Dedicated federal trust fund for Amtrak

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M

micmac99

Train Attendant
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
49
Location
Mesa, AZ
I will be taking Amtrak from Tucson to Houston in a couple of weeks. As I've been planning my trip, I've been disturbed by the latest push to reduce/eliminate some service and on-board amenities. The airlines and Interstate highway system get the benefit of millions and millions in dedicated trust fund monies. Why not Amtrak?

I have a blog which I post my thoughts and ideas to, and a couple of weeks ago, I made the case for a dedicated Amtrak trust fund which could bring $1 billion of dedicated, annual revenue outside of state-specific funding or revenue from fares.


Take a look and let me know what you think.

http://themsrstory.blogspot.com/2018_07_01_archive.html#4245417184587201718
 
You're preaching to the choir here.
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The idea of a half-penny tax on gasoline was floated many years ago, but went nowhere fast. I think we'd all like to see some sort of dedicated funding for our national passenger rail service.
 
Here's some of my thoughts on the matter:

1. I recall reading that there is a net inflow to the federal treasury of around $2 billion from royalties and leases for oil and gas extraction from federal lands and offshore. That could be the source of capital funding for Amtrak.

2. Another partial source for northeast corridor infrastructure money would be a one dollar maintenance surcharge on all tickets, commuter or intercity. Since this line goes through some of the counties with the highest per capita income, a few dollars a week should not break the bank. This would also show that those who are using the service are helping to directly pay for it.

3. Anther idea floated is to tax diesel at the wholesale level and use that money to support Amtrak and transit.
 
AGM.12 said:
Here's some of my thoughts on the matter:

1. I recall reading that there is a net inflow to the federal treasury of around $2 billion from royalties and leases for oil and gas extraction from federal lands and offshore. That could be the source of capital funding for Amtrak.

2. Another partial source for northeast corridor infrastructure money would be a one dollar maintenance surcharge on all tickets, commuter or intercity. Since this line goes through some of the counties with the highest per capita income, a few dollars a week should not break the bank. This would also show that those who are using the service are helping to directly pay for it.

3. Anther idea floated is to tax diesel at the wholesale level and use that money to support Amtrak and transit.
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A few thoughts on this:

1: 2 billion is roughly what Amtrak is getting now. It would be dedicated, which is an improvement though. Financially, not a huge difference.

2: Running the numbers on this, Amtrak would be looking at about 180 million dollars for this fund. The problem I see with the surcharge is then the local agencies would probably then decrease their usage payments to Amtrak. It might not be a bad thing in the case of NJ Transit, who supposedly didn't pay Amtrak anything for the last 2 years due to their financial situation, at least this would be guaranteed money for maintenance.

3: The diesel tax would probably have to be split up, truckers would be up in arms if it was all dedicated to rails and not some to roads. So you'd probably see a proportional split. Freights would want their cut too. So I'm not sure how much Amtrak would see.
 
I'd like to point out that the airport trust fund is directly funded by airlines and largely comes from the various aviation taxes and fees. They don't "get" billions from the government. They pay billions into the system to keep the overall aviation infrastructure operating. General aviation, quite literally, is only a thing because the mainline carriers are paying for the infrastructure GA uses. The surplus exists because they've been paying more into it than they get out of it, not because of some sort of largess bestowed on them. The whole flying around America thing is basically a self-hammering nail at this point.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
bretton88 said:
AGM.12 said:
Here's some of my thoughts on the matter:

1. I recall reading that there is a net inflow to the federal treasury of around $2 billion from royalties and leases for oil and gas extraction from federal lands and offshore. That could be the source of capital funding for Amtrak.

2. Another partial source for northeast corridor infrastructure money would be a one dollar maintenance surcharge on all tickets, commuter or intercity. Since this line goes through some of the counties with the highest per capita income, a few dollars a week should not break the bank. This would also show that those who are using the service are helping to directly pay for it.

3. Anther idea floated is to tax diesel at the wholesale level and use that money to support Amtrak and transit.
Click to expand...
A few thoughts on this:

1: 2 billion is roughly what Amtrak is getting now. It would be dedicated, which is an improvement though. Financially, not a huge difference.

2: Running the numbers on this, Amtrak would be looking at about 180 million dollars for this fund. The problem I see with the surcharge is then the local agencies would probably then decrease their usage payments to Amtrak. It might not be a bad thing in the case of NJ Transit, who supposedly didn't pay Amtrak anything for the last 2 years due to their financial situation, at least this would be guaranteed money for maintenance.

3: The diesel tax would probably have to be split up, truckers would be up in arms if it was all dedicated to rails and not some to roads. So you'd probably see a proportional split. Freights would want their cut too. So I'm not sure how much Amtrak would see.
Click to expand...
On (3), I guess it's also a question of what the tax rate is. 10% of $25bn/yr is still more than Amtrak would be getting now. To be fair, I have very little trouble with the idea of giving the freights a subsidy in exchange for them maintaining some extra capacity, redundant routes, and some lower-margin-but-profitable freight operations...but I also know they're all a little gunshy about strings being attached to stuff after the ICC fiasco.

On (2), if NJT isn't paying Amtrak anything (a big "if", mind you; they might just be shorting the bill or something), then moving to a model that's either "lower usage payments but a straight cut of ticket revenue" or something like that might be an improvement overall...especially since IIRC NJT is Amtrak's biggest "client" in this regard.
 

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