Word: amtraks
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Amid lawsuits, contract disputes and turf battles among the parties involved-Amtrak, the railroads, the architects, the contractor, Congress, the Park Service, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Departments of Interior and Transportation-construction finally began in May 1974. "I'll never forget that day they put the jackhammers in the floor," says Nita Shaw, a secretary at the station for 31 years. "I had to walk over to the Capitol to calm down and stop crying...
...with train ridership rebounding as a result of rising gasoline prices and Amtrak's new Northeast-corridor service, the Interior Department agreed to turn the building over to the Department of Transportation, which wanted to turn it back into a train station. By then, however, inertia had set in. Bills to transfer control died in committee. Finally last year, Congress passed a bill, as Moynihan put it, "to return the building to its use before Congress began fumbling with it." It authorizes the Government to spend $69 million more to undo what it did. Another $9 million has been...
Hardest hit was the Midwest, hub of the nation's railroad wheel. Burlington Northern, whose headquarters is in St. Paul, is the country's largest rail system, with 800 trains, but it was running fewer than 200. Only twelve of the 46 Amtrak trains that chug out of Chicago daily were operating, while Armco steel shut down eight coal mines in West Virginia, idling 1,400 workers...
Planning for the rally has been under way for weeks from Bangor, Me., to San Diego. After the Boston city council approved a resolution urging residents to go to New York, 3,500 reserved space aboard a fleet of 50 buses and a twelve-car Amtrak special dubbed the Peace Train. Planners expect Ohio alone to be represented by more than 10,000 participants from dozens of communities; West Virginia and Minnesota will send 500 demonstrators apiece. Some local groups helped raise money to defray costs for those who wanted to take part. At an interdenominational church service in Birmingham...
...Federal Aviation Administration, which he oversees, managed to keep air traffic moving. Less visibly, Lewis has worked to get the Government out of the railway business and eventually divest itself of the Conrail freight line in the Northeast. He is also working to cut back federal subsidies for Amtrak passenger trains and for local transit systems. Many may strongly oppose his programs, but almost all who have dealt with him admire his effectiveness and his attention to political sensitivities. A possible candidate for promotion to a more important post, Lewis belongs on the Cabinet's A list...