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Earlier this week, Amtrak Vice President of Government Affairs and Corporate Communications Joe McHugh testified before a Congressional field hearing in Chicago on “the need for reliable, multi-year funding” in the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization bill.

“Long-term, sustainable funding is the key, and without it, Amtrak and the whole system will continue to limp along failing to live up to the promise of what we know rail can do for the nation,” McHugh said in his testimony.

Previous federal surface transportation bills largely ignored and did not support the development of intercity passenger rail, he said.

The current surface transportation measure expired in September 2009, but is temporarily extended through Dec. 31, 2010.

From replacing and modernizing Amtrak’s fleet of locomotives and passenger rail cars to creating new high-speed rail corridors, it's crucial to “find a way to bring constancy to our capital funding program,” McHugh said. Without it, “it will be almost impossible for us to truly develop the type of system America deserves in the 21st century,” he said.