Hotline #824 - May 6, 1994

A budget resolution is now in the process of final approval, bringing us one step closer to House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee approval of a 1995 DOT spending bill. That may happen as early as May 23. That will be the first really important indication we will have on where Amtrak funding stands, but it is important for the Subcommittee to hear from your Representative and make the right decisions about Amtrak before then.

The opening of the Pontiac extension of Amtrak's Michigan corridor was yesterday.  It also was the opening of the new Detroit station in the New Center area, as outlined in the April newsletter.

Senators Lautenberg and Pell and Amtrak President Downs this morning spoke at a brief ceremony honoring the 25th anniversary of Metroliner service, which was in January.

Amtrak combined its Passenger Services and Transportation Departments into a new department of Customer Services, effective May 1. It will be headed by Art McMahon, who is now Passenger Services Vice President. Bob VanderClute, who was Transportation Vice President, will serve as an executive assistant to McMahon during the transition period.

The new, $3.2-billion Denver International Airport will miss yet another opening date. Due primarily to problems with the baggage system, opening has been delayed indefinitely beyond the current target of May 15.

DOT Secretary Federico Pena has announced a plan to remove responsibility for the air traffic control system from the Federal Aviation Administration and transfer it to a new government-owned corporation. The model for this would be Comsat or Amtrak. Pena said the corporation could be funded entirely by the users.

Queen Elizabeth rode a train this morning from England to France through the Channel Tunnel and met French President Mitterand at Calais for a dedication ceremony. They traveled back together for another ceremony at Folkestone.

But the Channel Tunnel is still without rail traffic. There may be no freight service until June and the BBC has said passenger trains may be delayed to October because rolling stock was still being tested for safety. The through-services we named last week were not quite right. According to the International Railway Journal, besides the truck and auto shuttles that will operate between the tunnel ends, there will be fast Eurostar day services from Edinburgh, Manchester, and London to Paris and Brussels. Night trains will run from Glasgow and southwest England to Paris and Brussels; and from London to Amsterdam, Dortmund, and Frankfurt.

There was some coverage of the event on this morning's network TV shows. ABC coverage was marred by a news anchor who kept hectoring the reporter about the tunnel's financial prospects. This is short-sighted. Years from now, long after the ABC anchor and all of us are dead, Europeans will have stopped asking that question and will still be enjoying this remarkable transportation asset.

It is true that Eurotunnel, which has just completed the world's biggest privately funded construction project, is about to run out of cash. It is seeking $1.8 billion more from shareholders and banks before the project is fully operational. One unfortunate by-product of private financing is reporting that calls into question the wisdom of the project itself, when the only real question is whether private financing is the right way to go.

The Canadian Supreme Court has decided to allow VIA Rail to abandon passenger service on Vancouver Island, as it tried to do in 1990. It was prevented from doing so then because the Province of British Columbia sued, saying the federal government has agreed to maintain the service forever as a condition of the confederation. Transport 2000 has called on the federal cabinet to continue the service.

May 10 is the 125th anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.