TRINIDAD, Colo. — If Amtrak’s Southwest Chief route that passes through Trinidad, La Junta, Las Animas, Lamar and Raton, N.M., is going to be preserved, the small towns along that route will have to put pressure on Congress to come up with the necessary funding to sustain it, The Pueblo Chieftain reports.
“I think it is the small towns and cities of America that are going to keep long-distance passenger rail going,” said Jon Esty, president of the Colorado Rail Passenger Association since 1995 and a member of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.
Esty spoke at last week’s monthly Trinidad-Las Animas County Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
“It is you folks who really want the (transportation) alternative,” said Esty.
“Up in Denver, they have DIA (Denver International Airport) from where they can go practically anywhere. There is not as much concern in the metro areas as there is down here in Trinidad and elsewhere around the state.
“The invitation to speak here has fired me up to start talking to some of the chambers of commerce in Grand Junction, Granby, Fort Morgan and La Junta to get the kind of support I know you folks are giving to Amtrak and long-distance passenger rail,” he said.
The chamber is doing its part to try and save Amtrak’s southwestern route by urging its membership to write Colorado’s elected officials in Congress and at the State House. The letter-writing campaign that started Feb. 19 has produced responses so far from Gov. Bill Owens, state Sen. Lewis Entz and state Rep. Ken Kester, and encouraging replies from officials in La Junta, Fowler, Lamar and Raton.
Since Feb. 1, Amtrak has threatened to eliminate 18 long-distance, overnight passenger service routes starting Sept. 30 unless Congress again subsidizes those routes by $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2003. Confirmation of that funding is scheduled for debate in Congress March 29.
Esty said he talked to U.S. Congressman Bob Schaffer’s transportation staff in Washington last week. “They said Rep. Schaffer is very much aware of what’s going on but hasn’t made up his mind as to what he wants to support on this.”
Esty said that talking to Sen. Wayne Allard’s transportation staff hasn’t produced much support yet but Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s Washington transportation staff “has been very positive. Sen. Campbell has had a fair amount of experience with passenger rail when, I believe, he was a student in Japan.”
Esty said his organization is encouraging people to support Sen. Ernest Hollings’ (D-S.C. and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee) Senate Bill 1991, the National Defense Rail Act.
He said the bill has 22 bipartisan Senate co-sponsors to continue national passenger train service and fund capital improvements and operations for long-distance rail and added services.
“Unfortunately, Sen. Allard and Sen. Campbell are not among those supporting that bill. So, when you talk to their local offices and write letters to those folks, please indicate that this bill would probably offer the best guarantee for continued (Amtrak) service,” Esty said.
Owens said in his letter to Chamber Executive Director Kimberly Mazza that it’s his understanding that Congress is considering Amtrak Reform Council proposals to privatize various parts of Amtrak’s service in response to the 1997 law that requires Amtrak to operate without government subsidies by 2003 after getting $2 billion in government subsidies from 1997-2002.
Esty said Amtrak had sought $1.5 billion every year for five years so it could begin operating in the black by 2003. “As a result of not getting that funding, Amtrak has had to start mortgaging its railroad, including Penn Station in New York last year for $300 million. Basically, they are mortgaging themselves into a bankrupt state.”