House bill cuts Amtrak funding 40 percent

[CHamilton]

House bill cuts Amtrak funding 40 percent

The House is proposing a 40 percent funding cut for Amtrak in a new passenger rail bill that was unveiled on Thursday by the chamber’s Transportation Committee.

Amtrak has received about $1 billion per year from the federal government since its inception in 1971. But Republican leaders on the panel said the long-overdue rail funding measure would force the company to streamline its operations and survive mostly on the money that is generated by ticket sales.

The bill is unlikely to be approved by lawmakers before this year’s elections.

 

[Bob Dylan]

As the late Deficet Creator and Snake Oil Salesman Ronnie Raegan would say: " There they go again!"

If they cut the Pentagon,Homeland Security and the phoney War on Drugs

Budgets 40% then that would be a good start to providing necessary and beneficial government services!

 

[bretton88]

[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]Look at this bill closely. I don't see how its a 40% cut. To break it down it is approximately 1 billion $ a year in subsidy for the national network, 500 Million a year for capital improvements on the NEC, and 300 million a year for passenger train (non-NEC) capital improvements. In short, 1.7-1.8 billion dollars a year for Amtrak, that doesn't sound like a 40% cut to me, its just all siloed into different departments. Now the lack of any operating subsidy for the NEC is a minor concern, but being that its been profitable, that shouldn't be a giant concern. Mostly I see a consistent source (something Amtrak has lacked) of funding at a reasonable level and promises to continue LD trains for the foreseeable future. I'm hoping that the total dollar amounts can be bumped up to the 2 billion range in conference with the Senate.[/SIZE]

 

[afigg]

Regardless of what it is in the proposed House bill, Chairman Shuster is introducing it rather late in the legislative session. The House and Senate will be in session for only 2 weeks in September where they are expected to pass Continuing Resolutions to keep the government (and Amtrak) funded at FY14 levels through mid-December. Then the House and Senate will go into recess until the Mid-term elections and come back in a lame duck session in November/December. Even if Shuster rams his re-authorization bill through the House, there will be little spare time in a lame duck session dealing with the entire FY15 appropriations mess for the Senate and conference committee to reach an agreement on a Amtrak re-authorization bill.

Then there is the matter of control of the Senate very much up in the air, which only adds to the political gamesmanship and questions about what might get done in a lame duck session. If the re-authorization bill does not get passed in this session, it dies and has to be re-introduced next year.

edit: typo fixes.

 

[CHamilton]

The bill also has some odd provisions, including one about boarding procedures, and another about "reinvesting profits from the NEC."

 

[afigg]

Link to the House Transportation Committee draft reauthorization bill (PDF text file) for those interested.

Note: this is a reauthorization bill for funding levels up to the amounts stated, not a FY appropriations bill providing those amounts.

 

[jis]

Link to the House Transportation Committee draft reauthorization bill (PDF text file) for those interested.

Note: this is a reauthorization bill for funding levels up to the amounts stated, not a FY appropriations bill providing those amounts.

Exactly. What will actually be appropriated will be less than this. Just like the $2.25 billion or so per year authorization didn't exactly materialize as appropriation on any year of the period covered by that bill as far as I can recall.
Interestingly, Congress had a chance to act on the NEC budget separation this year, but backed off from it, simply because they could not find the money to cover all LD trains. Of course all that is now moot since it looks like it will be yet another CR to get us over the election hump.

IOW, this is about aspiration to fund in the future, and not any release of actual funds for anything.

Finally, I have no idea how one arrives at the 40% number.

 

[CHamilton]

Yet another take on the Amtrak bill. The headline should probably read "privatization" rather than "privacy."

Legislation would put Amtrak on route to privacy


WASHINGTON — Amtrak operations would be overhauled to encourage private investment in the nationwide passenger rail system, under legislation a House panel introduced on Thursday.

In addition, the profitable Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington would no longer subsidize other money-losing Amtrak routes.

The bipartisan bill proposed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee reflects two years of discussions with stakeholders in the passenger rail industry around the country, Republican Rep. Jeff Denham of California, chairman of the Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, told reporters.

 

[jis]

All that I can say is that I have been telling you so now for the last year or so.... that this sort of thing is in the works and is going to happen with bipartisan support. That is not to say I like it much per se, but the writing has been on the wall for a while. The thing to push for now is to get better numbers for the dollar amounts. But the general change in the modus operandi is going to happen unless something completely unforeseen takes place.

 

[tonys96]

Looks like all the cuts to service have worked their magic on congress. Or maybe not.

 

[jis]

This is just authorization, and even that will most likely get finalized only after the elections. And then comes the appropriation. Until then it is continuing resolution time, unless they rush through something attached to the big defense, homeland security etc. appropriation, which has been held back a few days at the request of President Oabama to enable re-jiggering to fund the additional stuff for the ISIS Control Project.

 

[neroden]

I actually read the bill.

The "privatization" is the same "two route pilot scheme", requires that the bidder submit a bid which costs the government *less* than what Amtrak needs to run the route... and will never happen. Without economies of scale and preferential access to the freight lines, no bidder can do it, which means that only the Class Is really have a chance at bidding on it. And they don't want to.

The "no cross subsidization" rule isn't actually present; the bill simply requires that Amtrak notify Congress as to exactly how much money is being transferred between the National Network (which is defined to include state-supported routes, interesting) and the Northeast Corridor.

 

[Andrew]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

 

[jis]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

Read the bill at http://transportation.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hr5449.pdf, figure it out and tell us

Again remember, this is authorization, not appropriation. This just sets a cap on what can be appropriated, at least in principle. Just because of number appears here does not imply that anything even close to it will actually be appropriated.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Congresscritters have been heard to complain about Amtrak's lack of

transparency.

Pot, meet Kettle. Nothing Congress says or does can be relied upon

in any way until the check clears your bank. LOL.

But if the pretend authorization is dramatically reduced in a completely

phony way to impress the yahoos listening to hate talk radio, while the

actual funding from appropriations remains the same, then fine.

And this scheme will get us thru this election year.

Meanwhile, an Amtrak-friendly work-around to capital spending could

include an increase in the TIGER pool of funds. IIRC, applications for

TIGER grants came to around $10 Billion while only $0.6 Billion was in

the budget. Because TIGER covers everything from ports and canals to

cloverleafs and runways, it allows politicians to sprinkle the bacon bits

across many Congressional districts.

If the TIGER money were increased to even $2 or $3 Billion a year, Amtrak

could get significant help on its favorite projects. Example, it's using TIGER

to finance whatever it is that BNSF and Amtrak want to do with the

Southwest Chief.

TIGER has a limit of $25 million per grant, which means it won't pay for

the new Portal Bridge or start on that key Chicago-Joliet segment of

the 110-mph Lincoln service. But every little bit helps.

With help from states, I could imagine TIGER helping greatly with the

urgent fleet replacement needs.

I don't think we have any figures on that breakthru All Aboard Florida order

for 70 new single-level coaches. But say, a rough guess, $2.5 million each.

A friendly state -- like New York, Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, Virginia,

North Carolina, etc -- could each receive a $25 million maximum TIGER grant,

to buy 10 new coaches. Just a few such state orders could put 20 or 30 new

coaches in the fleet. Those cars could help to reequip, e.g., the Maple Leaf,

the Vermonter, the Downeaster, the Pennsylvanian, the Lynchburger or the

coming Roanoker, or possibly the Carolinian,. The used cars freed up could

go to the LD trains, likely providing enuff equipment for that third train

needed to take the Cardinal daily.

So if Congress cuts the pretend authorizations to fool the crazies, if it limits

but doesn't cut actual appropriations, it won't necessarily do much damage

to Amtrak.

Well, I'm feeling optimistic today. LOL.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

Doubt if any significant NEC money will be in this budget.

It doesn't seem like much is changed on the inside of this bill.

The big money needed for the NEC projects -- Gateway tunnels,

Portal bridges, Baltimore tunnels, Susquehanna bridge, etc --

could go in a separate bill.

Do we think they could spend big money now? I don't think

they've finished the environmental approvals much less the

design work. If they aren't ready to put the projects out to bid,

they don't need the money in FY 2015. Sorry for the delay.

 

[Andrew]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

Doubt if any significant NEC money will be in this budget.

It doesn't seem like much is changed on the inside of this bill.

The big money needed for the NEC projects -- Gateway tunnels,

Portal bridges, Baltimore tunnels, Susquehanna bridge, etc --

could go in a separate bill.

Do we think they could spend big money now? I don't think

they've finished the environmental approvals much less the

design work. If they aren't ready to put the projects out to bid,

they don't need the money in FY 2015. Sorry for the delay.

You mean, that Congress would simply create a separate funding scheme to fund, let's say Gateway?

I was under the impression that Amtrak could perhaps partner with NJ Transit to rely on a massive RRIF loan to help finance at least part of the Gateway Project. (I know that there has been some discussion about charging a higher ticket price for travel between Newark and NYC, and that, combined with Amtrak diverting more money into Gateway, could definitely help pay back a very large RRIF loan).

 

[WoodyinNYC]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

Doubt if any significant NEC money will be in this budget.

It doesn't seem like much is changed on the inside of this bill.

The big money needed for the NEC projects -- Gateway tunnels,

Portal bridges, Baltimore tunnels, Susquehanna bridge, etc --

could go in a separate bill.

Do we think they could spend big money now? I don't think

they've finished the environmental approvals much less the

design work. If they aren't ready to put the projects out to bid,

they don't need the money in FY 2015. Sorry for the delay.

You mean, that Congress would simply create a separate funding scheme to fund, let's say Gateway?

I was under the impression that Amtrak could perhaps partner with NJ Transit to rely on a massive RRIF loan to help finance at least part of the Gateway Project. (I know that there has been some discussion about charging a higher ticket price for travel between Newark and NYC, and that, combined with Amtrak diverting more money into Gateway, could definitely help pay back a very large RRIF loan).

Yes. Congress can do just about anything, or nothing, for any project in the world.

I'm not going to try to predict how that will be done in the end.

But I am willing to predict that no big money will become available for spending on

the various NEC megaprojects in FY 2015. Nobody is ready.

 

[Andrew]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

Doubt if any significant NEC money will be in this budget.

It doesn't seem like much is changed on the inside of this bill.

The big money needed for the NEC projects -- Gateway tunnels,

Portal bridges, Baltimore tunnels, Susquehanna bridge, etc --

could go in a separate bill.

Do we think they could spend big money now? I don't think

they've finished the environmental approvals much less the

design work. If they aren't ready to put the projects out to bid,

they don't need the money in FY 2015. Sorry for the delay.

Well, Amtrak said that they expect to wrap up system design engineering for the Gateway Project in 2015...

Also, Amtrak had originally stated that their Concrete Casing would extend for 2,000 linear feet. But, when this western extension gets completed, it will only go to 1,400 Feet. Maybe the "2,000" feet includes the section across 10th avenue, and another extension to 29th street and 12th Avenue?

 

[WoodyinNYC]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

Do we think they could spend big money now? I don't think

they've finished the environmental approvals much less the

design work. If they aren't ready to put the projects out to bid,

they don't need the money in FY 2015. Sorry for the delay.

Well, Amtrak said that they expect to wrap up system design engineering

for the Gateway Project in 2015.

I'm glad you understand that if the design engineering isn't finished

until sometimes in the coming Fiscal Year, there will be no funding

in the coming Fiscal Year, and no projects put out to bid in the coming

Fiscal Year.

Maybe something will move in FY 2016, that is, a year from now.

 

[Andrew]

So, how much more money will likely go into the NEC?

Do we think they could spend big money now? I don't think

they've finished the environmental approvals much less the

design work. If they aren't ready to put the projects out to bid,

they don't need the money in FY 2015. Sorry for the delay.

Well, Amtrak said that they expect to wrap up system design engineering

for the Gateway Project in 2015.

I'm glad you understand that if the design engineering isn't finished

until sometimes in the coming Fiscal Year, there will be no funding

in the coming Fiscal Year, and no projects put out to bid in the coming

Fiscal Year.

Maybe something will move in FY 2016, that is, a year from now.

The point I was trying to make is that I am optimistic about the Gateway Project happening.

After all, Amtrak lobbied for Concrete Casing money for the 32nd street and 10th Avenue to 31st street and 11th Avenue segment--and they got it. Also, I would be shocked if the Extension from the east side of 11th Avenue to the High Line does not get built.

I also believe that, as long as Amtrak will be able to divert future revenue that is generated from the Northeast Corridor back into improvements for the NEC, that Gateway should be able to get a share of that money.

 

[CHamilton]

There has been a lot of press about this bill. A couple of interesting viewpoints:

Don’t Look Now, But the House Amtrak Bill Actually Has Some Good Ideas
and
House GOP Wants to Confine HSR to NEC
and
New Amtrak Bill Still Means the Same Old Funding Debate

 

[CHamilton]

The Transportation Committee will be holding hearings on the Amtrak bill today (9/17) at 10:30 am ET. Apparently it will be webcast here: http://transportation.house.gov/

 

[CHamilton]

It may also be found on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbWLbuoXrR8

The Amtrak portion of the hearing has been completed, and HR 5449 was approved by the committee for further action by the full House. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:hr5449:

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Andrew, the bigger reason for optimism is deep down in the linked StreetsBlog article:

... it does propose reforms to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program, whose $35 billion in lending power goes largely unused because of cumbersome and confusing requirements. NARP applauded these changes, which include the creation of a $14 billion loan fund within RRIF to invest exclusively in the Northeast Corridor. ...

The ability to borrow $14 Billion is a real something. You could do new Portal bridges, Baltimore tunnels, Susquehanna bridge, and many miles of new catenary etc. for that sum. Don't think you could dig a tunnel under the Hudson and do the rest of Gateway, but maybe get a start.

The borrowing could be limited practically by a concern of how Amtrak and the Acelas could pay back that amount of money.

Well, heck, borrow and spend the money now, let President Romney/Rand/Rubio/Santorum/Bush/Walker/Christie/Jindal/Cruz/Perry/et al figure out how to pay it back. I'm sure they'd do the same. LOL.