Hotline #910

A Metra train route departs Chicago from Union Station. Image courtesy of Douglas Rahden.

We’re learning more about the impact of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s (R) budget cuts – and it could be worse than we thought. Amtrak, Metra, CTA, Pace and Downstate bus services are all poised to see serious service reductions and fare increases.

NARP thinks it’s time to change the conversation, so we're joining with the Midwest High Speed Rail Association to push the Grow Illinois Transit Campaign, which will let Illinois residents know how they will be affected by these cuts – and help them to stand up for the services they depend on.

At GrowIllinoisTransit.org, NARP members can learn about the impact of the cuts, see how to grow transit and the economy and send a message to the governor and General Assembly.

Can you take one minute to stand up for transit today?

Budget negotiations are heating up in Springfield, and any action taken today will have an outsized impact. Help us make it clear that Illinois does not want cuts to transit by letting state representatives know here how important Illinois transit services are.

Five days after the Obama administration imposed tougher safety regulations for trains carrying crude oil, a BNSF Railway oil train derailed and exploded May 6 about 50 miles east of Minot, N.D., reports the Flathead Beacon. The good news was that the derailment didn’t affect the route traveled by the Empire Builder train. But the bad news is that freight trains are now being rerouted over the Empire Builder route in North Dakota, which could cause delays.

Local media reported that five to 10 cars -- CPC-1232s -- carrying the oil had gone off the tracks and caught fire. The cars are the same type that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced would need to be out of crude oil service within the next five years.

A second Hudson River rail tunnel is closer to reality after President Obama's transportation undersecretary said the administration wants to put a funding plan together to build it, reportsNJ.com. Obama has referred to Amtrak's Gateway tunnel project as the most important rail project in the nation, said Peter Rogoff, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s undersecretary for policy. "The Obama Administration is anxious to reach a funding agreement with this region to get the tunnels built." While state officials praised the announcement, Jeff Tiitel, NJ Sierra Club director, asked if his state could fund its share of the project, with New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund running out of cash to finance projects. "Our biggest concern is the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund is broke and may stay underfunded for years to come. The failure of NJ to raise the gas tax or come up with other funding for transit needs hurts our economy and commuters."

Key lawmakers on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are trying to craft a long-term surface transportation reauthorization, reports Bloomberg. Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and ranking member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) have started drafting a five- or six-year extension of highway and other transportation programs that are set to expire at the end of the month, with the goal of having a bill ready for floor action by the end of July.

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), whose panels have jurisdiction over transportation financing, prefer a seven-month extension to give Congress more time to draft a measure that would let states commit to road and bridge projects that take several years.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) hosted a field hearing May 4 in Newark on America’s passenger rail system. He’s the ranking Democrat on the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety & Security. The field hearing sought input to shape forthcoming legislation that will update and improve passenger rail in the United States. “The Northeast Corridor is an indispensable transportation asset and economic driver for New Jersey,” Booker said. “Yet we are approaching a crisis as passenger rail investment languishes and the whole system relies on outdated, 100-year old bridges and decaying infrastructure. Meanwhile, our competitors in foreign nations are pushing ahead, leaving us behind. That’s why today’s hearing is so important: to gather input on a bipartisan effort to invest in and update our passenger rail system.”

Several passenger rail officials and experts testified, including: Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors; Sarah Feinberg, acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration; James Redeker, chairman of the Northeast Corridor Commission and Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation; and Tom Wright, president of Regional Plan Association.

Federal transportation officials and New York state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority have agreed on a nearly $1 billion federal loan to install Positive Train Control on 1,455 rail cars that travel on the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road, reports CBS New York. An MTA spokesman said Metro-North and the LIRR are putting in place the system, which includes installing onboard components for the rail cars.

Southwest Airlines hasn't decided whether or not to oppose Texas Central Railway’s high-speed rail project, but the carrier previously opposed a bullet train in the state with French partner TGV back in 1989, reports City Lab blog. The blog cites a 2014 article in the Texas Tribune that recounted how the airline lobbied hard against the Texas TGV plan, fearing that the service would hurt its travel base.

“Rail has a romantic appeal; but, this case cannot be decided on the basis of nostalgia, or even a desire to emulate the rail service of France and Germany,” Southwest Airlines said in a brief filed with the authority back in 1991. “The American reality is that high-speed rail will be viable in Texas only by destroying the convenient and inexpensive transportation service the airlines now provide, and only by absorbing huge public subsidies.”

The Economist's Gulliver travel blog reports on plans to renovate and expand Washington, D.C.'s, Union Station. Last month, the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC), which manages the facility, chose Beyer Blinder Belle, the architecture firm that handled the late-1990s overhaul of New York City's Grand Central station, to come up with ideas for the future. USRC, Amtrak and real estate developer Akridge are counting on “major investments from the federal government” to fund the effort, according to the blog, citing the Washington Post. But the Gulliver blog feels there might be better places to spend federal rail dollars than renovating a station.

Why the United States can't have high-speed rail was the question answered by Michael Smart, an assistant professor of transportation planning at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in a CNN op-ed. He noted that countries including Japan, China, France and Spain already have their own high-speed rail networks. He claimed that because the U.S. is geographically vast, it's not an ideal market for high-speed rail. But Smart writes that the biggest barrier to improved rail service in the United States is simply the lack of political will.

All Aboard Wisconsin is holding the latest in a series of public meetings, next in Janesville on May 13, to spread its message about expanded rail service in the state and hear what local residents think, reports the Janesville Gazette. The plan is to find out what people think and to present those ideas to state officials in hopes of getting a state commitment to subsidize passenger rail service, said the organization's Dave Mumma. Attendees will be able to ask questions and learn how they can help build support for more trains to more places and connecting transportation services, such as intercity bus and local public transportation, reports the Gazette.

As Florida's SunRail celebrates its first anniversary, the fixed-rail mass-transit system will get $93 million from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to expand into Osceola, reports the Orlando Sentinel. System managers were confident in receiving the FTA funds because the Osceola leg promises to carry 2,000 riders daily, or about half the number of people who now get on the train each work day.

"While this news was not unexpected, it is certainly welcome, as it will allow us to expand service schedule and move us toward a regional passenger system for all Central Florida," Rep. John Mica, (R-Fla.), said in a press release. A spokesman for Mica told the Sentinel that SunRail will receive $40 million from the federal government this year and the remainder next year as it rehabilitates and adds tracks to the corridor formerly owned by the CSX railroad company. Overall, the expansion will cost more than $186 million, with half coming from the FTA and the remainder from the state, Osceola and Orange counties.

A commuter rail connecting Boston to Manchester probably wouldn’t create jobs on its own,according to a study released by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, reports the Associated Press. The conservative-leaning center’s report instead found that passenger rail can influence growth were already planned investments will happen. The federal Capitol Corridor Rail Study found that a commuter line with stops in Nashua and Manchester would bring thousands of new jobs to New Hampshire. What train service in the region will look like is at the forefront as rail advocates are pushing the state Senate to restore $4 million for commuter rail engineering and planning work that the House stripped from Gov. Maggie Hassan’s (D) capital budget.

In response to growing ridership, Caltrain will add an extra car on Monday, May 11 to all Bombardier train sets currently in operation, reports the Daily Journal. The sixth car will provide an additional 150 seats and increased standing room during the peak-hour commute, according to the transit agency. It bought 16 used rail cars earlier this year to handle growing demand on the railroad, which has caused significant overcrowding on many peak-hour trains.

The six-car trains will be assigned to the most popular trains in Caltrain’s peak period, but will also operate during other times of the day, according to the agency. Caltrain has posted four years of consecutive monthly ridership increases, growing to more than 61,000 average weekday riders during peak season. As a result, many commute-hour trains are operating at or beyond 100 percent of available capacity, it added.

Finally, NARP member Scott Leonard informed us of the passing of Doras Briggs, via Facebook. In her 96 years, Briggs rode trains for 91 of them. In her retirement in Emeryville, California, she found purpose living immediately adjacent to the Amtrak station as she began engaging with passengers as an unofficial ambassador and member of Amtrak's Customer Advisory Committee and of NARP.

“My first train ride was on the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern, in Iowa. My dad gave me that train ride for my fifth birthday, in 1923, and it stuck with me,” Doras told SF Gate in an interview in 2008.

Realizing the value that passengers got from a local helping hand, Briggs founded the California Station Host program, working with Amtrak and Caltrans to create a credentialed volunteer regiment of friendly faces to greet and assist passengers as a supplement to Amtrak staff. This program has expanded to several stations over the years. Serving as a model for other states, the program has been officially adopted by North Carolina.