Amtrak gets more time

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Amtrak will decide on July 4 whether to begin shutting down if the financially strapped national railroad does not get the $200 million it needs to keep trains rolling, Amtrak's chief executive said Tuesday.

Amtrak CEO David Gunn said the railroad's "cash situation goes critical" on July 4.

If the decision is made to begin shutting down, it would take four days -- until July 8 -- before any service would be cut, he said.

Amtrak would begin its shutdown with commuter lines that rely on access to Amtrak's tracks, he said.

"We did tell commuter agencies that obviously their trains would be clearly shut down. It would be the long distance trains that would take longest to shut down because they're on the road," Gunn said.

He said Amtrak's financial situation is so dire that if no new financing is in place by July 22, "at that point checks would bounce."

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has been working to find the millions Amtrak needs and has expressed confidence that a shutdown can be avoided.

Mineta said, however, that Amtrak, which lost nearly $1.1 billion last year, would not get a bailout without agreeing to long-term reforms.

Gunn said the Bush administration has proposed about $100 million in loan guarantees, along with "self-help" measures to generate the rest of the needed cash.

He confirmed the administration did ask Amtrak whether it was feasible to mortgage Chicago's Union Station, which Amtrak owns. Gunn said he told the administration it was not practical and could not be done in time to solve Amtrak's immediate cash crunch.

Gunn said the administration also asked about other "self-help" measures. "I wouldn't say it was a dry hole. But there wasn't a lot of water in it," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Mineta met with union leaders representing Amtrak workers who said that 23,000 people could be put out of work if the railroad shuts down. Afterward, the labor representatives expressed confidence that Amtrak would keep running.

Union leaders said Mineta offered no specifics on how the Bush administration plans to avert a shutdown. But they said concessions by Amtrak workers were not discussed, despite criticism by some members of Congress that the railroad's labor costs are too high.

"The secretary's exact words to us were that 'labor is not a target,'" said Charlie Moneypenny of the Transport Workers' Union.