(The Lansing State Journal posted the following Associated Press story by Malcolm Johnson on its website on August 5.)
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Amtrak passenger Bruce Campbell finds it relaxing to sit back on a train and watch the world go by.
“It’s a very stress-free mode of travel,” the 61-year-old Midland man said recently as he waited at the East Lansing station with his wife to board a train for Chicago.
“I wasn’t going to drive in Chicago traffic,” he said. “This to me was just the easiest way.”
Despite loyal passengers such as the Campbells, riding the rails in Michigan is likely to remain an endangered way to travel.
Amtrak operates two state-subsidized lines in Michigan, one from Grand Rapids to Chicago and another from Port Huron to Chicago. The route through Port Huron goes on to Toronto. The Detroit-to-Chicago Amtrak passenger service does not receive state funding.
State lawmakers this year approved $7.1 million to continue the subsidies, up from a previous maximum of $5.7 million. The money, for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, came after Amtrak warned that it otherwise would shut down the two rail lines.
But the struggle to secure enough state funds is ongoing. Amtrak also faces a fiscal fight in Washington amid lawmakers’ reluctance to help a system many see as inefficient, costly, inconvenient, rude and unnecessary.
President Bush last week announced a six-year plan to shift more of Amtrak’s cost to the states, which he says will create a competitive marketplace.
Critics of the plan say the change would kill the railroad because states can’t support it.
“Given the budgets of the states today, we all know that’s not really likely to happen,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton.
Maintaining the system
State Rep. Lauren Hager, R-Port Huron Township, played a key role in getting increased state funds for Amtrak this year. But he warns the rail service remains in trouble.
“Amtrak should not take this for granted,” said Hager, who has many constituents who depend on the Toronto-Chicago rail line. “This is a one-year extension, so the key to the whole thing is to work real hard in the next fiscal year to improve Amtrak’s operation and ridership.”
He said Amtrak must promote its service better, reverse the unstaffing of train stations – including East Lansing’s – and generally provide more effective, friendlier service.
State Rep. Michael Murphy, D-Lansing, is a member of the House Transportation Committee and supported giving Amtrak the increased funding. He said the rail system shouldn’t be scrapped.
“We should find ways to make it more relevant, make it more of an economic development tool … and better market it,” he said, noting that many students rely on Amtrak.
State Rep. Jacob Hoogendyk, R-Portage, was among lawmakers who thought the subsidy cap should remain at $5.7 million. He doesn’t see any evidence that continued federal and state support will result in Amtrak becoming self-sufficient.
“Government is subsidizing something that’s inefficient and doesn’t seem to be improving at all,” Hoogendyk said.
Amtrak officials said 14 states provided subsidies in the 2002 fiscal year, ranging from $750,000 in New York to $72.3 million in California.
An Amtrak spokeswoman expressed appreciation for Michigan’s increased financial support and said it boded well for the future.
“That showed us a commitment to passenger rail in the state of Michigan,” said Karina Van Veen, manager of Amtrak media relations in Washington.
Federal funding debateState transportation officials are caught between Amtrak’s wish for more money and critics’ argument that it amounts to pledging support to a failing operation.
“It seems Amtrak has teetered on the brink of existence or nonexistence for years,” said Tim Hoeffner, manager of rail passenger service for the state Department of Transportation.
The debate over federal funding is going on now in Washington. Unless Amtrak is restructured, the Bush administration said it’s only willing to give the railroad $900 million next year, half of what it says it needs to keep trains running.
Amtrak, formed in 1971 from defunct passenger railroads, serves 500 communities in 46 states on 22,000 miles of track. About 450,000 passengers rode on its three Michigan routes in fiscal 2002.
It continues to rack up operating losses of about $1 billion a year, and it says it requires about $2 billion annually from the government through at least 2008 to deal with a backlog of capital repairs.
Despite Amtrak’s troubles, supporters say the situation will be worse if the service goes under.
“One day we’re going to wake and realize we can’t all be on the highway,” said Richard Wright of East Lansing, president of the Capital Area Rail Council, formed to work for improved rail stations.(State Journal staff writers contributed to this report.)