With most appointments already posted by NH House of Representatives Clerk Karen Wadsworth, legislation to establish an ongoing task force, this time "with teeth," to further study the feasibility of re-establishing the Lawrence (MA) to Manchester (NH) rail line, and the "Northern" line from Concord (NH) to White River Jct. (VT) via Lebanon (NH), is about to be implemented. Specific recommendation are anticipated.
A Task Force chairman was to have been named by July 16 but Derry Rep. George Katsakiores, a co-sponsor of the legislation, has agreed to serve as temporary chair until that happens.
Besides Katsakiores, Robert Flanders, Peter Griffin, Jim Marshall DOT), David Juvet, Sharma Manindra, Peter Dearness and Harry Blunt have been named. Additionally, John Flanders, Sen. Cliff Below, Tom Noel (DES) Robert Hall, Michael Tardiff, Steve Flanders and Michael Donovan. But there are five more to go on this 20 member panel.
Passage of House Bill 258 established to Task Force, not the first time the state has looked into whether reopening some of its abandoned rail lines makes sense.
Meanwhile a federally-funded study of the former Boston/Montreal Rail Corridor is about to get underway which will include The Northern, shortest distance between these two major northeast cities.
The Federal Highway Administration's Office of Highway Policy Information has just published "Highway Taxes and Fees -- How They Are Collected and Distributed, 2000" providing valuable information to transportation researchers and policy advocates.
Listed in the report are not only federal but fifty state laws aimed at collecting taxes from motor fuel users, drivers, the registration of vehicles, use permits, taxes on auto parts, and then how such billions are allocated back to the various states and modes.
It's on the web at: <www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/hwytaxes/2001> or call Carla Mauncey at 202-366-5045.
For years it has been maintained that while highway users and fliers are heavily subsidized, most often indirectly or by "cross subsidy," railroads are expected to show a profit or at least pay their own way. This has been especially true of expectations for Amtrak, the nation's passenger railroad. It must be "profitable" by Jan, 2003 or be liquidated says a Congressional mandate.
Now another bias against rail is about to come to an end leveling the transportation playing field: The US House of Representatives has approved legislation that provides for an 8-year phase-out of the 4.3 cent/gal. tax on diesel fuel used by railroad locomotives and barge tugs. This tax was originally imposed as a federal budget deficit reducing measure and was removed some time ago for trucks and the aviation sector. Now taxes collected from the truckers and other highway users, and airlines, go right back into these respective modes.
Under legislation passed by "the lower" chamber of Congress the tax upon rails/barges drops to 3.3 cents on October 1, then 2.3 by Jan. 2005, 1.3 by Jan. 2009 and zero by 2010.
Currently this tax costs the rail industry $170 million a year says the Association of American Railroads, funds that are desperately needed to maintain and upgrade rail rights of way all over America.
The US Senate has confirmed Texas Transportation Policy Director Allan Rutter to head the Federal Railroad Administration. Previously he served as executive director of the Texas High Speed Rail Authority trying to sell intercity passenger rail in a state committed to highways and flying.
"Rail-Volution" is a term to explain building more livable communities through the wise use of transit, rail and otherwise. Such a theme will be explored in depth in San Francisco later this week. It is the seventh such gathering sponsored by a consortium of regional planning groups, state DOTs, transit and railroad companies.
Fannie Mae's director of urban and metropolitan planning Robert Lang will speak Friday on how more favorable mortgage rates and higher appraised values are now being assigned to real estate within easy reach of rail lines and other forms of transit.
Also scheduled to speak are Sunne McPeak, director of the Bay Council; Philip Angelides, California state treasurer; former presidential candidate and California governor Jerry Brown, now mayor of Oakland; and Art Pulaski, president of the California Chapter of AFL-CIO. For more: 503-797-1746.
According to the Washington Post, Vermont will up the amount it pays to keep its two daily Ethan Allen and daily Vermonter trains operating.
The Green Mountain State will pay Amtrak $2.02 million in the coming fiscal year, an increase of $600,000. But with the announced retirement of Gov. Howard Dean a week ago, many are wondering what will be the future of intercity rail in Vermont. The state's Congressional delegation is strongly committed to rail.
Chronic delays, cancelled runs, slow operating speeds, new bus service from White River Jct. into Boston (where the Vermonter does not go despite a 60% request response for such service) plus problems along the roadbed, are contributing to a decline in ridership, the Post reports.
"Is there any future for Amtrak outside the North East Corridor" and other rail topics will be discussed at the Oct. 22-24 TRF conference in Williamsburg, VA. TRF is an independent association of transportation professionals from all walks of life.
Other topics to be discussed include the need for bigger LCVs (longer combination vehicles), smoother airline ticketing, air freight, US ports, intermodal transportation and the health of railroads since deregulation.
For more: 202-879-4701.
The term "freeway" can be misleading for it suggests highway use comes without cost. But Gov. Gray Davis in mid-August noted, in opening a 6-mile stretch of multi-billion dollar freeway system, that this newest bed of concrete, steel and blacktop may just be his state's last big highway project.
Noting that California cannot build its way out of highway congestion by building more highways and widening the older ones, a theme starting to be echoed elsewhere across America, Davis emphasized that rail had become a viable alternative to congestion.
The 210 Freeway connection dedicated in Rancho Cucamonga connecting to I-15 in Fontana is part of a $1.1 billion, 5-year project to extend another freeway 28 miles to San Bernadino 60 miles east of Los Angeles where traffic often now grinds to a halt by its own volume.
Despite longtime resistance from automobile manufacturers that federal fuel efficiency standards was "government interference in the private sector" and a compromiser of auto safety, gasoline consumption in the U.S. has been reduced some 2.8 million barrels a day. A barrel of petroleum is 45 gallons.
Federally-mandated Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency, or CAFE, was enacted during the first energy crisis of 1975 to help reduce the nation's dependence upon foreign, especially Middle east, oil. It requires that automobiles maintain an average of 27.5 miles per gallon; minivans, SUVs and light trucks of 20.7 mpg.
Congress now seeks to toughen the standard for this latter vehicle category but again the industry is balking saying to lighten up any more will increase highway deaths, now at over 42,000 per year.
Since these standards have not been revisited since enactment 26 years ago, some lawmakers feel the time has come to take another step. The technology is out there for far better fuel efficiency, says the National Academy of Science.
On the brink of being phased out "for lack of interest," Boy Scouts of America has relaunched its one-time popular Railroading Merit Badge program. Along with the training of new merit badge councilors, financial help from within the rail industry, rewriting of the RRing Handbook and other updates, BSA featured a Railroad Pavilion at its National Jamboree last July in VA where 2222 boys and their adult leaders took the "7 station" course. Each station dealt with an aspect of railroading such as the workings of a locomotive, signals, safety on and around rail rights-of-way, job prospects in the RR industry, how to book a ticket on Amtrak or a commuter line, history of America's railroads, etc.
Now out of San Angelo, TX comes Rail Awareness for Youth, a national organization established to further educate the next generation to the advantages of rail, freight and passenger. Charles Anderson is the spark plug behind this idea but has assembled a team from around the country to advise him. For more: 800-770-2873
This summer at Hidden Valley Boy Scout Reservation in Gilmanton, NH, 31 boys qualified for their RRing merit badges. And at the Steamtown National Railroad Historic in Scranton, PA. 35 teenagers from around the country completed Rail/Camp 2001 modeled after NASA's youth program.
"Most people agree that much more could be done with our youth concerning the future of railroading," Anderson emphasized recently. "It's time we called upon the next generation."
The future of rail in New Hampshire will be discussed at the Sept. 24 Regional Infrastructure Summit at the Wayfarer Inn in Bedford. It is one topic among many dealing with transportation including widening I-93, the NH Airport Access Road and the Manchester Airport itself. For more contact the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce office.
