On June 1, I was finishing up a meeting in Philadelphia. My daughter lives in Manhattan and I wanted to visit her. I figured this would be a great excuse to take the train, something I have not done in years. It was an excellent experience. The train was scheduled to leave Philadelphia 30th Street station at 4:08 P.M. and was only a few minutes late. What was most impressive, however, was how easy it all was. I got to the station over an hour early, being a longtime airplane traveler. This is clearly not necessary with Amtrak. There is no security line, no baggage check in (although I guess their might be if the train was extremely full), no boarding pass line, nothing. The station was very well marked, and you could not get lost. Then you pick up your bag and walk onto the train. I could have arrived at 4:07 P.M. and had no trouble. The train was fast and clean. It was one of the new highspeed Acela trains. The view through the window was excellent and the seats were extremely roomy. There was no smoking. The train arrived on time at New York's Penn Station with my daughter waiting at the head of the gate-walk.
I may never fly again!
Amtrak to Keep Trains Running for Now by John Crawley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amtrak pushed itself back from the brink late on Tuesday and will keep trains running this week while it works with the Bush administration and Congress to try and resolve its financial crisis, the railroad's president said.
David Gunn, who told Congress last Thursday a decision on shutting down might have to be made this week, said the railroad could delay that to the first week of July now that a potential solution to its problems might be near.
"It's too soon to know what's going to happen," Gunn told reporters in a telephone interview on Bush administration efforts to craft a rescue package. "There has been a lot of hard work on that." Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said earlier on Tuesday that he was "very, very close" to completing an aid plan for Amtrak. He said a deal could be finalized by Wednesday.
The government and Amtrak have been trying to sort out terms for a loan guarantee so the railroad could access its credit line, which has been frozen by its banks.
Gunn, who has been on the job for just over a month, credited Mineta's efforts and also praised lawmakers in both houses of Congress who support a Senate proposal for an emergency rail appropriation that would meet Amtrak's needs.
Amtrak says it needs $200 million to operate through the end of September. It would presumably receive a new annual appropriation from Congress after that. Amtrak's banks are refusing new loans because it has little cash and nearly $4 billion in debt and an incomplete audit for 2001.
Amtrak will begin July with about $100 million but will begin depleting that quickly, Gunn said. "The situation then goes critical shortly after the Fourth of July" without a federal bailout, he said.
Within days, Gunn said Amtrak's cash flow would start to fall below the amount it would need to take its trains out of service. Gunn has said a shutdown will take four days, cost $40 million and require a bankruptcy filing.
Gunn said the railroad's board would have to decide within a day or two of the Independence Day whether to proceed with a shutdown, if government efforts on an aid plan failed and its banks continued to not loan it more money.
He said that he had informed commuter systems in the Northeast, the Chicago area and California that depend on Amtrak for service about the latest developments in the saga.
Labor and government sources familiar with administration planning on Amtrak said the Transportation Department appeared to favor a rescue plan that would not involve congressional action and a loan guarantee looked to be a cornerstone of any proposal.
"No one wants to see Amtrak die," Mineta said during an address to a transportation investment conference at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Mineta has advocated tying any aid plan to reforms in how Amtrak does business. Gunn and his supporters in Congress say the railroad is cut to the bone and new austerity measures would not work.
But the administration appears adamant. "Something symbolic has to be in there. The White House is not from the Northeast Corridor," said one government source about Amtrak's popular route between Boston and Washington.
While nothing is final, Gunn and other sources said the Transportation Department was pursing a loan guarantee of about $100 million and would make Amtrak come up with the rest through "self help" measures that include cost-cutting or generating new revenues from its few remaining assets.
For example, Gunn said the Bush administration asked on Monday whether Amtrak could mortgage Chicago's Union Station, like it did last year with New York's Pennsylvania Station to raise $300 million. Gunn rejected the idea as impractical, saying such a deal could not be done in time.
Amtrak, formed in 1971 as a for-profit corporation, has never made money. It lost $1.1 billion last year.
A full shutdown would not only disrupt the 60,000 passengers who ride Amtrak on 260 trains each day, but would halt or seriously interfere with commuter service in the Northeast, around Chicago and in California.
submitted by Randel Bittick
Here is the clinic schedule for the rest of the year.
July - Air Brushing by David Lamberts
July - Ice Cream Social
Aug - Decals by Ron Warner
Sept - Weathering by Jan Kutch
Oct - BNSF Signal Maintainer speaker
Nov - Officer Nominations
Nov - Train Slides of Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana by Ron Warner
Dec - Officer election and Christmas Party
Jan - The Narrow Gauge Convention by David Lamberts
Here are the correct answers for last month's puzzle. Thanks to Ron Warner for submitting this material.
Matching the slogan with the railroad ( from The American Freight Train, by Jim Boyd. 2001. MBI Publishing Co. and other sources).
| SLOGAN | RAILROAD |
| Pacemaker Freight Service | (NYC) New York Central |
| Route of the Phoebe Snow | (DL&W) Lakawanna |
| The Grand Canyon Route | (AT&SF) Santa Fe |
| Road of the Streamliners | (UP) Union Pacific |
| Ship it on the _______ | Frisco (SL&SF) St Louis & San Francisco |
| The Road of Anthracite | (DL&W) Delaware, Lakawanna & Western |
| Green Mountain Gateway | Rutland Railroad |
| Route of Courteous Service | (SAL) Seaboard Air Line Railroad |
| The Peoria Gateway | (M&StL) Minneapolis & St Louis |
| Route of the Black Diamond | (LV) Lehigh Valley |
| The Peoria Road | (TP&W) Toledo, Peoria & Western |
| Linking 13 Great States with the Nation | (B&O) Baltimore & Ohio |
| The Hoosier Line | (CIL) Monon (Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville) |
| Feather River Route | (WP) Western Pacific |
| Quicker via Peoria | (P&E) Peoria & Eastern |
| Golden State Route | (Rock Island) Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and (SP) Southern Pacific |
| The Old Reliable | (L&N) Louisville & Nashville |
| The Right Way | (CG) Central of Georgia |
| Sooner through the Southwest | (KO&G) Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf |
| Route of the Empire Builder | (GN) Great Northern |
| The Chicago Line | (C&EI) Chicago & Eastern Illinois |
| Pine Tree Route | (MEC) Maine Central |
| We can Handle it | (UP) Union Pacific |
| Everywhere West | (CB&Q) Chicago, Burlington & Quincy |
| Route of the Sunset Limited | (SP) Southern Pacific |
If anyone has any additions or correction to Ron's quiz please share them with us.
JAN AND RON AND DAVE AND JIM'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
From June 13 to June 16 Jan and Ron Kutch and Dave Lamberts and Jim Baker attended the 51st LSR annual convention in San Antonio. The meeting was held at the Doubletree Club Hotel near the airport. It was an excellent experience. I went to a hands on clinic on making trees by Al Boos, another hands on clinic on soldering where for $15, I spent an hour learning the fine points of soldering and sweating brass and wire parts. And, I got to keep all the equipment! A great deal.Ron and I spent Friday afternoon operating an indoor G scale layout at the home of Frolin Marek. I am not an experienced operator (ask Homer), but Frolin was patient to a fault and we had a great time. His layout ran flawlessly, as one might expect from G scale.
There was a silent auction open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They had more than 100 items for the auction, which surprised me. I got a copy of the software used at the auction for our own convention next year.
The banquet on Saturday night was well done and the guest speaker was a NARROW GAUGE railroader, Charlie Getz. Charlie writes articles for the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette and for his day job, is the assistant attorney general for the State of California.
I did not have time to attend the prototype tours which included a tour of the Capitol Cement Plant and the Trans-Texas Car Shop.
I really enjoyed the entire weekend and would encourage anyone who has not attended a state or national railroad convention to try and do so. The activities are great, but the best part is the people you meet.
Staying on Track is published monthly by the LMRA - David Lamberts, editor. Visit us on the Internet at http://www.railserve.com/lmra E-mail me at DWL1944@cs.com
Our mailing address is PO Box 53674, Lubbock, TX 79453