What Our Nation Needs Is Good Railroad Service
It may seem incongruous that the mayor of the small city of Meridian, Miss., would have a compelling interest in the Northeast Corridor passenger rail system, but the fact is that the system represents the best of what a national rail passenger system can and must be for the future of our country.
Having ridden the northeast’s commuter trains on many occasions, I have always noted the striking differences between passenger rail service in the densely populated Northeast and Amtrak service in other parts of the country. Commuter trains can travel at speeds of more than 125 miles an hour, primarily because of the lack of grade crossings that impede trains from reaching maximum speed and efficiency. Elsewhere, the frequency of grade crossings forces trains to lumber along at much slower speeds, contributing to the fact as well as the perception that train travel is slow and inefficient.
But as Amtrak faced mounting deficits and eroding support in Congress, simply touting the Northeast Corridor as a model wasn’t good enough. When Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., sounded the death knell for passenger rail subsidies by pledging to slash “everything from Amtrak to zoological gardens,” and when other key representatives and senators felt comfortable viewing the Amtrak issue as a “Northeast thing,” the future of passenger rail appeared doomed.
What revived the issue and saved it from sure death were the voices of other people from across the country - representing large and small cities as well as rural America - who clearly spelled out the need for a modern and efficient rail passenger system that includes a commitment to rapid rail countrywide. We raised our voices because we know that the people in our rural areas must have transportation options to travel to urban areas. The poor people of our country who have no practical access to airline transportation must have an affordable option.
And Congress began to listen to these people - the farmer needing to get to town 100 miles away, the family wanting an economical way to get from Meridian to Birmingham, Ala., to visit relatives, and the business traveler who couldn’t make airline connections or afford the fare.
As the debate continues about the future of passenger rail, I am consistently struck by the irony of the fact that in this “shrinking world” with its “global economy,” we would even consider crippling or killing one mode of transportation that has enormous potential for moving people from place to place. Rather than reducing our options, we need to be locked into the concept of intermodalism - an integrated network that connects rails to highways to air, and that gives our people access to their neighbors, the next state and the entire country.
As members of Congress began to realize the negative implications of abandoning rail passenger service, Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi introduced a truly visionary bill that sets aside half of 1 percent of the mass transit trust fund for capital investment desperately needed by Amtrak. This funding would generate about $675 million a year for equipment purchases and upgrades, and truly move the system into the 21st century.
Unfortunately, that provision is not yet part of the rail bill being considered in legislation by Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., in the House of Representatives, and I would encourage the public to let House members know that, just as they support highways and air services, they want a solid, adequately funded passenger rail system.
What our initiative is all about goes far beyond just “bailing out Amtrak.” That’s not good enough. With new and modern equipment, the rail passenger system knows it needs to become more efficient and to launch aggressive marketing programs to boost ridership. We’ve already started just such a venture on our Crescent line in the Southeast, marketing package tours from Atlanta to New Orleans by including the food and music of the region as part of the rail traveling experience.
These initiatives are not about nostalgia, not a longing for the days of steam engines and leisurely travel. They are truly about the future, linking people together through an intermodal system that can make our entire nation a community of people.
In a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., sounded the call for the government to engage in a series of big projects that would capture the American spirit and generate a collective will. “You don’t hold together the free people of the planet by small things,” he said. I truly believe that a 21st century nationwide rapid rail system is one of those big projects and a vision worth pursuing.
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