Frank Lautenberg: “The amendment would open to privatization all of Amtrak's long-distance and corridor train routes and give Federal…”

“The amendment would open to privatization all of Amtrak's long-distance and corridor train routes and give Federal funding to private companies to do what Amtrak does with no additional contract oversight. We saw something with the British experience--that there is potential for disaster when you fully privatize a national railroad. In the UK, wholesale privatization of their rail line did not work. In the end, safety was compromised for profits, and several died in horrific train derailments. Our bill does not allow a complete selloff of our entire national railroad. It does, however, provide a controlled procedure for competitive bidding on a limited number of routes. This competition will be allowed only under strong supervision by Federal regulators. The Federal Railroad Administration, which also oversees rail safety, will start by accepting bids from other railroads interested in running passenger trains for one to two train routes. This is an experiment to see if the Government can save any money by letting someone other than Amtrak try to run passenger train service.”