Amtrak, the national passenger railroad company of the U.S., continues to have routine breakdowns despite receiving massive injections of taxpayer dollars from the Biden administration, according to data from the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Since 2021, there have been 333 Amtrak train incidents reported nationwide as of July 9, 2024, slightly less than the 397 incidents that occurred between 2016 and July 2020 during former President Trump’s tenure, according to the DOT. The Biden administration, as a part of an announced $66 billion for passenger rail in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, has dedicated huge amounts of taxpayer cash to Amtrak, including $4 billion being given to the rail company near the end of 2022, according to the White House.
Of the incidents under Biden, 66 of the 333 were derailments, 84 were obstructions, five were fires or “violent ruptures,” 115 involved rail crossings over roads and 54 were described as “other,” according to the data. In total, $4 million in equipment damage has been incurred since 2021.
The most recent Amtrak disruption was on Saturday after a faulty circuit breaker caused a power outage that disrupted service on the busy New York and Boston lines, with officials blaming a lightning strike for the outage, according to CBS. The outage was announced in the afternoon and lasted until 9:50 p.m. when Amtrak completed its repairs and offered to waive other charges to customers changing reservations.
Since the creation of Amtrak in 1971, it has failed to turn a profit and is predicted to continue losing $1 billion a year for the foreseeable future.
The Biden administration has championed passenger rail as “more convenient and climate-friendly than either driving or flying,” according to the White House. The White House has pushed for 25 new passenger rail projects on the Northeast corridor to bring Biden “closer to his vision for world-class passenger rail.”
“Bidenomics and President Biden’s Investing in America agenda are tackling long-standing infrastructure needs, supporting communities nationwide, and making it possible to get people and goods where they need to be safely, quickly, and conveniently,” the White House said in November 2023. “The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak, with a $66 billion total investment in rail.”
The Biden administration also announced in December that it was granting $3.07 billion to the California High-Speed Rail Authority despite the project failing to make meaningful progress since funding was first approved by California voters in 2008.
Amtrak and the DOT did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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