Plans to remake Amtrak have been introduced in Congress, and in their current form they threaten the long-term survival of national passenger rail service in the United States.

Amtrak critics are correct when they say the 30-year-old venture has failed to turn a profit, but they neglect to mention a couple of important details. No industrialized country in the world has a passenger rail service that is successful without government subsidies. Further, many of the cross country routes that connect small towns throughout the west and northwest have outlasted cuts because powerful members of Congress from sparsely populated states haven’t allowed Amtrak to ditch unprofitable, underutilized runs.

The plan sent to Congress by the Bush administration would, in time, privatize passenger trains, while shifting the burden for capital improvements on tracks and infrastructure to states or groups of states. The idea is to create local control of services and allow states to decide if they want passenger rail and in what form.

What the plan really does is shift costs from the federal government to state government. State governments, already starved for funding by a staggering economy, are ill-equipped to maintain and improve tracks and stations and provide rail service through contracts with private businesses. The federal portion of infrastructure repair would be 50 percent, with states and localities responsible for the rest. Federal money would only be available as a match.

Rail service will not become cheaper overnight and creating a “competitive” environment does not automatically mean there will be private companies willing and able to vie for the contracts. Amtrak was formed in 1970 because private-sector rail service was unsuccessful. It was too expensive to be profitable.

The administration’s proposal would eliminate a national rail service. It would be replaced with a motley collection of short-haul routes.

Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, which runs from Boston to Washington, is the most successful route in the system. It even turns a profit if capital expenses aren’t included. Maine is connected to this popular route by the DownEaster, which has been welcomed by state residents and has become popular enough to warrant expansion.

Congress has allocated more than $26 billion for Amtrak over its 30-year life. The allocations, while seemingly huge, have provided just enough funding to keep Amtrak alive, but starving. The national passenger rail infrastructure is crumbling. If Amtrak is to improve its money-losing ways, the country must make a financial commitment to repairing the infrastructure. Estimates put the cost of badly needed repairs at $5.8 billion.

Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe understands. She is cosponsoring legislation that would provide $12 billion in operating expenses for Amtrak, $48 billion in bonding for capital expenses and extend the nation’s High Speed Rail Corridor from Auburn to Montreal, Quebec. Snowe says this investment would put Amtrak on solid footing and move it toward self-sufficiency.

We doubt a national passenger rail system will ever be self-sufficient. That’s not the most important question for us. The country, working through its Congress, must decide if it values passenger trains enough to pay for them. If the answer is no, then the Bush administration plan is perfect. It will kill a national system and replace it with smaller systems, concentrated around large cities and in areas with populations willing to support rail. There likely will be large gaps in service, connectivity and quality.

Amtrak is an important part of our integrated transportation system. If Congress is serious about reforms, then it needs to control its members – who use their power to protect little-used routes – put up the money to sustain system infrastructure and realize that even an efficient, well-run operation still will require some government support.
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