Hotline #804 - December 17, 1993

President Clinton reportedly wants to make his fiscal 1995 spending decisions by Christmas, but details such as how much Amtrak will get doubtless will take longer than that. Nonetheless, now is a good time to write, reminding Clinton of Amtrak's needs and the fact that all the easy savings have been made.

The National Transportation Safety Board held public hearings December 13-15 on the September wreck of the Sunset Limited. On December 13, an Amtrak lounge attendant testified that after he was rescued from the water by the crew of the tugboat Mauvilla, one of the crew members told him that the barges had struck the bridge. That would mean the tugboat crew realized their error earlier than had been believed previously. However, on December 15, that Mauvilla crew member contradicted the lounge attendant's testimony, saying he never said such a thing to anyone and did not know the barge hit the bridge until after the train derailed.

The hearings come in the wake of yet another incident of a barge hitting a railroad bridge, though this time without tragic consequences. On December 1, a barge hit a Norfolk Southern bridge in downtown Knoxville, Tenn., knocking it nine inches out of line. The barge radioed authorities, but reported hitting a nearby CSX bridge. Despite a delay in determining the correct bridge that was hit, no train was involved. There have been other incidents in December, too.

Amtrak and CSX have sued five companies for damages resulting from the November 30 grade-crossing accident near Kissimmee, Fla. Defendants include the Kissimmee Utility Authority and the trucking company that was delivering a large generator to the utility. The railroads say they were never notified that the special shipment would be using the crossing where the accident took place.

This morning, NARP staff had their first formal meeting with new Amtrak President Thomas M. Downs. The meeting was very positive, with Downs expressing a great desire to improve customer service and Amtrak's ability -- through passenger surveys rather than simply counts of complaint letters -- to measure corporate progress in key areas, including courtesy and cleanliness.

A public-private venture between the Federal Aviation Administration and IBM to modernize the air traffic control system has already had a $1.2-billion cost overrun, with no end in sight, according to the Washington Post (December 14).

The Texas TGV Corporation has announced that a financing plan, which was designed to meet a state-imposed December 31 deadline for implementation, has fallen through. The Texas High Speed Rail Authority was to meet today to decide the final fate of the project, and indications are not good.

Anxious to prove that the Germans are willing to use their own technology before selling it to the rest of the world, the German Ministers of Finance and Transport have announced that they expect a plan for a Berlin-Hamburg maglev to be approved by the entire cabinet in March. The 175-mile line is to cost more than $5 billion and be ready in 2004. While it is planned to serve the main railway station in downtown Hamburg, in Berlin it will be limited to the western periphery of the city. Environmental groups are beginning to assert resistance to the project. Rail projects, such as the Berlin-Hannover ICE line, with through-service to Hamburg, and a new central railway station for Berlin are to proceed as planned.

The last run of the ICE in the United States was December 15. On December 20, it will be loaded on a ship and sent back to Germany. This is also the end of Amtrak's 15-month program to test European high-speed trains in the U.S.

Denver's first light-rail vehicle began test runs on December 9. Service is expected to begin next October.