(The following column by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) appeared on The Hill website on June 8, 2011. Rahall is ranking member on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On the heels of a historic vote to end Medicare, Republicans are picking up steam in their rush to dismantle another highly popular and successful program. Next stop on the Elimination Express? Amtrak.
Under the false promise of better service and cost savings, Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will soon unveil a partisan plan to dismantle Amtrak and auction off its assets to the highest bidder. Doubling down on this risky bet, they want to hand over the conductor’s cap to the same folks who ran the stock market off a cliff.
Privatizing passenger rail in the Northeast Corridor will not merely affect train service in that region; it will have a crippling domino effect on train service from sea to shining sea.
Congress created Amtrak in 1970 to take over passenger rail services previously operated by private rail companies that were literally begging to hand off this responsibility after years of declining ridership and financial losses. Private companies did not want to run passenger rail service then, and there is very little evidence they want to do so now.
Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation invited proposals from private companies to develop high-speed rail in the United States. Not one single proposal was submitted by the private sector for developing high-speed rail in the Northeast Corridor. Not a one. And at a January roundtable in Grand Central Terminal in New York City, the committee heard from several private companies that they would need to see substantial federal funding in order to consider investing.
This may feel like déjà vu for some people, as we have been down this route of trying to rip apart Amtrak rail tie by rail tie before.
We ought to be looking at ways to help Amtrak achieve the goal of high-speed rail; not looking at ways to dismantle it. We should be celebrating Amtrak’s 40th birthday; not writing it off as being “over the hill” and suggesting it retire. We should be united in cheering on its success; not trying to kick it in the caboose by selling off its assets to private companies.
Full column: www.thehill.com