Amtrak riders rally to save funding, as Trump budget threatens massive cuts

Train enthusiasts will be holding rallies in 25 cities across the country Friday to protest the major cuts to Amtrak funding proposed by President Trump in his budget request. Two hundred and twenty-five cities across 23 states are slated to lose all passenger railway service if Congress approves Trump's budget cuts, which is considered unlikely.

“Rally for Trains” protests will be held in cities such as Cincinnati and Denver, which would lose all Amtrak service, as well as places such as Chicago and Washington, D.C, where rail lines would remain in operation but still face cuts to funding. The protest campaign is being organized by the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

Trump’s proposed budget calls for a nearly 13% reduction in the federal transportation budget in the next year — cutting it down to $16.2 billion. The majority of funding cut comes out of railway systems: $630 million would be cut from subsidies for long-distance Amtrak service, nearly half of its $1.404 billion funding from the previous year.

The remaining Amtrak grants would be applied toward funding rails in the Northeast Corridor.

Trump’s justification for removing funding to long-distance rails is that they are often not on time and are operating at a loss.

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“Amtrak’s long distance trains do not serve a vital transportation purpose, and are a vestige of when train service was the only viable transcontinental transportation option,” the budget says. “Terminating federal funding for Long Distance services will allow Amtrak to focus its resources — and those appropriated by Congress — on better managing its successful corridor services that provide transportation options within more densely populated regions.”

But for the riders and many of the cities which are slated to lose funding, Amtrak is a key regional connector. Across the country, 140 million people would no longer have access to passenger rail service, according to Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of NARP.

“If you look at these towns it’s not like you just go to the local international airport. It’s Amtrak or nothing,” Jeans-Gail said. “Two-thirds of the travel that happens on Amtrak’s network happens outside of the Northeast Corridor. Most of this happens on the state-supported routes, but they happen because they have stations in each state. You need the interconnectivity for it to work.”

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Dave Kleis, the mayor St. Cloud, Minn., a city that would lose all Amtrak passenger service under the budget plan, agrees that the railway works best when it’s connected.

"You need to make sure that as a country we’re still connecting that access point where people have the opportunity to get to place to place,” Kleis said. “If you do have to prioritize, clearly you wouldn’t want to isolate regional centers. I know a number of folks who catch that train here as a regional center. I don’t think we can ignore one piece to help another.”

Jeans-Gail acknowledges that there are many programs which will be cut under the proposed budget and believes the best shot for keeping funding is to remain vocal on the issue — whether participating in rallies or calling members of Congress.

"President Trump’s proposed cuts to rail funding are reckless and could have a devastating effect on transportation and tourism in the Silver State, specifically in the city of Reno,” said Reno, Nev., Mayor Hillary Schieve. “We should be making it easier, not harder, for people to come to our region and enjoy everything we have to offer.”

Ultimately though, it is up to Congress whether the cuts will go through, and already Trump is resistance from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Congress killed a proposal two years ago to dramatically decrease Amtrak funding, and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said at a hearing last week, "Safe and reliable passenger rail service is essential to economic opportunity, whether it be the East Coast, West Coast or somewhere in between."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., vigorously opposes cuts to rails.

“Rail lines, like our roads and highways, are vital in knitting together our communities and the nation. They are crucial to our economy and to economic development,” Leahy said. Trump's transportation budget "is blithely undermining and undervaluing not only rail but whole swaths of the real needs of both rural America and urban areas.”

Charles "Wick" Moorman IV, president and CEO of Amtrak, will testify about the proposed budget cuts before a House Transportation subcommittee Thursday.

Jeans-Gail said he hope the final budget will fund rails in the Northeast Corridor and rural America.

“A lot of them are used relatively less than New York City’s Penn Station but that’s because New York City is the largest city in the U.S.,” Jeans-Gail said. “Just because there’s not 8 million people living there doesn’t mean they don’t serve an important function for the people there.”