MEDIA ADVISORY: Amtrak Working Group

Contact NARP

Friday, March 17, 2006
For Immediate Release

The House Transportation & Infrastructure Amtrak Working Group (majority members) just released their report, which is available on their web site. [A Democratic report was released earlier this week.] The majority’s emphasis is unduly negative.

One third of the two-page “executive summary” is devoted to arguing that passenger and freight trains cannot effectively use the same tracks.  This is not true.  Investments at “choke points” would significantly enhance performance of both freight and passenger trains.  See the “Network Reliability” discussion at pages 12-14 of Amtrak’s Grant and Legislative Request, also released this week and available on >Amtrak’s website in which Amtrak recommends $50 million to address such chokepoints.

The executive summary also is incorrect to state that Amtrak “only pays the incremental increase in cost of having passenger rail operating on the freight rail system.”  This statement ignores the incentive payments that Amtrak makes where railroads provide reasonable on-time performance.

Finally, consider the statement at page 3 that Amtrak’s funding “is mismanaged to such an extent that public and Congressional confidence is very low.”  Amtrak’s federal grant has risen in recent years precisely because Amtrak management restored Hill confidence in the railroad.  The $1.3 billion Amtrak got for the current fiscal year is up 24% from the Fiscal 2003 level of $1.04 billion.

For further comments, Contact NARPcontact NARP.