By NEIL H. SIMON, Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON – Though he has been rebuffed the last three years by Congress, President Bush is again seeking major cuts in funding for Amtrak.
Bush’s budget proposal for 2009, which he sent to Congress this week, calls for $800 million for the beleaguered passenger rail service – a 40 percent cut from last year.
The proposal is likely to meet with a new round of stiff resistance on Capitol Hill, where the money-losing rail system enjoys broad support, particularly amongst lawmakers along the Eastern seaboard who use the service.
The cuts “could potentially cripple Amtrak,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va. “I don’t want to see that happen. I want to see Amtrak operate efficiently.”
But the Bush administration argues that rail system has been run inefficiently for too long and “hemorrhaged” taxpayer subsidies, while failing to make changes that could put it on sounder financial footing.
“The idea is for Amtrak to run as a business. It is a for-profit corporation,” said Steve Kulm, Federal Railroad Administration spokesman.
The 2009 proposed funding level is “inadequate to operate national passenger rail service as it is currently configured,” Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said.
Amtrak has lost $480 million per year the last several years, Black said.
Amtrak operates seven trains a day from Richmond’s Staples Mill Road Station to Washington’s Union Station. It’s unclear how the proposed cuts would impact Virginia’s service.
Passenger rail advocates blasted the proposal. At a time of heightened concern about traffic and the environment, railroads remain a viable alternative to congested highways, they said.
“If their $800 million proposal stands, the company would not have enough to operate,” said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. “The whole thing would shut down and there would be a fight over how to keep parts of it, like the Northeast corridor, running.”
Some members of the Virginia delegation slammed Bush’s request.
“As a matter of fact, I’d like to see Amtrak service expanded, not contracted,” said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., who called the service to Virginia “valuable.”
Amtrak has been threatened with federal budget cuts in the past. Last year, facing a similar proposal from President Bush, Congress allocated $1.3 billion to Amtrak.
In 2006, Congress ignored the administration’s request to cut all of Amtrak’s government funding.
And key lawmakers say they plan to again ignore Bush’s request.
In the House, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the transportation committee chairman, will introduce a separate bill to boost Amtrak’s funding above requested levels, committee spokeswoman Mary Kerry said.
“The traveling public has embraced passenger rail service as an alternative to high gas prices and airline delays, and that has made Amtrak a critical player in the nation’s multimodal transportation system,” Oberstar said in a statement.
Most of the money in Bush’s proposal would go to maintaining tracks, trains and signals.
The budget also calls for Amtrak to become more efficient, requiring Amtrak to reduce financial losses by focusing more on services that make money.
The budget reflects that “Amtrak has taken few steps to align its business with the traveling public’s demand for intercity rail service and that it consequently continues to hemorrhage taxpayer funds,” the administration wrote in the proposal sent to Congress.
Amtrak spokesman Black said the company plans to submit its own budget proposal to Congress later this month.
Bush’s budget proposal for 2009, which he sent to Congress this week, calls for $800 million for the beleaguered passenger rail service – a 40 percent cut from last year.
The proposal is likely to meet with a new round of stiff resistance on Capitol Hill, where the money-losing rail system enjoys broad support, particularly amongst lawmakers along the Eastern seaboard who use the service.
The cuts “could potentially cripple Amtrak,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va. “I don’t want to see that happen. I want to see Amtrak operate efficiently.”
But the Bush administration argues that rail system has been run inefficiently for too long and “hemorrhaged” taxpayer subsidies, while failing to make changes that could put it on sounder financial footing.
“The idea is for Amtrak to run as a business. It is a for-profit corporation,” said Steve Kulm, Federal Railroad Administration spokesman.
The 2009 proposed funding level is “inadequate to operate national passenger rail service as it is currently configured,” Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said.
Amtrak has lost $480 million per year the last several years, Black said.
Amtrak operates seven trains a day from Richmond’s Staples Mill Road Station to Washington’s Union Station. It’s unclear how the proposed cuts would impact Virginia’s service.
Passenger rail advocates blasted the proposal. At a time of heightened concern about traffic and the environment, railroads remain a viable alternative to congested highways, they said.
“If their $800 million proposal stands, the company would not have enough to operate,” said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. “The whole thing would shut down and there would be a fight over how to keep parts of it, like the Northeast corridor, running.”
Some members of the Virginia delegation slammed Bush’s request.
“As a matter of fact, I’d like to see Amtrak service expanded, not contracted,” said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., who called the service to Virginia “valuable.”
Amtrak has been threatened with federal budget cuts in the past. Last year, facing a similar proposal from President Bush, Congress allocated $1.3 billion to Amtrak.
In 2006, Congress ignored the administration’s request to cut all of Amtrak’s government funding.
And key lawmakers say they plan to again ignore Bush’s request.
In the House, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the transportation committee chairman, will introduce a separate bill to boost Amtrak’s funding above requested levels, committee spokeswoman Mary Kerry said.
“The traveling public has embraced passenger rail service as an alternative to high gas prices and airline delays, and that has made Amtrak a critical player in the nation’s multimodal transportation system,” Oberstar said in a statement.
Most of the money in Bush’s proposal would go to maintaining tracks, trains and signals.
The budget also calls for Amtrak to become more efficient, requiring Amtrak to reduce financial losses by focusing more on services that make money.
The budget reflects that “Amtrak has taken few steps to align its business with the traveling public’s demand for intercity rail service and that it consequently continues to hemorrhage taxpayer funds,” the administration wrote in the proposal sent to Congress.
Amtrak spokesman Black said the company plans to submit its own budget proposal to Congress later this month.