Hotline #859 - January 6, 1995

The 104th Congress was sworn in on January 4. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R.-Kans.), in his opening speech, said, "We will roll back federal programs, laws, and regulations from A to Z -- from Amtrak to zoological studies -- working our way through the alphabet soup of government." This "A to Z" reference has been something of a slogan, and so it is too bad that Amtrak starts with "A." This does not mean that Dole personally believes in killing Amtrak. But it is appropriate to let him know not to harm Amtrak, no matter where you live, because he is more of a national figure than most Senators and has presidential aspirations. Dole's phone number is 202/224-6521.

Here are the names of all members of the Railroad Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee -- Molinari (chair, R.-N.Y.), Boehlert (R.-N.Y.), Kim (R.-Cal.), Franks (R.-N.J.), Mica (R.-Fla.), Quinn (R.-N.Y.), Bachus (R.-Ala.), Kelly (R.-N.Y.), Shuster (R.-Pa.), Lipinski (ranking member, D.-Ill.), Clement (D.-Tenn.), Nadler (D.-N.Y.), Rahall (D.-W.Va.), Borksi (D.-Pa.), Cramer (D.-Ala.), and Mineta (D.-Cal.). Many of these names from both parties are friendly to rail.

We hear that Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) has been named chairman of the Senate Commerce Surface Transportation Subcommittee, which will have authorization jurisdiction over Amtrak.

Vermont and New Hampshire transportation officials will hold a public meeting to discuss the future of passenger rail service in their states. All are welcome. The meeting is January 9, 9:00 am, in Montpelier, in the Pavilion Building, next to the State Capitol.

The Crescent High Speed Rail Corridor Coalition was formed by representatives along the route from Slidell, La., to Tuscaloosa, Ala., at a meeting in Meridian on January 4. Mayor Al Dupont of Tuscaloosa and Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian were elected co-chairmen. The coalition set two priorities -- preservation of daily Crescent service to New Orleans and support of a pending proposal to the Alabama Rapid Rail Commission to use existing funds for reduced-frequency Gulf Breeze service through September 30.

Amtrak gave presentations to the state DOT's in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri this week on how service-cut decisions were made, but these were not formal negotiations. There were concerns that Amtrak had not been forthcoming in providing figures that went into the calculations used to decide which services to cut. Amtrak cited proprietary concerns.

A start-up of Boston-Portland service this year is in jeopardy. Guilford says there is not enough time to order materials and do the track work. More importantly, while the State of Maine announced in October that a Section 13(c) labor protection agreement had been reached, it was never signed. In light of Amtrak's budget problems, the state wants to wait to sign the agreement until it has heard from Amtrak what its position on the service is now.

Contrary to what was reported earlier, Amtrak does not plan to discontinue the New York-Harrisburg trains. The trains under threat -- unless Pennsylvania increases its payments -- are the Harrisburg-Philadelphia trains, numbers 600 through 620, plus Atlantic City-Harrisburg trains 693 and 696.

The MARC commuter service in Maryland has announced it will buy 50 bi-level commuter coaches from Kawasaki Rail Car of Yonkers, N.Y. The cars will cost $1.6 million each and will be assembled in Maryland. They will be delivered in 1997 and replace MARC's 20 oldest cars, which are over 40 years old.

Former House Energy and Commerce Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Al Swift (D.-Wash.) is now Burlington Northern's vice president of government relations.