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June
26, 2002; Volume 8, Issue 12
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AMTRAK
SHUTDOWN AVERTED
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 Emergency
meetings this week between the
board of directors of Amtrak,
transportation unions, and the
USDOT have resulted in an
"agreement in
principle" to keep the rail
carrier operating until the end
of the fiscal year in September.
The deal helps ease Amtrak's
immediate financial situation
with a loan of $100 million from
the Department of
Transportation, and the prospect
of an additional $100 million
from Congress. "We are
confident that, with
congressional support, Amtrak
services will not be
disrupted," Secretary of
Transportation Norman Mineta and
Amtrak Board Chairman John
Robert Smith said in a joint
statement late Wednesday.
During
a media briefing on Tuesday,
June 25, company officials
announced that passenger service
would continue running for a
week, but that the rail carrier
would begin shutting down the
network on July 4 or July 5 if
it did not receive a federal
loan guarantee or a direct
appropriation of emergency
funds.
Last
week, Secretary Mineta announced
an administration proposal that
called for an end to federal
operating subsidies, an increase
in the amount states have to pay
for train service, and the
replacement of Amtrak as owner
of the Washington
to Boston Northeast Corridor,
Amtrak’s most highly-traveled
route.
Amtrak
trains carry approximately
60,000 riders a day. A shutdown
of the system could have a
ripple effect, delaying or
stranding hundreds of thousands
of passengers whose commuter
rail lines use tracks and
tunnels owned by Amtrak.
For
more information, click
here.
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TTI
CONGESTION REPORT OUT
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| STPP,
Others Say Measure Falls Short
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 The
Texas Transportation Institute
issued its annual ranking of
congested metropolitan areas on
June 20, 2002 amid growing
concern that the congestion
measure is inaccurate.
The Surface
Transportation Policy Project
announced
that it would not issue a
companion analysis of the TTI Urban
Mobility Report because of
doubts about the validity of the
data in accurately measuring
congestion and accounting for
investments to combat it.
These
doubts, which originally
prompted STPP to issue its
companion reports in previous
years, were dramatically
highlighted when the State of
Washington (WSDOT) withdrew its
financial support from the
project a few weeks before the
report was released.
Washington DOT cited the
TTI indices inability to take
into account either operational
improvements or the impact of
transportation choices such as
transit in easing congestion or
travel delay.
“I
sympathize with TTI and anyone
else trying to better understand
our transportation system,”
says Sarah Campbell, the chair
of STPP’s Board of Directors.
“But in this case, as in many
others, the data just isn’t
there.
The transportation
profession hasn’t produced it,
and even the recent Census
numbers on Journey to Work are
problematic.”
After
the report came out, the
California state DOT, Caltrans,
also expressed his concern.
"I'm not prepared
right now to say we're pulling
out, but we're taking a real
hard look," said Caltrans
director Jeff Morales told the
Sacramento Bee. "At a
minimum, you're not getting
credit for the improvements. At
worst, you're getting
dinged."
For
STPP’s full statement and
other material, click
here.
For
a Sacramento Bee article on TTI,
click
here.
For a Los Angeles Times article
on TTI, click
here.
(free registration required)
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HILL
NEWS
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| Senate
Subcommittee Continues
Reauthorization Hearings |
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 The
Senate Subcommittee on Housing
and Transportation held its
third hearing on TEA-21
reauthorization on June 26,
focusing on the benefits of
transit.
Similar to previous
Congressional hearings on public
transportation’s performance,
today’s hearing addressed the
outcomes of increased funding
for transit under TEA-21.
Unlike past hearings,
however, witnesses represented a
broader cross-section of public
interests that gave uniform
support for transit.
Speaking
from the business perspective,
Carl Guardino,
Executive Director of the Silicon
Valley Manufacturing Group,
discussed how the business
community has championed local
sales tax initiatives to expand
transit in the San Francisco Bay
Area.
Similarly, Herschel
Abbott, Vice President of
Governmental Affairs for Bell
South; reported on Bell
South’s decision to relocate
the company’s offices to six
major employment centers at or
near MARTA’s
rail system in order to give its
9,800 employees a way out of
Atlanta’s traffic jams.
STPP
Board Member Hank Dittmar
also testified before the panel,
providing a comprehensive look
at the relationship between
transit investments and ridership
growth nationwide and
demographic and business trends
that forecast continued demand
into the future.
Dittmar, who is the
President of the Great American
Station Foundation, also spoke
about transit’s impact on
economic benefits to users and
growing market response.
He also made some initial
recommendations for
reauthorization, most notably
urging the panel to maintain
parity in the matching share for
highway and transit capital
projects.
Michael
Replogle,
Transportation Director for
Environmental Defense and the
leader of STPP
’s
policy team on energy and
environment issues, emphasized
the need for the committee to
further strengthen the
connection between transit
investment and clean air goals
in his testimony.
For
testimony from this hearing, click
here.
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House
Subcommittee Holds Hearing on
Intermodalism |
 Government
officials and transportation
professionals at a Congressional
hearing on June 18, 2002
discussed the need to improve
connections between our nation’s
various modes of transportation
and create an overall seamless
network that moves people and
goods more efficiently.
The
hearing by the U.S. House
Highways and Transit
Subcommittee was one of a series
being held in preparation for
the reauthorization of the
Transportation Equity Act for
the 21st Century (TEA 21) next
year. For more information, click
here.
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Senate
Subcommittee Holds Hearing on
TEA-21 Renewal |
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On
June 18, 2002, the Senate
Banking Committee’s
Subcommittee on Housing and
Transportation held a hearing
entitled “TEA-21: A National
Partnership.” The hearing was
part of an ongoing series of
Congressional hearings laying
the groundwork for next year’s
reauthorization of TEA-21.
Witnesses included Detroit Mayor
Kwame Kilpatrick, Boise Mayor
Brent Coles, and Dallas County,
Texas Commissioner Kenneth
Mayfield.
Detroit
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick discussed
his interest in intermodalism,
light rail and transit
development overall and told
this panel, “if a community
has organized for a result,
there has to be some language
that has to make the states
respond.”
Boise Mayor H. Brent
Coles also talked about his
plans for a commuter rail
investment in his region and the
challenges he faces in gaining
state and federal support for
his efforts.
In other testimony, Mayor
Kilpatrick and Dallas County
Commissioner Ken Mayfield
discussed their efforts to bring
rail transit connections to
their airports to deliver
congestion relief along major
highway corridors.
For
testimony from this hearing, click
here.
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House
Committee Examines Capital
Grants Program |
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The
Subcommittee on Highways and
Transit met on June 20, 2002 to
receive testimony from
transportation professionals on
the Federal Transit
Administration’s capital
investment grants programs and
clean fuels grants program. The
hearings explored the federal
transit capital grants programs,
which represent about 42 percent
of total funding, and are
primarily discretionary in
nature. Representatives and
witnesses discussed new starts
project funding, bus rapid
transit, rail modernization
programs, ways to expand the
core capacity of transit
systems, and cleaner fuel
options for buses.
For
more information, click
here.
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IN
OTHER NEWS
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| Public
Health Briefing Connects
Transportation Choice, Physical
Well-Being |
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STPP
participated in the at the June
11th Congressional health fair
and policy briefing, “Prevention
Saves at Any Age,” with
Barbara McCann speaking on the
links between physical activity
and transportation and land use
policy. STPP, supported by the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
is currently researching the
link between the physical
environment and obesity, looking
to put numbers behind the common
sense idea that people who walk
more are healthier. The
briefing, sponsored by the
Congressional Prevention
Coalition in cooperation with
the Partnership for Prevention
and the National Alliance for
Nutrition and Activity, also
covered topics of nutrition and
obesity. Kelly Brownell, PhD, of
the Yale University Nutrition
Center, spoke on the environment
as related to obesity, focusing
on “Toxic Food Environment,”
and Rep. James Moran (D-VA)
called on his fellow Members of
Congress to consider policy
solutions to health problems
associated with poor diet and
inadequate physical activity.
For more
information on the briefing, click
here.
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Massachusetts
Program Links Housing, Transit |
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 The
Massachusetts Housing Finance
Agency has announced the release
of a new program which credits
people who rely on mass transit
to lower barriers to home
ownership - helping to reverse
the long term trend which gave
financial impetus to sprawl. The
“Take the 'T' Home Mortgage
Program” is a partnership
between MassHousing, the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority (MBTA) and community
banks in the MBTA's service area
to help qualified regular and
frequent 'T' riders buy a home -
with no down payment -- in close
proximity to public
transportation.
For more
information, click
here.
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LOCAL
REPORT
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| Transit
a Top Election Issue in Michigan |
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 The
Detroit Free Press last week
carried a front-page article
titled "Transit a Top
Priority with Voters",
focusing on the Michigan
governor's race and where the
voters and candidates stand on
fully funding public transit. Of
the four questions the Free
Press posed, one was: Should the
full ten percent be given to
transit? Three out of five
candidates said yes.
How did it
come about that candidates in
Michigan, home of the Motor
City, are vying to be the most
transit friendly? It didn't
happen over night.
Back in
1999, the Michigan
Transportation and Land Use
Coalition identified and defined
Ten Percent for Transit as a
priority campaign, echoing the
principle that more equitable
investments in public transit is
key to enabling all people to
gain access to good jobs,
education, training, and needed
services. Research revealed that
although Michigan law allows for
ten percent of the Michigan
Transportation Fund to be spent
on public transportation
projects, it was only spending
about three-quarters of what's
allowed, or $159 million,
compared to about $2 billion for
road projects.
Managed by
the Michigan Land Use Institute
and the Michigan Environmental
Council, the Coalition began by
publishing fact sheets and
newspaper opinion articles to
elevate the issue. The Coalition
continues to work in partnership
with groups such as the League
of Conservation Voters to
conduct candidate and voter
education regarding transit
funding over the past several
years. Direct action includes an
on-going strategy of raising the
issue in lawmaker visits and
getting support on the record.
The Free
Press has made ten percent for
transit a defining issue for
candidates; the voters will
determine whether or not they
have the chance to follow
through.
Click
here for full text of the
article.
For
information on Michigan
Transportation and Land Use
Coalition membership and top
priorities, click
here.
Submitted
by Kelly Thayer
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REPORTS
& RESOURCES
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| National
Academy of Sciences Report |
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The
National Academy of Sciences has
released a report on how the US
should harness technology and
science to combat terrorism. Of
particular interest is chapter
7, which focuses on threats
posed to our national
transportation infrastructure
and suggests ways to address
those concerns (most
specifically through the
Transportation Security Agency).
The paper is limited to direct
threats to the transportation
infrastructure, and does not
address the need for
transportation system redundancy
as discussed after September 11
(to read more about this, visit
http://www.napawash.org/pc_local_state/peirce_10_13_01.html).
To view
the report, click
here.
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Civilizing Downtown Highways
STPP,
the Congress for the New
Urbanism (CNU) and the Local
Government Commission have
teamed up to release a new
report on how state highways
that serve as main streets can
enhance the community if
carefully designed.
"Civilizing Downtown
Highways" highlights
several California and national
success stories, and is
available for purchase for $30
from www.cnu.org or by calling
CNU at 415.495.2255.
Click
here for a full PDF version
of the new Caltrans policy on
"Context Sensitive
Solutions" (requires Adobe
Acrobat Reader).
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