(The following editorial appeared on the Patriot-News website on September 2.)
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Given the ever-mounting hassle of air travel, going by train is looking more attractive all the time.
And it has contributed to a 6 percent spurt in Amtrak riders this year, the largest increase since the 1970s.
That includes the Harrisburg-to-Philadelphia Keystone Corridor, which is in the process of a $145-million upgrade and which, since October, has provided faster and more frequent service. Ridership at the Harrisburg Transportation Center reached 383,000 in 2006, more than 40,000 higher than in 2005. A further increase is expected this year.
The Keystone Service, despite track work at the eastern end of the corridor, continues to boast an on-time performance in excess of 85 percent, which is Amtrak’s minimum target. Meanwhile, delays at overcrowded airports have become routine.
Coupled with new security demands for air travelers to be at the air port at least one hour prior to departure, travel of 200 miles or so is not only proving to be more convenient by train for those going from downtown to downtown, it is actually faster.
Train travel has additional benefits. It is more energy efficient and climate friendly per passenger mile than cars and airplanes. Amtrak, remarkably, has cut its energy consumption every year since 2001.
Another benefit is that every train passenger is one less person on the highways and at the airport, so that even if one isn’t inclined to ride the train, increased train travel translates into less congestion.
Also, while not immune from weather-related problems, passenger trains tend to be an all-weather mode of travel except under the most extreme conditions. The seats are roomier, and one can walk around without worrying whether the train is going to hit some turbulence.
Despite all that, trains get a bad rap and certainly have had no friend in the Bush administration, which once again proposed a “shutdown” budget of around $900 million for fiscal 2008. Amtrak itself requested $1.53 billion, with an additional $150 million for “strategic investment options.”
As it has in the past, Congress will likely provide just enough funds to keep Amtrak running for another year, or about $1.4 billion, less than what the U.S. spends in one week in Iraq. The House has approved an appropriation. The Senate is expected to vote money for Amtrak this month.
This would be a good time, with many trains sold out, for Amtrak to roll out some more trains. But there’s a problem. Not enough equipment. As it is, Amtrak runs its cars and locomotives virtually “24/7” according to President and CEO Alex Kummant.
In congressional testimony in July, Kummant said the average age of Amtrak passenger cars is 23 years, with most of the dining cars more than 50 years old. Replacing the entire fleet of locomotives and cars over 15 years would require $6.5 billion, according to Kummant.
And that’s only part of the challenge of coping with an aging infrastructure of track, bridges, tunnels, stations, signaling and switches, much of which outside the Northeast Corridor is owned by the freight railroads. For too long, the nation has allowed its vital and irreplaceable railroad infrastructure to decline, with the saving grace that most of it was built extremely well. But these “legacy” issues still need to be addressed.
It has been a long time since this country came close to tapping the true potential of rail. But upgrading passenger train service, particularly in an era of rising fuel prices, makes more economic and environmental sense than attempting to build new airports, even to the limited degree that’s actually possible.
It may be simply out of necessity and frustration with the not-so-friendly skies that Americans may soon change their view that trains were their grandfather’s mode of travel, or something Europeans do.
But Congress has to provide Amtrak with the resources if it is to meet growing demand.