Dartmouth students may soon lose the option of taking the train to and from the College if Amtrak follows through on its plan to eliminate the Montrealer train line on April 1.
Despite local efforts to save the train in Vermont, Amtrak maintains it cannot keep the line unless state governments foot the bill.
"If the states want to pick up the costs, we will be willing to listen," Amtrak Public Affairs Spokesman Steven Taub said.
But New Hampshire Transportation Commissioner Charles O'Leary said the train's cancellation seems imminent.
"It's pretty clear to me that Amtrak is in a fairly tenuous situation and could only be convinced if the full operating costs [of the Montrealer] were picked up by the benefiting states," O'Leary said.
"I don't think it likely that all routes Amtrak has decided to cancel can be saved by a ground swell of local initiative unless that ground swell comes cash in hand," he said.
The elimination of the Montrealer, the only train that stops at the White River Junction, Vt. station, is part of a large cutback at Amtrak, aimed at improving its fiscal situation.
The Montrealer, which serves Dartmouth students and Upper Valley residents, connects Montreal, New York City, Philadelphia, Pa. and Washington, D.C.
According to Karen Songhurst, Executive Director of the White River Area Chamber of Commerce, 20,000 people use the White River Junction stop annually. Fifty to 60 percent of those riders are members of the Dartmouth community, she said.
Justin Hart '97, a frequent rider on the Montrealer, said he is upset that the train might be shut down.
"It's horrible. I'm shot down for rides right now," Hart said. "It's a total nuisance for me."
Songhurst has been working with other area chamber of commerce directors all along the Montrealer's route to get Amtrak to keep the train.
Among suggestions to help save the train route is a proposed New Englander train, which would cover much of the Montrealer's current route without entering Canada.
Songhurst said it costs Amtrak almost $1 million to cross the border due to customs inspections and required crew changes.
Saving the train would require the cooperation of the other affected New England states -- Connecticut and Massachusetts --
Vermont Deputy Secretary of Transportation Glenn Gershaneck told The Valley News on Dec. 24.
Vermont would likely be unwilling to shoulder too much of the cost of saving the train, although this decision has to be made by Governor Howard Dean, Gershaneck said.
Not a single Amtrak train line in the United States makes a profit, according to Taub. "We are facing a $250 million cash fallback" nationwide, he said.
Taub said decisions to eliminate routes were strictly financial and not based on the number of riders.
For example, Amtrak is keeping the Adirondack train line, used by 85,293 people in 1994. But, the Montrealer, used by 125,394 people in 1994, costs more to run, Taub said.
The train's elimination will mean financial losses to businesses all along the route, Songhurst said.
"Revenues for the state will go down," she said. "The whole thing snowballs."
And, because railroad tracks require constant maintenance, losing the train now means never getting it back.
"If [maintenance] goes down now, the possibility of getting service back is practically nil," Songhurst said.
Songhurst blames Amtrak for the decline of train service in the region.
Amtrak has "cut down the size of the train considerably. It used to be many more cars and it was always full," she said. "They do almost no marketing at all in this area. Most people don't even know it still runs."
But O'Leary said the decline of rail travel all across America stems from the perception that trains should be inexpensive.
"Frankly, I think it goes to the view that many have in this country, that in order to be viable, rail service has to be cheap," O'Leary said.
"I think [Amtrak President] Thomas Downs understands that because he wants to increase the service and improve the facilities of his high density lines."
