WASHINGTON — Amtrak will end its five-year effort to haul cars of express cargo on its passenger trains, a service that it had hoped would pump life into the struggling rail line, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The move, approved by Amtrak’s board last week, had been under review by Amtrak for months. Last summer Amtrak President David Gunn indicated he was unhappy with the express business, which he said was losing money and hampering on-time performance of Amtrak’s long-distance trains.
Amtrak spokesman William Schulz said eliminating the cargo business “will be better for our finances, better for our service and better for our continuing customers, both passengers and mail.” He said express cargo will be phased out during Amtrak’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2003. He declined to comment on how many jobs will be eliminated.
Amtrak had high hopes for express cargo when it launched the service in 1997, leasing freight cars, opening cargo terminals and carrying magazines, fruit juices, tuna fish, canned goods, apples, machinery parts and other products on the same trains that carry passengers. Some Amtrak long-haul trains started carrying more freight cars than passenger cars, and the company even started some new trains based on anticipated revenue from express service.
Instead of generating hundreds of millions of dollars a year of additional revenue, the express business had a loss of about $7 million on revenue of about $35 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
Eliminating express cargo was part of Amtrak’s $3.4 billion budget for the current fiscal year, approved by the board. The budget calls for a larger financial contribution from states to operate Amtrak services in their communities, repair of at least 22 damaged passenger cars sidelined as a result of recent accidents and a federal appropriation of $1.2 billion.
The House appropriations committee recently approved a $762 million appropriation. Amtrak has said it faces a shutdown of its nationwide train system in its current fiscal year unless it receives the full $1.2 billion from the federal government.