Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: After achieving records in both ridership and revenue, Amtrak is
Speaker 2: ready to invest four and a half billion dollars in.
Speaker 3: Some major upgrades.
Speaker 2: The problem is the Trump administration has a proposed major
Speaker 2: cuts to subsidies for the Northeast Corridor. So how is
Speaker 2: that going to affect really Bloomberg clients and viewers who
Speaker 2: use this product so regularly.
Speaker 3: Joining us now to talk about that.
Speaker 2: As Amtrak President Roger Harris, Roger, great to have you on.
Speaker 2: I know everybody in this office and certainly many of
Speaker 2: our terminal users and Bloomberg television viewers and Bloomberg Radio
Speaker 2: listeners uses your product a ton because we're always going
Speaker 2: back and forth between Boston and New York and Washington, DC.
Speaker 3: It's really important.
Speaker 2: How will the Trump administration affect what you're able to invest?
Speaker 4: Well, thank you, Matt, and first of all, thank you
Speaker 4: for having us on today to talk about what's going
Speaker 4: on in Amtrak. As you said, we've had a record
Speaker 4: ridership and revenue in the past year, in fact in
Speaker 4: the last few years, and we've really seen that all
Speaker 4: across the country, not only in the Northeast Corridor, but
Speaker 4: also in places like Washington State.
Speaker 5: Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia.
Speaker 4: Even our news service in Midwest between Chicago and the
Speaker 4: Twin Cities carried almost a quarter.
Speaker 5: Of a million cust Elian's first year.
Speaker 4: But specifically about the Northeast Corridor, our capital spending has
Speaker 4: increased between twenty nineteen and this year from eight hundred
Speaker 4: million to four point five billion. And really this is
Speaker 4: not so much a question of less money for the NEEC.
Speaker 4: It's a change in the sources and fundings of the
Speaker 4: projects that we're building.
Speaker 5: So traditionally.
Speaker 4: A lot of the Northeast Corridor investment was funded from
Speaker 4: the operating earnings on the service, and during COVID, Congress
Speaker 4: appropriated more money for the Northeast card or to help
Speaker 4: underwrite the operating losses of the curd bed. And what
Speaker 4: we're seeing now in the f y twenty six budget
Speaker 4: is really kind of a return to what the normal
Speaker 4: balance is between operating earnings funding some of the work
Speaker 4: on the Northeast carridor right versus our annual appropriation.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to us a little bit more about how
Speaker 1: you're going to make up for that. I hear what
Speaker 1: you're saying that we're just going back to maybe pre
Speaker 1: COVID levels when it comes to, you know, the subsidies
Speaker 1: for the Northeast Corridor. But even still, where do you
Speaker 1: plan to find the funding sources to make up for
Speaker 1: that going away?
Speaker 5: Basically, well, I.
Speaker 4: Think there are two ways to think about this. One
Speaker 4: is what I said, which is the increase in operating earnings,
Speaker 4: so that's you know, hundreds of millions dollars a year
Speaker 4: that goes towards these projects. But the other thing to
Speaker 4: think about is that the the split in our appropriation
Speaker 4: from Congress it talks about the Northeast cardor versus the
Speaker 4: National Network isn't about where the assets are exist so
Speaker 4: much as it is the types of trains.
Speaker 5: So there are trains in.
Speaker 4: The National Network that come from states like Pennsylvania and
Speaker 4: Virginia that operate on the Northeast Corridor, and the operation
Speaker 4: of those trains can contribute the funding, and that appropriation
Speaker 4: contributes to their reinvestments on these assets. So it's not
Speaker 4: quite a perfect alignment between which account, which account the
Speaker 4: assets are funded from, and where the trains are operated.
Speaker 2: There seem to be a lot of projects that Bloomberg's
Speaker 2: reporters here are focused on We've got some brilliant questions
Speaker 2: from Ted Man, so shout out and thank you to him.
Speaker 2: The Frederick Douglass Tunnel in Baltimore is one that the
Speaker 2: Republicans are making a lot of noise about potentially changing
Speaker 2: that project. Is is that going to go through The
Speaker 2: Susquehanna Bridge in Maryland needs to be replaced, the Connecticut
Speaker 2: River Bridge. Are all of these projects that we're so
Speaker 2: focused on.
Speaker 3: Going to continue to be funded.
Speaker 4: Yes, you know, one of the things that's going on
Speaker 4: is we're working with the administration and trying to understand
Speaker 4: where there's a lot of common ground on these projects,
Speaker 4: because it's been made really clear to me and to
Speaker 4: the you know, the other members of Amtrak management that
Speaker 4: the administration is really interested in us running an efficient,
Speaker 4: reliable service and building great infrastructure.
Speaker 5: So you mentioned the Conneticut.
Speaker 4: River Bridge where which we're building up near Old Saybrook
Speaker 4: in Connecticut. Just a few weeks ago we got the
Speaker 4: grant for funding that project obligated by the administration when
Speaker 4: they were very clear on the fact that they want
Speaker 4: to get that bill. We continue to talk to them
Speaker 4: about the Federick Douglas tunnel, and we're working on ways
Speaker 4: to produced the total project fasts and we've come up
Speaker 4: with a lot of good ideas and we're working through
Speaker 4: them with them. We also had a project in Newark,
Speaker 4: New Jersey to Dockbridge where we came up with some
Speaker 4: great ideas on how to reduce the total couse of
Speaker 4: the project and we got a good shout out from
Speaker 4: the administration. So I would say that the challenge here
Speaker 4: is finding out where the common ground is which and
Speaker 4: there's a lot of that, there really is, and getting
Speaker 4: the projects built.
Speaker 2: You know, last month I made the mistake of trying
Speaker 2: to take a plane when I needed to travel to Virginia.
Speaker 2: It ended in tears and pretty much a lost weekend,
Speaker 2: And the next week I was smart enough to take
Speaker 2: the train instead. It's a far better way to travel
Speaker 2: when you don't want to sit in the airport for
Speaker 2: nine hours and then find out that your flight is
Speaker 2: finally canceled. Are you able to take advantage of the
Speaker 2: chaos that US airlines caused in travel because it's just
Speaker 2: so much easier and more reliable to take the train.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, Matt. You know, we we look at the
Speaker 4: amount of traffic that we compete with the airlines on
Speaker 4: and that's not really our primary focus.
Speaker 5: We want to get people out of their cars.
Speaker 4: But you know, what we want to make sure we
Speaker 4: do is that we have a reliable service and that
Speaker 4: we communicate with our customers.
Speaker 5: We have great new Asseller trains. I don't know if
Speaker 5: you want to talk about that.
Speaker 4: Right this min it, but we have brand new asselog
Speaker 4: that we are, you know, in the final steps of
Speaker 4: getting approved. I think you've heard that from us before,
Speaker 4: but we are extremely close now. The file approvals from
Speaker 4: the Federal Road Administration earlier this week, and you know
Speaker 4: that's one more step in improving the reliability and the
Speaker 4: comfort of the product for the end customers. So I
Speaker 4: really see us stepping up our competitiveness of the airlines.
Speaker 1: Roger, we have less than a minute here, but I
Speaker 1: want to talk about that a little bit more because
Speaker 1: you compare Amtrak to the airlines. For airlines, I mean,
Speaker 1: you think about a fully booked first class in many
Speaker 1: cases that would subsidize the rest of the plane. Have
Speaker 1: you considered going ultra high end when it comes to
Speaker 1: what Amtrak offers on the higher end, have you considered,
Speaker 1: you know, modeling luxury train travel in Europe.
Speaker 4: Well, we've looked at it briefly, but really we see
Speaker 4: that our core mission is to deliver transportation to the
Speaker 4: American people. We're probably not the best people to be
Speaker 4: delivering that kind of very bespoke, very sort of limited product.
Speaker 4: We want to make sure that we focus the benefits
Speaker 4: and see money that the government invested us in touching
Speaker 4: as many technical customers as possibles.
Speaker 1: All right, Roger, really appreciate your time. That is Amtrak
Speaker 1: President Roger Harris