UTU News Digest - Monday, December 21, 1998

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Monday, December 21, 1998

Amtrak to name Warrington permanent President, CEO

NEW YORK – Acting Amtrak President George Warrington is expected to add "permanent" president and chief executive officer to his title today.

The choice of Warrington, who has served as Amtrak's acting president and chief executive for about a year, comes after a six-month search in which the board also considered candidates from outside Amtrak. According to people who know him, Warrington combines a willingness to make changes at Amtrak with an understanding of the organization and its problems.

The new CEO would serve at a crucial time for Amtrak, which is losing nearly $500 million a year on its operations but is under a federal mandate to cut its losses to zero by the end of its fiscal year 2002. Last year, Congress set aside about $2.2 billion in capital funds for Amtrak to help it modernize equipment and make its operations more efficient in hopes it could wean itself from federal subsidies. Congress also created an Amtrak Reform Council that is independent of the board and has the responsibility to determine as early as the end of next year whether Amtrak can become financially viable or should be restructured or terminated.

"This is a do or die situation," said John Robert Smith, an Amtrak director in charge of the board's search process. Smith, who is mayor of Meridian, Miss., declined to comment on the board's choice but said the new president and CEO "will either have us on this glide path toward operational self-sufficiency or will be presiding over the closure of the national passenger rail system."

As acting Amtrak president and former head of its Northeast Corridor unit, Warrington, 46 years old, has played an important role in shaping Amtrak's business plan. The plan calls for an infusion of new revenue from high-speed trains, to be launched on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington as early as the end of 1999. It also calls for the introduction of faster, more frequent train service on short-haul corridors in other parts of the country, and improvements in Amtrak's long-distance trains and further efforts to generate more revenues from carrying fast freight shipments.

Warrington is a career transportation bureaucrat who once held executive positions at New Jersey's commuter-rail operations. He joined Amtrak in 1994. Supporters said that as acting president, he has presided over recent increases in ridership, revenue and service levels and shown a willingness to try new ideas and buck conventional passenger-train practices.

"He knows the business, the players and the problems, and is part of some pretty interesting solutions," said Jack Martin, president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

But the new chief executive will have to maneuver through potentially difficult relations with labor unions, politicians and freight railroads, over whose tracks many of its trains operate. Amtrak's previous president and CEO, Thomas Downs, departed last December after colliding with the Clinton administration over the administration's taking control of labor negotiations to avoid a threatened strike. Amtrak also faces the challenge of turning around a reputation for inconsistent service levels.

The new president will have a different role than predecessors, who also held the title of chairman. Under a new arrangement for Amtrak, the chairman is not the president but is elected by the board from the presidentially appointed board members. The current chairman is Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, and the vice chairman is former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

Clyburn named to STB by Clinton

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton on Friday announced the recess appointment of William Clyburn Jr. as a member of the Surface Transportation Board. Clyburn was nominated on September 2, 1997. The President intends to resubmit his nomination when the 106th Congress convenes.

Clyburn Jr., of South Carolina, is the Commerce Counsel to Sen. Chuck Robb (D-Va.). In this capacity, his primary responsibilities include advising Senator Robb on policy implications of federal legislative initiatives involving transportation issues such as railroad mergers, labor concerns, appropriations for intermodal facilities, and intelligent transportation systems. Prior to joining Senator Robb, Clyburn served as Staff Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation from 1993 to 1995. From 1992 to 1993, he served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Rodney A. Peeples, 2nd Circuit Court in South Carolina.

Clyburn received a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his J.D. from the University of South Carolina.

Beer-drinking boys ordered into home confinement

HAMILTON, Ohio -- Two boys who said they sipped beer to survive while locked inside a railroad boxcar for eight days admitted Friday to criminal trespassing and were ordered to home confinement for an indefinite period.

Billy Ray Grimes Jr., 12, and John Wayne Riley, 15, each were also sentenced to court-supervised community work programs to pay off $500 in restitution apiece to the CSX Railroad, in whose boxcar the boys were found Dec. 1.

Railroad police said they think the boys ran away from home.

Magistrate Michael Braun also said both boys will remain on juvenile probation for having violated terms of probation from previous, undisclosed juvenile offenses. Both boys were also ordered to attend a CSX Railroad safety program.

When rescued, the boys said they had been locked up in the boxcar for eight days when employees of a Trenton beer brewery heard them shouting and freed them. The boys said they sipped beer from the rail car's cargo in order to stay alive.

Texas asks for millions in federal transportation aid

AUSTIN, Texas --State officials are requesting $221 million in new federal money for transportation projects, including the widening of Interstate 35 in Central Texas and land to build Texas 130.

The Texas Transportation Commission agreed last week to pass on the 33 requests to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Federal officials will be choosing projects from that list and lists from other states next spring to receive $140 million under a program to improve corridors that are critical to trade.

The money for border infrastructure and nationally critical corridors comes from a five-year transportation bill that Congress approved last spring. In addition to the proposals to purchase land to build Texas 130 and to widen I-35 in Comal and Hays counties, other Central Texas projects include a proposal to purchase rail right of way for a commuter rail or along Texas 130 for relocation of Union Pacific freight operations.

Federal rules required the states to prioritize the projects. The Texas 130 projects came in at 29 and 30 on the list, most likely because they are years from construction. The state ranked the projects based partially on how soon the projects could begin and on their cost.

UP building five storage tracks in Houston

HOUSTON – In order to better support chemical shipments, the Union Pacific Railroad said it has begun to build five additional storage tracks in the Houston.

To be completed in February, the $4 million project will increase storage capacity at a facility in Spring, Texas, by nearly 200 railcars to a total of 1,640. Railcars are used as temporary storage for shipments such as plastic pellets during the interval between production and shipment of the goods in response to a customer order.

STB approves UP pact with Reno

WASHINGTON -- The Surface Transportation Board (STB) endorsed an agreement between Union Pacific Railroad and the city of Reno, Nev., that is intended to resolve a dispute over the environmental impact resulting from UP's 1996 purchase of Southern Pacific Rail Corp.

Reno officials challenged the SP acquisition, fearing a steep increase in operations on a rail line that runs through heavily populated areas of the city.

After more than two years of talks, an agreement was reached earlier this month. A centerpiece of that agreement is the prospect of a bond sale to support construction of a depressed rail right-of-way through the city that would not disrupt rail traffic.