Hotline #832 - July 1, 1994

It now appears that the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee will approve a 1995 DOT funding bill on July 12. There is still time to tell your Senators, especially those on Appropriations, to be sure Amtrak gets adequate operating support. Amtrak revenues have done poorly this year, so an inadequate operating grant would have extremely serious consequences.

The Santa Fe and Burlington Northern announced yesterday plans to merge their companies, pending regulatory approval. The new railroad would be called the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company. It would have over 31,000 miles of routes and carry a quarter of the nation's rail freight. BN Chairman Gerald Grinstein would be chairman of the new company and Santa Fe Chairman Robert Krebs would be president and chief executive officer. A Don Phillips story in today's Washington Post pointedly called Santa Fe "well run" and said Krebs was "the obvious heir to the chairmanship" of the new company. Phillips quoted one Wall Street analyst who said, "Rob Krebs as CEO will really solve a lot of problems at BN."

Current BN and Santa Fe operations parallel each other most closely on the Chicago-Galesburg-Kansas City corridor, where Amtrak runs passenger trains on parts of both routes. BN, incidentally, is the only railroad with which Amtrak has an incentive contract that deals only with final terminal times and has no incentive for on-time performance at key intermediate points. Conrail, of course, remains the only Amtrak contractor with no incentive contract at all.

A smoky fire on the westbound Mohawk on June 29 near Schenectady caused a two-hour delay. An alternator in the rear turbo power car overheated and ignited. Five passengers were treated at local hospitals and released. The rear power car and adjacent coach were cut off and the train continued to Niagara Falls. The power car suffered $1 million in damage, but will be rebuilt. Rumors circulating in the local press about toxic fumes are false.

Florida East Coast Railway has agreed to discuss the return of passenger trains to its line between West Palm Beach and Miami. The FEC line serves more business districts than the CSX-maintained line now used by Amtrak and Tri-Rail. A Tri-Rail official told a local paper that using the FEC could save 20 to 30 minutes for commuters going from West Palm Beach to downtown Fort Lauderdale and Miami. FEC President Carl Zeller said, "Given the right conditions, if we got the Amtrak deal CSX has, we would take it ... Rail systems in Southeast Florida need to be rationalized." He told the Journal of Commerce that discussions with Florida DOT and CSX are in a preliminary stage.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said that, starting next year, one-third of all the gasoline sold in the U.S. must contain ethanol derived from renewable resources such as corn. The oil companies are against it. This is expected to reduce organic compounds and toxic pollutants by 15%.

The Swedish government gave its final approval on June 16 to build a $3-billion rail and highway bridge-tunnel across the straits to Denmark. The ten-mile project will connect Sweden's rail network with that of the European continent. By 2000, it will connect Malmo with Copenhagen, by way of Copenhagen's international airport, which is the major air hub of Scandinavia.

Passenger train service through the Channel Tunnel, which was expected to begin today, now has been postponed until the fall. Apparently, preparations for the service on the British side are not complete.

Last week's extension of St. Louis MetroLink light rail to the airport was attended by President Clinton, DOT Secretary Pena, and House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt.