Hotline #702 -- May 15, 2011

Congress passed a long-overdue budget for 2011 yesterday, with a number of painful cuts that include a $78 million reduction in Amtrak’s budget (compared to 2010’s enacted levels), the elimination of funding for high-speed rail, and a $502 million reduction from 2010 in New Starts transit funding.  President Barack Obama announced today he would sign the bill into law.

The move is a bitter disappointment for supporters of the new High Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) program.  The one-week bill agreed late April 8 apparently would have preserved $1 billion for 2011—a $1.5 billion reduction from the 2010 level.  The long-term bill revealed on April 11 and now heading for enactment, however, not only zeroed out HSIPR for 2011 but actually takes back $400 million of the FY2010 appropriation.  That adds up to a total of $2.9 billion in cuts to the popular, oversubscribed program.

NARP President Ross Capon said, “With gas prices soaring above $4 per gallon, cutting funding to passenger trains and transit is bad policy that will hurt American families.  Ominously, lead oil producer Saudi Arabia clearly on the wrong side of history, as evidenced by their behavior in Bahrein, which makes further gasoline price increases.  We plan on working with Congress and the President to make sure that the newly-established ‘zero baseline’ for the high-speed rail program does not stand in the 2012 budget process.”  Yesterday, oil prices rose again as the market absorbed news of the complete shutdown of Libya’s production and the inability of Saudi Arabia to match the quality of Libyan oil.  Brent closed at $122.36 and West Texas Intermediate at $108.11. (Today WTI rose further to $109.45.)

On April 4, 24 states (along with the District of Columbia and Amtrak) submitted 98 passenger train projects totaling almost $10 billion.  That’s half of the United States, representing a vast majority of its population.  Applicants included 12 Republican governors—including Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who had previously turned down high-speed rail funds—signaling a truly bipartisan enthusiasm for this important, jobs-creating program.

2012 Budget Looming

Passengers must now turn their attention to the 2012 budget process, already underway.  The enactment of the President’s proposal for a six-year, $53 billion investment in high-speed and conventional-speed passenger rail would ensure that this exciting program continues to grow to meet the surging demand for trains.  Initial talks, however, have emphasized the deficit between infrastructure investment requirements and the available levels of funding from existing sources, leaving legislators with a sizable challenge.

The House already passed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal for 2012.  The vote went almost entirely along party lines, with only four Republicans voting “no”, and no Democrats voting “yes” (NARP Golden Spike recipient Representative Denny Rehberg of Montana was one of the four Republicans to dissent).  The bill will now go to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it is sure to be voted down.

Ryan’s budget drew instant criticism from the transportation sector.  Edward Wytkind—President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO—released a statement saying that, if adopted, this plan would “make this the generation that abandoned a national transportation system that can meet our national economic interests.”

“Chairman Ryan’s budget is a blueprint to ruin the nation’s already failing transportation system” said Wytkind.  “It is a recipe for massive job loss, reflects a total disregard for the needs of Americans who continue to suffer under high unemployment, and destroys any hope that America will finally address the well-documented deterioration of our transportation system and infrastructure.”

The President has expressed confidence that his ambitious infrastructure goals will be realized, however.  At an event held in Chicago yesterday, he criticized people who think that “America can’t do big things anymore”, arguing that the Republican plan to reduce the debt would create “a nation of potholes”.

“If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in” said President Obama.  “That’s what this budget debate is about and that’s what the [2012] presidential campaign is going to be about.”


U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced April 8 that the Federal Railroad Administration is releasing more than $300 million in obligated grants for high- and higher-speed rail projects across the country.

“We have heard the call of the American people to build the safest, fastest and most efficient ways to move people and goods,” said LaHood in a Department of Transportation statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Obama, communities across the country are already feeling the economic benefits of rail and today we take another step forward, bringing new jobs to our citizens. Through high-speed rail, we are helping America win the future.”

These grants will fund work in 9 states, creating jobs in the construction sector hard hit by the recession.

You can see a full list of the award recipients at the DOT’s website.


Executives from Amtrak submitted written testimony to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads this week, with providing a dedicated source of funding for intercity rail topping the company’s list of priorities for the next surface transportation bill.

The current surface transportation law expired in 2009, and has been extended through a series of short-term reauthorizations while legislators argue over what form its replacement should take.  There has been widespread consensus that the government is not spending enough to maintain and expand U.S. infrastructure, although there is widespread confusion and disagreement on the best methods to levy the money.  And the introduction of the first wave of Tea Party backed congressmen introduces an element of uncertainty about what kind of support a more ambitious surface transportation bill will receive.

Regardless, Amtrak is indicating that it wants to be put on equal footing in whatever transportation bill is passed.

“[T]he development of intercity passenger rail and Amtrak’s national system should be afforded a significant role in the nation’s federal surface transportation programs,” said Joe McHugh, Amtrak vice president for government affairs and corporate communications.  “[I]f our nation’s intercity passenger rail system—and the transportation system of the United States as a whole—is to be developed and sustained, it is imperative that Amtrak and other federal rail programs be integrated into a comprehensive and truly multi-modal surface transportation authorization bill.”

Amtrak wants the surface transportation bill to:

1. provide dedicated, multi-year funding for intercity and high-speed rail;
2. establish a national infrastructure investment strategy;
3. create a clear and leading role for Amtrak;
4. ensure coordinated corridor planning and project execution;
5. address liability and insurance issues.

You can read a copy of the testimony at Inside Amtrak. [PDF]


Amtrak’s reservations and ticketing system will be out of service on Sunday (April 17) to undergo maintenance. For most of the day Sunday, reservations can’t be made on the phone or at Amtrak.com, station agents won’t be able to issue tickets, and QuikTrak machines will not operate. Passengers traveling Sunday are advised to purchase and pick up their tickets in advance.


Amtrak announced that last month that it set a new record for March ridership, marking 17 consecutive months of year-over-year ridership growth for Amtrak and putting the company on track for yet another annual ridership record.

“Our ridership has grown more than 36 percent since 2000, and I expect that trend to continue – and if gas prices continue to rise – to accelerate. Our only restriction will be the available capacity,” Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman told a House Appropriations committee on April 7.

Amtrak carried more than 137,000 passengers last month, a 5.9% increase over March 2010.  Ridership is also up 5.9% for the first half of fiscal year 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, with more than 802,000 more passengers taking the train.  In an April 7 release, Amtrak said growth over the six-month period October-March was 3.9% on the Northeast Corridor, 7.7% on state-supported and other short corridors, and 5.3% on the long-distancet trains.


The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report this week praising the Federal Railroad Administration’s creation and oversight of the high-speed rail grant program, while noting that greater transparency would benefit the program and immunize it from unfair attacks.

GAO’s “Recording Clearer Reasons for Awards Decisions Would Improve Otherwise Good Grantmaking Practices” said that the “FRA established a fair and objective approach for distributing these funds and substantially followed recommended discretionary grant award practices used throughout the government.”

The DOT responded to the report in a prepared statement released to the press:

“The Department is extremely pleased that GAO’s review of the project selection process concluded that DOT followed good grant making practices in making high-speed rail award decisions.  The Federal Railroad Administration worked hard to ensure that the program was both thorough in its evaluation of project merits and fair in its decision making.  GAO was particularly complimentary of FRA’s merit-based practices for identifying projects and awarding grants and considered FRA to be one of the top rated agencies in the government for communicating critical information on its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act competitive high-speed rail grant program.”

The only criticism directed at the FRA was that the reasons given for why individual projects are selected or not selected can be vague, oftentimes just restating the application criteria.  By providing more detailed records on the reasons behind the decision-making, the GAO believes the FRA could protect the high-speed rail program from criticism over the credibility of the grant-making process.


The head of the nation’s third-largest freight rail company told Bloomberg News on April 6 that he doesn’t believe his company can support the high-speed rail program.

CSX Corp. CEO Michael Ward—who is also President and Chairman of the freight rail company, whose tracks host numerous Amtrak and commuter trains—has previously expressed doubts over the feasibility of passenger trains moving at 110 mph and higher on freight rail networks, but he struck a more aggressive note in these recent comments to reporters.

“I’m a corporation. I exist to make money, OK?” Ward said. “You can’t make money hauling passengers, so why would I want to do that? That wouldn’t be fair to my shareholders.”

CSX is currently protesting the State of New York’s proposal to provide 110 mph passenger train service over its tracks between Albany and Buffalo.


Eurostar, the company that operates high-speed trains under the Channel Tunnel, announced April 14 that it is experiencing a ridership boom in the first quarter of 2011.

“We are pleased to report strong growth during the first quarter of 2011 in both sales revenues and passenger numbers” Eurostar chief executive Nicolas Petrovic said.  “While market conditions remain uncertain, we have seen an increase in business passenger volumes with a particular uplift from clients in the financial services sector.”

The operator’s trains—which run between London, Paris, and Brussels—carried 2.15 million passengers between January and March.  That’s a 7.5% increase over the same period in 2010.  Revenues were up £197, or 10.7%.  A large portion of the increase is attributed to the return of the American tourist, who have driven leisure trips up by 9.2%.


Many public radio stations are broadcasting a Human Media segment called “Passengers,” two separate hour-long documentaries on public transit.  Clips from an interview of NARP President Ross Capon are in the second hour.

You can download the audio of both hours to an mp3 player or hear it streaming at: http://humanmedia.org/passengers/


Amtrak launched an interactive website for kids this week, unveiling AmtrakKidsDepot.com.

The site for young train fans and their families is designed to be fun as well as educational, providing kids the opportunity to explore the history of rail travel.  It offers games, activities, and downloads about Amtrak, trains, geography, and the environment.


VIA Rail Canada, the national intercity passenger train operator, is offering 50% off tickets on all of its routes, including sleepers, for travel between April 19 and September 5, 2011.

Tickets must be purchased before midnight Eastern time on Tuesday (April 19) to qualify for the discount, and it only applies to a certain number of seats on each train. See VIA Rail’s website for details.