(The following article by Tom Minehart was posted on the Kalamazoo Gazette website on February 21.)
Eliminating Amtrak subsidies from the federal budget, as President Bush has proposed, “would hurt the country and our district,” says U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph.
“We subsidize air traffic and roads … but the subsidy for Amtrak is much smaller than the subsidies for these other modes of transportation,” Upton said.
The $2.57 trillion budget Bush sent to Congress this month eliminates the passenger rail system’s $1.2 billion subsidy. The budget would cut the federal Airport Improvement Program from $3.5 billion to $3 billion and would increase highway construction funding by $28 billion to $284 billion over six years.
“We should be looking for reforms to make Amtrak more efficient, instead of just eliminating it,” said Upton, who led a regional effort to bring high-speed rail to southern Michigan and northern Indiana.
The president proposed the cut as a step toward reforming the system, but Amtrak supporters fear it will kill it.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta went to Chicago last week to promote the president’s proposal, which calls for the states to pick up the system’s operating costs aided by a 50-50 federal match for infrastructure.
The administration hopes that the marketplace will weed little-used lines from the system, resulting in efficient lines run by Amtrak or private providers hired by the states.
“People want and need passenger rail,” Mineta said in Chicago. “The current system, though, cannot even support the existing service, much less expand in the way it needs to.”
But Holland resident John Langdon, chairman of the West Michigan chapter of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers, said passenger rail cannot survive without federal help. The state does not have the estimated $25 million to $30 million needed to absorb the system, he said.
“Do you realize that if we were to be a profitable railroad, we would be the only profitable (passenger) railroad in the world?” Langdon said.
Amtrak’s Kalamazoo stop has more riders arriving and departing than any other station in Michigan with the exception of Ann Arbor, according to Amtrak officials. They say that’s because the stop, which serves the popular runs between Chicago and Detroit, is used by Grand Rapids-area residents as well as those closer to Kalamazoo. In fiscal 2004, Amtrak had 75,345 Amtrak passengers from Kalamazoo, up almost 14 percent compared to 2003.
Michigan lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are coming to Amtrak’s defense.
“I’m becoming more and more confident that we need probably more passenger rail traffic rather than less,” said U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, citing congested highways and lengthy airport security checks.
U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids, acknowledged that Amtrak’s Pere Marquette line between Grand Rapids and Chicago does not pay for itself but said ridership is on a steady incline.
“I think we’re at a crucial point in Grand Rapids,” he said. “We ought to keep it going.”
Ehlers, who serves on the Transportation Committee with Hoekstra, suggested establishing a permanent federal funding source. Because Amtrak’s subsidy comes out of the general fund instead of dedicated taxes, it’s always ripe for cuts, he said.
“To me it makes some sense to pay it out of the fuel tax, because it does take more cars off the highway,” Ehlers said. “It may actually pay for itself that way and provide more space for the people who need to use their cars.”
Michigan already subsidizes two of its three Amtrak lines to the tune of $7.1 million. Illinois, Wisconsin, New York and California also provide financial support for lines.
Ben Kohrman, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, said the governor’s current budget proposal maintains the state subsidy. “It ends up putting back into our economy more than we spend,” he said.