(Reuters distributed the following article by Peter Kaplan on July 30.)
WASHINGTON — Only two days after the Bush administration outlined plans to cut direct federal funding of Amtrak, the idea ran into resistance from senators who say the railroad needs more cash, not less.
Four Republican senators warned on Wednesday that forcing states to take a leading role in maintaining inter-city passenger routes would destroy any semblance of a nationwide network.
“I think that what they have proposed on Amtrak is a total non-starter and for the most part will get almost no consideration in the Senate, which is what it richly deserves,” Sen. Trent Lott from Mississippi told a news conference.
“If after two and a half years that’s all they can come up with, they ought to be ashamed. It is a guarantee to fail,” Lott said.
The pro-Amtrak senators, led by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Texas, said Amtrak’s woes have been caused by years of penny-pinching, and they proposed legislation to inject $60 billion into Amtrak over the next six years.
The measure would give Amtrak $12 billion for operating expenses and another $48 billion for capital projects. States would have to pay 20 percent of the capital expenses.
Hutchison and Lott were joined by Sens. Olympia Snowe, of Maine and Conrad Burns, of Montana.
“What we want… is a chance for Amtrak to be a national system and a chance for it to succeed,” Hutchison said. “You cannot build trains that go within a state and don’t connect to other states and have a truly national system.”
Amtrak, a for-profit federal corporation, has had losses since its 1971 creation from struggling operations run by freight railroads. Critics charge it is woefully inefficient.
Under the administration’s proposal, the billions of dollars in federal subsidies that have kept Amtrak afloat for decades would be replaced by 50-50 matching grants to states.
The administration would also split Amtrak into operating and maintenance companies and open both to competition from outside contractors.
Hutchison’s plan will vie with the administration proposal in the Senate, where support for Amtrak has traditionally been stronger than in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The idea of an Amtrak shake-up has the support of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. However, a Senate source expressed doubts about whether the chairman has enough votes to get the committee’s approval.