Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued the following statement in response to Amtrak’s 2017 General and Legislative Annual Report:
“Amtrak has submitted a funding request for FY2017 that gives our national passenger railroad and its employees a chance to deliver faster and more reliable train service. Amtrak faces a backlog of major investments that are needed to propel its service and equipment to a new level. This includes safety and capacity upgrades such as the Gateway project between New York and New Jersey, which features century-old tunnels and severely eroded bridges that need major refurbishment or replacement. And as Amtrak seeks to overcome its major infrastructure challenges, the company’s front-line employees must be treated and compensated fairly for their work to keep the national system running successfully.
“When Congress included a long-term reauthorization of Amtrak funding in the recently enacted surface transportation legislation, the FAST Act, lawmakers wisely chose to provide Amtrak with funding certainty and stability and rejected privatization and outsourcing mandates. Congress must now invest in our chronically underfunded national passenger rail network by appropriating federal resources consistent with Amtrak’s FY 2017 funding request.
“Amtrak is a vital transportation link for millions of people across the country who are clamoring for more service, as evidenced by more than two years of polling in both red and blue states showing pent-up demand regardless of political affiliation or ideology. We urge Congress to listen to the voters and boost Amtrak funding in the upcoming appropriations legislation.”
Related News
- NTS Day 3: Railroad safety improvements driven by member reports
- NTS Day 3: America’s transit safer because of union member efforts
- TD NTS: STB chair and vice chair address officers, assure labor will have input
- TTD president: Labor needs to stick together to maintain progress
- TD National Training Seminar begins; officers train to confidently represent union members
- SMART-TD transit union conducts first Bus/Transit Day on the Hill
- Chairperson ensures that new bus members get what’s owed to them
- LACMTA reconstitutes in-agency police force to protect workers, riders
- Open enrollment for the SMART-TD VLTD and VLIFE plans begins for rail and bus members
- SMART-TD excited to welcome Coaster to its passenger rail/commuter family