Hotline
Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the RPA Blog.
Hotline #666
April 26, 1991
Yesterday was a banner day for passenger-rail advocates because the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works transportation subcommittee, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D.-N.Y.), released a Senate version of the surface transportation bill with much stronger flexibility provisions than were in the Administration's bill. The importance of that feature of this bill cannot be understated. Moynihan's bill would allow money from the Highway Trust Fund to be shifted to Amtrak and maglev as w
Hotline #665-A
April 23, 1991
Bombardier and Amtrak, at long last yesterday, announced an order for 140 Superliners. For $350 million -- or about $2.5 million apiece -- Amtrak will get six deluxe sleepers for the Auto Train, 49 standard sleepers, 38 coaches, 20 diners, 15 lounges, and 12 transition dorms, plus an option to purchase 39 more cars at the same unit price. The cars are patterned after the original Pullman Standard Superliners delivered between 1979 and 1981, for which Bombardier holds all patents. Amtrak still ha
Hotline #665
April 19, 1991
The good news about the railroad strike is that it was brief, that many passenger trains -- including virtually all commuter trains -- were unaffected, and that the media and our political leaders were focused on the significant role that freight trains still play. In an unusual hearing on April 17 at 8:00 am, Transportation Secretary Skinner said, "A national rail strike clearly impairs our national defense and has disastrous consequences for the economy. The rail industry moves more than one-
Hotline #664-A
April 15, 1991
A national freight railroad strike is now more likely than ever on the morning of April 17. That is the expiration of a cooling-off period following the Presidential Emergency Board report of January, which sought to address work rule and health and welfare issues, some going back to 1984. Last week, the unions offered to allow passenger trains to continue to operate. That may not be a grand gesture on their part, but rather an attempt to keep Congress from intervening very soon. However, the ra
Hotline #664
April 12, 1991
In the likely event of a national freight railroad strike on April 17, the labor community has offered to allow passenger trains to continue to operate. That is probably not a grand gesture on their part, but rather an attempt to keep Congress from intervening very soon. However, the railroads, who like the Presidential Emergency Board plan much more than do the unions, probably would like Congress to step in soon and impose that plan. Therefore, they are unlikely to allow movement of passenger
Hotline #663-A
April 11, 1991
An accident has tied up the Northeast Corridor all day today. At 3:00 am, a northbound deadhead move of Amtrak locomotives -- one F40 pulling three E60's -- skidded into a southbound 120-car Conrail coal train at Gunpowder interlocking near Chase, Md., just north of Baltimore. No passengers or passenger equipment were involved. The Amtrak engineer was seriously injured, the conductor less so. They had both jumped from the F40. Amtrak hoped to open one track by midday; in the meantime, passeng
Hotline #663
April 5, 1991
With great fanfare yesterday, a longtime NARP goal was realized with the dedication of the new West Side Connection. Several on-route ceremonies were held, with speakers including Amtrak President Graham Claytor, Sen. Al D'Amato (R.-N.Y.), Federal Railroad Administrator Gil Carmichael, New York DOT Commissioner Franklin White, Empire State Passengers Association President Stephen Salatti, and past president Frank Barry. Now, Amtrak's upstate New York service is united with the rest of the syste
Hotline #696-A
November 25, 1985
During a conference meeting last night, the language in the Senate surface transportation bill that included intercity passenger rail as an eligible program in the flexible account of the Highway Trust Fund was eliminated. Reportedly, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D.-N.J.) made a brave defense of intercity passenger rail, but could not convince the Chairman of the House Public Works Committee, Robert Roe (D.-N.J.). Normally, intercity passenger rail -- which is Amtrak -- falls under House Energy and Co