Blaming Amtrak for Insufficient Rural Service Misses the Mark

photo by the author near Superior, Iowa

On Tuesday, the Daily Yonder – a well-meaning news source focusing on the needs of America's rural communities – posted an article criticizing Amtrak for not doing enough to serve rural areas (RAIL Magazine addressed the topic in this article). While there's no doubt that writer C.B. Hall's heart was in the right place in describing the ongoing struggle of several rural communities to restore or initiate long-distance rail service, the piece spends far too much of its time blaming Amtrak for a larger problem that it can do little to resolve on its own.

Initially, Hall spends several paragraphs describing how intercity bus carriers – most notably Greyhound – have drastically reduced service to rural America, as well as how reductions in the federally-supported Essential Air Service (EAS) program have also limited access to other rural communities, but then fails to commend Amtrak for maintaining service to scores of smaller urban and rural areas and instead focuses on the post-Katrina suspension of the Sunset Limited between Orlando and New Orleans. Hall notes that the economics of bus and air options are working against rural areas, but seems to believe Amtrak does not face the same constraints. It's typical of media coverage that places a higher standard on Amtrak than any other form of passenger transport, evidenced as Hall goes on to ask, "the U.S. freight rail system is a model of efficient transportation perhaps unmatched on the planet – so why not passenger trains, too?"

photo by the author in Atmore, Ala., former stop on the Sunset Limited

Certainly, Amtrak could be working harder to restore the eastern segment of the Sunset Limited, although Hall's only evidence of a grand Amtrak conspiracy on the matter dates to 2006. I would have liked more time spent looking into what kind of investment CSX is asking for in order to restart the service, or why no pressure has been brought to bear by state or local leaders in the region. The railroad could also make it easier for communities like Rockwood, Pa., to add stations on existing routes. 

But Hall's overall tone comes across as as another Amtrak basher – albeit perhaps an unwitting one – that is not far removed in rhetoric from that of former House of Representatives Transportation & Infrastructure Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), who has routinely called the increasingly-profitable railroad a "Soviet-style operation." Amtrak has been the lone holdout in the passenger transportation sector that continues to serve rural communities as well as they did before. Hall gives Greyhound and EAS a pass due to economic factors, but laments Amtrak for not doing more when they're constantly under assault by political officials who want to eliminate their investment streams altogether. 

Instead, Hall's piece would have been better served by focusing on the true impediments to improved Amtrak service: the many conservative lawmakers – many in the U.S. House of Representatives – who continually threaten to end federal support and have blocked any new federal passenger rail investment for the past four years. New investment could have helped restore the full Sunset Limited route and add stations in places such as Rockwood. The article could have also highlighted how Amtrak has successfully worked with a number of states and elected officials in both parties – Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, California Oregon, Washington, among others – to add new service when sufficient state investment is provided. The problem isn't that Amtrak doesn't have $3.1 million to build Rockwood a station – it's that no state or local leaders have taken up the cause to deliver the needed funding. Amtrak would be rolling again between Orlando and New Orleans if there were leaders in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi willing to get behind the effort. Their silence is deafening on the matter. Meanwhile, places like Virginia and Illinois go on working with Amtrak to not only maintain their current service and add new train trips, including service to smaller urban and rural communities.

It's too bad the Daily Yonder and Hall used their opportunity to discuss passenger rail in rural communities to focus on making the perfect the enemy of the good. Hall bemoans Amtrak for not being Babe Ruth to rural America while it has been a perfectly acceptable Joe DiMaggio, all the while soft-peddling the Black Sox-like treatment of rural communities by other forms of passenger travel.