Baltimore (MD) Sun, 11/25:
Editorial:
Railroad's mixed signals
Failure to invest enough on Amtrak and U.S. freight lines is threatening railroad gridlock
The National Association of Railroad Passengers, the country's largest train and transit advocacy group, issued a warning last month that deserves to be repeated here. The final numbers on Amtrak's ridership and revenue in fiscal 2014 are in, and the railroad did record-breaking business over the past year. But the failure to invest sufficiently in the nation's railroad system is threatening to grind Amtrak trains to a slow crawl.
That may be a familiar circumstance with Amtrak, surely mile-for-mile the most neglected form of passenger transportation in the United States. But it's getting worse and worse. Not just because of an insufficient investment in Amtrak-owned tracks in the Northeast but also because of neglect of the nation's heavily-traveled freight lines, which Amtrak shares, and it's grown particularly bad in the Midwest.
SNIP
Passenger rail needs a predictable, consistent and adequate level of funding, or it will cease to be a viable alternative. A moribund Amtrak would be a loss, not only for businesses and individuals who rely on it but for the nation's congested highway network, which will be forced to make up the difference. Rail is more cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally sound than putting more cars on the roads. The sooner the next Congress recognizes that fact, the sooner the nation's ailing rail system — and Amtrak's future — can be remedied.
Read more here.