Amtrak: On the Wrong Trackby Mike Layton The right wing's delight in trashing what it terms "liberal" policies that rational people would describe as common sense insurance for the good of society, is bounded by morality in public debate and by dollars in reality. If a public good can't be privatized, that is if someone, say a corporation that finances think tanks, can't profit, it's not worth the spending of public money. Welfare run for the poor and inept with public employees is bad; welfare operated by corporations denied Cold War access to the U.S. Treasury is good. We are reminded anew of this split personality in rhetoric by the decision forced on Amtrak to cease operating the Pioneer from Portland (starting in Seattle) to Denver. Amtrak has been a red flag to right wing bulls since its inception. Public money being wasted moving people by train? Cruel horror! Subsidizing road building, especially for trucks, is all right; it's a private benefit. Who cares that it's public money, our gas taxes, being frittered away when it could be buying decent public transportation? Airlines are subsidized, not least by people who live within sound of the public airports operated for private companies hauling, and making a buck off of, the public. The loss of one of the two remaining east-west Amtrak runs is a kick in the teeth to everyone in the Northwest, including those who never ride a train. It removes an option of civility while right wing reactionaries chuckle and sharpen their knives for more. The latest attack, by Bruce Chapman, head of a Seattle right wing "think tank," puts forward the charge in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Amtrak, with its riders and defenders, is asking the freight railroads, on whose sorry tracks Amtrak runs, to subsidize passenger service. "Privatize" or walk, are the optional tunes these would-be elitists sing. Or drive your own car. Or take a turtle-express bus, nearly as uncomfortable as airline steerage. Never mind that the freight lines oozed out of hauling passengers (private enterprise) over decades of deliberate sloppy service because they couldn't - or didn't want to - make it pay. Eventually the riding public would no longer tolerate dirty and unheated cars, endless delays on sidings to make way for freight trains, dining car sandwiches delivered cold and soggy two hours late. People quit riding. That was what management wanted; an excuse to whine to federal and state regulators that they were losing money and thus be allowed to drop service on line after line. The history of privately operated railroads in this country, at least until recent years, has been a tale of banditry and incompetence. Stock swindles that would make Michael Milken envious were routine. One bunch of con artists would plunder a line and then sell to another which would repeat the process. A decade or so ago, railroads in the U.S. Northeast were run into the ground by their managements. Businesses affected by the mess called on Uncle for help and thus was born ConRail. Federal operation proved so profitable that within two years a cry went up, mostly from those same businesses. You guessed it: "privatize." Here's a puzzle that Amtrak officials and management of the railroads could answer but aren't likely to - for different reasons: Why, when the Pioneer serving a vast territory with some cities is discontinued because of insufficient revenues (ridership), is the Empire Builder across Montana continuing to run? Next question: Why does the Empire Builder continue over the "northern route," through sparsely populated Montana's tiny towns just south of the Canadian border rather than the "southern route" through middle Montana with its three university towns and greater population? Politics probably is partly the answer. But a larger reason is apparently to not interfere with coal trains running from Coalstrip, Montana. Passenger trains might slow down coal delivery. As a consequence, students can no longer go to college by train; they'll have to drive, take a bus or fly. Amtrak is not blameless in all this. Just trying to obtain a schedule by phone is almost impossible. It would be interesting to know how many potential riders have given up trying to make reservations via Amtrak's incomprehensible telephone instructions. Amtrak also has personnel problems, to the delight of Chapman and his ilk who get their biggest kicks sniping at Labor. Their criticism of "featherbedding" probably has some legitimacy although they fade into insignificance compared to railroad management's delinquencies. Union officials need to recognize the problem and work with management lest they kill off the very vehicle their members depend on for a livelihood. On-board Amtrak personnel are courteous and helpful although not always knowledgeable or aware of what the train is doing. Ticketing agents are sensitive and patient - when they can be reached. This latest attack on Amtrak resembles the squeals of a state legislator a few years ago to privatize the state ferry system. He wouldn't listen to explanations that ferries started out private and the state had to come to the rescue with a permanent subsidy when the Black Ball Line was going broke. Land speculators on the west side of Puget Sound, good property rights defenders, were in a panic. It's like the man says - public welfare for the rich; volunteer handouts for the poor. Mike Layton is a staff writer for the Green Pages.
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