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 (NARP issued June 22 the following statement concerning the previous day's anti-Amtrak vote by a House committee:)

The House Appropriations Committee voted yesterday to ratify its transportation/treasury subcommittee's decision to kill U.S. intercity passenger rail. "This would deprive Americans of an increasingly important travel choice," said NARP Executive Director Ross B. Capon. "Amtrak ridership rose in seven of the last eight years, while Amtrak stabilized operating costs the past three years under President and CEO David L. Gunn. Ridership growth did not come from fare cuts, since Amtrak's yield-average revenue per passenger-mile-also rose (nine of the last ten years), contrary to recent experience of most airlines."
 
Knowledgeable observers agree that $550 million is far below the minimum needed to run any trains. Although Amtrak has taken on no new debt since 2002, an estimated $278 million is needed next year just to service old debt. Gunn has said a Northeast Corridor-only system would require about $1.2 billion. Amtrak Chairman David Laney and DOT Inspector General Ken Mead both testified that dropping all long-distance trains would save only $300 million a year, and that only after several years of severance payments. 
 
Even level funding-$1.2 billion-would leave Amtrak unable to install long-lead-time capital items already purchased. Due to the pressing needs of Amtrak's capital program, Amtrak-which ended Fiscal 2004 with over $200 million in cash-has been spending at a $1.4 billion rate. The Bush-appointed Amtrak board of directors requested a FY06 federal grant of $1.8 billion to continue movement towards a "state of good repair." DOT Inspector General Ken Mead testified that $1.4-1.5 billion-plus state funding continuing at present levels-is needed just to maintain the status quo.
 
Nonetheless, House Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI) claimed that $550 million (55% below current federal funding) would let most short-distance routes continue, saying, "The subcommittee's Amtrak proposal is an honest one and deserves the committee's support."
 
The committee rejected three Amtrak-related amendments: 
* John W. Olver (D-MA), the subcommittee's top Democrat, proposed to continue $1.2 billion, and increase funding for four unrelated programs, by rolling back tax reductions on Americans reporting income over one million dollars a year.
* Dennis Rehberg (R-MT), saying "Amtrak is not just essential, it is critical" to Montana, proposed language stating that the Empire Builder would continue to run.  (No additional funding was included.)
* Virgil H. Goode (R-VA) proposed to continue $1.2 billion by eliminating earned income tax credits for those in the U.S. on visas. 
 
The same bill that kills intercity passenger rail would:
* Increase federal-aid highway spending to $37 billion -- $2.7 billion above the current level and $1.6 billion above President Bush's request;
* Increase Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to $14.4 billion -- $877 million above the current level and $1.7 billion above President Bush's request.
 
Olver expressed concern about the impact of funding levels in the highway bill on other programs, like Amtrak. For FAA Operations, general funds would contribute $3.2 billion-more than 30% of the total-as Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN) noted. That is up from $2.8 billion this year. 
 
The six legacy airlines lost $7.6 billion (not including government support) in 2004, in effect a subsidy from shareholders. Airports and the air traffic control system do not disappear when an airline goes under, but an Amtrak bankruptcy would trigger loss of an entire mode of transportation.
 
Although the bill would force a systemwide Amtrak shutdown, and would raise costs of providing commuter rail in many markets, the bill identifies 18 routes for which federal funding could not be used: the long-distance trains plus Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac, Chicago-Indianapolis and New York-Charlotte. Report language claims these trains lose over $30 a passenger.  
 
"Given the skeletal nature of Amtrak's route network, we believe any route ranking should be used to see what lessons from best performers could guide improvement of weaker ones. But, no matter how many trains Amtrak eliminates (and two significant ones were dropped in the past eight months), critics will call for more cuts. Thus we are hesitant to say anything about route ranking," said NARP Executive Director Ross B. Capon. "But the committee's $30-dollar-a-passenger 'sledgehammer' approach cries out for clarification that an economically sound ranking would reflect 
(a) loss per passenger-MILE;
(b) percentage of costs covered by commercial revenues; 
(c) network impact (that is, the impact on other routes of lost revenue from connecting passengers and lost cost-sharing opportunities regarding joint facilities);
(d) (if relevant) important, route-specific factors not reflected in the above."
 
Capon said, "We remain optimistic that this process, which still has a long way to go, yet can save passenger rail, but each new step that doesn't solve the problem is greater cause for alarm."  The bill may go to the Rules Committee Monday, and the House floor later next week. Amtrak's survival could depend on a successful floor amendment, which in turn seems to depend on finding "offsets" (spending reductions, revenue increases) elsewhere in the bill. The magnitude of that challenge is reflected in the fact that Olver and David Obey (D-WI), the full committee's top Democrat, yesterday praised Knollenberg for doing the best job possible with the inadequate resources available under the Republican budget resolution.
 (For info on how to support passenger trains and contact your legislators, visit the NARP site.)

   Massive destruction of Amtrak system timetables

   According to reports, management at New York's Penn Station destroyed their entire large stock of Amtrak's current system timetable when they found that the Acela schedules in it are not up to date.

   A further report indicated that Amtrak headquarters decided upon placing a sticker on the national timetable cover to point out that a newer version of the NE Corridor timetable should be consulted for up-to-date NEC schedules. It was not clear whether such stickers could be applied to the junked timetables or whether the latter were not a total loss.

President Gunn Reacts to House Subcommittee's Anti-Amtrak Vote

Amtrak President Talks of Acela and Food Service (see complete article)

Amtrak computer outage creates problems with trains, reservations, tickets
   (see complete article)

RailPAC endorses Amtrak-Laney funding proposal with reservations
 (See complete article here)

Sources of hostility to Amtrak funding: Analysis

AMTRAK VERSUS MINETA IN MONTANA: THE STRANGE BATTLE OVER THE EMPIRE BUILDER
 
 
 
 
 
 

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DOT'S MINETA HARASSING AMTRAK &  AMTRAK'S REPLY TO THE MINETA LETTER
NARP: DOT OVERSTATES LONG DISTANCE TRAIN PRICE TAG BY $600 MILLION
SENATE HEARING UNDERLINES AMTRAK FUNDING CRUNCH; LONG-DISTANCE TRAINS NOT THE PROBLEM
The shape of long distance trains to come.
AMTRAK HEARINGS BEGIN; AMTRAK SUBMITS BUDGET REQUEST
MESSAGE FROM AMTRAK PRESIDENT DAVID GUNN TO EMPLOYEES APRIL 18 ON THE ACELA EXPRESS PROBLEM
FRA NOMINEE FACES SENATE COMMITTEE, SAYS AMTRAK'S BUDGET WILL NOT BE ZERO
EMPIRE BUILDER DERAILMENT BELIEVED CAUSED BY TRACK PROBLEM
COLORADO HIT BY MASSIVE SNOW STORM--TRAINS CONTINUE RUNNING
AMTRAK APRIL 25 SCHEDULE CHANGES
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