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Release #05-34—November 3, 2005 (second news release of the day)
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Washington, D.C.—The National Association of Railroad Passengers today criticized the creation by House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) of a so-called “Amtrak Working Group.” The Group is to “determine whether there is sufficient information to warrant the establishment of a formal Congressional taskforce to address” new GAO allegations about Amtrak finances.
NARP Executive Director Ross B. Capon said, “We believe that Subcommittee Chairman Steven LaTourette (R-OH) has been a good, diligent and fair chairman. We are distressed at the apparent circumvention of him and his subcommittee. GAO has studied Amtrak endlessly over the past decade. It is not clear why this report warrants creation of a working group. The last thing we need is yet another ‘group’ to study Amtrak.”
The Association agrees with critical statements by Reps. James Oberstar (D-MN) and Corinne Brown (D-FL), ranking members on the full committee and the Railroads Subcommittee, respectively.
Oberstar said, “I don’t understand why we need a special working group to study this report when we already have a Subcommittee on Railroads…
Committee Task Forces are best used in cases that do not easily fit into the jurisdiction of an existing subcommittee or cross subcommittee jurisdictional lines. That clearly is not the case here.”
An Oberstar release said that he appointed three Democrats to the working group “despite these reservations” because he wanted “to make sure that the GAO report [released today] is thoroughly and fairly vetted.” Those three are Elijah E. Cummings, MD; Jerrold Nadler, NY; and Brian Baird, WA.
Brown said, “It is uncalled for to circumvent the Subcommittee and its leadership, and shows just how far some Members are willing to go to bow to the wishes of the White House and derail Amtrak.”
Of the five Republicans on the study group, two including the chairman have no Amtrak service, and one, Mark Kennedy (MN) is one of the House’s most outspoken Amtrak opponents. Moreover, Richard Baker (R-LA), who will chair the working group, made some factually incorrect statements at the subcommittee’s June 9 hearing on Amtrak food and beverage service. In an obvious attempt to compare Amtrak unfavorably with a private company, Baker claimed that “Chef Mario” runs food service profitably on Amtrak’s California trains. In fact, Chef Mario is merely a vendor that supplies hot meals and fresh sandwiches that Amtrak workers sell on Amtrak’s San Joaquins. [The other Republican members are Vernon Ehlers, MI; Sam Graves, MO; and John Boozman, AR. Boozman has no service.]
In response to today’s GAO report, NARP notes that federal funds used for operations have been declining. The increased funding levels Amtrak has sought are for capital, including bringing infrastructure and Amtrak rolling stock to a “state of good repair.” Many of Amtrak’s critics claim to support much of this work.
Perhaps the debate is best summarized in Amtrak President David L. Gunn’s September 2 letter to JayEtta Hecker, GAO’s Director of Physical Infrastructure: “During the last 36 months, we have focused on maintaining liquidity, cleaning up the books, rebuilding plant equipment, and building an organization that can manage the budget and control costs. I think the results speak for themselves...We did all the work with less people and still kept our operating needs flat.”
The GAO’s “projection” that Amtrak’s losses will “grow by 40% within four years” ignore the cost-saving measures that Amtrak has instituted, and continues to build on. In Fiscal 2005, Amtrak used $570 million in federal funds for operations (as opposed to capital). That is projected to decline to $540 million in Fiscal 2006.
Amtrak’s total revenues increased $18 million or 0.9% in Fiscal 2005 vs. the previous year, while total expenses increased $12 million or 0.4%. FY05 revenues were $1.883 billion, expenses $2.962 billion. Expenses include “depreciation net of amortization,” a non-cash expense which exceeded $500 million in both FY03 and FY04.
Amtrak’s employee headcount fell from 24,877 at the end of Fiscal 2001 to 19,177 at the end of Fiscal 2005 (September 30, 2005). That is a decline of 5,700. Even backing out the 1,500 associated with the big MBTA (Boston) commuter rail operation on which Amtrak did not re-bid, there is still a decline of 4,200 or 18% even as Amtrak ridership rose 8%, from 23.5 million in Fiscal 2001 to 25.4 million in Fiscal 2005.
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