A Boston Globe Editoral -- 7/30/03

Amtrak's assets

The only positive thing to be said about the Bush administration's latest attempt to have Congress dismantle Amtrak is that it just might get legislators to talk seriously about what the passenger rail service really needs: a dedicated source of revenue to pay for long-overdue infrastructure work and subsidize operating costs.

If Amtrak could rely on a certain percentage of federal and state gasoline tax revenues or airline ticket fees, it could make the improvements needed to provide service equal to what publicly subsidized lines in Europe already offer. If it were generous enough, such a predictable revenue stream could speed the way to Acela-like high-speed trains in congested corridors outside of the Northeast, where Acela has already proven its popularity.

Without such a guaranteed subsidy, it won't be easy to find any state or private companies willing to take over Amtrak, as Bush proposes. Privatization advocates like to refer to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor service, for example, as ''profit making,'' but only Enron-bred accountants would use that term. As well-patronized as the trains are, the corridor's trains, track, signals, wiring, bridges, and stations are all in urgent need of updating. Ticket revenues cannot begin to pay for it. A year ago Amtrak estimated its nationwide backlog of infrastructure work at $5.8 billion.

The Bush administration can talk optimistically about the private sector bidding for portions of the rail system, but Amtrak was created in 1971 because the private freight rail lines were giving up on passenger service. As for the cash-strapped states in the Northeast Corridor, they are having trouble maintaining subsidies for commuter rail service, much less taking on the cost of Amtrak's intercity routes. Unwisely, the Romney administration is considering a delay in completion of the Greenbush commuter line on the South Shore even though the state has already spent $85 million on it.

The administration's views on Amtrak echo those of the Amtrak Reform Council, which advocated similar measures a year ago after it became clear that Amtrak would fail to meet a congressional mandate to become self-supporting. But that mandate was always pie in the sky. At a time when many major airlines, despite federal subsidies, have been in or just escaped bankruptcy, it is unrealistic to expect intercity train service to pay for itself and also finance the decades-long neglect of rail infrastructure.

The Big Dig's extension of Interstate 90 to Logan Airport closed the book on Dwight Eisenhower's interstate system. From now on, roads in densely populated corridors will get only more crowded. An improved Amtrak with its own revenue stream is the only rational way to protect areas like the Northeast from traffic thrombosis.

This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 7/30/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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