(The National Association of Railroad Passengers issued the following news release on July 6.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Here is more information about the Alaska Railroad that is not in the DOT release, but is relevant to Mineta’s claim that the Alaska Railroad is “an example for Amtrak to follow” and NARP’s claim that the analogy is misleading.
(1) The Alaska Railroad received $261.8 million in Fiscal Years 1996-2004 from the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/275
(2) Federal appropriations bills for fiscal years 2001-05 specifically earmarked $112 million for the Alaska Railroad’s passenger program–$20 million each in FY 2001-02, growing to $22 million in FY03, and $25 million each in FY04-05. The funds are “to enable the Secretary of Transportation to make grants to the Alaska Railroad, [dollar amount] shall be for capital rehabilitation improvements benefiting its passengers operations, to remain available until expended.”
(3) The Alaska Railroad’s web site lists its projects and their funding sources. http://www.alaskarailroad.com/arrc14.html In particular, click on “System Wide Projects” then “Passenger Locomotives and Car Upgrades.” Note 91% FTA funding for 2004-2005 passenger car upgrades. Also, “$6.6 million budgeted (2003-2005) for the purchase of two new bi-level dome coaches. Outfitted with full kitchens, these cars will provide a new first-class service option as part of the Denali Star train, beginning in 2005. Locomotive upgrades and passenger car/coach refurbishment and purchase projects are funded primarily by the FTA, along with matching funds from the Alaska Railroad.”
(4) The state-owned Alaska Railroad is exempt from four federal laws applicable to Amtrak and to freight railroads in the Lower 48: Federal Employers’ Liability Act; Railway Labor Act; Railroad Retirement Act; and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. These exemptions, which did not apply when the railroad was federally owned, were intended to help the state when railroad ownership was transferred from the federal government to the state of Alaska.
(5) It is disingenuous for the secretary to cite $908 million in losses for Amtrak’s long-distance trains when this includes capital costs (i.e., non-cash expenses like depreciation), while claiming that Alaska Railroad receives no passenger “operating subsidies,” but not reporting Alaska’s federal capital grants. Also, the DOT table with the $908 million shows Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor trains losing $300 million even though DOT General Counsel Jeffrey Rosen testified May 12 that these trains might continue if Amtrak went bankrupt because they break even. Clearly, DOT is selecting numbers carefully (and inconsistently) to cast Amtrak’s national network in the worst possible light.