(The Fort Worth Star-Telegram posted the following editorial on its website on September 24.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — David Gunn, president and chief executive of Amtrak, says that “the vast majority of Americans believe there should be a national passenger network.”
The vast majority of Americans also believe there should be federally supported prescription drug coverage. Making it financially feasible is a whole other story.
Amtrak is in trouble. More accurately, Amtrak is still in trouble. Congress this year allocated only enough money to keep the trains running at their current service level. It did nothing to fix aging tracks or upgrade aging equipment.
Gunn, who announced upon taking the reins in April 2002 that Amtrak would never be self-supporting, wants a minimum $1.8 billion in 2004 and a commitment for about $1.5 billion a year through 2008.
But the House Appropriations Committee has approved only the $900 million proposed by the Bush administration. A Senate committee has signed off on $1.35 billion. A House-Senate conference committee now wrangles over the precise amount.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has become a one-woman megaphone for saving Amtrak. Texas’ senior senator wants the federal government to invest $4 in Amtrak’s long-distance lines for every dollar spent on the Northeast corridor, which has traditionally received a larger proportion of the funding.
Not coincidentally, the Northeast corridor enjoys the highest ridership and the best on-time record.
The fundamental question before Congress goes beyond dollars and cents: Is nationwide passenger rail a vital public service in this country? If the answer is “yes,” the follow-up question has to be: “Is Amtrak the system to provide that service?”
Structurally, the program was designed to fail at its inception 31 years ago. Aviation and highways are subsidized heavily by the federal government, while Amtrak was expected to be self-sufficient.
But passenger rail business is not inherently profitable. If it were, Burlington Northern would be hauling people as well as product. The passenger service available in much of America is slow, infrequent and limited.
As Amtrak is slowly starved to death by Congress, the experience is turning one-time supporters of national passenger rail service into critics. The time has come for Congress to decide: Does America want to keep Amtrak operating?