April 6, 2021
U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio
Chairman, U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Dear Representative DeFazio:
The Rail Users Network thanks the members of Congress for funding the restoration of daily service on the national passenger rail carrier known as Amtrak. We do, however, have some additional recommendations concerning funding for this important and safe transportation resource.
We believe passenger rail should be on equal footing with other USDOT-sponsored transportation resources. This would provide an equally important, safe, and expedient alternative to driving and flying, and would also provide better connectivity to those cities and towns bypassed by air transport because of the short distances not conducive to air travel, yet too far to drive.
We believe our recommendations would not only restore this convenient mode of travel, but also make it highly accessible, by placing most of the population of the US within 25 miles of a train station. These recommendations include:
1. Enable legislation and funding to restore routes lost since 1979.
Those routes, and others, are essential in creating and maintaining connectivity, which makes the entire system more useful by enticing ridership. Senator Blumenthal has presented a bill to create a dedicated funding mechanism to allow for proper planning and implementation of this plan over time. This will also require revising the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA). The offending provision which defines the national network by limiting it is 49 U.S.C. Sec. 24102(7)(C). This provision prohibits Amtrak’s ability to grow its system and expand its capability.
2. Provide additional funding for much-needed new equipment. For the system to work as planned and needed, additional equipment is also required and will require funding. Funding for new equipment is imperative and should be immediate so that railcar manufacturing can begin tooling for production. Amtrak hasn’t placed orders for new long-distance equipment since the mid 1980’s because of a lack of funding. This has resulted in old equipment being run to the point where numerous breakdowns cause delayed or even terminated trains, resulting in the loss of repeat business.
3. Transparency of Amtrak’s accounting and operations. Amtrak must answer Congress’s questions in a straightforward manner about its finances and operations. Amtrak, in part because of its lack of proper funding when compared to other federally funded modes of transportation, has over the 50 years of its existence, resorted to a very peculiar reporting mechanism known as Amtrak Performance Tracking (APT). The very much distorted financial picture created by APT flies in the face of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) which, like the name implies, provides a clear representation of where and on what monies are spent. We, along with many members of Congress, believe that this lack of transparency on the part of Amtrak needs to be immediately corrected so that Congress, the states, and the public know their tax dollars are being used wisely.
4. Finally, we recommend that the Mica provision requiring Amtrak to break even or make a profit with its food service be dropped. Good food and proper service is one of the draws of travel by train. It is long known that passenger trains have provided quality meals on board, and is but one of the reasons travelers choose the train for their transportation needs. It provides that civility that air travel now lacks while, at the same time, allows one to fully relax while traveling. Amtrak wastes far too many of its valuable resources, and loses far too much good will from its passengers attempting to comply with this inane mandate.
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
Sincerely,
Richard H. Rudolph, Ph.D.
Chairman, Rail Users’ Network
211 Ocean Ave., Portland, ME 04103