Hotline #942

Congress unveiled a $1.1 trillion omnibus budget bill on December 16 to keep the government funded in 2016, including $57.6 billion in transportation funding. The final document, read by NARP Vice President Sean Jeans-Gail, clocks in at just over 2,000 pages, which—given the wide-ranging focus of the budget bill—has industries and advocacy groups all across the country scrambling to see what the bill means for them.

The House passed the compromise bill by a vote of 316 to 113, with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) relying on Democratic support to overcome opposition from the far-right wing of the Republican party. The Senate passed the bill earlier today, and President Barack Obama has said he will sign the bill into law.

Read all the details on the NARP blog page, here.

A story in Roll Call says that while the case of investing in the Northeast Corridor is easy to make, transportation officials haven’t been able to find enough money to keep the system working at basic levels, never mind invest in the capacity increase needed to meet surging demand. Another problem is that even if the money was available, there’s a multitude of governments, agencies, communities and transportation providers that have to cooperate to plan and carry out projects -- including the eight commuter lines and four freight railroads that use the corridor.

“I think the reason you end up with jurisdictional arguments is because the issue is so difficult and the cost is so dramatic,” FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg tells CQ Roll Call. “I mean, if this were an easy thing to do there would be no jurisdictional arguments and there wouldn’t be any arguments about cost.”

This underscores the argument made in a recent NARP blog post that calls out newspapers and media outlets in the Northeast Corridor for buying into the myth that Amtrak's NEC operations would be profitable if it were just freed from the "yoke" of long-distance service. “It's a tidy, compelling narrative. Trouble is, it's just wrong.”

Speaking of the Northeast Corridor, Connecticut will play a crucial role in any design for modernizing that section of Amtrak's heavily used rail, reports the Hartford Courant. The Federal Railroad Administration has spent three years studying how to upgrade the line that connects Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Del., Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., Manhattan and Boston. Amtrak and seven other railroads — including Metro-North — use parts of it, providing more than 700,000 passenger trips a day. There are currently three options on the table: Two of them would shift the state's stretch inland and make Hartford a destination along the way; the third would route future trains mostly along the same Connecticut shoreline corridor they use now.

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NARP would like to thank our members for your generous donations, along with your ongoing commitment to support the preservation and expansion of our nation’s passenger rail service as 2015 comes to an end. Your gifts and willingness to volunteer helped us achieve major victories this year, but we need your help in keeping the momentum next year.

NARP is classified as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization by the IRS, so its dues and contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. To that end, please consider donating to NARP before midnight on December 31, 2015, to ensure you are able to claim your deductible on your 2015 tax return. Along with cash donations, securities and stock gifts can give you an even more attractive tax benefit that will allow you to have a little more money in your pocket for the holidays!

Your contributions were a major factor in getting a new transportation bill passed after a long draught. They helped fund a new NARP website with the tools that allow members to directly communicate their desire for better rail service to local, state, and congressional delegates. And they funded Neon, our new database that makes it easier to make donations, renew your NARP membership and make changes to your profile. So please consider including NARP in your year-end donations. For more information, please contact NARP Development Director Logan McLeod at [email protected]. Again, we appreciate all of your support in 2015.

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Rail service in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area took a big leap forward yesterday after representatives of the rail companies gathered in Fort Worth to sign eight agreements that collectively clear the way for the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, also known as the T, to begin operating TEX Rail from downtown to Grapevine and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, possibly by late 2018, reports the Star-Telegram. The sticking point was that four railroads refused to give permission for the T to use their tracks. U.S. Rep. Kay Granger’s office said the omnibus budget sent to President Obama $100 million in funds to start development of TEX Rail.

Canadian Pacific Railway is selling a proposed merger between itself and Norfolk Southern by aruging that congestion would be eased in the key Chicago-area rail hub by rerouting trains across a more efficient combined rail network. The claim was made by Canadian Pacific President Keith Creel in the Wall Street Journal, who said the merger would allow Canadian Pacific to redirect as much as 20 percent of its daily railcar volume through Chicago to Norfolk Southern's interchanges and rail terminals.

NARP Council Member Mark Spada was among the guests on the “Essential Pittsburgh” show on WESA-FM for a program discussing the prospects for more rail service in Western Pennsylvania. Spada, who also serves on the board of the Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail, says there is great interest for more service to western Pennsylvania, but there’s only one daily train between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. “Fifty years ago, there was much more train service in Pennsylvania, said Lucinda Beattie, vice president of transportation for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

Spada was also featured in a Newsworks story that looked at the prospects for more rail service in the Keystone state, which faces a dearth of service options. The Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pa. want to create passenger rail lines into New York and New Jersey. And some western Pennsylvanians are pushing for more frequent trains between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg — right now, there's only one roundtrip a day.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber made securing transit funding as a top priority during the General Assembly session that begins next month, said 2015 chamber Chairman Larry Gellerstedt in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The chamber successfully pushed for passage of a $900 million transportation funding bill aimed at a variety of highway, bridge and transit projects in 2015. Priorities for 2016 include asking the legislature to let voters in Fulton and DeKalb counties decide whether to add a half-penny to the current one-cent MARTA sales tax to support expanding rail service.

In August, NARP President and CEO Jim Mathews wrote a blog post and letter applauding Jill Meyer, CEO of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, for her support of the city’s new streetcar system. “One of the private sector groups that should play an important role in `A Connected America’ is your local Chamber of Commerce,” he wrote. “NARP wants to work with its members to make chambers real allies, while doing something more systematic to cultivate them and reward them.”

The Utah Transit Authority's S-Line streetcar registered more than 363,000 boardings, marking an 18.8 percent increase compared with the same period last year for ridership between January 1 and November 30, reports Progressive Railroading magazine. S-Line streetcars operate at a maximum speed of 25 mph along a two-mile corridor through Salt Lake City's Sugar House District.

NARP presented an award to Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker at its 2014 Fall Meeting honoring the city’s officials and community leaders for building a rail transit system that has become a national model for smart growth. The foundation for accommodating growth in Salt Lake City was established in 2006, when the County Council voted to significantly expand Transit Express, the local rail transit system.

It seems like just yesterday that a handful of Beverly Hills NIMBYs were fighting the best location for a subway station in Century City, writes Joel Epstein in Huffington Post LA. He is now optimistic about L.A.'s transit future, lauding projects including: five transit lines currently under construction; the opening of major extensions on Metro’s Expo Line and the Gold Line to Santa Monica and well out into the San Gabriel Valley; the Crenshaw Line to Los Angeles International Airport is almost 50 percent complete; the Regional Connector that will sew together the two halves of the LA county transit system has reached 15 to 20 percent completion; the buildout of the area around Union Station; and the tying together of Los Angeles with the rest of the state through construction of California’s high-speed rail system.

Transportation leaders in Las Vegas are proposing a 30-year, $12 billion plan that would pay for everything from wider sidewalks and more pedestrian bridges crisscrossing the Las Vegas Strip to extra monorail stops and planning for a light rail route linking the airport to downtown, reports Skift. The effort started in 2013, when a group of transit officials, tourism leaders, taxi owners, hoteliers was convened by the CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. On top of the initial $12 billion, the city would also require finding another $3.7 billion to $6.6 billion from other sources besides possible local, state and federal funding identified in the plan.

In the Quad City region -- four counties located in northwest Illinois and Southeastern Iowa -- residents attended a second public session to discuss their hopes for improving traffic in the bi-state region, reports the Quad City Times. While planning for the 2045 transportation plan has been ongoing for nearly five years, Gena McCullough, Bi-State's planning director, said "This is the last effort to see if we missed anything." She told the group they were getting a preview of the draft plan that will be released in late January or early February.

On March 19, 2016, the Phoenix Valley Metro's Light Rail will begin carrying commuters three miles north of 19th Avenue and Bethany Home Road after two years of construction, reports ABC15. For the last two years, constructions crews have been working to complete Phase 1 of the Northwest Extension project. There is a Phase 2 of the project, under conceptual engineering, but is estimated to be completed in 2026.

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In the past two years, passengers on Texas Eagle trains have experienced delays or been forced to ride on buses due to construction of a third north-south mainline track in the Fort Worth, Texas, Tower 55 project, the higher speed rail construction between Chicago and St. Louis and significant weather events on the route.

So to celebrate the completion of track upgrades and anticipated reduction in track delays in 2016, the Texas Eagle Local Revenue Management team, in conjunction with the Texas Eagle Route Director and Amtrak Central Division Marketing, will begin a special promotion for passengers between January and March 2016.

Passengers will receive a free companion rail fare when they buy one regular (adult) fare. The ticket must be purchased at least one day in advance of travel between January 5 and March 15, 2016, for travel between January 6 and March 20, 2016. These fares may be upgraded to a sleeper after paying for an accommodation charge. The promotion is valid for travel only on the Texas Eagle. It is not valid for local travel between Chicago and St. Louis, or for local travel between San Antonio and Los Angeles. Fares are subject to availability, and seating is limited. Please use discount code V344 when booking the fare.

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State-of-the-art passenger trains could be traveling between Duluth, Minnesota, and the Twin Cities four times a day in 2.5 hours for a fare of between $30 and $32 in four years, reports the Duluth News Tribune. This is a scaled-down version of the Northern Lights Express rail connection. This cheaper version of the Northern Lights project reduces the top train speed from 110 mph to 90 mph and cuts the number of daily round trips from eight to four.

Speaking of the future, the Wall Street Journal took a close look at the Hyperloop project, the brainchild of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Inspired by California’s high-speed rail project, he called his Hyperloop the fifth mode of transport—the other four being planes, trains, automobiles and boats.

Meanwhile, the California Transportation Commission has allocated nearly $100 million for rail projects, reports RT&S. The funding included $41.1 million to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to buy eight zero emission light-rail vehicles for fleet expansion and $1.6 million to the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency for a one-year demonstration program to allow Pacific Surfliner intercity rail passengers to transfer to 12 connecting local transit service providers.

West Philadelphia could get a new look under a plan centered at the massive rail yard at 30th Street Station to transform the area into a vibrant new neighborhood linking to Center City, reports Philly.com. The plan, devised by Amtrak, Drexel University, SEPTA, Brandywine Realty Trust and others, also includes a revamped station building with a new transit center for intercity bus routes and expanded rail service. By summer, planners expect the process to have yielded specific plans to guide development through 2040, said Project Director Natalie Shieh.

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We encourage NARP members to use Neon, our new membership management system. After logging in here, members can manage all their details, including update a profile, make address changes, make and check on donations and change passwords. It’s a win-win for everyone: members can make their own changes to ensure accuracy, while NARP staff can focus on our the business at hand -- advocating for safe, reliable, convenient, affordable and enjoyable passenger train service. We thank you for your continued support of this new system.

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As NARP continues to plan for its 2016 Fall Meeting in Denver, the Los Angeles Times writes about what has happened since the city’s historic Union Station was closed for renovations for 2.5 years. The station is now home to the luxurious and unique Crawford Hotel and an array of restaurants, watering holes and retail establishments, including a branch of the Tattered Cover Book Store, one of the most irreplaceable independent booksellers in the country.

Vice President Joe Biden, a long-time Amtrak booster, decided to show his support in a unique way. His official residence is now the home of a gingerbread rendering of the Amtrak train station in Wilmington, Del., reports the Washington Post. The station is proudly on display in the vice president’s formal dining room.

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NARP thanks those members who have sent in industry-related news stories, op-eds, editorials or letters to the editor from your communities. We include them in our social media efforts, along with the weekly Hotline. Please continue to send your news to NARP’s communications director ([email protected]) and we will continue share it with the membership. We also ask members to send events that we can put on the website, here. Finally, please follow NARP on Facebook and Twitter.