WASHINGTON -- With gasoline prices high and airports congested this summer, record numbers of Americans are traveling on Amtrak passenger trains. Still, even with a 5.4 percent jump in ridership so far this year, Amtrak is not taking in enough money to continue operating and also pay for critically needed upgrades of rail cars, bridges, tunnels, and other infrastructure.
"Our equipment is aging," Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant told Congress last week. Referring to dining cars built in the early 1950s, he noted, "We do a good job of maintaining them . . . but there comes an end point."
To help keep the US passenger railroad rolling, especially in states outside the Northeast, two Democratic-controlled congressional committees last week approved spending measures that would boost the subsidized rail system's budget far higher than President Bush would like.
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a $1.4 billion budget for Amtrak in fiscal 2008, up from this year's $1.3 billion. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $1.37 billion budget.
Both spending bills are expected to win approval in their respective chambers.
Then a compromise funding figure would be negotiated for the final bill, which likely would pass in late September. But Bush wants Congress to spend only $800 million on Amtrak, and has promised to veto any spending bills that exceed his budget requests.