Hotline #849 - October 28, 1994

Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D.-Me.) and Amtrak President Tom Downs both addressed the NARP board meeting in at Portland, Me., yesterday.

They boarded a special run of the Talgo train at Saco, Me. The train was carrying NARP members, journalists, and public officials from Boston to Portland.

Mitchell, who is leaving the Senate, said he was sorry Amtrak service to Portland had not yet begun. But he said that NARP should come back to Portland next year.

Downs explained his views on how small business units will improve Amtrak service. He said he understood the political problems Amtrak would face if routes are cut in order to keep Amtrak within its budget.

A ceremony was held at the Portland station site when the Talgo arrived yesterday. The mayor presented the key to the city to the group. Tonight there will be a reception at the Portland Art Museum. TrainRiders/Northeast and its leader, Wayne Davis, deserve much credit for the organizing of the NARP meeting and for bringing trains to Maine.

The Talgo will be on display at Portland tomorrow from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Then it leaves at 3:00 pm for Boston, arriving at North Station about 7:45 pm.

The Amtrak board met on October 26. There was no discussion in public session of the impending operating deficit. It was reported that on-time performance is much better this fall and that in the first half of October, the Burlington Northern had the Empire Builder on-time 97% of the time. The final environmental impact statement for the Boston electrification should be out by the end of November. Construction should start March 20. Amtrak has hopes of getting Jay Leno onto an Amtrak train.

There will be a children's Halloween party tomorrow at Washington Union Station, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, in connection with the assignment of Superliners to the Capitol Limited. The changeover begins October 30, with the new timetable.

Due to the heavy flooding in southeast Texas, Sunset Limited passengers are being bussed between Houston and Beaumont. A barge knocked a bridge over the San Jacinto River out of alignment on October 18 and that will take two or three weeks to fix. The parallel Union Pacific line also has had washouts.

The National Transportation Safety Board this week released its final report on the Sunset Limited wreck in Alabama last year. The report's findings do not differ from a preliminary report released in June. It found that the accident was caused by a barge, lost in the fog, hitting a railroad bridge just before the train arrived. Barge safety legislation resulting from the accident died in Congress this year, but is expected to be reintroduced next year.

The Illinois Central and Kansas City Southern have called off their plans for merger.

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority has decided to rebuild its existing VAL people mover, which is 0.7 miles long, into a Bombardier monorail. This would be the first monorail in the country with a pure transit function.

Last-minute technical problems with the Eurostar high-speed train have cropped up. On October 20, a train broke down at Waterloo Station in London with 400 reporters on board. On October 21, it broke down at Calais with British Rail and Eurotunnel officials on board. Regular service from London to Brussels and Paris through the Channel Tunnel is supposed to start November 14.