There is a real need for a modern passenger rail system in this country, but prospects for such a system are threatened by severe governmental cutbacks.
Part of Amtrak's problem has been due to worn-out equipment and no money for repairs because past presidential administrations -- the administrations of Presidents Carter and Clinton, particularly -- have been ambivalent about rail. Other administrations have been downright hostile toward rail, repeatedly trying to cut or cancel funding.
The current U.S. House has zeroed out all funds for high-speed rail and is attempting to rescind money already appropriated and allocated but not yet spent from the 2012 and 2013 budgets. Current draft legislation cuts $1 billion.
Arguments that passenger rail will never pay for itself make no sense. Isn't that exactly what was said when President Eisenhower proposed the interstate highway system? Then, people said, "It's too expensive," "the country can't afford it" and "people won't use it." It was sold as a defense project and passed by two votes. It took 40 years to build.
Since when do highways, airports and bridges ever pay for themselves? The FAA covers
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75 percent to 95 percent of airport planning and development costs. The federal gas tax pays half or less of the cost of highway maintenance and construction. But for every $100 of Amtrak operational costs, Washington pays only $15 -- that's only 15 percent. Amtrak generates the remaining 85 percent.
Amtrak ridership rose 5.9 percent and 10.5 percent during the past two fiscal years. In the past 35 years, ridership has doubled and more than doubled on many of the 300 lines. That growth rate would be considered quite healthy for almost any business.
High-speed trains that travel 110 mph to 220 mph, as President Obama has proposed, could generate thousands of jobs and perhaps millions if the steel rails, construction equipment and electronic infrastructure are built here instead of in Europe or China.
If this seems pie in the sky, consider: Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois and the president of the University of Illinois, Michael Hogan, are studying the feasibility of building a 220-mph line connecting O'Hare airport, downtown Chicago, McCormick Place and Champaign-Urbana, with extensions to St. Louis and Indianapolis. Hogan said such a line would be "transformational" for the cities it connects as well as the university. A 110-mph train already is in the works between Chicago and St. Louis.
This is the kind of thinking needed today to move this country forward in jobs, economic development and transportation infrastructure. This sort of thinking could bolster, too, the being-planned Duluth-to-Twin Cities train, the Northern Lights Express. The NLX could include connections to a Twin Cities-to-Chicago run.
These high-speed trains have the potential to unify the Midwest and solidify its future as one of the world's most powerful economic mega-regions.
Hal Moore of Duluth was a teacher in inner-city Chicago, a Presbyterian minister, a social worker, a cook and a chef. He's retired after 18 years as a federal contractor in literacy education at the Federal Prison Camp in Hermantown. A regular rail passenger, Moore and his wife, Beth Tamminen, are members of the National Railway Passengers Association and of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.
