 |
Re: Trump budget to cut rail services to hundreds of rural communities
Author: mook
Date: 04-10-2017 - 16:47
This is nothing really new. Trump proposed it a couple of months ago. Remember, the key to his claim that he can Cut Taxes AND Do Infrastructure is that the "infrastructure" won't happen unless either states or private entities pay for it.
IF (Big If - politics can do strange things) it goes through as proposed, Amtrak will end as a passenger service on or before September 30 (end of the federal fiscal year). So make sure you can complete your train trips by then. Carrying on with the logical results:
The NE Corridor will spin off as a separate operation that may or may not carry Amtrak branding, and will probably not make enough money from ops to continue for more than a few years (any major capital expense = NWP after the last big storm). State-, local- (commute), and privately-funded operations will continue if their sponsors choose to do that, but will need to negotiate their own deals with the railroads using their own funds (no more federal operating subsidies for passenger rail of any kind, and bus transit too) and will need to contract with somebody else to run the trains since Amtrak will no longer be available for that; the cost for everything will increase, resulting in cutbacks even where some service keeps operating. The publicly funded projects over the last few years that increased capacity for passenger service will be, essentially, gifts to the railroads that will enable more efficient freight service in many locations after passenger trains go away.
Amtrak's long-distance equipment, frankly, is worn out. Even in the NEC, a lot of equipment has been rebuilt several times. I'm not sure who would really want it. Some of it's actually older now than the Heritage stuff (some of it junk) they got from the private RRs at the beginning was. The E- & F-units Amtrak got when it started were around 20 years old; many of the GEs they're using now are older.
FWIW, highways and airways are getting similar shrift in some ways. Trump is all for infrastructure ... as long as somebody else pays for it.
IF (Big If - politics can do strange things) it goes through as proposed, Amtrak will end as a passenger service on or before September 30 (end of the federal fiscal year). So make sure you can complete your train trips by then. Carrying on with the logical results:
The NE Corridor will spin off as a separate operation that may or may not carry Amtrak branding, and will probably not make enough money from ops to continue for more than a few years (any major capital expense = NWP after the last big storm). State-, local- (commute), and privately-funded operations will continue if their sponsors choose to do that, but will need to negotiate their own deals with the railroads using their own funds (no more federal operating subsidies for passenger rail of any kind, and bus transit too) and will need to contract with somebody else to run the trains since Amtrak will no longer be available for that; the cost for everything will increase, resulting in cutbacks even where some service keeps operating. The publicly funded projects over the last few years that increased capacity for passenger service will be, essentially, gifts to the railroads that will enable more efficient freight service in many locations after passenger trains go away.
Amtrak's long-distance equipment, frankly, is worn out. Even in the NEC, a lot of equipment has been rebuilt several times. I'm not sure who would really want it. Some of it's actually older now than the Heritage stuff (some of it junk) they got from the private RRs at the beginning was. The E- & F-units Amtrak got when it started were around 20 years old; many of the GEs they're using now are older.
FWIW, highways and airways are getting similar shrift in some ways. Trump is all for infrastructure ... as long as somebody else pays for it.
