NARP Celebrates Railroad Day by Calling on Congress to Invest in a Balanced Transportation System

Release #08-05—March 13, 2008

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Washington, D.C. March 13, 2008—As the 2008 Railroad Day opened on Capitol Hill, the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) renewed its call to Congress to invest in a comprehensive, multi-modal transportation system that includes passenger trains.

“Railroad Day provides an opportunity to emphasize that a variety of sectors rely on a strong and vital rail system, as well as to reiterate the interconnectivity between strong freight and passenger rail systems,” said Ross Capon, executive director of NARP.

NARP will be visiting Members of Congress as part of Railroad Day delegations to urge Congress to:

• Enact the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act.  S. 294, approved by the Senate on a 70-22 vote, contains both Amtrak funding and a new federal/state partnership program for passenger train development that will help implement NARP’s vision for the future of American transportation.

 

• Reject President Bush’s inadequate 2009 budget proposal for passenger trains. The Administration’s funding proposal for Amtrak is a 40% cut from the prior year and according to Capon, “disregards Americans’ concerns about rising gas prices, the environment, and hours of lost productivity due to highway and aviation congestion.”

 

• Include set-asides for passenger trains in climate change legislation. Despite data from Oak Ridge National Laboratory indicating that Amtrak uses 21% less energy per passenger mile than cars and 15% less than airplanes, passenger trains are given short shrift or ignored in both major climate change bills in the Senate.

 

• Support tax credits for all railroads. These credits help finance capital improvements to increase the efficiency, speed and reliability of rail networks for both passenger and freight trains. A three-year tax credit program for smaller (Class II and III) railroads expired December 31, 2007.

On its 40th anniversary last year, NARP proposed a grid-and-gateway networked train system that would connect cities and communities across America on rail lines already in existence or already planned, and would provide for alternative service when emergencies such as this arise. That vision for America, and a map illustrating possible routes, can be found at www.narprail.org/vision.

NARP’s proposal also influenced the report released in January by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission (NSTPRSC). That report, “Transportation for Tomorrow,” detailed legislative and financing recommendations to ensure sustained and balanced investment in various critical modes of transportation, including rail.