Congressional bickering clouds Amtrak's future

[BNSF 1088]

Congressional bickering clouds Amtrak's future
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Critics of Amtrak who say U.S. taxpayers and railroad passengers both would benefit if the company faced a little competition should have had reason to smile this month when President Bush won re-election and Republicans tightened their grip on Congress, according to this Gannett News Service report by Ledyard King.
The president and some key lawmakers want to eliminate money-losing lines and end Amtrak's monopoly on longer-distance passenger rail service by allowing private companies to run some of the trains. But friends and foes alike realize that Congress has never moved quickly on Amtrak reform and probably won't now.

"It continues to be in debt. It continues to be inefficient," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has written unsuccessful legislation to restructure Amtrak. "I'm not optimistic about any fundamental changes."

The company continues to teeter between success and insolvency. It just posted record ridership, surpassing 25 million in fiscal 2004. About 600,000 travelers were expected during Thanksgiving week. But Amtrak had to plead for a $1.2 billion subsidy from Congress this past week that the White House says is too much and the rail service says is not enough to cover operating costs and track upgrades.

The Department of Transportation's inspector general issued a sharply worded report this week chastising Amtrak for putting off critically needed repairs and prodding Congress to decide the future of passenger rail service.

"Unsustainably large operating losses ($1.3 billion this past year), poor on-time performance and increasing levels of deferred infrastructure and fleet investment are a clarion call to the need for significant changes in Amtrak's strategy," Inspector General Kenneth Mead wrote.

The quasi-governmental company, which began service in 1971 after freight companies got out of the passenger train business, has perpetually relied on federal subsidies. It's not the first time McCain and Mead have aired concerns, fueling skepticism of wholesale reform being a whistle stop away.

Amtrak boosters are equally frustrated that lawmakers haven't done enough for the system. They say it will survive -- though never prosper -- because the constituent-driven nature of Congress makes it tough for lawmakers to derail a program that serves more than 500 communities in 46 states.

"They've been given just enough money to fail slowly," said Jim RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative, a rail advocacy group.

Amtrak President David Gunn has made the system more efficient over the past two years. Non-passenger operations, such as freight and mail delivery, have been curtailed or eliminated. Some train stops have been cut due to low passenger use. The number of employees has dropped from about 25,000 to 20,000. And Amtrak is fixing tracks and replacing cars -- work the company neglected for years under previous bosses.

Amtrak is losing several key supporters in Congress to retirements, including Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., and Rep. Jack Quinn, R-N.Y., who leave in January. But congressional reshuffling also means McCain will no longer chair the committee that oversees Amtrak.

McCain has been especially critical of the long-distance lines that lose as much as $500 per passenger. But it's those very lines -- running through such states as Mississippi, Texas and Montana -- that provide a loyal base among senior members of Congress from those states.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del, who once served on Amtrak's governing board, said passenger rail also enjoys bipartisan support because lawmakers realize more people on a train means fewer on the highway.

"There's an appreciation that we live in a country where the traffic congestion is worse than ever, that our dependence on foreign oil is high and growing and that the pollution from cars and trucks that poisons our air is not a good thing," Carper said.

"Let's just confront the issue," he said. "We need a healthy and vigorous debate on the future of passenger rail, and we need to vote."

(The preceding Gannett News Service report by Ledyard King was filed on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004.)

November 29, 2004