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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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