(Reuters circulated the following article by John Crawley on January 16.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak can operate more efficiently and maintain its long distance service, but success of the U.S. national rail system is going to depend heavily on state investment, Amtrak’s president said on Tuesday.
Alexander Kummant told reporters at Union Station, where senators unveiled a rail investment proposal, he has no plans to undo the financially weak but politically backed network of trains that operate outside the flagship Northeast line.
Kummant said his view is to sustain the long-distance service but not preserve the business practices that have led to huge annual losses on trains that sprawl across the West, Midwest and South on tracks owned by freight railroads.
Ten to 15 years in the future, Kummant hopes Amtrak service throughout the country would be underpinned by billions of dollars in state capital invested in short-haul corridors that connect cities but also stop in smaller locales. He believes that highway and air congestion, coupled with high fuel costs, will drive rail development.
“I would say look at corridor conversion — where can you take a long-distance train and break that into multiple state corridors where it makes sense?” Kummant said. “We want to approach that carefully but meaningfully.”
Kummant, a former freight rail executive, also says he hopes to wring more cost savings out from operations.
Amtrak, a for-profit federal corporation, has muddled along for 35 years with annual federal subsidies that barely keep its trains in service and its infrastructure in good condition.
It has lurched from crisis to crisis, almost shutting down once before the Bush administration strong-armed business and operating reforms to save money. The changes fueled expectations Amtrak would slash popular but poorly performing long-distance routes.
Some of the administration’s reform proposals, those that would have dismantled Amtrak and offered some of its routes to the highest bidder, have faltered. But two points remain and underpin the leading congressional rail funding proposal — more state support and greater efficiency.
“We can’t keep asking Amtrak to operate like a business while we string along the company year to year,” said Sen. Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican.
The $19.2 billion plan by Lott and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, would provide $3.2 billion annually for Amtrak over six years. The rest would help states finance capital for rail development.