(The following story by Jeanie Senior appeared on The Tribune website on August 27.)
PORTLAND, Ore. — It’s another year and another congressional battle over Amtrak funding. The national passenger railroad system is seeking nearly $1.8 billion for fiscal 2005 and the White House is budgeting for half that total — what’s been called a “kill-Amtrak” amount.
In late July, the House Appropriations Committee approved a funding bill that designated $900 million for Amtrak, an amount that Amtrak leaders say would mean shutting down the system in February. Amtrak dodged that fate last year with Congress allocating $1.2 billion, when the White House also called for a similar funding cut.
Earlier this month, 51 senators took a different track; they sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee supporting the full $1.798 billion Amtrak asked for its capital and operating needs.
Neither of Oregon’s senators was among the 42 Democrats, eight Republicans and one Independent who signed the letter.
Instead, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a separate letter to appropriations committee Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he wants to see a share of that money head west. Wyden said he’s concerned that all of the capital funding in Amtrak’s fiscal 2005 request will go toward improvements in the Northeast Corridor — the Boston-Washington D.C.-New York area.
“Clearly Amtrak has significant infrastructure needs in the Northeast Corridor, but those of us in the rest of the country should receive a fair share of both Amtrak’s operating and its capital funding,” Wyden wrote, adding that “Amtrak’s ownership of the Northeast Corridor is now preventing those of us who support a national system from getting what Congress intended when we created Amtrak.”
Wyden “has had concerns about that for years, and we certainly understand that,” said David Johnson, assistant director of the National Association of Railway Passengers, a D.C.-based lobbying organization. But he said Amtrak President David Gunn’s five-year strategic plan includes “significant investment for the national system and a lot of rebuilding of equipment,” which will benefit the north-south Coast Starlight and the east-west Empire Builder, two long-distance trains that serve Portland.
The letter sent by 51 senators noted that Amtrak rider numbers are expected to beat last year’s record of 24 million passengers, with operating expenses that are $20 million less than fiscal 2004.
Given rapidly escalating fuel costs “and the ongoing problems we face with congestion,” the senators wrote, “it is therefore particularly important that we provide the traveling public with viable transportation alternatives such as Amtrak.”
Chris Matthews, spokesman for Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said that although he also did not sign the letter, “the senator does have a long history of supporting Amtrak.”