When enough is finally enough

Ending the Amtrak subsidy

SUMMARY: Perhaps it's time to shut Amtrak down completely. We can certainly use the money for other, more important social and safety programs. Then, some enterprising venture capitalist will figure out how to make money transporting passengers by train.

FOR US RAILFANS, the loudest shouting about President Reagan's economic belt-tightening has been over the Amtrak subsidy. We have individually and collectively embarked upon a wailing campaign with the sole aim of preserving rail passenger service as we would like to remember it during its heyday.

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Never mind that our lives and property are in jeopardy from reduced police patrols and understaffed fire stations. Never mind that our social programs are being gutted and our prisons are overcrowded. Poor people and inmates don't ride trains anyway.

We've fought long and hard to hold the line. Each proposal for trimmed service has been met with screams of outrage. Editorialists brandish paper swords; fans flood congressmen with letters, telegrams, and phone calls. Even Amtrak has taken an active role in defending long-haul trains and raising "realistic" expectations about Amtrak's ability to pay its own way. The officers and members of the National Association of Railroad Passengers deserve praise for their selfless dedication, as do the editors of TRAINS. But that doesn't solve the problem of a trillion-dollar national debt ceiling or alleviate uncontrolled deficit spending.

First of all, please understand that I am a long-time Amtrak supporter. While working as a newspaper reporter for an Idaho daily in 1976 and 1977, 1 used my influence to publicize the efforts of the group which established the Pioneer. At another daily in 1979—in the heart of Washington State—I brought the newspaper s railroad coverage out of the closet, working to save the North Coast Hiawatha. Still. there comes a time when enough is finally enough. I believe in letting consumers choose the services available, and right now—for whatever reason—not enough people are giving Amtrak their patronage. Competition from other forms of transportation has pushed the passenger train to the brink of extinction.

While I can't fault Congress for passing the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 which created Amtrak, I've outgrown my wholehearted enthusiasm. I've graduated from college, found employment, married, and started a family. I now deal regularly with income tax, sales tax, property tax, and a host of business taxes disguised in the price of goods I buy. No other hobby comes quickly to mind in which my parents, neighbors, and co-workers involuntarily subsidize my avocation. Every time I board an Amtrak train, several dozen anonymous people help defray the true cost of my ticket.

Just as I can live without public golf courses or the Youth Conservation Corps (to name two), I will be able to survive without passenger trains. My life may be poorer in spirit for their passing, but my ability to feed and clothe my family won't suffer. The services I most value, and am therefore willing to support by taxes, are police and fire protection and adequate public power generation. Services in which everyone has a stake must continue. All else is extraneous and should be eliminated, including Amtrak.

If we can't afford social programs. then we certainly can't afford to waste public money rebuilding our highways. A Wall Street Journal article (October 15, 1981) quotes a Department of Transportation report: ". . . it will take 224.8 billion dollars . . . through 1995 to keep all highways at 1978 levels, and 336.6 billion dollars to upgrade them to the 'minimum condition standards' currently applied for safety . . ." Bridges are being closed because they suffer structural failures from age and overuse. Vehicle damage from potholes increases maintenance outlay.

As cars become more expensive to operate. as fuel becomes so costly and scarce that we fight over supplies, and as our transportation alternatives shrink, good old American ingenuity will come to the rescue. At one of our railroad corporate headquarters, some unsung genius will propose a study of rail passenger traffic potential.

I predict it will take 15 years to totally dismember Amtrak at our present rate, whittling away here and there with inadequate funding as we drive out the best people while the incompetents gradually take over. Then we'll have a 15-year wait while the automobile is declared legally dead. Add another 10 years while the railroads hesitantly reassess passenger feasibilities.

We've already waited 10 years too long. By taking the unpleasant step of axing Amtrak now, we can use our revenues where they will do more good to shore up our sagging economy, and we can hasten the healthy return of passenger service on a pay-its-own-way basis. I'll be too old to chase those future trains with my camera, but I'll certainly ride them.

MICHAEL HEAVENER has a journalism degree and spent five years in newspaper editing and reporting. A Farmington, N.Mex. native, he lives in Redmond, Wash., with his wife and family. (Photo taken in 1982 in Oakland, Calif., standing on pilot of ex-SP GS-4 #4449.)

Published by TRAINS Magazine, Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 53187.