Cascades trains south of Portland could end if budget plan is approved

Revised Friday 3/27/2015 at 4:15 PM EDT - reaction from State Sen. Richard Devlin added at bottom.

Amidst all the media attention on Indiana and Illinois, it is easy to overlook other state-supported Amtrak routes that could be in jeopardy. One state where you would least expect short-distance corridor service to be cut back is Oregon, which recently purchased two new articulated trainsets from Talgo (two of the four made at Talgo’s short-lived Milwaukee plant, the other two having been ordered by Wisconsin and whose fate remains in limbo). The Beaver State was thus able to adjust schedules between Portland and Eugene (where it covers Amtrak Cascades trains’ operating losses, with Washington State covering them from Portland north), so that a same-day round-trip from Portland to points south would be possible (albeit unpopular, with the morning southbound departure from Portland being at 6:00 AM).  However, if Oregon’s state legislature enacts the budget adopted by its Joint Ways and Means Committee this week, all Cascades service south of Portland could come to an end, leaving the Portland-Eugene corridor served only by the once-daily Seattle-Los Angeles Coast Starlight.

Oregon budgets its state government financing on a biannual cycle. The current biennium ends June 30, 2015, with the next one going from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Rail Division estimated that it would cost $10.4 million to continue the current Portland-Eugene Cascades operations through the next biennium — and this was negotiated down from the approximately $20 million that Amtrak originally demanded. Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) included the $10.5 million figure in the state budget that he sent to the legislature prior to his resignation on Feb. 18, 2015, in the face of charges of misconduct against him and his fiancée.

The Co-Chairs of the legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee (Sen. Richard Devlin and Rep. Peter Buckley, both Democrats) unveiled a framework budget for ODOT in January that overall differed only slightly from the Governor’s budget — except for the Amtrak funding, which it elected to slash in half to about $5 million. After evaluating whether it could continue to operate the Cascades service at this level, ODOT’s Rail Division told the Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic Development, in a hearing on Wednesday, that it could not maintain existing service at that level. The agency told lawmakers that unless adequate funding is allocated before the legislature adjourns in June, it would have to tell Amtrak to initiate shut-down procedures for Cascades trains south of Portland. However, neither the Subcommittee nor the full Committee has taken any formal action on ODOT funding, so there is still time for passenger advocates to convince lawmakers to reinstate adequate funding levels. The Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates is urging its members and supporters to do just that.

The passenger train funding situation in Oregon has received no attention from the mainstream media. But if Cascades service south of Portland was discontinued, it would cost even more in the future to reinstate it that it does to keep it going at the level of about $5 million per year. It’s also worth mentioning that $5 million per year pales in comparison to the annual cost of maintaining Oregon’s highways, which is around $1.6 billion (a difference of $1.5 billion). 

Sen. Devlin told me on Friday afternoon that he feels passenger train advocates have misunderstood the Cascades funding situation. He noted that ODOT's original proposal was to fund Amtrak's entire $20 million request from the general fund, while other sources have contributed in the past, including taxes on non-automobile fuels (such as lawn mower fuel) and vehicle registration & license plate fees. (Note: Oregon's state constitution prohibits gasoline tax funds from being spent on anything other than roads.) "Basically, we're asking ODOT to find $5 million more" to complement $5 million from the general fund, Sen. Devlin said. "If [ODOT doesn't] find the money, the legislature will search for alternative ways of funding the Cascades. I don't believe there will be a reduction in service." 

When asked his reaction to ODOT's statement before his committee's Transportation & Economic Development Subcommittee on Wednesday that the $5 million funding level would force a service shutdown south of Portland, Devlin said he was unaware of the statement and does not know the basis for it, but reiterated "our intent is not to diminish the service, but rather to minimize the use of general fund money."