TRANSPORTATION : Cost-Cutting Congress Looking to Derail Federal Amtrak Subsidies

Amtrak, which has had its share of high-profile wrecks, has run head-on into a largely unsympathetic Congress that’s on a drive to cut all federal deficits.

Whether the national railroad passenger system can survive this particular collision is uncertain.

Republicans are approaching the issue from multiple angles. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), an influential member of the railroad subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee, believes that Amtrak’s service should be studied by a special commission similar to the one that has recommended military base closings.

Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), another subcommittee member, wants federal subsidies phased out over the next few years in favor of privatizing Amtrak. It is unclear what the panel or the parent Transportation Committee will recommend.

Created by Congress a quarter-century ago from the wreckage of failed passenger service on major railroads, Amtrak has run up large deficits, even though it receives almost $1 billion annually in federal backing. Its $430-million cost-cutting plan announced in December, which includes work force reductions of 5,500 and phaseout of many routes in sparsely populated areas, may not be enough to save it.

Kenneth Mead, transportation director of the General Accounting Office, told the Senate Commerce Committee that Amtrak’s financial condition “has reached a critical stage.” He challenged the prediction of rail system officials that their cost-cutting program would put Amtrak on the road to recovery by the year 2002 without large federal subsidies.

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Besides financial troubles, a series of well-publicized accidents has caused headaches for Amtrak officials, further clouding the system’s future. Although Amtrak’s overall safety record is commendable since its creation in 1971, 57 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the last three years.

The worst accident, the 1993 wreck of the Sunset Limited at Saraland, Ala., claimed 47 lives.

Amtrak’s cost-reduction plan was designed to close the gap between the railroad’s operating deficit and federal grants for 1995, but the GAO’s study said the gap will grow next year and will cumulatively total $1.3 billion by the end of the century.

However, advocates of Amtrak ask, what’s wrong with federal subsidies? They note that most other countries have them. The United States and Canada, in fact, are among the only industrialized nations without a first-class national passenger rail system. Both nations poured money into highways and sought to keep gasoline taxes relatively low.

Europe and Japan, for example, deal with shorter distances and congested populations--and have much higher gasoline prices. They have invested in new rail infrastructure with efficient, high-speed trains that faithfully keep schedules.

Members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, along with state and county officials, lobbied legislators earlier this month to support long-term financing for Amtrak. Some said they were hopeful that members of Congress would take to heart the concerns of constituents who would be left without rail service in communities with no airline service.

Amtrak’s main routes are in the densely populated Washington-New York-Boston corridor, where it operates through-service passenger trains and local commuter services. But even in the Northeast corridor, where it has about 45% of the market, Amtrak is not profitable. And its losses are bigger in the more sparsely populated South and Southwest.

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The reduction in train service, which amounts to 21% of its route miles nationally, has hit California passengers by cutting to three days a week what had been daily service on the Desert Wind, a train between Los Angeles and Chicago via Salt Lake City. Also, daily service on the Capitol train between San Jose and Roseville via Sacramento was scheduled for elimination April 1, but the California Department of Transportation has provided $850,000 to keep the trains running through Sept. 30.

Commending Caltrans, Amtrak Chairman Thomas Downs says similar funding from other states or cities would greatly help the system maintain many popular but money-losing routes. “Amtrak must become steadily less dependent on federal operating subsidies,” he told Congress recently.

From a management viewpoint, “it is clear to me that Amtrak’s future lies squarely in providing a better product for a more reasonable cost,” Downs said.

The final determination will be made by a Congress that is skeptical, but not without its Amtrak supporters.

Even in an era of tight budgets, a number of Congress members favor Amtrak. A bipartisan group of 122 senators and House members representing all sections of the country have signed a letter urging continued federal support for the rail system, calling Amtrak “not a luxury but a basic component of our modern society.”

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), a Senate Commerce Committee member, said he supports federal subsidies. And Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), the majority whip, said that “across the nation, I believe people want Amtrak.”