Last week, the Center Square news site, as did the Allegheny Institute last fall, sounded the alarm bells over the sure-to-grow cost of Amtrak’s coming, expanded, twice-a-day passenger train service between Pittsburgh and New York City, via Harrisburg.
Reminds reporter Anthony Hennen:
“Expanding service … will require a hefty investment to upgrade infrastructure and millions more in operating costs every year.”
All at taxpayer expense, of course (through either state or federal tax dollars). And to the great benefit of Norfolk Southern, which owns the rail line, but with dubious benefits to the traveling public.
Hennen reminds that the expanded service was announced in September after Amtrak and Norfolk Southern worked out an agreement requiring $218 million for capital improvement along the corridor.
“After initial upgrades, PennDOT expects the additional roundtrip train journey to cost about $8 million annually, which factors in ridership revenue that offsets some costs,” Hennen reports, adding this gem:
“PennDOT Press Secretary Alexis Campbell called the $8 million ‘a very preliminary estimate.’”
Which means the cost will go up, up and away to new corporate wealthfare heights.
And as the Allegheny Institute’s Frank Gamrat reminded last fall (in Policy Brief Vol. 23, No. 34):
“While safety improvements are always welcome, especially in the wake of Norfolk Southern’s cargo train derailment in nearby East Palestine, Ohio, … expanding a passenger rail service should have been the responsibility of the rail company itself and not the taxpayers of Pennsylvania,” the think tank’s executive director reminded.
And then there’s this kicker:
The taxpayers’ cash infusion will do little to nothing to reduce the 9-hour travel time between downtown Pittsburgh and New York City and the 5 ½-hour travel time between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.
Lest we need to remind the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah-ers who claim these coming “upgrades” are the best thing since sliced bread and soft butter, one can drive to New York City from Pittsburgh in under six hours and to Harrisburg in about 3 hours.
And lest we forget, Gamrat also reminded how Amtrak previously picked taxpayer pockets in the Keystone State:
“A decade ago, Amtrak threatened to suspend service from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, and on to New York, unless the state came up with a subsidy of $5.7 million, half the annual cost.
“The state capitulated and provided Amtrak with the money through Act 44 of 2007, which mandated that the state Turnpike Commission pay PennDOT $450 million annually via toll increases.
“That service was aboard the Pennsylvanian, the same service that is being expanded with the new subsidy,” Gamrat noted. “But as we noted then, passenger counts did not justify the subsidy, and it is still not justified.”
Thus, this agreement “should be met with serious skepticism,” the Ph.D. economist concluded last fall.
So, let’s recap this latest government crock:
Taxpayers get their pockets turned out yet again to “expand” Amtrak for services whose rider census more than suggests will not be supported, for little to no improvement in travel times and for, as per usual, an expansion whose cost is virtually assured to balloon.
What’s not to like about that?
Everything.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
