CHICAGO, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., says states can't afford a Bush administration plan to subsidize operations of long-distance passenger trains while the federal government helps pay for infrastructure.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta pitched the plan recycling the Passenger Rail Reform Investment Act, an Amtrak reform proposal that stalled in Congress in 2003, at Chicago's historic Union Station Monday. About 200 sign-carrying Amtrak employees and supporters picketed his news conference.
Mineta said Amtrak should compete with other railroads to operate long-distance passenger service and that the federal government should provide infrastructure support for track, tunnels, bridges and stations on a 50-50 basis.
Amtrak should focus on its core mission to run trains safely and efficiently, he said.
"Amtrak cannot spend money on new, innovative services that people want, because it is spending so much money running trains that nobody rides between cities that nobody wants to travel between," Mineta said. "For 30 years, the federal government has had a partnership with Amtrak on passenger rail. That partnership has failed."
Mineta said $29 billion in federal subsidies spent since 1975 had not made Amtrak self-sustaining and called further funding "fundamentally irrational."
Amtrak has shifted money from maintenance, repairs and upgrades to cover operating losses for decades.
"On some Amtrak routes, the company could actually save money by not running the train and buying the riders an airplane ticket instead," Mineta said. "There is another word to describe the current system. It's 'nuts.'"
President George W. Bush proposed ending federal subsidies for Amtrak in his fiscal 2006 budget. However, Mineta said the administration does not want to kill passenger rail service.
"I've got news for you," he said. "If I wanted to kill Amtrak, I wouldn't have to lift a finger. The system as it stands now is dying and everyone knows it."
Mineta, a Democrat, said federal capital grants for half of infrastructure costs would make about $1.2 billion available a year, equal to Amtrak's FY2005 appropriation for capital and operations -- and the subsidy dropped from the proposed FY2006 budget that is to go into effect Oct. 1.
"If there is no local share, then we do not contribute," Mineta said.
Durbin said states can't afford it.
"The state of Illinois is broke, we've been cutting back on services, we've seen increases in fees, and we're struggling to make ends meet," said Durbin. "This not something our state of Illinois can pick up."
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said subsides for passenger rail transportation paled in comparison to federal highway subsidies. "It strikes me that we should be making a greater investment in upgrading our rail system instead of eliminating the subsidies that already exist, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Mineta called for a top-to-bottom overhaul of Amtrak and said involvement of state and local governments was critical in planning and future funding of passenger rail.
"Our plan would forge a new federal-state partnership that is the foundation of every other mode of passenger transportation," he said. "In every other of transportation, it is the mechanism that we use to set priorities, and to make sure that the money follows public demand."
Amtrak does have bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, and Mineta foresees and uphill battle to reform Amtrak.
Durbin said Mineta was trying to sell a Bush administration plan to privatize and eventually eliminate Amtrak, something that Illinois cannot afford. He said 3 million passengers a year and 2,000 Illinois residents who work for Amtrak would be out of luck if the agency is eliminated.
"The president's plan to eliminate Amtrak doesn't work for Illinois, and it won't work for our nation," said Durbin.
"It is time for the Bush administration to realize that if federal support is important enough for our nation's highways and airports, then an investment in passenger rail should be a priority. And we shouldn't depend on cash-strapped state like Illinois to pick up more of the burden."
"There is a long road ahead on what will happen to Amtrak," a spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told the Chicago Tribune. "It's far too early to panic or get people worked up that this is going to become reality."
Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., said Amtrak subsidies remained the lifeblood of rail service for college towns and small towns across the country.
"We've got a good Amtrak system in Illinois and I don't think we want to destroy it by talking about privatization," LaHood said in an interview in the Peoria Journal Star.
Mineta said Metra, the Chicago regional commuter rail agency, was better suited to operate Union Station than Amtrak, which has 17 percent of the trains using the station west of Chicago's Loop.
Illinois pays about $12 million a year to subsidize four of the 12 passenger rail routes in the state and is investing in a high-speed rail line linking Chicago, Springfield and St. Louis.
Nearly 25 million passengers rode aboard Amtrak last year, up nearly 1 million passengers, or 4.3 percent, from 2003.
Critics say only about 1 percent of travelers in the United States ride long-distance trains, but rail service is popular between Washington and New York, in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest and on the West Coast.
Mineta called the Cascades rail service between Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia, a national model saying ridership was up 330 percent. Washington state subsidies the operating costs of the Cascades service. Train ridership also was up in the Midwest last year.
The Northeast corridor Acela service carries as many passengers as airlines combined, but its high-speed trains don't turn a profit.
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