(The following editorial appeared on the Merced Sun website on July 5.)
MERCED, Calif. — A needed bill in Congress would help resolve conflicts with freight carriers over access to rails.
With airlines cutting service and gas topping $4 a gallon, ridership on Amtrak is chugging ever upward.
A record 25 million passengers traveled on Amtrak trains in fiscal year 2007, and a new record is sure to be set when the government releases figures for the most recent fiscal year.
Amtrak is also enjoying increased popularity in Congress.
Last month, the House passed the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, the first five-year reauthorization of Amtrak in more than a decade.
If enacted, this legislation would go a long way toward helping Amtrak maintain its trains, improve service and retire debt.
Subject to appropriations, the bill would provide $1.3 billion for capital costs, $606 million for operations and $345 million for debt service in each of the next five years.
Extra funding will help, but what Amtrak really needs is a way to resolve and prevent conflicts between its passenger service and the freight railroads.
Private railroads such as Union Pacific control many of the rail lines used by Amtrak, including the popular Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin lines. By law, the railroads are required to give Amtrak preferred access to their rails, but they don’t always do so.
To date, Congress hasn’t taken sufficient action to clarify and enforce the intent of the “preferred access” law. The result is that Amtrak is often forced to idle or slow down trains, alienating customers in the process.
According to a report this year by the Department of Transportation Inspector General, Amtrak could have saved $136 million in 2006 — one-third of its operating budget — if it improved on-time performance to 85 percent.
Unfortunately, Amtrak’s trains in 2006 met their schedules 30 percent of the time for long routes, and 67 percent for other routes.
With such numbers, it’s no wonder that many people think trains are undependable.
To attack this problem, the House reauthorization bill takes a carrot-and-stick approach:
The carrot: The bill includes money to reduce congestion along priority passenger lines, in addition to a $500 million-a-year state grant program the House has proposed.
The stick: A little-known federal commission, the Surface Transportation Board, would have the job of mediating conflicts that Amtrak and the railroads can’t resolve on their own. If the board finds that a railroad is at fault in preventing Amtrak from achieving an on-time performance of 80 percent, it could assess damages.
It should be noted that Union Pacific and the Capitol Corridor have recently worked well together in preventing bottlenecks with existing service. Even so, UP has been resistant toward increasing access for additional Amtrak trains. That’s one reason Congress would be wise to create an improved mediation process for all Amtrak service.
Co-sponsored by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, and passed on a 311-104 vote, the reauthorization bill, HR 6003, now goes to a conference committee with the Senate. Amtrak supporters will need to on the lookout for efforts to weaken the final product. In an era of high gas prices, Congress must take sensible measures to relieve bottlenecks and give Amtrak a fighting chance to improve its service.