Hotline #715

President Bush appointed a Presidential Emergency Board on March 31 to prevent an Amtrak strike tonight. The board has 30 days to recommend settlement terms and then management and labor have 30 more days to accept or reject the terms, meaning no strike can happen legally before June 3. If there is a strike, Congress may step in and legislate a settlement, as they did last year with the freight strike. Amtrak has new contracts with 54% of its unionized workforce.

The Montrealer's present route and schedule are now permanently official. Instead of the disastrous Boston day-train idea, Amtrak will cut costs by eliminating the dining car and providing food service from the lounge car. Sleeping-car passengers will get boxed meals. Checked baggage service will be cut to ski season alone. Only one sleeper will operate, but there will be two on peak weekends. The current discount fare will remain in effect indefinitely.

H.R.3732, which would have allowed the transfer of funds from military to domestic programs, was defeated in the House on March 31, 187-238. Seventy-six Democrats voted against it. The equivalent Senate bill, S.2399, was delayed by Republicans. That means it will take a major effort on our part to even get level funding for Amtrak in 1993. It also means that any jobs bills are dead, from which Amtrak had been hoping for money to keep Beech Grove open this summer. In fact, some Amtrak officials are now saying there will have to be a supplemental appropriation from Congress.

Rep. Al Swift (D.-Wash.), in press conferences on March 28 in Washington State, announced that a deal had been struck between Amtrak and the state DOT for twice-daily Seattle-Vancouver service and a fourth Seattle-Portland trip. However, final funding agreements must be reached. The service could start in October 1993.

The current co-sponsors of H.R.4414, the Swift Ampenny bill, now total twelve, with the addition this week of Lucien Blackwell (Pa.).

House Public Works Chairman Robert Roe (N.J.) will retire at the end of this term. Roe is credited with preserving a balanced transportation element of the ISTEA bill, particularly for his home state, but took most of the blame for dropping Amtrak from the bill. Likely successors are Norman Mineta (Cal.) or James Oberstar (Minn.).

California Capitol Corridor ridership continues to grow. Train 722 of March 28, the morning train out of San Jose, had nine cars and 1,105 passengers -- 250 of those were standees. The estimated March ridership is now 48,000.

ATE, which won the bid to run the San Francisco-San Jose commuter line in February, abruptly withdrew after the three counties refused its request for $100 million in liability insurance. Amtrak had been the other bidder. Amtrak is among the bidders for a contract to operate commuter trains in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We sadly report the death of long-time activist Lettie Gay Carson, on March 18. She fought a long battle to preserve passenger and freights service on the New York Central Putnam Division and continued to lobby for balanced transportation even after retiring to Newtown, Pa., in 1980. Mrs. Carson was 91.

Transport 2000 asks NARP members interested in preserving VIA Rail service at the present station at Levis to write Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, care of the House of Commons, Ottawa. The National Transportation Agency has ordered a new station to be built on a bypass line by October 31, at a location far less convenient than the present riverfront location, even though appeals are pending. Then CN would abandon the present line through Levis. Political pressure, however, did help the NTA reverse its abandonment order on the Gaspe line.

The following were elected March 28 to the NARP board from Region 7 -- Howard Baitcher, Ron Boardman, Ed Leight, Pierre Loomis, John Parkyn, David Randall, Patricia Robbins, and Jim Sponholz. Tomorrow are the last two meetings; Region 6 meets at Beech Grove and Region 10 at Ottumwa.