WASHINGTON (AP) - Amtrak’s new president is warning the cash-strapped passenger railroad will shut down all service next month unless it gets a $200 million loan in the next three weeks. President David Gunn is hopeful the loan will come through, Amtrak spokesman Bill Schulz said Thursday. As collateral, Amtrak can use $200 million of the federal appropriation it expects to receive when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Schulz urged passengers holding reservations in July and beyond to keep them.
Gunn took over Amtrak on May 15, succeeding George Warrington. He previously ran transit systems in New York City and Washington. Gunn announced the $200 million shortfall in a letter Wednesday to Amtrak employees. He said Amtrak still is asking for $1.2 billion from Congress for the fiscal year beginning in October. Needing money to survive the final months of last year, Amtrak mortgaged parts of New York’s Pennsylvania Station to get $300 million, and its debt has skyrocketed in recent years as Amtrak has struggled financially.
The House Transportation subcommittee on railroads approved a bill last week that would give Amtrak the $1.2 billion it requested for the next fiscal year, plus $775 million for security and safety upgrades. The Senate Commerce Committee has approved a bill by Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., that would keep Amtrak operating for five more years and spend $4.6 billion a year on improving and expanding rail service.
Unfortunately Amtrak suffers from a LOT of problems that I’m not sure are surmountable. Cost and pricing are the major ones. Recently I looked into taking the train from L.A. to Seattle, and, while the base fare is not too bad, that’s just good if you want to sit in the coach for 18 hours, or however long it takes. If you want sleeping accomodations, however, the price becomes almost astronomical. As I recall, it was nearly $2000 for two round trips. There’s no way they can compete with airlines with prices like this.
With that said, however, a few Amtrak routes are extremely popular, and they do make a profit. I’m thinking chiefly of the Washington-Boston corridor, and the Santa Barbara - San Diego run. Even if Amtrak did have its plug pulled, I’m sure someone would step in and take over those runs.
hi all!
is the railroad system that bad?? its supposed to be the back-bone of the american economy,as well as the merchant marine.
tis a very sad thing inded,which I hope both can be reparied
It’s passenger rail service that is at risk, rdky2000. Not freight and the like.
It’s my understanding that overnight trains are at real risk (like the Chicago-Denver route, for example) and that even if they inject money into the system they may still cut that.
The Detroit-Chicago route is a great one but they’ve cut so many cars from the trains that they’ve shot themselves in the foot.
I just took the train to Toronto and I have to say that U.S. train service is more comfortable. It’s a pity more of us don’t use it.
That would really suck. The only time I ride the train is for short distances (Chicago - Milwaukee/Michigan/Minnesota) because long distances get really really pricey (Chicago-Atlanta is $350! I’ll just fly in 1/15 of the time!), but if it were reasonably priced, I would train it whenever I had the luxury of time.
Then again, maybe if they focused on where they were most efficient and cost-effective, like the short hops, they wouldn’t be in so much trouble. What the hell do I know, though?
I hope this is just a scare tactic to get more money out of Washington . . . The NY—Phila. route is a lifeline to me, I use it regularly every month or two to visit my mother. Jeez—what am I supposed to do, use Greyhound?!
I agree they could focus better on the short to middle length runs. As I implied in my complaint above, they really need to come up with more affordable sleeping arrangements. This would enable them to compete with the airlines on routes that could be traversed overnight.
Perhaps something like the old Pullman cars would be effective there, or the compartments you see in European sleeper cars, where a six-person compartment can be converted so it has six berths at night.
I’m not personally familiar with Amtrack but it is the only reason my grandmother-in-law gets to see her great grandchild since she’s deathly afraid of flying. I’d sure hate to see the service disappear as I’m sure there are many others like her.
We saw a spot on the Empire Builder recently, one of the Amtrack routes. If I heard them correctly they said the lose about $115/per person/per run.
Who was the guy in the movie that said something to the effect of “hell of a way to run a business”?
Privatizing it won’t do any good, not if the crappy rail system in England is any indication . . . Though I understand the Scottish rail system is terrific.
I certainly won’t fly to Phila. Not that I’m scared of highjackers—it’s just that it would take me two hours to get to the airport; an hour through security; an hour flight; two hours to get FROM the airport . . . Jeez, I could WALK it in that time. Train stations are all centrally, conveniently located, you can handle your own luggage, and change seats if your seatmate is annoying. I love trains! Plus, you get to look out the window and see houses. When that happens on a plane, it usually means trouble . . .
Picture this: You are trying to run the rail system. This year you spent X dollars. You KNOW that you will need (X + 10%) dollars to just meet capital needs payroll, etc. Congress gives you (X - 20%) and tells you to do a better job than last year. The end of the year rolls around - and SURPRISE! you couldn’t do it on what you were given by Congress. What’s Congress’ response? You obviously don’t know what you’re doing, so THIS year we are giving you ((X - 20%)-20%) to do the same job. DON"T SCREW IT UP, AND YOU"D BETTER POST A PROFIT!
Can you say Death Spiral?
Amtrak, thanks to the numerous accidents that have occured in the last couple of years (probably 99% of which weren’t there fault), are one major accident away from not having enough cars to meet what ticket sales demand. The shops at Beech Grove are full to capacity with damaged roling stock, but they don’t have the money to fix them. Yet Congress won’t get OFF THEIR ASSES and do something about it. Hell, they gave the AIRLINES a few billion after 9/11 to help them get back on their feet, but not to Amtrak, which showed through the crisis that yes, it was needed after all.
Eve, take some small comfort in the fact that at least Amtrak isn’t your only option for getting from New York to Philadelphia by rail. In a real pinch, you could take NJTransit/SEPTA.
(Okay, granted that would be three different shades of slow, but it is an option. I did say small comfort.)
When I was assigned a consulting gig in NYC, Amtrak took me to work, and brought me home again in time to put my daughter to bed.
I met scores of high-powered, and not-so-high-powered, people who’s lives would have been far tougher, more expensive, and generally more sucky without the train. I saw thousands more, that I never had a chance to meet, but I’m sure the same held true for them.
I love trains. I’ve only gotten sleeping accomodations once, but man was it nice. Lounging around in my underwear, lying in my bunk watching tv while I magically went from DC to Orlando. Meals are included when you get the sleeping accomodations, and they’ll even bring them to your room. If I had the money, I’d travel that way all the time.
Here is a list of legislators who are already on board supporting Amtrak funding. If you’re hot on this topic and your elected official ain’t on there, send 'em a note. And please realize, an e-mail is better than nothing, but letters are more effective. I suppose you could also send a thanks to your official if his/her name is on there. Let 'em know the eyes of the public are watching.
The problem is, I don;t know if pouring more money into that hole is the answer . . . It seems Amtrak needs either major restructuring or maybe even privatization . . . They’ve been getting gov’t. bailouts for years and the situation just seems to get worse and worse, and more lines get cut.
I don’t understand how they’re consistently running into monetary problems considering how much it costs- A roundrip ticket from DC to NYC is $160-$240 on Amtrak, a 2-week advance purchase plane ticket is half that at ~$100.
