DELAFIELD, Wis. — It may be necessary to shut down Amtrak’ s long-distance routes for it to survive, a former president of the national passenger railroad’ s Chicago-based Intercity unit says.
A wire service reports that Mark Cane, who is now a Delafield investor, said that is the kind of tough decision that Congress and the White House need to make after 31 years of dodging tough decisions on Amtrak.
More than three decades of political meddling, micromanagement, contradictory missions and antagonism from freight railroads have combined to prevent Amtrak from stemming the losses that brought it to the brink of shutdown last week, he said.
“The degree that politics drove decisions was incredible, ” Cane said. ” Local politics are filling the void for lack of a national transportation policy.”
Cane said developing such a policy means choosing between two conflicting demands that politicians have placed on the railroad — that it should wean itself from federal operating aid but should keep serving most states with the long-distance trains that carry 18 percent of Amtrak’ s passengers while racking up 75 percent of operating shortfalls.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta recently kept the railroad operating with a $100 million loan guarantee and a pledge to seek more cash later.
Cane, 47, who headed the Amtrak Intercity in 1996 and 1997 after working 17 years for the Burlington Northern, left Amtrak to take over Menasha Corp.’ s material handling equipment unit. He quit that job a year ago to spend more time with his family.