(The following appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on May 5, 2011.)
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Amtrak turned 40 this week, and the national railroad is finally growing up.
With ridership back to a record-setting pace and a rail-friendly president (and vice president) in Washington, Amtrak is no longer limping along the brink of extinction.
It’s buying fleets of locomotives and cars, and making grand plans for a seven-mile tunnel between Philadelphia International Airport and Center City as part of its proposed “NextGen” high-speed rail service on the Northeast Corridor.
And it’s getting serious about funding: A call for financing proposals for high-speed rail issued last month embraces private investment, real estate fees, and other approaches besides the traditional “please, Uncle Sam, may I have some more?”
The railroad’s debt has dropped from $4 billion in 2005 to less than $2 billion. Its credit rating has improved three times in two years. Service between Washington and Boston turns an operating profit. Nationwide, Amtrak recovers about 85 percent of operating costs.
Amtrak had more riders in March than in any of its previous 39 Marches, and the railroad is on track to break its annual record of 28.7 million passengers set last year.
“Our ridership has grown more than 36 percent since 2000, and, with the price of fuel going up, I think we’re going to see a direct correlation with ridership,” Amtrak president Joseph Boardman said Wednesday. “But we’re running out of capacity.”
To increase capacity and reliability, Amtrak last year ordered 130 new cars and 70 electric locomotives for $764 million. The first new car is to roll off the Elmira, N.Y., assembly line in 2012; the first new Siemens locomotive is due in from the Sacramento plant in 2013.
Full story: www.philly.com