If last month's fatal Amtrak crash had anything positive come from it, it was the perfect timing with which the Republicans showed their true colors. Without the headlines that the derailment brought, the general public would never have heard about the House vote to cut funding for passenger rail.
As an on-board employee of Amtrak for the past 27 years, I have seen the Republicans consistently attempt to eliminate us, going back to the Reagan Administration. Fortunately for us, Amtrak was created by Republican (and lawyer) Richard Nixon. Watching, as freight companies started dropping passenger service, Nixon realized the importance of train travel and instituted Amtrak in 1971. It was designed merely as a temporary measure, as he was convinced that the freight companies would eventually return to passenger service. This, of course, never happened. Burlington Northern, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific...all were happy to be rid of passenger rail, concentrating on the more lucrative freight service. Thus, Amtrak has become the oldest “temporary" company in U.S. history. As a result, Amtrak was designed with two flaws, which were fine for a temporary stop-gap, but hinder our growth as a permanent company:
1. Because Amtrak had no tracks of their own, aside from the Northeast corridor, they are required to pay the track owners, the freight companies, a “per-axle-per-mile” fee. This pretty much ensures that passenger rail will never be a profitable venture.
2. Every year, Amtrak is required to appear before the House Appropriations Committee, hat in hand, stating how much they need in government subsidies, to continue to operate for the next year.
Before the rise of the Tea Party, Amtrak had supporters on both sides. While neither party saw the railroad as the future of cross-country travel, we were able, at least, to secure funding to survive. Even Texas, the Republican “Death-Star State,” knew the importance of Amtrak’s route through many of their rural areas, some with no other options for travel. Often siding against their fellow Repubs, Texas congressmen would help to push through our funding each year.
Not so anymore, folks…
In pure Ayn-Randian selfishness, The Tea Party, now in control of the Appropriations Committee, is determined to cut any government funding that doesn’t make their benefactors rich. With no thought to future generations, they are hell-bent on Amtrak’s demise. And this time, they just might succeed.
I want to make it clear to those of you who still believe that Amtrak is a government-run railroad…it isn’t. In fact, only a small percentage of our annual revenue is from government subsidies. In many ways, we would be far better off if it was government owned and run. The best passenger rail systems in the world are completely paid for by taxes.
But Amtrak is a private corporation. So, the only way for it to be dismantled is to drive the company out of business. We constantly hear the politicos talk about privatizing Amtrak, when it is, in fact, already privatized. However, the railroad is also unionized. While our unions have gotten progressively weaker over the years, they still guarantee us employees certain benefits and wages, retirement wages among them. This is what really sticks in the craws of our detractors. Unions represent a group of people, with the clout to vote against them. Unions mean a living wage and safety guidelines, designed to protect average workers from unhealthy conditions. Unions threaten their very existence. When you hear Tea Party rhetoric about “privatization,” you can translate it to mean “low wages, no benefits and no government regulations on safety.”
Amtrak is under attack…and the freight railroads will be next. Sharing many of the same unions, the freight railroads face the same attacks. Imagine minimum-wage employees, hauling 2-mile-long freight trains, containing petroleum, combustible liquids and hazardous materials, with safety guidelines reduced. A catastrophe waiting to happen…
Amtrak may not be the best way to run a railroad. Indeed, I would love to see the day when the government assumes control of all the tracks in the country, as part of the infrastructure. I would also like to see a huge tax increase, paying for more government services, like education, healthcare and housing. A Kossack can dream…
But for now, Amtrak is what we have. And as our population grows older, driving and flying are becoming impossible for many seniors, making train travel the only viable option. We must vote these profit-mongering lackeys out of office and begin to think of the train as an economic and ecological alternative for future travel.
