NEW - FROM AMTRAK
How Amtrak Benefits America
Amtrak serves more than 500 communities across the U.S. These range from small, rural towns like Rugby, North Dakota (population: 2,509), where residents may not have other intercity travel options, to global megacities like New York (population: 8.8 million), where Amtrak offers a convenient, sustainable alternative to driving or flying. For many of these communities, our service is crucial to the local economy, and to residents’ quality of life; added together, those local benefits make America’s Railroad both a powerful engine of national prosperity and an important public good.
Quantifiable Benefits: Jobs & Economy
The federal funds that Congress appropriates for Amtrak each year ultimately flow into communities across the nation, in the form of wages for residents and contracts with local businesses. According to an economic analysis prepared in connection with Amtrak’s service expansion efforts, the company’s current network generates direct user, safety, and emissions benefits worth $2.0 billion per year, and its operations support another $7.2 billion in annual economic activity (including $358 million due to tourism).51 Similarly, the Northeast Corridor—of which Amtrak is the primary owner and maintainer— moves a workforce that contributes tens of billions of dollars annually to the United States’ gross domestic product.
If Congress provides the full $3.650 billion that Amtrak is requesting for FY 24, those funds will help sustain current operations and, coupled with separate funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), will advance capital investments to improve and expand service; in turn, those investments will enhance Amtrak’s economic contributions (along with the countless other, harder-to- quantify benefits). Here is a closer look at what those contributions can mean in practice:
• Amtrak provides and supports good, middle-class jobs — Median wages for railroad industry workers significantly exceed the national average. Amtrak employs roughly 20,000 skilled workers, including nearly 1,800 veterans, and its operations support an estimated 36,000 jobs in total. In FY 22, the company spent more than $2.3 billion on salaries, wages, and benefits; Amtrak is currently in the midst of a concerted, IIJA-driven hiring effort, so that figure is growing over time. We value our employees and recognize that they are the reason for our success—which is why we are especially proud that as of September 2022, the average length of tenure for Amtrak employees was 13 years.
• Amtrak service spurs growth in local communities — Mayors, chambers of commerce, and other local stakeholders are working to bring Amtrak service to smaller communities—because they have seen firsthand what that service can mean. New or improved service or stations have helped spur significant redevelopment in places as diverse as Brunswick, Maine; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Normal, Illinois. And the rise of remote work, hybrid schedules, and other
51 Elements of this analysis were published in “More Trains. More Cities. Better Service: Amtrak’s Vision for Improving Transportation Across America,” Amtrak, June 2021: bit.ly/3Lffj6j.
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alternative work arrangements are now making Amtrak service even more valuable to the nation. For example, many people who work in large urban centers now have the option of moving to small towns and rural communities—but they still need the ability to regularly get back to city centers for meetings, work events, and other special occasions. Small municipalities and local businesses can help provide the broadband and other basic infrastructure to sustain these new workers, but it is the Amtrak service that is required to provide the reliable connection that allows such populations to easily move back and forth between their small towns and the urban centers.
• Amtrak’s presence strengthens the finances of state and local governments — Where Amtrak service creates new jobs, attracts new residents, or spurs new economic activity, governments collect additional revenues (which are often derived from out-of-town travelers, as opposed to local residents). Amtrak service can also reduce the need to expand highways and parking; improve air quality; increase mobility for underserved populations; and free governments to put scarce resources to the best possible use.
• Amtrak’s procurement dollars stay in the U.S. — Most of Amtrak’s procurements are subject to Buy America and other domestic preference requirements, and we are proud to meet or exceed all such requirements. In FY 22, we spent 98% of our purchase order procurement dollars ($2.4 billion) within the United States. Many of those dollars ultimately flowed to communities that are not themselves served by Amtrak trains.
• Amtrak service reduces the massive economic drag caused by highway congestion — In 2019, roadway congestion was an $88 billion drag on the national economy.52 Amtrak service keeps cars off the road—saving time and money not just for our passengers, but for those who continue to use highways, as well.
Importantly, all these benefits (among many others) are scalable. With robust federal investment, Amtrak and its partners could deliver new, improved, or expanded service in high-potential corridors nationwide where service today is minimal, or does not exist. If Amtrak and its partners were able to fully implement Amtrak’s vision for expanded corridor service by 2035, that would mean:
• an extra $1.1 billion per year in direct user and external benefits;
• an extra $6.9 billion per year in additional economic activity due to Amtrak operations; and
• support for 26,000 additional permanent jobs, plus 616,000 person-years of temporary work due to one-time capital investments.53
52 “Sitting in traffic costs D.C.-area residents an average of $1,761 per year, study finds,” Lori Aratani, Washington Post, March 9, 2020: wapo.st/3gZIBJf.
53 “More Trains. More Cities. Better Service: Amtrak’s Vision for Improving Transportation Across America,” Amtrak, June 2021: bit.ly/3Lffj6j.
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The direct benefits would accrue not just to the more than 500 communities that Amtrak currently serves, but to at least 160 new communities, as well—rural, urban, and everything in between. As with current service, the secondary effects would ripple across the entire economy, bringing new opportunities and improved quality of life even to places that remained miles away from the nearest train stop.
Additional Benefits
Although the quantifiable benefits of Amtrak service are immense, they do not tell the full story. As a mode of travel, intercity passenger rail carries inherent advantages. These advantages can be measured in dollars and cents—but also in the knitting together of diverse, varied communities, and in improved quality of life for the tens of millions of Americans who rely upon the links that Amtrak creates. Our service connects people with social, economic, educational, healthcare, and cultural resources, offering immense value to well-served communities. (And we want to bring that same value to communities that are still underserved, or not served at all.)
Passenger trains are seventeen times safer than travel by passenger car,54 and 46% more energy efficient.55 This makes train travel an increasingly popular choice as people embrace greener, more sustainable options. Train travel also allows our passengers more control over how they spend their travel time, as (unlike motorists) they are freed from the need to “focus on the road.” Many Amtrak stations are conveniently located in city centers, affording quick and easy access to local attractions, business districts, lodging, and public transit. And trains also offer a uniquely enabling form of transportation for senior citizens, people with disabilities, and people without the means (or desire) to own a car. Many of these Americans have severely limited mobility choices; serving them is one of Amtrak’s key goals.
Similarly, one of intercity passenger rail’s unique strengths lies in trains’ ability to serve many small or rural communities that could never attract airline service—but that can be efficiently connected to each other, and to larger communities, as intermediate stops on a rail route. Amtrak’s Long-Distance and State-Supported services provide many such communities with a safe, reliable option—often carrying passengers who have no other choices for intercity travel. Amtrak is committed to maintaining, and ideally expanding, service for these people and places.
These kinds of benefits are not fully captured in Amtrak’s quantifiable economic impact—but they show that intercity passenger rail service makes life better, easier, richer, and safer for millions of Americans from every walk of life. So, while robust congressional support would help make America a more prosperous nation, it will also make it a better, fairer, and more pleasant place in which to live. It is for this full range of reasons that Amtrak is asking Congress to keep building on the strong foundation that the IIJA recently laid, and provide the full authorized level of $3.650 billion in annual appropriations in FY 24.
54 “Deaths by Transportation Mode,” National Safety Council: bit.ly/3TgK5Oc.)
55 Tables 2.14 & 2.15, Transportation Energy Data Book (Edition 39), Oak Ridge National Laboratory: bit.ly/41UxV1k.
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Selected Amtrak Impacts by State
Amtrak—America’s Railroad—has a truly national footprint: even in places with no direct train service, connecting Thruway buses enable residents to ride the rails. Amtrak has employees and spends procurement dollars in nearly every state—including several that lack service. And the recent enactment of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) means that we are expanding: Amtrak is working closely with the Federal Railroad Administration, current and potential state partners, and other stakeholders to bring more trains to more people.
Figure 7.2, on the following page, gives a high-level overview of how Amtrak affected all fifty states and Washington, D.C. during FY 22; the bullets immediately below contain methodological notes.
• “Current Service” — Types of service regularly scheduled to serve stations in a given state as of October 1, 2022 (but not necessarily operated on that specific date), including NEC (service operated as part of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor Service Line), L-D (service operated as part of Amtrak’s Long-Distance Service Line), and S-S (service operated as part of Amtrak’s State- Supported Service Line).
• “Stations” — Number of stations in a given state at which passengers boarded or alighted during FY 22.
• “Passengers” — Combined total for Amtrak intercity train boardings and alightings at all stations within a given state during FY 22, divided by two. (Totals are approximate, and (for example) exclude passengers on Amtrak-operated commuter services; exclude or pro-rate trips wholly or partially within Canada; and may exclude passengers carried as a result of cross- ticketing agreements or other special circumstances.)
• “Employees” — Total active Amtrak employees (both agreement and management) by home state (as opposed to workplace location) circa October 1, 2022; excludes contractors. Amtrak is engaged in significant hiring efforts, and aims to grow this total by several thousand people in the near-to-medium term. (Totals are approximate; small methodological choices in how headcount is calculated can yield slightly different numbers.)
• “Procurement Spending” — Total amount that Amtrak spent on purchase order and non- purchase order procurements with vendors headquartered in a given state.
FLORIDA?
19 Stations
398,301 Annual Passengers
708 Employees
$62,372,129 Procurement Spent
= CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP...