Is That a Light at the End of Amtrak’s Tunnel?

Amtrak turned 40 years old earlier this month, and of the several crosses our national rail passenger system has borne through all those years, by far the heaviest has to do with funding.

Despite all the blathering you hear from the anti-government ideologues, Amtrak actually runs a lot closer to break even than any of the other national passenger rail systems around the world. In fact, about 85 percent of Amtrak’s annual operating cost is covered from the “fare box”, meaning ticket sales, and other revenue.

Still, that 15 percent difference, which has been running around $1.6 billion a year, has to come from the federal government. Under the current system, it comes from Congress in two steps: first is the annual authorization (what Amtrak is promised), next is the annual appropriation (what Amtrak actually gets). As you would suspect, the sack of money behind Door Number Two is often a lot smaller.

But the key word here is annual. Every year for 40 years, Amtrak has had to go to Congress hat in hand asking for next year’s sack of money. Which means that for 40 years Amtrak has not known from one year to the next how much money to budget for. How the hell can we expect Amtrak to do any serious planning if they have no idea how much money they’re going to have in any of the years ahead? Who among us could run our families that way? It’s stupid and it’s wasteful.

But wait! A new approach has now been proposed by the Obama Administration. They want to put Amtrak into the executive budget — specifically, under the Federal Railroad Administration — which would remove Amtrak funding decisions from Congress and from the politicians who care more about political posturing* than they do about the 29 million long-suffering rail passengers who ride Amtrak trains every year.

There is still a ways to go because the gears of government grind exceeding slow, but this could be a breakthrough that finally brings some stability to Amtrak. A hearing is going to be scheduled so, if you’ve a mind to, drop a note or an email in support of this idea to your senators and your representative back there in Washington. You could also consider joining NARP, the National Association of Railroad Passengers, which lobbies for more and better trains.

I thank you … Amtrak thanks you … and 29 million train riders thank you.

* The most annoying in this bunch is Congressman John Mica (R- FL), who insists on referring to Amtrak as “America’s Soviet-style railroad”. Please John! It might have been mildly amusing the first time you used the line, but that was 20 years ago. Knock it off, already!