(The following press release was circulated by All Aboard Ohio on November 11.)
COLUMBUS, Ohio — All Aboard Ohio, a nonprofit association, is calling for the immediate reinstatement of Amtrak President David Gunn, and for the resignation of U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. All Aboard Ohio considers Gunn’s firing earlier this week as a direct threat to Ohio’s passenger trains, and to the future of the proposed Ohio Hub System. Gunn was fired by Amtrak’s board of directors who were appointed by President Bush at the behest of Mineta.
“This was a power play, plain and simple, between Gunn, who was striving for a more stable Amtrak, and Mineta, who said he wants to bankrupt Amtrak, leading to its disbanding,” said Bill Hutchison, president of All Aboard Ohio.
Hutchison noted this act of desperation by Mineta came only days after the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed Amtrak reform legislation 93-6. In addition to structurally reforming Amtrak and requiring it to compete with other railroads to operate publicly funded trains, the legislation would also permit an increase in capital funding to modernize Amtrak’s trains, tracks and stations while reducing its debt burden and lowering its annual operating subsidy by 40 percent. Also, Congress recently turned down Mineta’s request to eliminate dining- and sleeping-car services on trains – essentially reducing them to steel-wheeled buses that would have eroded ridership.
“Mineta clearly saw he was losing ground in his efforts to dismantle Amtrak,” Hutchison said. “Bush and Mineta’s delusional desire to sell pieces of Amtrak to private enterprise, which cannot compete with the tens of billions in federal funds given each year to air and highway modes, reveals their double-standard that only passenger trains should live or die in a ‘transportation free-market’ – which does not exist.”
Further, he asked if Amtrak’s future was so important to the Bush Administration, why did Mineta go on a nationwide tour to bash Amtrak rather than attend a single Amtrak board meeting – even though he is on the board – to seek reforms? Why didn’t Mineta instead seek public hearings to learn what Americans want from their rail system? Why is the Bush administration continuing to leave vacant three Amtrak board seats for so long? Why are two of the four board members “recess appointments” and whose terms expire at year’s end?
At 10 a.m. Nov. 15, U.S. Representative Steve LaTourette (R-Concord, OH), chair of the House Subcommittee on Railroads, will hold a hearing on Gunn’s firing. Also, LaTourette is sponsoring House Bill 1631 to provide $60 billion for passenger and freight rail development projects nationwide. This bill would allow American travelers and freight to travel as quickly and inexpensively as our competitors in Europe and the Orient.
“We support Rep. LaTourette’s inquiry, as well as his legislation,” Hutchison concluded. “A world-class rail system will allow this nation to better compete, but only if its first-class executives aren’t thrown off the train after finally getting it on the right track.”