The administraiton also no longer insists on wholesale "reforms" of Amtrak as parts of a rescue, but wants assurances that the passenger-train corporation will impose fiscal discipline and increase the flow of information to the government, administration sources said.

Federal Railroad Administraiton staff members are working to determine whether the governmentcan legally guarantee a loan under a law intended for long-term capital needs, the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Program. Deliberations so far indicate there may be a way to do it, a source said.

Administrations sources said Mineta's meeting with the Amtrak board is partly intended to assure the nation that a shutdown almost certainly would not occur, and particularly to reassure commuter railroads that are livid about possibly being caught up in shutdown.

The sources als said administraiton officials do not think they received adequate financial information from Amtrak, and want to determine if there alternatives to loan gurantees or appropriations, including the release of unobligated funds or transferring money from other parts of the budget.

"I think people[in the administration]are focusing on the proble,m," Gunn said in an interview, adding that Mineta's request for a meeting "sounds positive to me."