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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMT Assn of Railroad Passengers (2)MONTANA ASSOCIATION OF RAILROAD PASSENGERS- MTARP DEDICATED TO: RETAI/N-ING, IMPROVING AND INCREASING RAH, PASSENGER SERVICE IN MONTANA NOVEMBER 2007 2110 WltgG./iTE L~VE BI7,1'.IN'G-~, MONTANA 59102 406-652-1339 email - iimabitt~imt, net Web site www.mtat~.org WOW A lot of things have been happening in the world of Passenger trains and us!!! ANNUAL MEETING LIVINGSTON Ou~ annual meeting was very productive end well attended. I read lett~s from Linda Frost of MT Rail Link; Ray Lang of Amtrak; Richard Wessler of BNSF; end a message passed on to me from Dick Turner of MT DOT. They all stated that due to cae reason or mother they could not attend, but wentad to work with us. It was reported that the UofM was doing a survey for us regarding the interest in riding a passenger lrain between Billings and Missoula; the frequency o£1xips; end how many drive to the Itl Line from southern Montana to catch the Empire Builder. MSUB has been asked to look into a business plan for us to go by. We have been contacted by a person in New Mexico representing NM Rails if we would be interested in joining a coalelition with them Colorado, Texas and some others to wodc on a north/south route. Jim anaoanced that a Lady, who shall remain enonymous, is willing to get us some money if we "all" get our act together. Other discussions included getting the legislature to put a cap on the amount sued for liability issues; the advantage of doing corridor tr,~inn rather than full fled§ed passenger rome.q; having kiosks at train stations rather fha, ticket agents; placing a enreharge an tickets to pay for future needs; the liability insurance problem; and is.it poss~16 for the trains to run east to Aberdeen then unto l~inneapolis. It was stated by a couple of members that they thought we have come a long way, that we might not be completely on track we were not on the wroug ~ack. We then proesaded to create a step by step plan of action. 1.Complete thc surveys and enalyses with fmaneial help from "thankful". 2.Complete the business plan study 3. Contact Montana Rail Link with the results 4. Ask MRL for the use of their tracks to mn curddor train ' between Billings end Missoula. 5. Ask BNSF for the use of their tracks to nm corridor train between Billings and Shelby and between Butte and Garrison. 6. Apply for money to purchase the DMU type of equipment. 7.Try to solve Liability insurence issue The issue of a name change was tabled until next meeting. The meeting then was adjourned and our Secretary left as abe was not feeling well. The President asked that the meeting be reconvened so a deeisiun could be made on purchasing some items to give out for promotional. One was for a calendar of 2008 similar to what we did for 2007, the other was for a small notebook of about 2" by 4" to vo~ite down notes. He state each were .99 if ordering 50 A motion was made to purchase 50 calendars and 150 notebooks. Both would have our name on them. This motion passed to spend 198.00 plus postage for our promotional efforts. Upon getting home I discovered they were 1.99 so I ordered 100 of the notebooks for 199.00 plus postage and setup. These can be used for a couple ofyeurs us there is no date on them so they cen be ean'ied easily for sometime. With that we all then ordered our meal we wanted before traveling to our separate places of abode. I want to thank all who came to the meeting end I hope that we will be able to have even more mm out next time. PHONE CALLS Before delving into this story I must tell of what happened the weak before. Our Vice President Mike Aakley is always watching for opportunities for us with different people and situations, which I ~nk him for. He called about tallclnS with the guy in the Governors Economic Office and gave me the name and number. I called the fellow and had about a hour conversation with him about what we discussed at our meeting and what we all agreed upon. We talked about the corridor train concept, the equipment, the studies and the need to ge~ together with others to get all thi.~ going. I had talked to Ray at AMTRAK before our meeting and he said a meeting is needed to get everyone working together as he had been contacted by the MT DOT about doing a study of the southern mute. So an agreement with the office of the Economic Advisor for the Governor was set to have a meeting in January for those needed to attend to get this project off the ground. So He and We will meet with Ray from AMTRAK and staff of MT DOT plus some others that we need to have. This will be a huge step forward. S294 and Sen Tester Amendment I received a phone call from IVlgre that Sen Tester was going to make an amendment to S294. That ai'mmoen I received a call from Susan that it was announced at the Senior Center that Tester was going to submit an amendment to S294. Not knowing anything about these I called San Teste~'s Billings office who tried to find out what it was all about. No luck, but they told me that I would be contacted Monday after getting the information from the DC office. I received a phone call on Monday October 28e from Senator Tester's office. I was told that the Sen was . going to submit a amendment to S294 for a study to be made by Amtrak with the DOT of Moutana and he wanted a quote from me about this action. When he read the amendment, I stated that we would be all for it except we were working for a con-idor ~rain concept. We would like to have one Miasoula/Billings and another Billings/Shelby. I was told that he would relay that message to the D.C. office. I found out then there were about 20 amendments to the bill. I decided to turn on the TV to C-span and low and behold they were talking about the amendment from the Sen fixun OK. His amendment wanted Amtrak to discontinue food service on any route that dido't make a break even point after two years of in the red. That point was damaging doe to fact that if the mute discontinued food service they would loose a lot of passengers like on the Builder where passengers traveled great distances and could not bring that much food with them. The amendment was defeated soundly. Thc next amendment was ~om a Florida Sen. He wanted to have all tickets state how much money was being subsidized for that ticket. That would have cost Amtrak a lot of money to keep up with all the tickets as the amount would be different for different distances. This amendment was soundly defeated. After the first amendment was defeated they called for a roll call vote on the bill. Of course most of the Senators were not in the Chambers, so word had to be sent out to them of a roll call vote. After waiting for about an hour they then gave the results of the voting. This happened again after the secoud amendment was defeated. This was labeled thc flnnl vote on S294. Again it took most of an hour to get it all done with the ~nnl tally of?0 for thc bill and 22 agaln~ which is more than the 2/3 vote needed to ovcrrida a veto which is expected. I then got a call fiom a female reporter in DC who was writing an article for the Great Falls Tn'oune. She asked what I thought of the Bill and the amandment since the amendment quoted me on my aceeptanee of it. I emphasized thc point made before as the amendment read "authorized Amtrak to do a study for MT DOT on revving the North Coast Limited/Hiawatha route through Southern Montana, or segments thereof'. I asked for a copy of thc article for the Tn'bunc, which did not mantion 'segments thereof', so I wrote to the Tn*bunc of thc missing part. I got a call from the Livingston paper who wanted an interviaw like the previous person which I again stated thc part of thc amendment that was so mcnnlng£ul to us. I have not seen the article as I requested that it be sent to me. The third call I got was from a woman who lives around Scebey, MT. She was worried that because of thc population in southern Montana they would lose the Builder. She had a copy of the amendment ia front of her, so I asked her to rcad it to mc. When she got past the "segments thereof' I expiained to her our mi.qsion that states "'Retain, Improve, and Increase Rail Passenger Service in Montana". She then told me she was relieved to know thi.% so I responded to her saying she should spread this word and get people in her area to join us in our efforts that some day we hope to have additional corridor service to Denver from Billings which would make a great deal of difference in the choice of a lot of people in thc US especially if we got a corridor Billings/Sbclby. What a interesting weak, but I do think we have engraved ourselves on the national picture. We will be gcttiag ready for the January meeting. E-mails The U.S. Senate yesterday afle~oon passed by a vote of 70-22, $. 294, The Passenger Rall Investment and Improvement Act. In addition to authorizing Ammak operations and providing funds for much needed capital improvement projects, the bill as1~blinhes a mecbani~n for partial federal fandin~ of capital costs for new and existing state corridor service. The House will likely take up companien legislation next year. (see story in Congress Daily below.) Jim: The bill also includes Senator Testor's mnendment requlrin~ AmWak to study resumption of service along the former Northern Pacific route through Southern Montana. Thanks to all of you for your support. Please focus your efforts now on yo~ House representation~ lmp~ upon them the importance of this bill in the advancement of slate passenger rail plans ami the preservatien of an efficient national system of passenger Iraing, Regards, Derrick Senior Government Affairs Officer Amtrak 525 W. Van Buren St., Room 200 Chicago, IL 60607 TRANSPORTATION Senate Moves Toward Passage Of Amtrak Authorization Bill The Senate today agreed to limit debate on Amtrak legislation, while rejecting another Republican amendment aimed at making the rail service solvent. The Senate voted, 79-13, to invoke cloture. 'q~re should be able to fini.~h this bill soon, hopefully today," said Sen. Frank Lantenberg, D-N.J., who is sponsoring thebill wi~ Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. The Senate rejected, 67-24, an amendment by Sen. Tom Cobum, R-Okla., that would have required Amtrak wiRain two years to reverse losses caused by subsjdi~inE food service on individual mutes. If the losses were not stanched, that service on those routes could be ended. Cobum argued that revenue losses fxom Amtrak's food service have cost taxpayers $250 million in the last three years. "Ifs hard to explain to the American people why we are subsidizing a Three Musketeers, a bottle of water and a beer to the people that take Amtra/g" Cobum said. Critics said rem~n~ food service would effectively eliminate those roi/res. 'rI~ve learned fi~m past experience, don~ mess with people's stomachs," Lott said. While Senate passage of the bill is all but certain this week, the House Trannportation and lnfi-asmmmre Committee is not going to take up Amtrak legislation until next year. The Lautenberg-Lott bill would authorize Amtrak and other passenger mil services $11.4 billion over six years. It would require Amtrak to create a more open accounting system and direct the governmeut to refinance th~ service's $3 billion debt. Tho measure also would allow states and companies to bid to take over some mutes. OMB opposes the bill because it does nut include changes the admini~xation is seeking to Amtrak's governajlce or opemti0os or changes on funding so more money is dedicated to popular mutes - although OMB did not threaten to recommelul a veto. - by Darren Goode Cmoline N. Decker Assistant Vice President, Government Affairs National Railroad Passenger Corporation - Amtrak 60 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 CONTRIBUTION Not too long ago I had a visitor at my house. He is a member of oor Association, but I had never met him_ He has a company in Washington consulting on transportation, energy, and other items. He has been very good to us, helping with the cost of the newsletters. He had lunch with us and I learned a lot from a man who has been around the Irack a few times. He was on his way to Bismark ND then on to New York with consulfinEjobs in both places. We discussed the fact that the cost ofoil will probably hit 150 dollars before too long and by spring gasoline could be well over four dollars a gallon. He presented our group with a Presentation Board of a J Craig Thorpe painting of what the rail yards in Havre will look like in a few years if rail service continues to grow. The painting was commi.~.sioued by Hal Cooper Company for Montana Association of Railroad Passengers. It is something we will show at our meetings in the future. He also gave us prints of this painting that we could sell to our members or visitors. There are two sizes of the prints - 1 lxl 7 and 5x7 so if anyone is interested.please let us know. How much, I do not know, but will consult with some of the officers when we get together to put this newsletter together. Thank.~ Hal for your generosity. I have asked some people who have been at our house lately what they think the poster is worth and all agree it probably would push the two thousand mark pretty hard. If you have a green mark on your label you have paid your dues and if not - you owe. During these times I hope you will get the 25 dollars to me fight away. MONTANA ASSOCIATION OF RAILROAD PASSENGERS 2110 WINGATE LANE BILLINGS, MONTANA 59102 406-652-1339 email |imabiff@J_MT.NET web page www.m~ NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 309 BILLnqGS, MONTANA Mayor, City of Laurel 115W. l~St. Laurel, Mt 59044 THIS EDITION OF THE OFFICIAL NEWS FOR "MARP" IS WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE FOLLOWING BUSINESS. WE ASK YOU TO THANK AND TO SUPPORT THEM. WE NEED MORE LIKE THEM. BE A DUES PAYING- MEMBER OR BE A SPONSOR OF THE NEWSLE'rlER OR BETTER YET, BE BOTH. PLEASE HELP!! LEWIS TREE SERVICE 225 SHF_RMAN ROCK SPRINGS, WY 307-382-8675 ACKLEY PAINTING 1603 JACKSON ST MISSOULA, MT 59802 406-728-2178 MCCARTNEY-WARF CONSTRUCTION INC POBOX 163 WI-~ J;utqSH, MT 59937 406-862-5449 OR 862-7646 DEPOT ENTERPRISES JANEL MADRAZO BUTIE , MT 59701 406-494-4968 ROBERT & CATHERINE FISHTAIL, MT HAL COOPER PASCO, WASH CHICO HOT SPRINGS PRAY, MT 59065 406-333-4933 DON'T LET OUR ORGANIZATION GO THE SAME WAY THE CABOOSE HAS GONE, GOING. -- KEEP US ON TRACK AND PAY YOUR YEARLY DUES NOW!l! PAY YOUR SPONSOR FEE NOW- FOR FIJTURE ISSUES!! GROUND AND MAKING OUR POSITION KNOWN. Amtr~rTd~rs-ghTppf~-25.8 million; revenue reaches $1.5 billion in .FY07 c~ ~9.h F3'2006's 24.31 millin~. ']~he ~ aL~o topped Amaak's p~evious rcco~ of 25.03 million itassenge~ ~.'l in .-q)O4, befor~ the railn~d tnmsiliom~ son~ .'~rvio~ *o a ecm~mulct rall The mlmad also posl~d ~L~ bighesl-ev~ tt~e~ revenue al $1.5 billior~ aa I I Ix~-'em increa~ c~'ni'-,nnmd with 1"Y06'$ $1.37 billion_ Including (~hm' income from conltacl servic~. Amtrak's ~ F-YO7 revenue ~s $2.2 biHitm. · The Auto Train, c~l~ 5.4 ~) ~ of6 9 ~ .Railway A. ge conference: Passenger, freight rail Interests In tune math. ere w~ one r_ec~..rring theme at Railway Age's 14th Passenger ~ .o~_l-_re~gh_t R.a~lroads. Conference, held OCt. 22-23 in sn!ngton., U.C., it was th~s: Passenger rail and freight rail u°t~rae~n~S.n~e., ~c~r~m~_o_n,.g~o_a~ls.a. nd .c?mmon interests, and each Iiller(leDe--~'--- '- .... · - - . ,~-----' "----", ..,...,~'~_m.: ~-r.e~jm .ra.,r?acls are facing some tough challenges: o.,=,,.=u ~;apac~ s~emmmn ~rom ,-,~--,,~ ..-.,. ........ · . - ~,,,~,~-~ ,~v~-s~nem cap~l to supplement pnvate funds, and the .~i~rgence of vadous int-~rests-legislatom and disaffected rs, among .others-that have banded together in an a to the industry. For their part n=,,~o,~.,.~....., _. ..... pple ba..e, that ,e~a,es ~T-hg ?--"~' '~' '"" ,-,-.-~.~-~.~,r~ a ___. :_. .~ , .. s one tndusti¥"-stand ready to do their pa[[ m ensunng me ra,roeds' future. "Am~.. k's stra~..lc focus is on development of corridom," p,=,,;.,,..., ....., ,-,-.. -. . pa~r. .... = ,,,~-,~,~ ~.,u ,..,-u Alex I~,ummant said in h~ .. _u~ess. '~ur goal ~s fast, frequent, reliabl~ ~ ,,.,~. ,~.,...~.. .-._-,_~:,_,~., .~.=,,mu as .up !o 400 miles. To acco~_~ this _ ,y,,.g m. ~everage existing infrastructure to devetoD new corridor- o/pe ~. Examples he cited are "'.-.~'---:-. .... '-- wr.~e -am ~requenc~ 'have been added (the best example · ' the Capitol Corridor); Pennsylvania's Keystone Corridor, where re- ~~on has added frequencies; the Iltinois corridors .o~_' ~!.~_~Ch?e.o, ~h h~ve ~. ~' .~. nt grow~; and the cmsmn-~'omand, Me., uowneaster, where capital investment has ..,d~_ __s~d.. trip time.and allowed for a medest service e ' .can-~ .g. row comaor services ~f we can't ide f~ prey equent ~: reli ..M)le performance, and inter-corridor lone d' commuter rail connections, Kummant said.