(The following story by Stacie Hamel appeared on the Omaha World-Herald website on March 12.)
OMAHA, Neb. — A group that promotes travel by rail will use its annual meeting today to build support for continued federal funding for Amtrak.
President Bush’s 2006 proposed budget includes no funds for Amtrak, which received $1.2 billion this year for operations and capital projects.
Instead, Bush proposed federal matching funds for state investment in tracks, stations and equipment. No federal funds would go toward operations.
“This is the first time any president since the founding of Amtrak in 1971 has recommended zero dollars,” said Richard Schmeling, president of ProRail, a regional group of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.
The national organization’s executive director, Ross Capon, will speak at ProRail’s annual meeting today, along with representatives of Amtrak, Union Pacific Railroad and the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at Courtyard by Marriott, 101 S. 10th St.
Amtrak funding became the meeting’s focus because the group believes the survival of intercity service is threatened, said Schmeling of Lincoln.
“The practical effect of zero dollars for Amtrak would be that the current nationwide passenger system would shut down.”
Norman Y. Mineta, secretary of transportation, has said Bush’s proposal isn’t an attempt to kill Amtrak. Changing the method of funding, along with top-to-bottom reform, is intended to revive what Mineta described as a dying system.
“If I wanted to kill Amtrak, all I would have to do is stand back and watch it die,” Mineta said during a speech in Charlotte, N.C. “But too many people across this country depend on rail service – and even more would if we put passenger rail on a solid foundation.”
Thirty-four years of operating losses and $29 billion in taxpayer subsidies have made clear that the system is flawed, he said.
Annual federal subsidies more than doubled over the last four years but still weren’t enough to keep maintenance up-to-date, Mineta said. Amtrak’s infrastructure is deteriorating.
Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman who will attend today’s meeting, said Amtrak’s routes have never been self-supporting, but expenses have been trimmed and ridership has reached record levels the last two years.
Amtrak’s total ridership reached more than 25 million in the 2004 fiscal year, a 4.3 percent increase over 2003.
One of Amtrak’s long-distance trains – the California Zephyr – runs through Nebraska and Iowa on its route between California and Chicago. Ridership for Nebraska’s five stations increased 8.9 percent from 2003 to 2004, and increased 14.6 percent for Iowa’s six stations.
“We were created to operate these routes because the freight railroads that owned the tracks said they were not self-supporting, in the days when hourly wages and diesel prices were a fraction of what they are today,” Magliari said.
Stricter environmental requirements also have increased the cost of operating the system, he said.
Why should Amtrak have to support itself, Schmeling asked, when every other form of transportation is subsidized.
“We subsidize air travel heavily. We subsidize highway travel heavily. With barge traffic, the federal government builds dams and locks,” he said.
“. . . Why do we treat Amtrak differently?”