Dukakis Pushes for Rail System

A “high-speed, viable and operationally profitable” national rail system would cost $1.5 billion per year, former Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis said at a Kennedy School of Government luncheon yesterday.

Before a packed gathering in the Stubbons Room at Gund Hall, Dukakis, now vice chair of Amtrak’s Board of Directors, emphasized the need for an efficient form of national transportation in addition to airlines and highways. Congress has helped to revitalize Amtrak, he said.

“Clinton didn’t give as much attention to the rail system as I would have liked,” Dukakis said.

He said the $1.5 billion represented only 2.5 percent of the U.S. transportation budget.

After federal funding for Amtrak decreased somewhat during the 1980s, Congress reorganized Amtrak—which currently carries 22 million passengers each year—in 1997.

A board was appointed—including Dukakis—to a five-year term, with the intent of making Amtrak self-sufficient by 2003, said Dukakis, a former Mass. governor.

Dukakis mentioned virtually every geographic region in the U.S. during his talk, citing plans that Amtrak has for expanding service in each of them. Consistent support, especially from governors, will be essential, he said.

California in particular seems prime for an increased Amtrak presence, Dukakis said.

With a rapidly growing population and plenty of land in which rail lines and stations could be built—a real problem in the Northeast—high-speed trains seem to be a logical option for the Golden State.

“There’s enough real estate there,” Dukakis.

According to Dukakis, the San Jose-to-Sacramento corridor is the nation’s fastest-growing, and a high-speed train from Sacramento to San Diego would cost about $25 billion.

“This is a no-brainer, and a non-partisan issue,” Dukakis said. “We also have a lot of Republican support.”

Dukakis—who was Massachusetts’ chief executive from 1975-79 and again from 1983-91—mentioned Sen. Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) as one such GOP member.

According to Dukakis, Amtrak’s Acela Express serice—a high-speed train running between Boston and Washington, D.C.—will provide 10 frequencies each day after the first of the year.

Dukakis gave evidence of Acela’s effectivness, saying that even before Sept. 11, passenger volume on trains between Boston and New York was increasing, while that of the air shuttles between Logan International and John F. Kennedy International Airports was declining.

Dukakis began his activism in the rail industry while a state legislator in the 1960s, as he opposed the popular belief that aiports and interstates would be sufficient means for transportation in the United States.

Dukakis translated his ideology into action as governor, spending $35 million to purchase old railroad lines that were then remodeled as the MBTA Commuter Rail.

Dukakis—who regularily commuted to the State House using the MBTA—was behind refurbishing and extending MBTA service during his tenure as governor, and has now turned to expanding rail on a national scale.

Dukakis, who is now a professor at Northeastern University and the University of California at Los Angeles, cited a gap in government transportation spending during his speech, saying that $45 billion in federal funds are spent on automobile and air travel, while a comparatively minute $331 million goes to Amtrak.

Dukakis said that Amtrak would only need 70 percent of travelers between Boston and New York and New York to Washington to choose the train for Amtrak to be operationally profitable.

Dukakis touched on another issue of local concern, the expansion of MBTA commuter rail service to Providence’s T.F. Green Airport.

Dukakis, a 1960 graduate of Harvard Law School, touched on security issues, as well, saying that Amtrak has stepped up police presence at its stations and utilized bomb-sniffing dogs.

“Security is a concern,” Dukakis said. “Half a million people go through Penn Station each day, which is more than [Los Angeles International Airport, O’Hare International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport] combined.”

The lunch with Dukakis was co-sponsored by the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Transportation Housing and Urban Development Professional Interest Council.