Hotline #682

The conversion of this Hotline service to a 900 number is being postponed by another week, until Hotline #684 of August 30, to give callers a chance to call next week's message to hear what the new phone number will be.

A tri-weekly extension of the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Miami may happen in 1993, after recent negotiations between Amtrak and the states along that route. Using the Federal Railroad Administration study as a base, Amtrak has offered to pick up the $1 million annual operating loss and provide one train set of Superliners. The State of Florida has offered $6.5 million in right-of-way improvements and Louisiana is considering $2 million in improvements to CSX's Gentilly Yard in New Orleans. Amtrak has long said it would not pick up operating losses of new services, but says in this case the loss would be very low and probably disappear within a year or two of start-up.

In the past, Amtrak also has said that the next new service would be Oklahoma, using the Superliner option after the current order. Amtrak officials do not think that this agreement with the Gulf states would jeopardize the Oklahoma service. They said the lower start-up coast for the Sunset extension was justification to proceed with it.

Other trains are floating around the rumor mill. Recent rumors involving rerouting the Southwest Chief through Amarillo are totally untrue, says Amtrak, though certainly a possibility after 1996, depending on Santa Fe's outlook on passenger service then. Another rumor involving the Montrealer also is untrue. That rumor has the train taken off in October and replaced with a slow Boston-Montreal day train. Amtrak is doing a Montrealer study because it is one of the system's poorest performers, and the day train is one of the options, but Amtrak claims any action on the study is a long way off.

More pleasant recent reports have Amtrak, the State of California, and Southern Pacific very close to agreement on adding three round trips between Sacramento, Oakland, and San Jose in October. This new "Capital Corridor" would be the third major rail corridor in California, after the already successful San Diegan and San Joaquin corridors.

At long last, Pennsylvania now has a law providing a dedicated funding source for public transportation. The new Public Transportation Assistance Fund will be established October 1 and was included in a state budget bill signed by Governor Casey on August 6. Some money will still come from general revenues.

NARP Executive Director Ross Capon and John Archer of AAA will appear on CBS Radio's "Crosstalk" show this weekend; check your local listings. In Washington, tune in to WLTT, 94.7 FM, at 6:00 am on August 18 and 1:30 am on August 19.

Illinois DOT has cut is rail marketing budget by 33% for 1992.

TravelAge West magazine reports that Holland America is postponing its Canadian Rockies luxury train until 1993.

Delta Airlines will officially take over operation of Pan Am's Northeast Corridor air shuttles on September 1. The Delta shuttles run in direct competition with the Trump Shuttle and Amtrak.