WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Amtrak Reform Council is expected today to recommend that Amtrak be transformed into a passenger-train operating body only, with new federal corporations taking over passenger policy issues, funding, oversight and ownership of the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor, according to the Washington Post.
Under the council plan, Amtrak would be given three to five years to prove it can operate competitive and efficient service, with exclusive rights to operate all passenger routes, including Washington-Boston. But after this transition period, the government would be allowed to open a competitive bidding process for franchises to run various routes.
Even with a major restructuring, the country must be prepared to pay a “considerable” bill if it wants useful passenger train service, the council said in a copy of the plan. That funding must come from a secure and stable source rather than yearly congressional appropriations, it added. The council, an advisory group to Congress, noted the need for subsidies for money-losing services — now $600 million a year — plus $28 billion over 20 years for the Northeast Corridor capital projects and up to $70 billion over 20 years to develop other high-speed rail corridors.
The council began briefing congressional staffers and other interested parties yesterday and is expected to make the plan public today. Several sources provided copies to The Washington Post.
The council is also expected to stress that it is not recommending fragmentation of passenger services, because all funding, policy and oversight decisions would be made by a small government entity to be known as the National Rail Passenger Corp. It would have a board of directors composed of representatives of the federal government, states, freight railroads and rail labor. This would replace the current Amtrak board.
The plan also tries to mollify its greatest critics — most rail unions — by giving current employees the right to work for any eventual non-Amtrak franchisee, with union contracts to remain in effect.
That effort has not convinced the unions so far. Edward Wytkind, executive director of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, charged that the plan, no matter what it says, is intended to allow private companies to cherry-pick the best Amtrak routes and let the others die.
“This is just a break-up-Amtrak proposal that ignores the realities of passenger rail,” Wytkind said.
Congress is expected to begin grappling with the issue this month under the pressure of an announcement by Amtrak President George Warrington that all long-distance trains will make their last runs Sept. 30 unless Amtrak gets a $1.2 billion appropriation.
Sources in Congress say there is probably not enough time this year to enact any comprehensive passenger train plan. Yet, budget limits are so tight that it would be difficult to give Amtrak all it asks for to keep limping along another year.
According to a copy of the plan, it would work this way:
The National Rail Passenger Corp. would be similar to the former U.S. Railway Association, which established the northeastern freight railroad Conrail in 1976 from the lines of Penn Central and other bankrupt railroads.
The new corporation would have power over routes, funding, planning and operation of facilities that would be necessary no matter who runs passenger service, such as national reservation centers.
A new train operations company would be formed as a subsidiary of the corporation with a board of directors made up of members of the business community. All services would be operated by contract, and for three to five years Amtrak would have the exclusive right to those contracts. After that, a competitive bidding process could be set up to decide on operators. Amtrak would have the right to bid.
A new subsidiary would be formed to own, repair and rebuild the Northeast Corridor, with a board of directors made up of representatives of the federal government, northeastern states, freight railroads that use the corridor — mainly Norfolk Southern — and the passenger train operator, which initially would be Amtrak.