Hotline #831 - June 24, 1994

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee may consider the DOT funding bill on June 29; full committee action normally comes within 24 hours. Labor and freight railroads are among those lobbying the Senate not to join the House in defunding the Interstate Commerce Commission. Moving ICC responsibilities to adjudicate Amtrak/freight railroad disputes to DOT could mean trouble for Amtrak under the next unfriendly Administration.

Senate Commerce mark-up of Amtrak's authorization is likely after the recess ends on July 11. A revived high-speed rail bill may take the form of a new title in this bill.

On the Amtrak board, we hear that Gov. Tom Carper (D.-Del.) will get a four-year term replacing Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R.). Also, Celeste Pinto McLean, a Republican lawyer from Los Angeles who has worked for Flying Tigers, the airfreight carrier, will be nominated to a four-year term in the vacant business slot. Both require Senate confirmation, but McLean was at this week's board meeting and Delaware DOT Secretary Ann Canby participated in some of the board's activities.

Amtrak today said its board approved the appointment of George D. Warrington as Chief Executive Officer - Northeast Corridor Operations, effective July 16. Thus he will head the Northeast SBU and report directly to President Tom Downs. Warrington was President of the Port Authority Transit Corporation and Executive Director of the Delaware River Port Authority from July 1992 to January 1994 and has held high positions at New Jersey DOT and New Jersey Transit. He has been consulting for Downs at Amtrak for several weeks. The SBU's new organization design will be implemented later this fall.

The National Transportation Safety Board debated release of its final report of the causes of last September's wreck of Amtrak's Sunset Limited on June 21. The Board sent the report back to professional staff for more work and will reconsider it July 19, but final recommendations will not change.

The report said the main cause was a barge knocking a railroad bridge out of alignment. It said the barge pilot was distracted just before hitting the railroad bridge. It cited the barge company for not providing adequate training and navigation aids and cited the Coast Guard for not requiring higher licensing standards. The Board split on holding others responsible for risks relating to the bridge itself, recommending a multi-agency task force to assess risks of road and rail bridges near navigable waters.

The Board said Amtrak should "require an effective system of apprising passengers of safety information," do better at getting passenger and crew lists to authorities during emergencies, and equip cars with "portable lighting for use by passengers in an emergency."

The UTU's Long Island Rail Road strike was settled at 10:00 pm on June 18, 46 hours after it began. Limited service resumed within hours. Governor Cuomo pressured management to give higher wages without productivity gains.  The new contract runs only through December 31.

Cherry Hill, N.J., on July 2 will replace Lindenwold as an Amtrak stop. Station dedications took place yesterday in Flagstaff, Ariz., and today in Gallup, N.Mex. Amtrak now shares the Flagstaff station with a visitors center; Amtrak's space is said to be beautiful but too small. New Mexico ran out of funds to build an entire transportation center in Gallup and only the Amtrak portion is done.

As a result of favorable action in Oregon today, a 403(b) service between Eugene and Portland could start as early as October.

The Transportation Research Board released a study last week saying congestion pricing for highways ought to be tried. The Highway Users Federation and the American Trucking Associations promptly attacked the ideas as "impractical" and "unfair."