UTU Daily News Digest

 

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Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Friday, December 3, 1999

ILLINOIS: Kentucky Cardinal brings Amtrak to Louisville

CHICAGO -- For the first time in 20 years, daily passenger train service returns to the greater Louisville metropolitan area on December 17 when Amtrak begins operating a new direct service between Chicago and Jeffersonville, Ind., a press release said The new train will be called the Kentucky Cardinal and will feature evening departures and overnight travel southbound from Chicago and northbound from Jeffersonville via Indianapolis.

"Amtrak is pleased to be once again serving passengers in the Louisville market," said Ed Walker, President of Amtrak Intercity. "This is an excellent opportunity for Kentucky and southern Indiana passengers to take advantage of a direct route to Indianapolis and Chicago and experience the relaxing and convenient travel alternative that Amtrak offers nationwide."

Walker said Amtrak is committed to extending the Kentucky Cardinal into downtown Louisville if an adequate station facility can be built. He said the train would continue to stop in Jeffersonville, Ind., if a downtown Louisville stop is established. No other stops between Jeffersonville and Indianapolis are currently planned although Walker said Amtrak is receptive to adding stops if ridership and revenue projections justify the addition.

The southbound Kentucky Cardinal will depart Chicago Union Station each evening at 8:10 p.m. and arrive in Jeffersonville at 8:40 a.m. the following morning. The northbound Kentucky Cardinal will depart Jeffersonville each evening at 10:25 p.m. and arrive in Chicago at 10:05 a.m. the next day. The station in Jeffersonville is located at 500 Willinger Lane. A limited number of parking spaces are available at the station.

Three days per week, the Kentucky Cardinal will operate between Chicago and Indianapolis as a section of Amtrak's Cardinal, a train that operates thrice weekly between Chicago and Washington, D.C., via Indianapolis. In Indianapolis, the Kentucky Cardinal will be joined with, and separated from, the Cardinal on the days of that train's operation. On the remaining four days per week, the Kentucky Cardinal will operate independently between Chicago, Indianapolis and Jeffersonville/Louisville.

Food service will include vending machines on the lower level of the coach car. In addition, passengers will have access to the Cardinal's dining car on the Chicago-Indianapolis segment on the days the Kentucky Cardinal operates as a section of the Cardinal.

The Kentucky Cardinal will operate with bi-level Superliner equipment and will offer passengers both coach and sleeping car service. The Superliner sleeper contains deluxe and economy sleeping accommodations, a handicapped accessible bedroom as well as a family bedroom that sleeps two adults and two children.

Passengers utilizing the Kentucky Cardinal will be able to connect in Chicago to Amtrak's national network of short and long-distance trains. Same day connections can be made at Chicago to the Californian Zephyr serving Oakland/San Francisco, the Empire Builder serving Portland and Seattle, the Southwest Chief serving Los Angeles, the Lake Shore Limited serving New York and Boston, and numerous other trains to destinations throughout the country.

While Amtrak's core business will always be serving the needs of the traveling public, its growing Mail and Express business supplements revenue generated by passengers and improves Amtrak's overall financial performance. Amtrak is also announcing that Mail and Express service will also be available on the Kentucky Cardinal to businesses in the Louisville market. Working in partnership with the Louisville & Indiana Railroad, Amtrak will open a Mail and Express handling facility in Jeffersonville, Ind., to provide fast and efficient service to customers in the Louisville area.

"We welcome this partnership with Amtrak to provide premium mail and express service to a significant new market," said Peter Gilbertson, Chairman of the L&I. "We also welcome the return of rail passenger service to this line after a 20-year hiatus."

Amtrak Mail and Express offers truck competitive service to West Coast and East Coast points from Louisville. Interested businesses can call 1-800-368-8725 for more information about Amtrak's Mail and Express program, or the Louisville and Indiana Railroad at 812-288-0940, extension 3024.

ILLINOIS: CTA wants more funds for operations

CHICAGO -- Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) officials, warning that more service cuts and fare hikes are unavoidable if the state doesn't soon increase funding for day-to-day transit operations, have been quietly floating a controversial idea to reshuffle the distribution of sales taxes shared by the CTA, Metra and Pace, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The CTA has not yet produced a formal proposal detailing its claim for a larger portion of the sales taxes for mass transit collected in the suburbs. But the effort is likely to stir up painful memories of CTA service reductions in 1997 and last year, as well as re-inflame city versus suburban tensions.

CTA President Frank Kruesi, who has begun to reverse a 15-year ridership plunge but is still working to fulfill Mayor Richard M. Daley's marching orders that Kruesi "reinvent" the transit agency, said providing the CTA with more sales tax revenue is warranted. Revamping the formula is needed, he said, because of changes in commuting patterns and a shift in retail sales that means sales tax revenue is growing faster in the suburbs than the city.

Kruesi said the CTA carries almost 80 percent of the mass transit passengers in the Chicago area. And he said the CTA recently has been providing services to a growing number of suburbanites who ride Metra trains into the city, then board CTA busses or trains.

But, he said, the CTA receives only 55 percent of the sales tax revenue generated for transit across the region under a 16-year-old Regional Transportation Authority formula that Kruesi said is outdated.

"The CTA's operating sales tax revenue is growing slower than the rate of inflation, while Metra and Pace's are growing faster, resulting in a distortion of regional transportation funding," Kruesi said.

CTA Executive Vice President Jeff Morales said that "unless the RTA formula is revised, we will be forced to cut service in a couple of years."

Possible remedies include raising the RTA sales tax in Cook County, now 1 percent, and the collar counties, currently 0.25 percent; looking at other funding sources, such as a gasoline tax; or levying a new tax on automobile rentals, which the RTA already has the authority to do.

The RTA forecasts that sales tax revenue for the CTA will grow less than 2 percent annually through 2002, while the funding stream for Metra and Pace would grow by twice as much over the same period.

In addition, Metra, which is financially vibrant, projects it won't need to spend the nearly $176 million that it will receive from sales taxes through 2004 on operations, directing the money instead toward infrastructure repairs and modernization.

The sales tax component has taken on a critical importance for the CTA in the wake of the elimination of federal operating subsidies for transit. Passage earlier this year of Gov. George Ryan's Illinois FIRST infrastructure modernization program will help to address the repair and equipment-replacement needs of Chicago-area transit over the next five years, but it doesn't provide operating assistance to augment farebox collections.

Some suburban transit officials said they viewed the CTA strategy as a blatant money grab aimed at the most lucrative source of future local transit funds--the outlying suburbs. And they argued against rushing to fix something that they said isn't broken, pointing to the fact that the CTA has successfully met its obligation to generate half of its daily operating revenue from the farebox and the rest from sales taxes.

The CTA receives 100 percent of RTA sales taxes collected in the city of Chicago and 30 percent generated in suburban Cook County. Metra gets 55 percent in suburban Cook, and Pace, 15 percent. Metra and Pace also have 70 percent and 30 percent shares, respectively, of sales taxes collected for transit in the collar counties.

Metra Chairman Jeffrey Ladd said that when all the pots of money doled out by the RTA are figured into the mix, the CTA already receives 50 percent--not the 30 percent that Kruesi cites--of the funds earmarked in suburban Cook County. The additional share, he said, comes from revenue the RTA is empowered to disburse to transit agencies on a discretionary basis. The CTA gets about 90 percent of that revenue.

Ladd accused Kruesi of "disrupting the peace we've had in this region" since the sales tax formula was established in 1983.

"We at Metra want to see the CTA succeed," Ladd said. "But why Kruesi would come out and misrepresent the situation, I don't know."

Pace officials said they were unaware of any proposals to change the formula.

The RTA, which funnels all federal, state and local funding to the three transit agencies, also has declined to climb aboard Kruesi's plan, saying the system is currently healthy.

"Transit in the Chicago area will receive $2 billion in capital investment over the next five years thanks to Illinois FIRST. Let's focus on showing the General Assembly that we can spend the money wisely and efficiently before we go back down to Springfield asking for another handout," said RTA spokesman Dave Loveday.

WASHINGTON: Rail industry's Darth Vader was the enemy

WASHINGTON -- Among the many things that went wrong in the division of Conrail this year -- there always are multiple reasons, rarely one single factor in such situations -- was a misread of Conrail worker attitudes by Norfolk Southern executives, the Journal of Commerce said in a commentary by Lawrence Kaufman.

Early in 1997, when the fight was raging between NS and CSX Corp. for control of the Northeast railroad, a leading financial newspaper referred to NS and its black-painted locomotives as the Darth Vader of the railroad industry, alluding to the embodiment of evil in the "Star Wars" movies. Cute, but not at all accurate or fair.

In fact, many NS executives demonstrated that they indeed had a sense of humor by laughing at the reference. After all, they knew they really were good guys. It followed that the rest of the world also would understand that. Wrong. The good railroaders in Norfolk forgot one of the tenets of communications: Perception becomes reality. In humor there is a grain of truth.

What they missed was the fact that from the Port of New York and New Jersey and Philadelphia in the East to Chicago and St. Louis in the West, Norfolk Southern was seen as the enemy. CSX was not the enemy.

NS had tried to acquire Conrail at least three times previously. There was the attempt to buy the company from the federal government with a low-ball bid in the mid-1980s. There was the effort to negotiate a purchase in 1994. And, there was the previously secret joint try by CSX and NS in 1995.

CSX started the Conrail end-game with a negotiated, friendly $8.2 billion cash and stock offer in October 1996. That bid was countered by a higher, all-cash offer from NS, and led eventually to the $10 billion joint purchase and division of Conrail.

What was overlooked was that Conrail people had tremendous pride, having built a fine railroad out of the wreck of the Penn Central and five other collapsed eastern railroads. They didn't think they needed to be merged out of existence. And, truth be told, with an effective rail monopoly in the Northeast, they were correct. Conrail stood in sharp contrast to other railroads that were merged out of existence in this decade.

Chicago & Northwestern Transportation Co. long had expected to be bought out. It was no shock when Union Pacific pulled the trigger. After all, "Uncle Peter" had financed C&NW's entry into the coal business and already had a 999-year right to operate on C&NW's Chicago-Omaha mainline.

Managers at capital-starved Southern Pacific knew they needed a merger (I prefer to think of it as an acquisition) if they were to survive. SP marketing executives even managed to obtain more shipper statements in support of the UP deal than did UP marketeers. Some UP execs questioned why SP people so enthusiastically supported the transaction. In a word: They knew.

Santa Fe's deal with Burlington Northern was more a merger of equals, and the acquired was not tromped on by the acquirer. Rob Krebs, BNSF chief executive, appears to be trying to fashion a BNSF culture, not imposing one on the other.

Conrail, on the other hand, was not even considered in play until it failed to expand its reach by acquiring the so-called SP East in the UP/SP case. Conrail had developed its own franchise about as far as it could, and the lack of growth prospects made it an obvious take-over target.

In preparing to operate its 58% of Conrail, Norfolk Southern developed an operating plan for its new Northern Region. It appears not to have dealt with the concerns of the employees it inherited.

CSX had difficulty digesting its 42% of Conrail, but there were differences from the problems encountered by NS. CSX was not considered as well-run as NS, so expectations weren't as high.

More important, perhaps, remember that in the original CSX-Conrail proposal, Conrail executives were supposed to end up running CSX, and to a large degree they have. They were not the enemy.

Oops! Several sharp-eyed readers were quick to let me know of an error in the Nov. 18 Surface Reflections. In dreaming about United Parcel Service buying into the railroad industry, I had UPS buy one railroad too many. While UPS, or any other non-railroad, can buy one major carrier without having first to obtain Surface Transportation Board approval, it could not buy a second without going before the STB.

The column, however, was not about how to avoid dealing with regulators. It was about the need for railroads to provide consistent, on-time, quality transportation service. In my fantasy, it was UPS that straightened things out by bringing its time-definite culture to the railroad industry.

Another correspondent went further. In his dream, Microsoft acquires the other two railroads and applies its computer and software technology to get train scheduling, car scheduling, crew scheduling, positive train control, yield management, etc.

It's too bad we have to dream about great rail service to get it.

CALIFORNIA: MTA to offer free rides on New Year's Eve

LOS ANGELES -- The MTA Board of Directors today approved free rides on MTA's Metro Bus and Rail system for those wishing to use public transportation on New Year's Eve as they celebrate the new Millennium, a press release said.

The free rides will be offered beginning at 11 a.m. on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1999 through 5 a.m. New Year's Day. During those hours patrons can travel free on both the Metro Bus and the Metro Rail system.

The extension of free transit service will provide participants throughout the region with convenient, safe, and efficient alternatives to driving to events and will ensure that the transit dependent have equitable access to the planned celebrations.

The City of Los Angeles is sponsoring five Millennium sites this year. Those sites will be located at the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Plaza, the California Plaza at Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, Olvera Street, San Pedro/Los Angeles Harbor and at the Van Nuys Airport.

All regular MTA bus lines provide some level of service to the five city- sponsored Millennium sites. In addition, service hours on the Metro Rail system will be extended to 2 a.m. Service on 33 MTA bus lines will be augmented with additional late night service to accommodate transit users.

MTA's Metro Rail system encompasses three lines. The Metro Blue Line operates from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles. The Metro Green Line operates from Norwalk to El Segundo, with a Blue Line connection at the Imperial Station.

The Metro Red line subway system operates from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Wilshire/Western and Hollywood and Vine. The Metro Blue Line connects with the Metro Red Line at the 7th Street/Metro Center Station.

During Christmas Eve, MTA also will offer free rides on Metro Buses and Metro Rail from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Metro Rail service hours on Christmas Eve will not be extended past its normal operating time.

For complete route and schedule information the public can call 1-800-C-O-M-M-U-T-E or visit our web site and access MTA's new transit trip planner at www.mta.net.

WASHINGTON: STB swears in Morgan as chairman

WASHINGTON -- The Surface Transportation Board (Board) announced today in a press release that on December 1, 1999, Board Chairman Linda J. Morgan was officially sworn in as a Member of the Board for a second term expiring December 31, 2003.

Chairman Morgan's swearing in follows her renomination by President Clinton on August 6, 1999, to be a Member of the Board, and her confirmation by the United States Senate on November 10, 1999, by a vote of 96 to 3.

Before an all-employee meeting, the oath of office was administered to Chairman Morgan in the presence of three notaries public from the Board's staff. In remarks after her swearing in, Chairman Morgan praised Vice Chairman William Clyburn and Commissioner Wayne Burkes for their commitment and spirit of collegiality and cooperation.

She also praised the Board's staff for its dedication and professionalism, and the high quality of its work. She acknowledged the Board's exemplary service to shippers, carriers, employees and others in the transportation sector and, by extension, its important service on behalf of the American public. She noted that, because of her high regard for the Board's staff, she thought it most appropriate to be sworn in by and in the presence of staff members.

The Chairman also stated that she was honored by her renomination and confirmation, and that she looked forward to continuing to address the pressing issues facing the transportation industry.

CALIFORNIA: BART rejects 'scab rail' from Oregon Steel

OAKLAND -- The Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) today adopted a binding resolution not to do business with Oregon Steel Mills, Inc.'s CF&I Steel subsidiary until the company resolves an ongoing unfair labor practices dispute with the United Steelworkers of America, a press release said.

The resolution, approved unanimously with one abstention, comes in the wake of disturbing reports of potentially serious quality problems with rail produced at CF&I since the company unlawfully replaced its veteran workforce with inexperienced and hastily trained strikebreakers in late 1997.

Pueblo, Colorado-based CF&I, now doing business as Rocky Mountain Steel Mills (RMSM), has been charged by the federal government with over 100 violations of federal labor law. The company has also been found guilty by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of willful and serious safety violations, resulting in the second largest OSHA fine in Colorado history. Prior to today's resolution, BART had been using RMSM rail for the San Francisco Airport Extension project.

BART directors today resolved that "to the extent allowed by law, the District refrain from purchasing replacement rail from Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, or any supplier utilizing Rocky Mountain Steel Mills rail, or any supplier determined to be in significant violation of Federal fair labor standards and/or Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards."

With today's vote, BART joins a growing number of rail customers in sending a message to the company that blatant disregard for the rights of workers and the law will not be rewarded with new business contracts. Others include Denver's Regional Transportation District, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Ramsay County and Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authorities in Minnesota, and Canadian Pacific Railway.

Oregon Steel, which makes a number of steel products including rail for passenger, freight and commuter lines, a wide variety of pipe products, plate, rod and bar, is also the target of a nationwide boycott by the AFL-CIO.

The company and its RMSM subsidiary have also been the target of an ongoing campaign by the United Steelworkers of America, which represents the illegally replaced steelworkers at the Pueblo mill.

"Today's vote by the BART Board is a victory for Pueblo Steelworkers, and it's also good news for the people of the Bay Area," said Terry Bonds, director of USWA District 12 in the southwestern United States.

"Oregon Steel's management is betting the company's future on the questionable skills of inexperienced replacement workers. BART correctly decided not to bet the safety of Bay Area commuters on such an uncertain proposition."

Robert Smith, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, which represents BART employees in the Transportation Department, also applauded the vote. "Rocky Mountain Steel Mills seems to think it can make rail without the company's experienced, unionized Steelworkers, but I have serious concerns for those of us who will have to run trains on those lines," he said.

The Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council, Walter Johnson, hailed BART's decision to demand rails of the highest quality and safety. "I am proud that the Board of Directors of BART recognized the many questions of quality and safety swirling around Rocky Mountain Steel Mills. The BART Board fulfilled the responsibilities inherent in its position by recognizing that the only answer to the problem is to stop buying Rocky Mountain Steel Mills products. We urge Oregon Steel Mills to settle its dispute with the United Steelworkers of America so their product might once again earn the high regard of transit agencies and other rail users."

CANADA: CPR completing system-wide, toll-free emergency line

CALGARY -- Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) is putting the final touches on a system-wide, toll-free emergency assistance hotline program, with installation of signs displaying its 1-800 number at all CPR public level crossings in Central and Western Canada and the Midwest United States, a press release said.

As the final stage in its $600,000 Safe Passage program, CPR is currently completing the installation of signs displaying a toll-free number -- 1-800-716-9132 - for use by pedestrians or motorists in the event of emergencies.

When completed, in about eight weeks from now, two signs will be on display at each of the railway's approximately 10,000 public level crossings from Northern Ontario to the West Coast in Canada, and in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. CPR installed these signs last year at 1,100 crossings in southern Ontario and Quebec, and followed-up early this year with installation at 300 crossings in New York and Pennsylvania.

"The Safe Passage program provides members of the public with toll-free access to the CPR Police Service's 24-hour communications center in Montreal, allowing us to respond more quickly to emergencies. Motorists, cyclists or pedestrians will have the information they need to contact us immediately in the event of an incident or unsafe situation at any crossing on our Canadian and U.S. network," said Gerry Moody, chief of the railway's police force.

"Coupled with our extensive public safety awareness programs, Safe Passage will help prevent accidents at road-rail intersections and will improve crossing safety awareness," Moody said.

Yellow, weatherproof stickers bearing the toll-free telephone number and crossing identification numbers unique to each location are being applied to existing signals and sign posts at CPR crossings.

It is expected that incidents can be prevented or reported more quickly as a result of the new signs, especially as cellular phone use becomes more commonplace, Moody said.

He added that members of the public are encouraged to report all potential or actual emergency situations and to report damaged or malfunctioning signals and crossing warning devices.

The CPR Police Service has direct links with local, provincial, state and federal police forces and with emergency response officials across its network.

WISCONSIN: Wisconsin Central’s Santa is coming to town by train

TOMAHAWK -- Santa Claus is coming to 14 northern Wisconsin and Michigan Upper Peninsula towns aboard a special Wisconsin Central train that will operate the weekends of December 3-4-5 and December 10-11-12. This is the third year that the railroad has operated special "Santa Trains'' stopping at some of the smaller communities along the railroad's 2,900-mile route.

This year's schedule includes stops in Wisconsin at: Tomahawk (Friday, Dec. 3), Prentice, Phillips, Park Falls (Saturday, Dec. 4), Ashland, Mellen and at Glidden (Sunday, Dec. 5). There will also be special stop at Ladysmith to drop off some of Santa's helpers.

The following week, the Santa Train will stop in Michigan at: Rapid River, Escanaba (Friday, Dec. 10); Iron Mountain, Goodman, Rhinelander (Saturday, Dec. 11); and Ishpeming (Sunday, Dec. 12).

In addition to meeting Santa, children at each stop will receive a candy cane and a railroad safety coloring book. Some communities will also be giving out special gift bags supplied by local merchants and service organizations.

"It's a way for us to give something back to the communities we serve,'' said Tom Tancula, who coordinates the Santa Trains for Wisconsin Central in addition to being the mechanical department director-administration. He added, "The reception has been wonderful. Last year, we had an 11-year old who had never seen Santa Claus in person.''

The railroad selects different routes each year to give more children a chance to see Santa and to help WC spread a safety message at the same time.

This year, Santa will be traveling aboard a special eight-car passenger train pulled by two locomotives. The last car on the train is No. 77-where Santa and Mrs. Claus meet with the children. Children and parents board one of three coach cars, where hot chocolate is served while they wait to see Santa.

NEW YORK: More leisure travelers in Europe benefit from high-speed premier trains

HARRISON -- New statistics released by the Association of International Railways (U.I.C.) in Paris prove that higher speed Premier Trains are attracting greater numbers of travelers -- and that rail is fast becoming the preferred way over planes and cars to move between major European cities.

"It's a true revolution in the making," says Bernard Frelat CEO of Rail Europe, a major North American supplier of European travel services. "Since 1981 when Europe's high-speed train operations began, we've seen tremendous strides. In 1997 more than 42 billion passenger-kilometers were registered on high-speed trains across Europe. This grew from 32 billion in 1995. More than 13 percent of European rail passengers now move at higher speeds. In 1998 1,670 miles of new high-speed rail lines were added to the system which spans nine countries. By 2005 the total length will be 3,700 miles. Today 600 of these speedy trainsets are in operation."

The Thalys Premier train Paris-Brussels connection has progressed remarkably. In 1994 61% of the travelers of this route used private cars, 24% used trains, 8% buses and 7% airplanes. By last year (1998) private cars dropped to 43%, trains doubled to 48% as the major transport mode, and buses and airplanes dropped to 5% and 4%, respectively – mostly because of the new high-speed Thalys rail line. Launched in 1996, the Paris-Brussels rail line has been so popular with leisure travelers that in 1998 it carried 4.7 million passengers on the 1 hr/25 minute trip.

In a few years after more high-speed track is laid on the Thalys Brussels-Frankfurt line, now a 5 hour/15 minute trip, the journey will be shortened to two hours and 40 minutes.

When this new Thalys high-speed line between France, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands is entirely completed in 2005 and served by newer trains, the present Paris-Amsterdam 4 hour/13 minute trip will be reduced by an hour, as will the Paris-Cologne trip which now takes 4 hours.

Between Paris and London on the renowned 186 mile-per-hour Eurostar trans-channel tunnel connection, rail is the clear leader today with 60% of the market, according to figures recently released by the French National Railroads. Eurostar trains have carried more than 20 million passengers since 1994 when service began. The 3-hour trip between the French and British capitals and 2 hour/40 minutes between London and Brussels have now become so popular that today 18 and 10 roundtrips are available daily (even more on Fridays), respectively. Compared to air travel between these cities, 92% of the trains are arriving on-time or almost on-time, 24% ahead of aircraft times, according to the latest figures. Moreover, the trains move directly from downtown to downtown, saving travelers the time lost between airports and downtown.

High-speed trains moving at from 130 miles per hour to 186 miles per hour are today operating in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland and connecting to Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria. These Premier Trains of Europe serve cities such as London, Paris, Lyon, Geneva, Zurich, Milan, Rome, Hamburg, Berlin, Helsinki, Stockholm and Madrid, among others.

The highest-speed trains in Europe such as Eurostar, the TGVs (Trains a Grande Vitesse) in France, and ICEs (Inter City Express) in Germany, travel on dedicated high-speed track, but things are changing.

"Together with these trains' time and money savings," Frelat concluded, "we are also witnessing more high frequency train service and enhanced safety over all other means of transport. As Premier Train service expands, it will attract more and more passengers in whatever type of travel they are doing. And plans are afoot to appreciably increase speeds in Central and Eastern Europe, for example, Vienna to Budapest and Berlin to Warsaw, among others."

In addition to their high-speeds, European trains are now adding new features to attract leisure travelers. For example, to appeal to certain passengers, the Swiss Federal Railways just announced that since September 1 it has tripled the number of trains with "silent cars", which forbid the use of cell phones, computers, head-phones and similar devices.

For further information on these Premier Trains, contact Rail Europe at 888-382-7245 or consult their Web site: http://www.raileurope.com.

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Last modified: May 09, 2001