(The following statement by AAR President and CEO Edward Hamberger was issued on December 6.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — America needs a robust passenger rail transportation system, and we commend the study group’s effort and dedication in this area. However, we are afraid the study group is missing a rare opportunity to create a first-class passenger rail system that would give our nation a truly viable rail transportation alternative.
Successful passenger rail systems — like those in Europe and Japan — rely on publicly funded track and almost exclusively dedicated to passenger rail. We support the development of high-speed passenger rail systems like Europe and Japan, where dedicated, high-speed passenger rail corridors separate 200-mile-an-hour passenger trains from 50-mile-an-hour freight trains.
This report does the opposite — it rests the future of passenger rail on the freight rail system. Piggy-backing on privately owned and operated freight railroad assets will give America a third-rate passenger rail system, one that is not attractive to passengers or competitive with automobile and air travel. It will place limits on the capacity of freight rail operations, creating delays for freight customers, forcing more freight onto our already overcrowded highways, and harming our economic and global competitiveness.
The report does not adequately emphasize that fact that freight railroads need more capacity, not less, to help absorb the huge increase in freight traffic predicted by the U.S. Department of Transportation and others. Building capacity to meet the rapidly growing demand for freight rail service is the most significant challenge facing the freight rail industry. While we appreciate the study group’s efforts, we hope that changes will be made that do not hinder the operations of America’s highly-productive, world-class freight rail system. There must be enough capacity for both passenger and freight operations and we look forward to working with Congress and passenger rail advocates to make this a reality.