The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 26

sk4e I ne bacramerno nee rim I Pliny December 131991 skt 1 ne bacramento nee mai I Pliny December 131991 FROM PAGE ONE FROM PAGE ONE met shortages ground Soviet airlines shut airports 4 ffu 11 it shortages ground Soviet anes shut airports I I 0 "awash" in gasoline and aviation fuel But there are no tank cars to transport it to the consumers the manager complained bitterly There are also political reasons for the transportation problems Azerbaijanis have blocked the railway to Armenia women in a Russian enclave in Moldavia stage sit-ins on the tracks leading to the Moldavian capital angry farmers in Siberia threaten to cut the vital trans-Siberian railroad if their economic demands are not met Fuel blockades also have resulted from conflicts between the republics The heart of the problem is that the transportation network is still centralized and it is difficult to keep it going when most of the republics are spinning off in their own Los Angeles Times MOSCOW All across the country travelers arrived at airports Thursday only to find that no planes would be flying anywhere One-third of the country's 350 airports were shut and dozens more were expected to close down at any time according to officials at the Soviet Civil Aviation Ministry It may be the hallmark of the tumultuous situation in the country political talumphs are quickly overshadowed by economic disasters The announcement of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's triumph in forging a Common wealth of Independent States was followed within minutes by a report from the official lass news agency that 92 airports across the nation had stopped operations because of not dislodge the enraged people from the airliner they stormed insisting on their right to fly to the Crimea The usual answer to such actions up to now was to yield to the passengers avoiding a bigger confrontation But now there are simply no flights to divert Another solution sending people to their destinations by rail is also no longer working Two weeks ago the Soviet Railroads company announced it was halting all services abroad because it lacks foreign convertible currency to pay its numerous partners And its domestic operations are also grinding to a halt The reason for the fuel shortage is more complicated thanit might seem at first As the manager of an oil refinery in Eastern Russia said Thursday his plant is As the country's economy unravels transport becomes less reliable "What is really surprising is not that a hundred or so airports have shut down but that the remaining 250 still operate" said economist Aleksei A Sergeyev "The economic collapse proceeds at the breakneck speed and I quite agree that the entire economy and its lifelines the transportation links will fold down by January" he said More and more frequently passengers are taking the problem into their own hands Dozens of times exasperated passengers have tried to seize aircraft on the taxiing lanes and sometimes have succeeded in di veiling them to their places of destination The last such seizure occurred in Ekaterinburg Tuesday and even a militia squad could lack of fuel and that 38 more were using up their last gallons Ukraine Russia Kazakhstan the Soviet Far East and the Caucasus region were all affected and the chain reaction is likely to spread rapidly through the nation "This economic disintegration affects us badly" said Andrei Andreyev head of the Air Traffic Control Directorate at the Civil Aviation Ministry "We are torturing both our passengers and ourselves Only 60 percent of our flights are on schedule and it gets worse What can we do if there's simply no fuel for our aircraft?" Air travel plays a very prominent role in the country that spans one-sixth of the globe Last year Aeroflot the country's only airline and the world's biggest carried 140 million passengers on domestic and foreign flights 41 Amtrak Capitol fares and schedules Sample fares One way Round trip AF 9 Regular Midday Evening $24 $31 $8 $23 $30 $18 $25 $6 $17 $24 Morning 6:43 am 7:15 am 7:37 am 8:01 am 8:23 am 8:54 am 9:01 am 9:10 am 10:33 am $17 Jose $24 $16 Jose $23 also Richmond Berkeley or San Francisco also Davis 11:40 am 5:05 pm 12:02 pm 527 pm 12:26 pm 5:51 pm 12:48 pm 8:13 pm 1:19 pm 6:44 pm 126 pm 6:51 pm 1:35 pm 7:00 pm 2:58 pm 8:33 pm Timetable To Bay Area: IN Roseville Iv Sacramento Ar Davis Ar Suisun-Fairfield Ar Martinez Ar Richmond Ar Berkeley AL Oakland At San Jose From Bay Area: Lv San Jose Iv Oakland Art Berkeley Ar Richmond Ar Martinez Ar Suisun-Fairfield Ai Davis Ar Sacramento Ar ROieVilit kk i ''t i i i A l' 1 E- r' 1 I 1 A '041C I AF-'" i''' i 1 4 ti "1 7'" 7 i i I :7 'sk qv i il 'Holiday blackout' fares Round trip fares during "holiday blackouts" generally cost the one-way fare plus 50 percent rounded to the next dollar Those dates are Dec 19-21 Jan 4-6 April 17 and 19 May 22 and 25 July 3 and 5 and Sept 4 and 7 r------11111111 6:35 am 7:50 am 7:56 8:04 am 8:35 am 8:55 am 921 am 8:04 am 8:35 a 6:35 am 12:10 pm 1:25 pm 111 pm 1:39 pm 2:10 pm 2:30 pm 2:56 pm 12:10 pm 510 pm 7 6:25 pm 6:31 pm 6:39 pm 7:10 pm 7:30 pm 756 pm 8:20 pm 900 pm 9:55 am 3:35 pm cJ BART connection Direct bus connection to San Francisco arriving 25 minutes later Source: Caitrans Division of Rail Bee graphic Train: Special rate starts in January fleeLois Bernstein on the train during his frequent trips to corporate headquarters in the Silicon Valley Kelly Berg who works for Hewlett-Packard'in Roseville figures he can get some work done As for the paying public he smiled "You can drink and drive and toast the CHP out the window" Besides adult beverages the bill of fare on the trains includes sandwiches and salads up to 8:375 coffee and tea for 85 cents milk or antacid for 75 cents plus souvenirs such as playing cards and an $8 blanket All three pairs of trains serve Sacramento Davis Suisun (Fairfield) Martinez Richmond Berkeley Oakland and San Jose The earliest westbound and latest eastbound train also serve Roseville Direct Amtrak buses connect travelers to San Francisco and Peninsula points from Oakland and connect the San Jose end of the line to Gilroy Salinas Monterey and Santa Cruz On the Sacramento end some or all Cap said The Martinez-Davis round-trip costs $18 to be sliced to $1:3 as part of an introductory special Jan 7 through April 9 In the same period trips from Sacramento or Davis to Richmond Berkeley Oakland or San Francisco will cost only $1 more than the regular one-way 816 fare Another commuter of sorts was Raul of Orangevale Gamino an Amtrak employee presiding over the meal car figures the new trains will end his long drives in the fog "This will be a lot easier" said a veteran of runs such as the California Zephyr to Chicago the San Joaquins between Oakland and Bakersfield and the Southwest Chief between Los Angeles and Chicago Continued from page Al a dream to walk over to the station instead of getting in my car" Miller said Driving to Oakland he has been rear-ended twice He said the $60 reimbursement from his company isn't worth it Thursday's round-trip ticket cost him S23 Two months ago LIC Davis engineering professor Paul Craig whose home overlooks the Carquinez Strait in Martinez heard the Capitol trains were coming and bought a fold-up bicycle at a garage sale Thursday morning he rode five minutes to the station In 45 minutes he had covered the 50-mile train trip to Davis and faced only a half-mile ride to the campus "We'll see how it works it's a lit Ile less (costly) than driving" Craig man" said Clara Carmichael of her husband's choice of celebration Lester Carmichael worked 38 years for the Southern Pacific Also aboard was Martin Taddey wearing a button-bedecked engineer's cap Taddey a Lutheran minister in Palo Alto was sketching out his sermon for Sunday Taddey has trains in his blood His maternal grandfather was an engi7 neer and an uncle was a section fore- man for the Illinois Central "Trains have an atmosphere you don't have on the plane because of the freedom to move around" he said itois connect coming and going with Amtrak buses to Marysville Oroville Chico Red Bluff and Redding and Roseville Auburn Colfax Grass Valley Truckee and Reno On Thursday the first westbound train three coaches and a dinette left Sacramento at 7:15 am sharp and was about one-third full The first eastbound train reached Sacramento 20 minutes before its scheduled 9:55 am arrival and was about one-quarter full Steve Alston chief of the office of rail services for the state Department of Transportation wasn't dismayed by the turnout "California travelers are glued to their cars" he said "It's going to take a while to win them over" In a few years he said coaches may come equipped with business aids such as conference rooms and cellular phones to lure travelers And doubling the three daily Capitol round-trips to six pairs of trains by 1994 could provide the flexibility for which some time-sensitive travelers expressed hope Not all riders Thursday had a specific destination Lester Carmichael of Citrus Heights was spending his 70th birthday with his wife Clara and grandson Adam Soares 4 who alternately looked out the window and perfected his crayon skills Very fitting for "an old railroad AID: Baker warns of dangers AID: Baker warns of dangers Soviet: Gorbachev powerless aides concede SovietGorbachev powerless aides concede I 6Nly life's work has been accomplished I have done all I could I think that in my place others would have given up a long time ago Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev 0 it 1 qt dependence in a referendum two weeks ago weeks The Russian leader warned that any attempt to torpedo the agreement would lead to "confrontation" "chaos" and "a direct threat to humanity" With Gorbachev unwilling to formally resign just yet it is unclear exactly what form the transfer of power will take any at: Id lead direct ally re-it form Continued from page Al Communist dictatorship Baker said On the other hand he warned anarchy could revive the remnants of Stalinism and threaten the West with nearly 30000 nuclear weapons tThe dangers are equal in scale to the opportuhities" Baker declared Baker's blueprint would offer the Soviet people a modern equivalent of the Marshall Plan financed mainly by US allies in exchange for adherence to democratic reforms free-market policies and a firm commitment not to let nuclear weapons fall into the wrong hands The administration moved to assume a more energetic role on Soviet aid 48 hours after CIA Director Robert Gates warned that the Soviet Union will experience political and social turmpil in the next few months on a scale not seen since the Communists took power in 1917 3n a major policy speech at Princeton University Baker called on business firms and state governments in California Washington Oregdn and Alaska to join with Japan and South Korea to help develop resource-rich Siberia I The secretary also suggested that University of California scientists at Livermore and Los Alamos NM who designed nuclear weapons for the Cold War help the Soviets destroy their arsenals The administration he said will soon tap WO million that Congress shifted for this purpose from the Pentagon's budget Although the White House was initially cool to the idea Bush signed the legislation Thursday Baker said the money will be well spent "If (hiring the Cold War we spent trillions of dollars on missiles and bombers to destroy Soviet nuclear weapons in time of war surely now we can spend just millions of dollars to actually destroy and help control those same nuclear weapons in time of peace" he said rThat's neither charity nor aid that's an investment in a secure future for every American" Speaking in grave Churchillian tones the secretary told his alma mater: "From Odessa on the Black Sea to Vladivostok on the Pacific the people are tired and hungry They are disoriented and they are confused These people myst be able to see that democrats and reformers can deliver the goods that there is some cause for hope some sign that life will be Continued from page Al ant tirade against the 4-day-old treaty But he also signaled that he would respect a decision originally signed by Russia Ukraine and Byelorussia to dissolve the USSR if it won the backing of all the other republics With the commonwealth plan gaining momentum hourly Gorbachev spoke words that sounded like his own epitaph "My life's work has been accomplished" Gorbachev told the hastily convened news conference which was broadcast on Soviet television Thursday night "I have done all I could I think that in my place others would have given up a long time age While Gorbachev was explicitly excluding any role for himself in the commonwealth there was a palpable sense of power shifting completely away from the old central government toward the republics Although both sides agree that the details of the transition of power could take some time to work out it was clear Thursday night that the Gorbachev era had effectively come to an end after 612 years of breathtaking change for both the Soviet Union and the world "Gorbachev is without power" said one of his closest aides Grigory Revenko standing outside the Kremlin's floodlit walls as a light snowfall sprinkled Red Square "It is obvious to everybody that the Gorbachev question is decided" Revenko said Gorbachev remained nominal commander-in-chief of the 37-millionstrong Soviet armed forces with technical control over the country's 30000 nuclear weapons He said the question of transferring authority would be worked out in negotiations with Yeltsin and leaders of the other republics and should be completed no later than the end of the year The Russian legislature followed the legislatures of Ukraine and Byelorussia by voting 188-6 Thursday to formally ratify the agreement to establish the commonwealth negotiated by the leaders of the three Slavic republics Sunday Russian legislators also annulled the 1922 treaty establishing the Soviet Union as the world's first avowedly socialist state The political momentum in favor of the commonwealth built up inexorably during the day The parliament of the southern republic of Azerbaijan approved the agreement late Thursday an action meaning that republic leaders needed only to sign the accord to make Azerbaijan the fourth member of the commonwealth That was before the five predominantly Muslim republics signed on today Moldavia also was showing strong interest The Yeltsin-inspired Commonwealth of Independent States differs from GorbachevA's concept of a Union of Sovereign "If during the Cold War we faced each other as two scorpions in a bottle now the Western nations and the former Soviet republics stand as awkward climbers on a steep mountain held together by a common rope "A fall toward fascism or anarchy in the former Soviet Union will pull the West down too Yet equally as important a strong and steady pull by the West can help them to gain their footing We must strengthen that rope and not sever it "The time for action is short As much as we will benefit if this revolution succeeds we will pay if it fails History is giving no one a breathing space The West can play an important supporting role We are not the leaders of this revolution but neither are we mere bystanders" In Moscow Foreign Ministry spokesman Vitaly Churkin called Baker's plan "very positive" but cautioned the West not to waste time The secretary of state who's leaving Saturday for a fact-finding mission to Moscow and several Soviet republics unveiled a modest package of additional US assistance beyond $4 billion in previously pledged farm credits and food aid Arguing that the task of helping the Soviet people is beyond any country's means Baker said that only a well-coordinated international program can do the job Officials said Baker's plan envisages a leadership role for the United States with allied countries international financial institutions and private groups picking up most of the tab Bush named Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger to coordinate US efforts and clear bottlenecks at both ends of the delivery pipeline "We see a massive coordination problem on both ends of this issue" said presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater While the White House insisted that it will continue to work with both the fast-crumbling central government in Moscow and leaders of individual republics Baker depicted Gorbachev as essentially a figure of the past whose reform policies helped bring about the end of centralized Kremlin authority To get his new initiative under way Baker disclosed that: The United States has begun sending experts to help dismantle Soviet nuclear weapons and will accelerate this effort in coming weeks Food stocks left over from Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf will be moved to Armenia industrial cities in the Urals Moscow and St Petersburg beginning next week The administration will ask Congress for authority to reprogram MO million in foreign-aid funds to help develop joint business ventures and encourage American investments Congress will be asked to expand Peace Corps programs in several republics About 250 volunteers should be in place by next winter About 150 Soviet interns will be enrolled in a Commerce Department business-training program pod-City Some of the president's aides including Revenko said they would like the transition to be formalized by a final session of the 2250-member Congress of People's Depu'i ties the full Soviet parliament But Russia and the other republics are likely to resist this suggestion on the grounds that Soviet laws and institutions already have ceased to exist on their territory Another Gorbachev aide Georgi Shakhnazarov said that he thought the president would adapt to the new situation despite his evident unhappiness "You have to be ready for sudden changes in life Gorbachev has a lot of possibilities ahead" he said nsition of Dem Russia I resist Soviet ased to hakhr'- sident )ite his udden of States in that it recognizes the republics as subjects of international law and envisages only a minimal coordinating role for the central government The original three members of the commonwealth have agreed to establish a unified command over Soviet strategic nuclear forces but they are at odds over what to do with the country's conventional armed forces Ukraine's newly elected president Leonid Kravchuk signed a decree Thursday appointing himself commander-in-chief of the 12 million conventionally armed troops on Ukrainian territory including the Black Sea fleet Yeltsin assured Soviet military commanders that Russia has no immediate plans to form its own army separate from the commonwealth's armed forces The results of the political struggle of the past week were clearly visible on the faces of the victors and vanquished Yeltsin made no effort to hide his smile of triumph as he walked to the rostrum of the Russian legislature to call for the ratification of the commonwealth Gorbachev was a mixture of poignancy defiance and concern for the future of his country as his aides seemed depressed and somber as they contemplated their last few days in office "It looks as if we are going to cut this land into slices I am not going to take any part in this This is something I find repugnant People tried to build this land for 10 centuries and now they are trying to cut the cake into slices" said Gorbachev "It reminds me of an attempt to close down America" The man who took the Soviet Union through turbulent change that saw the end of the Cold War and the renunciation of communism said he would not take a ceremonial role in a new commonwealth "I do not see myself as the guest of honor- at a wedding" Gorbachev said In his address to the Russian legislature Yeltsin took the opposite tack depicting the new commonwealth as the last chance of preventing a dangerous conflict between Russiland Ukraine which voted for full in- 4 'The Monkey Wars' reprints available Reprints of the 1 special Bee senes "The Monkey 4 Wars" which was li published Nov teja 24-27 are now available for S2 a 1 copy They can I be picked up at the front counter of The Bee 2100 il 0 St or by mail t------ --4 Write to Monkey Wars Reprints City Desk The Sacramento Bee PO Box 1 8779 Sacramento 95852 Box SMING IT STRAIGHT Accuracy is a fundamental of journalism It is The Bee's policy in this standing feature to promptly acknowledge errors Mistakes should be called to the attention of the editors involved by calling (916) 321-1001 A 41.