WASHINGTON — After Sept. 11, a nation jittery over air travel was expected to board passenger trains in droves, reports Gannett News Service.
Instead, more than half of Amtrak routes saw fewer riders.
Trains running through the Midwest, South and much of the West saw a collective drop in ridership from Oct. 1 through March 31 compared with the same six-month period the previous year, according to company figures provided to . Ridership nationwide rose modestly, thanks largely to increased passenger traffic on trains in the Northeast and the far West.
Amtrak says the decline on most routes can be traced to a weaker economy as well as a shortage of rail cars to accommodate passengers. One Montana Amtrak booster blamed the decline in ridership on the Empire Builder route through the northern part of the state on the drought and last year’s forest fires. Another accused Amtrak’s reservation system of turning away riders in error.
But the decrease in riders on a number of money-losing, long-distance routes is providing rail critics more ammunition to shoot down continued federal subsidies for Amtrak.
“You have to do away with the big money-losers and add more state and local participation,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “It’s something we’ve had to do for a long time.”
Of Amtrak’s 44 routes nationwide, 27 saw decreases over the six-month period, according to the Amtrak statistics. Declines occurred on 11 of the 18 long-distance lines that have helped push the financially troubled rail company to the brink of bankruptcy. In January, Amtrak threatened to shut down those 18, most of which lose more than $100 per passenger and none of which are financially supported by the states they serve.
The Empire Builder, which travels along Montana’s High Line, saw its ridership drop by about 8 percent in fiscal year 2001 when compared with 2000. The number of riders passing through Shelby was down about 2,000 from 2000 to 2001.
The number of riders traveling the Empire Building route Oct. 1 to March 31 was down 4.9 percent.
Overall Amtrak ridership rose a modest 1.8 percent during the six-month period, thanks mainly to trains along both coasts. Trains in the densely populated Northeast and far West saw a gain of 308,000 passengers while the rest of the country saw a decrease of more than 69,000, according to Amtrak. The numbers do not include special charter trains.
Shelby Mayor Larry Bonderud said he doesn’t believe Amtrak’s numbers. Late last month, Bonderud said he conducted a test of Amtrak’s reservation system after three people told him they had been unable to get reservations on the Empire Builder because trains were full. Their complaints didn’t square with the company’s claim that ridership was down, he said.
When he called the toll-free reservation number, Bonderud said, he was told the July 2 train between Shelby and Seattle was full.
“We went down and got on the train and there was plenty of space,” he said. “The conductor told us he would be able to ticket us.
“I would attribute a lot of this to Amtrak’s inept reservation system and poor marketing.”
The drought and forest fires didn’t help the situation, either, said Jerry Smith, founder of Save Amtrak, a loosely organized network of folks in Montana, Oregon and Washington who lobby on behalf of the Empire Builder. All the news coming out of the state last year was bad, said Smith, who owns a motel in Galata.
“Consequently it didn’t make us a destination spot like it did in the past,” he said.
Without knowing all the details, Amtrak spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon could not comment on Bonderud’s experience. However, sleeper cars on long distance trains routinely sell out in the summer, she said. After making reservations, customers generally get seven days to pay for their tickets, she said. If they don’t, the reservations are canceled and the seats reopen for others, she said.
“It might have been a situation where reservations were canceled,” Cantillon said. “The computer reservation system is a science of sorts and there’s a method behind what happens. The whole point is to maximize ridership and revenue.”
Advocates say Amtrak has been hurt by a shortage of rail cars that has reduced capacity and hurt on-time performance. Nearly 100 railcars — about one of every 15 operated by Amtrak — is in the shop for repairs.
“If you don’t have the train, people can’t take it,” said James RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative, which advocates increased development of passenger rail.
RePass and others also point out that while rail ridership may have decreased in many parts of the country, it has held up much better than the airlines, which continue to suffer significant passenger losses compared with previous years.
The gap between urban and rural train ridership is widening as Amtrak faces its most precarious financial position in its 31-year history. A Bush administration loan last month temporarily averted a systemwide shutdown, but Amtrak needs at least $105 million more from Congress by the end of this month to keep operating through September.
The White House wants Amtrak to wean itself from federal aid and is proposing that states pick up a greater share of the cost of intercity passenger rail service. Those lines unable to secure nonfederal sponsors could face shutdown.
An increasing number of federal lawmakers say it’s probably time to do away with some lines, but don’t ask them to surrender their own.
“My state’s not going to contribute to a system that just runs from Boston to New York to Washington. We’ve got to go to Biloxi, too,” said Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, referring to the Mississippi city 20 miles from his hometown of Pascagoula, also an Amtrak stop.
Lott said he agrees with the administration’s call for privatization of some Amtrak operations and for more states to cover the cost of rail service. Mississippi is not among the 11 states that subsidize Amtrak.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., still smarting from service cuts to his state several years ago, said routes must be based on “objective criteria” that should include ridership, cost and perhaps a region’s willingness to subsidize service.
Wyden mentioned a cluster of eastern Oregon communities that have voted to assess a local tax for passenger rail should Amtrak return.
“What my interest has been is to get away from the proposition that this should be just for the Northeast or the far West or anybody who has political muscle,” he said.
Amtrak President David Gunn, who took the job in May, said it’s too early to decide which — if any — lines he would recommend cutting. He already has shelved a plan by his predecessor to eliminate 18 long-distance lines.
“I want to go through the budget process and see what we can actually do to improve the situation,” he said. “I want to see the economics of the system get better, and that means the economics of the trains will get better.”
Gunn also recognizes the political danger of service cuts when Amtrak needs Congress to bail it out.
“Are there some trains out there which are questionable? Sure there are. But at this point, I’ve got a (national) system, and if I start tinkering with that system, it’s all I will do,” he said. “It won’t affect the economics of Amtrak to a significant extent, (but) it will consume me and I won’t be able to manage anything.”