House Panel Oks Funds For Amtrak Bill Would Extend Railroad’s Subsidies For Another 4 Years

A light appeared at the end of Amtrak’s long money-losing railroad tunnel on Thursday.

The House Transportation Committee voted a four-year reprieve for the financially troubled passenger rail system, approving a bill that would continue Amtrak’s subsidies through 1999.

The measure had been delayed for months by a conflict over labor provisions intended to ease the railroad into independence.

“This bill is the product of all the parties - labor, management and members - sitting down and hammering out a fair and reasonable compromise,” said Committee Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa.

Under the bill, Amtrak would receive a federal operating subsidy of $712 million a year in 1996 through 1998 and $403 million in 1999.

The bill also would call for $200 million in capital funds for the railroad each year through 1999.

The House Appropriations transportation subcommittee has approved spending $628 million for Amtrak next year, contingent on passage of this reauthorization bill.

The dispute focused on provisions to permit the railroad to contract out maintenance work and sharply reduce severance payments, which now can give laid-off workers up to six years’ pay.

The new bill would end the ban on Amtrak contracting out work and would call for negotiations with its workers on that issue as well as the job protection issues for laid-off workers.

The two sides would be required to seek mediation from the National Mediation Board during a 254-day period, after which current contract provisions would be ended.