Photo: Leo King What will the future be for the Northeast Corridor and the Acela Express?

Cong. Menendez still concerned with Amtrak board’s plans to create subsidiary

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Representative Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who had demanded an explanation of the Amtrak Board’s secret vote to create a Northeast Corridor subsidiary, said today that he was pleased with assurances by Amtrak Board Chairman David Laney that Laney was fighting the Bush administration’s plan to sell or spin off the Northeast Corridor infrastructure but said he was not convinced the Board’s actions were appropriate.

In a meeting with Menendez last week, Laney said that he was fighting any efforts to sell or spin off the Northeast Corridor and reiterated his statement in the April 2005 Amtrak Strategic Plan that separating Amtrak’s operations and infrastructure is far too risky a move. In a letter to Laney today, Menendez thanked him for those assurances, while expressing continuing concern with the Board’s secret vote to create a Northeast Corridor Infrastructure Subsidy.

“I was not, however, satisfied with your explanations as to why the Board approved the resolution creating a Northeast Corridor Infrastructure Subsidiary, nor why it was kept secret for so long,” Menendez wrote. “Your claim that Amtrak needs to create a subsidiary to improve its accounting practices just doesn’t fly. As I mentioned at our meeting, companies around the country are able to improve their accounting methods without creating a holding company. I’m extremely concerned that this is the first step for selling off the Northeast Corridor when someone other than yourself is Chairman of the Board.”

Menendez has consistently opposed any plan to spin off the Northeast Corridor because, as he wrote in the letter to Laney, “The move could have a tremendous impact on the hundreds of thousands of commuters that depend on the Northeast Corridor to get back and forth to work, and the amount of time they can spend at home with their families.”

In the meeting with Chairman Laney, Menendez also asked to be provided with information on past and pending actions by the Board that could affect the Northeast Corridor.

( See related editorial below – Ed. )

This week, Amtrak restores the San Antonio-Houston-New Orleans portion of the Sunset Ltd. The first New Orleans-bound train 2 will leave Los Angeles Wed., Nov. 2 and arrive Houston and New Orleans Fri., Nov. 4. The first westbound train 1 leaves New Orleans and Houston Fri., Nov. 4. The schedule is the same as that shown in the “Spring-Summer 2005” timetable. (The new timetable shows no times east of San Antonio.)

New Jersey Transit says it will add 3,000 additional peak hour seats on the Northeast Corridor into and out of New York, when two additional New York-Trenton express round-trips begin Monday, Oct. 31. Eventually, NJT’s Trenton trains will be re-equipped with Bombardier bi-level coaches that offer roomy 2-2 seating and fit New York City tunnels.

Meanwhile, Friday marked the final runs of three Amtrak New York-Philadelphia trains--6:30 AM from Philadelphia and 5:30 and 6:09 PM from New York. Through a combination of Regional and Keystone trains, Amtrak will offer roughly 30-minute headways in the rush hour peak New York-Philadelphia (but no departures from Phila. between 5:55 and 6:55 AM).

Starting Oct. 31, Amtrak will reduce--but not eliminate--service at Cornwells Heights. Weekday departures from Cornwells Heights (CWH) to New York will be 6:15 AM (#630) and 7:43 AM (#180). Return trips will depart New York at 6:38 PM (#193) and 7:32 PM (#655). (CWH is not shown in the new, national timetable.)

Train 630 will depart Philadelphia at 5:55 AM, five minutes earlier than shown in the printed timetable.

Also Oct. 31, Amtrak California will add more Thruway service connecting with the San Joaquins. The Stockton-San Jose route will extend to serve Caltrain commute stations at Sunnyvale (station code SVL), Mountain View (MNV), and Palo Alto (PLC). Benicia (BCI) will be added to Thruways from Martinez.

A new route offers two round trips Merced--Los Banos (LBO)-- Hollister (HLR)--San Juan Bautista (SJB)--Salinas--Monterey.

Bakersfield- Coachella Valley service will double, with a new Indio round-trip via Palm Springs. A second bus will also serve Hemet via Ontario and Riverside.

Minnesota mandates bio-diesel

Broader support for NY bond act

Support for the NY Transportation Bond Act — Prop. 2 on the November 8 ballot — appears to be more widespread than in 2000.  In that year, a transportation bond issue was defeated at the polls, largely by upstate “no” votes. 

The Business Council of NY State is urging voters to give thumbs up to the bond act. “The council’s leaders expressed concern about the state’s debt level,” said Council president Daniel Walsh: “However the board recognizes that voter-approved debt for long-term capital needs is an appropriate use of public debt.” 

“It takes dollars to just keep everything secure, safe and travelable. That’s mass transit as well as roads and bridges. This is not a luxury,” said Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno at an Albany event. 

At a pro-Bond Act event in NYC, city comptroller William Thompson told the Daily News  that if the bond issue is defeated, the MTA “will likely be forced to borrow more money and riders may be burdened again with fare hikes and service cuts.”

Distributing the benefits of parking pricing

In the third and final section of his opus, The High Cost of Free Parking, UCLA Professor Donald Shoup identifies ways to overcome technological and political barriers in the way of charging market-priced rates for parking.

Shoup describes several new takes on the traditional parking meter, which was invented by a member of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce in 1935.  Most American parking meters haven’t changed much in the 70 years since. But recent years have seen significant advances.

Pay-and-display and pay-by-space meters are used in New York City, Aspen and Berkeley and differ from traditional meters in that they control multiple spaces. They also have the benefit of allowing cash, credit card, smart card and even cell phone payments.

Personal in-vehicle meters, also employed by Aspen and in Arlington, VA, allow parkers to pay without stepping out of their cars.  Drivers key the appropriate parking zone, insert their parking smart card, and display the meter in the windshield.  Payment is deducted until the driver returns and switches off the meter. 

In several European cities, drivers pay for parking with their cell phones by calling a city parking number and keying in license plate and parking zone (cell payment is also a popular way to pay London’s congestion charge). An in-vehicle transponder allows control officers to determine if the car is paying and parked legally. 

The EU is also exploring using Global Positioning System satellites to pay for parking.

Beyond their convenience, the principal advantages of modern payment methods is that parking rates can be adjusted to respond to demand. 

During peak parking periods, rates can be adjusted upward to ensure a rough balance between supply and demand, reducing some trips and also cutting back on cruising for parking.

Of course the bigger obstacle to charging for parking (evident in the recent tempest over NYC metered Sunday parking) is politics.  Resistance to increasing parking rates and putting a price on previously free parking is strong.  Shoup says it can be overcome via parking benefit districts. 

Under such a plan, the district would receive some or all of parking revenue, rather than see it disappear into a city’s general fund coffers.  The district would use the funds for transportation and community improvements such as sidewalk cleaning, landscaping, storefront facades, bicycle and walking paths, etc. 

The establishment of parking benefit districts helps make metered parking more palatable to curbside shop owners and residents.  Both groups can see a clear link between the coins deposited in parking meters and improvements in their districts.”

Baltimore gondola proposed

MTA approves fare cuts for holiday period

October 28 -- MTA officials agreed yesterday to lower fares on subways and commuter rails later this year, a token of gratitude to the region’s millions of mass transit passengers.

“We do think about the riders - and in a small, and somewhat insignificant way, this is the way we’re saying thank you,” said Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow, after the board approved, 12-2, a packet of holiday season discounts and bonus rides.

Highlights of the MTA’s reduced fares:

SUBWAYS & BUSES

1/2 fare

On holidays and weekends starting Thanksgiving (Nov. 25 and Dec. 26 included). Also, every day, Dec. 24-Jan. 2

4 Free days added to monthly MetroCards activated (first swiped) between Thanksgiving and Dec. 31. For weekly MetroCards, 1 free day will be added.

$76 Holiday MetroCard, good Nov. 23-Jan. 1, will be available at token booths.

LIRR & METRO-NORTH

10 - Number of free trips with an off-peak pass, good through Feb. 28, with purchase of December regular monthly pass. For use by family and friends.

Free -Round-trip off-peak ticket, good through Jan. 31, with any weekly pass purchased Nov. 20-Dec. 27 or 10-trip purchased Nov. 20-Dec. 31. For use by family and friends.

A Publisher’s Note:

Loyalty

Members of the media – and others -- who panicked when Amtrak’s September Board vote to differentiate the accounting records of Amtrak’s heavily traveled Northeast Corridor, from the rest of the Amtrak system, need to take a deep breath. And the meeting Amtrak Chair David Laney had with Congressman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is a good illustration of why that is so.

This past week the Congressman met with Chairman Laney (see separate article) and came away satisfied that Laney was not about to lead a charge that would result in the dismemberment of Amtrak, although the Congressman remains concerned over the fact that the Board vote was not announced.

The key point: as we have stated in the past, while the Bush Administration has come under fire for the ideological corporatism of some of its senior staff, not everyone in the Administration is tied to that stake. A few, like David Laney, are the kind of principled, dedicated public servants that any administration would like to have.

David Laney is a long-time supporter of the President, and was chosen to head Amtrak because the President understood that Laney’s experience with transportation would stand him in good stead in that post. But he is not an ideologue, as are some of the President’s true believers, who think they have been put on earth to avenge a generation of liberal policies they feel have steered the country wrong. David Laney is a practical, professional man who is the kind of person, especially right now, that the Bush Administration needs if it wants to regain credibility with ordinary Americans, who have become increasingly disappointed in the behavior of some of the President’s more ideological appointees.

Chairman Laney must be responsible to the person who appointed him, as well as to the interests of the public. His consistent leadership of Amtrak sets an example that others should follow, because it shows that it is possible to be loyal without being an ideologue. Indeed, we think David Laney serves the President better than some, because he will not allow himself to be a tool of the ideologues who keep trying to hijack this Administration, and who are doing it great damage.