Hotline
Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the RPA Blog.
Hotline #768
April 9, 1993
Seven Republicans voted against the Danforth amendment on March 31, and thus voted for Amtrak. We apologize for omitting Senator Specter (R.-Pa.) from last week's list of pro-Amtrak votes. Also, some callers on March 26 heard a week-old message after an introduction indicating they would get a new text. If you would like a refund for this, send us a note that includes the number from which you placed the call. President Clinton released his budget yesterday. As expected, in 1994, he would conti
Hotline #767
April 2, 1993
An amendment to strike all Amtrak funding from the Clinton stimulus package was introduced by Sen. John Danforth (R.-Mo.) on March 31. Even though part of the funding is to pay for parts the rehired workers would need, Danforth used simple division to conclude, falsely, that Amtrak funding would produce jobs at a cost of $122,000 per worker. Danforth's opening statement concluded, "What is really outrageous is we are weighing in in such a heavy-handed fashion on the side of one competing mode of
Hotline #766
March 26, 1993
Although the Senate yesterday approved the budget resolution that President Clinton wanted, the Senate's vote next week on the stimulus package of supplemental 1993 funding will decide whether and when Amtrak gets its $188 million. Senators Boren and Breaux were negotiating with the Administration, but they contemplate delaying up to six months about half of the stimulus package -- including all the Amtrak funding and 36% of the transit funding -- while allowing all the highway and airport spend
Hotline #765
March 19, 1993
President Clinton's selection of Mort Downey as Deputy Secretary of Transportation has been applauded loudly by the American Public Transit Association. Downey worked for the Carter DOT and as New York MTA's executive director and chief financial officer. The southbound Silver Star struck a gasoline tanker truck north of Fort Lauderdale on March 17. The truck had stopped in error on the crossing because of traffic ahead. The truck exploded, touching off a fireball that killed the driver and fiv
Hotline #764
March 12, 1993
The House Appropriations Committee has passed the Clinton 1993 supplemental funding/stimulus package. Also, the House Budget Committee has passed a budget resolution with spending guidelines for fiscal years 1994 through 1998. It has more spending cuts than the President sought and freezes non-entitlement spending at 1993 levels, with no room for inflation, for all five years. But it is unclear whether the freeze is at 1993 levels with or without the stimulus funding. The Senate Budget Committee
Hotline #763
March 5, 1993
PATH train service from New Jersey to the rail station below the World Trade Center in Manhattan was restored by morning rush hour on March 1, which is near-miraculous considering the amount of damage there from the fatal February 26 bomb blast. The station is just below the parking garage where the terrorist bomb was and its ceiling collapsed onto the tracks and platforms. The target date for opening the Los Angeles-San Diego line is now March 10. It was closed by a landslide on February 22.
Hotline #762
February 26, 1993
New York police are reporting that a bomb may have caused an explosion below the World Trade Center today, collapsing the ceiling of the PATH rail station and perhaps killing two and injuring 300. Very little is known at this time. Congress is under growing pressure to cut spending, rather than go along with the Clinton economic stimulus package. Some columnists are attacking such items as the added $188 million for Amtrak capital and the long-term high-speed rail money. So tell your Senators a
Hotline #761
February 18, 1993
President Clinton's economic stimulus package was revealed last night in the State of the Union address and it had good news for supporters of balanced transportation. Also, last night's address was the first to mention "high-speed rail." Of $4.2 billion in added 1993 transportation funding, Amtrak would get $188 million, part of it for recalling the laid-off Beech Grove maintenance workers. Highways would get $3 billion more (their full ISTEA amount), but transit would get $750 million more, o
Hotline #760
February 12, 1993
"Time for Railroad Investment," by NARP Executive Director Ross Capon, is the leading opinion column in the February 11 Journal of Commerce. Capon urges President Clinton to make good on his campaign promise to improve America's passenger trains. For a copy of the column, send NARP a self-addressed, stamped envelope. President Clinton is to address Congress on February 17, unveiling his short-term jobs stimulus package. Some reports suggest he will include full funding of ISTEA and about $50 mi
Hotline #759
February 5, 1993
Congress is on recess until February 16, perhaps a good time to remind your legislators that you support a gas tax with a penny for Amtrak and that you want Amtrak included in any economic stimulus package. DOT Secretary Federico Pena told the nation's governors on February 2 that he has put Amtrak "on the table," but he won't know if Amtrak is in President Clinton's package until it is unveiled on February 17. The 1994 budget will be unveiled in March. Senator Lautenberg's transportation suppl