Amtrak Acela Train

Amidst the more than half a billion Federal dollars to be spent as stimulus (and another $287 million in tax breaks), there is great news for Amtrak but maybe not so great news for the people who ride it most — those in the Northeast Corridor.

The final stimulus bill will give Amtrak $850 million for capital projects — tracks, trains, stations — with an emphasis on projects that can be started quickly thereby putting people to work. But there’s one final proviso: No more than 50% can be spent on projects in the Northeast Corridor.

That’s nuts!

Putting aside the lines Amtrak is paid to run by states (such as the commuter lines in California), nearly three-quarters of Amtrak’s paying riders use the Northeast Corridor (72%) while those trains cost less than 30% of Amtrak’s budget to operate. Put another way, the biggest share of Amtrak’s spending goes to routes that carry just 28% of the railroad’s passengers.

In fact long-distance lines lost $668 million dollars last year while the Northeast Corridor made Amtrak $94 million in profit. Imagine what would happen to ridership and revenue if Amtrak was able to actually invest money to improve the Northeast Corridor. But no. Not any time soon.

Instead of investing that $850 million where it’s really needed and where projects await (high-speed electrification, bridge rehabs, track improvements, etc), Amtrak is being forced to spend perhaps half of those funds on lines that lose money and have relatively little traffic.

Take the Sunset Limited (no one else is). A storied train that last year carried just 71,000 passengers. It’s just dumb. If Congress wants Amtrak to run long-distance money-losing routes it should fund them separately as some sort of “Rail-Buff Gift Act”.

Instead for years while some Republicans have said Amtrak should be broken up, Congress always ends up giving the railroad  just enough to keep going and just enough to run ruinously expensive cross-country trains through Congressional districts in states where rail travel is a quaint notion — not a realistic possibility.

So, thanks Congress for actually giving Amtrak at least a little of what it needs to run the railroad. But next time, put the money where it’s needed and where it will serve as an investment for future growth. Not on a line for tourists on a nostalgia binge.