WASHINGTON — Maryland transportation leaders on Tuesday urged Congress to provide more federal rail funding as well as support for public-private rail partnerships.
President Barack Obama has proposed a five-year, $40 billion rail reauthorization bill as part of the 2014 budget.
Maryland could serve as a model for improving the U.S. rail system, a witness told the House subcommittee on railroads, pipelines and hazardous materials. And Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said later in an emailed statement that the state’s rail system is essential to the state’s infrastructure.
“Investment in inner city rail is of critical importance — not just to Baltimore, but to residents all over the country who rely on passenger rail,” Cummings said in advocating for “systematic and strategic” investment.
“As a senior member on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, I know that reliable, affordable transportation plays an essential role in ensuring citizens have access to employment and other opportunities that can help families move from one socioeconomic class to another.”
Beverley Swaim-Staley, former Maryland secretary of transportation, testified that Maryland’s history of public-private partnerships in transportation funding throughout the recession could be a case study for the federal government on how to partner with private corporations in funding nationwide projects.
“We found ourselves asking if there were any businesses that would view certain transportation investments more effective for them than we viewed that investment for us,” she said.
Innovative financing could be made possible, she said, through ensuring returns on investment and identifying clear goals and benefits.
But some witnesses insisted that private investment wouldn’t come to many areas of the nation without more direct federal investment.
“We don’t have any portion of the transportation system that stands totally on its own,” said Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcari, adding that a large part of the rail system is a public good that won’t “fit the profile of what the private sector would co-invest in.”
Well-maintained infrastructure and “sustained and dedicated” public investment are likely to attract the private sector to pour more money into rail projects, said John Robert Smith, former Amtrak board chairman and CEO of Reconnecting America, a transportation think tank, in an interview before the hearing.
“There’s too much risk and too much uncertainty involved without those two things,” he said.
Porcari pushed members of Congress to consider an additional trust fund, similar to the highway trust fund, to allow for sustained federal investment.
This fund would come from money saved as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars draw down, Porcari said.
Rep. Bill Shuster, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, told the subcommittee that with the nation’s population rapidly reaching 400 million, “We’re going to have to figure out how to get people between our major cities.”
“I also believe the partner out there is the private sector,” Shuster said.
Some lawmakers say that the private sector should play an even larger role in passenger rail investment. The “Soviet-style thinking” of Amtrak prevents others from moving forward into the 21st century, said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.
“The private sector will invest if you show them returns on investment,” he said.
Lawmakers have to figure out how to reform Amtrak and how to manage it like a private company, Shuster said at the hearing.
“As you know, I want to strengthen passenger rail, and with limited resources we must target our funds efficiently,” he said.
Cummings agreed.
“Whether it’s the MARC in Maryland, Amtrak in the Northeast Corridor, or a similar system elsewhere,” he said in the emailed statement, “it is imperative that Congress invests in reliable railway infrastructure for the benefit of all Americans.”