Taking the rail transit case to Congress

William W. Millar
President, American Public Transportation Association

Commuter rail and rail transit advocates are looking forward to a busy legislative year in 2001, making the case that rail passenger investments are critical to providing the public with transportation choices and to the nation's economic health, and that using rail rights-of-way for both passenger and freight services is necessary.

We begin the year with several important observations:

First, public transit ridership is at its highest in more than 40 years. In 2000, and in the past four years, more Americans decided to leave the driving to someone else. Transit usage grew more than twice as fast as highway vehicle miles traveled. Last year, ridership on U.S. public transportation systems grew by an estimated 320 million rides, to a total of 9.4 billion trips, according to APTA's preliminary estimates. When people are given a choice, they will ride quality public transportation.
Second, while America continues to boast the world's best overall transportation system, it is now showing signs of severe stress. Capacity improvements in our railroads, airports, roadways, port facilities, and public transportation infrastructure will be critical to our ability to sustain strong economic growth. Railroad capacity shortages, highway congestion, and severe overcrowding of passenger rail vehicles are issues the new Congress and Administration must confront to continue economic growth.
Third, leadership at every level of government is speaking out loud and clear that now is the time to make passenger rail service a top priority on the transportation agenda. On January 17, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, under the leadership of President Brent Coles, Mayor of Boise, Idaho, devoted nearly an entire day of its winter meeting to focus on the need for increased investments in rail and to highlight the need for a national rail policy. The mayors were armed with a new survey showing that 82% of poll respondents supported funding a rail service network. Speaking at the same event, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott expressed his support for additional investments in urban and intercity rail.

Following are some of the issues likely to be considered in the coming year:

FY 2002 DOT Budget. APTA trusts Congress will honor the "guaranteed" funding levels as provided through the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA- 21). Beyond that, for the reasons highlighted above, APTA will urge Congress and the Administration to appropriate funds to the $7.7 billion authorized in TEA-21 for transit investments in FY 2002. Also, as part of the FY 2002 budget, APTA supports continued funding of FRA's rail research program, including continuation of the crash testing program, development of a crashworthy, self-propelled commuter rail vehicle (carried out in conjunction with FTA for use in shared-track rail systems), and commuter rail participation in the research and demonstration efforts for positive train control systems.

Passenger Rail Access. TEA-21 authorizes investment in over 200 new rail transit projects, about half of which are likely to use existing rail freight corridors. Using existing rights-of-way, where capacity exists or can be created readily, is often more cost effective to the taxpayer than tearing apart business and neighborhoods to acquire and construct new rail corridors. Unfortunately, freight railroads can, and often do, unilaterally deny access to passenger rail agencies. In such situations, local officials have no recourse or ability to appeal the decision. In contrast, a statutory appeal process is available to Amtrak for disputes involving the use of freight railroad-owned track and other facilities, but that process does not apply to public transportation providers. Accordingly, APTA will strongly support legislation, such as has been sponsored by Congressman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Congressman Bob Clement (D-Tenn.) that would create a federal process to resolve disputes when parties cannot agree on terms and conditions for use of a railroad right-of-way.

Commuter Railroad Issues. Several railroadrelated issues are likely to arise in the 107th Congress, including the High Speed Rail Investment Act, reauthorization of the Rail Safety Act, reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Board, and reauthorization of Amtrak.

TEA-21 Reauthorization. While TEA-21 does not expire until 2003, APTA has established a Task Force to consider, among other things, programs and resources that will address the growing demand for surface transportation infrastructure investments.

U.S. Conference of Mayors Vice President and New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial may have said it best at the January 17 Mayor's Summit when he said: "We want to say to President Bush: Fuel rail the same way we have fueled airline expansions and highways. It is clear we need other solutions."