(The following editorial was posted on the Des Moines Register website on November 29.)
DES MOINES, Iowa — Here we go, again. Another episode of “The Perils of Pauline” stars the Bush administration as the villain in black hat and waxed moustache, tying the hapless Amtrak to the rails as the Bankruptcy Express barrels down the track.
Spare us another installment, please. Instead, put Amtrak on track to a stable financial future.
In the latest episode, the Amtrak board fired CEO David Gunn for supposedly dragging his feet on reforms. In fact, his offense more likely was opposing the Bush administration’s desire to liquidate Amtrak and turn the remains over to private enterprise. On cue, members of Congress vowed to restore any cuts in service to their states.
We’ve seen this melodrama before. Just substitute a different president, freight haulers and free-marketers for the guy in the black hat who wants to kill off the national passenger railroad service. It’s hard to defend Amtrak’s increasingly threadbare and erratic service. Yet the need remains for a coherent national transportation policy that includes the option of passenger rail travel. It would be nice to see it happen before Amtrak’s rolling stock is auctioned off to museums.
Recent Amtrak passenger numbers show evidence of increased interest in rail travel in Iowa — a record 61,000 riders in the past year, up 13 percent. Even accounting for high gas prices, that’s a significant number, considering that the trains’ southern route runs through the least populated part of the state. Still, it’s a fraction of the millions of trips taken through the state via air and passenger car.
The problem is that, outside of a few urban regions, passenger rail in the past half-century has never been given a serious chance to compete. It’s unlikely the United States will again see the sort of regular rail passenger service coast-to-coast that died in the mid-20th century. But major urban corridors and hub cities present opportunities for modern, high-speed service.
Amtrak performs best on the Boston-D.C. route, which has some high-speed service. That could be copied in other regions. One proposal is to link Chicago and other Midwest cities, including Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Omaha. That would require substantial federal, state and local investment in railroad infrastructure, equipment and depots to provide service that is convenient and competitive.
At the least, preserve what exists now, as a foundation for expansion later. In terms of fuel economy, rail travel is far and away the most efficient mode of transportation, and with today’s congested streets and highways, it’s potentially faster. First, though, end the insane political game that is slowly starving Amtrak to death.