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 f