Amtrak and Intercity Rail in the News

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Americans’ support for rail remains strong, showing increases from 2020 for commuting short distances, travelling long distances, improving the environment and meeting growing freight transportation demands, according to a new poll conducted by ENGINE Insights on behalf of the OneRail Coalition.  

Findings of the OneRail poll include:

• 83 per cent of Americans polled in 2021 agree that there should be more shift of trips to passenger rail and public transit, as well as more freight to trains to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• For passenger rail, post-pandemic favourability ratings showed strong gains, increasing from 65 per cent in 2020 to 75 per cent in 2021

By Luz Lazo 

November 8, 2021 at 7:13 p.m. EST

The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the House on Friday is expected to spur the largest expansion in Amtrak’s history while kick-starting repair and replacement projects across the nation’s passenger rail network.

The bill includes $66 billion in new funding for rail to address Amtrak’s repair backlog, improve stations, replace old trains and create a path to modernize the Washington-to-Boston corridor, the nation’s busiest. It would be the biggest boost of federal aid to Amtrak since Congress created it half a century ago.

Restoring the North Coast Hiawatha as a daily Amtrak service could generate some $271 million each year in economic benefits to the seven states served while costing Amtrak roughly $68 million per year to operate, the Rail Passengers Association found in a new assessment of the restoration plan proposed by the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority.

As many as 426,000 passengers can be expected to take this train each year once it reaches a steady state of operation, including perhaps as many as 29,000 new passengers who would not otherwise travel at all using any travel mode if the train did not exist.

What can President Biden do for Amtrak? Fritz Plous, writing in Railway Age, wants Amtrak “positioned alongside the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Aviation Administration on the Department of Transportation org chart.” This would make Amtrak “equal to those agencies in status, budget, access to the Secretary or influence on national transportation policy.”

“It really underscores the level of investment that’s required from two perspectives,” says Flynn. “To bring our Northeast Corridor and Washington-to-Boston overall underlying infrastructure to a state of good repair, because there have been decades of underinvestment in that corridor. But in addition, the President talked about expanding intercity passenger rail across our country, and that’s something that we have a very clear plan and strategy for as well.”

"A bold, 15-year strategy for expansion will connect dozens of city pairs up to 160 communities to Amtrak service, increasing ridership, environmental sustainability, and economic investment. And, all of this will be done in an energy-efficient manner that reduces our nation’s carbon footprint through cleaner and more convenient passenger rail."

"Keeping our future on track will require a national investment – and a renewed commitment – to innovation, infrastructure, and ensuring access to dependable, modern rail. An investment in our rail infrastructure is an investment in America."

The point of this discussion is that a future bill that would require daily operation must be a self-contained, stand-alone bill. That means nothing about highways, nothing about transit, nothing about health care, nothing about defense—really, nothing about anything else. 

Amtrak is part of the public sector, since the U.S. Department of Transportation owns all of Amtrak’s voting shares, which under Amtrak’s unusual statutory charter are preferred shares. Accordingly, it is reasonable to hold Amtrak to transparency requirements that comport with other public-sector entities that also provide transportation to the public.

Amtrak has submitted its FY22 General and Legislative Annual Report and Five-Year Plan to Congress and the USDOT. The FY22 Grant Request proposes $3.88 billion for base needs and funding to offset the pandemic’s impacts on Amtrak and its state and commuter partners. 

In addition, Amtrak has identified $1.55 billion in additional investment necessary to fund what Amtrak calls its “bold reauthorization proposal to improve Northeast Corridor infrastructure and begin advancing new corridor routes across the nation.”

With a new Congress preparing to take office—bringing hopes of an infrastructure stimulus with them—it’s time to end an outdated agreement keeping American transportation stuck in the ‘80s: restricting public transit to only 20 percent of federal transportation funding while highways get 80 percent. Sign our petition today to tell Congress to fund them equally. 

Examining the Surface Transportation Board’s Role in Ensuring a Robust Passenger Rail System. This is a hearing of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, with a very long witness list including: Romayne C. Brown, Chair of the Board of Directors, Metra; Stephen Gardner, SVP, Amtrak; Ian Jefferies, President and CEO, Association of American Railroads; Randal O’Toole, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute and Paul Skoutelas, President and CEO, American Public Transportation Association. 

Amtrak will furlough approximately 1,950 of its unionized workers as part of cutbacks for fiscal 2021, according to a message sent to workers today and obtained by Trains News Wire. Additionally, approximately 100 managerial positions will be eliminated.

The largest portion of those, 698 employees, will come from on-board staff represented by the Amtrak Service Workers Council. Other planned cuts, by union:

— Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation, 509 employees

— Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, 390 employees

— Transportation Communications Union, 326 employees

— American Railway and Airway Supervisors Association, 27 employees.

The two locations which will take the largest hits are Los Angeles, where 236 workers — 203 of them in on-board services — will be laid off, and Chicago, where 171 employees will be furloughed. Of those, 165 are in on-board services. Seattle will lose 129 workers, 86 in on-board services. 

"There are things we want to pay for as a country so we can have a country," says a passenger rail advocate.

A few years ago, I found myself in the dining car of Amtrak’s Empire Builder in the part of Montana that gives it the name “Big Sky Country.” My fellow travelers were an elderly couple heading to North Dakota. As we ate our dinner and watched the scrublands pass by, I asked why they decided to take the train. It turned out that they regularly used it to travel to auto auctions in Montana, as they didn’t like making the all-day drive. From our conversation I got the impression that without the money from this marginal business, they’d struggle to make ends meet. Given the risk of long-distance driving for the elderly and the lack of flights, this was the best way to make the trip.