Hotline #816 - March 11, 1994

The Spanish Talgo train will arrive by ship in Baltimore tomorrow. It will undergo several days of testing in the Washington, D.C., area before departing March 22 for the Pacific Northwest. It starts revenue service between Seattle and Portland April 3.

The House is expected to approve its budget resolution today. Last week, the House Budget Committee restored the $200 million in transit operating funds cut by President Clinton. The Committee took money from outside transportation and from transit capital, thereby eliminating some of the increase Clinton had recommended. The resolution appears to accept Clinton's numbers and his proposed 40% cut in Section 3 "new start" rail transit funds. This is our first indication of where Congress is headed, though the appropriations process could still change it somewhat.

The House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee will hold hearings on the 1995 FRA program funding on April 16, and on Amtrak on April 17. Tom Downs will make his first appearance as president of Amtrak before a Congressional panel. The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee will have a hearing on 1995 Amtrak funding on April 24.

On April 23, DOT, Amtrak, NARP, and others will testify before the Surface Transportation Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee about Amtrak reauthorization. Chairman Al Swift (D.-Wash.) likely will give special attention to the future of the Section 403(b) program. The Administration has considered making states pay 100% of service costs on any route after seven years of operation.

Former Federal Railroad Administrator John Riley died March 6 after a lengthy struggle with brain cancer. He was 47. Riley led the FRA from 1983 to 1989, during the Reagan Administration, which were challenging times for Amtrak. He was a skillful tightrope walker whose testimony nominally defended Reagan's Amtrak budget proposals while simultaneously scoring points for Amtrak. He was deeply involved in the passage of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 1988, which resulted from the Chase, Md., accident. Riley later served at Minnesota Transportation Commissioner and as the governor's chief-of-staff. He was chairman of the Regional Transit Board in the Twin Cities in 1993.

There soon may be one less promoter of maglev technology. Grumman was the subject of a takeover by defense industry giant Martin Marietta this week. With headquarters in Long Island, Grumman was an important reason politicians from New York State became such supporters of maglev. Martin Marietta is headquartered in Maryland and has had much the same effect in terms of generating support for a 40-mile maglev between Washington and Baltimore. However, later in the week, Nothrup Corporation announced a higher bid for Grumman and the whole deal may be up in the air.

The Northeast Illinois Planning Commission, which is the MPO for the Chicago region, is considering withdrawing its support for a third area airport at Peotone, according to the Journal of Commerce. Better still, the Air Transport Association of America, the trade group representing airlines, opposes the airport and is encouraging the NIPC to drop its support. NARP long has maintained that the money for this $11 billion boondoggle would be far better spent on rail. The state government remains in favor of the new airport.

Streetcars began running in Sarajevo this week, causing some residents to cry with emotion over seeing the once-familiar sight for the first time in nearly two years. However, according to the Washington Post, none of them are the old PCC cars that were sold to Sarajevo after streetcar service ended in Washington, D.C., in 1962. All of those were retired before the war, with only one car kept as a museum piece.

At the Region 8 meeting last week, Jim Hamre, Hans Mueller, Ray Polani, and Bob Stevens were elected to the NARP board. Tomorrow, Region 1 meets at the Boston Sheraton; Region 10 at the Oxford Hotel in Denver; and Region 12 at Spenger's Fish Grotto in Berkeley. On March 19, Region 4 meets in Baltimore, where the guest speaker is Amtrak Executive Vice President Dennis Sullivan. Region 6 meets the same day at the Radisson Hotel in Toledo and Region 9 meets at the Bi-State office building in St. Louis.