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Amtrak: State probably won’t have to pitch in

Some states served by Amtrak have been put on notice that they may be asked to help pay to keep passenger train service, but Montana is not among them and likely won’t be, an Amtrak spokesman says.

The Independent Record By the AP

That came as a relief to Montana transportation officials, who were unsure the state would be able to come up with any cash.
“Obviously with our financial situation, any expectation for Montana to pitch in would be problematic,” said Dick Turner, the chief of the state transportation department’s multimodal planning bureau.

The debt-saddled railroad has warned it might be required to ask states to help pay for rail service.
But Dan Stessel, an Amtrak spokesman, said the states that could be asked are ones in which Amtrak provides commuter service.

The Empire Builder runs across Montana’s Hi-Line, carrying passengers from Portland, Ore., and Seattle to Chicago as it passes through eight states.
Stessel said the task of getting officials from eight states to agree on how each should contribute to subsidize the route would be almost impossible.

According to the most recent numbers available from the U.S. General Accounting Office, the Empire Builder lost $45.5 million between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2001 — or about $114 per passenger.

The route has been losing passengers too. The number of riders dropped more than 15 percent between fiscal years 1999 and 2002, from 434,946 passengers a year to 368,061 a year.
Nonetheless, the route provides essential transportation service in Montana, Turner said.

“In some cases, there is no other intercity transportation along the Hi-Line except by car,” he said. “We see the Empire Builder as extremely important to Hi-Line communities and the people who live there.”
Amtrak’s reauthorization bill — and its level of funding — is expected to be hotly debated when it comes before Congress next year. The debate was to have occurred this fall, but was postponed.

David Gunn, Amtrak’s president, has said the railroad needs $1.2 billion from the government for the current fiscal year, considerably more than the Bush administration has proposed.

http://www.helenair.com/montana/a07122902_01.html

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