October /November 200 888
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Washington Rail News October /November 200 888 www.AllAboardWashington.org Publication of All Aboard Washington A Not ---for-forforfor----profitprofit Consumer Organization “Moving forward...On Rail ."."." the number of hours a month engi - Amtrak reauthorization and rail safety bill neers, conductors and other safety pass Congress by wide margin critical employees can work. The limit will be 276. Crew members As the flurry of activity in Congress voted yes on HR 2095 except lame -duck cannot work more than 12 hours picked up in late September amid the Larry Craig (R -Idaho). As for the presi- and must have a minimum of 10 $700 bill. bailout of the country’s financial dential can didates, Sen. Barak Obama hours off between the end of one institutions and the rush to adjourn to get (D) voted for HR 2095 while Sen. John assignment and the start of the home to campaign, the House and Se- McCain (D) voted against the bill. next (up from 8 hours). “Limbo nate managed to pass long languishing Key provisions of the rail safety part of time,” when a crew has reached bills to reauthorize Amtrak and improve HR 2095: their 12 hours on duty and is rail safety. The reauthorization, different • To prevent collisions and speeding awaiting a shuttle or being shuttled versions of which had earlier passed both most mainline tracks will be re- to their terminal, will have addition Houses by veto-proof margins, was quired to have a modern positive limits placed on it. folded into a rail safety bill that passed train control system installed by • The FRA will see a substa ntial in- the House in Oct. 2007 but had gone December 2015. PTC would have crease in field safety inspectors. nowhere in the Senate. It’s shameful that prevented the Metrolink engineer Key provisions of the Amtrak reautho - it took the horrific collision of a southern from running past a stop signal rization part HR 2095: and into the path of the oncoming • Authorizes $13.06 bill. for Amtrak UP train. The bill authorizes $250 and passenger rail programs over mill. to help the railroads imple- 5 years, including the State Capital ment PTC. The National Trans- Grant program. This is nearly portation Safety Board has had double what Congr ess has re- PTC at the top of its agenda of ur- cently been appropriating for pas - gent needed rail improvements for senger rail. Of course, the actual over a decade. The railroads, while funding must still be appropriated supporting implementation, have each year by Congress. been concerned about how to fund • installation, estimated at about Requires Amtrak to study restora - $2.3 bill. nationwide. The Associa- tion of the Seattle -Portland-Boise- tion of America Railroads has Denver -Chicago Pioneer (killed by posted a letter from AAR President Amtrak in May 1997) and the Edward Hamburger on its website Seattle -Spokane-Billings-Twin (www.aar.org) stating, in part, "The Cities -Chicago North Coast Hia- legislation sets an aggressive watha (killed by Congress in Oct. Photo by Warren Yee deadline for implementation of 1979). Senators Mike Crapo (R - Amtrak last run of the Pioneer departs positive train control across most ID), Gordon Smith (R -OR) and King St. Station for Boise, Denver and Ron Wyden (D -OR) were instru- Chicago on May 10, 1997. Note the of the rail network. The scope of the work remaining to be accom- mental in getting the Pioneer study sad face drawn locomotive by the provision in the bill. Montana Sen - crew to mark the train’s demise . plished presents a challenge to both the supply industry and the ators Max Baucus (D) and Jon California Metrolink commuter train with a railroads. Nonetheless, the freight Tester (D), and Rep. Denny Reh - Union Pacific freight train and 25 fatalities railroad industry is committed to berg (R) pushed for the North to get the rail safety bill out of Congress. doing everything it can to ensure Coast Hiawatha study provision. • The combined bill (now know as HR that PTC is implemented effec- Requires Amtrak to fully bring all 2095) passed the House on a voice vote tively and safely. We will work with its facilities into compliance with on Sept. 24 and passed the Senate 74- the Federal Railroad Administra- the Americans with Disabi lities Act. • 24 on Oct. 1. When the earlier version of tion and our partners in the transit Authorizes the Surface Transporta - the Amtrak reauthorization passed the community, at Amtrak, our suppli- tion Board to fine freight railroads House on June 11, eight of our nine rep- ers and our customers to imple- for delaying Amtrak trains . resentatives voted in favor of it. Only Doc ment the mandate." AAR has in- • Required a plan to bring the North - Hastings (R-Pasco) voted against the formation on PTC at it website. east Corridor up to a state of good reauthorization. All senators in Wash- • To address train crew fatigue is- repair by 2018. ington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana sues, the bill substantially reduces (See Amtrak, page 4) page 2 no “cure,” (some level of traffic of high gas prices as a deterrent From the desk of congestion is inherent in economi- for excess mileage. So why is the Government cally-thriving urban places) streets sprawl bad, assuming, with Clean Affairs Director and roads would be just as Cars, no air pollution or petroleum crowded with Clean Cars as with dependency?. Again, it imposes bybyby the current petroleum-dependent, heavy costs of providing public Lloyd H. Flem air-polluting fleet. The congestion services not borne by drivers. costs in time, frustration and safety Water, sewer, u tilities: all are more Clean Cars? OK, but Insufficient; would be at least as great. (Some costly to provide when places are Freighthouse Square – 8 November argue traffic congestion would be scattered. We all pay, but not as We will not waste your time with criti- worse as at least some of the pop- drivers. But perhaps most impor - cizing those Americans whose vision for ulation of drivers who now con- tantly, scatteration causes child - our country’s transportation future would sider alternatives to driving alone ren, some elderly, some disabled, be, if they chose to put it into coherent would, “guilt-free,” slip behind the many low -income people and any thought, “The Party Never Ends.” Their wheel assured that their behavior non-driver to lose access to Party would feature: permanent cheap adds neither to air pollution nor to place s. While the car-dependent abundant gasoline, evermore pavement the economic/strategic problems of world has increased total and everyone drives everywhere. Fortu- oil imports nor the environmental MOBILITY – miles traveled – in the nately, these Party Animals, though noi- problems seen as part of domestic past half -century, ACCESS – a some, seen to be decreasing in number oil production. “I’m green; my car is more important measure – has de- and political influence. clean.” creased for all non -drivers. Clean • A big step above the Party people are Safety. Whether 20, 30 or 40 times Cars would do nothing the alleviate those who are aware of the less likely per million passenger this problem. finite nature of the petroleum There are, to their credit, supply (most of which is in the So what is missing from Clean Cars Clean Cars people who also hands of less-than-cordial as THE answer? Considerable. agree that Clean Cars alone is countries) and the negative an insufficient strategy. They impacts of tailpipe emissions from miles (the data I’ve encountered support a return to more com - petroleum-fueled motor vehicles. These vary somewhat) to be injured or pact communities, buses, biking and Clean Cars folks believe that with the killed in a train versus a car, riding walking as means of transportation, not limitation, or ideally, elimination of petrol an American intercity passenger just recreation. (Recreation – as in those as a motor-vehicle fuel, those two train is dramatically safer than urban middle -class adults who drive the environmental/economic problems would driving or riding in a private motor SUV to a fun trail – formerly a rail line? – be limited or cured and a modified Party, vehicle. Clean Cars would not be to hike or bike. Individually healthy, but essentially free of the multiple negatives inherently safer than the petro- not a positive form of transportation.) associated with oil-dependency, could leum-burning variety. Economic Most rail advocates support Clean continue. and emotional costs from the tra- Cars. And we support buses, walking, The ideal world envisioned by the gedies of transportation deaths biking and the redevelopment of neigh- Clean Cars people would seem to be as would still exact their high toll. borhoods and settlements where such many private motor vehicles as the • Public-sector costs. Private motor are practical modes of transportation. world’s population could want or afford, vehicles create massive public Intercity and urban rail accomplishes all powered by, say, (now-still-experimental) (taxpayer) costs not paid for by us of that plus safety (yes, one is also safer hydrogen fuel cells, eliminating depen- as drivers. Fuel taxes do not pay in a bus than in a car), comfort and sense dency on foreign or even domestic pe- for most city streets, police and fire of community, access for all – one needs troleum and elimination of all tailpipe services attributed to private motor bu t a ticket, not a car, truck, van or SUV, emissions except clean water vapor! vehicles. Nor do we as drivers di- or possess special levels of physical skill Clean Cars, THE answer to the economic rectly pay for the high volume of and fitness – and, with trains, PERMAN- and environmental concerns which arise valuable land given to drivers as ENCE .