(The New York Times posted the following editorial on its website on November 3.)
NEW YORK — Washington lawmakers are haggling over next year’s budget for passenger rail. They could force Amtrak to shut down, allow it to limp on while deferring important maintenance, or cover its needs. The right choice — covering its needs — is clear. But Amtrak is vulnerable because unlike all other intercity transportation, rail does not have a trust fund with a steady stream of public funds.
This is more than a little shortsighted. The development of high-speed trains along a few heavily traveled corridors is crucial in the long term to alleviating highway and airport congestion. But neither the Bush administration nor Congress has a realistic vision for pursuing this goal.
In theory, the administration wants to someday allow private train operators to take over certain Amtrak routes and have state governments help subsidize the service. In reality, however, it has proposed a paltry $900 million subsidy for fiscal 2004 that would bring all trains to a halt within months, and force the dismantling of a system that could not easily be put back together again. The amount is not enough to cover operating deficit, debt service and other fixed expenses, yet House Republican leaders want to hold Amtrak to it.
The Senate has approved $1.35 billion for Amtrak. That’s $350 million less than the railroad requested, but allows it to limp on by putting off less essential maintenance. Of course, “less essential” is a relative term for a railroad that along the heavily traveled Northeast corridor relies on ancient infrastructure. The line’s electric cables linking New York City to the rest of the country date back to the early 1930’s. After the recent blackout, two of three were out. A loss of the third cable would have interrupted not only Amtrak traffic, but also commuter rail traffic, possibly for months.
David Gunn, Amtrak’s president, has an ambitious plan for repairing the railroad, which this year is seeing record passenger levels. Even those who want to privatize the system should realize that it must be fixed before it can be sold. Budget battles in Congress can seem abstract, and the budgetary tug of war here does not involve that much money within the broader context of all transportation spending. But refusing to invest enough in Amtrak’s infrastructure now is to deny any plausible future for passenger rail in this country.