'Railroads' Archive
Having to pay $120 for a barrel of oil or $4 for a gallon of gas will make people do strange things. Like vote to increase subsidies for Amtrak, in the case of majorities of the US House and Senate. Those majorities, it should be noted, included a number of Republicans, a group not generally known for throwing money at the money-losing intercity passenger railroad. Enough Republicans, in fact, to sustain a threatened presidential veto.
So does this mean American business travelers can look forward to zipping from city center to city center on safe, spiffy, speedy trains of the kind seen in places like France, Germany, and Japan? In three words, not so fast.
For one thing, the funding increase isn’t that big. What is expected to emerge from a House-Senate conference committee is more likely to be a boost from the current fiscal year’s $1.2 billion to about $2 billion. Not chicken feed, but nothing like what countries like, oh, France, Germany, and Japan have had to invest in passenger rail infrastructure in order to support high-speed rail service.
And the US is too big, its major cities too far-flung, for a nationwide high-speed rail network to be anything but a pipe dream. Nevertheless, the prospect of increased investment in Amtrak should raise hopes among business travelers eager to leave their cars at home but not so excited about jumping into the troubled air travel system. Depending, of course, on where those travelers aim to do business.
Where Amtrak performs best is in the densely populated Boston-to-Washington, DC, corridor, where — not coincidentally — Amtrak owns much of the track that its trains travel on. Some of the new money would go to infrastructure improvements designed to help Amtrak’s high-speed (by US standards) Acela service better achieve its promise and gain a larger share of the market in the northeastern US. The Amtrak funding legislation also would encourage states to help pay for regional service improvements by providing matching grants. Northern California is among the candidates for a regional rail upgrade, and in Texas officials have studied prospects for an Austin-to-San Antonio commuter rail connection that could involve Amtrak trains.
The smooth, efficient alternative to the airport and the highway is still a long way down the track. But continued high fuel prices — and enhanced government investment — could hasten its arrival.