Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 27, 1993                   TAG: 9309270013
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DON PHILLIPS THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WRECK A FRESH BLOW TO ALREADY BRUISED AMTRAK; WHAT'S NEXT?

Years of tight federal budgets, deferred overhauls and other cost-cutting have led to more frequent breakdowns of locomotives, deteriorating passenger cars and frayed labor relations, even as passengers fill trains and are sometimes turned away.

There is no suggestion that Amtrak's financial woes contributed to the wreck of the Sunset Limited in a dark bayou before dawn last Wednesday that left 47 people dead.

But the financial problems surface in other ways. On-time performance on long-distance routes dropped from 51.2 percent in June 1992 to 37.8 percent this June. The average age of its locomotives and cars is 18.3 years, with a normal service life of 20 years.

"My people call it the duct-tape railroad," said James M. Brunkenhoeffer, national legislative director of the United Transportation Union, which represents Amtrak conductors and brakemen. "It needs help, and it needs help fast."

Amtrak, formally the National Passenger Railroad Corp., was created in 1971 to preserve declining passenger train service. Congress has voted billions of dollars in subsidies since then. But those subsidies have been declining since 1982.

The quasi-public Amtrak still attracts large numbers of passengers, and sleeping-car reservations often are difficult to obtain. The Clinton administration not only expresses support for Amtrak but also has announced a high-speed rail initiative, and some state governments, particularly California, are clamoring for rail service as an alternative to highway expansion.

The United States should be entering a golden era for passenger trains. But it now appears that even the friendly Clinton administration and a supportive Democratic Congress not only will produce few if any high-speed routes but could preside over the first significant cutback of long-distance routes since the early Reagan administration.

Tim Gillespie, Amtrak's vice president for government and public affairs, calls this "the best of times, the worst of times." Public enthusiasm is high, he said, "But I'm beginning to wonder how we're going to get through next year," he said.

Gillespie said a few initial cutbacks probably will come in November, likely making some daily trains tri-weekly, he said.

The Northeast Corridor is Amtrak's only truly profitable route, with projected earnings of $144.6 million for fiscal 1993, which ends Friday.

Almost all other routes lose money, although many cover short-term out-of-pocket costs. A major exception is the Auto Train from Lorton, outside Washington, D.C., to Sanford, Fla., which earned a $5.6 million profit.

Corridor ridership is depressed because of the economy. In fiscal 1992 10.1 million passengers rode the trains between Washington and Boston, down from 11.2 million in 1990 and still slightly below 1982's 10.5 million. Meanwhile, ridership in the rest of the country has been climbing steadily from 9 million in 1982 to 11.3 million in 1992.

Passenger train advocates say passenger trains are needed in congested corridors such as New York-Washington and Los Angeles-San Diego, partly because this allows the building of fewer expensive highways.

The rationale for long-distance trains has always been less clear, although some of them do serve a useful transportation service. It boils down to two factors: strong political support in Congress and in many states, and passengers who vote with their tickets. Almost all Amtrak trains are popular.

But Bob Carr, D-Mich., chairman of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee says, "I think Amtrak basically is in deep, deep trouble in its current configuration, and that presents a real dilemma for the administration and Congress," Federal money is spread thinly, he said, and Amtrak "just isn't going to get that kind of money under any scenario, and therefore, you've got to cut back on routes."

The House last week passed Carr's bill to cut the administration's operating subsidy request for Amtrak by $30 million and the capital budget by $35 million.