The measures in U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta’s announcement of the Bush Administration “plan” for Amtrak Thursday seemed like a reshuffling of deck chairs on a sinking ship.  If they are workable at all, they would clearly take an extended period to implement.  But if Amtrak is bled dry in the interim, there will be relatively little left to privatize or push off to the states.  Mineta avoided the issue of Amtrak’s immediate need for cash to sustain operations — he was silent on Amtrak’s request for a $200 million loan for the summer and pledged only about half of what Amtrak says it needs in fiscal 2003 to make needed infrastructure repairs and stave off service cuts.

The longer-term plan outlined yesterday by Mineta at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event called for an end to federal operating support for intercity passenger trains.  That would push inevitable operating deficits onto state governments in areas like the northeast corridor where states are already under-investing in mass transit and transportation more generally.  The Bush Administration also wants to hand the Northeast Corridor rail line itself, the only major track and right-of-way owned by Amtrak, to a multi-state consortium, further increasing rail costs for state governments along a route where rail makes sense and is capturing market share from air shuttle services.

Mineta also called for contracting out rail service contracts to competitive bidders, who he said would be evaluated and selected by the Federal Railroad Administration.

Train Beating Plane on D.C. Run, 
But Lacks Juice on Capitol Hill
(June 10, 2002)

Amtrak Says it Beat Airlines in 4th Quarter NYC-DC Market
(March 18, 200)

Rail Funding Bills Proliferate in D.C. (Oct. 1, 2001)

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