(The following story by Mary Wisniewski appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times website on August 21.)
CHICAGO — Declaring passenger rail is the future, not the past, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said today that he is pushing a bill that would help replace and rehabilitate Amtrak’s aging rail car fleet.
“More and more people are finding it too expensive to drive their cars. They’re looking for alternatives” said Durbin, speaking at an Amtrak maintenance facility south of the Loop. “The most cost-effective alternative in our part of the world is passenger rail.”
Durbin’s proposed “Train CARS Act” would authorize Amtrak to issue up to $2.8 billion in bonds over four years to finance train car projects, with a tax credit for bond owners. The bill encourages American rail car production, and Durbin said he wants to create incentives to attract a production facility to Illinois.
The legislation would also transfer one-quarter cent of the per-gallon motor fuels tax into a fund for rolling stock that would generate about $400 million a year for three years.
This could be a tough sell. Another fund paid for by the fuel tax is in trouble — the federal highway trust fund. The fund faces a multibillion dollar shortfall next year due to the decrease in driving, down from a surplus of more than $10 billion just three years ago.
Durbin said that while it is important to help the highway trust fund, “we can’t pave our way out of traffic congestion.”
“I think a quarter-cent diversion from the gas tax is not an unreasonable amount to invest in the future of passenger rail,” Durbin said. “I think we can sell that to many of our colleagues, suggesting to them that reducing congestion on current highways is in the best interest of those who have no alternative but to use their cars. I think we need a balanced approach.”
The proposal comes as both gas prices and Amtrak ridership is on the rise — last month the rail service saw 2,750,278 passengers, a nearly 14 percent increase and the most passengers carried in any month in Amtrak’s 37-year history. Especially popular are under 400-mile, city-to-city runs like the Chicago-Milwaukee “Hiawatha” service, up 24 percent from last year.
“For the first time in our history, the emerging mode of transportation is actually one that’s here already,” said Amtrak CEO Alex Kummant, noting that only 11 percent of Amtrak’s cost structure is energy, compared to 30 percent for airlines. Kummant said Amtrak could nearly double its ridership over the next 10 years, to 50 million riders.
Durbin is also pushing for the Amtrak reauthorization bill, which faces a veto threat from President Bush that Durbin believes can be overcome.
Amtrak’s authorization expired in 2002, though Congress has appropriated money to support the service. Amtrak got $1.325 billion for the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30. A reauthorization bill would create the means to provide higher Amtrak funding.