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Yesterday, the House Committee on Appropriations' Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee released a draft of its fiscal-year 2012 budget, which would provide zero funding to the High Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) program authorized in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, according to the American High Speed Rail Alliance (AHSRA).

“This recent move follows a similar attack on the HSIPR program originating in the House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee,” AHSRA officials said in a prepared statement. “The House approved a FY2012 Army Corps of Engineers and disaster relief budget that rescinded all the remaining unobligated HSIPR funding from the stimulus.”

AHSRA officials encouraged HSIPR backers to contact their congressmen and ask them to oppose the latest high-speed rail budget-cutting measure.

Meanwhile, Amtrak officials released a statement today stating that the House transportation budget plan would “effectively eliminate all state-supported Amtrak service across the country” for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

The proposal would prohibit the use of federal funds provided to Amtrak to fund any operating costs of state-supported trains.

The plan “penalizes states that have made investments in passenger rail, some of which have contributed toward costs for nearly 40 years,” said Amtrak Chairman Tom Carper.

Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman called the proposal “shortsighted.”

“It will result in the loss of jobs and reverses significant progress made to use passenger rail to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil,” he said.

The proposal comes during a year when the national intercity passenger railroad has served a record number of riders, Amtrak officials noted.

The 15 states that provide state support to Amtrak service are California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

— Julie Sneider