A Senate version of the surface transportation bill could strip up to 30 million dollars of funding to the Alaska Rail Road. It is a move the railroad says would force them to reconsider their passenger service.
listen to full story: [audio:https://ktna.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/1AKRailRoad300.mp3|titles=1AKRailRoad300]
The Alaska Railroad is worried that Senate-approved changes to the Federal Transit Administration Formula funds would put their passenger service in jeopardy. The Senate version of a Surface Transportation bill could pull as much as 30 million dollars from their budget. The House version of the bill leaves the Alaska allocation unchanged.
Alaska Railroad CEO Chris Aadnesen says that if this funding is stripped, they’ll have to cover the remaining 137 million in bond debt, and the railroad would be forced find another source to help meet a federally required passenger service safety feature called Positive Train Control by 2015, to the tune of 100 million dollars.
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The Rail Road originally began receiving FTA funding in 2006 after a compromise brought the railroad 36 million dollars annually for their passenger service. The additional funding enabled them to take out bond debt with a 15 million annual repayment for capital projects like track rehabilitation and depot improvements.
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Aadnesen says Alaska has been singled out for cuts out of resentment of the large amount of federal funds spent in Alaska
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In April the house and Senate have formed a conference committee to settle the differences between the two bills. A final bill should be arrived at by September.
