WASHINGTON — A Senate committee endorsed a big increase in federal funds for passenger train service Thursday while also complaining about Amtrak, a chronic money-loser for the government, a wire service reports.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee voted 20-3 for a bill that would keep Amtrak operating for five more years and spend $4.6 billion a year on improving and expanding rail service.
The bill goes to the full Senate.
Sen. Ernest Hollings, the committee chairman and bill sponsor, said the Sept. 11 attacks showed America needs alternatives to flying and driving. Hollings, D-S.C., said Congress has treated Amtrak “with benign neglect” for three decades.
With Congress due to vote this year on the future of passenger rail, the Hollings bill represents the most comprehensive and Amtrak-friendly of several proposals. Thirty-two senators, mostly Democrats, have signed on to the bill.
Should it pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, it has a tough road in the Republican-controlled House.
House transportation leaders from both parties are working on a short-term solution that would give Amtrak the $1.2 billion it says it needs to keep all the trains running for another year.
Some lawmakers support a plan by the congressionally created Amtrak Reform Council to break up Amtrak and franchise out its routes to introduce competition.
One supporter of that plan is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Commerce Committee. He pleaded with his colleagues not to give Amtrak additional money without requiring major reforms.
“We have a responsibility to fix a program that has consistently fallen woefully short of the goals Congress has set for Amtrak, and that Amtrak has set for itself,” McCain said.
McCain’s colleagues agreed in principle to his amendment requiring that any new high-speed rail projects be open to competitive bidding — a potential challenge to Amtrak’s monopoly on passenger service. The committee asked its staff to study the legal implications of such an idea.
McCain saved some of his displeasure for the Bush administration, saying it “has failed, utterly, to say one word” about Amtrak’s future.
The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on railroads, Rep. Jack Quinn, met Thursday with administration representatives. Quinn, R-N.Y., said only that the White House “has a solid grasp” on the issues surrounding Amtrak’s future.
Under the Hollings bill, $4.6 billion per year would be spent on Amtrak operations, renovations to Amtrak-owned tracks in the Northeast and development of new high-speed corridors.
The bill would add Los Angeles-Las Vegas as the 11th federally designated high-speed corridor.
The bill would provide a one-time infusion of more than $1.4 billion for safety and security improvements, including money for X-ray machines, bomb-detecting dogs and a satellite-based system to shut down any locomotive not under control of its crew.
To make the bill more palatable to some colleagues, Hollings revised it to require Amtrak to submit a detailed five-year financial plan along with its annual budget request to Congress. He also added money for security upgrades outside the Northeast.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a critic of Amtrak since it canceled the Chicago-Portland-Seattle “Pioneer” route in 1997, added an amendment to force Amtrak to use objective criteria when making route and service decisions.