(The following editorial appeared on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website on November 6.)
ATLANTA — The U.S. Senate last week approved $1.34 billion in funding for Amtrak that would, at best, allow it to hobble along for another year. That sum is a vast improvement over the miserly $900 million proposed by the House and backed by the White House, which would force the national rail service to halt operations within months.
That approach is unconscionable; Amtrak has requested at least $1.8 billion to keep operating and to begin work on track maintenance and important capital projects deferred for years. On-time reliability has already been compromised by funding shortfalls, which may also jeopardize passenger safety.
Amtrak opponents like to point out that the rail system operates at a loss to taxpayers. That’s true, and it will always be true. But it is also true that no public transportation system, including roads and highways, exists without substantial public subsidies.
In addition to putting Amtrak on a starvation diet, the administration and some short-sighted members of Congress hope to dismantle the railroad and sell off equipment and its few profitable routes — most notably the Northeast corridor between Washington, New York and Boston — to private interests.
It doesn’t seem to matter that just such a scheme undertaken in Great Britain during the 1990s proved a dismal failure. The British government is now slowly and painfully trying to rebuild the railroad system that for-profit operators shamefully allowed to lapse into disrepair.
The American public already understands that Amtrak is a critical piece of the nation’s transportation infrastructure. In a poll taken last year, 71 percent of respondents said they favored keeping Amtrak funding at current levels or, if necessary, increasing it.
A House-Senate conference committee is expected to convene soon in order to reconcile the divergent funding plans. While it’s probably asking too much, the conferees should follow the wisdom of their constituents by providing Amtrak with the money it needs to keep rolling.