TRINIDAD, Colo.–Saying Amtrak has squandered previous government subsidies, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard gave rural areas no assurance that Congress will do anything to bail out the long-distance rail service past the Oct. 1 deadline, according to the Pueblo Chieftain.
Allard, R-Colo., spoke and answered about 40 questions from an estimated 50 Trinidad area residents at a town meeting Monday morning. Amtrak announced in February that it may suspend its Southwest Chief long-distance service from Chicago to Los Angeles, which passes through Lamar, La Junta and Trinidad, if Congress doesn’t provide at least $1 billion more in federal subsidies. The government’s $1.5 billion annual subsidy to Amtrak over the past five years ends Oct. 1.
Local residents are up in arms because Amtrak is one of the few means of mass transportation systems left outside of Greyhound buses for sparsely populated rural areas like Trinidad. Amtrak offers daily to-and-from stops in Trinidad from Raton, N.M., and La Junta.
Allard said that back in 1997, Amtrak told Congress that it should be free of federal subsidies by October 2002. “Now it’s 2002 and they haven’t improved their operation one iota that I can see,” said Allard, who is on the Senate Mass Transit Committee. “In fact what they’ve done is come in and ask for another $1 billion in government subsidies.”
Allard said he is reluctant to vote for any further Amtrak subsidies unless the company can show much greater accountability and pour more of its federal funding into needy rural areas instead of large metro areas like Boston. Allard cited one instance there where Amtrak chose the high bidder of four or five bids on a contract.
“It seems to me they need to change their operations. That’s what Congress is looking at. They’re asking that question and, frankly, Amtrak is not answering that very satisfactorily to many members of Congress, who are tired of pushing all this money out to them when they don’t show any fiscal responsibility,” Allard said. “From what we see, Amtrak is fraught with waste.”
Allard aide Doris Morgan noted after the town meeting that Congress and the senator are looking at possibly privatizing Amtrak and putting some of its Midwest and Western long-distance services into private hands.
Allard said he has frequently voted against continuing federal mass transportation subsidies, including some recent ones to bolster the sagging airline industry. He said he did vote for increasing nationwide airport security.
While the Amtrak issue was the primary focus of Trinidad area residents, Allard also defended congressional votes on last year’s economy-boosting tax cuts, new airport security measures that will allow pilots to carry protective guns on board airplanes and the current supportive mood in Congress on President Bush’s Middle East policy on terrorism.
“I don’t know of any member of Congress who doesn’t support the president on his terrorism policy,” he said. However, Allard noted that NATO’s support of U.S. terrorism policy has softened considerably in recent weeks in light of recent Israel-Palestinian developments.