Congresswoman Brown Speaks about Amtrak Reauthorization

Press Release

Congresswoman Brown made the following statement: "Amtrak is a great way to travel for both work and pleasure. It takes cars off of our already congested highways and is better for the environment. In many areas of the country, it is the only mode of public transportation available. In fact, ridership has increased in 8 of the last 9 years, and reached a record level of 25.8 million passengers last year. And with the cost of gas potentially rising to $4 a gallon, there will be even more riders lining up for Amtrak.

Unfortunately, Amtrak has been given just enough money each year to limp along, never getting the necessary funding to make serious improvements to the system.

In 2005, Amtrak conducted a comprehensive review of its capital needs. The review determined that Amtrak should invest $4.2 billion to bring their infrastructure back to a state of good repair. Today, with the backlog of major bridge and tunnel work, the investment capital approaches an estimated $6 billion.

As other countries continue to invest tens of billions of dollars each year to improve their passenger rail systems, we are falling further behind by deferring these much needed improvements to our system. We absolutely need to find a way to speed up Amtrak's backlog of repair work and return the infrastructure to a good state of repair so that Amtrak can concentrate on increasing capacity, increasing speed, developing new facilities, and planning for the future.

50 years ago, President Eisenhower created the National Highway System that drastically changed the way we traveled in this country. Today we need to do the same thing with our rail system, and with this Amtrak Reauthorization we are doing just that.

The legislation developed by Chairman Oberstar and myself provides over $2 billion per year for Capital and Operating Grants, $500 million per year for developing State Passenger Corridors, $345 million per year to pay down debt, $345 million per year for High Speed Rail Programs, $60 million to start work on constructing a new tunnel through Baltimore, and requires a plan for restoring service to the Sunset Limited line.

The United States used to have the best passenger rail system in the world. Now we're the caboose and they don't even have cabooses anymore. The American people deserve better, and I believe this Amtrak Reauthorization will go a long way in restoring the US to its rightful place as a world leader in passenger rail."

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