The Senate passed the 2002 transportation appropriations bill Dec 4 and sent it to President Bush for his signature. Besides the $521 million for Amtrak, it includes $32.3 million for high-speed rail. The Amtrak Reform Council's budget was halved, to $225,000.

     NE Corridor Christmas Day and New Year's Day schedules: The Sep 30 timetable did not include these, and the next one to be published will be in late Jan, so the schedules below should be noted.
     Mon, Dec 24: normal schedule, except #169 runs instead of #179.
     Tues, Dec 25: normal Saturday schedules, except:
          #179 runs instead of #169; #195 runs instead of #191; and #631 will run.
     Mon, Dec 31: normal schedules, except #176 runs instead of #196; #169 runs instead of #179.
     Tues, Jan 1, 2002: normal Sunday schedule, except #82 and #182 will run.
     Empire Corridor schedules will be announced later, Amtrak reported.

     Rail advocacy group Transport 2000 Canada on Dec 7 wrote to Transport Minister David Collenette suggesting ways to save the VIA Budd car service on Vancouver Island. The group suggested that the federal and provincial governments set up a nonprofit Railway Authority for Vancouver Island to take over the assets of the railway that is to be abandoned and manage and develop the rail passenger service. T-2000 said it is urgent that the total railway infrastructure, including the harbour connection in Nanaimo, remain intact.

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