March 22, 2002 Letter To Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd

To Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd

Letter from NARP to Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd
March 22, 2002

The Honorable Robert C. Byrd, Chairman
Committee on Appropriations
U. S. Senate

Dear Mr. Chairman:

As you know, the traveling public has increasingly relied on Amtrak since September 11. February was the sixth straight month in which the percentage change in Amtrak passenger-miles was far more positive than for the airlines-Amtrak up 8.6%, domestic airline services down 10.3%.

It is more important than ever that passenger rail continue across the nation, and-in particular-that Amtrak survive the current fiscal year. Therefore, we ask you to include funding for Amtrak in the emergency defense appropriations supplemental.

While Amtrak has said it has enough cash to last through September 30, we think the company may be so “close to the edge” that an incident or two (for example, terrorist event or derailment) could push it over the edge and force a permanent, nationwide shutdown at a time when most people think Congress has complete authority to decide what will happen in Fiscal 2003.

Indeed, a non-fatal derailment played a key role in the series of events that led to the private sector Auto-Train Corporation’s 1981 end of service.

To put it another way, we fear that Amtrak’s survival to the end of Fiscal 2002 depends on “everything going right,” much like Amtrak’s erstwhile hopes of meeting the ill-advised operational self-sufficiency target.

Some of Amtrak’s recent cutbacks are disturbing. Amtrak on March 1 eliminated checked baggage service and reduced staffing hours at significant cities including Austin, Detroit, El Paso, Fargo, Houston, Lamy (which serves nearby Santa Fe), Little Rock and Tucson. Since Maricopa, the new station serving Phoenix, never had checked baggage service, there now is no such service at any intermediate station on the 1,423-mile San Antonio-Los Angeles segment. Effective April 1, Amtrak will eliminate checked baggage at Cincinnati.

These are not the actions of a company with confidence in its future, or a company that gives customer service proper importance, and these are only the most immediately visible cutbacks. I enclose a letter published March 19 in The Indianapolis Star about cutbacks in Amtrak’s shops.

We cannot judge the amount of funding essential to maintaining reasonable service through September 30, but the $54 million bottom-line hit which George Warrington says resulted from the Amtrak Reform Council finding on November 9, 2001, sounds like the absolute minimum. With the right guidelines, a much larger amount could both insure successful completion of the fiscal year and act as a down payment for FY 2003. We believe the first priority beyond bare survival should be restoring to service the modern cars parked at Beech Grove, Indiana, because Amtrak so far has not found the funds needed to repair them.

Thank you for considering our views. Please let me know if we can help further in your consideration of and action on this issue.

Sincerely,

Ross B. Capon, Executive Director

Attachment:

The Indianapolis Star, March 19, 2002

Letter

Amtrak budget cuts impact rail safety

Is the government systematically destroying the only passenger rail system in this country?  It sure seems like it.  It is laying off the very people who keep the trains running in a safe manner.  It is tying the hands of very skilled tradesmen, whose job it is to see that the cars are safe to carry the public from one place to another.

Management and supervision are lolling in a state of complacency while the tradesmen are begging for parts and enough men and women to accomplish the intricate task of making sure every car gets all the repairs needed.

“If it rolls it goes” seems to be the call going out from the powers-that-be at Amtrak. What happens when people are injured or, worse yet, killed because the resources were not available to assure safe travel by rail?

There are many people who will never travel by air again. This is a golden opportunity to take advantage of that fact and increase a valuable resource.

Over 250 of the layoffs have been at Beech Grove, the only heavy repair facility in the country. If Beech Grove is stripped of its ability to function, you in effect cripple the entire country. I would not like that on my conscience.

Julie Agard, Indianapolis