(Knight Ridder Newspapers circulated the following article by Chris Mondics on June 16.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak President David Gunn on Wednesday blasted Republican plans to slash funding for the rail system, saying they would create chaos on the Northeast Corridor and were designed by “policy wonks and politicians” with no knowledge of how to run a railroad.
Gunn compared the Bush administration’s plan to force Amtrak into bankruptcy unless it accepts drastic restructuring to what he called ideologically motivated proposals to cut funding for National Public Radio.
“I think this is being driven ideologically. I think we are right up there with NPR and funding for the arts,” Gunn said in an interview. “They do not appreciate the fact that we have some functions, which, if you are going to take them away from us, you had better do it very carefully. The ideologues do not understand what we do.”
Gunn’s remarks brought a sharp retort from a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation, which has been pushing to restructure Amtrak so that groups of states would eventually operate its long-distance lines, with federal assistance limited to grants for maintenance and other capital costs.
“The bottom line is, what is David Gunn doing to reform Amtrak, when everyone acknowledges that reform is necessary?” asked the spokesman, Brian Turmail.
Gunn’s frustration boiled over Wednesday as a House Appropriations subcommittee approved an Amtrak funding bill that would slash federal support for the rail line from $1.2 billion this year to $550 million in fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1. Amtrak had requested funding of $1.8 billion.
The bill would effectively mean that unless states stepped in to pick up the cost, long-distance rail service around the country would end, though House Republicans said service along the Northeast Corridor, from Washington to Boston, would not be affected.
The Bush administration has proposed eliminating federal operating subsidies for Amtrak altogether, though it has suggested that those subsidies might continue if Amtrak enacts broad reforms.
Many Republicans in Congress contend that, apart from service on the Northeast Corridor, most Amtrak service is economically inefficient. They say that it is cheaper for travelers to use other forms of transportation along many of Amtrak’s routes, and that the government subsidies would be better spent elsewhere.
A news release on the House Appropriations Committee Web site said Wednesday: “For too long, Amtrak has played a Chicken Little game with Congress over its funding levels. Officials would declare a crisis, threatening immediate shut downs of service because of supposed inadequate funding. Further analysis reveals that Amtrak alone is to blame for the bulk of their problems.”
But Gunn, who is known for his bluntness, contended that the cutback proposals by the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill were not practical and were being driven by political hostility to publicly funded rail service.
Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Minn., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that deals with Amtrak, contended Wednesday that $550 million would be enough to maintain service along the Northeast Corridor, where Amtrak has 80 percent of its business. But Gunn said that wasn’t enough and that such reduced funding would force Amtrak’s shutdown.
Labor contracts with Amtrak employees who would lose their jobs if long-distance service were terminated call for severance payments of $1.4 billion over three years, he said. Moreover, the rail line needs hundreds of millions in additional funding to make much-needed infrastructure repairs on the Northeast Corridor, according to Gunn.
“It is amazing to me that the people who create the environment we operate in don’t understand it,” Gunn said. “If they really want to get rid of the long-distance trains, they should have the political courage” to acknowledge the labor costs of ending long-distance service.
Gunn said budget pressures were driving the White House and Republicans in Congress to crack down on Amtrak.
“The country is running an enormous deficit, and the economic situation on the Hill is quite desperate,” he said. “The budget process up there is sort of broke. There is not a lot of rational decision-making.”
Gunn took the Amtrak job in 2003, after a long career heading major public transportation systems around the country. He took over at Amtrak long after its most financially damaging decisions – such as the purchase of its high-speed Acela trains, now temporarily out of service because of brake problems – had been made.
Every year since taking over, Gunn has battled administration proposals to cut Amtrak’s budget. But this year, the White House proposed eliminating funding altogether and forcing the rail line into bankruptcy. Since then, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has said the administration would be willing to back off that approach if Amtrak agreed to substantial restructuring. But Gunn said that it is late in the game and that both sides remain far apart.
“What is going on here is you have people who have an ideological position; they have no practical knowledge or managerial skill,” Gunn said. “It is a very risky game they are playing.”