Save Amtrak express, train activists urge
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Tom Donahue of the Rutland Regional Chamber of Commerce testifies Wednesday at the Statehouse before the House Transportation Committee on the proposed elimination of Amtrak passenger rail service. Stefan Hard / Times Argus |
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By STEPHANIE M. PETERS Herald Staff - Published: January 22, 2009
At a packed public hearing before the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday night, about 30 people testified for more than two hours as to why Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express should be saved from the Legislature's budget rescissions.
While local legislators and community leaders peppered the crowd and the speakers' list, the most compelling testimony given may have been that of the cross-section of residents who anecdotally related how passenger rail service in the state's western corridor was vital to their lives.
From small business owners, retirees and the handicapped to an 8-year-old boy who described trains as the gateways to new adventures and a woman who recounted how the train allowed her to care for her dying mother, one by one they took a seat before the 11-member committee, many talking beyond their allotted three minutes.
A fairly new resident of Rutland, Herb Russell — like others throughout the night — emphasized the importance of having a transportation service that connects the western corridor of Vermont with the rest of the country.
"We're going in a regressive direction if we pull this train out of Rutland," he said. "Right now we're connected. It's with pride that we stand in Penn Station in New York and see on the big board 'Rutland.'"
Repeatedly, those testifying also questioned why Rutland and why now.
Speaking as a resident and the city treasurer, Wendy Wilton said cutting the service would do a disservice to the millions of dollars the state has invested in downtown Rutland. She also said the city's 1 percent local option tax was down 12 percent already and would inevitably continue to decline if the passengers brought in by the train service were lost.
Others familiar with passenger rail statistics and transportation issues in the state sought to poke holes in the Douglas administration's proposal to temporarily replace rail service with once-a-day, premier coach bus service between Burlington and the Amtrak station at Rensselaer, N.Y.
The Agency of Transportation projects the bus service will cost the state only $127,000 once the anticipated revenue is figured in, and will generate ridership of 25,900. That would work out to a $4.90 state subsidy per passenger. By contrast, in 2009 it is projected that the Ethan Allen Express would cost the state $67.78 in subsidy per passenger when the projected Vermont ridership is 19,688, according to information Rob Ide, head of the rail division for the Agency of Transportation, presented the House Transportation Committee earlier Wednesday afternoon.
Tom Donahue of the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce argued, however, that the once-a-day bus will not see those ridership figures and consequently will realize a cost that will "eradicate the savings in the budget," he said.
Ellen Atkinson of the Marble Valley Regional Transit District also testified that bus service of this nature has been proposed and studied before. She presented committee members with a copy of a legislative report prepared by the operations division of the Agency of Transportation on Jan. 15, 2008, in which the writers urge the Legislature to study rail cuts further before taking action.
Before the testimony began, Transportation Chairman Richard Westman, a Republican from Cambridge, shared some financial figures and other potential cuts he said he hoped would serve as a "backdrop" to why the Ethan Allen Express was up for discussion.
"We have about $10 million left to cut … on that list are some very unfortunate items," Westman said. Included in those will be $3 million in cuts to the Agency of Transportation's central garage, which will mean no new state plows this year and will bring the agency's fleet from 2 percent of vehicles more than eight years old to 18 percent, he said.
Westman also reminded the gathering that 55 percent of the roads in the state have now been rated in poor or very poor condition and one in five bridges across the state have been rated structurally deficient — a figure that places Vermont in the bottom 10 states in the country for bridge upkeep.
"Everyone thinks that the federal stimulus package is going to be the panacea, but it's only going to give us $70 million over the next two years … that's not a lot and there are a lot of restrictions on that money," he said.
The last speaker of the night, however, urged the committee to see past the current budgetary restrictions, regardless.
"Look into your hearts, into your minds and your pocketbooks," said John Valente, a Rutland lawyer and the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce board president. "We understand it's a tough decision you have to make, but this is an asset that generates revenue and we would thank you for not cutting the Ethan Allen Express."
Contact Stephanie M. Peters at stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com.
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