By Katie Logisz
February 9, 2004

The Amtrak Mayors Advisory Council met January 21 during the 72nd Winter Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors. Chaired by North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays, the Council heard from two speakers. Debbie Hersman, Senior Professional Staff Member for the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee and the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for the U.S. Senate and David Gunn, President and CEO of Amtrak each spoke to the group about the present challenges and future possibilities for rail in the United States.

Hays opened the meeting with an outline of the need for improvement in the United States' rail system, citing that Amtrak needs $1.8 billion to add and repair infrastructure including bridges in the Northeast corridor. This is the beginning of a five-year plan to bring Amtrak back to the level it needs. Hays noted that "ridership is up, support is there, and the need is critical."

Debbie Hersman said that rails in the United States have been marginalized to a detriment. As money is allocated for transportation needs, she said Amtrak has to fight for the scraps of money left over. Only fifty percent of this is authorized in appropriations. According to Hersman, Amtrak has nowhere to turn on the federal level for funding, because of an inherent bias towards highways and air travel. Furthermore, freight rail owns the majority of infrastructure already in place. Hersman, who works for Senator Ernest Hollings (SC), said that Hollings would introduce legislation trying to improve the federal focus on rail, making this focus "cumulative and broader in scope". One proposed plan is to pay for rail projects through flexing highway funding. Hollings wants this to be bipartisan legislation with a joint amendment on the floor. However, Hersman went on to note that there are great challenges to introducing such legislations, as rail legislation is almost a "non'starter" and is difficult to get on the floor alone. Hersman stressed that mayors need to appeal to their senators that rails are important to cities, and that rail legislation needs to be addressed. Hersman looked to mayors to help in garnering the support that is needed to jumpstart legislation.

When discussing the future of rail in the United States, Hersman said that it is important to look long term and make some important decisions based on a longer timeline. On the topic of high'speed rail, such as what is utilized in Europe, Hersman said to think of the long-term relief on the freight and passenger systems. Hersman said that rail "will always maintain a national system." In the future, she projected that rail can and will compete more with air travel and the highway system as a more viable option for travel.

Following Hersman, David Gunn, President and CEO of Amtrak, noted that everyone on the Hill talks about "reform." Gunn noted that he sees two areas in which to talk about reform. These areas are "running the railroad" and "policy reform." Running the railroad relates to the organization, budget, control, and procedures of making the railroad system work on a daily basis. Policy reform pertains to who funds, owns, and what you want the rail system to be. Since taking Amtrak's helm, Gunn says that Amtrak works "assuming competent management." The focal points have been procurement, the training center, the reservations system, and standardized equipment. He noted that the real advantages to a nationalized system are "tight organizational structure, management with a common approach, and very defined goals for each manager." Gunn has implemented tight control over Amtrak's management and financial practices. By adhering to this system of "competent management," Gunn says that the results are positive. Ridership is growing at a rate of ten percent and in total, since his arrival, is up thirty percent. Revenue is ahead of last year, and the last three months have been better than budget, with revenue over budget and expenses under budget.

According to Gunn, "returning to basic railroad structure made a lot of progress on the physical side." Big shops have reopened, layoffs have been recalled, new employees are coming onboard, and 102 long distance cars have been overhauled. Amtrak is not waiting for the federal funding. Gunn says Amtrak is "moving resources from failure maintenance to production." As far as reform in "running the railroad", Gunn's report was positive.

As far as "policy reform" goes, Gunn did not show support for any proposals dealing with privatization as an answer. He cited Britain's west coast mainline as an example of such privatization, saying that it cost $15 billion, but will take twenty years before profits show. According to Gunn, the idea of paying someone else to run the rails is a bad idea. Confronting the issue of high'speed rail service, Gunn noted, "speed won't come overnight." France and Germany have worked on their high'speed systems for fifty years, since the end of World War II. Those nations' funding is similar to that of the United States for highways and airports. Gunn proposed that improvement be viewed incrementally. An important question to ask at the local and state levels is "what do you want to run?" Gunn's answer was relevant service to move a lot of passengers. In his closing, Gunn stated, "passenger service is here to stay." He assured Amtrak's importance in U.S. rails by saying, "Amtrak is the keeper of the flame."