WASHINGTON — Reuters reports that facing another threat from Amtrak to shut down service, the U.S. Senate set up a showdown late on Thursday with the House of Representatives and the Bush administration over passenger rail funding.
The full Senate approved an amendment to an omnibus spending bill to restore Amtrak’s proposal for $1.2 billion in subsidies this fiscal year after Republican leaders cut its funding request by roughly a third.
“Amtrak will not survive unless we take responsibility for its survival — it is that simple. If we do not support Amtrak, we will seal Amtrak’s fate. Amtrak will go bankrupt and shut down this spring,” Amtrak supporters in the Senate wrote in a letter to other lawmakers before the chamber approved the change on a voice vote.
The question of Amtrak funding will be settled during upcoming House-Senate negotiations on the larger spending legislation. The House wants to cut the passenger railroad’s subsidy to $762 million.
President Bush’s administration has not said how much it would accept, but it strongly opposes the full subsidy request.
David Gunn, Amtrak’s president, threatened on Wednesday to begin shutting down service this spring if the railroad was forced to accept less than the $1.2 billion he said was necessary to maintain operations.
Amtrak threatened a similar shutdown during its budget crisis last summer, which was resolved before any service disruption with a $300 million package of loans and cash from the
government to maintain operations.
An Amtrak shutdown would not only affect its flagship Northeast Corridor service and its long-haul routes elsewhere, but also major commuter lines that transport hundreds of thousands of people daily.
AMTRAK FUNDING
Senior Transportation Department officials met with commuter rail operators in Washington on Thursday to discuss the Amtrak funding situation.
The Bush administration has required fundamental changes in how Amtrak does business. It has never made money in its 32-year history and is mired in debt.
Federal Railroad Administration chief Allan Rutter told the railroad executives that the Bush administration has “consistently cautioned” Amtrak to develop contingencies in the “likely event” that Congress appropriated less than was requested.
“Yet despite that caution and the administration’s ongoing opposition to a $1.2 billion operating budget, Amtrak operations continue at this spending level,” Rutter said.
He said the administration will press the railroad at its board meeting next Thursday to “assess alternatives” for operating with less money.
“Secretary (Norman) Mineta continues to work with commuter rail agencies to identify steps to preserve their services should Amtrak find itself operationally constrained in the short term,” Rutter said.
The Bush administration is crafting a long-term inter-city passenger rail plan that would mandate Amtrak business reforms, make states pay more for city-to-city service and open some Amtrak routes to private competition.
Since Gunn took over Amtrak last spring, he has instituted a number of reforms, eliminated unprofitable business ventures, cut staff and found other cost savings.
“He has increased efficiently rather dramatically,” said Sen. John McCain, a strident Amtrak critic. “We have every right to expect reform.”
McCain disclosed that Amtrak’s budget request for fiscal 2004 would be $2.2 billion.