
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990                   TAG: 9006130561
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

COMMUTER RAIL LINE DEALT SETBACK

The Senate's failure to override President Bush's veto of an Amtrak funding bill dealt a blow to a planned commuter rail system connecting Northern Virginia and Washington.

The 64-36 vote Tuesday was three votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override. Bush had vetoed the $2 billion funding measure last month because he objected to a requirement tightening regulation of freight railroad ownership. The House had voted last week to override him.

Bush did not object to the commuter service, which was part of the funding bill.

Without the commuter rail provision, the Virginia Railway Express will stop short of its intended destination of Union Station in Washington.

Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., told his colleagues shortly before the vote that the lack of the provision would mean fewer trains, fewer riders and more traffic gridlock in Northern Virginia.

Despite the setback, promoters of the express were not ready to throw in the towel.

"I am definitely holding on to more than a shred of hope," said Sharon Bulova, a Fairfax County supervisor and vice chairman of the commuter rail operations board.

Whatever Congress does, the train will begin operating in October 1991, she said.

The scaled-down express would end in Crystal City in Arlington and carry fewer than 2,700 riders per day. The express was envisioned to provide commuter service from Fredericksburg and Manassas to Washington with 16 stops. The full service would carry 4,000 riders a day.

The commuter rail provision in the Amtrak bill would allow the express to travel over the Potomac River and into Union Station near Capitol Hill. The provision exempts Conrail from liability if the express had an accident on the Long Bridge spanning the Potomac.

The veto will not curtail Amtrak operations because the passenger railroad already has money from Congress, a spokesman said. But it will hamper Amtrak's efforts to secure loans to buy new rail cars and locomotives, he said.

In the House vote last week, 58 Republicans joined 236 Democrats for the override. The vote against was 123.

by CNB