Is Amtrak Headed Off the Rails?

N E W   Y O R K, March 4 -- You might not think that Larry Bonderud, the mayor of tiny Shelby, Mont. (pop. 3,000), would be deeply worried about the future of Amtrak.

But Bonderud is among those concerned that Congress will discontinue its funding of Amtrak this year — meaning the national passenger railroad would likely eliminate long-distance trains such as the Empire Builder, which passes through Shelby en route from Chicago to Seattle.

He says having no train would mean fewer jobs in town and no way for travelers to get around except by car.

"It would be devastating," says Bonderud. "We have 50 jobs here based on Amtrak and for a community our size to lose jobs would be devastating. And it's the only means of public travel by which people can go east and west from here — there's no buses and there's no airplanes."

But with the congressionally appointed Amtrak Reform Council last month recommending the breakup of Amtrak, lawmakers may decide to stop subsidizing passenger trains. And unless Congress comes up with $1.2 billion in funding, warns Amtrak President George Warrington, long-distance routes will be shut down on Oct. 1. So far the Bush administration has set aside just $521 million for Amtrak in its proposed annual budget.

The Money Train

Amtrak's financial picture seems complex, but the problem underlying its balance sheet is simple: Trains on the densely populated Northeast Corridor, from Washington to Boston, turn a profit, while passenger routes virtually everywhere else in the country are money-losers.

Amtrak System Map

Many in Congress, which has given generally bipartisan support for Amtrak since its inception in 1971, continue to press for changes in order to make the railroad self-sufficient.

"Amtrak's financial condition and its underlying structure have got to be dealt with," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., at a recent hearing in Congress on the railroad's future. But given Amtrak's prescribed role as a national passenger carrier, losses seem inevitable. Roughly a quarter of Amtrak's routes lose at least $100 per ticket sold.