(The following Associated Press article appeared in the New York Times.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak expects to get through the current budget year but says it needs a major increase in federal support to maintain service over the next several years.
Amtrak President David Gunn said Thursday that Congress made it possible for the passenger railroad to survive another year by granting nearly all of the $1.2 billion requested through September.
But he said Amtrak will need $1.8 billion next year just to maintain existing service. Also, Amtrak will require about $2 billion annually from the government through at least 2008 as it addresses a backlog of capital repairs.
Gunn said Amtrak’s importance to the country — debated every year as it turns to the government for money — was highlighted during the blizzard that blanketed the East Coast this week, grounding much air travel.
“We actually ran trains and moved a lot of people,” he said.
Congress ended up giving Amtrak $1.05 billion for the budget year that ends Sept. 30 — $522 million to subsidize operations, $295 million for capital improvements in the Northeast — and $233 million for improvements elsewhere.
Amtrak got extra time to repay a $100 million government loan that helped it survive a brush with bankruptcy last summer.
But the money came with new conditions.
Rather than go directly to the railroad, federal funds for Amtrak will now pass through Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. For the first time, Amtrak has to seek funds for its long-distance trains by making separate requests to Mineta.
Money is supposed to be set aside to finance Amtrak’s contractual obligations to run commuter and intercity operations. When Amtrak was close to a systemwide shutdown last summer, several states feared it could affect their daily commuter operations.
Gunn said he has made progress in making Amtrak more efficient and focused. More than 600 positions have been cut, repair work finally has begun on wrecked and damaged cars, and Amtrak is phasing out an express package-delivery business that failed to make money.
In addition, Gunn said he will seek work rule changes that will increase productivity during upcoming negotiations with labor unions.
Of the $1.8 billion Amtrak will seek in 2004, more than $1 billion is for long-deferred capital projects. Amtrak says it has a nearly $6 billion backlog in needed work to its trains, tracks, rail yards and stations, particularly in the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor.
It also built a huge debt during the four years when it tried, without success, to wean itself from federal support at the direction of Congress.
President Bush proposed $900 million for Amtrak in his 2004 budget.
The White House is targeting long-distance train routes that lost the most money per passenger: the Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and Orlando, Fla.; the Texas Eagle between San Antonio and Chicago; the Three Rivers between New York and Chicago; and the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles.
Even before Bush released his budget, Gunn cut two other routes that made the White House list. He shut down the Pittsburgh-Chicago segment of the Philadelphia-Chicago Pennsylvanian and ordered that the Louisville, Ky.-Chicago Kentucky Cardinal be eliminated in July.
The administration says train routes that survive should be funded more by the states they serve and less by the federal government.