Amtrak has a plan—where's the money?

Railway Age, August, 2004

Amtrak has updated its five-year strategic plan to reflect, in the words of President and CEO David Gunn, "the effort we began last year to provide specific and precise details on exactly how every dollar is to be spent to bring the existing Amtrak system up to a state-of-good-repair." But Congress may not decide how much operating and capital support it will provide until later this year, or even early 2005.

To support Amtrak's existing operations, the five-year plan calls for federal funding averaging about $1.6 billion annually. It maintains annual federal operating support at $570 million. Amtrak and the Bush Administration are currently far apart on the amount of federal support: The $900 million proposed by the Administration, and supported by a House committee, would force a shut-down, Gunn said. Currently, Amtrak is operating under continuing resolutions that maintain an annual support level of around $1.2 billion, which Gunn said is "sustainable"--but not for long, given that current essential capital programs, like heavy equipment repair and track maintenance, are in full swing.

Planned infrastructure improvements over the five years include continued work on the Northeast Corridor: reconstruction of 32 interlockings, installation of 885,000 concrete ties, 423 miles of track undercutting, 352 miles of new rail, rebuilding of five major bridges, 136 miles of signal cable replacement, and renewal of 300 miles of catenary hardware. In addition, it includes 326 locomotive overhauls, and remanufacture or overhaul of 1,457 passenger cars and 11 cab cars. Amtrak also wants to acquire 80 automobile carriers to replace 50 year-old Auto Train equipment.

In addition to spelling out its own capital needs, Amtrak's plan addresses capacity issues faced by freight railroads--and not just where Amtrak trains are hosted. It makes "new recommendations today to address the growing needs and challenges of intercity rail service." Amtrak developed this plan by working closely with states and freight railroads.

The 2005-2009 plan addresses Amtrak's existing national system, state-initiated intercity corridors, and the national freight network. The corridor component includes "state proposals supported by Amtrak for specific passenger rail corridor development." The freight component contains "recommendations to protect and upgrade key facilities owned by freight railroads, [which] face serious problems of capacity, congestion, and reliability," Gunn said. "There is a growing consensus within the rail industry that we must come together to address these challenges." Amtrak says the federal government should consider a "freight investment-matching program" combining federal funds with those of the states and/or the freight railroads for key segments of the freight rail network. The investments "would not necessarily be limited to lines on which Amtrak operates, but would be based on such factors as congestion relief, benefit to local freight shippers, and cost-effectiveness."

Amtrak's newly amended agreement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania calls for the state and the railroad to share equally the cost of a $145.5 million program to increase speeds and service on the 104-mile Keystone Corridor between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The goal is to decrease local-train travel time to 105 minutes from 120 minutes by late 2006, and to offer 90-minute express service. The number of round-trip trains will be increased to 13 from 9.