Hotline #795 - October 15, 1993

The House-Senate conference on H.R.2750, the 1994 DOT appropriations bill, began at 3:15 pm today and is still going. We will change this message early next week when we know the outcome. Conferees are Representatives Sabo, Carr, Durbin, Coleman, Price, Foglietta, Regula, Wolf, and DeLay; and Senators Byrd, Sasser, Lautenberg, Harkin, Mikulski, Hatfield, D'Amato, Specter, and Domenici.

There was a hearing in the Coast Guard and Navigation Subcommittee of the House Merchant Marine Committee, chaired by Billy Tauzin (D.-La.), on October 12. It was about the September 22 barge collision and Sunset Limited wreck at Mobile. The hearing got national media attention and much of it revolved around the use of navigational aids in tugboats and the proper marking of navigable channels leading to bridges.

It came out that the crew of the tugboat Mauvilla, lost in the fog, actually saw the railroad bridge on its radar, but mistook it for another set of barges. The Mauvilla then approached, wanting to communicate with the other barges, but hit the bridge instead. Also, only about eight minutes passed between the time of the impact and the arrival of the Sunset Limited. The Coast Guard was not notified until 20 minutes after the impact and 12 minutes after the derailment. The train arrived only four minutes after passing the last signal, so it is unclear in this case if immediate notification of the Coast Guard would have prevented the derailment in such a short time frame.

Tauzin said he planned to introduce legislation requiring navigational aids on tugboats. In the meantime, DOT Secretary Federico Pena has directed the Coast Guard to review all its inland navigation policies with this accident in mind.

Ironically, on October 11, a barge struck the CSX bridge over the Mobile River, just three miles east of the bridge where the Sunset Limited derailed last month. This time it happened in daylight, with no trains near and with a drawbridge tender on duty to stop rail traffic. The bridge was not badly damaged and reopened October 12 after inspection.

The Investigation and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Public Works Committee yesterday held a hearing on the progress of the flexible funding program in ISTEA. Committee Chairman Norman Mineta (D.-Cal.) said the response so far has not been "overwhelming." In fiscal 1992, for example, transit got only 3% of the $11.2 billion in highway funds available for flexing. That trend still seems to hold this year. Obstacles include "status-quo" mentalities in many states and some remaining state constitutional bans on spending state gas-tax revenues on anything but highways. Asked to cite an example of a state doing good intermodal planning, a Federal Highway official praised the Boston rail link.

The Burlington Northern and Washington State yesterday signed an agreement to spend $24 million in state funds on track improvements for Seattle-Vancouver service.

Secretary Pena and Senator Lautenberg on October 18 will travel to Hoboken for a 10:30 am public ceremony presenting federal funds for the Waterfront light-rail project.

The federal gasoline tax rose 4.3 cents on October 1. Although there were many dire predictions that people's lives would be ruined by the "burdensome" tax and that the national economy would grind to a halt, these extreme prophecies do not seem to have come to pass.

The NARP board meets October 22-23 in Chicago. Every effort will be made to produce a new message on October 22, as usual, but it may be shorter than normal.