WASHINGTON — Aside from the revelation that Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner was granted $620,000 in bonuses on top of a $500,000 salary last year, very little new ground was covered at today’s House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Rail Subcommittee hearing.
The hearing, “Amtrak and Intercity Passenger Rail Oversight: Promoting Performance, Safety and Accountability,” was abruptly scheduled by Subcommittee Chairman Troy Nehls, R-Texas, to follow the introduction of legislation calling for more Amtrak transparency. [see, “House bills would require open Amtrak meetings, notification on executive bonuses,” News Wire June 11, 2024]
Amtrak Board Chairman Anthony Coscia’s opening statement and answers to questioning by panel members throughout the session claimed the bonuses and incentives “allowed us to rebuild our workforce and attract new employees with the expertise we needed.”
But his remarks dealt solely with attracting and keeping management talent at the executive level, claiming the pension program it replaced was “a very costly benefit program.” Coscia did note that executive compensation details will be posted on Amtrak’s website later this week.
The final witness was North Carolina Deputy Secretary of Multimodal Transportation Julie White. Her testimony reminded lawmakers that rail is the only transportation mode that does not have formula-based, consistent, and predictable source of funding. With seven North Carolina entrants in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor ID program, she explained that state communities along corridors fortunate enough to be selected in Corridor ID Phase 2 will be expected to contribute to the 10% match to advance those projects.
As expected, statements and questioning of witnesses by more than a half-dozen Republican subcommittee members primarily from rural districts with or without Amtrak long-distance service reflected their ideological opposition to passenger rail because it doesn’t make a profit.
In response, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., wondered why participants at non-rail hearings never dwell on how much money highways lose or whether airlines would be profitable if public funds didn’t pay for airports, security, or air control systems.
However, Moulton also complained that the sealed corridor S-Line rebuild North Carolina’s White referenced that will cut an hour of travel time between Richmond, Va., and Raleigh, N.C., was “1920’s technology” because maximum speeds would only be 110 mph.
Subcommittee ranking member Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., who represents the Miami area, asked CEO Gardner why Amtrak had not yet moved its South Florida terminus from out-of-the-way Hialeah to the Miami Intermodal Airport station that has been ready for Amtrak trains for about eight years.
Gardner said Amtrak is “in active conversations” with the Florida Department of Transportation, the Miami-Dade Airport Authority, and Tri-Rail, to come up with “the right deal for Amtrak in terms of its tenancy.” But he offered no insight as to when those negotiations would bear fruit.
Although she did not speak at Wednesday’s hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., whose district includes the northern New York portion of the New York-Montreal Adirondack route, on Tuesday characterized the lack of transparency from Canadian National and Amtrak over the summer-long hiatus of the train north of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., as “completely unacceptable.”
The press release recounted how the congresswoman on May 17 announced a “settlement payment to undertake trackwork on [Canadian National’s] Rouses Point Subdivision for Amtrak’s benefit,” but did not reveal the cost or what the project entailed.
The statement also failed to mention that any decisions on how the train is operated would involve New York State Department of Transportation’s Rail Division, which has always deferred News Wire inquiries to Amtrak.
A video of today’s hearing is available on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee website.
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