Railroads

Amtrak has suspended service to Boston as officials hunt for a suspect in the bombing of the Boston Marathon earlier this week.

Officials in Boston are conducting a massive manhunt for one of the two brothers who are suspected in the bombings that killed three people and injured more than 100 others.

One of the brothers was killed overnight, but the younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, remains at large.

Amtrak officials said Friday that it was suspending service on its Downeaster route between Boston and Providence to help prevent a possible escape.

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House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said Thursday the United States should take “baby steps” toward privatization of rail service in Amtrak’s northeast corridor.

Shuster said he will not push for complete Amtrak privatization, like his predecessor, Rep. John Mica (R-Pa.).

But the new Transportation Committee chairman said Thursday that he would look for opportunities to introduce private companies to the northeast, which is Amtrak’s most profitable corridor.

“We’re not at the point where we’re going to have two competing companies on the line on the northeast corridor,” Shuster said. “[There are] baby steps we have to take to bring the private sector into the operations of it, whether it’s operating the equipment, whether it’s operating the personnel on the train that sell the tickets ... there’s lot different ways to do it to bring the private sector in.” 

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Lawmakers in the House and Senate will take up a bevy of transportation issues this week as hearings are scheduled on topics ranging from water to rail to aviation.

In the Senate, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold hearings Tuesday and Thursday on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) progress on implementing safety initiatives and proposed budget for the 2014 fiscal year.

The panel will also hold a hearing on Wednesday about Amtrak service in the northeast United States.

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Touting increased ridership and downplaying losses on long-distance routes, Amtrak officials began Thursday trying to get lawmakers on board with renewing its funding later this year.

“Because we are a business rather than agency, our budgets are much more fluid. We generate revenues and our need for operating funding fluctuates depending on our revenue performance,” Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman told lawmakers during a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“Over the last several years, that performance has been very good, but it hasn’t changed Amtrak’s basic situation,” he continued. “We’re a capital intensive business that does not generate sufficient revenues to cover our operating costs, let alone fund capital investment.”

Republicans on the Transportation Committee were not convinced Amtrak was worth spending more money on, however.

Amtrak ridership increased in the first six months of the 2013 fiscal year, the company said Tuesday.

Ridership on the company’s trains increased by one percent from the record 31.2 million passengers that were carried in 2012, according to Amtrak.

Amtrak said 26 of its 45 routes saw ridership increases in the period between the beginning of October and the end of March.

Lawmakers in the House will begin working in earnest this week on the two largest pieces of transportation legislation that are expected to be approved this year.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has scheduled hearings on water resources development and Amtrak's budget for the 2014 fiscal year.

The hearings, on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, are being cast as the first steps toward the passage of new bills to boost waterways and long-distance rail service in the United States.

Ridership and revenue estimates for a controversial high-speed railway proposal in California are “reasonable,” according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Republicans in Congress have questioned estimates for the proposed railway, which has received more than $3 billion in funding from the Obama administration.

However, the GAO said this week that the numbers being used by backers of the project are OK, even as the agency called for further study of the figures.

“GAO found the [California High Speed Rail] Authority's ridership and revenue forecasts to be reasonable; however, additional updates are necessary to refine the ridership and revenue model for the 2014 business plan,” the report said.