(The following editorial was posted on the Modesto Bee website on November 15.)
MODESTO, Calif. — David Gunn, who was fired last week as CEO and president of Amtrak, had two options when he took over the nation’s troubled passenger rail service three years ago. He could comply with the wishes of the Bush administration and dismember the system, or he could fight to stave off budget cuts and keep long-distance passenger trains rolling across the country. He chose to save the service, and for that the Amtrak board fired him.
That’s a loss — not just for rail advocates, but also for those who want a balanced, efficient transportation system for the country. The Amtrak board, which is supposed to have seven members, has only four currently, all Bush appointees.
In canning Gunn, the Amtrak board did the bidding of the Bush administration, which has made it clear it wants to dismantle Amtrak and sell off its assets. Last year, Bush’s budget cut all funding for the national rail service.
A recent Government Accountability Office audit predicted that Amtrak’s current $1 billion annual operating deficit would grow by 40 percent over the next four years.
Despite the criticism, the GAO still acknowledged what anyone familiar with the history of Amtrak knows: that Gunn has made tremendous improvements. Under his leadership, Amtrak achieved its highest ridership in history. He cut service sensibly, trimmed the payroll and began to upgrade Amtrak’s dilapidated rolling stock.
Passenger rail is being asked to run a service without government support. It is ludicrous to hold passenger rail to such a standard when no other transportation sector in the country — not airlines, not highways, not seaports — is asked to operate without subsidies.
In an interview with the editor of Railway Age magazine after his dismissal, Gunn was characteristically blunt. The administration wanted him to implement its plan, he said “which is destroying Amtrak. I stood in their way. That’s why they fired me.”
If passenger rail is going to survive in this country, Congress must move quickly and forcefully to save it.