NEW YORK — In a gamble to keep things running, Amtrak plans a costly program to start repairing its growing backlog of passenger trains damaged in wrecks, Monday’s Wall Street Journal reported.
The cash-starved passenger railroad has ordered its mechanical department to gear up the materials and employees to begin making repairs to more than 100 cars that have been accumulating outside its repair shops. Aggravated by recent derailments, the equipment shortage has forced Amtrak to juggle available cars, to run shorter trains in some cases and to forgo needed revenue.
The move to start the repair program comes as Amtrak narrowly avoided a threatened shutdown of its entire national train network earlier this summer. The Bush administration and Congress came up with more than $300 million in loans and grants to keep Amtrak running through its current fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
Now, Amtrak is betting Congress will come through with an appropriation of $ 1.2 billion for Amtrak next year. Such an amount, which would be more than double Amtrak’s federal appropriations in recent years, is far from certain.
Nevertheless, Amtrak officials decided to go ahead with the car repairs. Amtrak President and Chief Executive David Gunn said the repair program could cost “tens of millions” of dollars and added that Amtrak is losing revenue because it doesn’t have enough equipment to meet passenger demand. He declined to estimate the revenue loss.