(The following article by Todd J. Gillman was posted on the Dallas Morning News website on October 4.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s final story isn’t written, and, after 32 years of limping along, it’s still not clear whether the plot will be closer to The Little Engine That Could or to one of those old movies in which the runaway train flies off a cliff before anyone can get it under control.
Roughly speaking, there are two camps in Washington regarding the proper fate of the nation’s rail system — bigger and smaller — and Texans are in both.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has proposed pumping $60 billion into Amtrak — $12 billion for operations over six years, the rest in loans — to fix tracks and cars, beef up schedules and prove once and for all whether passenger rail can thrive.
“We’ve never given Amtrak a real chance. We’ve starved it to death,” she said. “We can dissolve Amtrak, or we can work to make rail a more viable option.”
Rep. Pete Sessions, a fellow Dallas Republican, says it’s time for Amtrak to face the reality that it has never turned a profit, will never turn a profit, and should cut its losses.
He cites the Texas Eagle route between Chicago and San Antonio, which Ms. Hutchison has worked for years to save, as a particularly egregious waste of money. The per-passenger subsidy was $258 in 2001, a return of 37 cents for every tax dollar spent. He’s also eyeing other long-haul losers, such as the Sunset Limited between Orlando, Fla., and Los Angeles, Calif.
“It’s a lot cheaper to send a limo to someone’s house, take them to Love Field, fly them to El Paso or Phoenix, and have a limo waiting for them on the other end,” Mr. Sessions said. “It does not even pass a smell test of common sense.”
Last month, he offered a proposal to force Amtrak to scrap routes that lose more than half their operating costs. That covers the Texas Eagle and 15 others that lose $457 million combined. The House rejected the idea 282 to 130, with all 15 Texas Republicans and three of 17 Texas Democrats on the losing side.
Despite the defeat, Mr. Sessions said momentum for overhaul is growing. “They have to make reasonable, logical management decisions just like the airlines,” he said.
President Bush has proposed ending federal subsidies to Amtrak during the next six years, turning over the popular Northeast Corridor to states and seeking private operators for many routes — although it’s not clear who would want them, given Amtrak’s money-losing history and disrepair.
The plan found little support at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thursday, though Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., praised the move to restructure Amtrak.
Amtrak serves 500 communities in 46 states, carrying 23 million passengers per year, more than ever. But critics such as Mr. Sessions assert that routes are based less on demand than on a desire to curry political favor by touching as many congressional districts as possible.
If so, the approach hasn’t fully worked. Amtrak has won only tepid support through the years. The National Association of Rail Passengers, a consumer lobbying group, notes that since Amtrak’s creation, Congress has spent $26.6 billion on it, compared with $150 billion for airlines and $405 billion for highways.
The system loses about $1 billion a year, much of it on long-haul routes, which account for only a fraction of ridership.
Amtrak has asked Congress for $1.8 billion for fiscal year 2004. The House has agreed to $900 million, the sum requested by Mr. Bush. The Senate has voted for $1.35 billion, and Amtrak officials say that anything less will force drastic service cuts and preclude the heavy maintenance needed to keep the system running.
Three routes serve Texas. The Heartland Flyer between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City, which averages 5,400 riders per month; the Sunset Limited, with 12,200 riders per month; and the much-disparaged Texas Eagle, which stops in East Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin. About 220,000 people ride the Eagle in Texas each year, up nearly 20 percent this year. Advocates say it would be far more popular but is chronically late, often by hours, because of congestion on rails shared with freight trains.
Amtrak president and CEO David Gunn said he hopes Congress gives him a chance to keep building ridership and upgrading equipment, rather than cutting routes and leaving vast regions without public transportation.
“These people pay taxes, and we give services to rural areas because they’re part of the nation, whether it’s the post office, or highways,” Mr. Gunn said. “If these services weren’t being used, you could say it’s a waste of money, but they are being used.”