[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 22980]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 AMTRAK

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, at 12:30 today the Senate will consider a 
procedural motion to go to the Amtrak reauthorization bill. I am urging 
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.
  For a long time Amtrak has been a question mark in Washington--will 
it survive? Do we need it? It will survive if we have the will to 
support it. The question whether we need it has been answered 
convincingly. All across the United States, not just in the northeast 
corridor, in my State of Illinois, Amtrak has become an affordable 
alternative for people who cannot afford to pay for gasoline for their 
cars. Amtrak ridership is higher now than it has been for decades in 
Illinois. It is very difficult for a person in my State to get a 
reservation for a seat on an Amtrak train. Clearly it is a popular 
means of transportation and in demand. Friends of mine who tried to 
travel from downstate to Chicago say unless you think weeks in advance 
to make a reservation, you can't get on the train--and of course I 
think that is the wave of the future, and a good one. More and more 
people taking this affordable alternative are leaving their cars behind 
and are leaving congestion and pollution behind. That is a positive 
development.
  But we cannot have an Amtrak moving forward that serves the needs of 
America without an authorization bill. The last time we passed an 
Amtrak authorization bill into law was in 1997. It has been 11 years 
since we passed an authorization and, as a result, this agency has been 
languishing, surviving from year to year, lurching from one inadequate 
budget to the next, trying to stay alive. The Amtrak trains you see on 
the tracks today are rolling stock that is pretty ancient by travel 
standards.
  By travel standards, it has been around 20, 30, 40 years. It has been 
pushed to the limit. Now we need it more than ever, and we need to pass 
this authorization bill.
  Our leader on the Democratic side is Senator Lautenberg. Frank 
Lautenberg of New Jersey has really made a name for himself in the 
field of transportation during his service in the Senate, and he has 
worked so hard to make sure Amtrak moves forward in the 21st century.
  We need to pass this authorization bill today. This bill does so many 
things that are absolutely essential: increases capital grants to 
Amtrak so it can start rebuilding its trackage, making sure it is safe 
and that trains can move faster so they can have better ontime 
performance.
  They also develop State passenger corridors. Illinois has a terrific 
program and a lot of demand for expansion of Amtrak. Downstate, we now 
have three different corridors: St. Louis to Chicago, Quincy to 
Chicago, and the route that runs through Champaign and Carbondale. But 
we have requests from northern Illinois, Rockford, Galena, into 
Dubuque, IA. We have requests from Chicago to the Quad Cities and into 
Iowa, even farther. All of these communities begged me for the 
opportunity for Amtrak service.
  Many of these same communities have been coming to Congressmen and 
Senators over the years asking for air service. They still want it, but 
they are realistic in realizing short-haul service is now better served 
by passenger rail or at least can be supplemented with passenger rail, 
and so they are asking for that alternative too. We need to expand that 
opportunity around the United States.
  If you want to order a new Amtrak train and cars, get on a waiting 
list in Canada or Europe. We don't make many, if any, here in the 
United States. That has to change too. With Amtrak with a clear and 
bright future, I believe there can be more investment in capital in 
Amtrak here in the United States. I would like to see facilities in my 
State of Illinois or some adjoining State building the train cars we 
need for the future instead of heading off to Canada or Europe and 
trying to bid for them.
  We also have to come to a better relationship with the freight 
railroads. You see, with very few exceptions, Amtrak doesn't own the 
railroad track, the freight railroads do, and there was a long-standing 
agreement that Amtrak would have priority to move passengers over that 
freight rail track. Well, of course, that means Amtrak is at the mercy 
of dispatchers who will put a loaded passenger train on a siding or a 
passing track and let it sit for long periods of time waiting for a 
freight train. That is not the way it is supposed to work. The 
passenger rail, Amtrak, is supposed to have priority. In this bill, we 
give the Surface Transportation Board the ability to take a look and 
see if the freight railroads are discriminating against Amtrak in terms 
of service and whether damages should be awarded.
  Finally, after all of these years, we put some teeth into the 
enforcement of a law that has been on the books for a long time saying 
that the freight railroads have to work to give the passenger rails 
this kind of opportunity. This is an important piece of legislation, 
long overdue. It has been held up for so many years, and it is so 
important that we do it now.
  We believe, as I think most Americans do, that high-speed rail is 
part of our future. It is not just a nostalgic view of the past with 
passenger trains; it is part of our future as well.
  This bill has important investments in Amtrak, important improvements 
when it comes to rail safety.
  One of the provisions in this bill will require, over time, that they 
put on the engines of trains what they call positive train control. 
What that means is we would have avoided the accident in Los Angeles 
that killed people recently. When a train would approach a red light, 
the engineer would have to give a positive force to change the train or 
it would automatically shut down and slow down. So it really creates a 
safety measure that could have saved lives in California and will save 
lives across America if it is instituted. That and several other things 
here will make a big difference in passenger service.
  I hope this bill gets a strong bipartisan rollcall of support. I know 
there are Republicans who feel strongly, as I do, that this is an 
important step forward for the 21st century for passenger service on 
trains for Americans and that Amtrak is part of America's future.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I know we don't have a lot of time, so I will try, if 
it is all right, to ask for 5 minutes. Is somebody controlling our time 
here?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the Senator is 
recognized.

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