Hotline #795-A - October 18, 1993

The House-Senate conference on H.R.2750, the 1994 DOT appropriations bill, is now finished. The Amtrak numbers came out near the Senate numbers reported here earlier and outlined in the September 29 letter to all NARP members. Amtrak operations got $351.7 million, with $700,000 going to the second 403(b) train for North Carolina. Rep. David Price (R.-N.C.) is a member of the House transportation appropriations subcommittee and was a conferee. Still, at that level, it is probable that around November 1, the Pioneer and Texas Eagle will be cut to tri-weekly and the River Cities replaced with a bus.

Amtrak capital got $195 million and the Northeast Corridor got $225 million -- again, close to the good Senate numbers. The Clinton high-speed rail corridor program, which did well in the Senate but still is not authorized by law, got $20 million for maglev research and only $3.5 million for high-speed rail -- the latter a big disappointment for the Clinton DOT. In writing their 1995 DOT budget, we hope the Administration will recognize that high-speed rail in 1994 was a victim of the big highway spending increase proposed by the Administration.