Congress has given final approval to a bill that could nearly double Amtrak’s annual funding, which in recent years has been just over $1 billion, and that would require new safety equipment on rail lines around the country to prevent collisions like the one that killed 25 people last month in Los Angeles.
The bill (HR 2095) would authorize $13 billion over five years for the national passenger railway and another $1.6 billion for rail safety. The proposed Amtrak authorization includes $5.3 billion in capital grants, $2.9 billion in operating grants and $1.9 billion for intercity passenger rail. The bill also authorizes $1.5 billion to study high-speed rail corridors around the country and sets tighter limits on how many hours engineers can be on duty and on call.
The bill does not appropriate money, which takes another step by Congress, but authorizes the railroad’s programs for the next five years. Even that is a step forward for the beleaguered railroad; the last time Congress had a strong enough consensus to pass an authorization bill for Amtrak was in 1997, and it has gone six years with stopgap measures.
Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said last week that President Bush will sign the bill.