Planes, Trains, and...

Gassbags.

Here’s a newsflash: Amtrak “lost” just over a billion dollars last year (FY02). Or rather, The Federal Government had to “bailout” Amtrak to the tune of a billion dollars last year. Or rather, it “cost” just over a billion dollars to keep our National passenger rail line operating.

I was surprised at the pervasiveness on the web of that special brand of vitriol reserved for this particularly despised fleecer of the American taxpayer. I thought we liked choo-choos. Every citizen under 8 that I know does; and I’ve often thought we should look to children for context, if not outright leadership in our public discussions. I digress, perhaps that’s another topic for another apostrophization. Where was I? Oh, right: Amtrak executives (or are they bureaucrats? How do you tell the difference?) are ripping us off.

A common reference in these rants is how the leadership of a “true business”, that sacred embodiment of all that is just, right, and honest in its actions and that daily faces the laws of nature – prosper or perish – with noble realism and adaptive agility well outside those protective, perverting shields of public procedure, would have rolled up their sleeves, tightened their belt, asked the honest questions, and solved the problems when presented with the first signs of trouble. Perhaps those Amtrak bureaucrats (or are they executives? How do you tell the difference?) could learn a thing or two from the private sector. I bet they could. And from companies who similarly were having a few cash flow problems.

First they’d need to grease the palms of the relevant elected decision makers; call it insurance. Then maybe some layoffs; play hardball with unions if you have to but get concessions on benefits. If you can accomplish the first two with some success, give the top dogs some big bonuses for their efforts. Instead of or in addition to those, maybe just raid the employees’ retirement funds and cook the books to look good enough to pump up the stock price (NOTE TO SELF: remember to dump stock before the secret gets out we’re broke) and hope the problem disappears before anyone sees it. If all else fails, go before the US citizenry crying and say it’s essential – for the public good, of course - that they continue cutting you checks.

These morons that think that our society’s parasite problem is the staff, operations, and investments in the public sphere are seriously barking up the wrong tree.

Just by comparison, $1 B is:
The average amount lost by the 10 largest US airline carriers last year.
By the way, it may sound like I’m against airlines, I’m not. They’re important parts of the national transportation infrastructure as well. But continue to compare:
Roughly one-third of what the Federal expenditures on airport construction will be next year.
Approximately one-fifth of the annual budget of the TSA.
Almost one-eighth of the FAA budget for air traffic control.

It’s also:
The amount ConocoPhillips will spend on oil exploration and infrastructure in Alaska next year.
The subsidy (primarily road building before cutting and replanting afterward) for the timber industry to log in our National Forests each year.
The average amount spent on each of the four largest urban loops in my great home state of North Carolina. And…
Don’t do it…Don’t include an Iraq reference…Don’t Include An Iraq Reference…DON’T INCLUDE AN IRAQ REFERENCE!… Ah, shit. The amount we spend occupying Iraq every 8 days.

If all that it costs to fund a passenger rail system in the US is a Federal outlay of $4 per man, woman and child in America per year then it’s a bargain.
Shut up.
Fund it.
Next line item, please. We have far fatter fish to fry.
Let Mr. Gunn do his job of running and improving Amtrak instead of being dragged into political fights for its survival.

As a matter of fact, if we can manage to replace the Goofball responsible for proposing Amtrak solutions next year, maybe we can install someone with the brains and guts to double or triple that amount. Oh, wait; priorities: Let’s postpone the increases; we need to clean up these gargantuan Republican deficits first.
Ah-gain.

Amtrak is transportation infrastructure. It is important for it to be in good shape. Starving it and throwing it out on the street is not the answer. Carving it up is not the answer because, contrary to popular belief, there are no money making runs. The only way any private entity would buy any of them, even the Northeast Corridor is if it came with big subsidies. Kinda puts you back at square one, doesn’t it.

The classic corporate solution: send the work overseas where it’s cheap, is not an option. It’s our passenger rail line; it’s kinda fixed here. One (of many) reason that it’s vital to not let Amtrak wither on the vine is because with all the uncertainties regarding energy (primarily the increasingly obvious costs involved in procuring petroleum from the middle east and rather significant concerns about global climate change) rail is hands-down the most energy efficient way to move people around. Abandoning the passenger rail system to entropy is a bad idea for North American civilization.

A Q&A session with Don Phillips, a rail expert of whom I’d never heard before researching this post, is a good followup read.