Trent Lott: “I also think this is a classic chicken-and-egg deal. We tell Amtrak we want them to do better, but yet we don't offer…”

“I also think this is a classic chicken-and-egg deal. We tell Amtrak we want them to do better, but yet we don't offer any reforms, challenges, responsibilities to do better. We throw rocks and say: Why aren't you providing better service at cheaper rates? I think you need a plan to move toward actually what the Senator from New Hampshire is trying to achieve. The bill before us, S. 294, already requires Amtrak to reduce its total Federal operating subsidy by 40 percent over the life of the bill. The bill gives Amtrak management the flexibility to achieve this goal through cost savings, route changes, revenue growth, or expanded service rather than through mandated route cuts. Additionally, the bill requires improvement plans for each long-distance route that will focus on strategies to increase revenues, ridership, efficiencies, and service quality. I think some of these routes are going to eventually need to be terminated, but if we do what this amendment would do, it would basically, cold turkey, start eliminating routes very soon, including, to be perfectly honest, the Crescent, which is the train that comes down through the heart of the South, through Meridian, MS, Hattiesburg, down to New Orleans. We need that service.”