Citizens will determine the future of America's passenger train system
By Doug Ohlemeier, MOKS Rail newsletter editor
OMAHA, Neb. - The future of Amtrak remains not in Congress nor
the White House- but in the hands of the people, said Alan
Yorker, the president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers
. Yorker addressed a group of 67 rail advocates at the Region X
meeting April 6 in Omaha.
Yorker said the national debate rail advocates have long wanted
is finally happening.
"Amtrak is up to the people. We will have a national rail
passenger system and a better one," Yorker said.
Yorker announced that a private deal had been struck the evening
of April 5 in Congress, agreed to by Sen. John McCain, for $1.2
billion required to keep the system running. The 30-day emergency
discontinuance notices may still be possible, Yorker warned but
said Amtrak President George Warrington told him he has no plans
to make such an announcement.
"Those of us watching closely believe we will make it
through this year," Yorker said. He said passenger rail will
be written into Rail-21, the transportation reauthorization bill
that will be rewritten next year.
"Passenger rail will no longer be a stepchild," Yorker
said. "Passenger rail is not outmoded nor obsolete. For a
healthy America, we need a healthy rail system. They can no
longer dismiss us as nostalgia freaks."
Yorker said people visiting Europe and other places see the type
of trains the rest of the industrialized world rides and ask
themselves why can't they have such systems in America. The
answer: Congress has not done its homework.
"Modern passenger trains are efficient and economically
viable," Yorker said. "There's not a single
transportation system in the world that's self-sufficient. Our
sewers don't make any money. But how would you like to live
without them?"
Yorker said NARP is getting the pro-passenger rail message
"to every congressional office on Capitol Hill."
Congressional staffers are requesting NARP to send them more
information because they tell NARP they need to look more into
passenger rail issues, he said.
"We're (NARP) a hot entity in Washington now."
Leading Amtrak critic, Sen. McCain, Yorker said, "is brain
dead" and not respected on the Hill in passenger rail
issues. "He will not learn and he does not want to
read," Yorker said to a loud amount of applause. "He
has been dismissed from the debate. No one is listening to McCain
in this debate, including the president."
May 8th has been scheduled by NARP as a national advocacy day
where NARP and rail advocates "will hit every congressional
office to make sure the entire Congress learns of support for
passenger rail."
A committee hearing is scheduled for Thursday, April 11.
"Now that Congress is listening, we will let the
conservatives (such as Amtrak think tank critics) shoot
themselves in the foot," Yorker said.
Amtrak has been a poor performer, Yorker said, through no fault
of their own, but because it has been "bought on the cheap
by the federal government."
Amtrak's 30-year survival has been an absolute miracle, Yorker
said. "That only proves this country needs passenger
rail."
NARP has just completed a draft of the Future of Passenger Rail
report that explains how cutting the national system kills the
trunk of the tree, Yorker said.
Michael Jackson, an undersecretary to U.S. Department of
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, Yorker said, is writing
the Bush Administration's policy on rail transportation. He has
stated $2.5 billion is the real cost to properly fund passenger
rail.
"He has admitted the emperor is not wearing clothes,"
Yorker said.
Yorker thanked Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Utah, South Dakota and
Wyoming rail advocates, who comprise Region 10 and are served by
only one Amtrak train, the California Zephyr.
"You're a forgotten region in many ways," Yorker said.
"But you're the linchpin linking the two halves of the
nation. Rail service here is just as important as in
densely-populated corridors."
Resources for rail passenger advocates
