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Railroad
Giant Faces Threat of Extinction |
Posted:
04.27.05
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Are trains important? That's the question Congress and America's
biggest train company, Amtrak, are trying to answer, now that
the railroad giant is facing possible financial ruin.
Printer-friendly versions: PDF
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 With
425 diesel and electric locomotives, over 2,000 passenger cars
and access to a 22,000-mile network of railroad lines, Amtrak
-- America, Travel and Track -- is the nation's number one railroad
passenger service. But equipment trouble and a fight over who
should pay to keep the railroad giant running is threatening to
put the 34-year-old corporation out of service.
Congress first created Amtrak, formerly known as the National
Railroad Passenger Corporation, in 1971 after private railroad
companies complained that carrying passengers was taking away
from the more profitable business of carrying freight or cargo
-- manufactured goods like food and textiles. At the time, the
government required these private companies to carry passengers
as a national service.
Amtrak was given access to the rail lines used by freight companies
and in May 1971 made its first trip from New York's Penn Station
to Boston, still one of its most popular and profitable routes.
Today, Amtrak serves about 23 million passengers a year. Its
major routes include the Northeast Corridor with service for mostly
business people between Washington, D.C.'s Union Station and Boston's
South Station; the Southwest route between Orlando and Los Angeles;
the Midwest route from
Chicago to Oklahoma; and routes along the northern border of the
United States.
The most popular service, the high speed Acela, is a 150-mile-an-hour
train that shuttles passengers from New York to D.C. in under
three hours. However, a discovery in April 2005 during a routine
check of Acela trains revealed cracks in the trains' brake systems.
The discovery forced Amtrak to pull all Acela trains off the track,
forcing thousands of commuters to find other means of travel.
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A government
program |
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Such difficulties and huge financial strains to the tune of a
$600
million loss in 2004 and a total debt of $4 billion, have led
to a dispute between Amtrak officials and President Bush.
Because Amtrak was created by Congress, board members are appointed
by the president like other government officials and
must receive Senate confirmation. Congress also gives the company
about $1 billion a year.
But in his latest budget, President Bush set aside only $360
million to help the rail line maintain its Northeast service,
a small percentage of the $1.9 billion Amtrak President David
Gunn says the company needs to stay in service.
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Arguments
for and against funding the rail line |
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President Bush's proposal has been criticized by some members
of the Senate, who compare Amtrak to the nation's highway system.
That network of roads receives government funding to operate.
In addition, Congress gave the commercial airline industry funding
after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 threatened to bankrupt it.
"If we don't have well-funded proposals for highways, and
for airways and for railways and ports and harbors, we're not
going to be able to grow economically," said Senator Trent
Lott, a Republican from Mississippi who heads the Senate subcommittee
on commerce.
 Other
Republicans point to a mandate in 1998 that required Amtrak to
become self sufficient and not rely on the government for money
within five years.
"I may be alone in the opinion that spending $200 per person
in subsidy for a train ride is excessive," said Republican
Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire. "I may be alone in
thinking that $500 million operating losses in perpetuity to operate
12 or 14 or 15 routes … is unacceptable. But I don't think
it's a very good use of taxpayers' money."
Amtrak leadership says no passenger rail service can sustain
itself because fares paid by passengers are not enough to maintain
tracks, trains and stations -- or to provide safe service to customers.
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Amtrak's
future |
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Experts say the problem is the way Amtrak was originally set
up.
"Amtrak has two basic problems," said Tom Till, who
headed a government panel charged with assessing Amtrak's future.
"The first one is that it doesn't work very well, and the
second one is that as it's structured it can't be funded.
 "If
you want a recipe for creating something that doesn't work, I
think the thing you have to do is create a government-owned monopoly
and hotwire it to the Congress, and that's what Amtrak has been
for all of its 30 years," he added.
Till, like President Bush, suggests contracting the train service
out to private companies.
As Congress debates its fate, the troubled Amtrak is fighting
to stay on course. On Tuesday, the company sent e-mails to its
customers apologizing for the halted Acela service and promising
better service in the future.
--Compiled
by Kristina Nwazota for NewsHour Extra
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I no longer want the people of my nation to be referred to as 'fat Americans.'
