(The following article by Faith Bremner was posted on the Great Falls Tribune website on June 22.)
WASHINGTON — A House committee rebuffed Montana Rep. Dennis Rehberg’s attempt Tuesday to save Amtrak’s Empire Builder route from the budget ax next year.
In a voice vote, the House Appropriations Committee rejected Rehberg’s amendment to the 2006 transportation funding bill that would have removed the Empire Builder from the list of Amtrak routes that would lose all funding next year.
The committee last week voted to deny funding to routes that require a subsidy of $30 or more per passenger, a criteria that applies to at least 15 long-distance and two regional lines. The Empire Builder is subsidized to the tune of $109 per passenger.
Rehberg noted that taxpayers also subsidize air travel and highways.
“It’s a service, a public service,” the Montana Republican said after the vote. “As a result, it cannot run at a profit.”
The House voted last week to slash Amtrak’s total funding next year to $550 million, down from $1.2 billion this year. Amtrak is asking for $1.8 billion.
The White House wants to end all Amtrak subsidies unless the system agrees to major changes, including requiring states to shoulder more of the cost.
Rehberg said he will offer the amendment again when the bill goes to the House floor, probably next week. He said he’ll work with Montana Sens. Max Baucus, a Democrat, and Conrad Burns, a Republican, to get the money reinstated on their side of Capitol Hill.
While he appreciated Rehberg’s efforts, a spokesman for the National Association of Railroad Passengers said the amendment was unrealistic.
The Empire Builder cannot stand on its own without the other long-distance routes funneling passengers into the route that stretches between Chicago and Seattle, said David Johnson, assistant director of the group that advocates for more railroad passenger service.
“It was more of a symbolic gesture,” Johnson said.
Rehberg said his purpose was to tell his colleagues that Montana is one of the most rural states in the country and that thousands of residents who live along the route have no alternative for traveling long distances.
The Empire Builder stops in 12 small towns along the Hi-Line and serves approximately 140,000 Montanans each year, Rehberg said.
“In Northern Montana, there is no airplane; there is no bus,” he said.