rail passenger carriers. The authors of this language have stated that it is aimed at one situation. Amtrak filed a lawsuit against Veolia in the competition for the TriRail commuter rail contract (south Florida) because Veolia in its bid listed current Amtrak employees as managers. The philosophy behind this provision seems to be, “Who needs judges when we have the Congress?” An amendment to delete this objectionable provision may be offered by Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH).
Another amendment would remove the language requiring the Federal Railroad Administration to handle a bidding process for Amtrak’s food and beverage service. This would be extremely convoluted administratively and would be like the FAA telling Southwest Airlines who should serve as flight attendants on their planes. Amtrak believes the provision would effectively bar itself or its own employees from competing. Moreover, FRA is still digesting the hugely increased administrative burdens associated with the High Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail and TIGER grant programs and can ill afford to take on this complex task.
The House FY 1983 DOT appropriations report stated, “The Committee agrees that on-board food and beverage service is an integral and indispensable part of intercity rail passenger service, and it is clear that substantial revenues would be lost if this service were eliminated. The percentage of transportation revenues which might be attributed to the food and beverage account should be less than 10 percent.”  Amtrak says, “In this context, the F&B loss of $61 million in FY10 was well within this threshold, representing just 3.6% of ticket revenues of the $1.7 billion in that fiscal year.” Amtrak says that planned actions will reduce this loss to $45 million over the next four years, bringing the F&B loss down to 2.0% of project ticket revenue.
The amendment to delete the food and beverage language may be offered by Reps. Michael Grimm (R-NY) and Russ Carnahan (D-MO).
Finally, H.R. 7 is notable for something that is missing: continuation of the special provision which allows use of CMAQ funds to support the Downeaster. In this case, we need to make sure that senators get this right in the Senate bill. More info is at TrainRiders/Northeast’s website.


The Michigan Department of Transportation joined with Amtrak this week to announce that they have received approval from the Federal Railroad Administration to increase maximum train speeds in western Michigan and northern Indiana to 110 mph.  MDOT and Amtrak will reveal more details at an event held February 15.

The green-light was given following the successful implementation and testing of a type of Positive Train Control (PTC) safety system on Amtrak-owned track between Kalamazoo, Michigan and Porter, Indiana.  The increase will be implemented on a corridor used by the Wolverine Service (Pontiac-Detroit-Ann Arbor-Chicago, with three daily round-trips) and the Blue Water (Port Huron-East Lansing-Chicago, daily).

“This is the first expansion of regional high speed rail outside the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor,” said Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman. “With our partners in Michigan, we will extend this 110 mph service from Kalamazoo to the state’s central and eastern regions in the coming years.”

Amtrak has been working to steadily raise speeds on the corridor since 2001, when the top operating speed was increased from 79 mph to 90 mph.  The railroad—in conjunction with General Electric and the FRA—introduced Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) installed on the Amtrak-owned Michigan Line between Porter and Kalamazoo.

“Our state put the world on wheels and continues to be a leading transportation innovator,” said MDOT State Transportation Director Kirk Steudle. “Recognizing changing demographics and a burgeoning interest in passenger rail travel, we are proud to be the first state outside the Northeast corridor to enable 110 mph service.”

The next phase of the expansion plan involves extending ITCS to Dearborn, just eight miles west of Detroit.  It is one of the major spokes of a higher-speed Midwestern rail hub that will extend out from Chicago.  The State of Illinois is currently developing 110 mph service between Chicago and St. Louis, Missouri.


U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood toured California this week as part of a broad push to keep the 220 mph train between Los Angeles and San Francisco moving in the face of harsh criticism.

Starting out in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the Secretary met with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and local business leaders to promote the economic benefits that would attend the line.  Residents and businesses in Los Angeles and San Francisco alone lost nearly $13.5 billion in 2010 to congestion. 

“High-speed rail is absolutely essential to California’s economic future” said LaHood.  He added “We need to invest in the Central Valley today for high-speed rail to come to Los Angeles and San Francisco tomorrow… At this make or break moment, America needs a transportation jobs bill that includes resources to continue building a national high-speed rail network.”

That line was clearly directed at critics who have lambasted the decision to begin construction of the line in the middle—rather than the more heavily populated endpoints—as a “train to nowhere.”  Indeed, the DOT overtly pushed back against the characterization of the cities in the Valley as rural backwaters, pointing out that it is the fastest growing part of California and one of the fastest growing regions in the country—by 2050, the Central Valley is projected to double in size to more than 13 million people.

On Wednesday, LaHood continued on that theme as he met with Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin and Sacramento area business leaders.

“President Obama has called on us to rebuild America by putting people back to work making sure our country has the safest, fastest, most efficient ways to move people and products,” said LaHood in Fresno.  “Building a high-speed rail network, beginning here in California’s Central Valley with American workers and American companies, is a great place to start.”

Later on Wednesday, LaHood went north to Sacramento, to tour a Siemens locomotive plant and meet with California-based manufacturers, discussing with suppliers how they could maximize the impact of the nearly $800 million in next-generation trains being built and purchased this year.  Buy America provisions that accompany those federal grants means that those trains will be built in the U.S.  Siemens added 200 local jobs to carry out a $466 million contract to supply Amtrak with 70 electric locomotives, designated to run on the Northeast and Keystone corridors.

“California’s investments in high-speed rail are creating jobs for American workers today and building a strong foundation for California’s economic future,” said LaHood to a group of Californian industry leaders.

On Thursday, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson took LaHood on a tour of the Sacramento Valley Station construction site of the 240-acre Sacramento Railyards project; the project has received $40 million in federal funds in order to prepare Sacramento Valley Station to accept high-speed trains (in the mean time, the station is served by Amtrak). 

The City of Sacramento projects that beyond creating an estimated 2,000 jobs over the life of the construction, the project will double the footprint of downtown Sacramento, multiplying the economic benefits of the work by creating new opportunities for an entertainment district, new office buildings, hotels, condos and other development.

“This project is transforming downtown Sacramento and boosting the local economy,” said Secretary LaHood. “California’s investments are creating American construction and manufacturing jobs right now, while making communities across the state better places to locate businesses and hire new employees.”

It’s too early to tell whether LaHood’s message had a positive impact.  The project’s biggest selling point, however, may end up being the $74.5 billion final cost that critics have been bludgeoning the train with (that figure is in 2011 dollars, which translates to $98 billion in year-of-expenditure since the project slated to finish in 2033).  Over the next 40 years, the state’s population will grow by more than 20 million people.  Analysis by the California High-Speed Rail Authority projects that, without the high-speed rail system, California would need to invest $171 billion to acquire the equivalent transportation capacity—2,300 miles of new highways, 115 new airport gates, and four new airport runways.


The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the availability of a fourth round of Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants earlier this month, opening up $500 million for surface transportation projects having a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area, or region.

“President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address that investing in transportation means putting people back to work, and that’s just what our TIGER program is doing in communities across the country,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  “Americans are demanding investments in highways, ports, commuter rail, streetcars, buses, and high-speed rail.  These kinds of projects not only mean a stronger economic future for the U.S., but jobs for Americans today.”

TIGER has a focus on cross-regional, multimodal projects that have a hard time attracting funds through traditional funding channels.  Up to $100 million is eligible to be awarded to passenger rail projects.  Pre-applications are due February 20 and applications are due March 19.


Corrections to the February issue of NARP News

Note: These corrections have been made to the online version of the newsletter since it was emailed out Wednesday evening. To access the newsletter, you must be a NARP member. Click here to become a member. If you are already a member, you can access current and back issues of the newsletter here (member login required).

Corrections to the President’s Corner on Positive Train Control (pages 2-3):