BOSTON — Emergency bus service could accommodate no more than one-third of the MBTA’s 140,000 daily commuter rail passengers if Amtrak carries out a threat to shut down the nation’s rail network — including some commuter rails — as soon as next week, an MBTA official said in a wire service report.
Amtrak officials have threatened to begin turning away passengers if the rail network doesn’t get help closing a $200 million budget shortfall. Amtrak officials said yesterday that could mean commuter lines such as those serving Boston and Worcester could be shut down, too.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority owns the trains and tracks that carry commuters to and from Boston; but the MBTA pays Amtrak $200 million annually for the 1,500 employees who operate and service the trains.
“Our best-case scenario would be to set up a bus operation to serve one out of every three customers who currently rely on commuter rail,” MBTA General Manager Michael Mulhern said in an interview yesterday.
“That means people are not going to come into work, or they’re going to get into their automobiles and add to the already-congested road network.”
Mulhern said the MBTA has not taken any concrete steps to prepare for a possible shutdown, but said it may begin lining up buses from private companies. The 700,000 passengers who use the Boston subway system daily would not be affected.
Spokeswoman Karen Dunn said Amtrak remains optimistic a shutdown won’t be necessary, but acknowledged it’s a possibility and that it would affect commuter railroads such as the MBTA, New Jersey Transit between New York and Philadelphia and rail lines in suburban Washington, D.C.
“(The shutdown) very well could encompass the commuter rail systems we operate,” she said yesterday. “However, we haven’t gotten that far in our thinking. We remain optimistic that our short-term cash crisis will be resolved.” Commuter networks in other East Coast cities could also be affected. Senators from New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island urged Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to act fast to prevent a shutdown.
“It is imperative that you act now,” the senators wrote in a letter yesterday. Mass transit advocates expressed confidence that the federal government will come up with the credit to keep Amtrak in business.
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, called the threatened shutdown a bluff by Republicans and lawmakers hostile to Amtrak.
“In the worst-case analysis, if this happened here it would be a serious blow to the economy of Central Massachusetts and all of Massachusetts,” Mr. McGovern said. “But I’m not ready to sound the doomsday alarm yet. A lot of this is political posturing.
“The federal government needs to step up to the plate and figure out not only how to get Amtrak through this short-term financial crisis, but also deal with long-term issues,” he added. “If we as a nation want a first-rate intercity rail system, we need to support it.”
In Worcester, Amtrak trains are an integral part of the transportation services at the renovated Union Station.
A shutdown or bankruptcy move by Amtrak would also affect the station’s popular commuter trains, as well as put a serious damper on the openings today of new commuter rail stations in Westboro and Southboro.
Many of the conductors and other employees on the Worcester commuter rail line and other routes are Amtrak employees.
“Without Amtrak, Union Station is missing a significant piece of the puzzle,” said state Rep. Vincent A. Pedone, D-Worcester, whose district includes the station. “I’m hopeful that the congressional delegation and Congress in general will address this issue, because train service is an important part of the transportation infrastructure.”
MBTA spokesman Brian Pedro said one possibility was for the MBTA to take over the work it has contracted out to Amtrak.
“You could never pull it off, say, within a week or whatever,” he said. “But obviously long-term that would be one of the contingency plans we would look at.”
Amtrak blames its problems on underfunding and the insistence by some in Congress that it continue to operate unprofitable routes.
A Bush administration proposal would stop annual federal operating subsidies for rail, open the door to competition, give states more responsibility for train service and replace Amtrak as owner of the Boston-New York-Washington Northeast Corridor.
Mulhern said the MBTA’s commuter lines carry more passengers each day than the Northeast Corridor does in a week, and he blasted Amtrak for threatening to shut down commuter lines to solve unrelated problems with its intercity network.
“It’s an isolated segment of their corporate profile, and yet they insist on dragging the MBTA’s commuter rail situation into a national debate,” he said. He also said Amtrak had been uncommunicative, saying most of what he knew about the situation came from news reports.
“With a little bit of cooperation from Amtrak, we believe we should be able to keep the local operation up and running while they address the issues with the national railroad,” he said. “Yet, they refuse to even talk to us about that.”
Gov. Jane M. Swift would likely seek more information about the situation from the MBTA, but has not been involved with the situation so far, spokesman Jim Borghesani said.
“We’re obviously very concerned about the impact that this hypothetical situation could have on the ‘T’ and the rail transportation complex in Massachusetts,” he said.