Trains' Newswire today had an interesting recap of the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers meeting where there was some discussion about passenger rail. This is a few of the comments.
LOMBARD, Ill. — The Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting is by no means focused on passenger railroading, but there were some notable comments about Amtrak over the course of the two-day event.
“I wasn’t even close to the rail industry in 1970 or 1980,” Oberman said (STB Chairman), “but on the one hand, Congress said, you know, we’re going to do passenger service ourselves. On the other hand, we’re going to pass Staggers [the Staggers Act, a significant step in deregulation] and we’re going to encourage railroads to consolidate, rationalize, and allow them to remove double- and triple-tracking and so forth. But we’re still going to make them run Amtrak on time. So there were a lot of federal policies which didn’t seem to be talking to one another.”
Oberman noted that the “excruciatingly detailed” Gulf Coast hearings — over Amtrak’s efforts to start service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. — displayed the kind of infrastructure deficiencies that make passenger service an issue, and said there would need to be a commitment to address that problem.
“But we also have, for the first time in Amtrak’s history, a $66 billion pot of money aimed at providing to do that. So I think there is reason to be optimistic, if the railroads and Amtrak work together to expand infrastructure as needed where passenger service expansion should happen.”
*********************
*Another view on Amtrak came from Paul Fenton, CEO of shortline operator Patriot Rail, whose resume also includes a stint as CEO of Southern California commuter rail operator Metrolink, as well as time as CEO at short line company OmniTRAX, and stints with Class I railroads Canadian National, Kansas City Southern, and Santa Fe. Fenton’s belief is that Amtrak should operate at a top speed equal to that of intermodal freight trains, rather than the current 79 mph that is the maximum for most passenger trains on host freight railroads.“You realize how hard it is to run a high-density network when you have a train that doesn’t fit your slots?” Fenton said. “
“I don’t think very many people who ride Amtrak across the country are doing it to get there as fast as they can. So we slow it down 10 mph, is it really going to make a difference? Fit the network, first of all. That would change the game a lot.”
********************
Henry Posner III, chairman of Railroad Development Corp. — which has freight and passenger interests in Europe — was asked, based on those experiences, how focusing on passengers can constrain freight operations.
“There needs to be an environment where they can coexist,” Posner said, “but you have to decide what the core business is. In North America, that’s freight.” He suggested that one way to get a good result for both sides is to have separate companies focusing on each aspect: “If you get a company whose sole focus is on passenger service, you’re more likely to get a good result.”
In North America, he said, such private sector companies do exist. “Herzog is a pure private-sector company, as is Brightline, and in both cases, they don’t have a freight business to rely on, and they’re still in business, so they must be doing something. In my view, Brightline is a real-estate company with a train in the basement, which by the way is the Japanese model.”
Herzog — probably better known for construction and maintenance — is a contract operator for operations including Caltrain, Florida’s TriRail, New Mexico Rail Runner, and Trinity Railway Express and TEXRail in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “You can argue they run an intercity service because they operate the commuter train between Dallas and Fort Worth,” Posner said.
(Herzog is doing the construction work for the SunRail extension.)
LOMBARD, Ill. — The Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting is by no means focused on passenger railroading, but there were some notable comments about Amtrak over the course of the two-day event.
“I wasn’t even close to the rail industry in 1970 or 1980,” Oberman said (STB Chairman), “but on the one hand, Congress said, you know, we’re going to do passenger service ourselves. On the other hand, we’re going to pass Staggers [the Staggers Act, a significant step in deregulation] and we’re going to encourage railroads to consolidate, rationalize, and allow them to remove double- and triple-tracking and so forth. But we’re still going to make them run Amtrak on time. So there were a lot of federal policies which didn’t seem to be talking to one another.”
Oberman noted that the “excruciatingly detailed” Gulf Coast hearings — over Amtrak’s efforts to start service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. — displayed the kind of infrastructure deficiencies that make passenger service an issue, and said there would need to be a commitment to address that problem.
“But we also have, for the first time in Amtrak’s history, a $66 billion pot of money aimed at providing to do that. So I think there is reason to be optimistic, if the railroads and Amtrak work together to expand infrastructure as needed where passenger service expansion should happen.”
*********************
*Another view on Amtrak came from Paul Fenton, CEO of shortline operator Patriot Rail, whose resume also includes a stint as CEO of Southern California commuter rail operator Metrolink, as well as time as CEO at short line company OmniTRAX, and stints with Class I railroads Canadian National, Kansas City Southern, and Santa Fe. Fenton’s belief is that Amtrak should operate at a top speed equal to that of intermodal freight trains, rather than the current 79 mph that is the maximum for most passenger trains on host freight railroads.“You realize how hard it is to run a high-density network when you have a train that doesn’t fit your slots?” Fenton said. “
“I don’t think very many people who ride Amtrak across the country are doing it to get there as fast as they can. So we slow it down 10 mph, is it really going to make a difference? Fit the network, first of all. That would change the game a lot.”
********************
Henry Posner III, chairman of Railroad Development Corp. — which has freight and passenger interests in Europe — was asked, based on those experiences, how focusing on passengers can constrain freight operations.
“There needs to be an environment where they can coexist,” Posner said, “but you have to decide what the core business is. In North America, that’s freight.” He suggested that one way to get a good result for both sides is to have separate companies focusing on each aspect: “If you get a company whose sole focus is on passenger service, you’re more likely to get a good result.”
In North America, he said, such private sector companies do exist. “Herzog is a pure private-sector company, as is Brightline, and in both cases, they don’t have a freight business to rely on, and they’re still in business, so they must be doing something. In my view, Brightline is a real-estate company with a train in the basement, which by the way is the Japanese model.”
Herzog — probably better known for construction and maintenance — is a contract operator for operations including Caltrain, Florida’s TriRail, New Mexico Rail Runner, and Trinity Railway Express and TEXRail in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “You can argue they run an intercity service because they operate the commuter train between Dallas and Fort Worth,” Posner said.
(Herzog is doing the construction work for the SunRail extension.)
