WASHINGTON - With the travel needs of hundreds of thousands of passengers at stake, the Bush administration signaled last night that it would help avert a shutdown this week of the financially ailing Amtrak rail service.
But Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, who was holding an emergency meeting with Amtrak's board, said the two sides had yet to reach an agreement. Amtrak has asked for $200 million in loan guarantees or some other short-term aid to stave off what would be the first complete shutdown in its 31-year history.
"I am confident we will be able to avoid a shutdown," Mineta said during a break in the meeting. "This administration and Amtrak will work together with Congress to make sure that passenger rail service continues."
The transportation secretary and the board members resumed meeting into the night to discuss the options for what Mineta called "an effective solution that will solve Amtrak's financial problems."
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he had heard that Mineta offered a smaller bailout of $120 million.
Mineta indicated yesterday that any bailout would not come without strict conditions. The administration is seeking a vast restructuring of Amtrak that calls for ending federal subsidies, having states pay more of the costs, transferring Amtrak's most popular line on the Northeast Corridor to another company and opening intercity rail service to competition.
"This must be a team effort," Mineta said, calling for help from Congress. "The burden is not on the administration alone to save the rail system from bankruptcy, nor should it be."
Amtrak's new president, David L. Gunn, and its board chairman, John Robert Smith, welcomed Mineta's pledge but warned that it might only delay a disaster for the railroad.
"There has been no reconciliation of the simple fact that Amtrak is running out of cash," they said in a statement, "and no agreement on how to provide a loan guarantee or appropriation that will continue train service to the end of the fiscal year."
A bipartisan group of lawmakers also reacted bitterly. They protested that allowing the railroad to come within days of shutting down has needlessly alarmed thousands of passengers who depend on it - as well as Amtrak's employees.
"I resent that they are playing chicken with a service that is so vital to the nation," Schumer said.
Sen. Thomas R. Carper, a Delaware Democrat, charged that the administration had contributed to Amtrak's current crisis by undermining its ability to borrow the money it needs from private lenders, who fear that it is about to be dismantled.
"The private market isn't going to take this over," Carper said. " ... They couldn't make money on it. That's why Amtrak was created."
Rep. Michael N. Castle, a Delaware Republican, acknowledged that Amtrak has suffered from poor management over its history. But he and others stressed that every other major form of public transportation - including highways, airlines and seaways - is heavily subsidized.
"The administration is asking for $6.8 billion just to check baggage for people going on airlines, " Castle said. "If that's the case, we can afford $1.2 billion [subsidy] next year and $200 million this year to keep rail service going in this country."
The financial alarm was sounded last week when Gunn, Amtrak's president, announced that a review of Amtrak's books showed it was running so short of cash that service might have be stopped by July. He said he needed about $200 million to get through the rest of this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. New federal subsidies are to take effect Oct. 1.
The Senate had already included $55 million for Amtrak in an emergency spending bill, dedicated mostly to the Pentagon and homeland security.
Lawmakers said yesterday that they would try to increase that amount to provide the full $200 million. But they acknowledged that they are unlikely to win approval from the House in time for the legislation to be enacted before Congress adjourns at the end of this week for its Fourth of July recess.
Without speedy action, Gunn has said, he would start canceling train service and directing trains into the storage yards by the middle of this week.
Any shutdown could have a spillover effect, with trains on many commuter rail lines affected. A complete Amtrak shutdown, including the closing of Union Station in Washington, could affect up to 25,000 commuters in the D.C. suburbs of Maryland and Virginia.
Amtrak employees drive, repair and collect tickets on the Virginia Railway Express trains that run into the district from the Virginia suburbs of Fredericksburg and Manassas and on one of the lines run by the Maryland Rail Commuter service.
Two MARC lines - the Brunswick Line in Western Maryland and the Camden Line into downtown Baltimore - would be hindered should Union Station, a major hub for Amtrak, be closed.
Commuters who take the Penn Line from Penn Station in Baltimore would have to be rerouted through some combination of bus, Metro and operational rail service, said Jack Cahalan, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The result could be a crush of commuters packed into a smaller number of routes or onto already jammed highways. It could mean longer commutes. It could also mean that some people might be unable to get to their jobs by train.
Mark Roeber, a spokesman for Virginia Railway Express, said he hoped Congress would see the cost of keeping Amtrak operating as pale compared with what would be lost if thousands of people could no longer make it to work efficiently.
"We believe the economic impact will be far greater than $200 million just in the D.C. metro area," Roeber said.
The current cash crisis is the latest chapter in a troubled history for the 31-year-old passenger rail service, which has long suffered because it is neither totally public nor totally private.
The lawmakers and administrations who oversee Amtrak have often expected it to be profitable and self-supporting, while at the same time insisting that it handle the high costs of providing service to the communities they represent.
Amtrak has been teetering on the edge of insolvency for much of its life. Its most busily used line, in the Northeast Corridor, does not generate enough revenue to pay for its capital costs.
Sun staff writer Julie Hirschfeld Davis and the Associated Press contributed to this article.