This year, the U.S. Congress must deal with an issue that could have a lasting effect on the United States economy and on the world’s environment. A recent report to Congress by a special commission has made it clear that Amtrak is not economically viable and that something must be done.

Congress can choose a number of paths. It can choose simply to allow Amtrak to disappear and with it the future of passenger rail traffic in the United States. Or Congress could go to the other extreme and decide to maintain Amtrak through a massive infusion of cash, in effect, accepting that the only way to save passenger rail is to provide a permanent federal subsidy. Alternatively, Congress could also decide to assist in the break-up of Amtrak and the sale of its assets to a variety of private corporations which would then try to make passenger rail service a viable business in a competitive market situation.

Whatever choices Congress makes about the future of passenger rail service can only be understood in their historical and legal context. Traditionally, the United States was a leader in the railroad industry. Railroads united the American continent. It was the railroads that fostered eastern emigration to the new western territories. The success of thousands of towns and cities across the nation depended upon the railroads that passed through them. Railroads were, in many respects, the lifeblood of the American economy throughout the 19th and well into the 20th century. What happened to change all this?

Contrary to popular belief, the decline of the railroads in the United States was not simply a function of the free market. Railroads continued to be an important part of our transportation system long after the introduction of the automobile and, indeed, long after the commercialization of air transportation. Until the end of World War II, both intra-city and intercity rail transport flourished in the United States.

But thereafter a steep decline set in. Indeed, it is shocking to realize that it takes longer today on many intercity routes to travel by train than it did in the 1930s. The routes themselves have not changed. Instead, maintenance of tracks has been neglected for so long that trains are limited in how fast they can travel on many popular routes.

The decline of the American rail system is directly attributable to governmental choices made in the 1940s and 1950s. These choices were influenced in part by the growth of the automobile industry and the demand for more and better roads and by the concomitant growth of the air transport industry and the need to finance new and bigger airports.

Another factor which helped to turn government planners against the rail system was the military experience of World War II. Trains were easy targets for precision bombing, since they were tied to rails. Trucks could hide from such perils. Thus, the growth of the interstate road system was, to a large extent, justified by military necessity. There simply was not enough money to fund air, road and rail transport. The railroads were the losers, and government support for the railroads declined enormously and, in fact, the government imposed taxes on rail transport that gave other industries like the airlines a competitive advantage.

The fact of the matter is that what Congress faces today as a crisis in our passenger rail system is a crisis that was created by the federal government 50 years ago. But times and necessities have changed. In fact, railroads have much to offer us today. They are potentially a far cleaner and more efficient form of transport than automobiles. Further, since the deregulation of airlines, many air routes have been cut back or eliminated, a process that has only accelerated since the tragic events of Sept. 11. Many cities and even whole regions of the United States are no longer well served by the airlines.

Congress has an opportunity now to revisit a series of decisions that were made a half century ago and may well have been wrong. Certainly, the military concerns that motivated much of the planning that contributed to the decline of American rail transport have disappeared. Further, in the 1940s and 1950s, government was not concerned with pollution or the greenhouse effect.

What is needed today is a thorough study not simply of whether Amtrak is viable but whether the United States could be well served by a revitalized rail transport system. There are many experts who believe that this could be the case. If so, Congress should take action to ensure that this is accomplished. In the long term, this could well be one of the most important decisions Congress will make in the coming years.

 Mike Hoeflich is a professor in the Kansas University School of Law.