(The following article by Mark Helm was posted on the New London Day website on October 1.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak President David L. Gunn said Tuesday that a national passenger rail service “can actually work” in the United States but that the struggling railroad would need continuous government subsidies to survive.
Gunn, who took over leadership of Amtrak in 2002, said the passenger railroad has increased its ridership during his tenure.
“We’re doing more than I expected was possible,” he said during a speech to the National Press Club about the long-term prospects for the carrier.
Gunn, who helped turn around New York City’s subway system in the late 1980s, noted that Amtrak had cut 2,500 jobs over the past 18 months and has set passenger records for the months of May, June and July.
“Amtrak can actually work,” he said. But Gunn, 66, said cost cutting and improved efficiency could “only take the company so far” and that Amtrak would need permanent aid from the government to stay afloat.
“There’s no getting around the fact that we need subsidies,” he said.
Congress created Amtrak in 1971 as a for-profit federal corporation. However, the company ? which services 500 communities in 46 states along its 22,000 miles of track ? has never made money and relies on annual federal subsidies.
Amtrak received $1.04 billion in federal aid for the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
Gunn said that the revenue generated from ticket sales could never cover costs of maintaining the railroad’s infrastructure.
He noted that all other forms of U.S. transportation, including highways and airports, were subsidized by the federal government.
Gunn said passenger rail service should not be the only form of transportation that Congress expects to operate without federal aid.
“We’re simply looking for a level playing field,” he said.
Gunn criticized a Bush administration proposal to slash federal support of Amtrak and break up the rail line, turning over pieces of the system to the states, which then would contract with private companies to provide train service.
Gunn said Bush’s plan was “vague” and would cause chaos in the management of passenger rail service.
Bush’s proposal has gained support in the House. In September, the House approved a $900 million subsidy for Amtrak for the 2004 fiscal year starting Wednesday, the amount requested by Bush but far short of the $1.8 billion that Amtrak says it needs.
The Senate is expected to vote in coming weeks to give Amtrak a $1.35 billion subsidy for the 2004 fiscal year. A House-Senate conference committee would then have to settle the differences between the two bills.
Gunn said Amtrak would shut down if Congress approved either sum.
Referring to the House-approved subsidy, Gunn said that sum “would barely cover our operating costs, meaning that no money would be available for maintaining out equipment ? and that’s not something we cannot do.”
Gunn said the $900 million figure would not be enough to keep the railroad running for the entire year.
Gunn also predicted that a federal court would stop a one-day strike planned for Friday by several Amtrak unions representing 8,000 of the passenger railroad’s 21,000 employees, including rail-car and track repairmen, engineers and brake inspectors.
“I don’t think there will be a strike,” said Gunn, who admitted that such a strike would force the railroad to shut down.
Members of unions, said they will walk off the job Friday to protest what they call the railroad’s chronic underfunding.
To stop the walkout, Amtrak has asked District Judge James Robertson to issue a restraining order blocking the strike.