28—The Daily Collegian Friday, Feb. 10, 1984 Is could lay track for Phily-to-Chicago ral system By MIKE NETHERLAND Collegian Staff Writer Congressional approval for at least a feasi bility, study of a five-state, Philadelphia to Chicago high-speed passenger rail system appears forthcoming in two bills being pre pared in the House and Senate. news anaysis Both bills are being written by Pennsylva nia congressmen and are receiving much support from a high-speed rail lobbying group whose members include the chairman and executive director of the Pennsylvania's High Speed Intercity Rail Passenger Commission. _The commission is funding an extensive feasi bility study of a high-speed Philadelphia to Pittsburgh line. The House bill, written by Rep. Joe Kolter, D-Butler County, "has received extensive bi partisan support," said Kolter aide Bill O'Neil. The 41 co-sponsors include House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, D-111., and Minority Leader Robert Michel, R-111. A similar bill now is being drafted by Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa. O'Neil said that the Congressional approval is also needed if the five-state compact among Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania requests federal subsidies. The sentiment in Washington about the high-speed rail concept is mixed. The major advocates are the three high-speed rail orga nizations: Pennsylvania's commission, a lob bying group called the High-Speed Rail Association and the five-state compact. However, Amtrak is cool to the idea. Am trak was created by the Rail Passenger Service Act in. 1970 to take up' the slack when the private sector began exiting the unprofita- ble service The language of the Rail Passenger Service Act may prove to be one of the major obsta cles preventing or delaying the new rail concept. The act effectively prevents rail organizations other than Amtrak from oper ating routes "over which (Amtrak) is per forming scheduled intercity rail passenger service." Tim Gillespie, a Capitol Hill liaison for Amtrak said the language, "over any route doesn't mean the same road bed. The route is the market." The market in rail terminology is the corri dor between two cities. Amtrak now operates passenger service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and between Philadelphia and Chicago. So Pennsylvania's commission and the five-state compact simply cannot con struct and operate a high speed or conventio nal rail system and ignore Amtrak. Some licensing and/or percentage-of-income ar rangement with Amtrak would be necessary. Alexander Court renovations result in space By ALICE RUDOLPH Collegian Staff Writer Modifications on 27 two-bed room Alexander Court apart ments, 309 E. Beaver Ave., are about 90 percent complete, the general manager of A.W. and Sons Enterprise said yesterday. • Daniel Kienle said that in some of the two-bedroom apartments workers are removing two-foot partitions separating the kitchen from the living room/dining room. The work, which Kienle said should be finished within five busi ness days, is estimated at $5,000. The removal of the wall, Kienle said, "gives a more open, expan sive atmosphere between the kitchen and living room area." In January, the general man ager said he received a letter from the Centre Region Code Adminis trator stating that modification plans submitted by A.W. & Sons, the._ building's owners, had been apprOved. The letter said all two bedroom apartments would be ap proved for occupancy of four to five people when the changes were completed. Amtrak has such an arrangement with American High-Speed Rail, a San Diego based company preparing a passenger rail line between that city and Los , Angeles. Amtrak tried to license and get a percent age of earnings last year from Colorado Midland Railways, for the rights to operate a passenger rail service in Wyoming. A spokeswoman for Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R- Wyo. ( who intervened on behalf of Colorado Midland, said the $3,000 license fee was "ri diculously high." She said that although Am trak chose to discontinue service in Wyoming, "they still had pretty much control over the track." The high-speed rail proponents insist that Amtrak is out of line in exacting these fees that the language does not prohibit the opera tion of routes outside those of Amtrak. Propo nents contend that Amtrak is flouting a 1980 amendment to the act mandating that the Secretary of Transportation not only encour age private sector development of passenger rail but to remove legal and institutional barriers to the private sector. So how can private high-speed rail remain? Initially, the high-speed lobby maintained that development would occur, outside the state and federal government. But as cost estimates fluctuate in the multi-billion dollar range, the sentiment is changing. A highly disputed study released last month by Congress' Office of Technology Assess ment (OTA) paints a gloomy financial picture for high-speed rail. Because no U.S. high speed rail system exists, the report investi gated Japanese, French and British systems all of which are federally owned. . With new track and equipment, the report says, "the new French high-speed line cost $4 million per mile," while the most recently completed links of the Japane - se system "cost about $35 million to s4o.million per mile. The earliest Japanese routes cost about $2O mil lion per mile (in 1979 dollars)." increases Code Administrator James D. Quigley yesterday said some of the two-bedroom apartments will meet the minimum requirement of 550 square feet of habitable space required for five-person occupan cy. The other two-bedroom apart ments will be approved for four people, he added. Changes are also being made in some of the bedrooms„ Quigley said. A closet is being removed or made smaller in some of the bed rooms, he explained, so that the room size is sufficient. In others, to make bedroom size sufficient in both bedrooms, a wall is being moved to create more space. Quigley said the work is being done under a permit and that code enforcement officials will inspect the apartments when the work is completed. The changes are being made as a result of a measurements taken by code enforcement inspectors in September which determined / that some two-bedroom apartments and some of the rooms in two bedroom apartments were too small for the number of people living in the units.
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