The Amtrak Reform Commission's finest hour

By Paul M. Weyrich
web posted October 8, 2001

Amtrak has been teetering on the brink of extinction for most of
its thirty year life. During the Reagan years the Administration for
eight consecutive budgets zeroed out Amtrak. Then, four years
ago, the Congress told Amtrak that it had to work toward self-
sufficiency or it might be dissolved. Congress then set up the
Amtrak Reform Council (ARC) to oversee Amtrak's financial
situation, and to make recommendations that would lead to
greater self-sufficiency. And Congress stipulated in the legislation
establishing the ARC that if, at any time, it determined Amtrak
could not be self-sufficient by the end of 2002, it is to make a
finding toward that end. If that finding occurred, ARC should
also present to the Congress and Amtrak a design for a new
national rail passenger system.

ARC has already made one major recommendation and it is that
Amtrak should no longer own and maintain the Northeast
Corridor between Washington and Boston. Amtrak, according
to ARC's recommendation, should be in the business of hauling
passengers, mail and express and should not have the enormous
burden of operating and maintaining the Northeast Corridor
around its neck.

It will require billions of dollars to bring that corridor up to a
standard whereby the new high speed Acela trains can actually
operate at the 150 mph for which they are designed. Some of
the catenary (or overhead electric wires from which the
locomotives derive their power) dates back to 1909 when the
New Haven Railroad electrified its line between New York and
New Haven, Conn. Much of the catenary between Washington
and New York dates to the 1930s, when the Pennsylvania
Railroad electrified its mainline between those two cities.

Ridership in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor has jumped
considerably because the air shuttles between Washington and
New York and Washington and Boston have been grounded
along with the closure of Reagan National Airport. Nationwide
business has also increased because a lot of people are still
reluctant to fly. So what is the reaction of Amtrak to this
unexpected development? It is lobbying to get the self-sufficiency
requirement lifted and to abolish ARC, the only organization that
provides meaningful oversight of an Amtrak that has lost some
$25 billion since its inception in l971.

I have served as Vice Chairman of ARC from the beginning, first
under New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman and then
under former Federal Railroad Administrator Gil Carmichael.
None of us gets paid for serving on ARC. If we attend a meeting
out of town we get reimbursed according to the government rate,
which means most of us lose money every time we travel with
ARC.

Nevertheless the talented group of people who serve with ARC
are pleased to do so. Most of us are dedicated to trying to
maintain a national rail system that works. But most of us are
also sensitive to the taxpayers who have been footing the bill for
Amtrak for three decades now. Instead of running away from
ARC's recommendations, and trying to get us abolished a year
before our mandate runs out, Amtrak ought to welcome our
advice and counsel. Instead it has aligned itself with the labor
unions which have opposed ARC from day one.

The original representative for organized labor on ARC was
Clarence Monin. A finer gentleman I have never met. He was
studious and open-minded. When the unions found out that he
was taking a reasonable approach to reform, they forced Monin
off of ARC. Charlie Moneypenny was his replacement.
Personally I like Charlie. He is a decent fellow who cares deeply
about the plight of the railroad workers in America. But since the
position of organized labor is that ARC should be abolished, he
votes no on just about everything ARC proposes. It is rather like
Larry Flynt serving on a Vatican Commission on Pornography.
The two are not exactly compatible.

Still, ARC has a solid majority of Democrats and Republicans
who support honest reform. I am amazed at their zeal and
dedication and creativity. The group includes John Norquist, the
Mayor of Milwaukee, known for his thinking outside the box;
Lee Kling, who has a long history of involvement with
transportation issues in Missouri (and who has been a prominent
fundraiser for the Democratic party); Jim Coston, a prominent
Chicago attorney who also has been involved in transportation
issues for years; Nancy Rutledge Connery, who served on the
blue ribbon Commission which former Republican Congressman
Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania convened to take a hard look at
transportation problems and who has credentials which would
take up this entire column; Bruce Chapman, the head of the
prestigious Discovery Institute in Seattle; transportation
consultant Wendell Cox, with whom I frequently disagree on
light rail but who nevertheless makes an important contribution to
ARC. And businessman Chris Gleason, long involved with
transportation, brings a keen sense of enterprise to the Council.
I, of course, mentioned our Chairman, Gil Carmichael, who does
such an able job and who has concerned himself with
transportation issues for most of his life.

The Administration also has a representative on ARC, appointed
by the Secretary of Transportation. I myself did transportation
appropriations work in the U.S. Senate for six years and
published a magazine on mass transit for seven years as well as
serving six one-year terms on the Amtrak board of directors.

This is a creative team under the able executive directorship of
Tom Till who has been involved with transportation issues for
decades. Till has assembled a small but extremely able staff that
has produced some remarkable analyses which Amtrak ought to
welcome. Instead Amtrak often stonewalls the request that ARC
has made for data.

If Amtrak succeeds in abolishing ARC, the taxpayer will be the
loser. They just should not get by with what they are trying to do.
Texas Representative Tom DeLay, the majority whip, and Rep.
Roy Blunt of Missouri have saved ARC from the efforts of the
labor unions and others to kill us off. We only have a year to go.
Let us hope that once again ARC will be saved, because this is
its finest hour. This coming year is the time when ARC will make
major recommendations to Congress and to Amtrak. It would
be a criminal act if we are not permitted to finish the job at which
most of us have now labored for the past four years.
 
Paul M. Weyrich is president of the Free Congress Foundation
(http://www.FreeCongress.org).

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