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AMTRAK FUNDING: AN ANALYSIS
By Carl Fowler U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has proposed no funding for Amtrak in the 2006 Federal budget. While the Mineta plan suggests the Bush Administration might provide some sort of 50/50 matching funds for track maintenance, it explicitly rules out any operating support. The states would have to fund any actual trains. This means there would be no intercity train service in the United States, since there is little chance the states can find funding to resume even a skeletal local service. Amtrak received total operating and capital support of $1.2 billion in 2004. By contrast, total U.S. highway spending in 2001 was $133 billion, of which over 40% was not recovered from gas taxes. This highway figure continues to grow each year. No passenger rail service or highway system anywhere in the world runs at a profit. Mr. Mineta claims we “subsidize” Amtrak and “invest” in highways. The truth is we invest in both. When has anyone of us received a dividend check from our interstate highways? Rail Travel Center has sold Amtrak travel and tours since 1982. We have a unique perspective to evaluate the myths that surround Amtrak. The truth about Amtrak is very different than that presented by Secretary Mineta. The following is our analysis of the realities ignored by the Administration in its effort to bankrupt Amtrak and shift all support for passenger service directly to the states. Amtrak’s national network carried over 25,000,000 passengers in 2004, an all-time record. The long-distance trains produced the majority of Amtrak’s passenger miles, 2.7 billion, compared to the Northeast Corridor’s 1.7 billion. (A passenger-mile is one passenger traveling one mile.) The national network is vital. Passengers must be able to connect between trains to travel from one point to another, but Mr. Mineta’s plan assures that, at best, only a few isolated local commuter services would survive. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (Republican) of Texas is correct that Amtrak must be national or it will be nothing! Greyhound has canceled thousands of miles of rural bus lines, and the Mineta budget compounds the problem by proposing to eliminate Federal subsidies for air service to many smaller airports. Increasingly, Amtrak is the only option in hundreds of cities! Mineta speaks of “running trains nobody rides between cities nobody wants to travel between”. This betrays his ignorance of how trains work. For example, Amtrak’s EMPIRE BUILDER takes passengers not only between Seattle and Chicago, but serves many cities and towns enroute. This train stops at 38 other stations, including major centers like Spokane and Minneapolis and what Mineta views as “nowhere” communities like Wolf Point, MT, Glacier National Park, and Wenatchee, WA. This train “nobody rides” carried 437,200 passengers in FY 2004. Most riders traveled between the almost totally Amtrak-dependent small towns along the route. There is no parallel bus service for 932 miles from Spokane, WA to Minot, ND, a truth cynically ignored by Mineta, but very important to towns whose only reliable link to the outside world is this vital, well-used train! The real truth about Amtrak is that due to lack of Federal capital support, it lacks the equipment to meet the demand which already exists. As a tour operator, we have to reserve on long-distance trains a full eleven months before departure to assure space for a group. Sources in Amtrak’s reservations staff advise us they turn away half the requests they receive for sleeper space because of a lack of equipment. The Mineta plan is fundamentally flawed because it tries to shift the burden of funding Amtrak to the states. A route like the EMPIRE BUILDER is the perfect example of the futility of the Mineta plan. This train serves eight states, all of which would have to agree on a formula to split costs, in addition to appropriating operating money which they do not have. If one state refused, the service would be broken at that state border. Under the Mineta plan, there will be no interstate rail services anywhere. We have a federal government in the United States to address issues that cross state lines, and Amtrak is a classic example. The ultimate truth about Amtrak is that it is remarkably well-used, vital to the real America of small towns and inland cities, and needs national support! About the author: Carl Fowler is Vice-President/General Manager of Rail
Travel Center. He has worked full-time promoting travel on Amtrak and other
railways since November 1982. Mr. Fowler served for over a decade on the
Board of Directors of the National Association of Railroad Passengers and
was a member of Amtrak’s Travel Agency Computer Advisory Committee. He
has addressed the National Press Club on Amtrak and train travel and has
ridden over 350,000 miles by train. Rail Travel Center is located in Putney,
Vermont. Its web site is www.railtravelcenter.com.
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