(The following editorial was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on August 9.)
PHILADELPHIA — The Bush administration’s rush to derail Amtrak fortunately has been pushed off course by efforts in Congress to keep the national railroad out of bankruptcy.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21 voted to increase Amtrak’s funding from its current $1.2 billion to $1.45 billion. That measure is now before the full Senate. In June, the House fought off an attempt by its Appropriations Committee to cut Amtrak’s funding in half and instead approved a $1.2 billion subsidy for the railroad.
Either of those amounts would be counter to President Bush’s plan to starve Amtrak into privatization. He did not include any money for the passenger railroad in his fiscal 2006 budget and will likely veto whichever amount Congress finally settles on. But Congress is signaling that it won’t step aside to let Amtrak die.
Amtrak president David Gunn says he could keep Amtrak rolling with a $1.45 billion appropriation, but not with $1.2 billion. He said Amtrak has been squeezed for so long that it is impossible to maintain services without an increase. He said he had run out of stop-gap fixes.
Seeking middle ground on Amtrak funding, the Senate Commerce Committee is pushing passage of a bipartisan proposal called the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2005, which would actually reduce federal funds to operate the railroad while providing more money to fix and upgrade its infrastructure.
The bill sponsored by Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Trent Lott (R., Miss.), Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) would set up a six-year grant program that provides $4.9 billion in capital funding for Amtrak. It would cut Amtrak’s federal operating subsidies by 40 percent to an average of $556 million a year. States with Amtrak lines would pick up some of the slack, but cost-cutting and other reforms also would be required.
One provision of this bill that should be considered very carefully would allow states to contract with rail operators other than Amtrak who would then use Amtrak facilities to run their routes. The bill calls for a restructuring of Amtrak’s debt by the Treasury and Transportation Departments, which is expected to generate savings. It also proposes full federal funding of all needed repairs and rail improvements on the Northeast Corridor.
Maybe some combination of the Senate bills could provide the best vehicle to keep the national railroad alive while trying to satisfy the reform demands of the White House that are reasonable.
An administration proposal to stop Amtrak from offering food service and sleeper cars on its trains is being rejected as unreasonable by some Amtrak supporters. Those services do cost more to provide than the money they generate, however, so Amtrak should not expect to continue them in their present form.
The Transportation Department’s inspector general says the elimination of sleeping cars, dining cars and other amenities on long-distance trains could save up to $158 million a year. On the other hand, losing those services might cost Amtrak a significant number of the 25 million passengers it had last year.
Proposing the end of dining and sleeping cars fits the administration’s desire to stop Amtrak from running long-distance routes, if it can’t kill the railroad in its entirety. Congress certainly ought to give such ideas due consideration, but with a different goal – uplifting Amtrak, not setting it up for failure.
The administration’s single-minded focus on eliminating Amtrak, even as it blinks not an eye at massive federal subsidies for the airlines, does not compute when you consider America’s varied transportation needs in the 21st century. Amtrak provides a logical alternative to the polluting cars and buses that clog urban highways. It goes places in rural areas where planes do not fly.
Congress has before it some very good ideas to reform Amtrak. Now it must stand up to the threat of a presidential veto and stay on the right track to keep Amtrak alive.