(The Baltimore Sun published the following editorial on its website on July 31.)
BALTIMORE – The Bush Administration s plan for restructuring Amtrak is wrong in so many ways that it’s hard to know what to focus on. But here are two of the more bone-headed ideas:
— Making the states responsible for providing passenger rail service.
This, of course, is in line with the administration’s desire to push off everything it can onto the already hard-strapped states, but it makes no more sense to do this with trains than it does with homeland security. The railroads practically originated the idea of interstate commerce in this country, and there’s a reason why they ought to remain a federal concern.
Let’s put it this way: Does it really make any sense to have passenger service between, say, Washington and New York, dependent on the good will and political priorities of, to take an example, Delaware? You want to take a bus from North East, Md., to Chester, Pa.?
— Breaking up the Northeast corridor into two separate entities, one to own the tracks and the other to run the trains.
This is a favorite conservative idea, even though it runs counter to common sense, market logic and actual experience.
Consider Amtrak’s overall picture. Where it has the most trouble is where it has to run trains over some other railroad’s track (in most of the country outside the Northeast, in other words). The one place where it does a passable job is where it’s in control. Under the administration plan, it stands to reason that the Northeast would end up in as bad shape as the rest of the nation.
If, moreover, having separate companies perform separate railroading functions is such a good idea, why have none of the privately owned freight railroads tried it? Norfolk Southern owns its tracks and its trains. So does CSX. So does Union Pacific. The fact is, railroads work better under one management.
And if you’re still not convinced, look at England, where a similar bout of privatization mania led to a ridiculous plan to sell off British Rail. There’s nothing wrong with a private railroad, but the British separated the track function from the train function and the results have been vastly inferior service, schedule slowdowns, higher ticket prices and a series of deadly accidents. The track company was feuding with the train companies. That’s not a pleasant thing to ponder if you’re on a train that’s heading up past 100 mph.
There’s no question that Amtrak is in need of repair. But hacking it to bits is not the right way to go about it.