Hotline #917

Image courtesy of the U.S. Senate

June 26, 2015

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies approved a fiscal year 2016 funding bill that extends current levels of funding for Amtrak at $1.4 billion, rejecting cuts made in the House version of the T-HUD bill. Key funding provisions include:

• Highway Trust Fund – $40.26 billion, equal to the FY2015 enacted level, from the Highway Trust Fund to be spent on the Federal-aid Highways Program, contingent on the enactment of new transportation authorization legislation. The bill also frees up to $2.4 billion in old, unused earmarks for infrastructure projects that can be spent on other important transportation projects.
• Federal Railroad Administration – $1.68 billion, an increase of $53 million above the FY 2015 enacted level. This includes $289 million for Amtrak operations and continued service for all current routes, and $1.1 billion for capital grants. The bill also provides an additional $17 million for the Northeast Corridor and promotes necessary reforms to Amtrak.
• Rail Safety and Research Programs – $288 million, $12 million above the FY2015 enacted level for rail safety and research programs, including inspectors and training to help ensure the safety of passengers and local communities. The bill also allows $50 million for rail safety grants, to support implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), enhance passenger rail safety and reduce highway-rail grade crossings incidents.
• Federal Transit Administration (FTA) – $10.5 billion, $424 million below the FY 2015 enacted level, for the FTA. Transit formula grants total $8.6 billion, which is contingent on the enactment of new transportation authorization legislation, as the current authorization expires this year. This funding level is consistent with the MAP-21 authorization legislation.

The bill also provides $1.6 billion for Capital Investment Grants, fully funding all current “Full Funding Grant Agreement” transit projects as well as new projects; $75 million for core capacity projects; $30 million for Small Starts projects--competitive grant funding for major transit capital investments; and $500 million for TIGER grants.

The Senate FY2016 THUD bill is a big improvement over the House Appropriations Committee’s efforts to slash Amtrak funding by $262 million—but we can make it better! The Appropriations Committee voted down an amendment offered by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) to increase funding to match Amtrak's FY2016 budget request of $2 billion. Write your Senators now to ask them to support this sensible plan for supporting America's national network!

The same day the Senate Appropriations Committee was passing the transportation budget, the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously reported the Railroad Reform, Enhancement, and Efficiency Act (S.1626)--also called R2E2--to the full Senate. R2E2 will provide the multiyear framework that provides the structure for Amtrak's existence and intercity rail investment. You can read about what this bill would mean for a strong national network on the NARP Blog.

U.S. railroad's struggling to meet the Dec. 31, 2015 deadline to install Positive Train Control were put on warning this week when Federal Rail Administration head Sarah Feinberg told a House subcommittee not to look for her agency to waive penalties to those who miss the deadline, reports BNA. At a hearing held by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials held June 24 to investigate implementation of PTC technology, Administrator Feinberg said railroads that fail to meet the deadline by the end of the year will face penalties ranging from daily fines to a railroad shut down. “I can't extend the deadline and I won't extend the deadline.”

NARP has consistently called for Congress to fund the much-needed installation of Positive Train Control, ensuring that American passengers have access to the best safety technology on the market. In the same hearing, subcommittee Chair Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) opened the hearing with a personal focus on the transfer of funds to PTC in California.

Denham sought the transfer of federal funding for the California High-Speed Rail project to the implementation of PTC. Rep. Denham argued that “the following activities are expressly eligible [for money reallocation]: acquiring, constructing, improving, or inspecting equipment; track and track structures; highway rail-grade crossings; and improvements related to intercity passenger rail service, including signalization and communication improvements”. However Feinberg explained that this transfer of money would not be possible unless both the FRA and the California High-Speed Rail Authority were to agree on the reallocation of funds; otherwise, all transfers of funding would go back to the U.S. Treasury.

Even in the event that the transfer of funds from the California High-Speed Rail project to the implementation of PTC in California were to take place, this would not be a sound solution. Money taken from the California High-Speed Rail project will eventually have to be replaced, meaning that this transfer of funds would be a short-term solution. California High-Speed Rail will bring about considerable benefits to the growing transit needs of the population of California, and raiding this project will only undermine the development of rail in the U.S.

California’s Metrolink has become the first passenger rail system in the country to have a fully operational, interoperable and certified PTC system in place, reports Metro magazine. The system now covers the entire 341-mile network owned by the agency as of June 14. "This is a time for us to pause, acknowledge how far we've come, and then double our efforts," said Chair of the Metrolink Board of Directors Shawn Nelson. "From the beginning, our agency was committed to have our entire system fully operable with PTC before the December 2015 federal deadline."

Governor Rauner recently announced that he will cut Illinois' Amtrak budget from $42 million to $26 million effective July 1, 2015. If implemented, at least half of Illinois-funded trains will be discontinued, starting a dangerous downward spiral. Ridership will decline more quickly than costs, forcing ticket prices higher and driving away even more passengers. Please join NARP and the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association in telling Governor Rauner to keep all Amtrak trains running!

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who co-sponsored a rail reform bill with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), told the Philadelphia Inquirer that too often, the rail system falls short due to a lack of adequate infrastructure investment. "Our bipartisan bill takes important steps to improve rail safety in the wake of last month's tragic derailment, modernize our aging passenger rail network, and maximize investments in infrastructure through improved financing and grant programs."

Amtrak asked the nation's mayors June 22 for help in securing funding for the passenger rail system as the FY 2016 T-HUD bill makes its way through the Senate, reports BNA. “Without you I don't think we can make this all work,” Joe McHugh, Amtrak vice president of government affairs and corporate communication, told the mayors in a breakfast meeting speech. The challenges “have always been dedicated, funding, reliable funding,” he said. On the same day, the bipartisan mayors group adopted resolutions calling for greater investment in rail safety and improved funding for transportation.

An article in Governing magazine uses the example of rail service in Illinois to point out the struggles faced by states being required to pay higher subsidies to keep local Amtrak service for residents. The increased state costs, which went into effect in October 2013, came as a result of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, that required many states to pay more to run for 28 Amtrak routes shorter than 750 miles. Those routes cross 19 states and carry almost half of Amtrak's passengers.

Pennsylvania’s SEPTA is facing challenges as it begins to remove railcars to install PTC, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Crews have begun removing at least one car from six-car trains, noting that "10 or more" cars in the 351-car fleet will be out of service at any given time for the upgrades until at least November. That means commuters can expect more crowded cars until the project is completed. The system operates 740 weekday trips on 13 Regional Rail lines.

New York’s Long Island Railroad will see an increased number of cameras in passenger compartments aboard their newest fleet of trains, reports Newsday. The rail lines’ 236 M9 electric train cars being introduced starting in 2018, will have eight cameras inside passenger compartments, along with a camera with audio capabilities in the engineer's cab. LIRR is also working on a project to retrofit existing trains with cameras, with the rail’s director of new rolling stock saying the move is necessary to get "100 percent coverage" of the train.

Maryland’s MARC train between Washington D.C. to Perryville, Maryland, could eventually stretch up to Wilmington, Delaware, as talks between the two states’ transportation agencies begin, reports Delaware’s News-Journal. If talks go well, the service expansion, which would also allow more SEPTA trains to travel to Newark, Delaware, from Philadelphia, could begin as early as 2018. “We’re still in that planning process,” said DART CEO John Sisson said. “Do you run a commuter rail service from Philadelphia to Baltimore, do you run Wilmington to Baltimore, or do you run Newark to Baltimore?”

As commuters on New Jersey Transit face higher fares and the system struggles with a $120 million budget deficit, it is being forced to pay more to workers to handle equipment repairs and service disruptions, reports Bloomberg. Overtime at the agency rose 12 percent, to $135.3 million in 2014, since 2011 and transit workers paid at least $100,000 a year grew 20 percent, according to data on the state’s website. The agency blamed the overtime on service needs, emergencies and wages in union contracts.

Across the river in New York, delays on the city’s subway system hit a four-year high in April, with weekday passengers experiencing 48,984 delays, up 15 percent from the year before, reports the New York Daily News, citing MTA statistics. The MTA is facing new ridership patterns as the New York region’s population grows and young people choose public transit, according to Juliette Michaelson from the Regional Plan Association. “On the weekends, the MTA needs to run more trains and respond to the demand that New Yorkers have for the system,” she said.

Vermont’s Agency of Transportation (VTrans) will begin to study a commuter rail service that would connect Burlington with Montpelier and St. Albans thanks to legislation signed by Gov. Peter Shumlin, reports the Bennington Banner. The state has looked at commuter rail for several times and rejected it. "We receive a lot of questions all the time about, 'When will there be commuter rail between Burlington and Montpelier?'" VTrans deputy secretary Chris Cole said. "The goal of this study is to ascertain when it will be feasible on a cost-benefit basis to fund such a commuter train."