Rail Passengers Urge DOT and Access Board to Break Station Improvements Logjam

Release #06-17—November 2, 2006

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Washington, D.C.—The board of directors of the National Association of Railroad Passengers approved a resolution urging the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Access Board to “end policies which have blocked new station development where full length level boarding is problematic,” and to “make clear that station development can proceed without fear of retroactive application of onerous, new requirements such as ‘full length level boarding.’”

The resolution, approved at the board’s semi-annual meeting in Austin October 21, cites as examples three cities where questionable interpretations of the Americans with Disabilities Act are holding up progress or helping to hold it up: New Buffalo, Michigan; Normal, Illinois; and Lyons, New York. The resolution also cites one city—Brattleboro, Vermont—where federal officials are requiring the state to build a full-length, high-level platform even though it is not practical.

A number of communities nationwide have expressed interest in rebuilding platforms and stations, but much of the effort is on hold because of uncertainty over the ADA regulatory situation.

The board’s resolution reinforces comments filed by the Association July 28 in which NARP urged DOT to withdraw the rulemaking that threatens to require full length level boarding platforms (Docket OST-2006-23985). NARP said then, “Amtrak and commuter rail have a long record of serving disabled passengers well, and have refined boarding techniques for disabled persons to minimize dwell time as a result of implementing ADA regulations.” NARP also commented favorably on the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink) suggestion of a joint task force to study the issues as a reasonable next step.
The full text of the board’s ADA resolution is at bottom.

Also in Austin, the NARP board reiterated its concern about differing provisions approved by the House and by the Senate Appropriations Committee dealing with Amtrak food and beverage and sleeping car services, and about a House provision on Amtrak overhead costs.

In other ADA-related developments,

• DOT on October 30 issued a federal register notice indicating it is amending its ADA regulations to adopt “as its regulatory standards, the new Americans with Disabilities Act Guidelines (ADAAG) recently issued by the [U.S.] Access Board, including technical amendments the Access Board subsequently made to the new ADAAG.” This is not a response to the above-referenced rule-making, and does not necessarily foretell how or when DOT will handle that rule-making.

• DOT in recent months approved an ADA plan for the Minneapolis-St. Cloud “Northstar Commuter Rail” project. The plan includes (a) on each platform, a short, high-level “block” (platform) set back 8-1/2 feet from center of track; and (b) wheelchair lifts on each car. The high-level platform likely will be used most often, but the lifts were important in gaining support of the ADA community because they assure access to every car on the train. This plan will reduce station and rolling stock costs dramatically and avoid a one-year delay.

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NARP BOARD RESOLUTION URGING BREAK IN ADA-RELATED STATIONS LOGJAM

Whereas Amtrak and commuter rail long have served disabled passengers well, and have refined boarding techniques for disabled persons to minimize dwell time while complying with ADA regulations;

Whereas federal officials in recent years have fostered controversy over the meaning of 1991 regulations, and threatened (in Docket OST-2006-23985) to require “full length level boarding” even though in many locations this would mean unsafe conditions and other operating problems and practical difficulties, including huge costs,

Whereas much station investment has ground to a halt either at the direction of federal officials or because prospective public and private investors are wary of the uncertain and unreasonable regulatory climate, thereby limiting the quantity and quality of public transportation for the disabled and for the general public,

Whereas the following three examples illustrate the problem:

• New Buffalo, Michigan, where a developer seeks to provide a modern, accessible station on tracks used by eight Amtrak trains a day, replacing the existing “gravel-strewn, below-the-rail platform” on a track used by just two Amtrak trains a day;

• Normal, Illinois, which has completed preliminary design for an intermodal transportation center (that also would serve Bloomington) and believes “the proposed rail [regulatory] modification…would…cause harm to efforts to provide easy intermodal transfers from Amtrak to local buses for our disabled and non-disabled population.”;

• Lyons, New York, which has been trying to build a station for over 15 years. Each time they have gotten funding, the freight railroad has raised the bar. CSX now is requiring an island platform with an overpass. The high-level platform DOT seeks presumably would require two by-pass tracks or gauntlets, pricing the project beyond the community’s reach. Moreover, even if funds were available, the westbound by-pass track would impinge on a freight yard, which CSX says is off limits; and

• In Brattleboro, Vermont, Federal Transit Administration is requiring the state to build a full-length platform even though there is not sufficient property for this and the station is served by just one train a day in each direction..

Therefore, be it resolved, that the Board of Directors of the National Association of Railroad Passengers urges the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Access Board to:

• end policies which have blocked new station development where full length level boarding is problematic, and

• make clear that station development can proceed without fear of retroactive application of onerous, new requirements such as “full length level boarding.”

—Approved October 21, 2006, by the Board of Directors of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, meeting in Austin, Texas