Amtrak and Obama Administration officials provided a host of legislative and administrative updates and insights to passenger train advocates last Monday (April 20) when they addressed the annual Washington, DC conference of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP). “They won’t call this the ‘do-nothing Congress,’” Joe McHugh, Amtrak’s Vice President for Government Affairs and Corporate Communications, offered in summary. “They’ll do a lot this year, some that we may like, some that we may not like.”
“Our funding has been somewhat predictable over the past 20 years,” McHugh declared, “but not enough.” He compared this situation to that of the Highway Trust Fund, which has been extended annually 25 times, with a 26th extension likely to come next month. “Not being able to plan is no way to run a railroad,” he added. He also declared that Amtrak’s corporate debt is down to $1.3 billion now from $3.9 billion in 2002, and that the railroad is close to breaking even on overall revenue compared to overall operating costs.
It was separately revealed at the NARP conference that work on a Senate version of PRRIA may be starting, and that the lead is likely to be taken by Republican Sen. Roger Wicker (MS) and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (NJ). This partnership is reminiscent of the one between former Sens. Trent Lott (R-MS) and the late Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) that shepherded many passenger rail bills through the upper chamber in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In fact, Wicker and Booker hold the exact seats formerly held by Lott and Lautenberg, respectively.
McHugh also sees a potential tax reform bill as a potential source of added funding, as this is “the only way to get more revenues into the federal government.” Before the $8 billion in capital investment provided in the 2009 Recovery Act, the last time intercity passenger rail enjoyed more than $1.5 billion of investment in a single year was the $2.2 billion provided by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, one of the last major tax reform bills.
McHugh said that Capitol Hill appears to be moving towards the idea of completely separating Northeast Corridor grants and revenues from the rest of the Amtrak system. Backers say will not hurt the long-distance trains, while critics worry that it leaves those trains vulnerable to specific targeting by appropriators and believe that it needlessly complicates appropriations and accounting. A significant positive change in PRRIA, however, would be to fund 50% of Amtrak’s operating grant up-front on the first day of the fiscal year (or whenever an appropriations law is enacted), which would clear up a lot of paperwork resulting from the current quarterly doling out of Amtrak’s grant from the US Department of Transportation.
On the prospect of Amtrak competing with other potential operating firms for contracts from states for non-NEC corridor trains, McHugh said “most have accepted the fact that the United States isn’t set up to lend itself to the privatization model or open access restructuring” as seen in Europe. He also said host freight railroads are not wild about giving non-Amtrak operators access to their lines. But, he said, if states take on a greater role, then state-supported services’ operating contracts will be opened to firms that can negotiate access. More likely, he stated, is that there will be more arrangements where states contract with firms other than Amtrak for equipment maintenance (of state-owned fleets) and on-board services, including food and beverage.
On Amtrak’s fleet strategy, McHugh said that once the “Viewliner II” order from CAF USA is fully delivered, the next procurement will be replacements for the Acela trainsets. “That’s all we can manage for a while,” he admitted. The next step, however, would be to replace the P42 diesel locomotives, followed by other long-distance train equipment. Responding to complaints about bumpy rides on Acelas, McHugh said that 12 of the 20 Acela trainsets have been rebuilt and that these ride noticeably better than once that have not. “We need to rebuild the rest,” he said, and continue to upgrade the NEC infrastructure.
Federal Railroad Administration Associate Administrator for Railroad Policy Paul Nissenbaum also addressed the passenger advocates. He proclaimed that the notice of the availability of another $500 million in Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant funding just hit the street, and that applications from states and other entities are due June 5. This amount does not include any planning funds, though. He also said that $10 million in competitive grants for grade crossing improvements from Fiscal Year 2015 appropriations would be made available, along with $25 million for maglev development in in three designated regions (Baltimore-Washington, Pittsburgh and Chattanooga), applications for which were due Monday.
Nissenbaum again touted the Administration’s proposed GROW AMERICA Act which, like PRRIA, would put the responsibility for passenger rail service planning and development more in states’ hands. He also said that FRA needs to help Amtrak and states comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (and that Congress should make funding available for this purpose), as well as to address the Northeast Corridor’s state-of-good-repair backlog and to replace equipment.
When asked about the controversy over FRA requiring states that contract with multiple firms to provide corridor passenger train services to act as railroads for the purpose of regulatory compliance, Nissenbaum went only as far as to say that his agency is working cooperatively with states for a mutually agreeable solution that ensures that state-supported services are safe and that someone is accountable for ensuring their safety and compliance.
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