(The following article by Cathy Woodruff was posted on the Albany Times-Union website on March 15.)
RENSSELAER, N.Y. — After years of federal budget cuts that critics complain crippled Amtrak, the Bush administration’s proposed budget has put the national passenger railroad in life-or-death jeopardy, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday.
“If you eliminate the subsidy for Amtrak, you derail it. It’s gone,” Schumer said during a news conference at the Rensselaer Rail Station.
Bush’s plan to eliminate the $1.2 billion federal subsidy entirely is a recipe for bankruptcy, Schumer said, echoing the assessment of Amtrak President David Gunn.
Under the proposal, federal money for the financially ailing railroad would end Oct. 1.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has argued that the administration’s plan actually will save U.S. passenger rail service, however, because Amtrak already is on a path to self-destruction. The proposal would give states the responsibility for keeping passenger trains rolling, offering federal matching funds for state investment.
But Schumer noted that forcing Amtrak into bankruptcy and dismantling the railroad would put close to 2,000 New Yorkers out of work, including about 500 based in Rensselaer.
The Albany-Rensselaer station, with nearly 650,000 boardings and arrivals each year, is the 14th busiest in the nation. Many of those travelers are heading to or returning from New York-Penn Station, the nation’s busiest with some 8.7 million boardings and arrivals each year.
Amtrak’s annual ridership in New York state is close to 10.4 million.
“It’s an open-and-shut case. We desperately need Amtrak,” said Schumer.
State officials do not yet have a handle on just how much it would cost to take over rail service.
“At this point, we’re evaluating the potential impact of the proposal,” said Peter Constantakes, a spokesman for Gov. George Pataki’s budget office.
Schumer, a Democrat, is calling for a bipartisan effort to save Amtrak. U.S. Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, said Saturday he’ll also fight hard for the railroad but expressed doubt that he can sway enough of his fellow Republicans in the majorities that hold Congress.
“Sweeney, alone, can’t do it,” Schumer said Monday, but he said the congressman can help forge an influential coalition of House Republicans from Northeastern states to aid the effort.
Schumer and others say it would be a heavy financial burden for New Yorkers to take over Amtrak service here.
“We cannot provide the funding to run Amtrak at the level it’s running at now,” said Joe Landry, director of the Empire State Passengers Association.