Amtrak. Ian jefferies, president and ceo of the association of american railroads. Jim sube, commissioner of the southwest chief and Front Range Passenger Rail commission. And jennifer hamade, board member, National Transportation safety board. I continue to be a strong support of our rail industry, freight and passenger. Rail service is safe and efficient and also reduces congestion of our highways and spurs economic growth. In mississippi, for example, we have 26 Freight Railroads. 2,400 miles of track, five of the seven class ones, two Long Distance amtrak routes, two stations and more than 100,000 annual riders. Rail is vital to mississippi. I have been a tireless advocate for the restoration of the gulf coast Passenger Service which was suspended in 2005 after hurricane katrina. With funding support from d. O. T. , amtrak and the states, i am please today report that mississippi, louisiana, and alabama are likely once again to have this amtrak route and that will give mississippi a third amtrak route. Restoration would support growing population centers, connect tourists, destinations, bring new jobs and improve the regions quality of life. This will make a positive dins for the communities and the people of the mismiss gulf coast. This provides an opportunity to examine the state of Passenger Rail and consider how to support existing routes like the southwest chief and restore gulfport gulf coast service. In 2015, i introduced, along with sneenator booker, the Railroad Reform enhancement and efficiency act which reauthorized amtrak. When the bills provisions were included in the fixing americas surface transportation, or fast act, it authorized funding levels for amtrak, created new rail grant programs, made improvements to existing rail financing programs and changed amtrak oversight in planning activities. The fast act and those rail provisions expire at the end of fy 2020. It is important for us to examine what aspects of this important legislation and work and what should be improved. This hearing is an opportunity for witnesses to discuss the impact of amtrak reauthorization in the fast act and how congress can for rail service in the next reauthorization bill. The fact act also led to the creation of the consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Grant Program known as chrissy. This Program Provides grants to improve the rail network. It strengthens inner city Passenger Rail, supports Capital Projects and boosts rail Safety Initiatives. Among the most important Safety Initiatives for rail is the deployment of positive train control, ptc, which is designed to prevent tragic accidents such as the amtrak derailment in the state of washington. Timely implementation of ptc is also important that the committee will be holding a full Committee Hearing on this in the near future. In addition, earlier this week the ntsb issued its report on that particular accident. So i hope our witnesses will discuss ways to support further capacity, enhance safety, and other improvements for passenger and Freight Rail Service in the next amtrak reauthorization. One area that still needs improvement is ontime perspective of Passenger Rail. For amtrak to be successful, its trains must be available to running on time. With only h43. 8 of longdistane trains arriving at stations on schedule, amtraks own time performance lags behind comparable transit networks. I hope our witnesses will provide suggestions to improve amtraks ontime performance while maintaining the overual fluidity of our nations network. I look forward to a robust discussion of passenger and Freight Rail Service. I again thank our witnesses for testifying this morning. And i now recognize my friend and ranking member, senator cantwell. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you for scheduling this important hearing on amtrak and the witnesses for being here today. I certainly consider myself a big supporter of amtrak funding and amtrak reauthorization, and also considering myself a big supporter of the chairmans initiative to make sure that that expansion, or rework of amtraks Sunset Limited service to the gulf coast is reestablished. I know how important this is to the state of washington and having Amtrak Services, and i hope that we can continue to make amtrak a priority within this committee. I want to thank theness withes for being here today and to talk about Amtrak Services in an era when we see an increasing pace of global commerce. More trains than ever before in my state. Our trade economy relies on these methods of transportation to our ports, which the chairman is also a big supporter and i appreciate his many years of leadership on Port Infrastructure financing. These issues are what plague us every day in the state of washington. We have communities that have Amtrak Services and yet we also have freight congestion and atgrade crossings that make our challenges even more complex. One example is pine roads in spokane valley. 56 freight and two passenger trains pass through there creating three hours of railrelated closures daily. That means that the challenge of moving people and moving freight in our region as we are a gateway to the pacific is becoming more and more challenging. Three hours every day when traffic is interrupted. Three hours every day when accidents between cars and trains are more likely and three hours a day when emergency vehicles are blocked from getting where they need to go. This is a problem that is only going to get more challenging as our trade economy continues to grow. In 2014, 121 million tons of freight were shipped by washington railroads. By 2035, that number is expected to double. So at intersections like pine roads and train traffic will increase. Right now 56 trains pass through pine roads every day, but by 2035 that will grow to 114. So this issue of making sure that we have strong federal support for amtrak and also funding for freight Rail Infrastructure, which is instrumental in making sure that passenger and freight run very safely, more efficiently, and reliable is a big priority. We need to build on the proven federal rail initiatives like chrissy, which provide a grant to improve the pine street intersection, but we also need to make sure that in the next surface transportation act we consider other ways in which we can help communities with atgrade crossings. And safety must remain a top priority. The need for safety was driven home by the 2017 amtrak track near dupont in the state of washington. I am concerned we need to continue to make sure that we are having Situational Awareness and the challenges that come with participating in a busy transportation corridor. I know that everybody is now trying to figure out how to get these people and products and services to places in a timely fashion, but we need to make safety a top priority. Obviously, positive train control, which we know is being implemented, is a key component of that. An as we consider the number of freight trains coming through n and the impact on the daily lives w he need to learn the lessons from the dupont accident and everything that comes with it. I hope my colleagues will continue to push the implementation of positive train control throughout the united states. I know where we are in the state of washington, which is getting that job done, but we need to make sure were doing this on a National Basis as well. So thank you, mr. Chairman, for this important hearing. Thank you, senator cantwell. I will now recognize senator gardner, who would like to say a few special words about a constituent of his. Thank you. I am proud to welcome jim of denver, colorado, long month colorado. He serves as the president of the Colorado Rail Passenger Association or colo rail. He is a member of the colorado southwest chief and the front range rail commission. Previously, jim served as president of the Park City Police policy center based in utah before realizing there is better snow in colorado as well as executive director of the western governors association. He is an advocate of the southwest chief and colorado Passenger Rail service. Jim, thank you very much for being here. Its an honor to have colorados voice represented on the panel. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for allowing me the opportunity. Thank you, senator gardner. We begin our testimony this morning with fiveminute statements by each of the witnesses. We will begin at this end of the stable with mr. Anderson. You are recognized. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you ranking member. Its a privilege to be here today representing all the people at amtrak and all of our customers. We are probably in the best shape we have been in in our history, so if we look at where we are in safety, and i agree with senator cantwell, the most important thing is safety, we have implemented ptc on the amtrak railroad. We are at 99 . We have one mile left in chicago. We complied with the statute. Its been remarkable in terms of what its provided in terms of level of safety. Second, were the First Railroad in america to implement an sms program, Safety Management system program. Its modelled ofafter the aviatn programs that i was responsible for implementing at north west and Delta Air Lines when i was ceo. And actually have the chief Safety Officer from both of those airlines, is now the chief Safety Officer at amtrak. And so were well down the road on those two points. Number two, on our customer surveys, our customer surveys on our, on a scale of one to ten, we have high Customer Satisfaction at really record levels now. Weve cleaned our trains. We are running the trains on time in the corridor. We put Good Technology in place. So our customer attributes are in the high 80s in terms of a top seven box in our customer surveys. Financially, we are at zero net debt. So we have conserved our capital, paid down our debt in order to position the railroad to be able to pay for the acela in the National Network locomotives and to replace our am fleets. We will reach breakeven on an operating basis in the next 12 months. Probably most people never thought that amtrak could get to a breakeven on an operating basis. On operating cash basis, we will get to breakeven. Our grant from you will be used to invest in new cars and infrastructure and work on problems like the southwest chief. So all in all, we feel good about where we are, and how the company is moving forward. If we think about reauthorization, first principle safety. We believe that we have to have ptc or ptc equivalent on all of our trips, and there is still 1,400 miles of main line track exclusions, and we need to close that gap. Thats mostly in rural areas. But the First Priority ought to be safety. Second, we need to clarify what our role is in the National Transportation system. If you look over the next 40 years, the population in the country is going to grow by 100 million. That 100 million is moving to dense quarter. Phoenix, tucson, houston, dulles. The muississippi corteva from nw orleans to mobile. Florida. The upper midwest. And thats where all of the population is moving in this country. And the highway system is not going to be able to support shorthaul transportation. You are not going to be able to add enough lanes and you are going to have more of what we have on the east coast with i95. We think we can play a role Important Role in a very efficient way in providing an alternative to what weve done so far as a country because millennials dont want to own cars. They want to take ridesharing. They want we can sustain a Long Distance system with 47 percent. Not when the average speed is 44 miles per hour. You are going to charge him with airlines charge but just to run on time. We will continue to see a small addition. Number 4, we need to have access to federal transportation programs. Should provide sufficient funding levels to address the underlying policy. You direct us overtime to undertake for the National Transportation policy. Last but not least, we will to strengthen our state partnership. That is really where they do the most good. The cascades. The state partnership. We are the way to get from san diego to los angeles. From milwaukee to chicago. The northeast quarter carries 820,000 People Per Day. To and from their jobs. We are playing an Important Role and we want to have stronger partnerships with the state who we partner with to provide shorthaul service. Thank you for the opportunity to serve and drug and the united states. Thank you for the opportunity to be heard today. The association of american railroads both large and small free. Over 100 shoreline and regional worlds for the majority of our nations great relativity. Why the commuter members account for more than 80 percent of annual u. S. Passenger railroad trips. The membership agrees that america can and should have both effective Passenger Railroad and a productive railroad system. Mutual success for both passenger and railroads requires collaboration and recognition that must be managed to meet our country need safely and efficiently. Into the 20th century, we went for the primary means. That did not last. Following years of financial challenges, Congress Passed a row service Passenger Service act of 1970. The act was designed to preserve a basic level of inner city passenger Level Service while reliving primary railroads of their obligation to provide Passenger Service. That initially helped capitalize amtrak and cash equipment and services. Today, that provide the infrastructure for most passenger role. Approximately 97 percent of the 22,000 mile system consists of tracts owned and maintained by Freight Railroads. Looking at the project level, each project involving passenger and Freight Railroad should be evaluated on a case bycase basis. These are more likely to succeed. First and foremost, we all agree safety first safety comes first. Current and future capacity needs must be front of mind and properly addressed. Today, the carry twice the volume that they did when amtrak was formed passenger ridership continues to increase as well. To improve capacity and safety of the network, Freight Railroads been on average 2500 in private capital each year. When traffic levels are so high that there is no Spare Capacity for trends, new infrastructure might be needed before passenger trains can reliably operate. This leads to the third principal. Proper funding is critical. Especially if it looks to change and expand service offerings. Policymakers should provide the level of funding necessary to address the capital needs. It is not reasonable to expect amtrak to maintain adequate infrastructure and service when there is uncertainty regarding its capital allegation. Fourth, all parties must recognize the trends of refrigerants does not mean there will never be delays. In a number of factors including bad weather and heavy Traffic Volume and other factors. Preference cannot be a guarantee of zero. Ever since amtrak was created, they have worked together to establish and implement rules and procedures. Keeping both amtrak and freight trains running on time is a tremendous and complex issue. Last week, before this committee he laid out his framework for the next steps on standards for ontime performance and its members and ready to participate throughout this process. Having both safe and effective Passenger Railroads and us a productive freight ro system should be a common goal of all of us. It is in americas best interest. Achieving this will require successful navigation and management of several complex challenges. Im confident together that they can find Common Ground the benefits all parties. You for your time. I am delighted to be here and provide testimony on this important topic. First of all let me think this committee for you have done for amtrak today. It is our passenger carrying line. As was our dimension, provides a service to over 80 percent of the passengers that the nation sees. You asked me to kind of relate the colorado experience with amtrak. Potentially with respect to the selfless. I can tell you starting in 2011 and all with 2017 we had a tremendously positive relationship. The ceo came out twice to our state. Vicinity exhibit drain out twice to test new routes within colorado. That was up until it ran a couple years ago. Together with amtrak, our local communities raised 75 million. To help improve. Three grams that were the most successful program. s ever been initiated. Unfortunately, in 2017, and 2018, we ran into a big change of heart. The match that they provided would have repaired another 50 miles a truck for the selfless. Amtrak placed a 3 million match to that ground. To our condition with no notice, they withheld that 3 million grant. It caused the project to be delayed. That decision was reversed. Amtrak to come in and put 3 million. That cost was that we missed the entire grant cycle. Our partnership was prepared a proposal for the grant was i unable to submit it. With a 1. 5 years behind. The next issue that arose was the substitution proposal. Once again, our commission was not notified in advance of this proposal. We were told about after had been announced. We of course had to respond that it was a poor idea. He would have ended the southwest chain is a viable role on. That change the whole tenor of our relationship. I am pleased to say that because of this committee, amtrak has turned around at least for this fiscal year their position on those items. We are not positive yet that amtrak will sustain the Long Distance system was the appropriation bill that was passed and provisions and to maintain and protect those routes. Was that experience were concerned about what might happen. One of our main recommendations is to take that language that was in the appropriations act. The said we will maintain a National Network. The foundation for that network is going to be these very valuable longdistance trends that exist. We want to see that language into the reauthorization. We have a five year window with which to continue to address these issues. I share their position on on time performance. I think they need enforcement standard. That is a problem for our Long Distance trends. I share their position that they need extensive funding to recreate the longdistance trains. That has to be done within this policy framework or a National System for to be maintained. These underlying routes to be sustain. Thank you very much mr. Chairman. Good morning ranking members. Thank you for inviting the National Transportation safety board to testify today. That is one of the safest modes of transportation. When the accident does occur, the consequences can be devastating. Particular for those who have loved ones who were injured. Recent accidents remind us of the need to be vigilant. The board recently held a meeting to determine the probable cause of the 2017 the roman. Resulted in three deaths and 57 a. This accident is one of several amtrak accidents that we investigated over the past few years including accidents in philadelphia pennsylvania. Chester pennsylvania. And south carolina. On behalf of the ntsb, i would like to take a moment to extend our deepest sympathy to the families and friends of those who died in these accidents. We wish the fullest recovery to those who were injured. There were multiple factors contributing to the dupont accident. The deaths and injuries were preventable. Frustratingly, this was another crush that could have been prevented with positive train control. There on the most wanted list. This august we will remember those who lost their lives 50 years ago in a collision of 2 trains in connecticut. That led to our first recommendation. Since then, we have investigated more than 150 accidents that caused over 300 fatalities and 6700 injuries. Why theyre making progress towards implementing, much work remains. That must not be further delayed and exemptions should be eliminated. Including exemptions on the 1400 miles of track that they will be operating on. Additionally, they have recommended that they prohibit the operation of passenger trains on the refurbished updated territories unless it is implemented. While it will greatly enhance safety of our patients robert, a welltrained crew is vital to save operation. Our investigation of the dupont accident found that there was inadequate Training Provided for the engineer. The Qualification Program did not effectively train and test crewmembers on the physical characteristics of the New Territory and did not provide sufficient training on the new locomotive. The training deficiencies were evident on the recordings examined by the ntsb. This investigation reinforced the safety benefit of inward and outward facing cameras. The fasttrack required all Passenger Railroads install cameras that lifted up to the secretary to determine whether or not they should include audio. They believe all railroads should be required to install cameras that provide both audio and image capabilities. Finally i want to stress the importance of all railroads to implement a comprehensive Safety Management system. Modeled after the programs developed and implemented by commercial airlines. This accident will likely never occur. They have long recommended the implementation of sms. We have recommended it before in our investigation of the 2016 collision in chester. Since then, with the exception of risk assessment, and has made tremendous products. While the program is still in its infancy, amtrak is much further ahead of the other railroads. Congress has also recognized the importance of sms. The rose Safety Improvement act of 2008 requires the secretary of transportation to issue a regulation requiring all roast implement a Risk Reduction program. More than a decade later, they still have not implemented this matter. Final rule was published in august 2016 that they have the latest implementation six times. Over this month, the issued in prm seeking a seventh instead of the final rule that would delayed again for an unknown period of time. The absence of a sense of urgency to implement our safety recommendation and the willingness to continue to jeopardize the safety of drinkers and the passengers is unacceptable. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. Im happy to answer any questions. Thank you for excellent testimony. We now move to questions by members of the committee. Let me start with mr. Anderson. In the article from february of this year, the indicated they would like to move away from longdistance routes and promote more frequent service between pairs of cities. Does that accurately describe the National Network. How will they support and improve the routes of the next five or 10 years. Do you plan to shrink any of the longdistance train routes. He had part of it right. Part of it not right. Are you shocked by that . On the network, that is the strongest part of amtrak. That piece of amtrak is really where the future lies. For passengers will and short haul markets where freeways are jammed and you cannot add more capacity. I was say under section 209, our statesupported piece which is really separate from the longdistance is performing very well. We have great partnerships with over 20 states in the united states. That is half of amtraks business. Here is the challenge on the longdistance. Since fiscal year 18, our trips for miles over 600, it is down 30 percent. The triangles 45 miles per hour. The ticket is more than a low cost Discount Airline ticket in the same market. We are working hard to try to get riders up. It is clear that trips over 600 miles are not where Consumers Want to use amtrak. 85 percent of our longdistance trips are shorthaul trips. Get on in chicago and get off in 200 miles. The challenge, the ontime performance is to the viability. Number 2, and the billions of dollars of investment. What i want to do is have this dialogue with you and your professional staff as we go into reauthorization about how we tackle that challenge. I do think that there is historically important trains in the longdistance network that we should always operated. Like the daughter. Like the coastal starlet. Because we spread our resource like peanut butter, we do not have the kind of investment you should have in making those invalid special product experience. We believe there is always a role for longdistance. On the margin, we should be looking at breaking up some of those longdistance trains and figuring out how we serve the American Consumer to provide High Quality Service and short haul markets. Lets look forward to having that dialog. Let me quickly move to one of the topic. Was a recent Supreme Court decision. I assume you agree that that will the issue alone. That they must now reformulate and issue new metrics. Was to do, this board will be able to investigate situations. Then testified about the administrations work. What are your visions of the timeline and process for reissuing these metrics. I do not think it contemplates any sort of admissions. The work was done a decade ago before the litigation with the Host Railroads was undertaken. The Supreme Court denied on that case. And put the validity of the statute on firm ground. We should be able to get this done in about 90 days. There is rte template. United States Department transportation Consumer Affairs past the same type of role for. You all live under those rules today. We are going to close the record at some point. Would you give us an update on how that is going. That is a very optimistic prediction. It is good news. Thank you to the witnesses for their testimony. I think i want to start with you. The discussion this morning, puget sound and the dupont accident are exhibit number 1 of the challenges that we face and what we have to get right. We have more congestion than ever. We have these exempted freight tracks as you were mentioned this to not coming into standard. What do you think we need to do to make sure that it happens here in washington dc to get them to that . The law did not allow for exemptions. The law actually allowed for the secretary to go beyond the requirements for Passenger Rail and inhalation lines. That was done in the role. We have 1400 miles of exceptions that have been granted. I believe it is about 20 where there is a 20 mileperhour difference. Something similar to what occurred in dupont. Without them, there has to be a wrist mitigation. Amtrak and the Freight Railroads are going to have to look at what can be put in place if there is not going to be ptc. We are on record of saying that it should be everywhere. There should not be exceptions. We continue to believe that. We have had 153 accidents. I certainly believe it needs to be implemented. I think he will tell me it is implemented in washington. That does not give all of our writers the security that learning from the dupont accident we need to implement this. I think underlying this is the increase in volume of freight traffic. This is what is causing the word dublin. If you are going to have a doubling in the next 15 years. If youre going 56 freight trains per day, congestion is our number 1 problem. Looking at these other freight corridors which is exactly what happened, people say we have so much congestion. And we do not put in place the system management and the Risk Reduction plans that went along with it. We need to stop the next dupont from happening. And comments on how we do that . I am assuming you are for positive train control be implemented across the country. And the exemption not be allowed. Right now railroads got 89 percent of our required models. We are working through that last bit. I think that number is 85 percent right now. Were really working towards interoperability between the various railroads making sure everyone systems Work Together seamlessly. The regulations are very clear about where it is required. That any new Passenger Service that maybe stood up. We certainly report those reputations. We will continue to do so. If there is an interest in re engaging about certainly will be at the table. I agree with everything you said. I do not think we should operate a passenger train without the Equipment Technology to give us that layer of safety. The southwest chief is the prime example. Does not have it along that road. It is a lower level of safety. We should not tolerate a lower level of safety. With into our solutions that do not require as much trackside. The ball putting pads and jobs of locomotives will use geo fencing and other types of technologies you are used to. We are up against the wall about having a tablet available in the cab of the locomotive. With think there may be some equipment capabilities by using gps and geofencing to at least get speeds under control. You are not against the recommendation that there are cameras inside and out . Absolutely. Our goal in our program which is what we did when i was ceo of delta, every flight every day, the data recorder is downloaded into a database. You find all the parameters where the operation was outside. We need to have it on every single one of our operations. So we can monitor what is going on and quickly react to any other tolerance operations. Thank you. Thank you chairman and for being here. Last week and found this committee, the state the agency was beginning to process at the risk of losing all my four minutes and 40 seconds with his questions, remember what you want to respond as well. What would you like to see included in that new role in both cases and some discussion of the right to preference. Thank you center. I think the important thing we have amtrak commuter railroads and other Host Railroads as members, we are encouraged by the comments he made last week. Lane got a process that is seeking input from all involved parties. In order to achieve a sustainable solution that is going to work into the future. With think it is important to take the input from all stakeholders involved. I understand that the losses that it does not come with the expense of seeking involvement from other parties. Just everybody at the table. Take a look at the data. This to a sustainable solution. I guess if everybody was on time, the preference will not matter. Do you have anything to say about the impact of the train being given the preference over other track users . In my opening statement, i made the point that it does not guarantee no delays. I think the important thing, that they move forward. S Development of metrics and standards can be used to measure preference. And there the appropriate authority to evaluate and investigate this was to standards are in place. It is the expert that the conventional view and look at the impacts of what is going on in the network. I think he laid out the first few steps in the right direction. The deal will be in the beatles. I think there is a path for the can be workable. We would like to see in that role . It would be gazed around the customer. The number needs to be about 80 percent. We compete against railroads and buses. Our statute says we have to be competitive with other modes of transportation. If you look at the rules on months, the goal was to have it within 14 statistics. That they wanted tbilisi as consumers. Number 2. Preference was given in the statute in 1970 or 1971. Been reinforced again when it was passed in 2009. We litigated for 10 years over. Now it is time to get on with putting the program in place that accommodates what he talks about. Where going to have bridges washed out. We are going to have hurricanes. We are going to have acts of god that will cause us to terminate service. We understand that. The daytoday operation from the house of the customer is what is key. Every member of commerce thinks theyre an expert in air travel. Politics and air travel are the two things that every member of Congress Things to know everything about. You know about what happens when you begin to get behind someplace in the day. What happens all of the rest of the system. How do you see that impact being the freight line that you use. Not one that you own but once a years. The best way to and that is the way i did in around. We ran it by far. When the weather was good, better run it 95. The bottom line, when the user average of customer ontime performance, the average has to include a lot of days where you run ontime. There is going to be some time. We were able to sort of consistently run in the mid80s. On a good day were running in the mid 90s. Today amtrak runs the northeast quarter up in the high 80s for ontime performance. It is something that can be done. I understand you have said your used to be in skipped over. That youre willing to go last today. That is not correct. 5 1 2 minutes. You very much. As many of you are aware, it has been great to have you here. Good testimony today. The southwest chief is vitally important for many of the sentences. s coalition of senators proves that we can Work Together on issues of common interest to our constituents. Nearly one year ago, the senate voted on my sense of the congress amendment. 926 to support the importance of the National Network for amtrak. I do not think that support has diminished since then. Present anderson, thank you for our recent discussion and for changing course. Action that is on discontinuing and action that would be a disservice to amtrak customers and our communities on the line. I was very discouraged to hear you say that you are looking at breaking up longdistance routes. That was not in your written testimony. I want to take a big disagreement with that. While progress has been made, im confident that the threat is not over. I see they continue to blend congress and others for budgetary roles when it is convenient. Went fast with engaging with stakeholders, you are slow to do so. Last year when they wasted resources, i repeatedly requested to engage directly with our active stakeholders. We do not seem to be there yeah. According to the testimony, but have not been responded to within request for stakeholder engagement. When Congress Rejects the quarter plan, it appears they will once again be left without a real vision for a National Network. That is deeply disappointing. They must develop a visionary and bold plan to prove Long Distance rail for the american public. First, thank you for your efforts to save the southwest chief. Our present success. Discontinue service. It would not have happened without your efforts. Testimony highlights the lack of transparency. Recognizing you continue to work with many dedicated employees. What is the evidence of the willingness of top management in amtrak to meaningfully engage the stakeholders. I had to be speaking for amtrak. We have a great example of this. We went to amtrak five years ago. We asked him to help us restore Train Service in colorado. We presented the business plan. The railroad were responded. They sent executives out to colorado. They met with executives. The met with our advocacy group. The met with Union Pacific railroad. That gray support of our community as well as our governor that service is restored. Just had his most successful year ever. Hopefully they can we negotiate a new contract with Union Pacific. My example of how amtrak auto behave is exactly that particularly effort. I will say one other thing about this issue that i think is extremely important. It has not been touched on that. I want to make sure the committee has does. The way amtrak evaluates Long Distance service or any of its services is purely based on metrics for passenger trips. The greatest value of the Long Distance friends of the economic and social benefits they bring to the communities they serve. No doubt the communities are not going to have as many passengers boarding the system as you do in a heavy metropolitan area. The interesting fact, in the three states, the economic and social benefits total 180 million per year. The swords that it cost 60 million per year to run the train over all estates. Sticking along with that equation. Theyre not taking into account the value that it brings. Is a Public Transportation system. Most return about 50 percent. They are necessary because that is how people get to work. That argument never appears in any of the statements about the services. Also notes that when he replied to the earlier question about longdistance trains, it did not mention it. That is a minor item compared to this value argument. Has to be a part of this equation. On all of our county commissioners and city commanders understand that. We just finished research on this. Are documented those values. That is where the 180 million amount comes from. We have looked at the empire builder. The returns over 530 million per year. I think it is subsidized or supported by federal funds. Just like the southwest chief. Were talking about a huge return on that federal investment. And is to be a part of that equation. If you just gone passenger boardings, we are going through small communities. Communities that have maybe 20,000 residents. We are not going to have that ridership. The economic and social value of that community, it is immense. That is why we supported. That is why most elected officials get that. We finally documented at the Association Working with the law institute. We documented you can discover the economic benefits and we published a report to that effect. Assured with community staff. Thank you. Can i just said thank you for that very powerful statement. I hope you are listening to the. I also want to say that he asked me to not ask too many questions that were in his arena. I have only asked one of them. There you go. Im sure he appreciates that as he appreciates you on every occasion. Sensor gardner. I want to add to my comment my appreciation. Thank you very much for your leadership. For the work. Thank you very much for your leadership in colorado. Just for the record, the trade has been incredible success. You can hop on the train to union station. Nikiski off the train down the slope. You do not even have to go up the slope. It is still snowing in colorado. You still come out and enjoy. Thank you very much for the opportunity to hear from all of you. You talk to about the Lessons Learned in terms of amtrak and colorado. Could you talk about once again the importance of maintaining a National Petition network . It is terribly important. Also to the states. This uncertainty of whether or not this trend is going to be continued as different impacted our efforts in colorado. We are working with the company to develop of the southwest chain. It is a tremendous destination or a tremendous european vacation venue. The county and get off and theyre thinking about the santa fe trip. We propose these excursions to the holidays. They said this looks great. It will take us three years to develop the average. To make these vacations have been. And we estimate there will be very profitable. It was before his immediate. That is when all of this uncertainty arose. Need to be relocated to the transcontinental line back in the early 2000s. What happened was, they said we cannot engage. We cannot get involved in developing these vacation packages. We have to market them internationally. We just cannot do this unless we have certainty that the train will continue to run. We lost the opportunity. There is a certainty to what the future of the longdistance Train Service is as a tremendous economic and social fact in our communities. As we look at ways to increase ridership, that uncertainty is the same one that will prevent most people from joining it. A company like you just mentioned cannot market to its customers. The plan a year or more in advance. The may not be in existence. I think that is a really good point. We need to have that certainty. Thank you for your leadership mr. Anderson. I appreciate it even if we disagree on some things. I appreciate your willingness to come and meet with us. About some of these issues and challenges. We just asked for a couple of things. A letter that some of us then on april 5, 2019. They responded on may 17. This is what the letter said. We have been given clear direction to maintain the status quo. We believe they continued the operation for the five year period. The paragraph basically ends by operating all of our Long Distance routes for the remainder of the period. Do you maintain that commitment . Actually wrote that line. Thank you for that. I look forward to working with you on this and be on. If i can get your commitment to work in colorado and interest as well. To resolve these it. To make this work for the southwest chief. I am glad to hear it is worth 180 million to the state. To keep this operation underway. That does raise an interesting point. It is positive train control which we also part. As was mentioned earlier. Other Risk Mitigation may be necessary. Every single model of the 1400 miles that they run on should we pay to have it on in my opinion. 19 traffic increases. Specifically want to mention the new mexico line for amtrak is the only user of the line and runs 11 weight and one the other way. That is about 230 miles. If in fact it is 500,000 or so per mile, to stop positive train control, were talking about 100 million for that 200 some on my line. That is an extreme investment. That is a costly investment for 2 trends. Thank you mr. Chairman. I will last one your questions for you. With three minutes be okay. I am willing to work with you. Thank you ranking member. I want to thank you all for your testimony. I have to tell you, you come here looking credible as a man. Before i was a delta flight. You transitioned incredibly well. You have a personality that quite frankly is hard to get me with. We have has some differences on decisions that were made. You testimony about breaking even. About the fact that we have a highway system. Can be a solution to that. And play an increasing role in transportation. I think it is really good. Something i do not think anybody on this committee would disagree with. My concern is in montana. You know it pretty well from your previous job. Whether or not were talking about amtrak transportation or about broadband and closing the digital right. Talk about making sure the post service can be delivered. Then changing the postal delivery standards. Talking about air travel. It is always a challenge. If we go off of numbers as he said, and strictly golf numbers. I want amtrak to be able to run itself without any dollars in the federal government. I do think it is bigger than that. Another board is given you a charge. To make this thing run with zero dollars. I will tell you that as a talk with people. He talked about the highspeed train that is being billed. Everybody that has been in here tells me of those trains are absolutely incredible. And something that people gravitate to. I just really hope that moving forward, that we really tried to make amtrak audit can be moving forward. He talked about the population areas. Truthfully you have to go with the money is. We cannot forget about the role areas in the. Where im going with this. You probably already know. Too little small towns that happen to be very close to where i live. There was a Ticket Office that was closed. No big deal. Except for the fact that we do not have broadband. 25 percent of the places do not have broadband. There is no kiosk in these places. There is a person there but they cannot sell tickets. If youre not going to leave role america out, how do we make it so these people in rural areas would use a tram. The truth is, how do we make this work. I know your heart is in the right spot. He is correct. Their economic and social benefits that we also need to include in the equation. Could you respond to that . I agree with the policy statement. I think intercity Passenger Rail could play a really Important Role in connecting role america to urban america. There is no doubt about it. We see across the network. There is a permanent place for the longdistance network. I just do not think the Long Distance network as a lobbyist communities very well. We could do a lot better job serving this community. I have to say that i have a secretary transportation and administration that was to basically cut our funding to appoint women have massive layoffs. I would just say this. I do not know how we get to the 20th century on railroads. It is not there. It is quite frankly congresss fault. If we do not make the investment we will never get the dividend. I would just encourage you to keep pushing very hard. To make sure that not only do we have good Passenger Service. Do not take offense to this. It is actually easier than flying an airplane. The bottom line, we need to advocacy. You know this issue better than any of us. So we can make Smart Investments that work well for the american people. Thank you to our panel for being here. You have three letters very strong. They seem to be on two other folks. Let me start. You mentioned on equation that does not take into account benefits for communities. What is that equation come from . Is it something amtrak has developed . The passenger association. I served on the board until recently. I am a National Representative now. We worked on that for the gulf coast. We went back to the. They then went out and looked at 11 or so. Let me make sure you understand my question. , theyre using this particular question. I am recommending this on. What do they make the decision to use that equation that the youth. Is that a legislative mandate . I think it should be part of a policy framework. That she say we are going to maintain a National System. Were going to maintain this underlying set. Were going to grow the expansion of our National Network based on that existing network. When decisions are made about how to establish Additional Service then we should take into account not just passenger demand. Also the benefits. I understand fully your point. Let me turn to mr. Anderson. A disagreement less than i thought i used to. You set the stage for my skepticism about your view towards the southwest and Long DistancePassenger Service. We had a conversation with you and my college. You indicated there was in the planning stages. A replacement of longdistance Passenger Services. My reaction. To pay the 3 million they committed to. That is what did my outreach to you. It was the bus,. The idea that amtrak would think about replacing Passenger Service with bus service for 400 miles. That we would still have a Long Distance passenger Train Service is something i cannot get over. Tells me your attitude towards that line or maybe Long Distance nonprofitable Passenger Service. I will say a few more things before the term and determines my time is not. Im anxious for you to assure me that my perception about your belief in regards to this is erroneous. In that regard, what i would add to my question or comment, can you reassure me that you will follow the law. Can you assure me that it would continue. In the letter that he read to you that you claim credit for that paragraph, it is pretty appealing to me. Is there anything in that letter that i should be concerned about that youre using hedge words or things that give you greater flexibility that i think you are conveying about what youre saying today . Youre my boss. Congress decides whether funding is. You decide the policy. I keep a laminated copy of the policy with me at all times. The best thing to do given how many of you up around the hill. It is to just tell people that you follow the law. The law is fairly straightforward in terms of what our mission is. What the law allows you to do, what i need to be worried about that you may do in regards to the reduction of service. You have been clearer on the southwest. We are head strong. In terms of using the 50 million. I think i told you when we met two 90 million. Still have three bigger problems. It needs to have ptc. I fundamentally disagree with him. I do not think anybody should tell them they have a lower level of safety than urban america. And their trains about to have the kind of technology that the Northeast Corner has. We had a whole series of accidents. Congress over change the law. I disagree with that. I but the ntsb disagrees with that as well. You have to find what has to be funded to operate that railroad safely. And needs 100 million worth of investment. We do not have that. I have a only be and a secretary transportation that has a different view of my budget than what i do. I agree with all of you that we need to invest in a National Railroad network. We have to have the funding. We have to fix ontime performance. You cannot hope to sustain the service. There is no hedge words in the paragraph. Thank you mr. German. Welcome to all of the participants. Mr. Anderson, last month, i sent you a letter expressing my deep disappointment that amtrak has felt so far to reinstate its Discount Program for veterans and their immediate family members. As you know, and provided a 15 percent savings. To veterans on tickets to nationwide travel. In fact, expended this program to include sameday travel and benefits. Last year, amtrak eliminated this program. When this Discount Program will be reinstated for veterans. We have always had a good Discount Program. That program has continued unabated. We are in the process of implementing the 10 Percent Discount for retired military personnel. I will have my staff to back to you on when it will be fully implemented. A lot of Computer Programming that has to be done just most of our tickets are sold over the internet. Can you give me a approximate timeline. We should be pretty quick. End of this fiscal year . End of september . What is it that long . You want us to go faster. Actually the veterans of america wanted to go faster. Im glad you got it. With all due respect, i hope you will address their requests. Thank you. I think you for your commitment to positive train control. It was 50 years ago that the crash occurred that prompted the focus on positive train control. It was actually included on the first of the most wanted list. Back in 1990. Talking about a novel and technologically new process. I assume you will agree that the deadline should not be waived or delayed or in any respect aggregated. It should not be. To the rest of the Panel Members agree . What should be done at the felt to meet that deadline . Another has been a lot of discussion about civil penalties. They have looked at the penalties. I do have some concerns about commuter railroad. Charging them with civil penalties. In the end they could use that funded. I think the pressure needs to remain on. Budget for implementation. I would urge swift implementation. He did not have to wait to get that done. We can do it immediately. Also eliminated the exemptions. We just talked about exemption on the southwest peas. I just want to make sure that the senators are aware. I am very supportive of our Passenger Rail system. I spent many years defending it. When it comes to talking about numbers, they have investigated 153 preventable accidents since 1969. Over 300 fatalities. 6700 entries. In that amount of time we put a man on the man. We could have implemented it but thankfully, congress required. Back in 2008. Were going to talk about measures, whether our exemptions, there should be no exemptions. They were not authorized in law. It will stop a train if the engineer runs through a red signal. If there is a switch in the wrong position or federal worker is on the truck. We have to implement these exemptions need to go way. I have one more quick question. You called the gateway project the most urgent Infrastructure Project in the nation. Then you said we need to get this done and stop the unnecessary red tape. I cannot agree more. What can we do to cut that redtape . The fra needs to improve the hudson tunnel project. Number 2, when it kick off. All the funding is in place. On construction of the portal bridge. All of this Northeast Corner is owned and operated by amtrak. We serve 820,000 People Per Day but you the our operation are hosting all the commuter roads. It is a essential part of the economy of the northeast quarter. The idea that we do not press up and go make the types of investments that other countries around the world make all the time, it is discouraging. As a practical matter. Commerce and transportation. It would be absolutely crippled and cratered. It was great to the northeastern economy. When you have that many people rely upon the railroad to get to and from work everyday and in and out of manhattan, it would cripple the economy. We are talking about tunnels that have decayed and are literally potential dangerous. First of all, we have a lot of really good people. The bottom line, they were ruined by hurricane sandy. We have our money worth. Thank you. Thank you for holding todays hearing. On the implementation. I would like to start with you. Last week i extended the invitation to the heads. To meet with me to discuss their ideas. I think it would also be helpful to discuss industry and governmental perspective. With each come to my office to discuss your ideas and parties for this by position . We will two. Thank you. Implementation continues to be my primary focus. Was significant progress has been made, im still concerned about the interoperability components and dynamic areas like northeastern illinois. Are you still confident that the intrabuilding issue will be fully addressed . As you know, we have briefed her office on a few occasions. Youre absolutely right. We have our working group among the industry. We are working through. Are you equally optimistic . We have great relationships with the Freight Railroads. Our last model of implementation for amtrak owned track is them all. We are on schedule to have the completed ontime. The real challenge is going to be commuter railroads. Particularly in the northeast quarter. They have done a very good job marshaling everybody. Is a big summit meeting in july to get the heads of all those railroads and amtrak together to make sure theyre going to hit the deadline. Thank you. I assume support for raising funding levels for both the Funding Program and eliminating nonhow we spent another both programs. Is that a correct statement . Absolutely. They have been enormously helpful. Our members have been active contributors in the practice. Thank you. Last week, the administrators for whom i have the highest respect highlighted that the ontime performance is 77. 9 percent. On par with u. S. Airlines. As you have testified many times today, that is really not the true story. Is actually 48. 8 percent on time. 47 percent. 46. 3 percent ontime. New orleans 45. 1. Texas in 39 percent. Dead last. Down to southern illinois. 35 percent ontime performance. I myself have been stuck on veteran. Oftentimes for hours at a time. Reliability is the entire game as you mentioned. The does not matter if there is one train per day. If your customers cannot rely on the train to arrive on time. As you have said, they may as well try to book a fly. Last week i pressed the administrator to directed staff to be more engaged on this issue. I am confident that he will keep that commitment. I am kind of curious. If they are signaling this issue and other areas of the country, has amtrak experienced issues elsewhere in the nation . The only place we have experienced the issues is on the line you describe. We did have some of the trouble i think on the hoosier line. The state of indiana has discontinued the service. I think it has been principally there. They have been really good about pressing the Host Railroad to come up with solutions. The juror find a solution for the line . We have not found a solution. They told us it is to put more cars on the train. In the hope of closing the circuit. This seems goofy. It is what we are doing. I am deeply concerned. It has been years. He has said he will commit. He has been good about it. We really have us in them anywhere else. I do not think we have. He says in missouri. Perhaps we can check with staff on that. Thank you senator