I just sent off the following LTE to my local paper.
The Bush administration scored a rare policy victory May 25; Amtrak trains came to a halt for 3 hours in part of the NE corridor. Since day one the current White House has been trying to kill Amtrak, sell the profitable bits, and trash the rest. Starvation budgets and years of deferred infrastructure maintenance may finally force the issue.
No one died this time but Bush policy has put thousands at risk and weakened a system critical to our economy. Money isn't the issue. The cost of a few weeks of the Iraq war would fund Amtrak for years - just the 9 BILLION dollars of Iraq redevelopment money that 'disappeared' would do nicely.
Paraphrasing Commodore Vanderbilt, the context is different but the sentiment is the same: "The Public be damned!"
(more)
In case you missed it, this
AP news story has the bare details. Predictably,
budget cut threats and the "P" word turned up again. It's something
the usual suspects and
their allies have been pushing for years.
The other day I posted about
"a self-destructive mindset which enshrines Belief as superior to Fact, considers Truth to be Inconvenient, and Reality as user-optional." The matter of Amtrak is another example of this phenomenon at work.
To a certain type of mind, like those of the
Chicago Boys, the idea of the government running any kind of corporation for the public good is anathema. Privatize it - and if it doesn't make a profit, the
'free' market has spoken.
Forget that Amtrak was an emergency reaction to massive railroad financial problems in the 60's. Forget that passenger rail has almost never made money by itself. Forget that government spends and numerous industries lobby for billions of dollars building highways for private trucks and cars at public expense - but railroads are expected to pay their own way. Forget the numerous Army Corps of Engineer projects to turn rivers into bargeways over the years, with heavy Federal subsidies. Forget the billions spent not that long ago bailing the airlines out of bankruptcy after 911.
In the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak and the related regional passenger services that connect to it are essential. Thousands of people depend on it every day for travel; the highways couldn't accomodate them all. The economy would be crippled by any extended interruption in Amtrak service.
While Amtrak operations are less critical on other routes, that may not always be the case. In the days following 911, Amtrak was one of the few ways to get around the country other than driving. In New Orleans, Amtrak stood ready to provide mass evacuation service for Katrina - and was ignored by policy makers. Rising energy costs are already hobbling the airlines, and causing people to change driving habits. Steel wheels on steel rails are one of the most efficient ways to move tonnage. Europe is in better shape to handle a global energy shortage and deal with global warming in part because it has a strong public rail net. Amtrak's status is a national security issue in this regard.
Amtrak is the only game in town for national passenger rail service. Period.
There is no way any conceivable private entity could operate a comparable system on a national scale without some form of government support. Much of the trackage Amtrak runs on it does not own - and the right to use that trackage for passenger rail is not something that could just be transferred if Amtrak were privatized.
At a time when oil companies get huge tax breaks to go with record profits and Congress keeps slipping even more money into the pockets of the rich and powerful, wailing about the pittance Amtrak gets is sheer hypocrisy. Expecting people can and always will be able to drive or fly to where they want to go ignores some unpleasant truths. (For more perspective on the possible energy-constrained future,
Kuntsler has his own nightmare vision.)
The Bush policy of deliberate underfunding of Amtrak is a disaster in slow motion. The law of averages and the aging infrastructure Amtrak relies on ensures that sooner or later there will be a far worse 'service interruption'. Amtrak's
David Gunn was fired 11/9/2005 allegedly because the politically appointed board that oversees Amtrak felt he was not the right leader to deal with the financial issues facing Amtrak. (Translation: stop sucking down money we want to turn into tax cuts for the rich and start pulling profits out of your butt.)
At least that's the story. More to the point is that Gunn promised to shut down Amtrak if it could not be run safely, and he was not willing to pretend that down is up, black is white, or that safe operations could be maintained on a shrinking budget. As of this date the Bush administration has either not bothered or is unable to find a replacement for Gunn. Could it be they can't find anyone stupid enough to take the job given the odds that something really bad will happen if Bush Amtrak policies continue?
If terrorists had caused the Amtrak shutdown -
as they easily might given how little Amtrak security issues have been addressed by the White House - it would be seen as a national scandal and there would be calls to do something. When it's caused by malign neglect on the other hand, well it's just taken as evidence Amtrak doesn't work.
The issue of Amtrak is part of the larger ideology driven craze for privatization Bush and the GOP have embraced. The mantra is that profit-driven private companies are
always more efficient, cheaper, and more effective than government. This might be the case in the semi-mythical free markets conservatives are always nattering about, somewhere beyond the bonds of government regulation -and even occasionally in the real world.
Somehow they never quite seem to notice things like
crony capitalism or numerous examples around the world where
privatization failed to live up to its promises. Perhaps it's time to
look elsewhere.
Ah well, all this posting about Amtrak reminds me of one of those
Yes-but things that gets dragged out every so often; the oft-repeated observation that whatever else
Mussolini may have done, he at least made the trains run on time. They'll never be able to say that about
George W.