(The following story by John Crawley was posted by Reuters on April 29.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s money losing long-haul routes should be reconstructed to complement a rail network built around regional corridors that would serve cities and other heavily populated areas, a senior government official said in prepared testimony to Congress on Tuesday.
Kenneth Mead, the Transportation Department inspector general, said in a statement to the Senate Commerce Committee that the national rail system is broken and options to preserve its current business model would be an expensive failure.
“What intercity rail needs to be is, first and foremost, not what it is today,” Mead said just days after Amtrak’s management unveiled an $8 billion operating and capital plan to keep the rail system functioning as is for five years.
The outline by Mead, whose views are widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, represents a starting point for lawmakers and the Bush administration to begin serious consideration of the future of passenger rail service with or without Amtrak.
Amtrak’s authorization as a federal corporation to provide the nation’s only city-to-city rail service expires Sept. 30.
Mead accepts broad arguments for greater state involvement in passenger rail and limited privatization. He disagrees with suggestions, mainly from the Bush administration, to reorganize Amtrak’s operating and capital programs under separate companies.
WASTE OF TAXPAYER RESOURCES
He also agrees with Amtrak critics that its lumbering long-haul routes stretching across the Midwest, South and West are a tremendous waste of taxpayer resources. Amtrak’s budget is mainly funded by government subsidies, which will total $1.05 billion this year.
“This is a system that, except for a handful of routes, continues to suffer operating losses on all services offered. In fact, the fully allocated losses on some trains can exceed $500 per passenger,” Mead said in testimony delivered to the Commerce Committee.
Mead argues, however, that scrapping long-distance service entirely was not necessary. Nor does he dismiss Amtrak’s corridor operations — those of 500 miles or less between major cities. Amtrak’s flagship line is the high-speed Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.
“A better option for the future of intercity passenger rail service lies mobility in short-distance corridors around the country and in restructuring long-distance services to complement these corridor services,” Mead said.
He also proposed a major transition to a rail program that incorporates greater participation by states that receive service.
“This approach would involve capital grants to the states for investment in short-distance corridors where states would have a more defined and consistent role in determining what services are provided and by whom,” Mead said.
“The states might chose to contract with Amtrak to operate theses services or seek bids from alternative operators. States would also decide on the service attributes such as speed, frequency, and quality,” he said.