(The following report by Tom Belden appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on February 8.)
PHILADELPHIA — The Bush administration proposed yesterday to eliminate virtually all funding for Amtrak, drawing an angry reaction in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with forecasts that Congress won’t go along.
Area politicians from both parties predicted that federal lawmakers would reject efforts to cut Amtrak’s $1 billion-plus annual subsidies, as they have when Bush and other presidents have tried to kill the passenger rail service in the past.
“The President from Texas clearly does not understand the needs of the commuters, or the economy of New Jersey, or the Northeast Corridor,” Sen. Jon Corzine (D., N.J.) said. “We have stopped this ill-guided attempt to shut down Amtrak before – and we will again.”
The administration has proposed deep cuts in Amtrak’s budget each year since 2001, and has been rebuffed each time.
Last year, Bush requested $900 million for Amtrak while the railroad said it needed $1.8 billion to operate trains, make capital investments, and do necessary maintenance on railcars and track. Congress appropriated $1.2 billion for the 2005 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Even some of the administration’s supporters in the region said killing Amtrak would be unwise.
“These are unacceptable figures,” Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) said of the President’s proposal. “I intend to lead a coalition this year to provide funding for Amtrak. We have to have it.”
Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) said that, while he believes some reform at Amtrak is needed, he “supports continued funding for the system.”
Rep. Curt Weldon, a Republican who represents Delaware County, called for better management of Amtrak as a way to reduce its need for subsidies, but said Bush’s proposal was one of several in the budget that Congress would reject.
“While I’m not happy with Amtrak’s management, there’s no way we’re going to eliminate it,” Weldon said in an interview while he was riding one of the railroad’s trains from New York to Philadelphia.
Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Phila.) said Amtrak’s fate rests with the President’s party. “The question is how many Republicans will support it,” he said.
In its budget message, the administration called for Congress, which created Amtrak in 1971, to enact legislation that would create two private companies, one to operate long-distance trains and one to own the tracks in the Northeast Corridor. The legislation would let individual states or regions of the country apply for grants to maintain track and rail equipment, but losses on train operations would have to borne by the states.
The proposal would provide $360 million to support commuter and freight services in the Northeast Corridor, but only after other funds to Amtrak are cut off and the government-owned corporation has to declare bankruptcy.
In a statement to employees yesterday, Amtrak president David Gunn said the administration’s plan was “irresponsible and a surprising disappointment. It doesn’t acknowledge all the hard work you’ve done over the past two years to run a tighter and better ship. Our costs are more under control than ever before.”
Under Gunn’s management the last two years, the railroad has laid off 3,900 employees but operates 300 trains a day, compared with 265 in fiscal 2002. Ridership of Amtrak trains was a record 25.1 million in fiscal 2004, up one million from the year before.
Amtrak has 3,061 employees in Pennsylvania, 1,687 in New Jersey, and 1,173 in Delaware.
Just over half of Amtrak’s passengers are in the Boston-to-Washington Northeast Corridor, the only part of its national rail network where it owns the track. Elsewhere, it operates over track owned by private freight railroads.
Bush’s budget also trims funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which stands to get 2.7 percent less to spend next fiscal year. The proposal puts an end to SEC funding increases that have more than doubled the agency’s budget from $438 million in 2002, when the collapses of Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. focused attention on corporate crime.
(This article contains information from Bloomberg News.)