EMAIL DETAILS

After reading through the e-mail chain, the suggestion for a call with our
team was raised by Peter Gertler regarding funding for the Baltimore Tunnel
Project. The crux of the issue is that the FRA wants Amtrak to float costs
and then invoice them (total money appropriated to date is $60mn). Amtrak's
push back is that they aren't a bank and want a stable pot of money to be
able to draw down from. Peter spoke with Christine Suchy (Program Officer
for High Speed at Amtrak) and she thought that the issue was going to be
raised to the Board level for their input (but that it hasnt been to date).
She also mentioned that DJ (Amtrak CFO) is actively working on a path
forward. I'm not sure if we should reach out to Tom/Donna yet as it doesnt
seem like it has reached their radar, but let's discuss this afternoon.

Other points from the e-mail chain:

1) Portal and Gateway Bridges are NOT a short-term priority for Amtrak and
no new funding grants are being prepared for them.
2) Christine believes that the Amtrak Master Plan and Next Gen Plan will be
rolled into a single plan. The merged approach will be focused more on the
Amtrak Master Plan as its more feasible - both financially ($50bn compared
to the Next Gen Plan cost of $118bn) and politically.
3) Amtrak is not too concerned with threats by R's to cut funding for state
supported Amtrak services - just a negotiating ploy to which a compromise
will be reached.


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Mike Muldoon
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
mmuldoon@rosemontseneca.co