U.S. Wants Amtrak’s Longer Routes Cut

The Bush administration proposed Monday that Amtrak eliminate long-distance trains, some of which lose hundreds of dollars per passenger, in a more aggressive bid to change the way the railroad does business.

Positioning itself more firmly for the debate in Congress on the long-term future of city-to-city passenger rail service, the Transportation Department said in its 2004 budget blueprint that big-ticket reform at Amtrak “can wait no longer.”

“For several trains it would literally be cheaper for Amtrak to buy each passenger a plane ticket to the next destination,” the administration said in its budget summary.

The administration is also proposing that Amtrak offer buyouts to some employees to reduce labor costs. The government would leave it up to Amtrak to decide if savings should come from its work force of nearly 23,000.

Amtrak has never made money in its 32-year history and its debt is about $4 billion.

“The federal government cannot afford business as usual at Amtrak,” Deputy Transportation Secretary Michael P. Jackson told reporters at a briefing on the agency’s proposed $54-billion budget. “This is a proposal with a message.”

Amtrak, a government-created corporation dependent on subsidies, has long resisted calls to make wholesale changes in its long-distance service.

It argues that the costs of shutting the routes down would make little difference in its bottom line, at least in the short term. It recently made plans to cut one train by summer, the Kentucky Cardinal, and has restructured a second, the Pennsylvanian.

“It remains our position that maintaining a national network of trains is a federal responsibility, and we’re committed to preserving that network,” Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said. He said the long-distance system is the minimum for a national network.

The railroad almost ran out of cash last summer and its chief executive, David Gunn, has said in recent weeks that it faces the same prospect this spring unless it receives $1.2 billion in subsidies for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Congressional leaders are negotiating that subsidy.

The administration’s budget proposed a $900-million subsidy for fiscal 2004, well below the $1.5 billion to $2 billion that Amtrak wants.

One senior government official said the administration is serious about changing the way Amtrak does business, and is determined to “get its pound of flesh.”

The administration said that underused and inefficient routes should be eliminated, but did not specify which ones. It listed several that lose a combined $1,500 per passenger.

Most long-distance trains operate through the Midwest and West, and require hefty per-passenger subsidies. The Sunset Limited from Los Angeles to Orlando, Fla., loses $347 per passenger, and the Texas Eagle from San Antonio to Chicago, $258.

Some routes have political strings attached, with key members of Congress favoring the jobs and service the trains provide to constituents. Many lawmakers whose districts or states have no Amtrak service resent any subsidies at all.