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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 22, 1995                   TAG: 9509220095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

$900 MILLION AUTHORIZED FOR AMTRAK

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved legislation Thursday authorizing more than $900 million for Amtrak passenger train service in the next fiscal year, breaking an impasse between panel Republicans and organized labor that had held up the bill for months.

The committee action still takes away many of labor's current rights, but in ways less onerous to labor than either an earlier proposal by committee Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa., or the Senate version. The House and Senate will have to negotiate differences in conference.

In addition to $712 million for Amtrak operations, capital spending and other payments, the bill authorizes $200 million for the Washington-New York-Boston northeast corridor and $10 million to continue work on converting the James Farley Post Office building in New York into a train station to replace Pennsylvania Station.

- The Washington Post

by CNB