Congress at odds over Amtrak funding increase

WASHINGTON – Funding for Amtrak is likely to face another difficult battle this year on Capitol Hill, as Northeastern senators from states that extensively use the system face off against appropriators who are not enamored with new federal spending on the embattled national passenger rail system.

Eager to move on to next year’s budget, Republicans controlling the House and Senate are hoping to quickly complete the 11 unfinished spending bills from last year within limits that President Bush set to emphasize his party’s dedication to fiscal discipline. The current version of the spending bill would give Amtrak about two-thirds of the $1.2 billion in federal subsidies Democrats had hoped to give it.

Incoming Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, planned for his panel to vote on the legislation as early as Monday.

But Northeastern lawmakers on the Senate transportation committee, including Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and John Kerry, D-Mass., are pushing a bill that would authorize a little more than $1 billion in one-time security improvements and invest $4.6 billion annually to develop the rail network.

“The nation continues to face two choices regarding Amtrak,” Kerry said. “We can choose to reform Amtrak and give it the resources to build a forward-looking, national rail system – to do for the railroads what Eisenhower did for our highways. Or we can choose to deny countless communities – several in Massachusetts and many in rural America – train service at a time when congested highways and long lines at airports make it clear Americans need more transportation alternatives, not less.”

Snowe said that the popularity of Amtrak’s Downeaster service, which was restored in December 2001 after a 30-year absence, from Portland, Maine, to Boston shows that the rail system can be profitable.

“The state of Maine is also working on plans to upgrade the Boston-to-Portland rail line for high-speed rail service, and may extend the line further north in the future,” Snowe said. “Amtrak has had successes, and I believe its future can be bright if we give it the tools to succeed. Amtrak has had to strive to maintain a national system without the federal support provided to every other major mode of transportation.”

To persuade her fellow lawmakers, Snowe is touting a study by the Congressional Research Service that examined per capita federal spending on transportation. The study found that the federal government spends $79 per person on highways, and $44 per person on subsidies for rural air service compared to $27 per person for passenger rail service.

“Federal spending on other modes of transportation literally dwarfs our investment in rail, and as a result, the U.S. ranks at the bottom of all industrialized nations in its support of rail travel,” she said.

Republicans including House transportation committee Chairman Don Young of Alaska and incoming Senate transportation committee Chairman John McCain of Arizona want states to play a greater role in coordinating and funding rail service. The chairmen have criticized Amtrak’s past performance and expressed skepticism of the company’s ability to manage billions more in federal aid.