WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the short term, states are being asked to subsidize the unprofitable service provided to their communities by Amtrak. However, prodded by congressional Republicans and the Bush administration to find alternatives to Amtrak, states from the West Coast to the Southeast are also trying to develop their own more reliable, high-speed regional rail lines, USA Today reported.
“It’s not just more train service. It’s really a different kind of service … a quantum leap, if you will,” California Transportation Director Jeff Morales says.
California has a $25 billion plan to link San Diego and Sacramento with trains traveling more than 200 mph on specially built tracks. “What we’re talking about with a high-speed system is in part going to places where Amtrak service doesn’t go now,” Morales says
During the 1990s, the federal government designated 11 areas as high-speed corridors, including the Pacific Northwest, the upper Midwest and the Southeast. Relatively little money followed. But the new GOP-controlled Congress appears ready to fire up the engines of state rail programs.
CONGRESS HAS TO GET ON BOARD TO SAVE AMTRAK
For more than three decades, Congress and the White House have given Amtrak enough money to keep its trains running but not enough, its supporters say, to develop the kind of long-term program necessary for success. Both supporters and opponents of Amtrak hope that will change next year when the rail service’s reauthorization will be fiercely debated.
That debate was supposed to have taken place this year after Amtrak failed to meet a mandate to break even. Lawmakers opted not to tackle a potential reduction of rail service during an election year.
“They’ve got to do something,” Amtrak President David Gunn says. “It’s not stable the way it is.”
Gunn’s immediate goal is to convince lawmakers that he needs a $1.2 billion subsidy for the current fiscal year. That’s about $150 million more than last year’s record amount, and twice what the Bush administration has proposed.
But GOP control of the next Congress does not bode well for Amtrak, a quasi-governmental company that hasn’t turned a profit in its 31-year history. Republicans are generally less supportive of Amtrak than Democrats are. That’s especially true in the case of Sen. John McCain, who takes over in January as chairman of the Senate committee that oversees passenger rail.
McCain, R-Ariz., wants to eliminate federal subsidies for Amtrak, which have totaled $25 billion. He also has proposed privatizing the entire system, even though Amtrak was created because passenger rail service was unprofitable.
Contributing: By Ledyard King
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has sponsored legislation that would provide $59 billion in grants, loans and bonds for states willing to develop high-speed rail systems. The program Young envisions would be similar to the way highways are financed. States would match a certain portion of the federal aid.
Republicans such as Young and incoming Senate transportation committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., would like to see states play a greater role in coordinating rail service. They’re unhappy with Amtrak’s past performance and don’t trust the company to manage billions more in federal aid.
Tom Till, who monitored Amtrak’s fiscal performance as head of the federal Amtrak Reform Council, says Young’s proposal would force states to do what Amtrak never had to: lay out a solid case before they could collect any federal money.
“That puts a tremendous amount of responsibility on the people asking for the money to plan well,” he says.
States moving ahead
While various factions in Washington debate the future of inter-city rail, most agree that states should pay more for the service they get.
Amtrak runs through every state except Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota and Wyoming, but only 11 states subsidize the service. They paid a total of $121 million in 2001, about 4% of Amtrak’s roughly $3 billion operating budget that year.
As part of a government bailout this past summer, the Bush administration prodded Amtrak to get more money from states. But most states face budget shortfalls.
“We know that they’ve got to adjust their budgets, and they can’t do it on a dime. But we’re putting them on notice that we’re going to expect them to pay up,” Amtrak President David Gunn said recently. “We’re saying ultimately they’re going to pay for it, or the train comes off.”
States are realizing that no matter how well funded it is, Amtrak won’t provide everything they need. Except in the Northeast, Amtrak runs on rail owned by freight companies. Its passenger trains must compete with slower freights for the use of limited track that is in such poor condition in some places that the maximum speed is 20 mph. So states, particularly California and Florida, are looking at multibillion-dollar plans to build their own dedicated lines that will allow much quicker trips because of faster trains, better track and fewer stops.
Several Midwestern states are exploring a $4.1 billion high-speed service with Chicago as a hub and spokes to several cities, including Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Detroit. States also are looking at developing faster service from Washington, D.C., as far south as Georgia.
Long-distance lines in question
The unknown is what to do with Amtrak’s long-distance trains, some of which lose more than $200 per passenger.
Gunn has said he won’t even discuss dismantling those lines because of the political firestorm that would surely follow as members of Congress tried to save service to their states.
Although lines such as the Cardinal (Washington-Chicago), the Sunset Limited (Orlando-Los Angeles) and the Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle/Portland, Ore.) have seen double-digit drops in ridership since 1998, supporters stress their importance to communities.
“Those trains serve small and medium towns and cities throughout the South and the West who otherwise would be sentenced to a Depression-era isolation in terms of transportation,” says Jim RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative, which supports expanding inter-city passenger rail. “Those trains have been painted as luxury cruise liners for retired people. This is just simply not true.”
Till, the Amtrak reformer, says buses could replace trains in many small towns and provide better, cheaper service. The problem, he says, is prestige.
“Everybody wants the idea of being important enough to have the (rail) service,” he says. “The fact of the matter is there are other ways to provide that transportation.”