New Transportation Secretary Mineta lays out Amtrak agenda
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, named Thursday to serve in President Bush’s second-term Cabinet, vowed to press a controversial plan to overhaul Amtrak financing in order to end "a drain on the budget,” according to a story in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.
Mineta, 73, the former Democratic mayor and House member from San Jose, Calif., said in an interview that he would work to win congressional approval for the pending plan to reduce federal spending on Amtrak by shifting a greater burden to states served by the passenger carrier on the east and west coasts. Federal assistance for Amtrak should be on the same basis as federal assistance for highways and metropolitan transit systems, with the federal government paying a smaller share of the costs, Mineta said, adding that President Bush backs the hard-nosed plan requiring states to pay up or lose service.
“If a train goes through a state and that state is not willing to pony up the state’s share, then we would run the train through that state, not stopping and keeping the doors closed,” Mineta said. The transportation chief said he intends to “deal with the long-term longevity of Amtrak,” which receives $1.2 billion under Bush’s latest annual budget - about $600 million less than Amtrak requested.
Mineta conceded that he was “quite sure we’ll find resistance” in Congress to the plan. But he added: “We have spent something like $37 billion on Amtrak (since its inception in 1971). It has been a drain on the budget, and we haven’t really improved services in a major way. I want to make sure that we keep this system safe and provide a good service.”
Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, said states already shoulder a significant portion of Amtrak’s capital expenditures. Mineta’s plan would merely "take the bill for existing railroad service and dump a greater share on t
New Transportation Secretary Mineta lays out Amtrak agenda
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, named Thursday to serve in President Bush’s second-term Cabinet, vowed to press a controversial plan to overhaul Amtrak financing in order to end "a drain on the budget,” according to a story in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.
Mineta, 73, the former Democratic mayor and House member from San Jose, Calif., said in an interview that he would work to win congressional approval for the pending plan to reduce federal spending on Amtrak by shifting a greater burden to states served by the passenger carrier on the east and west coasts. Federal assistance for Amtrak should be on the same basis as federal assistance for highways and metropolitan transit systems, with the federal government paying a smaller share of the costs, Mineta said, adding that President Bush backs the hard-nosed plan requiring states to pay up or lose service.
“If a train goes through a state and that state is not willing to pony up the state’s share, then we would run the train through that state, not stopping and keeping the doors closed,” Mineta said. The transportation chief said he intends to “deal with the long-term longevity of Amtrak,” which receives $1.2 billion under Bush’s latest annual budget - about $600 million less than Amtrak requested.
Mineta conceded that he was “quite sure we’ll find resistance” in Congress to the plan. But he added: “We have spent something like $37 billion on Amtrak (since its inception in 1971). It has been a drain on the budget, and we haven’t really improved services in a major way. I want to make sure that we keep this system safe and provide a good service.”
Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, said states already shoulder a significant portion of Amtrak’s capital expenditures. Mineta’s plan would merely "take the bi
I actually don’t have a problem with them doing this. I think that the states should pay more for their stops. Some states pay alot while others pay almost nothing. This would hopefully make them stand up and pay. One good thing is that we may get more trains on certain lines because of this, so while playing hardball is not always good, it might work out for the best in this situation.
Brad
To put this in perspective, the Feds spend less on Amtrak than did Minneapolis on one 12 mile light rail line. We fund transit to huge amounts, but Amtrak gets shorted by a few hundred million. Amtrak is a tempest in a teapot, just fund it like all other transit already and stop whining about it.
A very interesting point of view, I would hope that the asphalt lobby is out of the office the day that the legislatures consider this matter. If you want to see hard ball politics just take a crack at that crowd.
Perhaps amtrak could get a little more money if the states put up 20% money match. There must be a formula for route-miles, for states with fewer miles or other states like IL or CA with large miles. Perhaps the CA model would fit the rest of the country with local support for capital & trains & passengers? It’s past time for state DOT’s to be hostage to the highway lobby & also serve rail projects.
Hear, Hear, and an idea whose time has come[tup] [^] the trouble of it is that the hidebound “way we’ve always done it this way” crowd[alien][alien] die long hard deaths, similar to dreadnoughts in the age of the nuclear aircraft carrier and submarine.
Many taxpayers have already agreed that they’re willing to support a national rail passenger system and use it. You can present it in numerous ways, but as before Mineta and his allies will continue looking at the situation while wearing blinders.