WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two daily Amtrak routes from Boston — one toIllinois and the other to Virginia — are being considered for elimination in October, an Amtrak spokeswoman has confirmed in a wire service report. Last month the company warned that it would discontinue a number of long-distance, overnight train service routes in October if Congress did not give the railroad $1.2 billion in the coming fiscal year.
On Friday, the Amtrak spokeswoman, Cecilia Cummings, said the railroad has organized a tentative list of 18 routes that will be ”provisionally noticed” on March 29 as possible cuts.
The list of tentative cuts includes two New England routes: the Twilight Shoreliner, which runs from Boston to Newport News, Va., and the Lake Shore Limited, which begins in Boston and runs through northern New York and Cleveland to Chicago.
Other New England routes appear to be on safer ground. For example, the Vermonter, a daily train that runs from St. Albans, Vt., to New York City and on to Washington, receives subsidies from the state of Vermont, said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.
The Downeaster, which began three months ago and which runs between Boston and Portland, Maine, is on pace to exceed Amtrak’s ridership expectations for 2002, according to the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority. The authority reported that 20,000 passengers rode the Downeaster in January, typically the slowest month for train travel in the Northeast.
But Capon voiced fear that cutting long-distance overnight routes could be the beginning of the end for many Amtrak routes.
Eliminating cross-country routes would end Amtrak service in 24 states.
Capon worries that making Amtrak service exclusive to the Northeast and the West Coast would end its support in Congress, paving the way for even lower federal subsidies, or a drastically different method of running trains.
Amtrak, set up by the government as a private corporation in 1970, has never turned a profit.
But rail ridership has increased since airports were shut down on Sept. 11, and Amtrak supporters like Capon have pointed to increased demand in the six months since the attacks. Overall, ridership was up 6.4 percent in February 2002 compared with a year ago, and ticket revenue increased 17 percent.
”Ending Amtrak service from Boston to Chicago would be an enormous national mistake, with an especially regrettable impact on our local communities,” said Senator John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. ”If you shut down the Lake Shore Limited, which carries more than 200,000 passengers each year, you’re pulling the rug out from under rail service in Western Massachusetts.
”Pittsfield would lose access to the national rail system completely. Springfield, Framingham and Worcester would lose a fundamental part of their train service, leaving passengers with just one train each day to get to Albany, Hartford or, in the case of Springfield, Boston. This is a case of short-sighted budget cutting, and I’ll fight for a policy of common sense instead,” Kerry said.
Capon voiced fear that unless the system gets an infusion of funds for infrastructure improvements and repairs, even Amtrak’s popular Northeast Corridor will eventually be affected.
”They probably can go another year or so, after which time the Northeast Corridor is going to show the lack of investment, Capon said. ”You’re going to see bad things like increases in delays, and they may ultimately have to add time to their schedules to reflect new realities.”