Published on Monday, November 10, 2003 by the Madison Capital Times (Wisconsin)

Amtrak Funding Still on Wrong Track

by Dave Zweifel

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is a far cry from a liberal. But the Republican senator is incredulous over her president's proposal for the nation's railroad service (if you can still call it that nowadays), Amtrak. "Amtrak has been a stepchild in the national transportation system," she said the other day. "The reason that Amtrak is always coming up short and running to Congress to say, 'We need more money,' is because we have starved it to death." Finally, someone is telling it like it is. For too long now Congress - whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans - has refused to put Amtrak on the financial footings it needs to escape the Catch-22 it has been caught in since its inception. Amtrak is expected to run a railroad that attracts passengers. Congress continues to demand that Amtrak break even. But it has never been given the resources to put together the kind of convenient schedules, the caliber of service and the quality of equipment that would attract passengers to help make that happen. Rather, it has been forced to cut back the number of stops, eliminate workers, use antiquated passenger cars, skimp on food service and play second fiddle to freight trains on the same routes. All of that has worked to chase away passengers, not attract them. The Bush administration now wants to give Amtrak about two-thirds of what it needs during the next budget year. The Republicans in the House are even more stingy, seeking to cut Bush's already measly $1.2 billion to $900 million. It's not clear which plan is worse. Although the president's proposal offers a bit more money, it at the same time seeks to turn over control of Amtrak to private entities, encouraging them to develop "regional" railroads and cutting out the national routes. While passenger rail is treated like an ogre, the same administration is proposing to spend $29 billion in highway funding for 2004. That, of course, is in addition to the tens of billions that the states themselves fork over to pave our land with more concrete and asphalt. Never once does anyone seem to pause to realize that if we had a viable rail system to supplement our problem-plagued air travel, that maybe we wouldn't have to build so many new highways. Maine Sen. Olympia Snow, also a Republican, is one who understands the issue. She wants Congress to approve a six-year plan for Amtrak to include $2 billion in annual funding and a one-time infusion of $48 billion to fund maintenance and new construction. That kind of help would allow Amtrak to upgrade its regular service and even add what could be profitable routes - like high-speed rail from Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison. That apparently makes too much sense for an administration and a House leadership that can't see beyond the automobile - or, at least, the campaign money that road builders send their way. Copyright 2003 The Capital Times ###