Cedar Rapids Gazette: “America needs passenger trains”...but…

The Cedar Rapids Gazette ran a sort of hybrid editorial March 3, “The little engine that can’t.” On the one hand, they begin, “America needs passenger trains.” But they continue that “it’s time to let this patient [Amtrak] die and resurrect a passenger train service that can thrive.” They offer no specifics, just this generalization at the end of their editorial: “America needs its passenger trains to run—in a business model that works.”
Incongruously, they argue that states like Iowa stand the most to lose from letting Amtrak continue to live: “Train advocates in Iowa should not want the status quo. Without changes, the first victims of increasing financial problems of Amtrak are likely to be long-distance trains like the California Zephyr…”
I wrote to them yesterday, expressing appreciation for their opening statement and overall goal, but noting that Amtrak is making changes, and taking them to task for confusing annual operating grants and with debt, and for implying that the FY 2005 operating loss caused the debt to increase. Actually, Amtrak has taken on no new debt since June 2002, and total debt declined 8% from September, 2003, to December, 2005—from $3.9 billion to $3.6 billion.

Speaking of Amtrak’s debt, they are proposing $100 million in debt restructuring as part of their Fiscal 2007 federal grant, so they can get out from some of the very high rates they are paying. Secretary Mineta apparently does not understand this because he testified before a House appropriations subcommittee on March 7 that Amtrak was paying interest “at Treasury rates, as low as you can get.”  That’s simply not the case.