Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
April 2, 1993
An amendment to strike all Amtrak funding from the Clinton stimulus package was introduced by Sen. John Danforth (R.-Mo.) on March 31. Even though part of the funding is to pay for parts the rehired workers would need, Danforth used simple division to conclude, falsely, that Amtrak funding would produce jobs at a cost of $122,000 per worker. Danforth's opening statement concluded, "What is really...
March 26, 1993
Although the Senate yesterday approved the budget resolution that President Clinton wanted, the Senate's vote next week on the stimulus package of supplemental 1993 funding will decide whether and when Amtrak gets its $188 million. Senators Boren and Breaux were negotiating with the Administration, but they contemplate delaying up to six months about half of the stimulus package -- including all t...
March 19, 1993
President Clinton's selection of Mort Downey as Deputy Secretary of Transportation has been applauded loudly by the American Public Transit Association. Downey worked for the Carter DOT and as New York MTA's executive director and chief financial officer. The southbound Silver Star struck a gasoline tanker truck north of Fort Lauderdale on March 17. The truck had stopped in error on the crossing...
March 12, 1993
The House Appropriations Committee has passed the Clinton 1993 supplemental funding/stimulus package. Also, the House Budget Committee has passed a budget resolution with spending guidelines for fiscal years 1994 through 1998. It has more spending cuts than the President sought and freezes non-entitlement spending at 1993 levels, with no room for inflation, for all five years. But it is unclear wh...
March 5, 1993
PATH train service from New Jersey to the rail station below the World Trade Center in Manhattan was restored by morning rush hour on March 1, which is near-miraculous considering the amount of damage there from the fatal February 26 bomb blast. The station is just below the parking garage where the terrorist bomb was and its ceiling collapsed onto the tracks and platforms. The target date for op...