(The following article was posted on the Huntington Herald Dispatch website on July 19.)
HUNTINGTON, WVa. — The United States has one nationwide passenger railroad service — Amtrak. It has never turned a profit. And now, in a cost-cutting move, some members of Amtrak’s senior management want to outsource some of Amtrak’s customer service jobs to foreign countries.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., says he has been informed that Amtrak’s board of directors will invite private vendors, including those based overseas, to take over major parts of its national reservation system.
“After having to fight to keep Amtrak alive in the face of budgets that would have put the railroad into bankruptcy, now we are fighting to keep Amtrak’s jobs here in the United States,” Byrd said in a joint statement with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “Amtrak is America’s railroad. It is funded in part with American tax dollars. Its jobs should be American jobs.”
No government-operated passenger rail system in the world is expected to turn a profit. In the United States, Amtrak is an alternative for people who cannot or would rather not rely on airlines or the interstate highway system for long-distance travel. Amtrak’s value was proven when the air industry was shut down for a few days following 9/11.
With the proper investment, Amtrak could relieve much of the congestion at airports. A system of bullet trains similar to those in Japan could provide fast, safe, comfortable travel between major cities.
Members of Congress, many of whom jet around the nation and the world on the public dime and many of whom never ride trains, are demanding that Amtrak become more self-sufficient. They are taking a micromanaging approach, specifying cuts in dining car service and sleeping car accommodations, not realizing that these are amenities that draw people to the train in the first place.
Byrd is absolutely right on this one. American taxpayers should not be subsidizing overseas jobs in this manner.
All members of Amtrak’s board of directors were appointed by President Bush. Bush should tell them to drop this plan.