(Reuters distributed the following article by John Crawley on November 13.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak on Thursday put to rest any threat of a possible shutdown this year after congressional negotiators approved $1.2 billion in subsidies for the passenger rail service.
“This number will allow us to continue to operate the national system,” the railroad’s president, David Gunn, said in a statement. “However, we will have to assess the impact of this funding level on our current budget over the next month or so.”
This means that financially troubled Amtrak will likely have to rework its plans for repairing and improving tracks, bridges, tunnels, power lines and other capital projects along the flagship Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston that Gunn says are of pressing concern.
Congressional negotiators late on Wednesday night approved $1.2 billion in subsidies for the fiscal year that runs through Sept. 30. The amount was $300 million more than the House of Representatives and the Bush administration supported, but $600 million less than what Amtrak said it needed to meet its operating costs and a reasonable schedule of capital improvements.
Gunn said the $900 million pushed by the House and the Transportation Department would have forced the railroad to begin shutting down. But Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, brokered a $1.34 billion figure in that chamber, which ultimately served as a benchmark for the compromise amount.
The subsidy package continues to defer repayment of a $100 million government loan made in 2002 to help avert a threatened shutdown.
It also continues reforms imposed last year that require Amtrak to periodically justify its spending. The subsidy amounts of $760 million for operating expenses and $465 million for capital projects will be paid out in a series of grants. The package also makes $60 million available to ensure that commuter railroads operated by Amtrak are adequately funded.
“There are strings attached and additional reporting requirements and restrictions on when this money can be used, but it should not create service disruptions,” said Rep. John Olver of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House appropriations subcommittee on transportation and the treasury.
But Amtrak is facing a possible one-day strike as early as next week by union members ready to protest what they consider inadequate federal subsidies.
Labor groups, including engineers and mechanics, delayed the strike initially planned for Oct. 3 to give a judge in Washington more time to rule on Amtrak’s motion to block it. A hearing is set for Friday in U.S. District Court.