President's budget eliminates passenger-rail funding
President Bush is expected to announce a budget on Monday that cuts all funding for Amtrak.
It may seem like deja vu for national and local passenger rail proponents as they prepare their annual "Save Amtrak" campaigns, but the nuance is different this time around, said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Rail Passengers.
"The President's budget to be released Monday will have zero for Amtrak," he said. "The president's request is not the end of the ballgame, but this time, it shouldn't be possible to claim anything other than they want to kill Amtrak."
Amtrak has been on the federal chopping block more often than not in recent years, and Congress has wrestled with various funding scenarios with the ultimate goal of reducing federal subsidies to the point where Amtrak could operate on its own.
After last year's Congressional tug of war, Amtrak ended up with $1.2 billion, somewhat less than the $1.49 billion the rail service wanted.
"The outcome can be viewed as a victory when one considers that the House committee approved only $900 million and that Amtrak was one of the last issues to be resolved," Capon said.
The Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General painted a bleak picture of Amtrak's performance in its mandated annual report. It urged Amtrak to focus on "viable" passenger operations, which Capon said is code language for eliminating most of Amtrak's national network trains.
"Trains like the Empire Builder are in the gunsights," he said.
The Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and Stumptown Historical Society have already begun a campaign to urge people to contact their congressmen over the potential plight of Amtrak.
The Chicago-to-Seattle Empire Builder that passes through Whitefish has the highest ridership of all Amtrak long-distance trains, carrying nearly 440,000 passengers last year, chamber director Sheila Bowen and historical society administrator Jill Evans noted in an opinion piece submitted to area newspapers.
"Long-distance trains are essential connectors that hold the national Amtrak system together," they said. "They are the basis for development of improved passenger rail service along more densely populated rail corridors. If these trains were eliminated, as some in Congress have proposed, the impacts would cascade through the Amtrak network as travelers find themselves unable to make connections from one train to another and unable to reach the places they need to go."
The transportation report focused on Amtrak's increasing cash loss, although the loss was reduced from $644 million in fiscal 2003 to $635 million the following year.
It further criticized the passenger service for "dismal" on-time performance. However, Capon said, the report failed to discuss the reasons for the performance problems, such as infrastructure improvement work and capacity issues on private freight rail lines.
Capon expects a repeat battle against legislation that would force Amtrak to privatize by developing a procedure for fair competitive bidding by Amtrak and non-Amtrak operators for state-supported routes. Past efforts have repeatedly come up against the issue of freight railroad access.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com