WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Amtrak’s most persistent critic on Capitol Hill, yesterday praised Amtrak President David L. Gunn’s candor about the way Amtrak has been run and said he would ask for a Senate committee hearing on how to avert a shutdown of passenger train service, the Washington Post reports.
McCain wrote in a letter to Gunn that he still believes most of Amtrak’s routes are run only for political purposes and should be abandoned. But a shutdown of the Northeast Corridor, California routes and some others could be “highly disruptive,” he wrote.
Gunn said Wednesday that unless Amtrak gets a $200 million bank loan within three weeks, it will have to shut down in July. He also said he is reorganizing Amtrak’s management and establishing a policy of total openness on Amtrak finances, to be delivered in a detailed monthly report.
“I found your recent letter to me regarding Amtrak’s condition and how the company has been managed in recent years surprisingly refreshing,” McCain wrote.
He was replying to a letter from Gunn, who has been in the job about three weeks, in which Gunn said that Congress should have never required Amtrak to be “operationally self-sufficient” and that the former management should not have held to the “fiction” that such a thing was possible.
“I applaud your decision . . . to initiate a new policy of openness concerning Amtrak’s finances,” McCain wrote. “One of the many criticisms leveled at Amtrak has been its reluctance to release basic information about its financial condition and operating performance — even to Congress and the federal entities charged with overseeing Amtrak’s performance.”
Gunn presented to the Amtrak board yesterday a massive reorganization that would concentrate management decisions in headquarters in a “traditional” railroad management structure. The number of vice presidential slots would be cut from 84 to about 20.
McCain, ranking Republican of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said he will request a committee hearing to consider “what must be done to avoid a shutdown of the entire Amtrak system in July.”
His letter could help Amtrak secure a $200 million loan. Banks generally need evidence of strong congressional support before they will lend money against a future appropriation.
Other support is coming in. Gunn, in a message to employees, said that so far 150 House members and 35 senators have committed to a $1.2 billion fiscal 2003 appropriation for Amtrak.
The United Transportation Union, which represents thousands of Amtrak employees, began a campaign asking its members to urge lawmakers to take rapid action on the appropriation.
Amtrak received encouraging news yesterday from Federal Railroad Administrator Alan Rutter, who said in a letter that his agency has found no indication that Amtrak’s layoffs in the last several months resulted in any deterioration in safety. Rutter noted that a special safety watch will continue in cooperation with Amtrak.