(The St. Joseph News-Press posted the following article by Ken Newton on its website on May 1.)
ST. JOSEPH, Ill. — A St. Joseph man testified before a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday, insisting unfair Amtrak practices stand in the way of any restructuring of intercity rail passenger service.
“If Amtrak refuses to cooperate,” Alan Landes, senior vice president of Herzog Transit Services, told the senators, “they should be compelled to do so through the next item of intercity passenger legislation to clear Congress. ”
Mr. Landes testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, chaired by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. The hearing focused on the future of intercity passenger rail service and Amtrak s budget request for the 2004 fiscal year.
The Herzog executive contended that private companies have trouble winning competitive bids against Amtrak, which he called a de facto monopoly. He cited Herzog s proposal to operate one of the trains in the company s home state.
“In the case of Missouri, Amtrak’s refusal to negotiate access to facilities and services essential to operating the route made it impossible to prepare a compliant bid, ” Mr. Landes said in his testimony.
In addition, Amtrak lowered its subsidy requirement, from $8.9 million to $6.4 million, once the company learned of Herzog s interest in the route, from Kansas City to St. Louis.
“Amtrak succeeded in keeping competitors out of the bid process in Missouri, ” said the Herzog executive.
Mr. Landes advocated a “Fair Competitive Bid Procedure,” to be directed by the states with U.S. Department of Transportation oversight.
In order for this procedure to work, the witness said, Amtrak must make taxpayer-subsided assets (locomotives, passenger cars, stations and maintenance facilities) available to private bidders.
Further, bidders must have access to tracks owned by private freight railroads, establishment of a pool insurance policy for accident liability, and an end to Amtrak’s ability to raise or lower its bids by using its federal subsidy.
Mr. Landes told senators that Herzog remains optimistic about the passenger train business and plans to be an aggressive bidder if Congress establishes competitive fairness rules.
Herzog, headquartered in St. Joseph, operates 88 passenger trains a day in the United States. The company transports 2.5 million passengers a year in southern Florida, 1.4 million a year in Dallas and 922,000 a year in California.