Amtrak officials have announced that they will indefinitely postpone a drastic fare increase that was to take effect yesterday.
Only a week earlier, the transit company had announced that the cost of a monthly pass from Philadelphia to New York would increase from $633 to $1,008 per month, or about 60 percent. The proposed hike came in response to increased operating costs resulting from higher fuel prices.
In addition, the price of a one-way trip on the same route would have increased by between $3 and $4.
Along with the fare hikes, Amtrak announced a plan to close its Cornwells Heights, Pa., station, located in southern Bucks County between Trenton and Philadelphia.
The short notice that Amtrak provided and the drastic increases that it announced provoked an uproar from local politicians, including Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), a longtime Amtrak proponent and commuter.
U.S. Representative and House Passenger Rail Caucus co-Chairman Michael Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania's 8th District -- which includes Cornwells Heights -- set up a meeting with Amtrak CEO David Gunn to discuss the plan.
Jeff Urbanchuk, a spokesman for Fitzpatrick, said that the representative was pleased with the meeting's outcome.
Gunn reportedly agreed to postpone the changes to allow discussion of the issues, but he refused to quash the station-closing and rate-hike entirely.
"We were pleased that Amtrak decided to postpone the rate increase," Urbanchuk said.
"Given the number of people who live in our district and commute to New York City," he added, "it's extremely important that we address these issues head-on."
The Cornwells Heights station, Urbanchuk said, makes "an extremely good starting point for [local residents to begin] their commute up to New York."
Fitzpatrick believes that the station has not been marketed well enough by Amtrak and that with the proper promotion, it could be financially viable.
"After the discussion that we had," Urbanchuk said, "they decided to keep the station open and ... possibly to look at increasing service to the station."
Although Amtrak is a private company, it has been unprofitable and is kept afloat by federal funding -- a fact that makes it susceptible to political pressure.
For the coming fiscal year, the Senate has recommended appropriating $1.45 billion for Amtrak. A vote is expected on the matter this week.
President George Bush's initial budget resolution had called for no Amtrak funding whatsoever.
"I was shocked when the President sent his budget here earlier this year, without a dime for intercity passenger rail. Not a dime. Not one red cent," Biden said on the Senate floor on March 16.
Fitzpatrick has no problem with a fare increase per se, but the plan was "so soon, so much, after so much time of stability, with a small amount of notice," Urbanchuk said, that the representative felt the need to intervene.
"Constituents would say that they expect some sort of increase," he added, but more along the lines of a cost-of-living adjustment, not such a drastic hike.
Amtrak said when it announced the changes that they were absolutely necessary financially.
Amtrak spokeswoman Marcie Golgoski refused to speculate as to how Amtrak could suddenly postpone changes that had been so essential only a week earlier.
Penn Engineering professor and transportation expert Vukan Vuchic said last week that he could not understand how such a "drastic" increase could be due solely to fuel costs. Instead, he said that the changes might be a response to congressional pressure to increase revenue.
