(The following article by Casey Ross was posted on the Boston Herald website on March 24.)
BOSTON — A Bush administration plan to eliminate Amtrak subsidies and turn over passenger rail to the states could leave Massachusetts paying millions of dollars a year for service currently funded by the federal government.
The plan, detailed yesterday by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, pledges to rebuild the beleaguered Northeast corridor while ending Amtrak’s decades-long monopoly over inter-city rail service.
“Amtrak urgently needs reform. It is dying,” Mineta said after meeting with Gov. Mitt Romney [related, bio] yesterday. “If we continue down the present track . . . there is no hope for recovery.”
The Bush administration’s Amtrak reform bill, the Passenger Rail Investment Reform Act, will be submitted next month to a Congress that remains bitterly divided over the future of passenger rail. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy [related, bio] and John Kerry [related, bio] are both opposed to the Bush plan.
While agreeing with the need for reform yesterday, Romney said plans to turn over maintenance of rail infrastructure to the states by 2011 could leave Massachusetts facing a hefty economic burden.
“Clearly, the federal government will want the states to take up a larger share than they want to pick up,” Romney said.
Passenger rail advocates say Bush’s plan will dismantle Amtrak and imperil service by putting maintenance in the hands of state agencies that are not equipped to handle it. “Connecticut has (maintained) its right-of-way for many years and it is the single worst section in the Northeast,” said Jim RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative.
Mineta said the plan actually attempts to save Amtrak by removing its maintenance responsibilities so it can focus on operating faster, more reliable service. He also said the federal government will rebuild the badly damaged Northeast corridor and offer grants for continued upkeep after it’s turned over to the states.
“This does not mean the federal government will stop investing in passenger rail,” he said.