WASHINGTON — A report issued last week by the Congressional Budget Office says eliminating the Federal Transit Administration would save $127 billion from 2021 through 2028, and that abolishing funding for Amtrak would avoid $19.8 billion in projected federal spending.
The American Public Transportation Association responded immediately, saying it “strongly opposed” the idea. “Eliminating federal funding for public transportation will drastically reduce mobility and job opportunities for Americans and will make our country less competitive,” said Paul P. Skoutelas, president of APTA.
The budget office report comes on the heal of the largest November monthly federal budget deficit in history. The $204.9 billion shortfall, reported by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, was $66.4 billion higher than last year.
The budget office, which is nonpartisan, provides arguments both for and against its proposals.
Its case in favor of eliminating the FTA is that public transit systems serve local or regional riders and should be financed at the local or state level. Its counter-argument states, “Without continued federal funding, transit services would be trimmed and systems would deteriorate, leading to increased road use, with its attendant problems of traffic congestion, accidents, and emissions of local air pollutants and greenhouse gases.”
In proposing to remove funding for Amtrak, the office says subsidies were originally viewed as temporary measures, “intended to help Amtrak become self-supporting.” But it also notes these cuts would cause hardship for passengers who rely on intercity trains. Rail travel benefits society, the report notes, and loss of federal support “could undermine the future viability of passenger rail service in the United States.”
These proposals were included in a list of 121 suggested policy options contained in the CBO’s annual “Options for Reducing the Deficit” report, many of which are political non-starters.
Watch for unintended consequences. And unexpected increased costs.
The title here should be corrected to state, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”
Devoid of a positive corporate culture that has impacted its safety culture; focused more on being opaque and dodging accountability with a Board handicapped to provide serious stewardship; vulnerable to the parasitic politicos of the Northeast driving their clout to strip-out funds from the National Network to subsidize the blackhole of the Northeast Corridor, how can Amtrak become a viable system and sustainable in this receding economic environment? I would not be so quick to write-off this CBO report.
How can Amtrak be expected with a straight face to be sustainable when it has forced out its best managers, only to pay their replacements from outside the industry top dollar as they endeavor to lean this new business. How is a business sustainable when its sole objective is cost-cutting, which is the basis of bonus to Amtrak’s management?
Critically, the revolving door of management never learned from how Mr. Claytor successfully ran Amtrak, realizing higher revenues could not be achieved by cutting trains, but rather, by increasing the number of trains. Well before the whiz bang idea of breaking the continuity of the “Southwest Chief” route with bus substitutions, Claytor’s formula for revenue gain was proven each time Amtrak chose to cut trains: revenues decreased; costs increased. If only Amtrak had enlightened stakeholders who would have objected to the stubborn actions of such an uninformed monopoly…
Given its current management and Board, how is Amtrak suppose to evolve from its Sisyphus milieu?
THE Congressional Budget Office? This little bit of news sure lets the ‘Cat’ out of the AMTRAK Bag!
One has to wonder WHAT THE NEXT STEP IS…. NOT TO MENTION, WHO WILL WANT TO GET INTO THE RAIL PASSENGER BUSINESS? Without Government support, AMTRAK becomes the red-headed step child of the rail passenger travel. Bring back the Rail Postal Business, and the railroads MIGHT want to get back in the game(?).