COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rather than take steps to strengthen Amtrak passenger rail services, the U.S. House approved a transportation budget that would eliminate some trains, including two Ohio services. Also, if that budget becomes law, non-user fee subsidies to highways would rise by $4 billion while more failing airlines would get billion-dollar bailouts, the Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers (OARP) announced today in a press release.
In the budget approved by the House, Amtrak would receive $762 million for 2003, far less than the $1.2 billion Amtrak requested as a “bare minimum.” Fortunately, the U.S. Senate approved the full amount. But if the House version is adopted by a conference committee, Amtrak will be forced to trim its already skeletal rail system. An earlier version of the House budget specifically targeted six Amtrak routes, but House members later backed off being so specific, as it is an election year.
Two of Amtrak’s routes targeted for elimination by the earlier House language would result in the loss of all or some passenger rail service to these Ohio cities:
— Toledo, Sandusky, Elyria, Cleveland, Alliance — served by Amtrak’s daily Chicago – Philadelphia Pennsylvanian route, providing Ohio’s only daylight Amtrak trains; and
— Youngstown, Akron, Fostoria — served by Amtrak’s daily Chicago – New York City Three Rivers route that provides the only passenger rail service to those Ohio cities.
“We have interstate road and air travel that is the envy of the world, but a crumbling national rail passenger system that would embarrass some Third World nations,” said OARP Administrative Director Stu Nicholson. “For all the criticism of Amtrak and its management, some of which is justified, this nation still spends less than 1 percent of it’s annual federal transportation budget on passenger rail. You get what you pay for.”
Some members of Congress said they couldn’t “reward” Amtrak’s performance by fully funding the railroad. Yet, Congress had no problem rewarding airlines that were failing before Sept. 11, 2001 with a $15 billion bailout, with more bailouts pending. Worse, federal Essential Air Service (EAS) subsidies tripled to $113 million since 1995 while passenger traffic to EAS communities fell by 20 percent, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO). Meanwhile, in the same period, Amtrak ridership increased.
“I fail to understand how giving Amtrak less money than the scraps it has been given from Congress will improve our rail system,” Nicholson said. “Congress would be cutting into Amtrak’s bone. When most routes have just one train, operating at such low speeds, Amtrak’s costs are going to exceed revenues. It’s that simple. If Congress invested in rail at a level comparable to highways and aviation, Ohio would have multiple daily trains traveling at more than 100 mph, and in a cost-effective manner.”
Even the Senate’s budgeted amount for Amtrak is far too low, according to a GAO report issued earlier this year, which stated that Amtrak needs $2.4 billion per year to run the system as-is and begin returning the condition of its physical assets to a state of good repair.
“This is the deferred cost from decades of federal penny-pinching when it comes to Amtrak’s basic needs for good infrastructure and equipment,” Nicholson said. “If Congress doesn’t deal with Amtrak’s deferred needs now, the cost will only get worse next year.”
But if Congress won’t listen to the government’s own financial experts, perhaps they might listen to their own constituents.
A U.S. Conference of Mayors poll, released last year, discovered that 82 percent of Americans supported public funding for a rail passenger network as an option to driving their cars. Furthermore, 66 percent of Americans said they didn’t think road traffic congestion will be eased if more roads are built.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted this past summer found that 70 percent of Americans believed the federal government should continue to subsidize Amtrak to keep a national passenger train network. Less than 30 percent believed the government should eliminate Amtrak funding.
In Ohio, the numbers were similar. An Ohio State University poll conducted in 2001 revealed that 80 percent of Ohioans favored governmental support for developing passenger train services. Three out of four Ohioans also said passenger trains would improve the quality of life in Ohio. More than 90 percent of Ohioans believed road traffic congestion was staying the same or getting worse in their communities, despite that Ohio spends 95 cents from every transportation tax dollar on roads.
“Congress is not only ignoring the government’s own financial experts, but the wishes of their own constituents,” Nicholson said. “Fast, convenient and all-weather passenger rail service — if Congress chose to adequately fund it — will pay solid economic dividends. We need and deserve better, especially at a time when our air and highway systems have been exposed as vulnerable to either acts of terror or acts of nature.”
OARP is a nonprofit, educational organization founded in 1973 to advocate for service and safety improvements to intercity passenger rail and urban transit services.