Hotline #847 - October 14, 1994

The Amtrak reauthorization bills, as we reported last week, along with the bad Barton and Hutchison amendments we anticipated, died when Congress left last week. The high-speed rail authorization squeaked through at the last minute, but the barge safety bill died.

Amtrak continues to study dramatic service cuts to take effect as early as January. NARP is working to prevent any cuts. Meanwhile, the First Street tunnel under Capitol Hill in Washington is expected to be enlarged to accommodate Superliners and commuter bi-level cars by next March. This is being paid for by Amtrak, MARC, and VRE.

Amtrak pulled all advertising from NBC television because of Jay Leno's barrage of anti-Amtrak jokes on the Tonight Show. Many jokes have dealt with Amtrak accidents, including one really tasteless joke after the Sunset Limited accident in Alabama last year. Amtrak spends about $2 million a year at NBC.

The Talgo train was in Bloomington and Springfield, Ill., today. Tomorrow it is on display at Chicago Union Station from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm. On October 16 it is on display at Springfield from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm. On October 17 it goes to Alton and St. Louis. On October 18 it is on display at St. Louis Union Station from 1:30 pm to 7:00 pm. It returns to Chicago on October 19. On October 21, it stops for short displays at Battle Creek, Niles, Dowagiac, and Greenfield Village, Mich. On October 22 it visits Jackson and Ann Arbor and goes to Toledo October 23.

We hear that the State of Washington plans to renew its lease of the Talgo for several more months, so the train would return to Seattle-Portland revenue service after the current national tour.

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe filed their formal merger application with the Interstate Commerce Commission yesterday.

VIA Rail Canada announced yesterday it is cutting 478 jobs nationwide, most of them at the Montreal headquarters, because of falling federal support. VIA said this cut does not mean less service, though the Atlantic is still set for elimination December 15.

There will be several changes in the winter Amtrak timetable, which takes effect October 30. There are no service cuts to speak of, but rather changes that have been in the works for months. All of this information will be in the October newsletter, which is going out soon by first-class mail.

The biggest changes are on the New York-Florida line. These are meant to improve the reliability of the Silver Star's connection to the Capitol Limited and to cut expensive CSX switching charges at Auburndale, Fla. The Tampa section of the Silver Meteor will go to the Palmetto, which will be upgraded and extended south of Jacksonville. The Silver Meteor will have a Tampa-Winter Haven bus connection.

The eastbound Capitol Limited will leave Chicago 1:15 hours later than it does now, in order to restore the connection from the California Zephyr and keep it from the Empire Builder, which also runs later.

The Mount Rainier will be extended from Portland to Eugene through a new 403(b) contract with Oregon. The Seattle-Portland train which had the Talgo equipment is renamed the Mount Adams and will have a Thruway bus connection to Eugene.

A new Thruway bus will connect Jackson, Miss., with the Crescent at Meridian. This bus also will connect with the City of New Orleans, but only in one direction.

Another Thruway bus began in August, connecting Winston-Salem, N.C., with the Carolinian at Greensboro.