Hotline #681

An important message about this service will appear at the end of this message.

The National Transportation Safety Board made no additional comment this week on the cause of the July 31 Silver Star wreck at Lugoff, S.C., which killed seven* passengers. A week ago, inspectors said there did not seem to be a problem with the Amtrak rolling stock and that they were concentrating on a switch that the Star split while passing over it, causing the rear section of the train to derail.

[*Note -- An eighth died some time later.]

All Congressional action on H.R.2950, the House surface transportation bill, as well as the Senate DOT appropriations bill, is on hold until September. However, letters-to-the-editor to your local newspaper are still in order. So is asking your Members of Congress about highway legislation at a community forum -- chances are that one will take place in your district during August. Don't let them sidetrack you into a discussion of how unfairly your state is treated when federal highway money is distributed. We are much more concerned with how that money is spent.

The Federal Railroad Administration has issued an emergency order requiring the Florida East Coast Railway to blow horns at crossings, despite local ordinances banning nighttime horn-blowing. Grade-crossing accidents have greatly increased since the ordinances took effect in 1984. Community groups are very upset, saying the nighttime horns disturb their sleep.

The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals last month ruled in two cases that Amtrak police at Chicago Union Station acted properly while seizing drugs from passengers fitting the profile of drug couriers coming in from Los Angeles. The court determined that the searches of the passengers' luggage were consensual and therefore constitutional. Though it seems that plenty of illegal drugs are still traveling with us on Amtrak trains, these and other recent court cases strengthen Amtrak police efforts to stop such potentially dangerous traffic.

In 1964, the Norfolk & Western Railway bought a controlling interest in the Wabash Railroad Company, which still owns over 1,300 miles of track in the Midwest. Now, the N&W is planning a formal merger with the Wabash, which hasn't run a train of its own in 27 years. Also, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe no longer runs to Atchison, Kans., after a recent branch line sale.

Construction began in July on a 6.7-mile extension of the Los Angeles Red Line subway west into Hollywood. The first Red Line segment from Union Station to MacArthur Park will open in September 1993. The second segment west to Western Avenue will open in 1996, then to Hollywood and Vine in 1998.

The Denver Regional Council of Governments gave final approval on July 17 to plans for Denver's first light-rail line. Construction would begin early next year. The proposed line is a 3.2-mile line intersecting the 16th Street Mall downtown. The cost is $67 million, all from local funding. The next project to be considered will be the Southwest Corridor, which will be either light rail or busway. Once the people of Denver see how great light rail is, perhaps light rail will be selected for all the remaining corridors.

The Memphis Area Transit Authority let a contract to begin installing rails for the historic trolley loop on Main St.

As a result of a government decision not to grant special tax status, the Very Fast Train project in Australia, which was to link Sydney and Melbourne, has been put on indefinite hold by its backers.

Effective with Hotline #683 on August 23, this service will be converted to a 900 number. Please note that this is a week later than previously announced. This service has been provided free of charge for the past 11 years for the use of NARP members. The NARP Hotline takes an incredible amount of time each week to write and edit, and that cost all comes from NARP members' dues. However, only an average of less than 4% of the total membership takes advantage of this service, with the other 96% of the members subsidizing them. Therefore, an experiment will be made with the 900 number to see if it can cover its own costs. If the experiment is unsuccessful, the free service will be restored. If the experiment is successful, it could mean preventing a general dues increase, given the terrible effect the recession has had on NARP finances.

The first ten seconds of each call will be free, so callers may see if they already have heard a particular message before being charged. Then, the cost of the first full minute will be $2.00, and $1.00 for each additional minute. As always, an effort will be made to place national news first in sequence, so callers may hang up at any time. Typical Hotlines have been running five-to-six minutes. The present number will still be available to advise callers of the new number. The new 900 number will also be announced in next week's Hotline.