[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE IMPORTANCE OF MAINTAINING A FEDERAL COMMITMENT TO SUPPORT AMTRAK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sandlin) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANDLIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight. And the Democrats rise 
tonight, to stress the importance of maintaining a Federal commitment 
to support Amtrak. I, along with 150 of our colleagues, support 
providing Amtrak with the $1.2 billion it needs to maintain its current 
success on into 2003.
  A working national passenger rail network is essential for east Texas 
and America, but the Federal Government must provide resources for 
capital improvements if Amtrak is to continue to service the Nation at 
affordable, competitive rates.
  According to Amtrak, without this funding Amtrak will be forced to 
eliminate nearly all long-distance passenger trains by October 2002, 
which would be disastrous for rural America. Rural America and east 
Texas support a national rail service. We do not approve of shutting 
down rural routes while funding only a northeast corridor commuter 
route.
  Under Amtrak's proposal, service between Boston and Washington will 
remain, while lines like the Texas Eagle route will be shut down if 
Congress fails to provide sufficient resources for fiscal year 2003. 
Amtrak's long-distance passenger line provides critical transportation 
options for rural areas like east Texas, allowing rural residents as 
great an access to transportation as residents of fully urbanized 
areas.
  In many cases, Amtrak's Texas Eagle is the only means east Texans 
have to travel long distances. If Amtrak is forced to close its long 
distance lines, the main links between Texas and cities would be 
severed, crippling the local economy and retarding rural development in 
my district and across the Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, the people of east Texas use and support Amtrak. 
Ridership of the Texas Eagle line and revenue from the Texas Eagle line 
has increased by 9 percent since January, 2001, exceeding budget 
projections.

                              {time}  2000

  These positive developments have been achieved through bold steps 
taken by the people of East Texas to do everything in their power to 
keep the Texas Eagle line running and bold steps from Amtrak to reduce 
its management to maximize efficiency.
  In March, Amtrak announced that its CEO and president George 
Warrington was resigning to move on to another project after raising 
Amtrak's revenues to a record $2.1 billion for the 2001 fiscal year. 
Capitalizing on this vacancy as a new opportunity, Amtrak's board hired 
David Gunn to continue improving Amtrak's record. This new 
administration lead by Mr. Gunn is making radical changes to increase 
its ridership and revenues to achieve fiscal responsibility in a common 
sense way.
  Mr. Gunn has wide experience with the commuter rail industry both in 
America and in Canada serving as the president of the New York City 
Transit Agency from 1984 to 1990 and the chief general manager of the 
Toronto Transit Commission from 1995 to 1999. He carries with him an 
exceptional international reputation based on his ability to unite 
labor, business, local communities and governments to successfully 
improve financial stability and plan for the future. With this strong 
track record, Mr. Gunn brings to Amtrak the ability to overcome its 
financial difficulties through progressive policies and realistic plans 
for the future.
  Just yesterday, Amtrak's governing board approved changes to 
consolidate authority and remove unnecessary oversight. These measures 
include cutting the number of vice president titles from 84 to 
approximately 20, clearly assigning the authority over cars and 
locomotives to five people when 16 currently share the responsibility, 
and consolidating Amtrak's three operating divisions and its mail and 
express business into the company headquarters in Washington. The new 
streamlined chain of command will vastly improve Amtrak's decision 
making and efficiency. But any attempts to solve Amtrak's crisis will 
be for naught without strong Congressional support to match Amtrak's 
bold new policies.
  Now, Amtrak's opponents argue that the Federal Government has bailed 
out Amtrak before to no effect, and that private passenger lines are 
the only solution. Not so. In 1997, Congress reauthorized Amtrak for 5 
years at $5.2 billion. However, only $2.7 billion was actually 
appropriated, barely 52 percent of the money. This does not constitute 
a bail out. In fact, this latest figure is only the continuation of a 
decades old pattern of underfunding Amtrak while at the same time 
demanding that it become profitable. In essence, under the guise of 
supporting Amtrak, Congress has instead set it up for failure, 
providing Amtrak with just enough money to survive another year but not 
giving it the capital to develop necessary infrastructure projects that 
could make it self sufficient by 2001.
  No other publicly funded transportation system in America, much less 
a comparable national passenger rail system in the world has succeeded 
without significant public capital investment to modernize systems, 
enhance security and fund long distance service. In fact, no private 
passenger line could succeed under those same circumstances. 
Privatization of long distance passenger service would be tantamount to 
termination of long distance passenger rail service. It would result in 
the loss of rail service in many rural communities and would result in 
the lay off of many, many dedicated Amtrak employees. Only short 
distance commuter routes would remain. The people of East Texas need 
and deserve access to a national rail network as much if not more so 
than communities in the Northeastern United States. They do not need a 
multitude of new rail bureaucracies without adequate resources.
  Importantly, if Amtrak is to be reduced to servicing the Northeast 
corridor alone, as a regional transportation network, it should operate 
without Federal support.
  With proper funding Amtrak can succeed. H.R. 4545 will provide that 
funding. With $1.9 billion Amtrak can make necessary changes. America 
and East Texas deserve a strong passenger rail system and I will 
continue to fight for Amtrak.

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