MEDIA ADVISORY: Oil Addiction and Passenger Rail

Wednesday, February 1, 2006
For Immediate Release

NARP agrees with President Bush that it is a “serious problem” that “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” However, addressing this problem requires corrective actions on many fronts.

For example, President Bush’s FY 2006 budget—to be released next Monday—should include funding to make intercity passenger rail a more attractive and widely available choice. Such funding would give credibility to such statements by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta as, “The President and I want to save Amtrak and improve passenger rail service” (St. Louis, March 10, 2005). Amtrak ridership rose in each of the last three years, and in eight of the last nine years. The company is not perfect, but the key problem is inadequate federal funding.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) said at a January 17 news conference announcing his re-election bid, “Part of my goal, hopefully, is to put a little pressure on the administration, because I don’t think their [passenger rail] proposal has any credibility at all, and on the House to go ahead and address this issue. And then let’s get into conference and see if we can get a bill that would be good.”

In a related move, the House Ways and Means Committee at a 1:45 PM session today, in accordance with its chairman’s mark, is expected to strip tax (funding) provisions from a bill (H.R. 1631) intended to help finance high speed rail infrastructure projects. The same thing happened in 2003. The action reflects the reality that passenger rail needs—but does not currently have—a champion on the House Ways and Means Committee.

[NARP’s analysis of intercity passenger rail and energy efficiency can be found here on our website.  This was written in 1979, but the arguments have changed little in 27 years.]

—Ross B. Capon, Executive Director
National Association of Railroad Passengers