Although Republicans barely held onto their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, there will be a shift in committee chairs affecting transportation issues due to their self-imposed term limits.
Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Altoona, PA), the controversial chairman of Transportation and Infrastructure and a very strong advocate of more and better highways and friend of the truckers, will likely be replaced by Alaksa Rep. Don Young running unopposed for that key slot. But Shuster will probably replace Rep. Jim Petri (R-WI) as chairman of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee with jurisdiction over rail. So he still holds sway over legislation affecting passenger and freight railroads. The ranking Democrat on that panel left the House after being elected governor of West Virginia.
The 50/50 party split in the Senate is expected to be broken by Vice President to be Dick Cheney when it comes to handing out key committee assignments in that chamber with N.H. Republican Bob Smith expected to remain head of Environment and Public Works having impact upon transportation projects. Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz), a very vocal opponent of Amtrak, and Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), the ranking minority member, will remain in their posts in all likelihood but with McCain, who beat Bush by 19 percentage points in the N.H. Primary, focusing instead on campaign finance reform as his number one priority.
It is not sure where Pres/Elect Bush comes down on rail issues. His brother Jeb, governor of Florida, vetoed high-speed rail as his first official act upon taking office two years ago but apparently that has been overruled by the electorate in a referendum.
The outgoing president has issued an executive order directing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish a "performance-based organization" within that agency. Its focus is to be upon more efficient operation of the air traffic control system including the appointment of business and labor leaders from outside the aviation industry. They will serve as an FAA board of directors much in the way Amtrak's board functions. One aspect they are being required to address are the impediments to congestion pricing.
Manchester Airport officials are asking the city for permission to spend $121.5 million over the next five years for two more terminal buildings, a second parking garage and other work adding four more gates and baggage handling areas.
Funds for the projects, to coincide with the new express feeder highway, would come from revenues generated by the airport itself and not the local property tax base.
The inevitability of next spring's Portland/Boston Amtrak service and the much longer term prospects for restoring the once Boston/Montreal Rail Corridor, has restimulated thinking about the fact that rail passengers still cannot get through Boston without changing modes of transportation. Like the proverbial "...a human cannot pass through Chicago by rail but a cow can!."
For 150 years the city has resisted all moves to connect North and South Stations by rail, at first the result of the powerful jitney teamsters, then the taxi cab lobby. In more recent years it has been the highway interests underscored by residual ill-feelings toward the railroads. Recently it has been the tunnel interests anxious not to see any engineering or construction funds "drained" from their subsidies who have blocked rail connection. Rail advocates were late to the planning process for that $15 billion project often described as the last link-up of the U.S. Interstate highway system.
But with approval of the Big Dig in Washington came a golden opportunity to correct the short-sightedness of 150 years which have left Boston out of the loop and may impact its comeback as a transportation hub. A lack of waterfront rail access was cited recently by Maersk-Sealand as one reason for pulling out of the Port of Boston.
Now a Citizens Advisory Committee is meeting after a two-year hiatus to discuss the lack of such a crucial rail link and how it is taking on regional-wide implications.
The little known N.H. House of Representatives' Fuel Price Subcommittee has issued its report outlining the reasons for sudden and often unannounced spikes in home heating and diesel fuel prices. Chaired by Rochester Democrat George Brown, who missed reelection in November by three votes, the subcommittee noted that low inventories of petroleum distillates, a reluctance by dealers to enter into oil futures, refineries operating at capacity and oil company mergers were to blame.
But Rep. Brown also noted that the lack of a viable rail network also held the northern New England region hostage to the vagaries of a fickle oil market often forcing dealers to resort to the "spot market" meaning paying the highest price of the day.
