(The following story by Stephanie M. Peters appeared on the Rutland Herald website on December 17.)
RUTLAND, Vt. — Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express, the lone passenger rail service in the western corridor of the state, will likely be safe from the state’s budgetary cuts until the full Legislature reconvenes in January, Rep. Margaret Andrews of Rutland learned late Tuesday from a member of the Joint Fiscal Committee.
Andrews was in Montpelier for a public hearing held by the committee in regard to the $19.7 million in cuts proposed by the administration of Republican Gov. James Douglas, which it is reviewing this week.
“The current thinking is that this and a few other transportation issues will be taken off the table for the current round of rescissions and will be taken up for further conversation as part of budget adjustments,” she said.
The news comes a day after Tom Donahue, executive director of the Rutland Regional Chamber of Commerce, publicly announced the Ethan Allen Express’ inclusion on a list of proposed cuts before the city’s Board of Aldermen.
On Tuesday, Board President David Allaire followed that announcement with a faxed memorandum to the Joint Committee voicing the body’s opposition to the proposed switch from Amtrak’s passenger rail to a replacement coach bus service, he said.
As the community advocated for the service’s preservation, the Agency of Transportation’s rail director stressed Tuesday that the proposed switch from passenger rail service to an Amtrak coach bus line would only be temporary.
“It’s part of a multiyear plan, and the end goal of that plan is passenger rail service between Bennington and Burlington,” Robert Ide, rail program manager, said in a phone interview. “This introduces service to four towns on that corridor more rapidly and will allow us to make the argument that passenger rail service is needed.”
As part of the proposed plan, which will save the state $400,000, bus service will originate in Burlington and include stops in Middlebury, Rutland, Manchester and Bennington before connecting to train service in Albany that continues on to Penn Station in New York City.
Statistics from the prior three years plainly indicate, however, that ridership on the line is up. In 2006, 17,731 rode the trains, which operate once a day in each direction. In 2007, that number rose to 18,835, and the most recent numbers for 2008 show that the line has already reached 19,314 riders, according to Amtrak’s ridership totals.
Some of Rutland’s more outspoken rail supports remained skeptical Tuesday that if passenger service along the state’s western corridor is cut by the Douglas administration it will ever return to the area.
“We have made a conscious decision here that we don’t want to see the passenger rail service eliminated, period, even if it’s proposed as temporary,” said Tom Donahue, executive director of the Rutland Regional Chamber of Commerce. “We’re not wavering.”
From a marketing standpoint, Donahue said train service is seen as more of a boon to the area than bus service.
Bus service “isn’t as seamless as the train is, and seamless is important,” he said. “As evidenced by Vermont AOT’s recent failure to put people on a bus in and out of Rutland, I’d be skeptical if it would be a good move anyway. In light of the recent issues Greyhound has had, discontinuing the last service in and out of Rutland, it makes it even more questionable that it would succeed.”
Allaire said that from his time in the Legislature, he has a “hard time believing” passenger rail service would be returned once cut.
While the passenger rail service may be safe this week, if in January it becomes part of the $37 million in cuts the Douglas administration has said is necessary, the bus service introduced in its place will feature premier coaches wrapped in the Amtrak logo, and of the likes seen elsewhere in the state with Lamoile Valley Coach or Premier Coach, Ide said.
“This is not a Greyhound bus,” he said.
The changes to the service are also expected to carry passengers to New York City in a few minutes less time than the service does now, according to Ide. Passengers will need to purchase an Amtrak ticket in advance to ride the service, but it will be possible for passengers to use the service as a connection between points in Vermont, too, he said. If rail service is cut, its bus replacement could go into effect by March 1, but no later than April 1.
Ide could not give a timetable for when, exactly, rail passenger service would return if the switch is made, he said; that is dependent on such factors as the much-talked about economic stimulus package that may be coming down the line.
“There are a number of stretches of track that need to be improved … If rail for some reason isn’t eligible for stimulus money this could take longer,” he said. “To be more definitive right now is impossible.”
Also up in the air is what will happen to federal funding the rail line is already set to receive.
In September, the Federal Railroad Administration announced that a proposed two-mile track reconstruction to the Ethan Allen route was among 15 projects nationwide, including the Vermonter, the state’s eastern-corridor Amtrak service, which would receive federal money to match local support.
That award was $581,775 and would focus on repairing track on the Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad to help boost train speed.
Ide said it is one of many unresolved questions he’s working on solving.
The fate of the line is also something that Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont’s independent Congressman, will keep on his radar, he said through his spokesman Tuesday.
“Passenger railroad service is enormously important,” Sanders said. “I am a strong supporter of Amtrak. I also understand that Vermont and other states are facing very difficult budget decisions. I am going to do everything possible at the federal level, working in Congress and with the Obama administration, to support Amtrak.”
At Rutland’s Amtrak station at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, a handful of passengers waited in the station, while a smattering more sat in cars outside in anticipation of a train that, according to a sign on the door, was running a few minutes late. Asked if they would utilize the bus service should the train be cut, all three seemed leery of the transition.
“I’d try something else,” said Amanda Water, 22, of New York City, who takes the train about twice a month to visit her boyfriend in Rutland. “It would take too long. It would be like an all-day trip.”