Amended
IN
Senate
August 13, 2018 |
Senate Joint Resolution | No. 30 |
Introduced by Senator McGuire (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Friedman) (Coauthors: Senators Beall, Cannella, Dodd, Galgiani, Leyva, Pan, Roth, and Wiener) |
August 09, 2018 |
WHEREAS, Amtrak was created in 1971, after years of downgrading and neglect of passenger trains by the major United States rail carriers, with the explicit purpose to provide uniform and rising standards of service for all United States citizens; and
WHEREAS, Over the last one-half century—despite political attempts to kill the service, the hostility of host rail carriers, starvation of capital investment, and chronic equipment shortages—ridership has steadily increased while operating costs have more and more been covered at the fare box; and
WHEREAS, Amtrak National Network interstate trains, together with the regional state supported services and local commuter services, form the basis of a national passenger train network; and
WHEREAS, In the face of crumbling and overcrowded highway infrastructure, rising fuel prices, environmental degradation, crowded airports, and a rising death toll on the nation’s highways, passenger trains offer a modern, environmentally sensitive, convenient, safe, efficient, productive and relaxing way for Americans to travel from place to place, while providing good paying, meaningful employment to thousands of workers; and
WHEREAS, The current Amtrak management led by President and CEO Richard H. Anderson, formerly the head of Delta and Northwest Airlines, is in the process of closing dozens of small town train stations, downgrading food service and various amenities aboardmany trains, while threatening to eliminate other trains completely; and
WHEREAS, The Amtrak National Network of long distance trains generates a third of Amtrak revenue but has received a tiny fraction of investment from Amtrak’s annual capital grant for the past two decades; and
WHEREAS, Amtrak National Network trains operate over 1,600 route miles in the State of California; and
WHEREAS, California would lose Amtrak passenger rail connectivity between north and south if these trains ceased to operate; and
WHEREAS, Amtrak proposes to eliminate through service between Los Angeles and Chicago, known as the Southwest Chief, and substitute bus service for part of the route, and may propose to ask the states for money to operate the residual services; and
Resolved, That the Legislature urges Amtrak management to invest in the Amtrak National Network from its annual capital grant in reasonable proportion to the revenue generated by Amtrak trains; and be it further