Railroad Passengers Applaud, Criticize Brookings Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#13-04)
Contacts: Ross Capon 202-408-8362 [mobile 3010-385-6438]
Sean Jeans-Gail 202-408-8362
March 1, 2013

The Brookings Institution’s report on intercity passenger rail released today has some important insights, including these:  

• Amtrak’s total boardings and alightings jumped 55.1% from Fiscal 1997 to Fiscal 2012.  This growth “more than triples population growth (17.1%) over the same period and exceeds the growth in real gross domestic product (37.2%).”

• “Amtrak more than doubled the growth in domestic aviation passengers (20.0%) over the same 16-year period. Similarly, Amtrak also far exceeded the growth in driving (measured by vehicle miles traveled per year; 16.5%) and transit trips (26.4%). All three modes do carry larger aggregate quantities of people, but these growth trends serve as evidence of changing attitudes toward train travel.

• “As with other areas of infrastructure, recommendations for passenger rail tend to devolve into calls for increased federal spending. Such a call is probably justified especially over the long term for myriad reasons, including Washington’s historically outsized support of other transportation modes.”

• “States would undoubtedly make better partners by removing the roads-only exclusion for their gasoline tax revenues. By committing a portion of revenues to other modes beyond highways, states would increase their abil­ity to consider the entire transportation system, rather than isolated parts.”

Here, however, are some points that the report missed or did not sufficiently emphasize:

• Growth has occurred on all segments of Amtrak’s business as Amtrak has repeatedly said.  Amtrak’s Oct. 10, 2012 release on its Fiscal 2012 ridership stated, “All 15 Amtrak long-distance routes experienced an increase in passengers resulting in their best combined ridership in 19 years.”  In that year, long-distance trains accounted for 43% of all Amtrak passenger-miles and provided the only Amtrak service in 22 states and countless major cities including Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, Tampa and Denver. A passenger-mile is one passenger transported one mile. Our report on the long-distance trains is at www.narprail.org/resources/white-papers/2083-longdistancepaper (or, from www.narprail.org click on Resources and then on White Papers).

• Growth has been greater on state-supported routes because capacity has been added on those routes. 

• In passing the 2008 authorization law, Congress recognized the long-distance trains as a logical, federal responsibility. These trains could not survive a mandate that they get state support. It is unrealistic to expect trains that cross so many state lines to gain the support of all the involved states, or to expect all states on a route to agree on schedules, service amenities, and cost allocations among the states. It is a huge challenge for many states to come up with the additional funding for short-distance trains which the law requires by October 1, 2013, even though most of those trains are the responsibility of one or a few states; indeed, some of the biggest challenges are routes that involve two or three states.

About the National Association of Railroad Passengers

NARP is the only national organization speaking for the users of passenger trains and rail transit. We have worked since 1967 to expand the quality and quantity of passenger rail in the U.S. Our mission is to work towards a modern, customer-focused national passenger train network that provides a travel choice Americans want. Our work is supported by over 22,000 individual members.