(The Kankakee, Ill., Daily Journal posted the following article by Edward Felker on its website on February 9.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — It has been months since Amtrak’s latest brush with extinction, but that doesn’t mean the tough times are over for the nation’s only intercity passenger railroad.
Lawmakers are still grappling with the question of what to give Amtrak to keep it going through October, as Congress tries to figure out if it will pass an appropriations bill for the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are facing a decision about the next fiscal year, which begins in October, when Amtrak says it will need even more money to keep running.
And for next year, the Bush administration has proposed spending just half of the $1.8 billion the railroad says it needs.
Rep. Ray LaHood, a Republican from Peoria who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, explained why Amtrak continues to be underfunded by the White House — and why Amtrak may continue to lurch from crisis to crisis.
“You’ll see lots of friends of Amtrak step forward to be helpful,” LaHood said. “Every administration tries to cut costs and Amtrak is an easy target…certainly Congress will work its will with respect to Amtrak funding.
“It probably won’t be all that Amtrak wants but it will be enough to sustain the kind of routes we have in Illinois and the northeast corridor and other places in the country.”
But he was uncertain whether Congress will move to reform Amtrak this year when it takes up a series of transportation reauthorization bills.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, is concerned first with keeping Amtrak running in the short term. Congress has yet to finish writing the 11 non-defense 2003 spending bills, and for Amtrak the Senate wants to spend $1.2 billion, all that Amtrak requested. The House approved about $760 million, a number LaHood backed with the expectation that a higher amount would be agreed upon later.
Durbin this week joined with 17 other senators to urge the chamber’s leadership to hold the line against the House in negotiations over a massive omnibus spending bill.
“Any funding below $1.2 billion will require Amtrak to cease operations and will jeopardize commuter and freight rail operations that depend on Amtrak for track access, operations, stations and facilities,” they said.
Durbin said he’s hopeful, but not certain, the pro-Amtrak forces will prevail.
“I hope that we have the votes to do it. I’m not confident with the Republican (controlled) Congress that we can prevail. But I’m hoping that some Republicans who appreciate Amtrak will join us,” he said.
Later this year the real debate may begin over Amtrak’s future, when Congress takes up its reauthorization. Critics, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., say the system will never achieve self-sufficiency if it continues running its money-losing long haul lines.
Some 48 trains daily run to and from Chicago, including four long haul lines, among them the Texas Eagle that stops in Joliet, Pontiac and Bloomington; the City of New Orleans, which stops in Kankakee and Champaign-Urbana; and the Southwest Chief, which stops in Galesburg.
This week Bush administration officials said they proposed only half of what Amtrak requested in federal aid as a way to prompt reform. “This is a funding level with a message: Amtrak must undergo significant reform,” said Michael P. Jackson, the deputy secretary for transportation, in prepared remarks issued with the administration’s budget proposal.
He challenged Congress not to agree to Amtrak’s 2004 request. “Amtrak continues to request funds to maintain their current business structure and services. The federal government simply cannot afford business as usual at Amtrak,” he said.
Amtrak points to work it has done to begin changing, including cutting 500 jobs, route and schedule changes, and dropping its money-losing express business. “These reforms show clearly that Amtrak’s administration is not conducting business as usual, and they will continue,” said Amtrak Chairman John Robert Smith and President David L. Gunn in a joint statement.
For Durbin, the administration’s stance does not advance the state of passenger rail in the nation. He heads into the debate upset with Amtrak for plans to close its 270-employee Chicago call center next year, a move that will lay an unspecified number.
“We have to make a decision and we have to make it soon whether Amtrak is going to survive. This idea of starving them to death is madness,” Durbin said. “It’s just going to take away the opportunity for travel for 2.5 million people in our state who use Amtrak and millions of others across the United States.”