Amtrak Homework

Time to get out your pens and pencils, kiddies, 'cause Uncle Steve's got a little assignment for you.

The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reports today that Amtrak is sliding even closer toward extinction. Amtrak President David Gunn is requesting $1.8 billion just to keep the ailing railroad going, while the House and the administration want to spend only $900 million on Amtrak and the Senate is offering up $1.35 billion. Meanwhile, some Amtrak workers threaten to strike to bring attention to the underfunding problem.

Much of Amtrak's infrastructure is in sorry shape. Non-Acela trains are aging faster than they can be refurbished, and old locomotives keep breaking down. On the Northeast Corridor, which Amtrak owns outright (most Amtrak routes travel on rented freight rails), the overhead wires are fraying, and several railway bridges are in danger of collapsing.

Part of the problem, the Star-Ledger says, is that Amtrak is forced to run a wide number of unprofitable long-distance routes (routes that should have been retired ages ago) without the necessary funds to operate them, even as the railroad struggles to keep the much-used Northeast Corridor running smoothly. Nothing short of a massive reform - a reform that would include shutting down several unnecessary routes to avoid shutting down the entire system altogether - is needed.

It's a reform of the kind that Washington would rather not bother with. Ending various routes in the American heartland would incur the wrath of House members whose districts are served by these routes; similarly, any attempt to build up various urban corridors at the expense of several rural routes would shortchange smaller states and breed resentment towards the more populated areas of the nation among their representatives and senators. Amtrak has to find a balance between favoring several regional corridors and still being a national system.

Acela has generated some excitement among bullet train enthusiasts to expand the service to other parts of the nation, but not enough to sustain long-term interest in such projects. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - funded in part by oil money from the Middle East - should have awakened the need for more energy-efficient transportation to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and lessen terrorism. However, partly out of fear to make the necessary reforms - and also due to money from the auto and oil lobbies - Congress refuses to touch Amtrak with a ten-foot pole.

Here's where you come in, boys and girls. Write to your senators and House members now, and tell them that Amtrak should be reformed and strengthened to keep it a viable transportation system. We can't do without Amtrak - the skies would be crowded with too many airline flights going no more than 500 to 800 miles (only a minority of domestic flights go any farther than that), and interstate highways in crowded corridors like the Boston-Washington corridor and the Chicago-Milwaukee route would see more traffic than they could handle. We cannot let Amtrak fail, nor can we let any of the anti-Amtrak, anti-transit, pro-auto members of Congress kill it off.

We deserve better. As one popular witticism goes, "No one wants Amtrak, except the people."