(The Associated Press circulated the following on May 12.)
SALEM, Ore. — A top Amtrak official has warned Oregon lawmakers that cutting off funding for two daily trains between Eugene and Portland will affect 120,000 riders and undermine plans in three cities to renovate or improve train stations.
Businesses also are counting on improved rail service to speed their products to market, said Gil Mallery, vice president of regional planning and development for Amtrak.
But lawmakers are considering a proposal to cut the twice-a-day Amtrak Cascades runs to save $9.3 million for the state budget.
“It’s not an easy matter to turn off the funding and then turn it back on,” Mallery told lawmakers Friday.
Rep. Randy Miller, a Lake Oswego Republican and co-chairman of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, said Mallery made a strong argument for continuing the two Amtrak Cascades runs.
But Miller said education and services to elderly and disabled Oregonians have to come before train services, especially since passengers can find alternatives if the Amtrak Cascades service is reduced.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s budget includes money to maintain the train service.
If the two train runs are eliminated, only the once-a-day Coast Starlight would serve the Eugene train station.
But a $4.5 million project to renovate the Eugene station is due to go out to bid for construction work within the next 30 days, Mallery said.
Albany is about to upgrade its train depot, and Oregon City is planning to improve its platform so the Amtrak train can stop for passengers there. The state has worked out an agreement with Union Pacific, the owner of the railroad tracks Amtrak uses, for $15 million.
In 1993, when the Pacific Northwest’s north-south corridor was served only by Amtrak’s once-a-day Coast Starlight run, ridership was at about 93,000 a year. Today, it is about 600,000 a year, thanks to the four daily trains that also serve western Washington state, Mallery said.
The Amtrak Cascades train serves about 120,000 people from Eugene to Portland each year.