Hotline #719

Train 94, the northbound Colonial, struck a loaded dump truck at a grade crossing and derailed the morning of April 29 shortly after departing Newport News, Va., killing the truck's driver. Of the 92 passengers on board, 53 were injured and six were kept in the hospital overnight. The locomotive slid down a steep embankment on its side. The first two coaches, which were empty, jackknifed but remained upright. The rear three coaches were on their sides. The line was reopened today.

The Presidential Emergency Board on Amtrak labor issues has been given an extension, but not the 30-day one they requested. The cooling-off period will now end June 24, at which time most parties expect an Amtrak strike of short duration. Congress will still be in session then.

Amtrak President Graham Claytor addressed the NARP Board of Directors today. Claytor described several additional, temporary steps Amtrak is taking to close its 1992 operating budget gap, including the following -- the Crescent will go to two locomotives and lose a coach to the City of New Orleans. The Harrisburg-Atlantic City train will be cut east of Philadelphia on weekdays, the food service taken off, and the Philadelphia commissary closed. On Saturdays, after 12:00 noon, conventional service between New York and Washington will be reduced from hourly to generally every two hours, including one round trip to Boston. Also, one New Haven-Springfield round trip and one Boston inland route round trip on Saturdays will be cut. On the Empire Corridor, five round trips a week will be cut, with some schedule adjustments from New York in the afternoon. These changes should take place around May 18.

On the good news side, Claytor said there were already three bids from manufacturers for building Viewliner cars. Also, the best news, Amtrak has gotten Congressional approval to count Heritage car overhaul as a capital expense, meaning $18 million was freed up to prevent a shutdown of Beech Grove this summer.

NARP Executive Director Ross Capon testified on April 29 in support of maximum Amtrak and transit funding during the public witness hearing on 1993 DOT appropriations in the House of Representatives.

H.R.4414, the Swift Ampenny bill, has several new co-sponsors. They are Reps. McDermott (Wash.), Wise (W.Va.), Jacobs (Ind.), Weldon (Pa.), Evans (Ill.), Hughes (N.J.), and Lehman (Cal.). Weldon is a Republican; the rest are all Democrats.

There is growing support in the House of Representatives for a balanced budget constitutional amendment. The House's change of heart is directly influenced by all the recent furor over the House Bank scandal. Such an amendment, which would take several years to enact, could have profound consequences for domestic discretionary programs such as Amtrak and transit -- all the more reason to get a passenger rail trust fund set up as outlined in H.R.4414.

The Iowa Senate approved a central Iowa Amtrak train, in principle, on April 27, but struck the money needed for it, which had already been approved by the House. They also killed a study approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Probably the matter will wind up in conference committee, where a victory for the House language would mean the train could start as soon as 1994. Defeat would mean an indefinite delay.

The Campaign for New Transportation Priorities has released its latest in a series of white papers. This time the topic is the success of light rail. It is available to members of NARP or affiliates of the CNTP for $4, and for $5 to non-members, care of the NARP office.