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Amtrak on track to set rider record


9/10/12

By KATHRYN A. WOLFE

Read More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories...15.html?hp=r11

Amtrak is riding the wave of ridership records, but the national passenger railroad will most likely get the wind knocked out of it when its brass appears before a House hearing Tuesday. It will be the second in a series of hearings in what House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) told POLITICO is his “holy jihad to try to get Amtrak’s operations under control.”

The hearing will drill down into how Amtrak competes for commuter rail contracts in what likely will be an uncomfortable examination for the passenger railroad. A briefing document prepared by the committee posits that as providing commuter rail services has grown increasingly competitive, Amtrak has fared increasingly poorly in those competitions because of “Amtrak’s inability to adapt its nationwide model for intercity passenger rail to regional commuter rail markets.”

The document also notes that Amtrak hasn’t won the right to provide new commuter rail services in 10 years. The day before the committee looks at what has been called Amtrak’s “monopoly mentality,” the railroad got some good news: Amtrak announced that it’s on track to break yet another ridership record this fiscal year. The railroad expects after September to break last year’s record-setting 30.2 million passengers.

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