Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Chairman, the Amtrak reauthorization before us today
speaks volumes for the chairman and ranking member of our committee. It
is the first Amtrak bill on the floor since 2008. It is a bipartisan
bill. But, it also speaks volumes that Amtrak has performed so well
without additional revenue.

This bill leaves Amtrak at about level funding, just a tiny bit more.
When we call Amtrak ``America's railroad,'' that is not a metaphor, Mr.
Chairman. All of its stock is owned by the Department of
Transportation. The reason for that is that the private sector in the
1970s found running a railroad to be a money-losing proposition and
asked the Federal Government to take over Amtrak.

Amtrak, of course, is a fiction. It is structured as a private
company. But like every railroad in the world, it is either subsidized
by the government or the public cannot afford to ride. The bill has
almost no new funding, but even without new funding, Amtrak has already
scored great points.

Amtrak has essentially overseen the revival of train travel in the
United States of America, and it has done so in a way that the
government can take almost no credit for. For example, ticket revenue
was $1.5 billion in 2005; then we go 5 years later to 2010, it is $1.8
billion; and today, it is $2.1 billion. Yet the average ticket has
increased only $5 every 5 years over that period of time. Amtrak knows
what the market is about, and it has grown based on volume, not
revenue. The railroad has seen phenomenal growth in passengers,
reaching records as high as its highest record in 1988, when the
equipment was much newer.

An important measure of efficiency is simply the number of seats
filled. More Amtrak seats are filled today than at any time. Its on-
time performance is above 80 percent, and that is amazing when you
consider that Amtrak does not own most of the tracks it runs over. They
are owned by the freight companies. The first cause of delay, frequent
freight traffic. The second cause of delay, reduced speed needed for
maintenance.

Amtrak has shown it knows how to run a railroad, and to run a
railroad on time, but Amtrak needs to be able to run a 21st century
railroad.

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Ms. NORTON. Until the Federal Government owns up to investing more in
the railroad that we own, Amtrak will be running a 20th century
railroad--or is it a 19th century railroad, Mr. Chairman?

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