(The following editorial was posted on the Detroit Free-Press website on May 9.)
DETROIT — President George W. Bush and his congressional allies are trying to pull the plug on Amtrak by taking away all federal support.
That’s bad news for the nation and for Michigan, where all three Amtrak lines, running to Chicago from Grand Rapids, Pontiac and Port Huron, have recorded double-digit ridership increases this year. Amtrak carries more than 600,000 passengers a year in Michigan and employs 133 state residents.
Congress must do better by Amtrak to provide alternatives to airports and congested freeways, and to ensure less dependence on foreign oil. Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have proposed giving Amtrak $2 billion a year for six years, up from$1.2 billion a year now. That’s the right ticket to enable the rail service to make necessary capital, operating, security and maintenance improvements.
Congress is right to continue to push for more accountability from the previously mismanaged railroad. Three-year CEO David Gunn has reformed Amtrak’s management, improved service, cut 6,000 jobs, ended some passenger routes and eliminated unprofitable express freight and mail services. But the larger problem for Amtrak is the lack of dedicated funding and no real commitment to a national rail service plan.
Bush’s proposal to end federal assistance would shut down Amtrak operations, including those in Michigan, within weeks of Oct. 1, the start of next fiscal year.
Underlying this effort is a thinly disguised disdain for all public transportation and a mistaken notion that public transit systems should make money. None do, no matter how efficient or well used. But highways and aviation get a lot more help. The entire $1.8 billon Amtrak is requesting would build only about 25 miles of urban freeway.
It’s in the national interest to have a balanced transportation system that reduces pollution, highway congestion, dependence on foreign oil and the enormous expense of building and maintaining highways.
Amtrak can’t afford Bush’s plan. Neither can the nation.