Amtrak fiscal solution ‘very, very close’
WASHINGTON (AP) – Amtrak told jittery commuter rail agencies Tuesday that it would keep operating at least through this week, and Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said a solution for its fiscal crisis was “very, very close.” Mineta said the problem could be solved by Wednesday, but he offered no details on how a $200 million Amtrak budget gap would be closed. Amtrak says it will have to shut down without the money.
“No one wants to see Amtrak die,” Mineta said. “We’re coming along very well. We’re very, very close to coming to a solution to help Amtrak.”
Amtrak President David Gunn spoke by conference call with state transportation leaders worried about the reverberations of a shutdown of the passenger line.
Amtrak owns tracks and tunnels used by some commuter rail lines, and operates other systems for state or regional authorities. During the call, Gunn said Amtrak will keep rolling until the end of the week, said a spokesman for New Jersey Transportation Commissioner James P. Fox.
Earlier in the day, Senate Democrats urged President Bush to include $205 million for Amtrak in an emergency anti-terrorism funding package.
But Amtrak Vice Chairman Michael Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor, said an easier solution would be for the Federal Railroad Administration, part of the Transportation Department, to sign off on Amtrak’s request for a loan guarantee.
“A stroke of a pen will do this,” Dukakis said.
On the Republican side, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said the federal government has an obligation to maintain a national railroad system. “We’re all going to be in this together,” she said.
But Hutchison, an Amtrak supporter, agreed that railroad operations need an overhaul. She said Amtrak’s labor costs were “out of line with other workers in our country,” a charge vehemently denied by rail labor leaders.
Mineta, who sits on Amtrak’s seven-member board, hosted a closed-door board meeting Monday evening and emerged briefly to declare himself “confident that we will be able to avoid a shutdown of services.”
But the meeting ended with no firm agreement on how Amtrak would get the $200 million it insists it needs to survive through September.
Officials knowledgeable about the meeting said Mineta proposed a loan guarantee of $100 million to $120 million, combined with internal fiscal maneuvers by Amtrak.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Tuesday that the administration wants Amtrak to ask its debtors, including states, to speed up their payments while Amtrak slows payment of its debts.
“The accounting gimmicks being pursued by the administration are so tortured they would make Ken Lay blush,” Murray said, referring to the former chairman of bankrupt Enron Corp.
Transportation Department spokesman Chet Lunner said Mineta offered Amtrak “a number of options,” but he would not elaborate.
The Bush administration has insisted that Amtrak receive no more government money until it reforms its operations and finances.
Mineta last week proposed ending federal operating subsidies, allowing competition for passenger rail, making states more responsible for paying for train service, and replacing Amtrak as owner of the Boston-to-Washington Northeast Corridor.
Labor unions oppose many of the proposed changes. Labor leaders met Tuesday with Mineta and said the discussion focused on resolving Amtrak’s immediate cash crisis, not on Mineta’s wide-ranging proposals.
“This is not the time for massive reforms of Amtrak, because there is no time to accomplish reform,” said Edward Wytkind, executive director of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department. He said the labor leaders and Mineta “agreed we would have a pretty robust debate down the road” regarding reforms.
—
On the Net: Amtrak: http://www.amtrak.com
Transportation Department: http://www.dot.gov