Hotline #778

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures holds a June 22 hearing on, among other things, a proposal by Rep. Mel Reynolds (Ill.) to create an intercity passenger rail capital trust fund, using one cent (or about $30 million a year) of the 2.5 cents railroads pay on fuel that now goes to deficit reduction. The railroads seek instead to be relieved of this tax. NARP Executive Director Ross Capon will testify -- strongly supporting creating a trust fund, but dealing gently with rail industry concerns and arguing for more substantial revenues for the fund. Supportive mail to committee members could help.

Senate Finance Committee Democrats are about to replace President Clinton's Btu tax -- amounting to about 7 cents per gallon of gasoline by 1996 -- with a 4.3-cent-a-gallong tax on all transportation fuel. To appease Senator Baucus (Mont.), where people drive long distances, this was reduced from 7.3 cents proposed earlier by Senator Breaux (La.). The Committee also is removing the House-passed tax on barge fuel.

Nevertheless, the Clinton Btu tax will be on the table in the House-Senate conference. President Clinton, OMB chief Leon Panetta, and some Representatives may still fight for it. Whatever is passed, the nation's governors, under the influence of the powerful highway lobby, have written to the Finance Committee and to Senators Mitchell and Dole, urging that any fuel tax go only to the Highway Trust Fund. Tell your legislators our energy is too cheap and Clinton's Btu tax remains the best alternative; Breaux's 7.3 cents is the second choice.

The Senate will vote on H.R.2118, their 1993 supplemental funding bill with $50 million for Amtrak, on June 22. That would be followed by a conference to reconcile it with the appropriate House bill, H.R.2244.

The full House Appropriations Committee expects to consider the 1994 DOT funding bill on June 22. It was approved by the Transportation Subcommittee last week.

The fourth Metrolink commuter rail line opened in Los Angeles on June 14. The new 58-mile line connects Union Station with Riverside over the Union Pacific and is the only commuter service now using UP tracks. UP is said to want to use its work there as a showcase to promote its commuter projects elsewhere.

The Baltimore light-rail line will be extended 2.2 miles south from Linthicum to Dorsey Road in Glen Burnie on June 20.

The transit tunnel under Mount Washington in Pittsburgh closed June 6 for a five-month renovation. Light-rail service is being either detoured over the mountain or replaced by bus. It seems that rail laid in the tunnel in the 1970's was of poor quality and must be replaced. Such rail was embedded in a concrete floor because the powers-that-be back then thought trolleys were doomed to be replaced by buses.

The State of Washington is negotiating with RENFE-Talgo to bring a Spanish Talgo tilt train to the Northwest for testing this fall.

The X2000 will be on display tomorrow at St. Louis Union Station, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. On June 20, it will be on display at Springfield, 10:30 am to 1:00 pm, returning to Chicago at 5:15 pm. On June 22, it will make a Chicago-Kalamazoo round trip, then go back through Detroit. On June 23, it will make a round trip to Battle Creek, laying over there from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm. On June 24, it will be on display at Greenfield Village, 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. On June 25, it leaves Detroit at 8:00 am, arriving Chicago 12:30 pm. On June 26, it will be on display at Chicago from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Negotiations are continuing for visits to California, New Mexico, and Ohio.

Passenger service north of Vancouver, B.C., will be halted if a strike of BC Rail employees takes place after tomorrow afternoon.