U.S. Rail System -- The Ice Train: The Future Of U.S. Passenger Service?

WASHINGTON - As engineer Ed Quinn eases his Amtrak train out of Washington's Union Station, the train starts speaking to him - sternly, in German.

Welcome to the ICE train, the coolest thing going on American rails. On loan from the German federal railway, the ICE - InterCity Express - is making 135 mph runs between Washington and New York, as it competes to reshape the future of Amtrak.

The ICE train brings some European flash and flair to Amtrak as it tries to define a new generation of U.S. passenger trains.

The ICE train's 10-week tryout on the New York-Washington route provides a tempting taste of what rail travel could be, if America really wants it. But if the world's only remaining superpower is to escape its current Third World status in rail passenger service, the government must invest billions of dollars.

The ICE train accelerates quickly and quietly; twin electric locomotives emit a low, musical hum.

But Egon Schneiders, a German railway engineer riding along as a supervisor, is frowning. He doesn't like the bumpiness of the ride - much rougher than he's used to in Germany, where 175 mph is the cruising speed on the ICE train.

America's tracks aren't up to high-speed rail standards, Schneiders complains. "This rail technology is 40 to 45 years behind - and this is the best track in the U.S.," he says.

Therein lies the dilemma and the challenge of bringing America's passenger trains into the 21st Century. Amtrak is trying to invent the future. Government policy on railroads is stuck in the past.

"We at times look like a Third World state, particularly when it comes to rail service," Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., one of Amtrak's congressional champions, said in a recent Senate debate.

Since the nation's railroads dumped their money-losing passenger service in the government's lap in 1971, Amtrak has struggled to maintain a second-rate system subsidized by the taxpayers. It survived the efforts of two Republican administrations to kill it, but its future remains trapped in the federal budget bind.

President Clinton has proposed a modest program to develop high-speed rail service, but Congress hasn't yet authorized it.

Other nations place a much higher priority on good rail service. The European Community recently announced commitment of over $112 billion to expand its intricate system of supertrains. Japan has its bullet trains; Taiwan and Korea are planning new high-speed rail systems.

The first steps toward bringing modern, high-speed train service to this country are under way in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor improvement program. For its Washington-New York-Boston routes, Amtrak plans to buy 26 new trains capable of speeds up to 150 mph. Congress last month appropriated $225 million for 1994 to continue track upgrading and start equipment purchases.

Amtrak is testing the ICE train as one contender. Another is the Swedish X-2000 "tilt-train," tested earlier this year. Amtrak will evaluate passenger reaction before deciding on specifications for its own new trains, which will be built in the U.S.at a cost of more than $450 million.

Riders in the Northeast could see the new Amtrak trains starting in 1997. They will be prototypes of what Amtrak hopes to bring to other high speed corridors - in California, Florida, the Pacific Northwest, and the industrial Midwest - if Congress and state governments can be convinced to make the heavy investment in fast tracks.