(The following story by Mark Wineka appeared on the Salisbury Post website on June 22.)
SALISBURY, N.C. — Ask the president of Amtrak what brings him to Salisbury, and you get the obvious answer.
A train.
Well, that’s partly true.
David Gunn, Amtrak president and chief executive officer, rode the rails from Selma to Charlotte Sunday, but he traveled by car Monday to Kannapolis, Salisbury, High Point, Greensboro and Raleigh. He planned eventually to take an Amtrak train from Raleigh back to Washington.
Gunn spent an extended period of time in Salisbury, receiving a guided tour of the depot and attending a City Hall luncheon hosted by Mayor Susan Kluttz, a five-year member of the Amtrak Mayors Advisory Council.
Over recent years, Salisbury has been part of a state-driven effort to improve the passenger and freight train corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte. Salisbury has closed 12 crossings, seen a private-public partnership restore the depot and benefited from $20 million of investment in the area close to the old train station.
It’s that kind of corridor development — an incremental, project-specific approach — that has surprisingly made North Carolina a leader in rail development, Gunn said.
The state has had a vision, addressed it step by step and found a way to do it in a cost-effective way, Gunn said. The state and many of its cities, such as Salisbury, should be proud of what they have accomplished without much in the way of federal support, he added.
“It’s not replicated in very many places,” Gunn said, also giving credit to California. “…This is an example of how you make progress.”
Gunn, who came out of retirement two years ago to assume Amtrak’s top job, said the nation’s passenger railroad used to have grandiose plans for high-speed rail corridors, electric trains and European-type efficiency everywhere it did business.
But the cost — “billions and billions of dollars” — made it unrealistic, especially with Amtrak’s track record, Gunn said.
What North Carolina has accomplished has been impressive and represents the way passenger rail should be developed, Gunn said. He contends that the thing missing from making inter-city rail service more viable is a federal match. “You don’t have a federal partner, and you desperately need one,” he said.
He emphasized that same point while speaking with a reporter at the Salisbury depot.
Transportation funding lacks a well-defined federal component, and the nation needs the funding for rail that it allocates to highways, Gunn said.
“They’ve completely ignored rail,” he said.
Putting improved passenger train service on the national agenda is a responsibility that rests with local officials and the people who use the system, Gunn added later.
U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., state Sen. Andrew Brock, R-Davie, and state Rep. Lorene Coates, D-Rowan, attended the luncheon in Gunn’s honor. Councilmen Bill Burgin and Mark Lewis, Rowan County Commissioner Gus Andrews, Spencer Mayor Jody Everhart, Rockwell Mayor Beau Taylor and representatives of the N.C. Transportation History Museum in Spencer also were present.
Former Salisbury Mayor Margaret Kluttz, a past N.C. Board of Transportation member, accompanied Gunn on part of his tour at the depot and represented U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole at lunch.
At the depot, Gunn said Amtrak experienced revenue growth and record ridership last year at 24 million passengers. Ridership over 22,000 miles within 46 states will exceed 25 million this year.
Gunn said fiscal controls are in place, and Amtrak’s employment has been cut by about 3,000 employees to just more than 20,000.
Amtrak has begun doing a credible job at maintenance and refurbishing of its rolling stock, Gunn said. Some 100 cars are being addressed this year, and 200 will be tackled next year, he said. Amtrak also is replacing 101 track miles this year.
“We’re doing a lot of good stuff,” Gunn said.
A 2003 New York Times editorial said Gunn “has gained a great deal of credibility on Capitol Hill for taking on the railroad’s notorious inefficiencies.”
Amtrak has not had any recent cash crisis, but the key to next year will be achieving at least a $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion allocation from Congress, according to Gunn.
The Piedmont and The Carolinian are the Amtrak passenger trains serving Salisbury and the Raleigh-to-Charlotte corridor. Gunn acknowledged that some of The Carolinian’s cars are “long in the tooth” and in need of refurbishing.
Gunn believes the passenger trains serving North Carolina could immediately reduce their running time by 30 to 45 minutes by eliminating the mail car and adding another coach. In his opinion, the N.C. lines need more trains that would provide service on an hourly basis. If that could happen, the Charlotte-to-Washington corridor could be one of the busiest in the nation, Gunn said.
Gunn lamented, however, that the rail line from Selma to Washington is “falling apart.”
A passenger rail advocate, Susan Kluttz noted that the railroad has had a big impact on Salisbury’s history and will continue to be important to its economy and air quality, especially if Salisbury is served by high-speed passenger service between Raleigh and Charlotte.
“We all know we’ve got to get people out of cars,” Kluttz said.
Kluttz found out it was Gunn’s birthday and presented him with a cake, which was cut and served to the luncheon guests. Gunn also received a key to the city.
Amtrak has been in service since 1971.
Gunn previously operated the largest transit systems in the United States and Canada — the New York City Transit Agency from 1984 to 1990 and the Toronto Transit Commission from 1995 to1999.