THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 90, No.27
free on campus
The University of Kansas—Lawrence. Kansas
10 cents off campus
Tuesday, October 2, 1979
Amtrak mishaw
The wreckage of a Amtrak train derailment early this morning in Lawrence stretched for a quarter of a mile parallel to Ohio Street. At least 1 persons were killed in the accident
Passenger train jumps track
At least two persons were killed and scores of others injured early this morning when an Amritk train trained in a residential area near Fourth and Ohio streets.
The train, Antrak's Southwest Limited,
on its route from Los Angeles to Chicago,
jumped the tracks and hit a house minutes
after it was scheduled to arrive in Lawrence.
A Lawrence Memorial Hospital spokesman confirmed the two deaths and Lawrence police said that at least 29 others were injured.
Bob Campbell, a hospital spokesman, said the injury total probably would increase.
The derailment at approximately 6:10 a.m. The train included cars from Antrak's Lone Star route, which were picked up in Newton.
Eight of the train's 18 cars were on their sides amid the wreckage, which stretched between the car doors and passenger cars and was carrying approximately 185 passengers. The train was due in October.
Mike Jones, 504 Ohio St., said he was the first person to arrive at the scene.
gine," he said. "The engineer was pinned inside and I helped him out, but there wasn't much I could do."
'I called the police at 6:10 a.m. and was at the train at 6:15 a.m. When I got there, the train fireman was crawling out of the enrolled onto its side. I felt something wet on my shoulder and then looked at the window. I could see a drop off below me. I threw a pillow before crawling out the window, where the damn train because I was aggrited of jeopardy.
According to Officer Ron Run, spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department, 16 damsalled. Olin said a cause for the derailment was as yet undetermined.
Oln said those not injured or slightly injured were taken to the Community Building and could be contacted through the Red Cross.
John Muston, a passenger from Albuquerque, N.M.; said, "I'd been asleep most of the night but I woke up 'fast when the car
Tom Reed, a passenger from St. Louis, said, "I know that they were trying to make up for lost time. We've been having probably all night and the train was really moving."
Police and firemen worked with axes and a chain saw to free passengers trapped in sleeping cars of the train. Several passen-
See WRECK page two
Carter minimizes threat of troops
President Carter told the maou on the issue of the invasion of Iraq, telling troops in Cuba that the controversy "is certainly no reason for a return to the Cold War" and that it should not block American efforts.
From Kansan Staff and Wire Reports
Carter said he had received assurances from the highest levels of the Soviet government that the troops were manning a training unit, and offered no direct threat to U.S. security.
Nevertheless, the president said, "We shall not rest on these Soviet statements alone." He said that the United States was armed with its own military presence in the Caribbean.
The president said a far greater threat result if the Senate refused to reaffirm the Armies Limitation Treaty signed by Carter and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in 1980.
IN RECENT WEEKS, Carter had said the IN UNION States would act on its own to change the treaty reached with the Soviets. On one such occasion, he said, "The status issue is not acceptable."
In his nationally broadcast speech last night, Carter said Soviet officials insisted that the brigade was a training unit and not a combat unit. He said Soviet officials had
said they would not change its function or status as a training center.
"We understand this to mean that they do not intend to enlarge the unit or give it additional capabilities." Carter said.
The president also reported assurance that the Soviet personnel on the island would not be a threat to the U.S. or to any other nation.
The Soviet assurances Carter cited were the result of a personal exchange last week between Carter and Brezhnev.
CARTER SENT A message to Brezhnev last Tuesday, it was learned, and the Russian leader replied on Thursday.
Earlier yesterday Sen. Frank Church, Republican, asked the Committee, met with the president for a half hour briefing on Carter's speech. The Idaho Democrat said he thought SALT I could be.
Church said, "I don't think that SALT is scuttled. I believe that a way can be worked out that is satisfactory to the Senate."
Reaction to the Carter address was mixed on Capital Hill, but it was clear that Carter's speech did not change Senate concerns.
Sen. Richard Stone, D-Fla., said he was disappointed that Carter had not won a commitment to remove or dismantle the building. He said it would be separated from SALT II deliberations.
See CARTER page two
Pope opens visit in Boston rain
BOSTON (AP)—Pope John Paul II opened a pastoral visit to his divided American flock yesterday, raising a daunting number of sickened and a dreaded but extacial crowd in Boston.
He had words of praise and friendship but warnings, too, for this rich and troubled nation.
"I greet you, America the Beautiful," the pope told a cheering throng in Boston Common in the first major address of his presidency. He told everyone that the pope is your friend.
He hailed America as a free and generous land, but said its youth was being lured from religion to the escapes of sexual pleasure, drugs, violence and indifference.
"I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape," the postfilled said amid a downpour that had turned the historic common into a sea of mud.
As many as 400,000 people crowded the park, waving flags, banners, handkerchiefs and whatever else was available as well as white and gold, raised his arms in blessing.
FIRST LADY Rosalynn Carter also welcomed John Paul II for the week-long tour that will take him to New York City,
Philadelphia, Dres Moines, Chicago and Washington. She had invited the pope to visit when she talked with him last May at the Vatican.
"We welcome you to our country with love," she told him. "We Americans of every faith have come to love you in a very special way."
The pope replied in his deep, thickly accepted voice: "It is a great joy for me to be in the United States of America . . . to greet all the American people of every race, color and creed. I come to you, America, with fondness of friendship, reverence and peace."
"I come as one who already knows you and loves you, as one who wishes you to fulfill your noble destiny of service to the world."
John Paul closed his statement by quoting from "America the Beautiful."
AMONG THOSE the welcome the people were Boston's Cardinal Humberto Medeiros, Massachusetts Gov. Edward King, Boston Mayor and Mrs. Kevin White, U.S. House Speaker and Mrs. Thomas P. Moore, Ohio Governor John W. Merrick, and Mrs. Edward Kennedy, 10 U.S. cardinals and four Canadian cardinals.
Lone Star chugs on 'final' run
Staff Writer
Bv DOUG HITCHCOCK
The last scheduled run for Amtrak's Lone Star passenger train was booked solid when it departed from Houston at 7:40 a.m. Sunday.
Two hours and 50 minutes later, the Lone Star backed into the station at Houston, its route to Chicago blocked by a derailed freight train.
At 1:30 p.m. the train again attempted to make its last run, this time successfully.
Besides the usual nine cars full of passengers, three additional cars carried Oklahoma University football fans home and away on Friday, against Rice University in Houston.
"The Football Special" consisted of two extra coaches and a lodge car. The juglant fans had been drinking in their booth, so the train was forced to return to Houston.
THE TRAIN moved through Houston' industrial areas on tracks normally used for local freight service. The red and blue striped streamliner pulled slowly through blocks of weatherboard warehouses, past blocks of metal and factories and lumber yard sacks.
Houston's futuristic skyline frequently was blotted by the aging brick facades. Soon the train began to run through residential neighborhoods, past small grocery stores where groups of kids learned how to tie their shoes and sipped on bottles of soda soap.
"Amtrak, oh Amtrak, you might get there but you'll never get back," they crooned.
Drawn by the ruckus, a porter pushed back the singers and closed the window.
The singers chuckled appreciatively and agreed that things today were sarcintly the same as they used to be. When the porter came in, he opened the window back up and started singing again.
"You shouldn't stand that close to the windows. These folks around here'll throw bricks at you," he said. "In the old days, they would bury them. We throw bricks at em. We watch it."
As the train reached the Houston city limits for the second time, the engineers opened up the throttle. Soon, the Lone Star was averaging 80 miles per hour across the city.
THE LONE STAR rolled into the Fort Worth worth at 7-40 p.m., more than five hours behind schedule. Several passengers were on the bus and we make connections for a quick flight home.
A lounge car and two coaches, which were added to Sunday's train in Fort Worth, were built prior to World War II.
EQUIPMENT USED on the Lone Star was purchased from the Santa Fe in 1970, when Amtrak was formed by Conness.
However, many passengers did not seem
*Passenger trains could be rollin',
*luxury liner without costing very much more.
*That where Amtrak could gain
*knowledge in the trains sometimes
special again.
4 6 7 0
PUDALRUHAL
to care that the train was late. They were riding because they loved trains and the road. The train ran end of a noble passenger train, one from the Santa Fe railroad's old fleet of crackers.
"That's where Amtrak is missing its chance. It needs to include all those special amenities. Things like dinner chimes are what made the trains special to ride on. Now, they don't look much different inside from an airplane and the same for the train. There's a lot more room on the trains, but they look like airplanes now.
Read said, "In the old days, porters went through the train ringing dinner chames. There was a man who walked through the train selling newspapers, magazines and
The service on the Texas Chief was more personalized than that on the Lone Star, according to Bob Read Jr., proprietor of the Cimarron Railroad Museum in Cupertino.
Originally established in 1948, the Lone Star, once known as the Texas Chief, ran from Chicago to Kansas City and Lawrence, south to Houston, finally ending there.
He said, "I'll have to go back to freight service, I guess. But when you walk through this train you have to realize that it runs rear capacity all summer long. In the spring, you can just leave it in summer. If they had added cars to the train, we could have increased ridership enough to justify keeping the train on, even at Amtrak rules. But they did not give us any extra cars and they ended up turning the train into a canceling it for its ridership being too low."
Leck had worked the last five years as a traneker on the Lone Star. Under new commission, he was sent to cellation, his job was abolished when he reached Purcell, Okla. early Monday
according to Wesley E. Leck, brakeman on the Lone Star.
Bob Turner, a passenger from Mt. Rainier, says that they've cut the trains off just when people are starting to realize their full potential. I’ve ridden this train a lot and I know it’s not easy for them to people this summer than did before. I guess that doesn’t mean much Amtrak’s
Several lawsuits were filed to halt the
John Mann Gardner II, McGregor,
Texas, led the association of Interested
Rail Passengers' movement to halt the
Lone Star's cancellation. The association's
suit was consolidated with suits filled in
by former railway personnel in Tennessee when
This issued the order.
cancellation of the Lone Star and two other trains the North Coast Haithaw and the Floridian. Friday, Judge Frank Theis of the U.S. District Court in Wheiss issued a temporary restraining order protecting the three trains from immediate cancellation. The order lays for 10 days and then the order to renew it indefinitely.
"If Amtrak had taken care of legal details like filing environmental impact reports and holding public hearings along the way, it would have a tougher time getting the injunction."
The plaintiffs in the joint suit claimed the Department of Transportation and Antitrust are hearing or submit environmental impact statements before deciding to cancel the contract.
GARDNER SAID, "The Department of Transportation's lawyer at the Witcha bearings didn't have a leet to stand on.
Amtrak said that President Carter's signature on an Amtrak reorganization bill allowed for elimination of the three transits, the railways' second largest. That That's order conflicted with the law.
The reorganization bill included a reduced operating budget in anticipation of the train schedule cuts, allocations for maintenance of existing equipment, allocations to subsidize state supported railroad services for elderly and handicapped passengers.
"These people down here, like me, use the train frequently." Ginger insisted. "Canning the train would seriously hurt some people here."
See AMTRAK page two
At least one passenger aboard the Lone Star disagreed with Gardner.
Tom Beard, Chicago, said. "This has been a bell of a faace. If they can't run it, they're gonna fail." He shouldn't run it. It's a waste of everybody but you can make it work with the trains. I do. I ride the Lone
Last ride
Emery Bowser lost his job as a sleeping car porter on the Lone Star as a result of the cancellation of the Amtrak route. Bowser first worked as a worker in 1942 for the now defunct Amtrak Railroad.
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