Routes, 10 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. It was suspended in 2005 after hurricane katerina. With funding support from dot , amtrak in the states im , pleased to report that mississippi, louisiana and alabama are likely again to have this amtrak route and that will give mississippi a third amtrak route. Restoration of the service would support growing populations centers, connect tourist destinations, bring new jobs and improve the regions quality of life. This will make a positive difference for the communities and the people of the mississippi gulf coast. This hearing provides opportunity to examine the state of Passenger Rail and consider how to support existing routes like the southwest chief and restore gulf port gulf coast service. In i introduced along with 2015, senator 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 and planning activities. The fast act and those rail provisions expire at the end of fy 2020. Its important for us to examine what aspects of this important legislation have worked and what should be improved. This hearing is an opportunity for witnesses to discuss the impact of amtrak reauthorization and the fast act and how congress can support it in the next reauthorization bill. The fast act 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 , strengthening innercity Passenger Rail and boosts Safety Initiatives. Among the Safety Initiatives for rail is the diplomate of positive rail control. Ptc 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. I hope our witness also 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 on time performance of Passenger Rail. For amtrak to be successful its trains must be available to run on time. With only 43. 8 of Long Distance trains arriving at stations on schedule, amtraks on time performance lags behind comparable transit networks. I hope our witness also provide suggestions to improve amtraks on time performance while maintaining the overall fluidity of our nations rail network. I look forward to a robust discussion of passenger and Freight Rail Service. And 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 consider myself a big supporter of the chairmans initiative to make sure that that expansion or rework of Amtrak Sunset limited service to the gulf coast is reestablished. I know how important this is to the state of washington and having Amtrak Services. I hope that we can continue to make amtrak a priority within this committee. I want to thank the witnesses for being here today and to talk about Amtrak Services in an era when we 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 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 at grade crossings that make our challenges even more complex. One example of this is pine roads in spokane valley. 56 freight and two passenger trains pass through there creating three hours of rail related closures daily. That means the challenge of moving people and 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 only getting more challenging as our trade economy continues to grow. In 2014, 121 million tons of refrain 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. 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 a big is a big priority. We need to build on the proven federal rail initiatives like chrissy which just provided a grant to kprof the pine street intersection, but we need to make sure in the next surface transportation act we consider other ways in which we can help communities with at grade crossings. Safety must remain a top priority. The need for safety was driven home by the 2017 amtrak crash near dupont in the stateupont in the state of washington. Im concerned we need to make sure that we are having Situational Awareness and the challenges that come from 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 safety passion. But we need to make it safety a type property. Top property. Obviously positive train control which we know is being implemented is a key component. As we consider the number of freight trains coming through and the impacts on the daily lives we need to make sure that we learn the lessons from the dupont accident and everything that comes with it. So 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 we are 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 mr. Chairman. Im parade to welcome this morning jim souby of denver, colorado. He is the chairman of the colorado Rail Passenger association. He is a member of the front range rail commission. Previously jim served as president of the park city policy center based in utah before realizing there is better snow in colorado as well as executive director of the western governors association. He has been a steadfast advocate of the southwest chief and colorado in our nations Passenger Rail service. Jim, thank you for being here. Its an honor to have colorados voice represented on the panel process. We begin our testimony with a fiveminute statement by each of our witnesses. Well begin down at this end of the table with mr. Anderson. You are recognized. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member. Its a privilege to be here today representing all the people at amtrak and all of our customers. Were probably in the best shape weve 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. Were at 99 . We have a mile left in chicago. We have complied with the statute. Its been remarkable in terms of what its provided in terms of level of safety. Second, we are the First Railroad in america to implement an sms program, a Safety Management system program. Its modelled after the aviation programs that i was responsible for implementing at northwest and Delta Airlines 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 the customer surveys, our customer surveys on a scale of one to ten, we have high Customer Satisfaction at really record levels now. Weve cleaned our trains. We are running our trains on time in the corridor. We put Good Technology in place. Our customer attributes are in the high 80s in terms of a top seven box in the customer surveys. Financially we are at zero net debt. So we have conserved our capital paid down our debt. , paid down our debt in order to position the railroad to be able to pay for the asella and locomotives network and to replace our fleets. We will reach break even in the next 12 months. Probably most people thought that amtrak could get to a breakeven on an operating basis but on operating cash base we , will get to break even. 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 we have to have ptc or ptc equivalent on all our trips. There is still 1,400 miles of main line track exclusions. 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 out over the next 40 years, population of in country is going to grow by 100 million. That 100 million is moving to dense corridors. Phoenix, tucson, houston, austin, dallas. The mississippi corridor from new orleans to mobil, florida, the upper midwest, and thats where all the population is moving in in country. And the highway system is not going to be able to support short haul transportation. Youre not going to be able to add enough lanes. Youre going to have more of what we have on the east coast with i95. We think we can play a really Important Role in a very efficient way in providing an alternative to what we have done so far as a country. Because millennials dont want to own cars. They want to take ride sharing. They want to live in inner city areas. They want to be able to use mass transit to get to their jobs. We have some good ideas about what to do. Third, we need to solve our Amtrak Host Railroad challenges that the chairman mentioned in his remarks. We cannot sustain a Long Distance system with 47 on time. Not in a system where the average speed is 45 miles an hour. If you are going to run at 45 Miles Per Hour and charge more than airlines charge, you got to run on time. If you dont run on time, were going to continue to see a degradation in ridership on Long Distance. Four, we need access to federal transportation programs and fundings and should provide sufficient funding levels to address the underlying policy initiatives that you direct us over time to undertake as part of a National Transportation policy. And lastly we want to strengthen our state partnerships. Thats really where amtrak does the most good. The cascades, the state partnerships. We are now the way to get from san diego to l. A. We are the way to get from milwaukee to chicago. And the northeast corridor carries 820,000 people a day. To and from their jobs and their homes. So we are playing an increasingly Important Role and we want to have stronger and stronger partnerships with the states who we partner with to provide short haul service. Thank you for the opportunity to serve amtrak and to serve the United States. Thank you very, very much. Mr. Jeffreys. Thank you. Chairman wicker, Ranking Member cantwell, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. The association of american railroads has a Diverse Membership of both large and small freight and Passenger Railroads. Our Freight Railroad members , including the seven large class one railroads and over 100 short line and regional railroads account for the overwhelming majority of our nations Freight Railroad activity. While amtrak and aars Commuter Railroad members account for more than 80 of annual u. S. Passenger railroad trips. Aars membership agrees america can and should have both safe fechkt Passenger Railroading and a safe productive freight rail system. Mutual success for both passenger and Freight Railroads requires collaboration and a recognition of challenges must in met to immediate our country as need to move people and goods safely and efficiently. Well into the 20th century railroads were the primary means to transport people and freight in the United States. That did not last. Following years of financial challenges due to the falling Passenger Rail demand. Congress passed the rail Service Passenger service act of 1970. The act which led to the creation of amtrak introduce a basic level of Passenger Rail service while relieving private railroads of obligation to provide Passenger Service. Freight railroads initially helped capitalize amtrak in cash, equipment and services and were prierd required to provide preference to many a track preference to amtrak trains. Today Freight Railroads provide the infrastructure for Passenger Rail. Approximately 97 of amtraks 22,000mile system consist of tracks owned and mained by Freight Railroads. The when looking at the project level, each project involving passenger and Freight Railroads should be evaluated on a case by case basis. These projects are more likely to succeed if certain overarching principles are followed. First and foremost, we all agree safety always comes first. Whether freight or passenger. Second, current and future capacity needs of both Freight Railroads and Passenger Railroads must be front of mind and properly addressed. Today, Freight Railroads carry twice the volume as they did when amtrak was formed. While Passenger Rail ridership increases as welcome. As well. To improve capacity and safety of the network, Freight Railroads spend on average 25 25 billion in private capital each year on maintenance and capital improvements. When freight and potential freight traffic levels are so high that there is no Spare Capacity for passenger trains, new infrastructure might be needed before passenger trains can reliable operate. This leads to the third principle, proper funding for amtrak is critical. Especially as it looks to change and expand service offerings. Policy makers should provide amtrak the level of funding necessary to address its Capital Needs and pay for expanded capacity when required. It is not reasonable to expect amtrak to effectively plan, build and maintain adequate infrastructure and service when there is excessive uncertainty regarding Capital Allocation from one year to the next. Fourth, all parties must recognize that preference of amtrak trains over freight trains does no not mean there will never be delays to amtrak trains. Any number of factors contribute to rail delays including bad weather, heavy Traffic Volume network , maintenance and other factors. While amtrak may be given preference, preference cannot mean a guarantee of zero delay. Ever since amtrak was created amtrak and the Freight Railroads have worked togeth