Budget derails Amtrak
End of the line for Amtrak? — Amtrak is once again facing the end of the line. President Bush repeated his call for ending federal subsidies to Amtrak in his budget proposal released yesterday, a move he acknowledged would likely throw the train operator into bankruptcy. “The principle here is clear: Taxpayer dollars must be spent wisely or not at all,†Bush said about the subsidy and dozens of other cuts. He suggested in his budget that Amtrak should be allowed to head into bankruptcy with the expectation a reorganization would produce better management.
Travel demand may push gas prices higher — Gasoline prices rose more than 7% in January, which typically is one of the slowest driving months of the year. That’s causing leading experts to predict pump prices may surge past last year’s record highs when highway travel picks up late in the spring. Government figures show that the average price of regular unleaded has risen in each of the last four weeks, jumping from $1.78 at the start of the year to $1.91 a gallon in the week ending Jan. 31.
Does the travel policy cover death? — Companies often go to great lengths to help employees who fall ill on the road. But what happens when a business traveler dies? That was the predicament Moog Inc. faced recently. An employee who was attending a business conference in Phoenix, hiking in the mountains with a colleague during their off time, “got out of breath, had a heart attack and died,” said Kathy Hall-Zientek, the travel manager for Moog, an aerospace manufacturer based in East Aurora, N.Y.
Construction errors cited in Paris airport accident — A government-appointed board of inquiry investigating the partial collapse of a Paris airport terminal found serious errors in construction, including concrete that had not been sufficiently reinforced, a newspaper reported Monday. But the government’s Transport Ministry said the inquiry and its report were not completed and indicated the conclusions published by the daily Le Parisien were “totally premature.”
747 pilot arrested for intoxication — Police at Manchester Airport boarded a jumbo jet moments before take-off and arrested the captain on suspicion of having drunk too much to fly. Officers went into the cockpit of the Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 747 with 350 passengers on board following claims that the pilot had been seen drinking earlier at a nearby hotel. The captain was escorted back into Terminal 2, where he was breathalysed.
Was the service that bad? — A man gave himself up peacefully after engaging in a standoff with police for nearly five hours at the Marquette Hotel in downtown Minneapolis Sunday, officials said. A male hotel customer had locked himself in a room, refused to come out and threatened to shoot anyone who tried to come in, police said.