(The Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers issued the following press release on February 10.)
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio will lose all intercity passenger rail service under President Bush’s proposed transportation budget. It slashes Amtrak funding for its long-distance trains, effectively eliminating them.
“Ohio’s only rail passenger service comes from long-distance trains, so where does that leave us? It leaves us with nothing,” says Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers (OARP) Administrative Director Stu Nicholson.
Worse, without the basic foundation of our existing Amtrak service, the development of higher speed train services will be more difficult and expensive. The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) is now studying faster, more-frequent passenger rail services. Amtrak’s trains provide “a foot in the door” for implementing the ORDC’s plans, OARP said.
There is strong public desire for passenger trains. According to a poll conducted in 2001 by The Ohio State University’s Center for Survey Research, four out of five Ohioans (80.2 percent) said they support governmental efforts to develop passenger rail in Ohio. Three out of four Ohioans (74.1 percent) said a modern, convenient and effective passenger rail network would improve the quality of life in Ohio.
Those results are similar to opinions on a national level. The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ survey in 2000 said there was extensive sentiment in support of passenger trains. And, these surveys were taken before the terrorist attacks exposed our lack of transportation options. In a CNN poll conducted Jan. 24, 2003, 82 percent said “yes” to the question: “Is Amtrak worth another $2 billion dollars a year in taxpayer money?”
“In a post-Sept. 11 world, Americans want more transportation choices, not less,” Nicholson said. “Other, albeit less dramatic disruptions, like bad weather, traffic jams and construction, expose our lack of travel choices each and every day. Our economic productivity would be that much stronger with a balanced transportation system that includes passenger rail service.”
Worse still, the Bush Administration’s view toward passenger trains exposes a troubling double standard in comparison to its funding approach toward other modes of transportation.
Infrastructure used by privately owned motor vehicles and airplanes is heavily subsidized as it is owned, administered and financed by the federal government. For passenger rail, the exact opposite is the case, with the tracks privately owned and the passenger trains subsidized by the federal government, albeit with no permanent capital trust fund.
“Commercial aviation has had more losses than profits in its 75 years of existence, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation,” Nicholson said.
Yet no one is proposing to eliminate its subsidies, he added. These include the Essential Air Service subsidy to prop up unprofitable service to 114 small cities, the FAA’s multi-billion-dollar funding and ownership of the air traffic control system, tax-exempt construction bonds for airports, and the property tax exemption for airports.
“Without these programs, commercial aviation would be in worse straits than it already is, and probably would cease to exist,” Nicholson added.
On the highway side, the double-standard argument is at least as compelling. Governmental ownership of highway infrastructure gives it benefits railroads do not enjoy, such as a property tax exemption (whereas railroads must pay $500 million per year in property taxes, according to the American Association of Railroads), tax-exempt construction bonds, and substantial petroleum and auto use subsidies that keep the per gallon price of gas artificially low.
Petroleum and auto use subsidies are particularly compelling. According to the International Center for Technology Assessment, these subsidies amount to $558.7 billion to $1.69 trillion per year. In their absence, the retail price of gasoline would skyrocket to a per-gallon price of $5.60 to $15.14, if those subsidies were offset by gas taxes paid at the pump.
“If governmental subsidies didn’t exist and we again let the marketplace determine the shape of our transportation system, that system would look vastly different. But government subsidies for all forms of transportation aren’t going away anytime soon. That is, unless you ask the Bush Administration about Amtrak,” Nicholson said.
OARP is a nonprofit, educational organization founded in 1973 to advocate for service and safety improvements to intercity passenger rail and urban transit services.