At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Rail Users’ Network (RUN), held by teleconference on September 25, 2021, the following resolution was adopted unanimously:
WHEREAS Section 201(a)(5)(C) of the Passenger Rail Investment & Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA) defines Amtrak’s “national passenger rail system” as “long-distance trains of more than 750 miles between endpoints operated by Amtrak as of the date of enactment of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008”; and
By defining Amtrak’s national network in that manner, such provision absolutely prohibits any new trains to be added to the national network, unless they are established as state-supported trains, despite their character as trains serving several states; and
There have never been any trains on routes more than 750 miles long that were successfully established with funding from the states served by such routes in Amtrak’s fifty-year history; and
The statutory provision at issue absolutely precludes any new long-distance trains from being established, as demonstrated by Amtrak’s announced expansion plans between now and 2035; and
No trains in Amtrak’s current network have started service more recently than 1985; and
The current prohibition on expanding Amtrak’s long-distance network serves to preclude any expansion of mobility on that network; and
No corridors operated by Amtrak today, with the exception of the Northeast Corridor (which is defined separately in the PRIIA legislation) and intrastate corridors, are longer than 309 miles; and
There is no statutory process for establishing routes of length between 310 and 750 miles, except for the historically-unsuccessful practice of establishing state-supported routes: and
WHEREAS RUN is dedicated to improving mobility by rail, including on Amtrak; it is hereby
RESOLVED that the Rail Users Network hereby calls for the definition of Amtrak’s national network under PRIIA §201(a)(5)(C) be repealed; and
FURTHER RESOLVED that the above-cited definition to be amended to specify trains on Amtrak’s national network as including all trains on routes running through or operating in more than one state, when the length of such route exceeds 310 miles.
This resolution will be sent to Amtrak, appropriate members of Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other concerned or interested parties.
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RICHARD RUDOLPH, Ph.D., Chair