(The following article by Matthew L. Wald was posted on the New York Times website on September 21.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak will end its fiscal year in a few days with “no measurable impact on our ridership” from the brake problem that sidelined the Acela fleet this year, the chairman of the railroad’s board told Congress on Wednesday.
As Congress enters the late stages of the annual subsidy dance, with Amtrak allies proclaiming that the railroad is on a starvation budget and opponents saying taxpayers are throwing good money after bad, the chairman, David M. Laney, portrayed the railroad as making progress in putting its financial house in order. But he acknowledged that major structural changes were needed.
Mr. Laney said the deficit per mile traveled by each train had fallen to $13 in the 2004 fiscal year, down from $22 in the 2000 fiscal year, and that ridership had grown over the period to 25.1 million, from 22.5 million. Employment, he said, was 19,500, down 2,000 in four years.
Amtrak also announced on Wednesday that it was returning Acela service to the level it had been before the trains were pulled off the track in April because of brake cracks. Some service resumed in July.
The railroad lost $1 million a week in revenues when it carried passengers on its older trains, which are slower, less plush, and have lower fares. It had not calculated the cumulative loss, but a spokesman said the Acela’s manufacturer would compensate the railroad, although the amount is under negotiation.
Not all the witnesses at the hearing, conducted by the railroad subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, were so upbeat. Kenneth M. Mead, the inspector general of the Department of Transportation, said Amtrak’s operating losses for the 2004 fiscal year were $1.3 billion, up from $797 million in 1997. The railroad, he said, had “few incentives, other than the threat of budget cuts or elimination, for cost control or delivery of services in a cost-effective way.”
Mr. Mead said Amtrak was subsidizing first-class passengers twice as much as coach-class passengers.
The full House has approved a subsidy of $1.176 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, roughly the same as the current subsidy, and the Senate Appropriations Committee has voted for $1.45 billion. It is likely that both houses will vote to continue financing at last year’s levels until a final budget is approved.