(The Toledo Blade published the following editorial on its website on August 4.)
TOLEDO, Ohio — In his latest effort to deconstruct America, President Bush has sent a plan to Congress that would shift most Amtrak costs to the states. But of course the states don t have the money, and a national rail system could never survive such balkanization.
Most disappointing is that Sen. John McCain, (R., Ariz.), who chairs a committee controlling Amtrak funding, agreed to introduce the plan.
Now comes a U.S. senator from Mr. Bush s backyard, a fellow Texas Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison, with a visionary proposal that would, at least in part, preserve the national nature of Amtrak and assure that this country maintains, as a public good, its passenger rail transportation option.
Amtrak, Ms. Hutchison correctly observes, is always coming up short because Congress has “starved [it] to death.” Other Republican senators, including Olympia Snowe, of Maine, Trent Lott, of Mississippi, and Conrad Burns, of Montana, agree.
Her plan would give Amtrak $12 billion over six years to restore its profitable northeast corridor. Another $48 for capital improvements would be available via federally backed bonds.
In contrast, the Bush plan would carve up Amtrak into one private company that operates trains under contract with states or compacts of states, one that maintains and runs the profitable Northeast corridor under contract with a multi-state compact, and a government corporation that would keep Amtrak s right to use freight railroad tracks. Such a plan could end long-distance passenger train travel.
States would be required to pick up the slack of operating deficits, an unlikely prospect in light of the steadily worsening financial picture of most states. If there s not enough money for higher education, we can t imagine the legislature voting to pay for rail service.
What s needed is a nationwide rail system to partner with the national highway network, one that can keep itself maintained and well-marketed.
Much is wrongly made of Amtrak s failure to turn a profit, a condition not exacted of other federal transit investments. Amtrak has received $26.6 billion since Congress created it in 1970. Over the same period, the government spent $405 billion on highways, $75 billion for mass transit, and $150 million on aviation. A huge disparity.
A concern the Bush and Hutchison plans share is separating the profitable 366-mile northeast corridor from the rest of the Amtrak system, which is not always profitable. This is unrealistic and could amount to cutting off passenger service to much of the country.
The national rail network must be one system if it is to work seamlessly. This issue is not about profit and loss, it is about the national quality of life. In a country as spacious as ours, all means of staying connected must be maintained.