Politico
A daily speed read on transportation and infrastructure
With help from Stephanie Beasley, Adrienne Hurst, Brianna Gurciullo and Lauren Gardner
GOP RETREAT OFF TO A HARROWING START: An Amtrak train filled with members of Congress, their spouses and staffers on their way to the annual GOP retreat in West Virginia struck a garbage truck and derailed near Charlottesville, Va., Wednesday morning, killing the truck driver and seriously injuring at least one other person in the truck. No lawmakers were seriously injured, though House Transportation Committee member Jason Lewis of Minnesota received medical treatment for a possible concussion. In any case, the show goes on: Republicans decamped Amtrak for buses to the tony Greenbrier resort, where the GOP retreat will continue, reports John Bresnahan.
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Eyewitness account: House Railroad Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) gave Lauren his impressions in a phone interview soon after the crash — including that the train didn’t brake before impact. The grade crossing gates were down and intact on both sides of the tracks, Denham said.
Go team away: NTSB sent investigators to the scene. As typical, in their first-day press conference little substantive information was conveyed. As the investigation progresses, expect NTSB to look into whether the engineers and truck occupants were distracted or under the influence, and whether the signals at the grade crossing worked properly. Speed is almost always of interest -- from what we know about the area where the crash occurred, passenger trains run less frequently than their slower freight brethren. And investigators will try to retrieve as much data as possible from recording devices on both the train's locomotives and the trash truck.
History lesson: According to Federal Railroad Administration records, a CSX freight train hit a vehicle stuck on the rails at this crossing in 1999. No one was hurt.
IT’S THURSDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Today is Tanya’s last day as your MT host, and she'll miss you and promises to sneak in often to write newsletter items and say hi. Please give a warm welcome to Lauren Gardner, who’s piloting the next leg of the journey. You know what she wants: tips, scoops and song lyrics. Give 'em to her: lgardner@politico.com or @Gardner_LM .
LISTEN HERE: Follow MT’s playlist on Spotify. What better way to start your day than with songs (picked by us and readers) about sailing the sea, driving the open road and riding the rails?
WHO WAS ON THE TRAIN?: We surveyed the House Transportation Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee, and the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees to find out who was on the train and how they're doing. All of them reported they were unhurt, beyond Lewis' possible concussion. Here's the list of those on board:
T&I: Jeff Denham, John Katko, Brian Babin, Scott Perry, Bruce Westerman, Jason Lewis, Rick Crawford, Daniel Webster, Mike Bost, Doug LaMalfa, Garret Graves, Thomas Massie, John J. Faso, Drew Ferguson, David Rouzer, Brian J. Mast.
Commerce: Cory Gardner, Todd Young, Dan Sullivan, Mike Lee
House Homeland: Ron Estes, Michael McCaul, Martha McSally, John Ratcliffe, Dan Donovan, Mike Rogers, Brian Fitzpatrick, Don Bacon, Tom Garrett, John Rutherford
Senate Homeland: Steve Daines, James Lankford, Rob Portman
Lawmakers not clarifying whether they were on the train: Randy Weber, Paul Mitchell, Ted Cruz, Mike Gallagher
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DELAY: Trump’s infrastructure pitch will come out a little later than planned, according to the White House, which blamed the “slight delay” on January’s shutdown. "Certain realities of the legislative calendar — such as the Schumer Shutdown — have caused a slight delay in the public roll out of his plan, but [President Trump] looks forward to sharing it with the American people in the coming weeks as he said in his remarks to mayors at the White House earlier this month," a White House official said Wednesday.
THE (1.5) TRILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION: People on both sides of the aisle are still scratching their heads over where the $200 billion federal portion of Trump's plan would come from. "The question is, how are you gonna pay for it?" Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked. "You tell me how we pay for it and I'll tell you what we can do. ... Leveraging private dollars is a good start, but we got a lot of work to do." On the Democratic side, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) pointed out that Trump made the same promise last year – and lawmakers are more confused than ever over how he’ll dig up funding for a bill the GOP is “already hoping to use as a political cudgel against Democrats in close races this fall,” Elana Schor and Seung Min Kim report.
TOO HIGH A PRICE: Rep. David Price of North Carolina, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations panel in charge of transportation, echoed Democrats' concerns about how the plan would be paid for, telling our Brianna Gurciullo Wednesday that "if the $200 billion comes out of other infrastructure accounts, forget it, you know? It's not viable." He also called Trump's State of the Union pitch "vague" and "unpersuasive," and worried that the president's plan relies too heavily on state, local and private dollars.
NOT TOO LATE FOR RESOLUTIONS: The New Democrat Coalition on Wednesday released its four top infrastructure priorities for 2018: Modernization; creating an infrastructure bank to finance projects; incentivizing maintenance and rebuilding for communities in need; and encouraging innovation and reform.
IS THAT LIKE CONSCIOUSLY UNCOUPLING? The California DMV on Wednesday published its annual collection of data on "disengagements," or times when driverless cars had to transfer control back to a human driver. According to the data, Waymo vehicles operated more than 350,000 miles in autonomous mode with 63 disengagements — a rate of 0.18 per thousand miles traveled, down from 0.20 in the last year’s report. By comparison, Mercedes tested three different vehicles, some of which had more disengagements than autonomous miles driven in any given month. But crashes might be a less subjective measure, suggests Car and Driver on Twitter, and there, Waymo still dominates with four crashes for all those 350,000-plus miles of driving. The new GM Cruise, by comparison, had 22 collisions over 131,617 miles — about one crash for every 6,000 miles.
TSA GETS READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL: TSA will boost staffing at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in preparation for the Super Bowl rush, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said. She told reporters at a briefing Wednesday that DHS is expecting the airport’s daily passenger volume to jump from around 30,000 to about 69,000 this weekend. The department is working with state and local authorities to protect sports fans “from boarding an airplane to walking into the stadium,” Nielsen said. She emphasized that there was no specific or credible threat at this time.
THE AUTOBAHN:
— "Could Frelinghuysen's retirement derail Gateway?" POLITICO Pro.
— “Covering up the VW diesel scandal.” Legal Reader.
— "Trump’s optimism faces reality check in divided Congress and GOP." The Washington Post.
— "Waymo-Uber trade secrets trial puts spotlight on tech's talent war." Los Angeles Times.
— "SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket somehow survived a landing in the Atlantic Ocean." The Verge.
— "Justice Department drops corruption case against Menendez." POLITICO New Jersey.
— Uber tests bike sharing in San Francisco. The New York Times.
— "License-plate readers may help target illegal immigrants, or you." Car and Driver.
— "Trump infrastructure plan seeks to shift burden to states." The Associated Press.
— "Heitkamp introduces bill to improve rail safety, require two-person crews on freight trains." Office of Sen. Heidi Keitkamp.
THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 8 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 59 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 973 days.