(The following report by Herb Jackson appeared at NorthJersey.com on October 31.)
Commuting by train from North Jersey into New York could become more reliable under a bill the Senate approved by a wide margin Tuesday providing $11.4 billion over the next six years for Amtrak.
The Senate also defeated an amendment that could have pushed up the cost of beer and candy on Amtrak trains.
For the 6,000 North Jersey commuters whose NJ Transit trains use Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor tracks under the Hudson River every day, the bill provides more money for capital improvements and maintenance.
Three power problems in one month last year delayed Amtrak and NJ Transit trains on the corridor. Amtrak said in its 2007 funding request that there was a $70 million maintenance backlog that included the “essential rebuilding” of 100-year-old bridges and electric traction systems.
Specifically, the bill requires that the corridor, which runs from Washington to Boston and bisects the state from Trenton to North Bergen, be kept in a “state of good repair.” It also gives NJ Transit more of a say in Amtrak governance, and authorizes fines if freight trains delay passenger trains.
If enacted, the bill would be the first long-term funding authorization for Amtrak since 2003. In the years since then, the railroad has operated on year-to-year appropriations while President Bush sought to cut subsidies and privatize some operations.
“Instead of barely giving Amtrak enough to survive, our bill provides for Amtrak’s capital and operational needs,” Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, the bill’s sponsor, said as debate began Tuesday.
President Bush issued a statement opposing the bill, but unlike many measures moving through Congress this year, he did not threaten a veto.
Tuesday’s 70-22 vote was a victory for Lautenberg, D-N.J., who has been battling White House efforts to gut Amtrak since Ronald Reagan was president. He made the bill one of his top priorities after becoming chairman of the surface transportation subcommittee in January.
“I must say how satisfying this is,” Lautenberg said on the floor after the vote. “I can’t tell you how involved personally I’ve been in this, going back decades.”
Along with his co-sponsor, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., Lautenberg managed the bill on the Senate floor, giving numerous speeches since Thursday supporting the environmental and security benefits of trains and opposing amendments to trim funding.
New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri predicted commuters would see improvements not only to the rails but also to stations that Amtrak owns, such as Newark’s Penn Station.
“Some 200,000 daily commuters [from New Jersey] use the Northeast Corridor and intercity rail service,” Kolluri said. “This will go a long way to bring it up to a state of good repair, making sure from a capital standpoint it’s in as good a shape as it can be.”
Martin Robins, director of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, noted it was only a few years ago that Bush proposed no funding at all for Amtrak and there were predictions of chaos if the Northeast Corridor closed down.
“If this becomes law it’s the first reaffirmation in a long time that the federal government has a long-term interest in intercity rail,” Robins said. He noted that the bill has a long way to go, however, since no comparable legislation has been introduced in the House.
The bill provides federal matching funds for the first time for states to develop new long-range rail service while also requiring administrative reforms that Lautenberg said would reduce operating costs by 40 percent by 2012.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., challenged Lautenberg’s claim of lower subsidies, noting that when funding for capital projects such as new equipment and maintenance are included, federal funding for Amtrak actually would increase by $600 million through 2012.
Coburn tried to amend the bill to cut subsidies for food service on trains, which he said loses about $80 million a year. He noted that the same candy bar that costs $5 on an American Airlines plane costs $3 on Amtrak, while a beer that sells for $7 in the air goes for $5 on a train.
“The question we should be asking is, should we be subsidizing somebody’s beer and 3 Musketeers,” Coburn said. He also noted that food service workers on Amtrak are paid about $43,000 a year and said the railroad should renegotiate those contracts if it can’t break even on food.
Lautenberg opposed the amendment, saying food service was part of the rail experience. Coburn’s amendment was defeated by a vote of 67-24.
The Senate also defeated an amendment Tuesday to require that the amount of federal subsidy for each rail trip be printed on riders’ tickets. Last week, the Senate defeated amendments to cut funding for long-range rail lines, operating in the West and the South, that lose the most money.