(The Washington Post published the following article by Don Phillips on its website on April 26.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amtrak President David L. Gunn yesterday unveiled an $8 billion, five-year passenger train recovery plan designed to halt deterioration in the Northeast corridor and to repair locomotives and cars.
The detailed plan provides a stark look at the condition of the infrastructure between Washington and Boston. Among other things, Gunn said an engineering survey between New York and Washington found that more than 9,800 of the large steel poles that hold up the lines that provide power to the locomotive have foundations that are “in trouble” and must be shored up.
Gunn’s proposal, which is several thousand pages long, is by far the most detailed capital plan ever produced by Amtrak, giving exact budgets and schedules for thousands of projects. It envisions a federal subsidy of $1.8 billion in fiscal 2004, gradually declining to $1.5 billion in fiscal 2008 as capital projects come on line and Amtrak is able to operate more efficiently. The total federal subsidy would be $4.5 billion in capital funding and $3.5 billion in operating subsidies. No new services would be added, unless states pay all costs.
Congress has traditionally slashed Amtrak budgets below requests over the years. But there are indications that Congress is paying more attention to Gunn’s requests than to those of most of his predecessors. In the current fiscal year, the Bush administration requested $521 million for Amtrak, but Congress approved $1.034 billion, just slightly less than Gunn requested.
Gunn said that without that amount of money, deterioration would continue, and that would force Amtrak trains to slow down, ending high-speed rail service in the one place in the United States where it is now available.
“If the capital plan is under-funded, then the whole thing falls apart,” Gunn said at a press conference yesterday.
Gunn said Amtrak spent an average of $1.5 billion a year more than its revenue between fiscal 1997 and 2002, by borrowing against assets such as New York’s Penn Station. Amtrak now owns almost nothing outright and has more than $250 million a year in debt, Gunn said.
Deputy Transportation Secretary Michael P. Jackson, who is also a member of the Amtrak board, said the plan is “more meticulous, thorough and thoughtful than has been presented in the past.” But he said it is “incomplete” because it fails to quantify many issues, mainly “vulnerabilities” such as looming requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. He also noted that Gunn says that new passenger equipment must be ordered after the end of this five-year plan, but he did not quantify the cost.
Congressional reaction is expected to come quickly. Gunn will appear Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and on Wednesday he will address the railroad subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Much of the work under Gunn’s plan would be concentrated between New York and Washington, but some of the most urgent individual projects are north of New York, including the replacement of three major bridges in Connecticut.
Two bridges in Maryland will need major repair work, including the bridge over the Susquehanna River at Perryville. The B&P tunnels south of Baltimore’s Penn Station and a tunnel south of Washington’s Union Station also will need major work.
The plan also calls for replacement of dispatching centers and installation of modern signal and communications systems. The electric traction system would largely be rebuilt.
However, the electric upgrades do not include a “constant-tension” electric wire structure that would allow 150-mph speeds south of New York. Gunn said that could be added relatively easily later, after the structure has been strengthened.