NEW YORK — It is time for Congress and the Bush administration to stop playing games with Amtrak’s future, according to an editorial in the New York Times. They must either provide national passenger rail service with adequate resources, or acknowledge their failure to give the country the vital transportation network it needs.
Until now, House Republicans and the administration have favored a disingenuous third course — one of appearing to support Amtrak by approving some financing, though clearly not enough, while clamoring for the railroad to reform itself. The administration has requested $521 million for Amtrak’s next fiscal year, and the House Appropriations Committee last week signed off on $762 million. Only the Senate has approved the $1.2 billion that Amtrak needs at a minimum.
Representative Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who is chairman of the transportation appropriations subcommittee, had planned on explicitly capping federal subsidies for long-distance trains at $200 per passenger, because that is the amount the government provides airlines to fly some unprofitable routes. The cap was not spelled out in the end. But the congressman’s flawed logic speaks volumes about Amtrak’s woes in Washington, where a lot of people simply cannot grasp that comparing airline and train operating subsidies is misleading. Airlines get much of their infrastructure — air traffic control, airports and so on — paid for by the taxpayer; railroads don’t. Indeed, Amtrak is transportation’s orphan, deprived of the dedicated federal sources of financing that help subsidize other systems.
True, Amtrak has often been its own worst advocate, and last month’s temporary halt of its Acela high-speed service to address design flaws only reinforced the impression of a railroad in perpetual crisis. Earlier in the summer, lack of funds almost forced Amtrak to shut down until Congress provided stopgap financing to get it to the end of the fiscal year. Republicans seem willing to provoke another such crisis in the coming months.
This stance is especially counterproductive at a time when David Gunn, Amtrak’s new president, is taking energetic steps to reform the railroad. He is cutting layers of middle management, repairing idle cars and terminating Amtrak’s ill-advised foray into the express freight business. He also wants to shut down selected long-distance trains in two years if states do not cover their operating losses. Mr. Gunn disagrees with the Bush administration on the feasibility of eventually privatizing some routes, but much of what he is doing at Amtrak is addressing the administration’s criticisms.
Instead of squabbling over how much spare change can keep Amtrak hobbling on from month to month, Congress must ensure adequate financing for at least two years while it focuses on developing a serious, long-term plan that includes the building of new high-speed corridors. Passenger rail remains crucial to the nation’s future transportation needs.