(NEPAnews.com posted the following article on its website on March 31.)
SCRANTON, Pa. — There are almost as many people getting on and off Amtrak trains each year in Lewistown as live in the small borough, about 20 miles south of State College.
Temple, Texas, has about the same number of riders annually as Lewistown — 7,000 — but with more than 58,600 residents, it has almost seven times the population.
Both towns are on long-distance Amtrak routes listed by the General Accounting Office as the nation’s biggest money losers. But the reaction to possible service cuts in communities all along Amtrak routes varies as widely as ridership.
Federal and state transportation officials want to improve service to larger cities without abandoning small towns.
The Bush administration has said it might tie Amtrak funding to cost-cutting reforms. Some town leaders fear reforms that begin with service cuts could hurt their own bottom line.
“Certainly, the loss of Amtrak would have an economic impact,” Lewistown Manager David Frey said. “We’re situated midway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, so the train is ideal for some people.”
About 44 miles to the west, Altoona Mayor Tom Martin said it is not only small towns that will suffer if fewer towns are served.
“The two major destinations are Pittsburgh and New York and I think Amtrak offers people here easy access to shopping, the arts and sports in both cities,” Martin said. “My wife and I go to New York and stay in hotels, we’ll see a show and do some shopping. I know a lot of people who do that because it’s convenient and cheap.”
More than 28,000 people got on or got Amtrak trains in Altoona last year, according to Amtrak.
The challenge remains in maintaining national rail service even when jumping on the train in some other small towns along those same routes is a last resort.
In Temple, founded in 1881 largely as a railroad town along the Santa Fe line, train service is more a topic of history than it is economics.
“It’s been a part of our community forever, but commercial passenger service doesn’t really add or detract from our economic perspective,” said Mayor Bill Jones. “You’d like to see the trains continue, but Congress needs to look at it like it does arts funding.”
Temple has about the same population as Altoona, but the same ridership as Lewistown over the past two years.
One proposal to fix things would have states that want long-distance Amtrak service to pick up a larger share of the cost from the federal government, but transportation experts and Amtrak officials said that is unlikely to work.
“Most states have shown an interest, financially, in the corridor-type programs that connect cities like Philadelphia and D.C.,” said Jeremy Plant, a professor of public policy at Penn State University. “There are just way too many variables when you start talking about a train that travels through five states. That’s federal or it’s nothing.”
Amtrak has cut hundreds of jobs and rid itself of a money-losing package delivery system, but says cutting service to unprofitable routes defeats the purpose of a national rail service.
“Highways do not turn a profit and airlines wouldn’t ever turn a profit if they were operating under the same parameters,” said Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel.
The Department of Transportation, which now allocates funds for long-distance service, said it’s too early to say if there will be any service cuts.
“I will say our view as an administration is that our responsibility is fiduciary like any corporation that has it’s shareholders,” said spokesman Robert Gould. “In this case, the shareholders are the American people.”