Don’t let Amtrak be a victim of the pandemic

Just in the nick of time and as Amtrak celebrates its 50th anniversary, the nation’s pandemic-slammed passenger railway system has received an injection of cash from the American Rescue Plan Act President Biden recently signed into law.

It is a demonstration of support that is needed and deserved.

“The timing of this funding is essential to helping ensure that Amtrak is able to quickly return to service supporting the nation’s transportation need and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Federal Railroad Administration Acting Administrator Amit Bose, who pledge to account for how the money is spent to make Amtrak efficient and viable into the future.

About $1.7 billion in federal funds are being made available to restore services cut during the pandemic, bring back furloughed workers and assist states in paying their required operational matching funds.

“This is a real win for America’s passengers and for the hundreds of communities served by Amtrak’s long-distance trains — communities which suffered economic pain when they lost their service,” said Jim Mathews, president and chief executive of the Rail Passengers Association.

Whether a community exists along a long-distance, or regional train route, the need for passenger rail connection is long established.

This is particularly true for Bakersfield and other cities that either lack commercial airline service, or have access to few connecting flights.

Bakersfield is served by Amtrak’s San Joaquin route, which runs from Bakersfield in the south to the Bay Area in the north.

Before the pandemic, the San Joaquin was the fifth busiest passenger train line in the U.S. and carried nearly 1.1 million passengers during 2019-20. But as cities across the nation locked down to stop the spread of the coronavirus, people no longer commuted to work, nor did they engage in discretionary travel. Ridership plummeted.

By the end of 2020, Amtrak nationwide had lost more than $800 million, with California’s scenic Pacific Surfliner, Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin routes losing between 65 percent and 85 percent of their passengers.

Donna DeMartino, managing director of the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency, which operates the Pacific Surfliner, called the situation dire. “With so few people riding, we have very little in the way of fares that we’re collecting.”

While Amtrak relies mostly on federal funding, California and other states contribute smaller amounts. In 2019, California spent $114 million to support its three routes, which carried a combined 5.66 million passengers.

But as ridership and fares plummeted to only about 25 percent of normal levels, passenger revenues failed to help offset operating costs. Service cuts had to be made.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) signed into law in early 2020 by former President Trump provided $1 billion to shore up Amtrak. But that was not enough. An injection of $1.7 billion was included in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act. Additional funding for Amtrak improvements is proposed in Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure and climate plan.

From a pandemic low of 10 percent in April, ridership on the San Joaquin slowly rebounded by the end of 2020 to 35 percent of “normal.”

“A lot of that is due to the fact that the San Joaquins serve a lot of disadvantaged folks and people that need the service for essential travel,” David Lipari, marketing manager for San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, told the CalMatters news service. “They either don’t have a car, or don’t have a reliable vehicle to get themselves to their end destination, and really before the pandemic and during the pandemic this is the way they get around.”

As private railroad companies faced revenue losses and clamored to discontinue their passenger rail service, Amtrak was formed by an act of Congress in 1971 as a nonprofit corporation to fill the nation’s transportation needs.

That need continues to exist today — making Amtrak an essential service and infrastructure that deserves our appreciation and support.