URPA Newsletter

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; August 25, 2011

​

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By William Lindley and J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 1, Number 15

​

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

William Lindley of Scottsdale, Arizona has issued a declaration of victory for the passenger rail world in North America. His compelling commentary:

Gentle Readers,

These past few weeks you have witnessed the beginnings of the new Golden Age of American passenger rail.

Fifty years of negativism on the subject of passenger trains, and the resulting spirit-crushing socialist bureaucracy, are finally crumbling. The codifying document of the disconsolate movement was the April 1959 special issue of TRAINS magazine entitled "Who Shot the Passenger Train?" which saw the symptom of shrinking schedule-books but utterly misunderstood the disease. It called not for making trains more competitive with the new super-highways and jetways, but saw only a world where over-regulation, over-taxation, and inflexible union rules were beyond the ability to change. Indeed, the magazine effectively calls for the demolition of allegedly useless edifices like New York's Pennsylvania Station -- realized only four years later in "a monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance." ("Farewell to Penn Station," The New York Times, October 30, 1963.)

You have seen in the past few weeks here in this space, some of the history of the Northeast Corridor. And you may wonder why -- Why, on God's green Earth, would the Pennsylvania road wish to build an absurdly expensive new station in New York City, which for many years already had the perfectly good Grand Central Station? (That facility became properly known as Grand Central Terminal upon completion of its 1913 rebuild.) And why would the Pennsylvania resort to nearly unproven new technology like underwater railway tunnels, two of them, and a station and connecting tracks requiring the purchase, leveling, and excavation of a huge swath of prime Manhattan real estate?

The answer lies in two seemingly forbidden words: Competition and Profit.

In 1898, the Pennsylvania Railroad derived $14,576,724 in income from its passenger operations, $17,530,769 including mail and express -- 26.67% of the total, with $47,122,172 or 71.67% being from freight. Meanwhile the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad had $16,189,359 or 35.33% of its income -- well over a third -- from passengers, mail, and express. (Source: "Eleventh Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways in the United States for the Year Ending June 30, 1898", Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington DC 1899, page 348.)

The Pennsylvania road was after the passenger business, particularly the high-dollar through passenger; and, in competition with New York Central, the direct and through traffic of mail, express, and freight between the Mid-Atlantic states and New England. Not to mention the free advertising that the imposing grandeur of Pennsylvania Station would inspire.

New York City's grand railway edifices did not descend upon the metropolis as gifts from unseen gods. No, Gentle Reader, one hundred years ago -- as today -- it's all about money. And those evil words, Competition and Profit. The Grand Central and Pennsylvania stations were, to be blunt, temples of commerce. If you wish to read the details, please pick up a copy of "Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels" by Jill Jonnes.

Now, separated from those years by two World Wars, the advent of super-highways, the Jet Age, and the Space Age, and their passing fancies of tail-finned rockets and Cadillacs, we find ourselves fifty further years removed from those technologies' heyday. The glamour of the 707, the Saturn V and the Bel-Air convertible has become the reality of "your papers please," invasive pat-downs, the retirement of the bloated Space Shuttle, and collapsing highway bridges in Minneapolis. All of these have set the stage for America to catch up to what Europe rediscovered two decades ago: Trains make economic, social, and ecological sense.

More passengers are riding trains in Great Britain than ever before, a decade and a half after the railways were privatised. It has not been a perfect process, but the numbers speak for themselves. In France, Veolia - a French company operating buses and passenger trains around the world - has a license to operate passenger trains in competition with SNCF. Germany's DB has undergone privatization starting in 2008. The list goes on.

Here at home, in the past months we have seen Ed Ellis's Saratoga and North Creek Railway, part of the Iowa Pacific Holdings group, begin operation of its privately run passenger train. We have seen Caltrain move to recommend that TransitAmerica Services, not Amtrak, operate that San Francisco peninsula railway. We have seen Florida move to work with Florida East Coast on a new passenger train arrangement. Meanwhile in Boston, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company, not Amtrak, operates MBTA trains. Keolis runs the Virginia commuter trains. New state-sponsored trains in Virginia and Illinois have attracted far more riders than expected. Norfolk Southern has spoken positively about passenger trains from Washington DC to Roanoke and beyond. Even Union Pacific has a good relationship with the Front Runner commuter trains in Utah.

This week I have seen trucks of DB Schenker - Deutsche Bahn's freight subsidiary of the German railroad - all around Phoenix, a city whose buses are operated by Veolia and the American branch of First Group PLC (a British company who operates buses and passenger trains around the world). And speaking of British passenger train operators, the Palm Beach Post today reported that Virgin Trains was also consulted on the Miami passenger train service. Also please consult the website of the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators: There is money to be made, and the eyes and ears of business are open.

Yes, it is at last clear that the new golden age of American passenger trains is upon us; a new age of competition and profit... for the despondent era of "we-can't-do-it" has been broken.

- William Lindley, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

 

___________________________________________________

 

J. Craig Thorpe, noted Amtrak and railroad illustrator is available for all railroads, railroad-related companies, and organizations for his dramatic illustrations on a custom basis. Mr. Thorpe's impressive gallery of work and contacts for engagement may be viewed on his web site, which is listed below.

Useful links for the passenger train world (No new links have been added since the last edition):

www.passengerrail.org – Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators

www.herzogcompanies.com – Herzog Transit Services, Inc.

www.keolis.com – Keolis Rail Services/America

www.railamerica.com – RailAmerica, Inc.

www.ratpdev.com – Ratp Dev

www.veoliatransportation.com – Veolia Transportation

www.spartansolutions.org – Spartan Solutions LLC

www.durangotrain.com – Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

www.cumbrestoltec.com – Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad

www.rockymountaineer.com – Rocky Mountaineer Railtours

www.viarail.ca – VIA Rail Canada

www.tampaunionstation.com – Friends of Tampa (Florida) Union Station

www.larail.com – Private passenger railcars for individual hire in Southern California

www.americanrail.com – American Rail Excursions, Inc.

www.newrivertrain.com – New River Train Excursions/Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society

www.bombardier.com – Bombardier, Inc.

www.hamilton-associates.com – Hamilton & Associates, Inc.

www.iowapacific.com – Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC

www.rhbohannan.net – R.H. Bohannan & Associates, LLC

www.tgaassoc.com – Thompson, Galenson and Associates

www.worldbank.org – World Bank

www.aar.org – Association of American Railroads

www.du.edu/transportation – Intermodal Transportation Institute, University of Denver

www.amtrak.com – Amtrak

www.dot.gov – United States Department of Transportation

www.volpe.dot.gov – Volpe Center

www.fra.dot.gov – Federal Railroad Administration

www.unitedrail.org – United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

www.APRHF.org – American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation

www.azrail.org – Arizona Passenger Rail Association

www.colorail.org – Colorado Rail Passenger Association

www.railpac.org – Rail Passenger Association of California & Nevada

www.fcrprail.org – Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers

www.nmrails.org – Rails, Inc., New Mexico passenger rail advocacy group

www.railvermont.org – Vermont Rail Action Network

www.texasbytrain.org – Texas Coalition

www.texasrailadvocates.org – Texas Rail Advocates

www.TXARP.org – Texas Association of Rail Passengers

www.dot.ca.gov – Caltrans/California Department of Transportation

www.dot.state.fl.us – Florida Department of Transportation

www.dot.state.il.us – Illinois Department of Transportation

www.bytrain.org – North Carolina Department of Transportation, Rail Division

www.virginiadot.org – Virginia Department of Transportation

www.railroaddata.com – Railroad Internet web site information consolidator

www.trainweb.com – Railroad Internet web site information consolidator

www.usa-by-rail.com – Informative route guide paperback book for the Amtrak system

www.jcraigthorpe.com – Noted Amtrak and railroad illustrator and artist J. Craig Thorpe

If you would like to have your company or organization's Internet web site link listed here, submit it for consideration to [email protected]. Inclusion will be at the sole discretion of the publisher, and the publisher reserves the right to exclude any company or organization for any purpose. This list is not intended to be a complete list.

Subscribers to This Week at Amtrak automatically receive a subscription to The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; subscriber lists are maintained simultaneously for both publications, and neither publication can be subscribed to exclusively.

If you are reading someone else's copy of The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail, you can receive your own free copy each edition by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from [email protected]; we are unable to go through any approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than distribution of The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail, This Week at Amtrak, or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe should be addressed to

[email protected]

Copies of The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail and This Week at Amtrak are archived on URPA's web site, www.unitedrail.org and also on www.todaywithjb.blogspot.com where other rail-related writings of Bruce Richardson may also be found.

URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

Jacksonville, Florida USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; September 1, 2011

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 1, Number 16

​

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

It's getting really interesting; a worthwhile, guaranteed-to-be-fascinating ideological battle is brewing in South Florida, and it has nothing to do with hurricane season.

As chronicled in this space on August 24th, The Palm Beach Post has been doing yeoman's work reporting on a momentous turn of events for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, the government agency which oversees and operates Tri-Rail, the commuter rail system which spans three counties between West Palm Beach and Miami.

The Florida Department of Transportation, according to the latest story from The Palm Beach Post, has more than casually been chatting with the executive cadre of the Florida East Coast Railway, with an eye towards "privatizing" Tri-Rail operations.

That's where things are going off the rails, so to speak.

For those in the back of the class who were napping, let's review for a moment.

Tri-Rail is a 70.9 mile long commuter railroad, operating over the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad/CSX tracks in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties in South Florida. Tri-Rail was created in 1988 to help long-suffering commuters commute to and from work in South Florida while the mega-laned Interstate 95 was being widened and enlarged considerably.

The tracks used by Tri-Rail were bought from CSX by the State of Florida, and have since been double tracked the entire length. The route is inland and to the west of the existing right-of-way and tracks of the Florida East Coast Railway, which was the original passenger and freight railroad in South Florida, dating back to the turn of the 20th Century. Because the FEC was there before most of the now big cities of South Florida, such as West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, the cities grew up around the prosperity brought by the tracks. The FEC goes right through the heart of all of the major cities in South Florida.

CSX predecessor Seaboard Air Line Railroad was late coming to South Florida, and arrived in the 1920s during the Florida Land Boom. As a result, the Seaboard built its tracks to the west of the FEC in what is now suburban areas. (As a historical note, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, while a major player in Florida, never built tracks into South Florida, instead relying on its partnership with the FEC to bring its passenger and freight trains into South Florida. This arrangement stayed in place until the violent FEC strike of 1963, which forced the ACL to move its trains onto its own tracks through the middle of the state and onto pending merger partner SAL tracks from Auburndale in Central Florida down to South Florida.)

When the State of Florida was pondering the 1980s widening of I-95, which prompted the creation of Tri-Rail to help alleviate mass congestion resulting from the building process, the state first talked with the FEC about acquiring its line from West Palm Beach south to Miami instead of the parallel CSX line. At that point, the FEC was still an independent railroad and controlled by the Ed Ball/duPont interests, and the word is, not only did it say "no" to the state on any type of deal for Tri-Rail, but would barely return phone calls on the subject.

CSX, which saw not only a bird in the hand, but a great financial opportunity that would be gift that would keep on giving for decades, was happy to cut the deal and have someone else on its line at the extreme end of its system and relegate freight movement to night-time only.

Since the 1980s, the FEC has undergone some changes (And, thanks to those FEC people who provided the most current information). As of just a very few years ago, the FEC is now a part of Fortress Investment Group.

RailAmerica, a well-known railroad short line owner and operator, which used to be headquartered in South Florida, was also bought lock, stock, and switches by Fortress Investment Group, a multi-billion dollar enterprise. The RailAmerica people were moved from South Florida to here in Jacksonville and combined with the FEC folks at a common address. The FEC headquarters, from the beginning of its days under Henry Flagler, had been headquartered in St. Augustine, just 30 miles to the south of Jacksonville.

Now, in 2011, the FEC has a new boss, James Hertwig, a seasoned railroad executive, and he has wisely decoupled the FEC from RailAmerica. Everybody still sits in the same offices, but the FEC has regained its complete independence, and now is just another company owned by Fortress, as is RailAmerica. Looking at the RailAmerica and FEC web sites, it is impossible to tell they are even sister companies. Mr. Hertwig has kept much of the FEC management, but also brought in some new managers, too. Mr. Hertwig removed all RailAmerica logos and other indicators from all FEC documents and collateral materials. He wisely is creating a new sense of belonging and pride among FEC employees and FEC customers.

Okay, now that we have the basis, here's what seems to be the point of irrational discussion in South Florida.

Tri-Rail in 2010 carried an average of just under 10,000 riders a day on its trains. It is a system with a good schedule, good service, and well-planned and placed stations. It looks successful from the outside. But, it is a system running 71 miles in a population area of 5.6 million residents. In 2011, that figure is closer to 14,000 riders a day, most likely due to the spike in gasoline prices. Even at 14,000 riders a day, Tri-Rail is carrying 0.0025% of the local population, an abysmal amount.

The Florida Department of Transportation, which provides an annual funding source for Tri-Rail, comes up with about $30 million annually for the service. Farebox revenue kicks in another $11 million or so, and the three counties together contribute about $13 million for the annual budget.

The Palm Beach Post and other news outlets in South Florida have reported Florida DOT is interested in "privatizing" the Tri-Rail operation because it believes $10 million a year in savings can accrue by a private company running Tri-Rail instead of a government entity.

Kristin Jacobs, a member of the Broward County Commission and the current chairwoman of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (the official agency created by the Florida legislature to oversee and run Tri-Rail), says much of the Tri-Rail operations are already "privatized" by contracting with Veolia Transportation for train operations, and Bombardier Transportation for equipment maintenance. She says the only part of Tri-Rail that is not "privatized" is the administration of the authority. Chairwoman Jacobs says only nine cents of every dollar from every source coming into Tri-Rail goes to administration.

She is loudly opposed to thoughts by the FEC or perhaps any other non-government operator taking over Tri-Rail, including the administration. Apparently, the thought is private industry cannot do as well as big government. She also claims the FEC has never run a passenger train and has no experience in that, even though the FEC operated entire fleets of passenger trains prior to the 1963 strike and is a highly successful freight train operator.

So, let's take a look. For the administration of Tri-Rail, it now takes 104 managers and employees (based on 2010 numbers) to handle just the paperwork and planning for a 71 mile commuter railroad. There are departments with 13 executives, 21 in finance and IT, nine in planning, four in engineering, two in human resources, eight in contracts and procurement, an astounding 19 in marketing, 26 in operations, and two in legal. Public reports say it takes over $18 million a year to support these few people. The annual marketing budget is over $2.3 million.

Of course the FEC, or just about any other private operator can run Tri-Rail on $10 million a year less than it is currently being run on; just the savings from combining many of the Tri-Rail departments, such as planning, engineering and human resources into existing FEC department structures can result in significant savings. And, salaries paid by Tri-Rail must be considerably higher than those in the private sector to create such a giant administrative budget of over $18 million a year for what is essentially a short line railroad.

What we are witnessing in South Florida is a state government which wants to lower costs and still provide a good commuter service, and local, entrenched politicians with their own agendas and a willingness to spend Other People's Money in the form of tax revenues to protect bureaucrats and an unsustainable administrative structure.

Again, no commuter system makes a profit. The nature of a commuter system is it is akin to a public utility, and it has a business model which requires subsidy. However, when you look at Tri-Rail, we find a relatively short system with high costs, low return on investment from marketing efforts, and a microscopic ridership base. It is not unreasonable for its largest funding contributor, the state government, to demand better and more efficiency. If that greater efficiency also makes it possible to provide a spark to eventually more than double the system in size and therefore create a much larger and more sustainable ridership base, then the world is a better place.

To not do anything and keep Tri-Rail the way it is today would be a black eye to any administration in the state capital of Tallahassee.

A new commuter system or similar size to Tri-Rail is currently under construction in Central Florida. The new SunRail system, with perhaps an additional feeder system adding to it from counties not originally considered for the core system, has seven years after it is up and running to find permanent funding other than the state treasury. Local officials have affirmed they plan to do this.

Other cities in Florida, such as Jacksonville and the cities making up the Tampa Bay area on the west coast are all looking at sustainable commuter rail systems. Anything Tri-Rail can do to improve its financial performance will help pave the way for other, new systems in Florida. For Tri-Rail to do nothing but keep its present structure and financial model is not only irresponsible, but an insult to taxpayers who seek reasonable choices other than growing Florida's already large system of super highways.

"Privatizing" Tri-Rail is a misnomer. Awarding a contract for the planning and operation of Tri-Rail is a better choice of phrasing. Seldom can it be proved government does something better than private industry, perhaps except for raising and maintaining a strong military. If the FEC or another bidder can take over the responsibility for Tri-Rail and do it better, stronger, and more cheaply than the entrenched, expensive bureaucrats which run it today, the State of Florida and every responsible taxpayer in Florida should embrace that, and shun the ambitions of officials who were supposed to be elected in South Florida for the betterment of their constituents.

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

___________________________________________________

J. Craig Thorpe, noted Amtrak and railroad illustrator is available for all railroads, railroad-related companies, and organizations for his dramatic illustrations on a custom basis. Mr. Thorpe's impressive gallery of work and contacts for engagement may be viewed on his web site, which is listed below.

Useful links for the passenger train world (New links have been added since the last edition):

www.passengerrail.org – Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators

www.herzogcompanies.com – Herzog Transit Services, Inc.

www.keolis.com – Keolis Rail Services/America

www.railamerica.com – RailAmerica, Inc.

www.fecrwy.com – Florida East Coast Railway

www.ratpdev.com – Ratp Dev

www.veoliatransportation.com – Veolia Transportation

www.spartansolutions.org – Spartan Solutions LLC

www.durangotrain.com – Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

www.cumbrestoltec.com – Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad

www.rockymountaineer.com – Rocky Mountaineer Railtours

www.viarail.ca – VIA Rail Canada

www.tampaunionstation.com – Friends of Tampa (Florida) Union Station

www.larail.com – Private passenger railcars for individual hire in Southern California

www.americanrail.com – American Rail Excursions, Inc.

www.newrivertrain.com – New River Train Excursions/Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society

www.bombardier.com – Bombardier, Inc.

www.hamilton-associates.com – Hamilton & Associates, Inc.

www.iowapacific.com – Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC

www.rhbohannan.net – R.H. Bohannan & Associates, LLC

www.tgaassoc.com – Thompson, Galenson and Associates

www.worldbank.org – World Bank

www.aar.org – Association of American Railroads

www.du.edu/transportation – Intermodal Transportation Institute, University of Denver

www.amtrak.com – Amtrak

www.dot.gov – United States Department of Transportation

www.volpe.dot.gov – Volpe Center

www.fra.dot.gov – Federal Railroad Administration

www.unitedrail.org – United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

www.APRHF.org – American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation

www.azrail.org – Arizona Passenger Rail Association

www.colorail.org – Colorado Rail Passenger Association

www.railpac.org – Rail Passenger Association of California & Nevada

www.swrail.org – Southwest Rail Passenger Association

www.fcrprail.org – Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers

www.nmrails.org – Rails, Inc., New Mexico passenger rail advocacy group

www.railvermont.org – Vermont Rail Action Network

www.texasbytrain.org – Texas Coalition

www.texasrailadvocates.org – Texas Rail Advocates

www.TXARP.org – Texas Association of Rail Passengers

www.dot.ca.gov – Caltrans/California Department of Transportation

www.dot.state.fl.us – Florida Department of Transportation

www.tri-rail.com – South Florida Tri-Rail Commuter Railroad

www.dot.state.il.us – Illinois Department of Transportation

www.bytrain.org – North Carolina Department of Transportation, Rail Division

www.virginiadot.org – Virginia Department of Transportation

www.railroaddata.com – Railroad Internet web site information consolidator

www.trainweb.com – Railroad Internet web site information consolidator

www.usa-by-rail.com – Informative route guide paperback book for the Amtrak system

www.jcraigthorpe.com – Noted Amtrak and railroad illustrator and artist J. Craig Thorpe

If you would like to have your company or organization's Internet web site link listed here, submit it for consideration to [email protected]. Inclusion will be at the sole discretion of the publisher, and the publisher reserves the right to exclude any company or organization for any purpose. This list is not intended to be a complete list.

Subscribers to This Week at Amtrak automatically receive a subscription to The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; subscriber lists are maintained simultaneously for both publications, and neither publication can be subscribed to exclusively.

If you are reading someone else's copy of The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail, you can receive your own free copy each edition by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from [email protected]; we are unable to go through any approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than distribution of The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail, This Week at Amtrak, or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe should be addressed to

[email protected]

Copies of The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail and This Week at Amtrak are archived on URPA's web site, www.unitedrail.org and also on www.todaywithjb.blogspot.com where other rail-related writings of Bruce Richardson may also be found.

URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

Jacksonville, Florida USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; 2011-09-08

​

 

Posted By D.Carleton On September 8, 2011 @ 9:22 am In This Week | Comments Disabled

Volume 8, Number 15

From the Editors…

As sands through the hourglass, so are the history and future of passenger rail in America; unrelenting.

Editors: D & D Carleton

 

The Year Is…"[A]s we all know, events must run their course before becoming history, so that all true history exists only by virtue of its conclusion, and begins its historical career from there." - Anthropologist Germaine Tillion

Contemporary thinking: The belief in that which is, has always been; ergo, shall always be. Any historian worth his or her salt knows that history does not repeat itself, but does rhyme. The way it is is not the way it has always been, nor can we expect things to remain the same perpetually. Only the most indolent of our citizenry is unaware of the rapidly shifting social order now dawning on the national landscape. Therefore, let us return to where we have been in an effort to determine where we are going.*

*This newsletter contains forward-looking statements within the discretion of the prognostic abilities of the writers. Our forward-looking statements involve expectations, projections, goals, forecasts, assumptions, history, and flat-out guesses. The writers may be spot-on or completely out to lunch. Whatever the case, our readers may rest assured we will be there to document it.

The Year Is 1970

Just 245 days after man landed on the moon, the California Zephyr completed its final run on March 22, 1970. The California Zephyr was considered to be the last word in overland travel in America; perhaps the finest conveyance in the world, but now it was gone after a mere 21-year run. For most Americans this was just a passing of the torch, no different from the demise of the stagecoach or the interstate canal network, for the year is 1970; the Interstate Highway System now makes possible national travel on your schedule. Gasoline is a national-average 36 cents per gallon ($2.09 in 2011 dollars). Jobs are plentiful and so are automobiles. The only real limiting factor of mobility is one's endurance.

The long road to this reality has been told to the point of being hackneyed. Following World War II, the nation became flush with largess by virtue of its infrastructure remaining intact. Even though the national treasury was empty as a result of the conflict, billions of dollars were "invented" to send to Europe and Japan to rebuild their societies. As a result, those billions of dollars came back to the United States in the form of orders for the material and machines necessary to rebuild. The American worker was a benefactor of this circular cash, giving the average citizen a buying potential unheard of in previous generations. It was the Federal Government which became the primary beneficiary. All of this national income resulted in higher tax revenues, and politicians were more than eager to spend it. The American population was now on a much more level plane than at any other time in human history. With no end in sight to our newfound avarice, there came experiments in socialization. One of these was the Interstate Highway System. While this was pleasing to the American public, it was a millstone around the neck of the American railroads.

With billions of dollars going to highways and roads during the 1950s and 1960s, railroads politicked and lobbied for some sort of Federal aid. They rightfully eschewed nationalization, but did hope for some funds to invest as a counter to their subsidized competition. Any dreams of subtle aid were dashed on June 21, 1970 with the catastrophic bankruptcy of the Penn Central (Transportation Company). With the proverbial lid now blown off the true railroad condition, it became apparent to all that the situation was dire; no minor injection of public funds could rectify three decades of decline.

Even before the wreck of the Penn Central, another experiment in socialization had started public investment in the Northeast Corridor. In the early 1960s, the cause of improving passenger railroading in the Northeast was championed by Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell. He had no small plans:

"The encouraging news which I bring you today is that there is a strong current of opinion within our federal government that we should go forward with the kind of development which the railroads themselves have not been able to do…there is now a school of opinion that if we are to promote such a development at all, we should not be satisfied with half-way measures limited to existing technology." – Railway Age, October 12, 1964

In keeping with the spirit of the times, the Senator sought to spend the national largess instead of answering the very basic question, Why are the railroads, themselves, not able to make such investment?

By 1970, millions of public dollars had been invested in the Northeast Corridor. With Penn Central now a financial basket case, the Federal Government saw its investment in jeopardy. As early as 1969 there was consideration inside the Beltway as to some Federal involvement in passenger railroading. With the true situation of America's railroads now making headlines, efforts intensified, and President Nixon signed what was then known as the Railpax legislation into law on October 30, 1970. The main reason for doing so was to forestall any more Penn Centrals around the country. Railpax was renamed Amtrak, and began direct operation of a much-rationalized passenger rail network on May 1, 1971. But with other forms of nationalized socialism taking hold around the country, a little more would not hurt, right?

The Year Is 2011

Amtrak has been a reality for 40 years. If you do not believe it, just ask it: http://www.amtrak40th.com/ [2]. Amtrak has published a book, a video, and has even commissioned a train to publicize its four decades' longevity. It has been no small task, and much blood, sweat, and tears have been shed in the process. Even so, there are many larger questions, vastly larger than Amtrak itself, now looming on the horizon.

The seemingly inexhaustible largess of the latter half of the 20th century is gone. The age of avarice is over; the era of austerity now grips us. The question of "The National Debt," and exactly who is responsible for it, is now a subject for debate in every corner store and boardroom. Ultimately, this is all a referendum on what role government plays and what size it needs to be in order to fulfill that role. Everything is out on the table. It is only a matter of time before nationalized passenger rail is under the microscope.

Meanwhile, America's real railroads are no longer financial basket cases. Quite the contrary; railroads are the very model of healthy business. Again, this did not come about without much blood, sweat, and tears. The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 effectively ended a bloated regulatory bureaucracy that lasted about three decades beyond its actual usefulness. Moreover, through the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s, the railroads achieved a truce of sorts with their labor organizations, resulting in a drastically-rationalized workforce. Even so, railroads hold onto their traditional role of biding their time and never forgetting the path which brought them to where they are. Eminent veteran journalist Wes Vernon, when answering the question, Freight Rail: What Recession? notes:

"Highway congestion and skyrocketing gas prices strengthen the logic of converting highway-only freight traffic to intermodal. Of the 14 million domestic truckloads moving 550 miles or more each year within the eastern half of the United States, 35 percent-or 5.1 million-have shifted to the mix of rail and highway. That means about nine million truckloads are ripe for converting to intermodal…

"What that means, in practical terms, is that the trains will likely be shipping more consumer products, from appliances to toys. Heretofore, that had been largely the predominant province of the trucks, while the freight trains primarily focused on bulk commodities such as coal and grain." - Railfan & Railroad, August 2011

The inherent efficiency of a railroad, the thermodynamic efficiency which propelled them to success from their genesis, is once again making them the transportation mode of the future. Unfortunately, such success always comes with its detractors. Special interest groups, specifically utilities reliant upon railroads for shipment of fuels, are actively looking to re-regulate railroads for their own financial relief. The utilities, who answer to multiple state or local agencies for the setting of consumer rates, believe it easier to mandate freight rates down from the Federal level rather than push politically-unpopular higher consumer rates at the local level. Such is the result of socialization of consumer electric rates. Thus far, the railroads have been able to resist such maneuvers to set them back to the era of needless burdensome regulation. But as the era of public cross-subsidization erodes, the search for new sources of subsidy will only intensify. The railroad re-regulation battle is barely out of round one.

Meanwhile, Amtrak touts the number of riders it attracts year over year. It is expected that Amtrak will carry over 30 million passengers in 2011. Gasoline has averaged $3.50 to over $4 per gallon so far this year; for all practical purposes, this is about double the inflation-corrected price of 1970. Even so, Amtrak is a socialized government animal which looks more for "rider-voters" than customers. Even during the days of Senator Pell it was appreciated that the high density population in the Northeast would make subsidizing passenger rail politically palatable. Consequently, Amtrak has concentrated more on achieving ever-higher numbers of rider-voters than it has on efficient business acumen.

Amtrak's formula is very simple: High-density, short-haul/low-revenue corridor trains are touted as the solution for congestion; these attract the highest number of rider-voters/constituent-subsidy. The dilution of long-distance/high-revenue trains by lower-than-historical coach fares destroys any potential meaningful revenue, but is touted as the thread of a "national network." If coach fares were raised in line with what it costs to operate them, and the number of high-revenue cars (sleeping cars) were increased, these trains would have a chance of at least breaking even. But sleepers carry fewer passengers than coaches, thus reducing the number of rider-voters. Also, if this happened, then these trains might be turned over to private operators, and Amtrak would lose its national constituency of rider-voters. Such is the mentality of a government agency, to wit:"We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen!" Governor William J. Le Petomane – Blazing Saddles.

The Year Is 2020

It has been an arduous decade; transition from a guns and butter economy to a guns or butter economy is bittersweet, at best. The American experiment of socialization has ended. The United States was born in defiance of "taxation without representation." The belief that taxes are a necessary evil defines the American ethos; they are evil nonetheless, and as such, should always be minimized. But the largess of the latter half of the 20th century was too tempting to pass by. When said largess ended, we attempted to fill the void by massive borrowing and hoping, praying for another round of national benevolence which never came. Now the bill has come due.

Life in 2020 is much like 1920, if not in form then certainly in function. The public does not travel as much or as far as during the "good times." Due to expanding worldwide demand, the price of transportation fuel is now well over four times the rate of inflation. Efficiency is replacing convenience. The Interstate Highway System is being rationalized in the same manner as the railroads were during the 1970s and 1980s. Automobiles and airplanes are returning to their original positions, as toys for the genuinely rich. Just as the American public adapted to the era of cheap and abundant fuel, so they have adjusted to the era of expensive and scarce fuel seen during the early days of the Industrial Revolution. The technological salvation everyone was counting on did not pan out. Technology uses energy; it does not create energy.

It is no longer 1970. No one is trying to save the passenger train from the guilt of excess. It is no longer 2011. No one is trying to expand the passenger train solely on the basis of an imperious immediacy of political interest. Passenger rail has rebounded due to its inherent efficiency, and it is back in the hands of private industry. Thus, trains are running where they should be, and not where they cannot be justified.

Back to the Present

Saving the passenger train from the oblivion of low ridership is a battle that has been fought, won, and memorialized. Unfortunately, many passenger rail advocates are still fighting the battle to save the California Zephyr from the landscape of 1970. Yet even in today's tight budget debates, no one of any authority is talking about discontinuing passenger trains. Quite to the contrary:

"It is time to deregulate America's passenger rail system, and give intercity passenger rail the same opportunity for success that the freight rail and commercial truck industry have benefited from.

"We must look for more effective and innovative approaches to providing modern and efficient passenger rail service by focusing on projects that make sense, leveraging private sector investment, increasing competition, and opening the door to public-private partnerships." – U.S. Representative Bill Shuster, Chairman of the Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee

It was not too long ago when the call to "reform Amtrak" could be heard around Washington. To those who prefer the status quo, the response was, "Define reform; what do you mean by reform?" Now the focus is shifting from reform toward an orderly dissolving of Amtrak.

For older or retired railroaders, Amtrak's only reason for existence is an "irrational love of trains that would have us run almost empty trains over long distances simply so a foamer can stand out there and watch 'em." Perhaps such reasoning was justified four decades ago. Today it is well documented that those trains, especially those long distance trains, run full. They are sold out weeks before departure. This has not gone unnoticed by the private sector; higher demand means higher revenue potential. Higher revenue should translate into profitability or at the very least break-even. Amtrak, however, as a political animal focuses on "rider-voters" rather than passenger miles. Consequently, it has become the greatest of ironies that the passenger train, which was purported to be saved by Amtrak, now has to be saved from Amtrak.

Also, Amtrak has become an important conduit for tax dollars to flow into the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) pension system (of which all railroaders are members) instead of Social Security. Many of those currently employed by the railroads, as well as the retirees, fear that if Amtrak is fundamentally changed then an adverse effect on railroad retirement will occur. What is not realized is that any new passenger railroad venture established, which may augment or replace Amtrak service, will also have to be under the RRB; eventually making the system stronger, not weaker. There is also the possibility Congress may find another funding conduit for the RRB, other than through in-and-out entries in Amtrak's corporate checkbook.

No, history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. The "good roads" crusades of the 1920s and Interstate Highway program of the 1950s happened after forgetting the lessons of the National Road debacle during the first half of the early 19th century. Now the lessons of railroad regulation/deregulation have been forgotten by many, and the results are negative.

What really is our rail future? It is not ours to see. But whatever happens, we will be writing about it.

 

[NE933]

Amtrak's formula is very simple: High-density, short-haul/low-revenue corridor trains are touted as the solution for congestion; these attract the highest number of rider-voters/constituent-subsidy. The dilution of long-distance/high-revenue trains by lower-than-historical coach fares destroys any potential meaningful revenue, but is touted as the thread of a "national network." If coach fares were raised in line with what it costs to operate them, and the number of high-revenue cars (sleeping cars) were increased, these trains would have a chance of at least breaking even. But sleepers carry fewer passengers than coaches, thus reducing the number of rider-voters. Also, if this happened, then these trains might be turned over to private operators, and Amtrak would lose its national constituency of rider-voters.
...and whatever happens, we will be writing about it...

Well that explains what I'm doing here on a hot Friday night almost 45 years after I was born. But we love Amtrak. Why else would we be writing like this about, belay our being willing flies in it's spider web, paying the prostitute to trap us in it's old coach seats and sleeper rooms, and diner cars that took three decades to be ordered. A look at Amtrak is like a look at a poem. Or a disease. And its cure. Indeed we have made what the NRPC is, even if you were born on Mars and chained to its rocks. Amtrak is our mirror. We are the its mirror.

So please avenge this love me/love me not dance and tell how reduced coach fares is the major contributor to the detriment of U.S. passenger rail, and how we can be served better by math in performing a simple equation by how many underpriced coach seats made the mess we are in now.

There aren't enough coach seats and enough dollars to raise them by that will pay for all that passenger trains incur, without losing patrons. And the reason is the factor of highway and gas subsidy largeess the UPRA acknowledges as being the severest weapon to bring down our trains.

A fast tangent: all of us are voters, so please stop confounding things by declaring the desire to keep Amtrak alive is by pork words only instead of sound economics. To think raising the price of coach and sleeper itself will pay for everything is not sound and it ain't economical. But I can see why some feel that that is the way it works, because it is true that the Sunset NOL to Florida East section was a disastrous Amtrak managerial decision perpetuated by Boardman and others who have handled the matter poorly. But the matter of paying to keep track to 80mph standards and paying to buy enough new equipment so the fleet can be stabilized as in the early 80's is an excercise of spending money, even if private companies had to do it.

Much of Amtrak's original founders and employees have either retired or died, meaning that there are new ones, who will have figured out the answer, the correct balance. Perhaps a new kind of contract between say Amtrak and BNSF to run the Empire Builder. But the massive cost for maintenance and rolling stock, not to mention other beauties like high insurance and real estate, sucker punches Amtrak and the BNSF alike. The only difference is that Amtrak doesn't run 100 car freight trains carrying UPS, coal, and wine grapes, so it doesn't have a source of capital funds.

Once again, the NRPC is far from perfect, and that's coming from me, the love of my life. If me and Amtrak get married, please consider yourself invited. But I also want to do your homework. Amtrak's trains are not there just for foamers to ejaculate to orgasm for that Kodak moment that we gave up graduations, sleep, intimacy, etc. for -- just to see a passenger train. The proof in that is that most known railfan gathering sights are along Amtrak routes that see only one train a day, so if the railroad was the nursling of camera blisterhands, they would abandon Tehachipi Loop for Harrison NJ.

My reason for seranading all of us is that these kinds of divisive fightings will bury us and our trains. The problem is not one or two railroads, not just government, not just citizens. Regular market regulation of capitalism based economics pays for lots of things, but not trains. Not today, not in 2020. Sure changes need to be made, but the over-mis-simplification given in the quote above, from the URPA newsletter, is obscene in its wires getting crossed.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; 2011-09-13

Volume 8, Number 16

From the Editors…

Now that the passenger rail future of Florida is coming into focus, This Week reviews how we got here.

Editors: D & D Carleton

A Tale of Two Rails"High-Speed Rail-you didn't let that stop you…Central Florida got its act together and look at what is happening–SunRail is coming." - U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood at the groundbreaking for SunRail, July 18, 2011

As most of our readers are aware, everyone involved in producing This Week at Amtrak has an inextricable link to the Sunshine State. Obviously, the passenger railroading world does not revolve around Florida. Even so, in a place where our usual entertainment is either watching one of our fellow citizens defend himself in court or watching the foreigners attempt to navigate our roads, our rail on-goings are a welcome change. In just the last year, two projects have been run through the meat grinder known as the court of public opinion. The final outcomes could not have been any different. Up until now, we at This Week have been loathe to mention SunRail and Florida HSR in the same sentence due to the mass perception that a rail is a rail. Therefore, yet again we beg the indulgence of our readers, as we take This Week back home for one more issue. The time has come to make the difference profoundly clear.

A "FOX" By Any Other Name

Florida had been seriously talking about linking some of our largest cities with high-speed trains since the energy crisis of 1973. In April 1982, Florida established a High-Speed Rail Committee to investigate the potential of HSR in the State. At the time, elected officials firmly believed such improvements would be funded by private investment; yet even, then many questions were raised:

"Are sufficient transit infrastructures available (or planned) to feed the rail system? Would tourists, many of whom now come in by car from out of State, switch modes once in Florida? Could other tourists be induced to ride the train with the current cost, service, and convenience factors provided by competing modes? Would private capital be sufficient to cover a project of that magnitude? Are there transportation alternatives that might better meet the State's needs?" – U.S. Passenger Rail Technologies (Washington, D. C.: U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, OTA-STI-222, December 1983).

It was not until the following decade that all of these efforts crystallized into the initiative to be known as the Florida Overland eXpress (FOX):

"Introducing the FOX…a fully integrated 21st century, high speed travel system combining proven European TGV train technology with American engineering, management, and construction expertise to provide Florida with a safe, reliable and environmentally sensitive world class transportation system." – Florida Overland eXpress brochure , 21st Century Travel, May 1996

The undertaking was as grand as the times we were living in. Truth be told, the 1990s were a great time to be alive. The Northeast was in line to get high-speed trains, and it was believed Florida would come in second in this friendly race, which was more than acceptable, since we were starting from scratch.

"Florida Overland eXpress – Initial and Projected Future Routes

​

Our initial route responds to the State's request and will provide service between Miami and Orlando and between Orlando and Tampa. FOX service may eventually be extended into Fort Lauderdale, downtown Orlando, and St. Petersburg. After the main portion of the system is underway, service may also be extended to Jacksonville and then to other parts of Florida." – Florida Overland eXpress brochure, Executive Summary, May 1996

​

With the State of Florida continuing to grow with no abatement in sight, it seemed only natural to enhance State infrastructure to meet future demands. The initial and future route regimen was simple and attainable; and then politics intervened. Within two years, the proposed route map exploded with high-speed routes running amok through every corner of the state. This phantasm along with its bloated price tag was mercifully put out of its misery by then-Governor Bush before the end of 1998, yet this was by no means the end.

What transpired over the next 10 years is what we here refer to as "high-end entertainment." In 2000, the voting public approved an amendment to State constitution, mandating the establishment of a system of high-speed trains. The Florida High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) was created the following year. Although State funds for HSRA were vetoed by the Governor, Federal funds kept it afloat; efforts in planning a system continued. In 2004, the voting public approved a repeal of the high-speed train amendment, but the HSRA continued to meet, and completed the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the route between Tampa and Orlando. Ah, but now there was no more funding, and it seemed all for naught; yet, this is Florida, after all, and nothing is ever as it seems.

In 2009, the clarion call went out all over the land for High-Speed Rail. This call was answered in many corners of the country, but ultimately only two of the responses were close to plausible: California, which had its own long history of pursuing HSR; and Florida, which had its own EIS. As a result, Florida became the front runner for establishing, for the first time in the Western Hemisphere, a true high-speed railroad; even if it was only to be 84 miles long. The overall usability of the line was not the point, but rather the establishment of the ground rules for further HSR around the country.

Unfortunately, this was no longer the 1990s. Those halcyon days were long past, and the pale of a new era was only beginning to be understood by the masses. Florida, especially, was coming to grips with this new era. The 20-year boom era of about 1985 to 2005 had given way to bust and freefall. Most insidious of the boom days were the final few years, where real estate values skyrocketed on speculation, and home builders built houses for buyers who did not yet exist, but who they were sure would come. By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it was plain that the prospective buyers were not coming. Millions of dollars of new building would remain vacant or sell dirt cheap. The last thing the citizenry wanted to hear about was some fancy new fast train that might put it on the hook financially for some indefinite period of time. Hunger will have that kind of affect on people. Consequently, the project went back on the shelf in 2011.

It may sound duplicitous, but the writers were in favor of the FOX back in the 1990s. It was a good idea. It was something we could afford…at the time. Was it perfect? No. It did not serve the downtown areas of the cities it was meant to connect, but the hope was that it could, someday. The Florida HSR of 2009 followed the same basic idea. Why not support it now? There was absolutely no guarantee the monies would ever be available to connect into downtown, let alone extend to South Florida. Although the landscape looks familiar, the reality is that we are in a very different place now. With these changes come shifts in priorities, if not a shift in paradigm. We most certainly have gone from thriving to survival mode, and it looks like we will be here for the duration.

Here Comes the Sun [Rail]

As early as 1989, the possibility of commuter rail had been deliberated in Central Florida. Tri-Rail had begun operation two years earlier, and one proposal was to extend Tri-Rail from South Florida to Tampa and Orlando as a way to connect the state. Soon enough, Tri-Rail was experiencing its own tribulations; thus Central Florida would be on its own, and so was formed the Central Florida Commuter Rail Authority (CFCRA).

In 1992, the CFCRA released its Project Feasibility Report which was all-inclusive of various forms of transit including light rail, commuter rail, and an increased number of buses to facilitate travel in and around the greater Orlando area. The commuter rail component received Federal authorization in 1998 as part of the Central Florida Rail System in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). In 2000, the light-rail portion was scrapped. In 2006 the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and CSX, the owner of the existing track in Orlando, agreed on the purchase of 61.5 miles of track between DeLand and Poinciana. For $432 million, the State gets the right-of-way, and pays CSX to increase capacity on the parallel freight line through Ocala for the anticipated traffic which will now bypass Orlando.

Perhaps it was ignorance; perhaps it was an attempt to curry favor. For whatever reason, FDOT committed a huge blunder in 2008 when it entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Amtrak regarding maintenance of commuter trains at its Sanford Auto Train facility. This would come around to bite FDOT almost two years later.

With the track through Orlando to become property of a State entity, liability for an accident would now be similar to that of any other public-owned conveyance: Limited. Such capped liability would also extend to CSX and the few freight trains that would be left. This did not sit well with many, and CSX ultimately agreed to shoulder "some of the cost of the state purchasing a liability policy. We wanted to help with them buying the type of policy they would need" and "we're doing a similar thing up in Massachusetts where there were similar concerns about the liability issue. As a matter of fact, what we're doing in Massachusetts and Florida is identical." – interview with CSX CEO Mike Ward, Florida Times-Union, December 16, 2009

It did seem the whole thing might come to naught in 2009. The Great Recession hit central Florida rather hard, and many questioned the wisdom of spending scarce State cash on trains. Through two sessions of the State Senate, funding for commuter rail, now known as SunRail, was not forthcoming. But remember, this is Florida and nothing is ever as it seems. For the first and last time, an overt tie was made between commuter rail and high-speed rail. The Feds told the State that if the millions of dollars made available for commuter trains were not claimed, then the State could forget the billions of dollars made available for HSR. In an amazing turnaround, the State Senate met in a special session and passed the SunRail legislation.

Since its inception in 1971, Amtrak has carried it own indemnification for its operations over the tracks of other railroads. Even if Amtrak experienced an accident that was completely the fault of the host railroad, Amtrak would still be responsible for settlement. So it was something of a shock (even for those of us in Florida) when Amtrak claimed, in January of 2010, that FDOT was in violation of their MOU. Despite carrying its own indemnification, it pushed for an arrangement similar to that of CSX. For whatever reason, Amtrak believed it had a stake in the game because of a 1999 agreement with CSX regarding the long-distance passenger trains that run through what was to become State-owned property. Amtrak was deluded enough to believe it held the authority to scuttle the deal. At best, if Amtrak did not wish to recognize State ownership, at jeopardy were the two long-distance trains and the Auto Train which runs North out of Sanford. This was tantamount to sticking a gun to one's own head and demanding "Do as I say or I'll shoot."

It took almost all year, but in December of 2010 Amtrak dropped its opposition to SunRail following an hour-long meeting in the office of U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, with soon-to-be-Chairman of the Transportation Committee, Florida's own U.S. Representative John Mica, in attendance. Following this calibration, Amtrak issued a statement saying it had "long supported the SunRail project." Hopefully, going forward, FDOT and SunRail will appreciate that they had best do without Amtrak's support.

Of course, the rest is history. On January 28, 2011, newly-elected Governor Rick Scott put SunRail on hold in order to review the project. On February 26, 2011, he cancelled Florida HSR, citing concerns over possible future operating costs. Then came July 1, 2011, and the official go-ahead for SunRail followed by the official "ground breaking" on the property of Florida Hospital. The caterers expected 300 to attend, but there were at least 400. There was one protester, who did succeed in attaining his fifteen minutes of fame.

Many pundits believed the Governor would ax SunRail, since in their eyes all rails are created equal. State supporters of HSR mounted rallies and campaigns to stop SunRail. (Most people did not notice, since the airways were saturated with the trial of one of our denizens who was found guilty of parental antipathy which, as it turns out, is not a crime.) Five days before the governor's decision, what can only be described as an embarrassment of journalism proffered by a will-write-for-food reporter appeared in the New York Times. Although starting off with "Here in sun-parched Central Florida," the author obviously had no clue what Floridians are really about, as evidenced by describing SunRail in these terms: "It will not link to the Orlando airport or Disney World, among the region's biggest traffic generators." This is a slap in the face to those of us who actually live here, and the Grey Lady owes us an apology for printing such tripe.

SunRail is not purposed for the tourists, but rather for the locals. The New York Times made no mention of Florida Hospital or Orlando Regional Medical Center, two of the biggest employers and traffic generators in the City of Orlando. Their master plans; not their plans for future development, but their actual master plans as filed to the governments per State law; are contingent on SunRail. For example, a Florida Hospital station is to be provided by Florida Hospital according to its master plan, and Florida Hospital has already provided the infrastructure for it. During the ground breaking, the hospital announced the impending construction of a new administration building to be sited next to the future station site. This is a case where it will not be feasible to just deny the commuter train and build a road, instead. The whole "Medical City" concept will have to be reconsidered, with much of it already in the ground.

Unfortunately, with all this "rail" talk, the lines blurred. Most media outlets cannot tell the difference, with one even referring to "high-speed commuter rail." Florida HSR did do some good in that it prompted enough elected non-stake holders outside the Orlando area to vote in favor of SunRail. Ultimately, Florida HSR failed because it was the purview of out-of-state interests who, once it served its purpose of setting the new standards for domestic HSR, could easily walk away, leaving it to the locals. The questions raised nearly 30 years earlier are still pertinent and remain inadequately answered. SunRail succeeded because it is from the locals. Local stakeholders understand it will have cascading benefits on other local interests such as engineering and construction companies, all of which are eager for work in our recession-ravaged state. The locals also understand that this is their baby, for which they will be responsible. Yes, Mr. Secretary, we did get our act together. SunRail is (finally) happening.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak

Companion Publication to The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail

By D&D Carleton

Volume 8, Number 17

October 14, 2011

A digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

 

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

 

Jacksonville, Florida USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

​

From the Editors…

A recent op-ed piece by a conservative former New England Senator has only succeeded in distorting the reality of passenger trains. The lesson learned? Quote Amtrak's numbers at your own risk.

Amtrak? A crazy train? Surely you jest, Senator

"T[he] passenger train is moribund. The heart still beats, but the brain waves are still; and those of us who loved it gather about the deathbed, either to propose euthanasia, to advocate a peaceful natural end, or to seek a heart transplant (in the form of a subsidy) in one last desperate try to prolong life. The time for the obituary is not far off, probably no later than 1975, whatever the physicians may elect to do." - George W. Hilton, Introduction to the reprint of Passenger Terminals and Trains, July 21, 1968

It is almost hard to believe that it has been 43 years since the above was written. To the casually informed, it would appear the "heart transplant" was the chosen remedy in 1971, when saving the American passenger train. It turns out, however, that a mere "subsidy" hardly explains the history of the last 40 years. Instead of subsidizing the railroads which ran passenger trains, the powers that be opted to add them, in the form of Amtrak, to the list of government social welfare programs. With access to the public money trough and without the discipline of veteran railroad managers comes the lack of accountability to the bottom line. This has not gone unnoticed by a few; in particular, a politician from New Hampshire.

John Edward Sununu served his constituents proudly for a dozen years, first as a three-term member of the U.S. House of Representative and then one term in the U.S. Senate. He holds an impressive array of educational certificates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Unfortunately, with the populist purge that was the election of 2008, Senator Sununu found himself out of a job. Since then, His Honor has kept himself busy doing those things that sidelined politicians do, which include but are not limited to: Joining a law firm and/or board of directors, teaching college classes, shaping public policy, and writing the occasional op-ed piece.

It is this latter avocation which recently caught our attention. In an op-ed entitled "Off the rails on Amtrak's crazy train" which ran this past Labor Day in the Boston Globe the Senator started off with:

"OZZY OSBOURNE never rode the Zephyr, but he did popularize the notion of a crazy train."

We at This Week at Amtrak cannot confirm whether or not Mr. Osbourne has ever been a patron of Amtrak, nor did we realize the Senator's appreciation for heavy metal rock and roll. Even so, he did succeed in gaining our attention. After citing the horrific events of August 26, wherein a passenger train derailed after striking an illegally-positioned industrial crane, he proceeded to castigate everyone's favorite bailiwick: The long-distance passenger train.

"Along with a dozen other long-distance routes, the Zephyr has been losing money hand over fist since 1970 [sic], when the government-owned passenger rail system was created. Insanity, we are told, is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result."

It is a tune we have all heard before here at This Week; granted, without the electric guitar. Last time it was covered by someone much closer to the source:

"It's the long-distance trains…They're all unprofitable." -Amtrak President Joe Boardman, May 17, 2011, explaining to the U.S. Senate why higher ridership has resulted in higher losses

It is the same song-and-dance we have been accustomed to for the last four decades. Amtrak in effect tells Congress, "Your constituents ride trains. We run trains. Keep giving us money so they may continue to ride." This is all well and good so long as no one takes any of what Amtrak has to say seriously. Therefore, it is rather disturbing to read Senator Sununu doing just that:

"Amid a budget crisis and the US debt downgrade, the Congressional Special Deficit Committee is looking for $1.5 trillion in budget savings over the next 10 years. There's no better place to start than long-distance train routes, which lose more money today than ever - despite years of endless promises, watered-down reforms, and rosy predictions. These routes represent the triumph of politics over common sense - the very attitude that must be overcome to restore some semblance of order to the federal budget."

To the above we must confess, the Senator is correct. The long-distance trains do lose money, by some reckonings, and very much embody the attitude of "politics over common sense." Also true is the supposition on insanity, that is, "doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result." The Senator makes note of the "years of endless promises, watered-down reforms, and rosy predictions" but also adds, "Throughout the 1990s, three successive Amtrak presidents claimed the company was on the path to profitability. Tweaks have been made to everything from retirement packages to food service with no change to the river of red ink." The Senator is merely hoisting Amtrak with its own petard. Is there any way it is not deserving of this fate?

But the real question is, is it the doing of the same thing -- or the ones doing the same thing over and over again -- which are insane? Today's long-distance train is vastly different in form if not function from anything with which Professor Hilton was acquainted. The modern diesel locomotives and train electrical systems have greatly enhanced overall efficiency. The reservation system is computerized. The overall number of people needed to operate the train has decreased. Moreover, railroads have always been the most thermodynamically efficient method for overland transportation, even back at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Today's offerings often sell out, sleepers even more so than coaches, and do so at sometimes astonishingly high prices, to boot. Load factors on the long hauls are often twice those of the short regional corridors (including the sacred Northeast Corridor), suggesting strongly that, if anything, Amtrak is rather underinvested in its long-distance services. In light of all these advances, how could these trains still lose money? Amtrak found a way.

Charity begins in…Washington?

Some of the iconic names of the long-distance trains may be the same; some of the routes may be similar; but this is where the similarities end. The glamour and prestige associated with those names has faded into the one-size-fits-all socialist hegemony which befits the residue of all Great Society undertakings. The word "Pullman" has no bearing in today's world of passenger railroading. In fact the majority of space offered on these long-distance trains is coach class. Before and during Amtrak's early years, the balance of coach space to sleeping car space was close to even. Not so, now; and that is not all that has become uneven.

In 1968, three years before Amtrak, one-way coach fare between Chicago and Washington, D.C. would have been $34.25. Corrected to 2011 dollars, this is $222.96. In that same year the same class of service between Chicago and Memphis was $19.47; $126.75 in 2011. For coach between Richmond, Virginia and Savannah, Georgia, $16.91; $110.08 in 2011.

These journeys are still possible in 2011, and at a bargain price. One-way coach fare between Chicago and Washington, D.C. is $111.00. This is 49% of the inflation-corrected fare of 1968. Today's one-way coach fare between Chicago and Memphis is $95.00, or 75% of the 1968 fare. Coach between Richmond and Savannah, at $84.00, is 76% of the fare from 43 years ago.

Granted, there are efficiencies from the use of modern equipment on these trains which may result in savings, and which may be passed on to the consumer; however, does this justify the levying of fares up to half of what the private railroads were charging? Some pundits rationalize the discrepancy in these fares by noting that fewer would ride coach if the fares were any higher than what they are currently. A major drawback resulting from the artificially-low coach fares is the appearance of dramatic deltas between coach and sleeper fares. Sleeping car fares are about the same as back then, when corrected for inflation.

Well then, why are coach fares so low? Is Amtrak a charity, subsidizing transportation to the nation's interior? If this be the case, then so be it. Whenever Amtrak brass is before Congress and the subject of long-distance train losses comes up, then this charity should be explained. None of us here are against charity and aiding our fellow man. Amtrak, however, is not a charity. It was instituted as a for-profit corporation. It may never yield dollar one in profit, but this is no reason not to operate as a business.

As a contemporary hypothetical, let us say one books a trip this coming November from Chicago to Denver. This hypothetical train, however, has only two Superliners: One standard 74-seat coach and one standard sleeping car. Standard coach fare is $106. A bedroom for two adults is $1143, a roomette for two is $451, and the family room for four is $1073. If every seat is full and every berth is taken, then the yield from the coach is $7844; but the sleeper would be $13,553. A sleeper brings in almost double that of a coach. How could Amtrak lose money on this proposition? The long-distance trains are the only class of trains to have uninterrupted growth for the last four years, even during 2009 when all other classes dropped. Simply put, Amtrak cannot offer what it does not have. Whereas there were many coaches "laying around" and available to return to service, Amtrak does not have a surplus of sleeping cars which could be rebuilt and utilized. There are some new sleepers on order for the Eastern trains, but nothing thus far for the West; meaning Amtrak's plans for the future are anemic, at best.

Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008

If passenger trains were run like a real business, coach fares would be raised at a minimum to the equivalent of pre-Amtrak levels. This would drop coach patronage and allow for the removal of some equipment from the train. More sleeping cars could then be added. Couple all this with the aforementioned advances in efficiency, and the result should be lower losses and a possibility of breaking even.

This is a reality not lost on just passenger train advocates. Three years ago, some enlightened folks in Washington passed some legislation aimed at improving the lot of the American passenger train. To them, it is obvious that Amtrak is not the answer. Specifically, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA), section 214, Alternate passenger rail service pilot program, calls for other entities "to petition the Administration to be considered as a passenger rail service provider over that route in lieu of Amtrak." On September 7, 2011 the "Notice of proposed rulemaking" outlining the process for other operators was entered into the Federal Register.

There is one very salient fact that all but the enlightened acknowledge: People are riding passenger trains again. It is no longer 1968, and the public is no longer setting its sights on the moon. It is no secret that the airlines have cut everything to the bone and are still struggling to make a profit. People are driving less and consuming even less gasoline, leaving the Highway trust fund inadequate for the level of capital improvement necessary to remain viable. Moreover, as the bowl of spaghetti that is the subsidization and cross-subsidization of social welfare programs unravels, the true cost of normal everyday institutions will be laid bare for all to see. This will be especially true of transportation. In other parts of the world where this decoupling has occurred, the out-of-pocket cost for transportation has risen in absence or reduction of public subsidy. This has resulted in fond reminiscence of the "good old days" of nationalized railways, even though it was never a sustainable arrangement in the long term.

Unfortunately, old habits die hard. The "junk science" that has defined passenger trains for over a half century still hangs in the air like the stench and smoke of an exhausted forest fire. Any railroader worth his salt knows the real money is made in the long-haul, both freight and passenger. For too long the long-distance passenger train has had to get by with scraps, while real demand is left abandoned at the station. All would do well to ignore said "junk science" and look to a future where non-public entities operate and maintain passenger trains well away from the public coffers. Otherwise, one may find himself described by the sage John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne: "I've listened to preachers. I've listened to fools. I've watched all the dropouts, Who make their own rules. One person conditioned to rule and control. The media sells it and you live the role." - Crazy Train

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak

Companion Publication to The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail

By D&D Carleton

Volume 8, Number 18

October 24, 2011

A digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

​

From the Editors…

For every action there is a reaction. Sometimes, however, inaction evokes a reaction.

He who hesitates loses

"Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" - Chicolini, a.k.a. Chico Marx, Duck Soup, 1933

If one were to take the word of Amtrak at face value, and there are quite a few who still do, one might conclude the sky is falling -- at the behest of the U.S. House of Representatives. At least, that is the gist of an Amtrak news release from September 8, 2011. Therefore, for the benefit of our readers, here is the full text of said release:

HOUSE REPUBLICAN BUDGET PLAN WILL ELIMINATE ALL STATE-SUPPORTED AMTRAK SERVICE

WASHINGTON – Despite record-breaking Amtrak ridership and strong support for intercity passenger rail by 15 states, the House Republican transportation budget plan will effectively eliminate all state-supported Amtrak service across the country for the fiscal year beginning October 1.

The FY 2012 Transportation-HUD House Appropriations Subcommittee budget proposal offered by the Majority prohibits the use of federal funds provided to Amtrak to fund any operating costs of state-supported trains. If enacted by the full Congress, it will eliminate nearly 150 weekday state-supported trains and negatively impact the more than nine million passengers who ride those trains each year and the communities they live in.

"The House Republican plan is shortsighted and is the wrong policy for America," said Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman. "It will result in the loss of jobs and reverses significant progress made to use passenger rail to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil."

"The GOP plan penalizes states that have made investments in passenger rail, some of which have contributed toward costs for nearly 40 years," said Amtrak board chairman Tom Carper. "It kills an engine of local and regional economic growth much needed today, harms the future economic vitality of the nation and is unnecessary."

Under legislation passed by Congress in 2008, Amtrak is working cooperatively with its state partners to develop a common methodology to share more of the operating and capital costs of state-supported trains with the states.

"The Republican proposal forces an unwelcome decision on states who clearly want to preserve and expand passenger rail service," Carper stated.

The 15 states which provide state-supported Amtrak service are: California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

What is being referred to is the proposed budget submitted by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 7, 2011:

"A BILL making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012, and for other purposes."

Specifically, under the section titled "Operating subsidy grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation" is the offending language:

"Provided further, that notwithstanding the provisions of section 209 of Division B of Public Law 110-432, or any other provision of law, none of these funds may be used to fund operating expenses for state-supported routes…"

Just to be clear, "notwithstanding" is defined as "in spite of; without being opposed or prevented by."

For regular readers of This Week at Amtrak, Public Law 110-432 may sound familiar. Most people know this by its common name, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA). Section 209 of PRIIA, "State -Supported Routes," was covered in our July 10, 2011 issue. By way of review, section 209 reads, in part:

"Within 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Amtrak Board of Directors, in consultation with the Secretary, the governors of each relevant State, and the Mayor of the District of Columbia, or entities representing those officials, shall develop and implement a single, nationwide standardized methodology for establishing and allocating the operating and capital costs among the States and Amtrak associated with trains operated on each of the routes…"(Bolding has been added.)

As already discussed this did not come to pass by the due date of October 16, 2010; so what was to happen next?

"If Amtrak and the States (including the District of Columbia) in which Amtrak operates such routes do not voluntarily adopt and implement the methodology developed under subsection (a) in allocating costs and determining compensation for the provision of service in accordance with the date established therein, the Surface Transportation Board shall determine the appropriate methodology required under subsection (a) for such services in accordance with the procedures and procedural schedule applicable to a proceeding under section 24904© of title 49, United States Code, and require the full implementation of this methodology with regards to the provision of such service within 1 year after the Board's determination of the appropriate methodology."

For those who are just joining us, NONE of the above legislated actions have been completed. Amtrak and those locally appointed to enter the defined negotiations are in violation of Federal Law. What is the penalty for noncompliance with Federal Law?

Amtrak currently has contracts with over a dozen states to operate these local services. The language of these disparate agreements is quite literally all over the map, with some States' payout significantly less than others for like services. Amtrak prefers this status quo, as this enables it to extract the maximum rent from individual State treasuries and gives it the ability to play one against another. Moreover, were such a methodology and its basis negotiated and agreed upon then Amtrak would be locked into a rate structure set in stone. When, not if, when outside agencies begin to bid on some state sponsored routes the new potential operator could quote a lower rate with the justification to prove it. Is it any wonder Amtrak is dragging its feet?The parties involved had until last year to hammer out "a single, nationwide standardized methodology for establishing and allocating the operating and capital costs among the States and Amtrak associated with trains operated on each of the routes." The U.S. House has now gently prodded the States and Amtrak to get going.

Amtrak could have sheepishly acknowledged its intransigence and forged ahead with negotiations, albeit tardy, as per the law. Instead, Amtrak has fanned the flames of the faithful and claimed the role of the wronged. Amtrak has ratcheted up the rhetoric, ignored its inability to follow Federal Law, and predicted the outcome, to be a "result in the loss of jobs and reverses significant progress made to use passenger rail to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil." Since when has unemployment and dependence on foreign oil been a result of following the law?

Amtrak and its supporters truly see domestic passenger railroading as a cause célèbre; something that transcends all law, whether it be codified or supply and demand. Perhaps this was necessary at one time. But passenger trains are no longer cowering in the alley darkness; oppressed, misunderstood, and awaiting a savior. People want to ride these things again, and are willing to buy a ticket. Successful enterprises need no savior. So long as passenger trains are kept in that middle niche of the collective consciousness, not too small so as to be ignored and not too big so as to garner full National attention, then they will never amount to any more than a novelty of transportation in this country. Sadly this situation satisfactorily suits some with entrenched interests, the public be damned.

Amtrak receives lots of funding from gullible government sponsors, State and Federal, commuter and corridor. It spends its subsidies pretty much where and how it chooses, yet no one is really in a position (like shareholders in a publicly-traded business) to hold management accountable for the results of its investments. The result of this lack of serious, consistent accountability--the persistent sense on the part of management, as well as labor, of overwhelming entitlement--brings about the constant repetition of ruinous financial adventures based on largely political rather than market-driven strategies.

Amtrak is reliant on the ignorance of its supporters to not read the fine print; and certainly not to pour over page after page of the Federal Register to delve deeply into the actual nuts and bolts of how the system really works. Amtrak has depended on friendly journalism to imbibe its take on matters, and then regurgitate the "facts" to the faithful, who accept it as truth. Will Amtrak get away with it again this time? Time will tell.

Even so, regardless of these political shell games, and regardless of the political convictions of all sides of the argument, there are much larger realities looming on the immediate horizon. The Federal Deficit is very real and has to be reckoned with. The powers that be are tasked with bringing expenditures under control. The simple reality is that if Amtrak had followed the edicts as laid out in PRIIA then the none-too-subtle reminder in the House Budget Proposal would have been unnecessary. Amtrak continues to exist within the era of its origin, the Great Society era of bureaucracy, bottomless government funds, and national largess. The present and future realities are those of austerity and efficiency. Since Amtrak is the antithesis of austerity and efficiency, then it is highly unlikely to play a part in the future reality.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; 2011-11-01

​

By J. Bruce Richardson

​

Volume 1, Number 17

​

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

There is a nice man in New Orleans by the name of John Sita, Jr. who follows in his father's honorable footsteps in his admiration for passenger trains. Mr. Sita, Jr. does something wonderful for many of us by sharing his passion for passenger train photography and compiling the best of current and historic passenger train photos and then providing them to us daily. He puts a lot of time and energy into what he does, and it shows. Many of us are thankful to him for his efforts. He seeks no compensation or praise, but has the satisfaction of a job well done.

Through the years, there have been more than a few This Week at Amtrak and now Business and Politics of Passenger Rail columns inspired by one of the photos generously shared by Mr. Sita.

Looking at the various photos, one can come to many conclusions, of which more than a few apply to the upcoming new generation of passenger train operators.

We're working on a second full generation of adults who have never known anything in the United States other than Amtrak, and never had the full impact of the colorful and myriad railroads which provided passenger train service.

The first thing you notice about pre-Amtrak passenger trains is each railroad had a personality expressed through paint and color schemes, types of cars operated, and general spit and polish. For all of the uniformity of the Pullman Company through the decades, you still knew whether you were in a Pullman car on one of Union Pacific Railroads's striking Armour Yellow streamliners, or a stainless steel consist of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad with a purple letterboard on the side of its passenger cars.

Much of the railroad personality through color schemes was a direct result of making the switch from steam locomotives to diesel electric locomotives. The diesel locomotive builders all had design departments which created color and design schemes for new locomotives. Any color anyone could think of was used, and used to good purpose.

Car manufacturers Budd and Pullman followed suit with striking passenger car paint schemes.

Think of the instantly recognized Tuscan Red of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which styled itself as the Standard Railroad of the World. The Pennsylvania used famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy in the heyday of the 20th Century, but he understood the importance of the railroad's signature color. (Many people don't know that in 1962, he designed the exterior color scheme for Air Force One; a variation of that design is still used today.)

Rival New York Central was known for its muted two-tone gray paint scheme; displaying panache and subtlety simultaneously. Not to be outdone by the Pennsylvania, NYC used famed designer Henry Dreyfuss to create its celebrated image.

The Baltimore Ohio showed great dignity with blue, gray, and gold.

The Chesapeake and Ohio owned a pleasant combination of yellow and dark blue, with gray tones, too.

The Northern Pacific Railroad, perhaps the classiest operation west of the Mississippi River, sported two tones of a pleasing green, with a dash of red in its logo. Nothing was more impressive than a consist of the North Coast Limited or the Mainstreeter.

Competitor Great Northern was a delighting combination of oranges and deep greens.

Nothing outshone Southern Pacific's ultra classy Coast Daylight, complete with reds and oranges from the front of the streamlined steam locomotive all the way to the end of the round end observation car. It was nothing short of moving art.

Every reader of this space will have their own favorites; there were just too many to mention here, but, we know they were there.

Those were the days when railroads were serious about the passenger business, before the intrusions of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and the Boeing 707.

As late as 1964, there were over 5,000 passenger railroad cars operating in the United States, Today, Amtrak operates 1,500 pieces of passenger equipment, plus baggage cars and locomotives.

As the evidence grows almost daily of the new wave of private passenger operators in the United States to challenge Amtrak and the status quo for both corridor and long distance trains, perhaps we will see a return of the pride once displayed in the presentation of passenger trains.

The railroads understood their mission wasn't just to operate trains, but to try and make money from the exercise. There were no annual government hand-outs from Congress to prop them up, and stockholders held management accountable.

So, we saw things like named passenger train services advertised on the side of boxcars. We saw a pride in stations. We saw trains with clean windows.

It wasn't until the last, grimy days of the end of the 1960s when things really began to go downhill. By the time the Pullman Company was gone just multiple months before the beginning of Amtrak, the railroads were visibly displaying why AT THAT PARTICULAR POINT IN HISTORY many of them wanted out of the passenger business.

Telling photos show relatively short branch line or local/all stops long distance trains with what appears to be much more than needed motive power on the front end, such as two locomotives or an "A" and "B" unit both pulling a four or five car train.

These early diesel brutes of locomotives were not underpowered for their day; they were simply just wearing out, and trainmasters were taking no chances their rail lines would be fouled because a locomotive broke down somewhere 12 miles past the middle of nowhere.

First glance at photos makes you think, "well, maybe they were just doing power redistributions, and lashing a lot of locomotives together to conveniently move them from one terminal to another." That holds true, but, over a long term, and, looking at dates on photos, it becomes clear there was a far greater concern for the train getting over the road from terminal to terminal than moving power around.

Also, looking closely at many of the locomotives in the 1960s; they were just simply wearing out. Even when Seaboard Coast Line which was created by the merger of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967 was slapping fresh paint on its merged locomotive fleet, you couldn't escape noticing they were painting over a lot of scrapes, dents, and road abuse that can only happen through frequent and long use. Other railroads were simplifying their locomotive paint schemes to single colors with little or no fanfare it was the Earl Scheib of paint jobs for the locomotives instead of the more expensive, complex paint schemes.

Those first "rainbow" years of Amtrak, when individual railroad fleets were merged into national fleets, and Union Pacific cars were showing up on New York to Florida trains, and Florida train round end observation cars were operating between New Orleans and Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited, showed the daunting task Amtrak had in assembling a useable fleet of equipment. The big boys, such as the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, Seaboard Coast Line, and Penn Central had pretty well maintained fleets of equipment. The smaller roads which joined Amtrak has less stellar equipment rosters to contribute, and it showed.

Some of that equipment survives today on Amtrak, 40 years after the railroads had figured it was wearing out and soon needed to be replaced. Surviving diners and baggage cars still roam Amtrak routes, and the occasional odd car here and there such as the full length dome car which normally runs on Amtrak's Pacific Surfliners in California much of the year and moves to the Adirondack route in New York State in the fall for the changing of the leaves.

The surviving equipment is almost exclusively Budd equipment because its method of car building in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s used a particular type of steel and welding process different from Pullman Company cars. While sadly many of the Pullman cars deteriorated beyond use, the Budd cars keep rolling down the road.

VIA Rail Canada has vividly demonstrated how to maintain and improve a fleet of stainless steel passenger cars over half a century old, and is still both desirable and practical for daily use.

By the beginning of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, there were lots of considerations for railroad managers and bean counters. Equipment was wearing out; it would take tens of millions of dollars, even in 1971 dollars, to refleet. Stations were mostly older and not in the best parts of town. Huge railroad cathedrals dotted medium and large cities, built for tens of dozens of trains a day, not one or two frequencies. The tax man on all levels was looking at the allegedly deep pockets of the railroads as a ready source of cash, never mind how sick the goose was that was laying the golden eggs.

And, the country was changing. The first social upheavals took place in the 1960s (most railroaders of the day never could understand the allure of "those long haired hippies, like the Beatles"), and railroads were "so last century" when it came to Wall Street, passenger tastes, and dreams of travel adventures.

The Metroliner was supposed to change a lot of that, but it was too little, too late, and it had the wrong focus and business plan.

The United States Post Office Department was making the switch from trains to planes and trucks.

No one was to blame; everyone was to blame for the near extinction of the passenger train in the United States.

Amtrak has kept things limping along for four decades. But, that's about all you can say. No matter what the reasons or what your beliefs, America's passenger rail system is a mere shadow of what it was even as late as 1969. There could be great discussion as to how much it needs to regrow should there just be trunk lines? or trunk lines with branch lines? Can a modern branch line, with modern equipment and modern work rules make money? or even be revenue/expense neutral?

Of course, the big debate is, even though there are a number of profitable passenger railroads in the world, can passenger rail in America be profitable? The proper answer is yes, it can.

Can it be profitable under Amtrak? Not with the current mind set. It will require an entire new way of thinking such as we are finding in the new passenger rail entrepreneurs to overcome the stymied and out of touch Amtrak thinking.

Make no mistake about it; there are some very smart people crunching numbers and looking and wondering about the future of passenger rail. They peel away the bad parts, savor the good parts, and make business plans that make sense in the 21st Century.

As competition for Amtrak heats up, thinking people can't help but reflect back on everything they know about Amtrak from the past 40 years. In the beginning, everyone thought it should be an airline on steel wheels, a truly horrible idea. Then, there was the modernization phase, but the corporate thinking was never updated with the equipment. Permeating the entire Amtrak experience has been the constant carping, the constant begging, the constant hubris from Amtrak deciding which laws it may or may not choose to follow, and the annual Capitol Hill begfest.

There has hardly EVER been a positive tone coming from Amtrak, and its enabling organizations. Instead, there has always been whining, constant excuses why the dog ate its homework, and nothing but "woe is me."

So, all of that has worked. NO ONE of a reasonable mind thinks Amtrak can stand on its own two feet. They all believe it's doomed to a perpetual existence of feeding at the federal and state money troughs. But, along the way, the folks in Washington who control the purse strings are asking more and more tough questions, which the only answer Amtrak has for them is to constantly bleat like a sheep its refrain of woe.

That's just not good enough in these trying economic times. Everyone in Washington is tightening their belts and figuring out how to do with less. Amtrak's enablers still think the right thing to do is constantly quibble for more money, instead of demonstrating how Amtrak could both generate more revenue on its own, or rework its business plan to be a more streamlined company.

The people on Capitol Hill are taking note and seriously wondering how little Amtrak can be funded for while the real railroaders those who WANT to run passenger trains, instead of just ask for government handouts are putting the finishing touches on their own plans for the future of passenger rail in America.

If Amtrak is left behind, it is not the fault of anyone but Amtrak. Amtrak has never put forward a radical, serious business plan for growth. Amtrak has never said how it can maximize the use of its assets to wring every dime of revenue out of them. Amtrak has NEVER displayed any hint of "can do" spirit.

There are plenty of people out there with the "can do" spirit on every level. They are creeping towards reality. If Amtrak isn't looking over its corporate shoulder, it's like to have a very nasty surprise in the next 18 months.

___________________________________________________

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; November 7, 2011

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

 

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 1, Number 18

​

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

Election day, Tuesday, November 6, 2012 is exactly a year – 365 days – away (Presidential election years are always leap years, with February having 29 days; hence a full year from November 7, 2011.). If you think all things are political now, well, you haven't seen anything, yet.

Presidential and congressional politics are already full of talk about railroads, high speed passenger rail, and Amtrak.

Republican presidential presumptive frontrunner Mitt Romney has said he's for eliminating Amtrak funding. You can bet, since he's among the least conservative of Republican presidential primary candidates more conservative candidates will take at least the same tone.

Congressional Republicans already want to trim Amtrak funding, and any new incoming members of Congress are likely to follow the same path.

President Obama, if re-elected, will continue to support Amtrak. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi boldly predicted last Friday the Democrats will retake the House of Representatives because they have recruited such outstanding candidate for 2012. No one rushed to agree with her.

The Senate has a good chance of either going Republican (along with the House staying Republican), or having Republicans come so close to a new majority that EVERYTHING will have to be negotiated in what is supposed to be "the world's greatest deliberative body."

On the state level, more Republican governors like Ohio's John Kasich and Florida's Rick Scott are likely to be elected, and they may take a dim view of continuing to – or starting to – shovel money to Amtrak without good accounting of what the money is being spent for each and every day.

So, what's an Amtrak True Believer to do?

The answer is, panic.

Well, then, what's any reasonable person who believes in the business of passenger rail to do?

The answer is, celebrate.

Will Amtrak simply go away? No.

Amtrak will be forced to better itself, one way or the other.

The result will also be a new vista for private passenger rail on all fronts. Sensing this was coming, the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators (www.passengerrail.org) was formed and is now a presence on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Competition is coming. Amtrak and its True Believers should welcome it, not disdain it.

Good, healthy competition makes products and services better, not worse. If Amtrak can't stand the heat in the competition kitchen, then maybe it should find something else to do.

Knowing this year is going to be consumed by politics, what is the best course of action?

First, face reality. Change is coming unless the Democrats miraculously hold on to the White House, Senate, and retake the House of Representatives. There is a good chance they will not.

In the event Republicans sweep into power, a good case for passenger rail is going to have to be put forward. Merely saying Amtrak had a banner year of 30 million riders doesn't mean anything.

Whoever wins the White House in 2012 will have first say over the budgets, appointments to Amtrak's Board of Directors, and will provide "guidance" through the United States Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration.

As everyone knows, the real decision makers are the Congress, who ultimately hold the purse strings and create laws which in turn makes things possible or impossible. It's the purse strings which determine final outcomes.

There may even be a medium sized miracle and an administration will actually develop a surface transportation policy, something which hasn't been around for decades.

Amtrak, and its sycophant enabling organizations will most likely continue to tout Amtrak's record ridership numbers, now totaling over 30 million passengers a year.

When you break the numbers down, seeking individual riders instead of multiple rides by the same person, you're probably looking at closer to 10 million individual riders instead of 30 million riders. As a percentage of population and transportation output, that doesn't come close to justification of the amount of money spent on Amtrak annually. The constant argument Amtrak is in a long term building phase – allegedly, the rising number of riders is supposed to support that argument – doesn't wash anymore. If Amtrak was coming close to doubling its ridership numbers, and simultaneously demonstrating good load factors (the only number which really matters) then some sort of bland argument could be made it is a successful organization.

But, take a look at the reality of it all – even with Amtrak ridership going up, its amount of annual subsidy is going up, too, at a faster rate. Amtrak is doing nothing to realize savings or improvement due to volume, but is going in the opposite direction.

The Pocket Guide to Transportation 2011, published by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, publishes passenger-mile statistics. The last year numbers are available for is 2008. Here's the breakdown:

Passenger-Mile Statistics (Numbers in millions)

Scheduled air carriers – 583,506

Passenger automobiles – 2,553,043

Other vehicles, 2-axle, 4-tires – 1,921,960

Buses – 150,827

Motorcycles – 18,395

Rail, transit – 18,931

Rail, commuter – 11,032

Rail, Intercity/Amtrak – 6,179

Did you notice Amtrak's share of national transportation output is just a hair over one third of motorcycles? Before you have a knee-jerk reaction and say motorcycles have the benefit of a mature road system, well, so does Amtrak. It's running on railroad mainlines which have been in place for well over a century, and Amtrak has a federal statutory right to run trains over those rails, if it so chooses.

How, in these difficult, fiscally austere times, can anyone with a straight face agitate for extra money for Amtrak with that type of dismal performance, and no improvement in sight?

In politics, the Democrats look at Amtrak and passenger rail as a union and labor issue: more trains mean more jobs. Not a bad way to look at things in an economy which has 9% unemployment (much higher when you factor in the under-employed and those who have simply left the work force because they have been out of work so long) and people are aching for jobs.

The Republicans look at Amtrak and passenger rail as a business and economic issue: how can running trains benefit the overall economy and make the economy grow? Also not a bad way of looking at things in an economy which is growing at best at a snail's pace.

The argument will be made Amtrak props up the Railroad Retirement Board system, the railroad specialized version of Social Security. Yes, for years it has been a conduit for money to be pumped directly from Congress into the RRB to subsidize the incomes of current retirees.

Okay, well, if Congress found that conduit, can't it find another?

And, what everyone else seems to forget is current law says any other new passenger rail operators which take over any part of Amtrak routes or create new routes MUST be a part of the RRB system.

So, it's a false argument if Amtrak is greatly reduced or goes away it will hurt RRB. Only if the net number of employees paying into the system goes down will RRB have a problem. But, RRB is much healthier than its sister, Social Security, so it's unlikely that will occur. Plus, the freight railroads are now back to looking for new hires (Norfolk Southern Railway just announced last week it plans to hire 500 employees in eight states almost immediately, with more to come, numbered in the thousands. Other freight railroads are making similar noises.).

We will hear the well worn canard from many quarters the freight railroads simply will not allow more passenger trains on their rails, because they are so busy and congested.

The economy pretty well poked holes in that argument, and, if you drill down deep enough, you discover the freight railroads fear more Amtrak passenger trains on their rails than passenger trains in general. The freights know they have little to fear from responsible passenger operators which maintain their locomotive fleets as well as the host railroads do, and have the ability to launch their trains out of terminals on time, in a designated slot versus Amtrak's poor performance due to bad maintenance practices, poor planning, or poor scheduling which create late terminal departures.

Plus, around the country, make a habit of counting locomotives on relatively short Amtrak trains. Amtrak is being forced to run its trains with extra motive power by contract with the host railroads because the host railroads fear en route locomotive mechanical breakdowns. You have to ask yourself, why does it take three locomotives to run a nine car train, or two locomotives to run a four car train? This is similar to what the railroads did with their own waning fleets of locomotives just before Amtrak was created; to make sure the lines remained clear and opened, they added extra locomotives to make sure trains kept their schedules and had no critical breakdowns en route. It was cheaper to buy diesel fuel than make expensive repairs or upgrades to equipment they weren't sure they were going to keep or replace, soon.

Many people – and politicians – fear change. But, change is coming, and in today's environment, it's inevitable. We all hear the whine, "but, if Amtrak goes away, there will be nothing to replace it and there will be no more passenger trains!". That is a false whine, not befitting the American entrepreneurial spirit. Too many people with good ideas and financial backing are out there today, plotting and planning a post-Amtrak dominated world of passenger railroading in North America.

When something is broken and unable to be repaired, you move on to the next thing. Amtrak is that way, now. It's been mostly fear of "losing it all" which has generated support for dysfunctional Amtrak. Instead of looking to a brighter future and a spirit of progress, too many people and politicians have continued to look backwards, clinging to an originally flawed idea from the Nixon Administration which created Amtrak.

Remember, when Amtrak was created, the word was the first $140 million invested by the federal government was all it was going to take to make passenger trains sleek and modern and profitable again. Oops! Things just didn't work out that way.

Today, we are still haunted by the junk science of the 1950s and 60s which said corridor trains were the trains of the future and the only hope for passenger train travel. The ongoing financial strength and transportation output of the Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Silver Meteor, Silver Star and other long distance trains pretty well blows that junk science theory out of the water.

That junk science theory was created in a time when the jet airplane and the private automobile and a growing interstate highway system were on the rise. A prosperous America was willing to ignore and throw away the "old" technology of the passenger train in favor of the glitz and glitter of new ways to travel. Now, the tarnished aura of air travel is the system without the glory, and the automobile/SUV/pickup truck, while still the single most convenient mode of travel, are costing more and more to operate.

The politics of 2012 will make everything interesting for passenger trains and the railroad industry. Many railroaders – this was unthinkable a generation ago – are open to public/private partnerships for infrastructure upgrades and improvements. Money is flowing from the federal treasury to railroads as an inexpensive alternative to move freight (railroads have never lost their efficiency to move goods over long distances) instead of building more lanes on highways for increasing truck traffic.

Visionaries like former Federal Railroad Administration head Gil Carmichael are coming up with plans like his aggressive Interstate II plan, which addresses growth problems across the surface transportation spectrum and the solution to those problems which can be found on an enhanced railroad right-of-way.

Many new and returning members of Congress will seek to keep what little passenger train service they have for their districts and home states. This will keep things alive – barely. But, these same lawmakers will be open to new and innovative ideas from private passenger train operators.

Representative John Mica of Florida, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has correctly labeled Amtrak a "Soviet-style passenger rail system." Some have scoffed at this label, but Mr. Mica is correct: For most, Amtrak is the only choice; take it or leave it. Mr. Mica chooses not to take it, and envisions something better. He and the majority on his committee are willing to explore new ideas and concepts and are not afraid of change. They need support, not scorn. Unions should be embracing their proposed changes, because in every instance, it means more – and better in most instances – jobs. Which also means more people paying into the Railroad Retirement Bureau, bolstering that system.

There is much discussion which can be had about Governors Kasich and Scott of Ohio and Florida. Governor Kasich, because of bad information, made a bad decision to kill the Ohio "3C" plan, which would have linked Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. His Washington background in Congress before becoming governor simply left too much of a bad taste in his mouth from seeing Amtrak up close and personal as it dealt with Congress. So, after too long of a wait, Ohio is back to the drawing board to figure out something about passenger rail.

Governor Scott here in Florida made an excellent decision to kill Florida's first leg of a high speed system between Orlando and Tampa to the southwest. There were too many flaws to go into them here and now, but the simple motivation of jobs to build the system was not a good enough reason to create something that never would have met its projections, as California is this month finding out about its own proposed high speed rail proposal.

From a political standpoint, it's going to be important for state governments to understand their choices for the future of passenger rail in state corridors. In true Soviet style, Amtrak has been the only choice as a service provider. But, the members of AIPRO now have something to say about that; look to the upcoming battle over Amtrak state subsidies to suddenly turn very unhappy for Amtrak True Believers. Governors on the prowl for budget savings and true choice are not going to be looking favorably at the single entity which consistently has the highest cost and least accountability – Amtrak.

Remember, prior to Amtrak, which also means prior to computers and lightening-speed communications, America had a highly functional passenger rail system with dozens of independent operators which figured out how to work together with interline agreements for operations and ticketing, the creation of equipment pools, and terminal company operations. If it was successfully done before, it can be done again.

The politics of 2012 will be rife with rumor and bad information, misstatements, and ignorance. In the middle of all of that will be passenger rail, a greatly-diminished high speed rail program on its way to oblivion, and a discussion of "what's next?".

The lessons of the high speed rail program will come up again and again. The Obama Administration threw billions at it, and, even though it's early, not much to show for it.

But, a glimmer of hope has arrived. More and more intelligent writers are not talking about "high speed rail," but "high performance rail." This fits nicely into programs like Mr. Carmichael's Interstate II, what Illinois is doing between Chicago and St. Louis, and several other projects around the country. You may even have noticed last week Amtrak's new-hire vice president for high speed rail development announced he is leaving the company after only 14 months on the job; reality often sets in at the oddest places.

The high performance rail concept makes great sense, and it's what should be seized upon to meet the demands of politicians in 2012. Take what you have now, which is a completely solid foundation, and build upon that foundation for improvement and enhancement at a greatly reduced cost and higher benefit from the new construction of high speed rail such as is in the agony of development in California.

Budget-minded people like enhancements at a reasonable cost versus the higher costs of new-build, especially when you have a similar outcome.

If Amtrak and its True Believers expect any type of future, then a new approach has to be created. Ridership improvements along with rising subsidy costs only make things worse.

Amtrak must become economically relevant to politicians in Washington and statehouses around the country. Demonstrable benefit must be proved, and not in small numbers.

There must be a plan for growth which doesn't rely on spending tens of millions of dollars on new equipment. Amtrak must demonstrate it is a good steward of its present resources.

Load factors, not just ridership, must increase – in numbers that make a difference. There must be a marketing and public relations campaign which touts the good about the company, not the constant whine of "just give us more money and things will be fine." Those days of "woe is us" are over and gone.

In short, Amtrak must demonstrate it is relevant, which it has seldom done before.

Private proposals will accomplish all of those things, without apology. Private proposals will have credible numbers which pass the scrutiny of host railroad managers, and nothing will happen without sound financial statements and financial forecasting. Rhetoric will mean nothing – performance will be the only governing factor.

The political year 2012 will become the watershed year for passenger rail in America; it will be the beginning of a new golden era of passenger rail travel that has many more choices than a Soviet-style system.

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; 2011-11-08

 

Volume 8, Number 19

​

From the Editors…

To say that these are interesting times for passenger railroading in America would be a gross understatement. Significant changes to the forty year status quo are afoot. The following discourse by Stan Feinsod at this year's Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads conference outlines a future, not of political hubris, but of practical possibilities. Mr. Feinsod has over thirty years of diverse passenger rail expertise as a transit contracting specialist and project development and management, planning and engineering, operations and even streetcar specialties. In his distinguished career he has worked for numerous agencies such as NJ Transit, Veolia, Connex and now Ratp Dev. And now, Mr. Feinsod in his own words [abridged for space].

The Path Forward: Creating and American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Rail System

My theme is creating an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Rail System.

A system based on the American economic model of competition.

A system based on the private sector and cooperation with the pre-eminent American freight railroads who own the most important rights-of-way.

A system developed by a broad public-private partnership with the states and the federal government.

A system that strives for continuously improved performance and the reduction of travel time; a system that has excellent connectivity to the urban transport systems it serves.

I am speaking from my personal perspective, but, informed by my roles as Secretary Treasurer of the Association of Independent Passenger Railroad Operators – AIPRO, and co-chair of the APTA Commuter Rail and High Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Subcommittee.

Public transport generally has had to work hard to secure funding after a decades-long policy framework which favored highway and aviation investment.

The intercity passenger rail mode has been the step child of public transport investment in the US. That must change. The projected population increase in America between 2000 and 2030 is 30%. Some 120 million more people are expected into the nation's mega regions in the coming decades. We cannot build enough highway or airport capacity to meet the new intercity travel demands. We must have an integrated public transportation option that connects our mega regions. That would be an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Rail System. Not doing this may prove catastrophic.

An opportunity now exists to create a major public-private partnership that will rebuild and improve America's rail infrastructure to create a third intercity transportation option.

When PRIIA was passed in 2008, there was a bipartisan consensus on the need for a passenger rail system. In the 2009 stimulus program, the President offered $8 billion in the name of High Speed Rail and it became his signature transportation program. But, we have tripped up on the title and the program name. Although the States requested over $54 billion for projects and programs which defined an Intercity Passenger Rail Program; it was attacked as not being truly high speed, and being too scattered. This is a shame because the states used the opportunity – and the invitation – to apply for funds to begin building a solid foundation for the future.

As a result, we need to get away from some of the confusing labels we have used, because the American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Rail System will not have one single performance criteria. It will not be a national high speed rail system. Rather, it will be continually evolving, moving from our heritage system now operated as well as possible by Amtrak, to something better in all cases. Yes, some of this network will be in the 200 miles per hour range, but, much of it will be between 79 and 150 miles per hour.

Let's define some terms:

By integrated, I mean great attention to linkages with the urban transportation systems in the all of the major activity centers served, connectivity to provide passengers with convenient transfers, good information, and a means to move through the local urban and intercity system conveniently.

By high performance, as opposed to high speed rail, I mean providing an adequate level of service to meet current demand and also to significantly penetrate the existing market between urban areas so passenger rail makes a difference in the modal split along its corridors. This means travel time differences that are becoming competitive with air and automobile travel times. This could mean moving from 79 mph towards 110 mph, or in some cases on dedicated corridors moving up to 150 mph and in other cases also on dedicated corridors towards 200-220 mph. No single standard of speed is required. What is required is a commitment to improving the corridors and reducing travel time between major urban areas.

By American, I mean focusing on the major American urban areas, the mega-regions that contain most of our national economic activity and for which this system will make a great difference. The system needs to be focused on the corridors that link our mega-regions, and the service improvements needed between them, not on serving everywhere.

By competition, I mean creating procurement opportunities for well qualified private-sector passenger rail operators who can compete for contracts being procured by states and regional agencies. Such competition among potential contractors will drive innovation, permit private investment, improve efficiency, expand and improve the services, increase market share and ridership, create the best jobs at the lowest cost, increase rail labor nation-wide, create a "race to quality," reduce travel time and increase revenue while reducing public subsidies. Competition is the foundation of the American economic system and for the rest of the world, the standard way passenger rail services are being produced, improved and operated.

I will continue to define this proposal and explain its importance to the nation.

Establishing an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Rail System:

Will be an integral part of resetting our economy, with competition as a foundation focused on the classic engine of change in America–the states and partnering with the freight railroads.

We seem to be at a crossroads in the United States, coming out slowly from a Great Recession with an opportunity, in the words of Dr. Richard Florida, a speaker at the APTA Annual Meeting, for a Great Reset to our economy driven, in part, by improving the linkages between the great mega regions that are the heart of the U.S. economy.

Dr. Florida believes one of the most important elements of the Great Reset must be the kind of transformative transportation that will help make us more efficient, more mobile, and more productive. Researchers tell us Americans are choosing quality of life, walkable urban centers, healthier living, and an alternative to the suburban life style that resulted from the last economic dislocation in the 1930's and World War II. As our urban centers are transformed slowly by consumer choices, the connection between them becomes more and more important, and, perhaps, most important to transforming the U.S. economy, renewing its vigor and accelerating growth.

We must acknowledge there are physical, environmental, economic, and fiscal constraints to rapid expansion of our intercity transportation system unless we adopt "best worldwide practices" to fit local conditions here in the U.S. on a state by state or regional basis. Most important is the effective and proper use of competition when corridor and long distance trains operate over our fine freight railroad network.

It is time we realized linking our great economic centers by a high performance passenger rail network will have a profound impact on economic development, the creation of jobs, the overall quality of life, and the level of overall energy produced by these great American urban centers and mega-regions.

The linkages between these centers must be accomplished by an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Rail System connecting the Southern California Region to Northern California, connecting the Northwestern Centers of commerce and industry, connecting the Chicago hub with the great urban centers of the mid-west, connecting Southern Florida, connecting the Southeast from Houston to Charlotte, connecting the New England urban centers and connecting the great Northeastern megalopolis.

Creating an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Railroad System in these great corridors will transform regional economies and our national multimodal transportation system. With improved connections in each urban center, we will re-energize our national transportation system and reshape our economic competiveness with the rest of the world.

And as speeds increase, time differences will begin the transformation. As travel times are reduced more and more people will be attracted to a better product and intercity passenger rail ridership will increase, perhaps in startling ways.

Building on the Existing Framework. The framework for this system is the existing network of state supported intercity corridors integrated into the urban commuter routes. The states and commuter authorities are putting money into these routes and planning for the future. Now that the states are defining the system improvements, we need to establish the national system. For an idea of how extensive the planning is, one only has to look at the fact there were over $54 billion in applications for the $8 billion available in stimulus ARRA funds. While the naysayers are out there, this is not a process that should be stopped.

I should point out the American commuter railroad industry is in its fourth decade of renaissance. There were but nine commuter railroad services in 1980, and today there are 29, with more on the way!

There are a few important issues to discuss as we map how to reach this objective:

Competition

The first is competition. After the Staggers Act in 1980, America's freight railroads, unfettered by intense regulation, entered into an era of growth and revitalization which was shaped by competition. This quintessential American economic attribute, competition, is responsible for continuous innovation, efficiency, and growth in most of the American economy (the present situation excepted!). I believe competition for operations of an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Rail system is a necessary attribute to move towards continuous improvement and growth. This seemingly simple strategy seems to be very controversial, however, all over the world, competition has been used to reinvent passenger rail services and bring the ingenuity and dynamic drive of the private sector to this industry.

In the United States, we only need to look at the rest of the railroad industry for proof of its efficacy and ability to transform. The freight railroad industry is the best in the world, because of competition and the energy and economic drivers of the private sector. Our commuter railroads for the most part have been open to competition helping to dramatically grow their services and numbers, manage costs and improve services to the public. The most recent competition for Caltrain in California included five competitors and provided a private sector solution to Caltrain.

We have established a small independent advocacy organization, the Association of Independent Passenger Railroad Operators, AIPRO, to explain the benefits of a competitive environment and to illuminate the success of competition which is already in place for commuter and other services.

In the United States, once the Caltrain transition is complete, AIPRO members will be operating ten commuter railroads and over 325 trains per day with almost 80 million annual riders. These numbers are expanding not contracting!

Role of the States

The states are the key to the establishment of an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Railroad System. Through their support and establishment of intercity services, the states have demonstrated the political and technical conviction that the system is essential to their well being. The 15 states supporting 27 intercity corridor routes have provided financial and technical support and the wisdom to commit to service improvements and travel time reductions. They have worked on urban connectivity and helped to improve urban transportation connections. The States must be ultimately the sponsors of the new system as they were for the creation, construction and operation of the Interstate Highway System.

The American Intercity Passenger system should be state-centered under a program of national standards and national solutions to the issues that will face the system. We believe there needs to be an organization within the federal government to set standards, to insure interoperability, safety and operator quality that will provide connectivity across the corridors and with the great urban transit systems. The federal role should also be to help fund the development of this system, in the same way it was a central force in development of the interstate highway system. The States will carry out a program, conceptualized nationally, but assigned to them for implementation, as they successfully did for the Interstate Highway Program.

The States have led the way in requesting $54 billion for the ARRA program and worked without pause to finalize agreements with the FRA and their freight railroad right-of-way owners to carry out over $7.8 billion of intercity projects across the United States. Further, under Section 209 of PRIIA, the States will be responsible for substantially the entire operating subsidy on each route. Under the formulas now being worked out, this could add as much as $100 million to State costs within the next few years.

This state-centered program should have strong bipartisan support as it did when it was first put forward in PRIIA. Unfortunately, because of partisan differences over the ARRA program generally, and over many most other initiatives proposed by either side in current day Washington, the intercity passenger rail program received no funding in the House appropriation for 2012. The Senate adopted an amendment in full committee that provides $100 million to the states for 2012. It is very important the $100 million be approved as the States make the transition to cover full operating costs of their corridor routes.

Freight Railroads

Our freight railroads are the gold standard to which the rest of the world aspires. The new American passenger railroad system must be wholly cooperative with that freight network. As we build an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Railroad System the freight network must not be degraded, but expanded. This in turn creates the potential for an exciting future for passenger railroading, as a partner with freight railroads in America.

The relationship to the freight railroads must be fundamentally a partnership. The system and its proponents must adhere to the principles of crafting mutually beneficial investments that will protect the interests of the freight railroads and insure the capacity they need. As the recent agreements among the Class I railroads, the FRA and the ARRA project sponsors prove, with good will, and mutually acceptable objectives, the parties can reach agreements about the future of an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Railroad System. Over 70 projects have been obligated through these agreements. A landmark step toward establishing the system.

Looking forward, a mutually beneficial partnership will evolve in a variety of ways. With the necessary capital improvements, some lines will be able to accommodate the desired freight and passenger operations. In other cases, these services can be accommodated within the same right-of-way, but not necessarily on the same tracks. In corridors where passenger services are likely to be the predominant mode, ownership of certain rights-or-way may be sold from private to public ownership. The objective should be to embrace each of these options in a win-win strategy.

We need to recognize America's passenger railroad system is already hosted by freight railroads, which provide essential functions including right-of-way maintenance, signaling systems, dispatching and control, safety, etc.

Although much work needs to be done, we have come a long way to recognize freight railroads and improved passenger services can together help secure the future of American railroading.

Liability and Insurance

We need to recognize there is work to be done to deal with allocating liability and the provision of insurance for that liability. The existing Statutory Cap covers all private and public operators of passenger railroad services. It should be retained and tightened so that it is recognized it applies to all claims. However, more needs to be done. We can look for solutions in other industries (the pooling used by the Nuclear Power Industry for example) or find a solution particular to this industry to assure continuity of coverage and the growth we believe in. We can certainly look at the arrangements made in the Commuter Railroad industry for examples that work. And of course, involve the States in arranging for a solution.

Rolling Stock

We are working towards standard setting and the first new purchases of a national fleet of passenger rolling stock. However, we have not addressed adequately the issues of ownership and clearly set up a system which will allow States and regional sponsors to acquire and control the fleets they need to provide the services they finance and encourage. It may not be appropriate to have the ownership vested in Amtrak. One solution we may look at is the establishment of special purpose rolling stock companies (ROSCO's) to purchase and lease rolling stock across the United States. Another is to convey ownership or pooled ownership to the individual states which are responsible for state-supported corridor services rather than in a single national fleet controlled by another entity. The establishment of standard specifications would continue, but the ownership of the resulting fleet would be placed in the hands of the users or a separate national pool not associated with all of the specific arrangements operators need.

Access

Access rights are in law for intercity passenger operations provided by Amtrak. I want to be clear I am not advocating an expansion of these rights. I believe competition will work. The model is the Commuter Rail industry where there is no mandatory right of access. My premise is the growth of freight rail traffic and the growth of passenger rail service need not be an antagonistic proposition and can be resolved in the interests of both freight customers and intercity passengers. I believe, in a more business-like model – free negotiations .Free negotiations provides a way for the freight railroad right-of-way owners to deal with public passenger sponsors and potential competitive providers to establish a fair allocation of expense, taking into account the mutually beneficial capital investments made by the public sponsor. We believe such a business model will provide freight operators with a fair agreed-upon rate to accommodate passenger operations with financial consideration for the investment benefits provided. In this way, States and the competitors for passenger service operations will be able to reach agreements with freight railroads and be able to control costs, performance, service quality and the travel time they seek. I am not specifying a specific method or forum for negotiating these arrangements, but, believe the parties can work together to define a process that works.

Long Distance Trains

Although this category of railroad transportation lies outside the system of corridors linking the nation's mega-regions, there are public policy arguments to continue these services. They certainly benefit rural areas that may not have alternative public transportation options. Clearly, there is a political will to continue these services. For these services we may also consider creating a competitive environment where supporting organizations can be given the current subsidy level and determine if there are private sector companies willing to take over the services and drive costs down – and efficiencies up.

Conclusion

As we deal with these issues we need to maintain focus on the objective, a national system connecting our major urban mega-regions, integrated with urban transport systems, providing continuous improvements, reducing travel time, and providing high performance. The first $7.8 billion steps have been taken. The next steps must include a Rail Title in the Transportation Authorization implementing a funding mechanism to continue the investments we have started and complete the system over time, segment by segment. The American Public Transit Association has a draft rail title and I am sure they will share their ideas with all of you.

Let's work together for a passenger rail renaissance in the United States, let's agree to build an American High Performance Integrated Intercity Passenger Railroad System and let's take this issue out of the partisan politics that has encumbered it.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; November 14, 2011

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

 

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 1, Number 19

​

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

Ah, the agony and tragedy which has befallen California, the golden state.

High speed rail blues have set in with the heavy thud of reality.

New cost projections and business plan have been unveiled, much to wailing and gnashing of teeth over the new projected costs.

When California voters, being California voters who often believe money grows on trees, approved a high speed rail project in a statewide referendum in 2008, just before the full impact of the Great Recession was being felt, the price tag was $33 billion.

Hey! Many people said, the feds are going to pay for a big chunk of this, and we all know that's not real money out of our pockets, so let's have a new, shiny, high speed rail system!

Oops! The new estimate – and, it's still only an estimate, just like the initial projections of Boston's infamous Big Dig were – is now $98 billion, triple the initial estimate.

That's all before the first shovel of dirt has been turned, and none of the lawsuits against the project trying to stop it or reroute it away from various NIMBYs are settled.

So, the California public seems to be wisely turning against this turkey and are having second thoughts. Just about every newspaper in California except the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle are editorializing against proceeding, wisely so.

Ken Orski, in his usual good work, has a full essay on the subject in his always informative Innovation NewsBriefs, Volume 22, Number 31, dated November 13, 2011. You can access all of Mr. Orski's work at http:www.inobriefs.com to read more. Keep in mind, once you start reading his work, you will want to follow every word.

Here in warm, sunny Florida, our beleaguered Governor Rick Scott looks like a genius for killing Florida's proposed high speed starter system between Orlando and Tampa to the southwest. Everything the governor predicted could come true with Florida high speed rail has already come true in California.

One other California high speed rail project not many are talking about in this process is the DesertXpress, a private company hoping to use public money loans to build a high speed rail system from Victorville, California, in the middle of the desert, to Las Vegas, Nevada.

The business plan calls for convincing Southern California drivers to drive east to Victorville, going through the worst of the heavy traffic between Southern California and Las Vegas, park their cars in Victorville, and then board a high speed train to whisk them to Las Vegas. Of the five hour drive between Southern California and Las Vegas on heavily traveled I-15, the worst of the traffic is between the Los Angeles area and Victorville, From Victorville into Las Vegas, it's all open road at high speed.

No one has explained why the founders of the DesertXpress seem to believe drivers will abandon their automobiles after the worst part of the trip and then spend money to travel on a high speed train the easiest part of the trip.

The DesertXpress plan calls for an eventual connection to the rest of California's proposed high speed system after it is built. Now that the California system is in jeopardy, you have to really wonder why anyone would continue to promote the DesertXpress. It easily could become another desert white elephant; a curiosity for future historians to wonder why it ever got as far as it did before it fell over and died from the weight of illogical choices.

If the main California system goes away and the DesertXpress system slows as a result, that makes life easier for other conventional rail projects now being planned for Southern California to Las Vegas.

Andrew Selden had this thought about the $6 billion California wants to start spending on high speed rail: "Imagine what you could do with $6 billion for the conventional passenger rail system in California; it could become the strongest in the country."

Indeed, it could.

Two decades ago, there was a great debate in Southern California over the beginning of Metrolink. Tens of millions of dollars were spent acquiring private railroad right of way in and around Los Angeles and environs. Plans were drawn and implemented to upgrade the infrastructure into some of the finest in the world for passenger rail. It's a beautiful system, and a sight to behold because public dollars were wisely spent on a not-too-ambitious system which built upon existing infrastructure and merely made things better and smoother running.

Metrolink continues to be a great success today, and created a template for other cities and regions to follow.

Reports have come that Ross Rowland has put his Greenbrier Express project on hold. The plan calls for service from major northeastern cities to the swank Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. The Greenbrier Express was expected to have a regular schedule, but not a daily schedule.

The cited cause for the suspension of the project, according to a story in The Mercury newspaper of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where the car refurbishment work was being done for the Greenbrier Express, is over-regulation by the federal government. Mr. Rowland said the Federal Railroad Administration has too high of standards for crash-worthiness if the cars were in an accident.

According to the story, the project isn't dead, but is being reevaluated.

Many of you are familiar with Mr. Rowland as a former member of the Amtrak Board of Directors, and as the creator of the American Freedom Train. He was also involved in a project to attempt to bring steam locomotives back to mainline railroading.

Is all of this doom and gloom for private passenger service? Nah, it's just a natural shaking out of projects, some of which never should have been started in the first place.

There are still enough other projects around the country in the works which will keep things going.

As long as we're talking about surprising turns of events in the past few days, we have to include the change of direction Chairman John Mica of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has taken about change of ownership of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.

Chairman Mica had correctly said everyone would be better off if the NEC was not under Amtrak ownership, but ownership of another agency of the federal government and then the operations put out to bid.

The usual firestorm erupted from the New Jersey cabal of politicians and their cohorts who all believe Amtrak must be the owner and operator of the NEC so all of the local transit agencies who use the NEC daily (and, more than Amtrak) can continue to have sweetheart deals regarding the cost of infrastructure and maintenance and suck the economic life out of Amtrak in the process.

Mr. Mica said there was little support in Congress outside of his committee to do the deal, so he changed course, and is now supporting Amtrak ownership of the NEC and hopes to steer even more money to the NEC to upgrade it to what he calls true high speed rail.

Depending on who the next and/or continuing occupant of the White House is may ultimately decide this for good.

 

[leemell]

While I cannot comment on the above attack on the CA HSR, I can tell you that the I15 between Victorville and LV is usually far from a wide open superhighway. For most of that distance is it four lanes and on any busy weekend a four hour drive can take any where from 6 to 12 hours (yes it happened to me). There is a real compelling reason to get an alternative to I15. It is nearing it's maximum capacity for much of the time. The Desertxpress passengers could make a connect to Victorville station and proceed by conventional train to Union Station in LA. There currently is only one train a day, but I don't think it would be long before someone figures out that Metrolink style trains could be very busy on this link.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; November 16, 2011

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

​

Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

​

Volume 1, Number 20

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

Here in the South, we take our railroads as seriously as anyone along the Northeast Corridor, we just do it with our own money instead of constant raids on the federal treasury.

It has often been said there are only two types of Americans – those from the South, and those not fortunate enough to be from the South. It was one and a half Southerners which saved the railroad industry in 1980, when Georgian and then-President Jimmy Carter signed the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, named after Congressman Harley O. Staggers, (Democrat, West Virginia) who was chairman of the powerful House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee.

Congressman Staggers may claim to be half of a Southerner, as he was from West Virginia, or, the Breakaway Counties as many true Virginians refer to the counties which were maliciously torn from the loving bosom of Virginia in 1863 during the unpleasantness of the Late War of the 1860s.

United States Secretary of War Edwin Stanton of the Lincoln administration was an instigator of the indignity of the Breakaway Counties forming a new state because he feared Washington, D.C.'s lifeline to the West, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which ran through the northern part of what today is West Virginia, would fall into the hands of gallant Confederate forces. To ensure the B&O would remain in Union hands and Washington would not become isolated (he also feared Southern sympathizers in Maryland), Secretary Stanton manipulated events to form West Virginia, a state formed because of a railroad. Much of today's present route of Amtrak's Capitol Limited runs on those same former B&O tracks, now CSX tracks.

It's ironic that just a year before, in 1979, the Carter administration gutted much of Amtrak's long distance system, eliminating such trains as the National Limited, Floridian (Amtrak's only direct Chicago-Florida service) North Coast Hiawatha, and others.

President Carter and Chairman Stagger's elimination of much of the unnecessary federal regulation of the railroad industry by the creation of the Stagger's Act saved the railroad industry as we know it today from extinction. The post war years of the late 1940s and 50s were good to the railroads because of a booming national economy, gearing up to serve a suddenly wealthy and war-starved populace which wanted everything "now."

By the 1960s and 70s, reality was setting in, railroads had contracted merger fever, and fewer and fewer railroads survived and both logical and illogical combinations came to be.

Two combinations still pondered today are the basis of today's CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway.

CSX is a result of the initial merger of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which had near-parallel routes from Richmond, Virginia south into Florida, and southwest to Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama. Nearly simultaneously, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which used to call itself "George Washington's Railroad" since some of the survey work done in his early days eventually benefitted the C&O, was busy taking over the B&O and other regional railroads.

Norfolk Southern is a result of the initial combination of the Southern Railway System and the Norfolk & Western Railway. The N&W was mostly a stepchild railroad of the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad (the Standard Railroad of the World as the Pennsy liked to style itself) and served Virginia with a mainline to Cincinnati, Ohio, with lots of lines branching out to Maryland and North Carolina. The much larger Southern, headquartered in Washington, D.C., was a more far-flung railroad which served Virginia southward to Northeast Florida, but had lines west to New Orleans, Memphis, and St. Louis, with equally strong north/south service between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Cincinnati.

Even today, some historians are wondering why a more strategic combination wasn't created, such as the Seaboard, with a strong system throughout Florida, pairing with the Southern instead of the Coast Line (or vice versa) and the remaining road picking up the N&W, which was primarily known as a coal hauling railroad.

While today there is a healthy competition in the South between CSX and NS, one cannot help but wonder, "what if?".

All which brings us to today and South by Southeast, a project of Armstrong Atlantic State University, part of the University System of Georgia in Savannah, Georgia.

Armstrong Atlantic State University offers a College of Education, College of Science and Technology, College of Liberal Arts, and College of Health Professions, none of which would be classified as powerhouses in the academic world of transportation.

The school (www.armstrong.edu) says this about itself on its web site:

[begin quote]

Situated on the Atlantic coast in beautiful Savannah, Georgia, Armstrong Atlantic State University is a dynamic public university known for excellent arts and sciences along with outstanding professional programs. With approximately 7,600 students, Armstrong is small enough to foster a genuine sense of community and large enough to offer more than 100 academic programs that prepare our graduates for success in their careers and leadership in their communities. Armstrong is part of the University System of Georgia.

[End quote]

And, then, there is South by Southeast: A Passenger Rail Feasibility Study. From the South by Southeast web site page (www.armstrong.edu/Initiatives/passenger_rail_study/train_about) we have this:

[begin quote]

South by Southeast is an organization set up to link universities and their corresponding communities in an effort to address the American social need of an appropriately strong public transportation system. University systems are well positioned to study and advance civil projects for the greater social good. They have dedicated, motivated and educated faculty within a broad range of disciplines and areas of interest and students eager to make meaningful contributions to their communities.

The purpose of this website is to help organize interested faculty, students and community members in advancing public transportation in Georgia.

Under Projects you will find a list of potential research topics that we believe to be the starting points for developing a viable passenger rail line linking Savannah, Macon and Atlanta. It is our intention that each project should provide the researchers with a conclusion that offers a meaningful contribution to the advancement of Georgia's public transportation as well as other initiatives taking place across the nation. We plan to post regular updates of ongoing research and the conclusions of completed projects in this section. We also encourage researchers to publish any work associated with these topics in other academic and professional journals that will be acknowledged here.

Scholars and community members should also feel free to visit us on Facebook to identify other research projects, or make comments useful to our goal of improved public transportation and economic development in Georgia.

[End quote]

In short, they want to recreate the route of the Nancy Hanks, famously of the Central of Georgia Railway, which operated as a "Diesel powered coach streamliner" between Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah on just a hair under a six hour schedule.

What are we experiencing, here? Something that is all good.

We have a university taking leadership, committing its various resources, engaging faculty, students, and outsiders to study the return of a named passenger train within state boundaries.

Note: They are NOT doing this in cooperation with Amtrak, but, on their own volition.

Interestingly, they are publicly seeking private project sponsors for various parts of their endeavors.

There is nothing about this project not to like.

Here's the fun part: a restored Atlanta-Macon-Savannah link will create an incredible new city pair matrix for the Amtrak long distance system, linking Florida service trains with the Crescent.

Examples: with new links in Savannah and Atlanta, passengers could, by using Florida service trains, at long last travel between Atlanta and Florida.

When the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was still delivering trains from Chicago to Florida via Atlanta and Waycross, Georgia to Jacksonville for pickup by the Florida East Coast Railway, the Atlanta-Jacksonville running time was about eight hours. If a new Nancy Hanks can still make Atlanta-Macon-Savannah in six hours, plus the current two hours and 20 minutes between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida, that schedule isn't much different in running time than schedules were in 1956.

The possibilities here are many; the excitement of a group of academics taking the bull by the horns and creating these possibilities is outstanding.

Who else in the country will take up a similar cause?

Crain's Chicago Business is reporting a deal has been reached in Washington for funding of Amtrak (among other things) for the remainder of the year.

Gone is any money for high speed rail; $100 million had been proposed by Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, but that has disappeared. Senator Durbin says he will look for replacement money in other government accounts.

Crain's also says the House and Senate conference committee has approved $1.438 billion in fiscal 2012 for Amtrak, down from $1.5 billion is fiscal 2011. The cuts are from operations and not capital spending. In the process the conference rejected a proposal from House Republicans which would have prevented Amtrak from using any federal funds to help states pay for state-supported routes. Before there is an alleged national panic, if you do the math, you're talking about a difference of $62,000,000 out of nearly one and a half billion dollars, an amount easily dealt with in any overall budget.

Allegedly, that proposal of not having any state supported routes paid for with federal funds would have caused a shutdown of nearly all state supported routes, but, by rational analysis that would not have happened. Since the state contracts are supposed to make up any difference between ticket revenue and actual operating costs, how could there have been any state supported services being paid for by the federal subsidies, inquiring minds continue to want to know? Many feel this was yet another "woe is me" smoke screen by Amtrak and its enabling organizations.

In other news, Amtrak on Monday, November 14th put out another meaningless press release about how much market share it commands along the Northeast Corridor. Since the press release only contains ridership numbers and does not include load factor numbers, the only true measure of success for anything other than commuter trains and transit operations, the press release gave no pertinent or hard information.

One bit of shocking international passenger rail news from the BBC came on Tuesday. The BBC is reporting alcohol could be banned on Scottish trains. Alcohol is already banned by ScotRail and the British Transport Police on certain specific services, such as travel to and from rugby and football games. The document making this suggestion, according to the BBC says, "One of the most distressing ways to spend a rail journey is to be subject to the bade behaviour of other passengers.

"This can be fueled by excessive drinking of alcohol"

It adds, "Consideration is being given to whether there should be a ban on the consumption of alcohol on all trains in Scotland and we welcome views."

The BBC says a spokesman for the opposition Labour's transport, Lewis Macdonald said the report was "jam-packed with crack pot ideas" that threatened to "reverse the growth in rail usage since devolution."

Other measures being considered are raising fares and eliminating sleeper car services.

 

[SCrails]

That first sentence turned me off - "Down here in the South here's how WE do rail....". I didn't wade through the rest of the post. Maybe I will later...

My experience in the South is that when it comes to passenger rail, we mostly DON'T do it.

 

[jis]

Other measures being considered are raising fares and eliminating sleeper car services.

You mean the two Sleeper service to Scotland that survives as the Caledonian Sleeper? It would be interesting to see its financial numbers. I think it is a wonderful service, but whether it can be cost justified is another matter, and it is ScotRail that has to bear the entire cost since it is operated by them all the way from London to Inverness and other Scottish points it serves.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; November 17, 2011

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

​

Volume 1, Number 21

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

United Rail Passenger Alliance has a spiffy updated homepage and some materials on the web site have been reorganized for ease of use. We invite you to visit www.unitedrail.org to see the changes.

William Lindley of Scottsdale, Arizona has penned a Business and Politics guest column. Enjoy his insights.

Overcoming The Fallacy of Allocated Costs

By William Lindley

"As ye sow, so shall ye reap." -- see Galatians 6:7

What happens when you base business decisions on meaningless numbers?

From the 1870s on, the Pullman sleeping car was the premier first-class transportation on this continent. Pullman also operated parlour chair cars, lounge cars, and dining cars. These cars were operated by the Pullman Company, generally as part of the host railroads' trains, but occasionally in an all-Pullman consist behind the railroad's locomotives. In any case, a passenger effectively bought a regular coach ticket as the base part of their first-class fare.

For this service, Pullman entered into an agreement with each host railroad.The economics of it went like this:

"When revenue from a Pullman line exceeded expenses, the railroad generally kept 75 percent of the profit and Pullman got the remainder. Yet when expenses exceeded revenues, the railroad was required to make up the deficit to Pullman." – "The Cars of Pullman" Welsh, Howes, and Holland, Voyageur Press, 2010, p. 15.

That little snippet gives us a clue of what contributed to the demise of the American passenger train. Such a formula, which became a permanent edict after the 1940s anti-trust breakup of the original Pullman Corporation, led to the inevitable downfall of the American passenger train.

And derivatives of this economic formula, including Amtrak's "Route Profitability System" and its successors, continue to strangle passenger trains today.

But, wait! you say; it all sounds so sensible. Perhaps – until you look at what happens when you start plugging in numbers: Once the system as a whole has the slightest downturn, anything you do (adding capacity, removing capacity) can be construed as deepening the perceived loss. Obviously, adding capacity increases expenses; so, logically, the response is to cut capacity; however, when you divide the high fixed costs of the system across the remaining services, the effect is to make those remaining services look even worse. This occurs because attempting to divide relatively fixed costs against a fluctuating demand ignores economies of scale and other non-linear business realities.

This is the same sort of fallacy that leads traffic engineers, and frustrated commuters, to widen highways. The exact opposite of the expectation happens: Widening a highway tends to _increase_ traffic: "...our data suggest the following law of road congestion: adding road capacity will not alleviate congestion on any sort of major urban road or rural [highway]..." ("The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US cities" by Gilles Duranton and Matthew A. Turner, http://www.nber.org/papers/w15376.pdf ) As you may have seen in your city, widening one bottleneck only makes the next one glaringly obvious; widening an interchange only leads to jam-ups at the top of the off-ramp above a traffic light; and so as we spend billions of dollars to "improve" our roads, things only get worse... and ever more expensive to maintain.

Even worse, even the railroads' nonsensical numbers were sliced, diced, and well-cooked. At a 1990s convention of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, I witnessed an Amtrak official, in answer to my question, admitting that expenses were allocated to trains "subjectively." That means that they "felt" that the Sunset Limited should be given the highest per-passenger loss, based on a holistic reading of the numbers, I suppose.

It was more Pullman's and the railroads' failure to come to grips with the accounting principles necessary to continue the business, and less the traveling public's desire for a two-tone Bel Air or a new jet-liner (in the days before ***** "your papers please" security, dangerous irradiation scans, and dignity-crushing body searches) that led to the downfall of Pullman, and the passenger train business in general. Coupled with the traditional railroad mentality of "We've always done it this way" and "The public be damned," [1] the old-style railroad passenger train was an entity that deserved to vanish into obscurity.

Yet this is no damnation of the passenger train itself; only of the way they were run. Although my parents had a fair chunk of their retirement funds in General Motors stock, and lost it all when GM Liquidation Corp. cashed out at the grand total of $0 (zero, zip, nada; and do you think they will ever buy another GM car?) that is a condemnation of General Motors, not of the automobile itself.

Another case in point: The Bell System. Alexander Graham Bell's company prided itself for a hundred years on running the world's best telephone system. By all accounts, they did. However by their "always done it this way" outlook, they failed to see the prospects for what became today's Internet. Indeed they actively discouraged and prevented the early adoption of many technologies which could have brought us an Internet, perhaps in the 1960s or 1970s instead of twenty years later. In this, the "Ma Bell" may have helped cede America's competitive computer and communications advantages precisely by running the best TELEPHONE lines in the world. (See also, "Did Ma Bell Delay the Information Revolution by Decades?" by Mark Whittington,

http://www.associate...revolution.html )

Back at that same 1990s convention, Union Pacific's Tom Mulligan responded to Amtrak's plan to run an express freight service. The Amtrak presentation included a photograph of a U.P. train in the 1950s with numerous loaded express boxcars. Absent from Amtrak's plan, however, was any involvement of the host railroads. Mulligan asked the audio-visual operator to please flip back to that slide, and asked everyone: "What color are those boxcars? Yellow."

Perhaps Amtrak should have involved the freight railroads in their scheme? Hmm. Gene Skoropowski recently summed it up best: "The private railroads are not in the business of running trains. They are in the business of making money. Running trains is simply how they do it. This is the hallmark of our capitalist system."

(http://www.railwayag...-2011-3662.html )

Is the time now right for the start of the new golden age of passenger trains? Will one of Europe's profitable operators run trains here? In what part of this will the host railroads make their money? My crystal ball is a little hazy, but there's a bright light approaching.

[1] Attributed to New York Central's William Henry Vanderbilt in 1883

 

[user 1215]

This Week at Amtrak

Companion Publication to The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail

By D&D Carleton

Proofreading: Black Bear Wordsmiths ([email protected])

Volume 8, Number 20

November 30, 2011

A digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

​

From the Editors…

The President of the United States laid down the challenge, and we at This Week will attempt to answer the question, Where would we be without the national highway network?

Do not ask the question if you cannot live with the answer

“Ask yourselves -- where would we be right now if the people who sat here before us decided not to build our highways…?” - President Barack Obama, address to the U.S. Congress, September 8, 2011

In 1806, just 18 years after ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the Cumberland Road was authorized by President Thomas Jefferson. Construction would begin in 1811 and the full route from Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia would be completed by 1818. This thoroughfare served as a bridge between the Ohio and Potomac Rivers, to secure the flow of goods and people to a growing nation.

Unfortunately, even in those early days, the U.S. Congress did not know when to leave well enough alone. In 1820, Congress authorized an extension westward. Now known as the National Road, it was to run from Cumberland to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1825, Congress authorized the road beyond the Mississippi River into Missouri. The road would not even reach St. Louis. The last appropriation from Congress was made in 1838, construction stopped in 1839, and in 1840 Congress voted against completing it. By this time the road had been turned over to the individual states through which it ran.

The National Road was an early attempt at internal improvement for this young nation. The idea was simple: Build a thoroughfare to promote commerce and thereby grow the nation. Waterways were the main avenues of travel, and where they were not extant, the animal-drawn cart or wagon would have to suffice. But in the middle of the (first) Congressional road building frenzy, the world of overland transportation was revolutionized. In 1825, as Congress was setting its sights on Missouri, the first steam-powered railroad was being built in England. It would not take long for this technology to jump across the ocean to aid a growing nation. By the beginning of civil hostilities in 1861, there were over 30,000 miles of track across the divided nation.

Railroads would bring road building to a temporary halt. It has been said the National Road was both obsolete and premature; the railroads rendered roads with animal-drawn vehicles obsolete; and the mechanized road vehicle would do the same to the railroads. It is the common consensus that railroads are a 19th Century relic. Such is the result of not teaching basic physics to our young.

W=f x d

In physics, the definition of “work” is “force times distance” or W=f x d. This has been true on Planet Earth since day one. Force is defined as “mass times acceleration” (F=ma). For the purpose of this discussion, “force” is the degree of mechanical exertion exercised on an object for movement and the resistance (friction) to such movement. In the days of animal power, mechanical exertion was increased by breeding larger beasts of burden and/or working them in tandem. Resistance was decreased by designing the wheels of the cart or wagon as narrow as feasible where they contacted the riding surface, and smoothing the riding surface (Roman roads, 500 B.C.) to reduce friction. The apex of the animal-drawn load was the tramway, a fixed guideway of a flanged iron wheel riding on an iron rail or strap. Drastically decreased friction of the riding surface dramatically increased the potential load for a given beast of burden. The next step was easy: Mate James Watt’s steam engine to the tramway, and … the steam locomotive was born.

As the industrial revolution continued, technology improved in all aspects, especially metallurgy. It was not long before steel replaced iron for rails, as well as wheels, and just about every other aspect of the railroad. But by the early 20th Century, the strength and machining of steel improved to the point of making the internal combustion engine an economic reality. The Otto and Diesel cycles were established late in the 19th Century but would have to wait until the technology improved to make them viable. Moreover, the fledgling petroleum industry was making inroads into the home, supplying oil for heat and gas for lights. As part of the refinement process, however, they had a leftover waste product for which there was no market. This distillate we know today as gasoline became the primary fuel for the internal combustion engines that would power automobiles and early airplanes. The oil companies were more than happy to sell this stuff cheaper than drinking water. In 1908 Henry Ford’s Model T automobile made driving an option for all Americans. There was just one problem: No roads.

The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1916 provided millions in Federal monies in 50-50 matching funds to the States. By 1917, every state had a Highway Agency to administer the Federal funds. In the economic boom that was the 1920s, sales of affordable automobiles were brisk; 10 million registered by 1920, to over 26 million by 1930. The Good Roads Movement instigated by bicycle enthusiasts toward the end of the 19th Century was now taken up by automobile owners. Many Americans were inspired by the National Park-to-Park Highway after a publicity stunt in 1920, wherein a dozen motorists spent 76 days traveling 5000 miles visiting the then 12 National Parks. It was the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 that defined an immense national highway system. The Auto Trails of the early century gave way to numbered national highways. Initially 50,100 miles were recommended for the new network. In 1925 the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Public Roads approved the new U.S. Highway system with 75,800 miles planned, 2.6 % of the total certified public road mileage of the day.

The Great Depression of the 1930s slowed but did not dampen the national enthusiasm for roads. Automobile ownership increased during the decade, with 27.5 million registered by 1940. In some places, road building was seen as an ideal public works project to spur economic recovery. The building of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a toll road, was signed into law in 1937. The New Jersey Turnpike, another toll road, was first planned in 1938. World War II, the war of machines, completed the mechanical familiarization of the American male. When the boys came home they wanted cars; and the domestic production plants, shifting from wartime to peacetime, were ready to build them. To the soldiers coming home, nothing more personified the freedoms they had defended than the freedom of the open road. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System, the largest public works project in American history.

Physics is still physics

For many, the national highway/roadway network is seen as technology triumphant; however the laws of physics, especially the equation of work-equals-force-times-distance, did not change. It is true that the compact internal combustion engine made possible the conversion of liquid or gaseous fuels into mechanical energy which increased the amount of force available to do work. But so did the external combustion engine such as the steam locomotive. This increase of mechanical exertion, over what had been available with animals, moved transportation out of the exclusive purview of large companies and into the realm of the individual. What made the internal combustion engine practical for general use was (1) the exceptionally low price-per-volume of the fuel, and (2) the density of energy in the fuel. One standard 42-gallon barrel of oil yields the equivalent of 25,000 man-hours of work. This is the equivalent of a workforce of 12 people working 40 hours a week for one year. Compare the market price of one barrel of oil to the payroll of a dozen people for one year, and the energy density of that barrel of oil becomes evident.

Through it all, the American railroads suffered. From the short-sighted Federal takeover during World War I, their subsequent release, over-regulation, the doldrums of the Great Depression, the crush of World War II, their wholesale rejection by the public after the war, deregulation; the railroads adapted and survived. The railroads would embrace internal combustion after the war, adopt mechanization for track maintenance, and ultimately surrender the passenger train to the same socialized ideals that built the highways that carried away the passengers. But they have survived. Why? Because the laws of physics favor railroads. Whereas highways may seem technologically advanced simply by reason of the car being newer than the iron horse, the train is still more efficient. A metal wheel on a metal rail has less resistance (friction) than a rubber tire on asphalt.

Moreover, the railroads are private property, and fund their own maintenance and upkeep; not so the highways, which are reliant on the public surplus. The Federal Highway Trust fund, which is fed by the Federal Gasoline Tax, nearly became insolvent two years ago. Of the $48.1 billion for transportation provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, over half ($27.5 billion) went to highway and bridge construction projects. The Gas Tax, 18.4 cents per gallon, has not been increased since 1993. Any politico wishing to remain employed does not dare raise the tax to a level which may sustain the highway network. Some politicians who are ignorant of how the system works and/or wish to curry favor with their constituents have even suggested abolishing the tax. The tax’s receipt directly correlates to the amount of gas sold, which peaked in 2007 at 143 billion gallons. The level of gas sold in this country has risen slightly off its lows of 2008-09, but the miles of road to be maintained have remained the same. This is no way to run a railroad, thank goodness.

Gasoline is not just a Federal problem. As America moved forward after the war, the construct of daily life was calibrated, perhaps unconsciously, at the costs of the day. As an example, a gallon of gas in 1950 averaged 27 cents. Since then, so long as the price of gasoline remained at 27 cents per gallon corrected for inflation, then the economy hummed right along; 27 cents in 1950 is $2.54 in today’s dollars. In 2006, the price of gas exceeded the price of inflation for the first time since 1984. For the week ending September 16, 2011, national demand for gasoline was 8.858 million barrels per day; the national average cost was $3.601 per gallon. The average daily cost to the consumer for gasoline is $1.339 billion. If today’s gasoline were still in line with the cost of inflation starting in 1950, then the daily cost to the consumer for gasoline would be $945 million. Everyday Americans spend $394 million more for fuel than the cost of inflation. That’s $394 million that, every day, does not go to the purchasing of food or clothes or medicine or just plain “stuff” that keeps the economy moving. Gasoline, it seems, is no longer the unloved byproduct of the refining process.

At the local level, the States are also facing the challenge of funding road repair and improvement. To put all this is perspective, the Union Pacific Railroad’s infrastructure comprises over 26,000 miles of track, bridges, and tunnels. The BNSF Railway is over 24,000 miles. Yet there are four states -- California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania -- that spend more on road projects than U.P. or BNSF Railway spend on track and infrastructure work. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is seeking to long-term lease its turnpike following the precedents Illinois, Indiana, Texas and Virginia. Plans to institute tolls on Interstate 80 were retracted. A deal to lease the turnpike to a Spanish-American consortium for $12.8 billion awaits approval by the legislature. Ah yes, and to think, selling the Brooklyn Bridge was once considered a joke.

So where would we be if the highways had not been built? To say that the highways should never have been built would be short-sighted. But the belief that highways are the final solution to all our overland transportation needs (as espoused in Disney’s television film Magic Highway, U.S.A., 1958) is no longer realistic. The Federal overreach of the early 19th Century was repeated in the middle of the 20th Century. The notion that the open (that is Federally subsidized) road is essential for “the pursuit of happiness” is no more appropriate than a wall telephone in your kitchen being essential to your family's well-being. The pursuit of happiness has never been contingent on overt Federal empowerment.

What is missing, what has always been missing, is empirical balance. It is this balance which is slowly being restored:

"If you think about the pressure a lot of states and local communities have today - they fund many of the programs, the highway infrastructure -it's hard to see where states are going to be able to not only accelerate spending on highways but maintain where it is today. We think railroads can be a part of that solution." - Union Pacific Railroad Chairman and CEO Jim Young

Today, of all intermodal traffic moving over 500 miles, over 30% moves by rail. The goal is to increase this to 50%. Across the country, railroad traffic lanes are being expanded through the investment of private and sometimes public funds. Even though public monies may be used, the resultant traffic will pay for future capital maintenance; there is no regular or return trip to the public trough. The railroads are poised to reclaim their place as the preeminent provider of transportation, both passenger and freight, moving volumes unheard of during the previous Golden Age.

Gasoline, the once-unloved petroleum distillate is now in demand worldwide. As former second- and third-world countries build American-like highways, the demand for fuel builds with them. The price for this fuel is dictated by the laws of supply and demand. As such, we will never see the price return to the low levels we enjoyed for a half-century in this country. We adapted to cheap fuel, we will adapt and are adapting to life with incrementally more expensive energy. Fuel use is down, as are car-miles. Home prices are rising in some places, but not unilaterally. This is where the “distance” part of the equation, W=f x d, comes into play. These are but some of the adjustments we find ourselves undertaking in this new era. Fewer miles driven may be perceived as less freedom, which may also be perceived by some as oppressive. Already there are those of a conspiracist bent who see their cheap fuel disappearing as a result of government or corporate malfeasance. Who ever thought oppression would come at the price of a gallon of gas?

 

[user 1215]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; December 1, 2011

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

 

By J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

 

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

​

 

 

Volume 1, Number 22

 

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

 

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

 

The wise, gray heads in Washington and the railroad world are predicting there will be a railroad strike next week.

 

The final cooling off period in the negotiation between railroad unions and the railroads expires at 11:59 P.M. next Monday, December 5th.

 

After the cooling off period, the railroad unions can go on strike, and, conversely, the railroads can lock out employees.

 

The union participants in this exercise are the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE), and the American Train Dispatchers Association. These three unions make up about 40% of rail labor which is unionized.

 

While it is expected Congress will act quickly to end the strike if it happens, and the financial world is pretty ho-hum about this since a short strike is predicted, and, if anything, a slight dip in railroad stock prices due to a strike would be considered an opportunity to buy otherwise strong stocks at a bargain price for a while, most people don’t realize what this could do to passenger rail operations.

 

The strike would be against the freight railroads; but, outside of the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak operates almost exclusively on freight railroads. The same is true for most commuter operations – passenger/commuter trains on freight railroad tracks.

 

No freight railroad dispatchers because of the strike – it’s likely no passenger trains moving, either. It doesn’t matter if the commuter trains are operated by any of the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators (AIPRO), the commuter trains mostly are on freight railroad tracks. Examples would be Metrolink in Los Angeles, Virginia Railway Express in and out of Washington, D.C., as well as Maryland’s MARC system. Any of the commuter lines in and out of Chicago which operate on Union Pacific or other freight railroad tracks would face the same problem.

 

Then, there is the issue of by law, a secondary picket threat to Amtrak under the Railway Labor Act. An interesting note is any company which is part of the Railway Labor Act – both railroads and airlines – such as FedEx or American Airlines, could be subject to secondary picket threats. While the union employees of those companies may not be a part of the unions on strike, the law allows for secondary picket lines from the striking unions to be set up at those companies. Does anyone think a non-striking union employee of Amtrak or FedEx or American Airlines is going to cross a legal picket line at a crew base or terminal or any other spot where Amtrak and freight railroad operations come together? Don’t think the Northeast Corridor, because it is owned and operated by Amtrak is a non-strike haven. Both CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway operate over parts of the NEC; secondary pickets could technically go up there, too.

 

There are a lot of things which can happen between now and midnight Monday night. Congress may act in a preemptive manner or both sides may come to an unexpected agreement. But, the smart money is betting on a strike, albeit a short one. Watch the progress of this, and check your travel and commuting plans, even your overnight package delivery plans. Things may come to a halt for a day or two or three.

 

[bobnabq]

How long could this strike last, and could it affect the SWC, on which I'm booked for 12/20 ABQ~ L.A. ?

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; December 6, 2011

 

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

​

By J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 1, Number 23

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

Amtrak Chairman of the Board Tom Carper, please call your office. In the next few months, your railroad is about to be in grave danger of disappearing as we know it.

Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman has set in place a plan which is about to cause such spectacular failure, the company may never recover from it.

If you are a member of the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators (AIPRO, www.passengerrail.org) thing are very interesting right now, and there is about to be the largest pool of senior executive passenger rail talent available in the past quarter of a century.

In chaos, there is opportunity. But, the chaos may be too large; the opportunity too convoluted for many to understand. In short, Amtrak appears to be imploding, and Mr. Boardman needs to be replaced at the earliest moment.

Mr. Boardman is currently restructuring (again) Amtrak as a corporation and organization. He recently initiated a not-quite-golden parachute program (think, perhaps, instead, silver parachutes) for non-union employees and managers at Amtrak. Those current ranks number over 3,000 managers systemwide, overseeing a total workforce of over 20,000 employees. None of the more than 17,000 agreement (union) employees are subject to this restructuring.

The word to targeted employees and managers was, we're making it easy for your to take a generous buyout, and, if enough of you don't, you can expect the company will make choices for you that you probably won't like, and not have the benefit of the buyout cash.

This is not uncommon in the corporate world, but, it rarely produces the results hoped for. Here is what one wag had to say about the situation:

[begin quote]

It has been suggested (by a retired, Fortune 50, HR executive with a career specialty in executive development and assessment), namely, Boardman is simply in over his head, the Dilbert "pointy-haired boss." The Peter Principle. This source says what we are seeing is almost always what happens with untargeted buyout offers, because younger, high potential employees see not vacancies up the ladder but a sinking ship, with the buyout simply a bonus for being first into the lifeboat, so they leap at the offer, and older ones just being literally tired of the chaos, of the bad leadership, the bad results, of the hopelessness, of being affiliated with a losing team, so they jump at the offer, too.

What is left is the dregs and the unemployables.

Reportedly, when the Soo Line decided to exit the business, and the ICC balked, they fired the car cleaners. SP replaced diners with vending machines. PC just fell apart.

Maybe Boardman is creating a situation where the national system simply collapses under winter conditions, with no power, no plan, no leadership, and soon no customers.

[End quote]

There are reports of over 150 mid-level and high-level (including some of the senior-most vice presidents in some of the most critical positions on the operations side of the company) managers and executives applying for the program. Some managers have been told their departments are being combined with other departments (at times, some really odd combinations which smack more of bureaucratic empire building rewarding cronies than thoughtful combinations for efficiency), and being told to eliminate up to half of their staffs. Shockingly, many senior safety-related management positions are being eliminated, posing huge questions about conditions for employees and passengers.

Longtime transportation writer Don Phillips, in an online column for Trains Magazine on December 5th, ran a similar story, and Amtrak denied to him any potential safety problems as a result of departing managers.

There is no doubt Amtrak for years has been overstaffed and its management cadre has been overfed. But, when you are choosing which cows to slaughter, you choose a balanced mix which thins the herd, but doesn't endanger the long term viability of the herd by either eliminating all of the males or females. Some reports have told of managers departing which should have been gone decades ago; these very people often created near impossible conditions for other Amtrak managers and agreement employees to function in a positive way. Those will not be missed. But, so many others will be missed in so many ways.

Amtrak appears to be on the path of reckless slaughtering of the herd with no thought for the future.

One wise Washington gray head inquired as to why this buyout scenario is different from the one in the 1990s which caused a lot of very senior people to leave.

The difference is, there was a competent junior varsity team which was close to being ready to step up and take the place of the departing managers. Some of those, who are still with the company, are the ones leaving this time. After all of the turmoil of the past two decades at Amtrak, many of the best people have moved on to more rewarding careers. Once this group of managers leaves, the ranks of managers – particularly on the operating side – are going to be thin.

Causing great fright is the number of competent, well-respected senior managers in the field in places like Chicago and the West Coast which are grabbing the buyout, and are going to leave Amtrak without seasoned field leadership. Too many managers responsible for maintenance and keeping the fleet rolling are leaving, too.

One former senior field manager correctly said, "There was always a good group of people managing in the field; it's always been the few non-operating very senior managers in Washington who have kept things screwed up."

What is going to happen this winter in Chicago when Amtrak can't muster enough locomotives to launch the full schedule of daily trains? Who is going to be there to figure out what to do when most of the Chicago fleet is debilitated by ice and frozen stiff, and there too many cars are bad ordered as a result?

Will Amtrak just do what it did with the east end of the Sunset Limited and simply discontinue trains at will, and, somehow, forget to reinstate them later?

For all of the Boardman years, Amtrak straw men have told us time and again how well things are going, despite the lousy economy. We have seen press releases boasting of record ridership and revenues (while ignoring load factor, the only real metric which matters).

Yet, year after year during the Boardman stewardship, we have seen the operating subsidy rise. This is most perplexing, since Amtrak is not operating any more or longer trains, merely filling empty seats with new riders. No new employees are being added, and, the cost of diesel fuel can't exclusively be blamed.

VIA Rail Canada, a crown corporation, operates very much like Amtrak; it receives an annual operating subsidy from the Canadian federal government, and occasional subsidies for equipment upgrades and other issues. VIA just published a press release saying it has lowered its operating subsidy from the government, while Amtrak says it needs more.

Why? VIA for years has labored under the perception it is one of Canada's worst companies, yet it is making progress. Why can VIA make progress, and Amtrak can't?

It comes down to leadership.

Here are some considerations why Amtrak needs a new president and chief executive officer, and needs one today.

Company performance is abysmal

On time performance systemwide is between 75-80%; Acela has on time performance of 84%, short haul trains less than 79%, and the long distance system of less than 65%. All of this at a time when America's freight lines are not suffering from congestion; freight train interference cannot be blamed.

For the year, there have been over 4,300 cancelled or terminated trains in the Amtrak system. Some of this is due to weather such as blizzards, hurricanes, and major storms. Amtrak usually seems to find any minor excuse not to launch a train from a terminal. The great majority of the time when this happens, an accompanying note says, "no alternative transportation provided." Translated, that means passengers are on their own; don't look to Amtrak for any assistance.

Locomotives out of service regularly hit over the 20% mark; passenger cars, depending on the type of car, 10-14%.

It's election season

Presidential elections are less than a year away. Amtrak usually plays the smallest of small roles in presidential elections. High speed rail, a signature initiative of the White House is on life support. Between Vice President Joe Biden, known in some circles as "Amtrak Joe," and the support the White House has shown for passenger rail, seldom has there been an administration more closely linked with passenger rail.

The Amtrak managers and executives taking the buyout will be gone in 60 days or less; which puts Amtrak in the dead of winter. Give everything another 90 days to fall apart as the company adjusts to the loss of talent, and you're in the final six months of an election year when Amtrak could start making negative headlines.

The current Republican president of Amtrak will be blamed by many, but the Democrat chairman of the board and the board of directors will be the ultimate "buck stops here" figure.

The top contenders for the Republican nomination for president have all indicated they want to end Amtrak subsidies. If Amtrak leadership is allowed to continue on the path they now trod, ending Amtrak subsidies will become an academic debate, as much of Amtrak as we know it today will simply vanish under its own weight of poor leadership.

The big picture on politics

Amtrak's northeast corridor survives mostly based on politics. The states which profit greatly from Amtrak owning and maintaining the NEC all have political clout – but, not enough if Amtrak's national system shrinks from its present skeletal condition. The NEC profits greatly from the political support of the flyover states – which, from the perspective of the NEC, is everything but the NEC states. If there is no Amtrak in New Mexico, why should New Mexico politicians vote to shovel money into the NEC if it's not connected to a national system? Without the long distance system, the NEC is politically and financially doomed. If Amtrak present leadership stays in place, the long distance system is in great peril. More than once, Mr. Boardman has testified before Congress and told members of the media the long distance system is the greatest economic drain on the company, ignoring the financial and political reality of the long distance system.

If Mr. Boardman chooses to allow the long distance system simply wither away thinking it doesn't matter to the overall health and wealth of the company, he chooses to make a policy decision for everyone in the country: long distance passenger rail is no longer desirable or necessary. It should not be up to Mr. Boardman to make such a momentous decision, which in every case would be wrong.

Since out of chaos comes opportunities, the opportunity presents itself for a fresh look at Amtrak and passenger rail in general.

If Amtrak doesn't want to be the nation's long distance passenger train operator, then who would like to take that opportunity and run with it? There are many competent long distance passenger train operators in the world which could bring their knowledge and craft to the United States; some of them are already here in the array of members of AIPRO.

Then, there are the several states

It's no secret among those who keep up with the politics of state supported corridor trains many state departments of transportation would very much like to free themselves from the yoke of oppression having Amtrak as the operator of their state trains. They know as a fact Amtrak is always the most expensive and unpredictable operator of corridor passenger trains, and they know in the next couple of years when PRIIA requirements kick in for states to shoulder more of the burden of the cost of corridor trains, states costs will at least double, if not triple in some instances.

Most of the states simply cannot afford that kind of price hike in this debilitated economy. Amtrak rakes in about $200 million a year from state subsidies. Lose that money and the company really is in a world of hurt. Because Amtrak's headquarters operation is so large and so much of the company's costs are charged to individual states, if state business goes away, the remaining company will be in great danger of survival.

Instantly, some people will say, "Amtrak is the only company with enough equipment to operate most of the state trains, so the states have no choice but to use Amtrak."

Really?

Are you sure?

All through history, too many people have thrown down ultimatums, and been severely surprised at the results. There is enough equipment floating around the previously-owned marketplace which could start replacing Amtrak equipment on some state supported routes. Don't believe for a second railcar manufacturers won't rush in to give aid and comfort to any state which wishes to remove itself from Amtrak's financial clutches.

If the first domino falls, you won't have to wait too long for the rest of the states to figure out what to do. Oh, and don't forget California. Remember the Amtrak California fleet? Amtrak doesn't own those cars and locomotives.

Does Amtrak want a future outside the Northeast Corridor?

Several states and regions have been the recipients of restored or future service studies conducted by Amtrak or the private sector using Amtrak-provided data. Studies have included the restoration of the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans into Florida, the creation of service in Ohio between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, the restoration of the Pioneer route into the Pacific Northwest, and, of late, the extension of existing Heartland Flyer service from Texas and Oklahoma to Kansas City.

One theme has been prevalent in each of these studies: Allegedly, it will take tens – if not hundreds – of millions of dollars for service on any route studied, and the time lines have been measured in multiple years, sometimes stretching to almost a decade.

The ongoing signal has been: we've (Amtrak) conducted this study, but we really don't want to do any new service, so we're making the study results so expensive and unappealing, this will all just go away like a bad dream.

We have seen minimal lip service paid to the equipment needs of trains outside of the NEC. Yes, there has been an order placed for new sleepers, diners, crew and baggage cars for use on the Eastern long distance trains.

But, as was done with the minimal order placed for the original Viewliner sleepers, this new order won't provide much for expansion, and barely keeps up with present demand. As far as bi-level equipment on Western long distance trains, that fleet constantly shrinks through derailments and lack of maintenance. It's been two decades since the Superliner II order was placed, and no help seems to be on the horizon.

Useable older equipment, eschewed by Amtrak in favor of new equipment, has found new homes at VIA Rail Canada and elsewhere, and is still able to provide reliable passenger service when probably maintained. Amtrak a few presidencies ago even sent the entire original Metroliner fleet to the scrap yard for salvage value instead of having the foresight that equipment could have been updated and put to use in proposed corridor services around the country.

VIA Rail Canada, the State of North Carolina and others have taken existing rolling stock, had it completely remanufactured to new specifications and appointments so that it is "Zero Age" – or has the same functionality and projected lifespan as new equipment – at less than half the cost and in far less than half the time as procuring new equipment.

Why has this easy source of rolling stock eluded Amtrak?

One inexplicable act of Amtrak has always (with the notable exception of the Acela equipment) been to outright buy new rolling stock instead of leasing it. Just about every other type of common carrier seeks long term leasing deals on equipment, which always bootstraps itself for making lease payments through daily use. Amtrak always seems content to wait for free federal monies from Congress to buy equipment instead of finding a way from car manufacturers and others which have existing programs in place to provide equipment on a fast, economical, and easy basis.

In summary

The Obama Administration has a huge potential political problem on its hands from an unlikely source: Amtrak. If Amtrak goes much further into the winter season (Winter officially begins on Thursday, December 22nd, but try to convince those who have already been snowed in this year it hasn't already started.) without the necessary management personnel it needs to hold the duct tape and bailing wire together, the system could come to a grinding halt with all of the accompanying negative headlines.

States are already looking for ways to abandon Amtrak for state supported routes in favor of less expensive operators, who are lining up outside of office doors to make their cases.

The NEC does not have enough political clout to maintain the fierce flow of federal monies to the NEC for the advantage of local and regional commuter operators if the political muscle of states being served by long distance trains disappears.

Many simply believe Amtrak is so far gone, it's a hopeless cause. That may be true. But, for all of the tens of billions invested in Amtrak over the past 40 years and with Amtrak's minuscule transportation market share (less than that of motorcycles nationally), the nation's taxpayers deserve a shot at recovering their losses through better leadership and management than Amtrak has today.

Stop the bleeding by changing presidents. Even an interim president could arrive with a fresh set of eyes and make an assessment of what there is left to work with. Find someone from outside of the Northeast Corridor who is able to focus on all of the country, not just the NEC. We in Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, Arizona, Mississippi, and every other state outside of the NEC have as much claim on decent passenger train service through federal efforts as taxpayers of the NEC. To think less is to think less of us outside the NEC as Americans.

United Rail Passenger Alliance has a spiffy updated homepage and some materials on the web site have been reorganized for ease of use. We invite you to visit www.unitedrail.org to see the changes.

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

J. Craig Thorpe, noted Amtrak and railroad illustrator is available for all railroads, railroad-related companies, and organizations for his dramatic illustrations on a custom basis. Mr. Thorpe's impressive gallery of work and contacts for engagement may be viewed on his web site, which is listed below.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; December 16, 2011

 

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

 

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 1, Number 24

​

Founded 35 years ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

Oh, my.

There is hardly anyone left.

Here's today's Amtrak Special Employee Advisory.

[begin quote]

December 16 , 2011 Page 1 of 1

Operating Departments Management Changes

As some non-agreement-covered employees begin to leave the company as a result of taking advantage of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan (VSIP), Amtrak continues to align the organization with the Strategic Plan, and is taking steps to ensure continuity of operations.

Effective today, Chief Financial Officer DJ Stadtler will take on the role of Acting Vice President of Operations, while Controller Gordon Hutchinson carries out the day-to-day Finance duties of the Chief Financial Officer.

In the near future, Amtrak will be actively recruiting to fill the roles of Chief Transportation Officer, General Manager - West, and Central Division General Superintendent. Following that effort, a Vice President of Operations will also be recruited, following today's departure of Jeff Geary.

Senior-level positions — those held by Vice President of Transportation Richard Phelps, General Manager -West Bill Duggan and GeneralSuperintendent Daryl Pesce — vacated as a result of the VSIP are not being immediately filled to enable a competitive job selection process.

I thank Jeff for his hard work and wish him the best in his future endeavors. In the midst of this transition, I want to assure all Amtrak employees that we are being thoughtful and thorough about the changes we're making in the organization," said President and CEO Joe Boardman. "We have very strong operating departments with talented railroaders. While a handful of specific positions may be temporarily vacant, Ihave full confidence that our employees will continue to lead and to help deliversafe and reliable service. Change can be distracting, but I know that you will remain focused on delivering the safe and professional service you deliver every day."

Employees who previously reported to these positions will report directly to DJ Stadtler, as will the Chief Mechanical Officer and the Chief Engineer. In this role, DJ will also be working with managers to develop a structure that is aligned with the Strategic Plan. In the coming days and weeks, DJ will be communicating with employees in the operating departments to provide more information about his role.

Amtrak thanks all of the employees who are leaving the company for their contributions to the company. We wish them well as they start new chapters in their lives.

[End quote]

Okay, let's review.

"... (T)aking steps to ensure continuity of operations." That's not exactly team building and confidence building stuff.

The Vice President of Operations – the Number Two guy in the company is gone.

The Vice President of Transportation – the Number Three guy in the company is gone.

General Manager – West – the guy who runs things on the West Coast is gone.

The Central Division General Superintendent – the guy who runs Chicago is gone.

Over 150 other front line and senior managers are gone, too.

The Chief Financial Officer – the money guy – is now temporarily running operations as Acting Vice President of Operations.

The Controller is now the acting Chief Financial Officer because the real Chief Financial Officer is temporarily the Acting Vice President of Operations.

The money guy is running the railroad, and he's reporting to the guy who has spent the vast majority of his career as a public employee bureaucrat with no railroad operating experience – Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman.

To review from the last issue of Business and Politics, here's what a recently retired Fortune 50 Human Resources vice president, an expert at executive development and assessment had to say and Amtrak's mismanaged Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan:

[begin quote]

... Boardman is simply in over his head, the Dilbert "pointy-haired boss." The Peter Principle. This source says what we are seeing is almost always what happens with untargeted buyout offers, because younger, high potential employees see not vacancies up the ladder but a sinking ship, with the buyout simply a bonus for being first into the lifeboat, so they leap at the offer, and older ones just being literally tired of the chaos, of the bad leadership, the bad results, of the hopelessness, of being affiliated with a losing team, so they jump at the offer, too.

What is left is the dregs and the unemployables.

[End quote]

Time and time again through this agonizing process of the past few weeks we have seen constant emphasis from Amtrak about how it is attempting to improve it's personnel costs through elimination of management positions without a single union employee leaving the company. This is somewhat akin to the constant drumbeat out of Washington that it is necessary to tax "millionaires and billionaires" to balance the budget instead of raising taxes on the middle class.

You can't balance the federal budget solely by taxing "millionaires and billionaires" (or even come close to it), and you can't fix all of Amtrak's problems by eliminating so many management positions without a carefully crafted plan of succession and restructuring in place BEFORE you being the buyout plan.

The ongoing theme for Amtrak for the rest of the year is going to be Chaos at Christmas, and everyone can play, from employees to passengers to host railroads and suppliers.

An incredible amount of human capital, institutional memory, and gained wisdom has walked out of the office door to a relaxing holiday season. Those that are left are probably going to wish they went, too.

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail will have more on this next week.

United Rail Passenger Alliance has a spiffy updated homepage and some materials on the web site have been reorganized for ease of use. We invite you to visit www.unitedrail.org to see the changes.

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; December 19, 2011

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

 

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 1, Number 25

​

Founded 35 years ago in 1976 by the late Austin Coates, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

If Amtrak is going to survive in any semblance of what it is today as a nominal national system, there must be a new president and chief executive officer at the earliest moment.

Current President and CEO Joseph Boardman appears to not only be spinning out of control, but rapidly losing the confidence of many Amtrak stakeholders.

Finding a replacement for Mr. Boardman at this point in the political process is going to be difficult for a number of reasons, mostly related to the timing of the upcoming presidential election.

The best solution is to find a distinguished railroader – similar to the late Amtrak president Graham Claytor – with the ability to arrive in Washington quickly, take control of a company nearly devoid of competent senior operation personnel because of the ill-planned senior management buyout program, and attract other outside talent willing to pitch in on an interim or permanent basis and under his guidance, save Amtrak.

The ideal man is already an important part of Amtrak: Jeffrey R. Moreland, a member of Amtrak's Board of Directors.

Mr. Moreland, 67, is the retired Corporate Secretary and Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and Law of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company, and before that, was BNSF's General Counsel and Chief of Staff. He currently serves as President of Western Fruit Express Company.

There is a long, distinguished railroad tradition of law department vice presidents assuming the top spot in the company. The same path was taken by Graham Claytor to the presidency of the Southern Railway and then retirement and next his service to Amtrak as it's longest serving president from 1982 to 1993, what some would call Amtrak's best period. Most of today's Class I freight railroads have all been helmed by attorneys.

Mr. Moreland's 14 years at BNSF – a railroad everyone considers to be Amtrak's most cooperative host railroad – puts him head an shoulders above any other candidate which may be considered to replace Mr. Boardman, especially any candidate which may emerge from the transit world. Mr. Moreland also has a deep background in corporate finance through service with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If someone has to untangle Amtrak finances and at the same time keep train operations going, he's the man.

It will take the real world railroad experience of someone like Mr. Moreland to grab the Amtrak tiger by the tail and attempt to whip it into shape so there will be an existing company for the stewardship of the next permanent president.

Certainly, Mr. Moreland has the advantage of the other members of the board knowing him well since he began his board service in 2010.

Mr. Moreland is an obvious choice to bring order to the Amtrak Chaos at Christmas.

This can't be a good time to be an Amtrak employee; the cream of the crop – and, some people who really needed to be gone – either took the management buyout offer and have departed, or outright quit to make sure their reputation and careers stayed on track.

More than one source from a host of contacts are confirming President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman appears to be experiencing some sort of difficult time with outbreaks of flying off the handle verbally at any given moment, without provocation. His targets are non-discriminatory – employees are not the only recipients.

Mr. Boardman has had a lot to defend in the past weeks and months.

Earlier this year he made a statement to Congress that the biggest financial drain on the company is the long distance system. Many seized on this as evidence he wants to scuttle the long distance trains in favor of the Northeast Corridor and selected state corridor trains in a disjointed, non-national system.

This discussion simmered throughout the year, but heated up after several weeks into the management volunteer buyout program when most of the top level operating executives chose to take the buyout – particularly in critical safety-related positions – and there was a realization the people responsible for keeping the trains running were all abandoning the company simultaneously.

When this became public, a hue and cry emerged wanting to know what direction the company was taking and what type of strategic plan was being implemented.

As this drama has been unfolding, the reference to Amtrak's "strategic plan" has been constant, but no recognizable strategic plan has been detected.

Which led to this Special Employee Advisory from Mr. Boardman the day after The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail ran a lengthy column about the buyout program and the questionable stability of Amtrak.

[begin quote]

Special Employee Advisory

December 07, 2011

Message From Joe Boardman

Dear Co-workers,

I know that there is a feeling of uncertainty in the air for some of you, and that many of you have questions. I don't have all the answers that many of you are seeking, but I want to tell you where the company is going — knowing what the plan is will at least help reduce some concerns that I have heard expressed.

As you know, our board of directors approved a Strategic Plan in October that sets a new course for our company. I recently asked you to read and become familiar with the Strategic Plan — I will ask you again to do so now — because it is in large part the basis upon which we are bringing change to Amtrak. As we follow it, our company will become stronger, more customer-focused, and more bottom-line business focused. Amtrak can no longer hunker down in survival mode, and we do not need to. We are a critical asset to this nation; we must serve

our nation and our customers well.

Before I get into the changes that I'm seeking, I want you to know that there are no planned or expected service reductions anywhere. Similarly, there are no planned layoffs for agreement-covered employees, other than the normal seasonal adjustments that we go through each year. Nothing different there.

As you know, I am seeking to align how we do business with our Strategic Plan. As I've communicated before, this realignment of the organization will result in a reduction in the number of non-agreement employees across all departments. We are not going to reduce any management forces during the coming holidays, other than those who have elected and have been approved for the recent Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan. A little more than 150 non-agreement-covered people have chosen to leave the company via the VSIP, several of them from the senior ranks of management. On behalf of the company, I am grateful for the contributions that they have made through the years. Many of those among the group were close to making a retirement decision, and this program provided the incentive they needed to make a positive affirmation that it was time. I saw many struggle with that choice, as so many have done in the past when it was time to enter into retirement.

Also, remember that when we released the Strategic Plan, I told you it was developed with significant employee input and that it is a living document — it's not set in stone. A grand plan rolled out all at once does not allow for the creative ideas of those that are out there doing the work, or who have been asking questions for years and have nothing but frustrations left. So that's part of why we don't have all the answers that people are seeking yet.

So far, we have formally rolled out only one part of the Strategic Plan from a Business Line point of view — the Northeast Corridor Infrastructure and Investment Development Business Line managed by Stephen Gardner. Stephen Gardner and team he has assembled is hard at work to make our vision for very high-speed rail a reality and while doing so improving the infrastructure and its capacity in an incremental way. We must increase current Acela capacity, commuter access to NYC and advance the state of good repair of our entire NEC infrastructure with a collaborative cross-functional team of Mechanical, Engineering and Transportation effort that is goal-oriented and customer-focused. Stephen's success will be our success, and he must not be alone in the effort.

As we look at Operations outside of the Northeast Corridor, we need to determine how we minimize costs that are not directly connected with the actual operation of safe, customer-focused and reliable service. Our operations outside of the NEC do not cover their basic operating costs, so the questions we need to ask are how can we do a better job to minimize costs, what can be done differently so that cost is lower without hurting the safety, customer service or reliability? Even more importantly, why are we still doing things in a way that does not take advantage of all the improvements available today? What should we stop doing?

We don't have all those answers, and as I said earlier, no one grand plan is going to give those answers to us. But I do have some answers. We cannot expect a reliable, on-time, customer-focused railroad to operate if there is not dedicated accountability for that. So we will establish a structure that includes a senior-level person who will be held accountable for both cost and revenue, while meeting the standards and the budgets that are set by the Chief Engineer, Chief Mechanical Officer and Chief Transportation Officer. Each of them will report to the VP of Operations. Accordingly, I have asked the VP of Operations to submit his plan for aligning under this structure in early February, and I expect to have given him enough input along the way that it will begin to be implemented by mid to late summer. I expect it to provide fewer levels of management from the top to the bottom, and that will cause an impact to the number of non-agreement-covered positions.

Northeast Corridor Operations is another one of the Business Lines in the Strategic Plan. It will operate differently than the off-corridor structure. The details on that will not come until after the off-corridor structure is set, although once that is known it will help define the boundaries of the Northeast Corridor. So this is an area that will need to wait a while for answers.

There will be one centrally managed Legislative, Government, Policy and Public Affairs function, with a field presence that will keep major contact with our state partners and determines what, if any, planning needs to be done for a customer or state partner. This function has been split up among too many departments, with a lack of focus and accountability. Some of that change has begun with the dissolution of the Policy and Development department. We expect 10 to 15 positions will be eliminated with that change.

In addition, there will be three planning organizations in the company, and they will be relatively small. Facility Planning, which will be within Real Estate under the Chief Financial Officer, will become much more active in proper planning for our real estate assets including our stations. Operations Planning will be placed under the VP of Operations. Strategic Planning, which will be in the President and CEO's office, and will monitor the Strategic Plan, make adjustments to the plan to keep it current, update the plan or help define course corrections early by paying attention to economic and other business trends to keep Amtrak on top of its game.

The Marketing and Product Development department will be less marketing and more sales. Social media will grow along with the use of other more up-to-date methods of improving our service to our customer. Field functions will be part of operations, part of Legislative, Government, Policy and Public Affairs, or will be a targeted sales function with sales goals or will not exist. The distribution function of the commissary will go to Operations but the Menu Development will stay with Marketing. The Call Centers will stay with Marketing, and Marketing will pick up accountability for selling our management services to commuter operations, as well as evaluating and responding to the solicitations for commuter contracts.

There are other changes that will occur as we respond to the requirements of this new direction. It's often said that change is the only constant that we deal with. We see it in our families and we see it in the world around us.

Amtrak costs continue to climb with additional direct salaries and wages, and while some revenue from ridership is up, other revenue like federal operating assistance, is down and that is part of the reason we must make cuts and adjustments to improve our bottom line. But frankly, that is not the primary reason. We must operate a more competitive company and it must reflect the realities of the competitive environment today. We have global competitors coming into our backyard and convincing members of Congress, state and commuter officials and others that they can do a better job than Amtrak. We also are in competition for federal assistance across transportation modes — airlines through the Federal Aviation Administration; highways and the intercity buses through the Federal Highway Administration; transit, commuter rail and buses through the Federal Transit Administration. We also have to compete with the funding for U.S. DOT safety programs, which comes out of the same appropriation funding.

We are making these changes for a stronger future, and yet I know when it affects you directly that high-minded idea gets lost. That's the tougher part of leading change. I've tried to mitigate some of this with the VSIP, giving us some room and also allowing those who have other opportunities to pursue them without hurting the company or the people. That won't be enough, and the positions that have been vacated won't be filled immediately and others will not be filled at all. When you see them posted and you qualify for them please apply, if your record is good and your skills are the ones that are needed, you will stand in a good position to be competitive.

Please be assured that the steps we are taking are designed to preserve and strengthen the important service we provide to our nation. I will keep you updated as we move forward, and thank you for taking the time to read this important message.

Sincerely,

Joe Boardman

President and CEO

[End quote]

Only comrades of the Amtrak Propaganda Ministry and the cadre of Amtrak True Believers didn't go "Huh?" when they read Mr. Boardman's employee communique. It's entirely likely it caused more problems than it solved, and reports from inside Amtrak back up that notion.

A few days later, respected transportation journalist Don Phillips published an online story on the Trains Magazine newswire containing an interview with Mr. Boardman, with him saying no trains were in any danger of train-offs or discontinuances.

All of this was followed by the Friday (December 16, 2011) end-of-the-day additional Amtrak Special Employee Advisory from the Employee Communications department outlining senior management personnel changes.

This communique was featured in the immediate previous edition of The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail of late on December 16th.

So many senior and upper tier managers and senior managers have departed the company that new lines of reporting and responsibility had to be determined.

In was dubbed the "afternoon of the long knives," again Don Phillips also outlined the many changes of the 16th.

One important change was the departure of Jeff Geary, Amtrak's Vice President of Operations, incumbent in the position for just a matter of months. Reports claim Mr. Geary was forced out of his position because he had not moved quickly enough restructuring Amtrak train operations management, and had the audacity to request arrangements be made to temporarily fill some critical management positions now vacant because of buyout departures while the restructuring was accomplished in an orderly fashion.

As a result, Amtrak operations are now under the direction of – and, this is not a typo – Amtrak's Chief Financial Officer. Yes, the guy in charge of locomotives, all rolling stock, equipment maintenance, engineering, and all train operations is the head bean counter.

On top of that, the gentleman now in charge of the Northeast Corridor is Stephen Gardner, the former Vice President of Policy and Development, and, prior to that, a Senate staffer on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Gardner now commands a troop strength of approximately 6,000 employees between Washington and Boston.

On the West Coast, there is apparent good news. At this point, unconfirmed reports place one of Amtrak's very best managers as the man now in charge of Amtrak in California and points north. When this is confirmed, we will talk more about him – a man any railroad would be thankful to have as a senior manager.

We do not know who with what level of expertise will be running Chicago as we are less than a week away from the official start of Winter. An ill-run Chicago can cause tremendous problems throughout the entire Amtrak long distance system because so many routes radiate from Chicago, not to mention state supported trains in four states.

Here is what one passenger rail insider had to say about this mess laid at the feet of Mr. Boardman and where anyone should start to untie the knots of Amtrak operations.

[begin quote]

"One of the easiest and least costly places he could start would be to take his own train operations seriously as a transportation system. This would involve a combination of trivial schedule adjustments (not even speeding trains up or reducing scheduled "recovery time") and operating discipline in order to have many more trains actually connect with one another. To cite just a couple of obvious examples: Why does the northbound Texas Eagle in Chicago not connect to the westbound Empire Builder, or the eastbound Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited to the northbound Vermonter train at Springfield, Massachusetts?

"Another would be to stop his lying to the public and to Congress and restore the Sunset Limited between New Orleans and America's Number One tourist destination, Orlando. This can and should be done with the next timetable change.

"Another change he could institute is to stop the insane regimentation in the dining cars, which exist to serve the needs and convenience of customers, not the staff. There is no reason diners need to operate like Soviet bureaucracies. Hours and services need to be opened up and relaxed, and the all but forgotten breakthrough success of the 24-hour dining car service experiment on the Sunset Limited, in 1999 rolled out to more trains."

[End quote]

Mr. Boardman is not without partners in this mess. Others are looking to the board of directors as a whole under the chairmanship of Tom Carper of Illinois and wondering how much governance and oversight has been occurring. While the calls for Mr. Boardman's earliest possible departure have been growing, the board's collective role is coming into focus, too. A Washington Wag had this to say.

[begin quote]

Indeed, the "cure" for Boardman's departure may be worse than the disease. It comes back to sound governance from those nominally in charge of the company.

Having stuck by Boardman, having made him permanent CEO, having approved the Voluntary Separation plan, and having vetted Boardman's vague "Strategic Plan" for cutting the company to prosperity, how can the Board suddenly now be "concerned" at the departures en masse. Do these people have no shame or an ounce of perspicuity?

[End quote]

People deep inside passenger rail are wondering if Mr. Boardman can hold on even to the end of January, just over a month away. If this was a private corporation with an effective board of directors and stockholders, onlookers would be focusing on the end of December, not the end of January.

If/when Mr. Boardman departs, who other than Mr. Moreland could replace him? The Chief Financial Officer is already the acting Vice President of Operations. Most of the other top people in the company are lightly disguised political appointees from the usual circle of Washington musical chairs who move from government organization to government organization depending on how the political winds are blowing. Some come from District of Columbia jobs, some from local transit agencies, some from Capitol Hill. None are railroaders.

As discussed before in this space, what about the White House? The presidential elections are marching closer and closer every day and this problem is no closer to being solved. Mr. Boardman came to the company by way of his seat on the Amtrak board of directors because of his background as head of the New York State Department of Transportation and as the Administrator of the Federal Railway Administration and a board seat as a result of that position. Is it possible for the board to get it right this time, and appoint the only one of its members who is truly a qualified railroader to run a railroad and not a political appointee? Especially a real railroader – from the West! – who is not enamored with the ongoing pampering of the Northeast Corridor at the expense of the national system.

If you were a qualified railroader without a current stake in the company, how interested would you be in taking over Amtrak permanently at this point? Someone has to stabilize the company and repopulate the critical operations and safety positions before any sane railroader would consider the job. If another transit executive wants the job, plan on business as usual. Amtrak desperately needs a railroader, not a politician.

As the late Austin Coates, founder of URPA in 1976 was fond of saying, "they might as well pull 'em over and park 'em" and the last guy out the door turn out the lights if someone close to perfect can't be found to run Amtrak – and found soon.

United Rail Passenger Alliance has a spiffy updated homepage and some materials on the web site have been reorganized for ease of use. We invite you to visit www.unitedrail.org to see the changes.

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

 

[MrFSS]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; January 3, 2012

 

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

By J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

Jacksonville, Florida • United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] • http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 2, Number 1

​

Founded over 35 years ago in 1976 by the late Austin Coates, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization.

It's crunch time, according to the PRIIA 2008 calendar. The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush put a deadline on when individual states will have to start shouldering more of the burden of costs of state passenger rail services.

No one ever took this deadline seriously (as often happens with Amtrak), and when Republicans in the United States House of Representatives churned out a budget which finally reflected this reality, everyone panicked. Amtrak True Believers were pretty sure the sky was falling and the Earth was rushing up to meet it.

It turned into a financial windfall for dentists throughout the land because so many people were gnashing their teeth over this. Nobody could actually believe the day of reckoning was at hand; everyone thought the funds for Amtrak's budget and state department of transportation budgets grew on trees which were well fertilized and bearing fruit endlessly.

Oops! Turns out money doesn't grow on trees, especially in recessionary times when state budgets are stretched to the limit, and the federal budget only gets by through the liberal use of borrowed money.

As with so many other things in 2011, Congress backed down at the last minute and said that really, they were just kidding about the states having to pony up more money for state corridor trains. It's okay, and Amtrak can once again be a spigot for all sorts of money.

The True Believers sighed a sigh of relief, and got back to more important things, like arguing over what color the upholstery of coach seats was on the 1959 Santa Fe Super Chief.

But, the smart folks at various state departments of transportation took note of this, and the best ones have girded their financial loins for this fight again, soon.

They are the ones who will have state trains which will survive and prosper; they are the ones who are looking at the various member of the Association of Independent Private Rail Operators (AIPRO; www.passengerrail.org) and wondering out loud, what a post-Amtrak world will be like.

After much of Amtrak's critical senior operating and maintenance executives took the last train to Clarksville via a hugely ill-conceived management buyout offered by Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman at the end of 2011, and the few remaining executives are trying to figure out how to run the railroad (Amtrak's current Acting Vice President of Operations is the simultaneously current Chief Financial Officer), there is nervousness throughout the land about the overall viability of Amtrak through the harsh winter months of 2012.

While Mr. Boardman has made a lot of noises about everything continuing as usual, and even sent out an end of the year employee advisory saying overtime for union employees would continue (but, with a cap of $35,000 per individual for a year), more and more people are placing bets on how much longer Mr. Boardman will be running the company and what can be done by his successor to save Amtrak from itself.

As state departments of transportation begin to think beyond the many restrictions of running passenger trains as imposed by the continuing narrow thinking of Amtrak through the years, here are some concepts which are likely to come to light.

Stations

 

Post-Amtrak operators will create more station stops for corridor trains. The whole idea of these trains is to move people efficiently from one station to another, and when you impose radical limits – as Amtrak has – on the number of station stops on any one route, you limit patronage. Amtrak often allows for a single station stop in a large urban area of multiple millions of people, citing the false belief people will drive great distances in their personal vehicles (often, backtracking from their starting point to a train station) to catch a train.

We know there is a huge need for a new assortment of suburban station stops and small town station stops. The false claim passengers won't ride a train because it stops too often is just a repeat of the junk science of the 1950s. People care more about trains departing and arriving on a convenient and predictable schedule at accessible locations than actual transit time.

These new stations and many existing stations will also suddenly be manned by real people, not machines incapable of providing customer service. A smile from a ticket agent and a politely answered inquiry goes much further than punching buttons and jabbing at an impersonal screen on a ticket vending contraption.

New stations will be driven by local governments anxious to cash in on the many pluses of passenger trains; stations will be built and maintained by local governments in the airport model instead of the old railroad model.

No longer will there be startups such as the new service in the Commonwealth of Virginia now under construction between downtown Norfolk and the Northeast Corridor. The new service will depart Norfolk, cross a major river, go through the densely populated city of Suffolk, and continue through a series of small towns until it reaches Petersburg, without a single station stop for nearly 80 miles. While the new service is helpful for denizens of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, it does nothing for the tens of thousands of citizens in Suffolk and along the way, which can only watch a passing trains the way cows in a field do. Towns along the way have fought to have station stops, but have rebuffed to be told perhaps sometime in the murky future intermediate station stops will be allowed. In effect, not only is this saying the residents of these areas are not important, but the potential business they bring is not important, too. This is too much like a government saying it would rather spend more money for train service than allow local citizens to provide their own stations and help pay the costs. Where is the efficiency here?

Length of consists

 

Post-Amtrak operators will plan train consists which can carry a decent number of passengers, not the mini-trains now operated by Amtrak. You need 300-400 passengers per train for it to pay its own way; carrying a dozen passengers 50 miles smacks of horrors of the pre-Staggers Act of 1980 mandates by the Interstate Commerce Commission that railroads must operate trains whether they make money or not.

The states will come to embrace the California model where the state figured out decades ago it couldn't trust Amtrak to market any state supported trains, so the state took it upon itself to market the trains beyond Amtrak's efforts. For years, the state has spent much, much less on advertising in-state passenger trains than it would paying higher rates to Amtrak to make up the difference between the cost of the trains and the revenue generated by ticket sales. This model has worked well in Virginia with the relatively new Lynchburg to the Northeast Corridor service, which in the entire time of its existence has yet to cost the commonwealth a penny in state support to Amtrak because passenger revenue has exceeded expectations from Day One.

At the beginning, refurbished equipment – gutted and rebuilt to current specs so the age of the equipment is effectively zero – will be chosen for service. There is a large pool of sturdy, mostly Budd-built equipment which can withstand many more decades of the rigors of passenger train service (See: VIA Rail Canada and it's Budd fleet, all over a half a century old.) while new equipment is built and put into service. The states, not Amtrak will own and operate through contractors and maintain this equipment for their advantage.

Onboard services

Onboard services will again flourish, and the only consistent aspect will be the inconsistency between services as states decide how they wish to best present passenger train service. No more "one size fits all," and no more automatic "no" to any new and innovative idea.

Corridor trains will all have at least two levels of service, if not three. A standard coach service will be available, and a business class service will be available. For those states really wishing to recapture as much of the passenger rail service as possible, an executive class service will also be available, with private rooms, small onboard conference rooms, and business amenities such as printers, copiers, and simple bindery services.

All seating, from coaches to first class services, will have a different look. No longer will there be long tubes sporting two-by-two seating. Coaches and other cars will be broken into sections for noise abatement and to instigate creative seating patterns. Those wishing for a solitary single seat will have one; those traveling in groups or as families will have seating clusters. The occasional table and refreshment centers will be scattered about, with passengers having access to hot and cold potable water as well as coffee and tea.

The first class services will have a single shower and changing area in those cars, allowing passengers traveling to business meetings to board a train casually and step off a train ready for negotiations.

Wi-fi and power outlets will be available for every seat in all levels of service.

Food service will instantly gravitate away from what is now essentially vending machine food served by a service attendant. The junk science of the 1950s will again be ignored, and full service dining cars, such as on the level of a Denny's, will be offered, providing reliable meals at a reasonable, non-hostage price. The old canard about dining cars always losing money will be quickly banished, and between modern food service techniques for freshly prepared food and modern efficiencies of ordering and service, dining cars will again become rampant. Dining cars will be open from terminal to terminal; if passengers are on the train, they will have the ability to eat and drink.

Lounge cars will be radically different from the bland environments of today. True analysis of costs and passenger needs will redefine lounge car services, and, with a full service dining car open the entire length of the trip, the lounge car will cease to be a primary food source and revert to its original intent of being a place of quiet recreation and conversation, beverages, snacks, and convenient sundries and other items for purchase.

Good onboard services only come from well-trained and well-motived onboard services employees. Employees simultaneously handling several cars are incapable of providing meticulous service. More OBS employees will be needed to fully staff each train so each route can reach its full potential.

You can get there from here

Connectivity, creating a good route and city pair matrix in each corridor will be critical to overall success.

Currently, Amtrak often offers service in single directions, from some sort of hub, but is oblivious to service needs or potential ridership needs beyond defined areas such as state borders. We know travelers have no concerns for state borders; they are only invisible lines on a map.

The State of North Carolina recognizes this, and sponsors the Carolinian, a train which begins in Charlotte, North Carolina and finishes it daily run in New York City. North Carolina allows its citizens and visitors full access to other cities along the way, including stops in Virginia, Washington, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey before reaching the terminal in New York City.

The new thinking will go beyond this.

As an example, the Commonwealth of Virginia has three current state sponsored routes, with a fourth under construction.

The westernmost route follows the long distance route of the Crescent, with a second state sponsored train along part of that route originating in Lynchburg, and continuing north to Charlottesville, Culpeper, Manassas, Burke Centre, Alexandria, and Washington, and further north along the NEC to Boston.

The next route slices through the heart of the commonwealth, with a straight north/south run from Washington south to Alexandria, Quantico, Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Petersburg, then down to North Carolina. This is the route of the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Carolinian, and Palmetto. The state sponsored part of the route is from Richmond to Washington.

The third route follows the same route to Richmond, then veers southeast to Williamsburg and Newport News, the terminal point for Hampton Roads and the greater Norfolk/Virginia Beach area.

The new fourth route will run north from downtown Norfolk on a more westerly route than the Newport News service, and connect to the rest of the Virginia route in Petersburg and continue up to Boston.

Here's the problem: every one of these routes is essentially a north/south route, with no east/west connections. You can't get from Newport News or will be able to get from Norfolk to Charlottesville or Lynchburg, both important cities in the commonwealth unless you ride an Amtrak Thruway bus connection from Richmond. It's at least a two-seat, if not a three-seat ride, and schedules are not very well coordinated.

Managers intent on making passenger trains viable instead of taxpayer dependent will look at a map of the Old Dominion and discover the former C&O east/west main line between Doswell, Virginia – just north of Richmond – and Charlottesville. This is primarily a route which for many years has hosted long trains of empty coal cars. Yet, it connects with the other former C&O route which today hosts the tri-weekly Cardinal through Charlottesville, just north of the Charlottesville station which also serves the Crescent and Lynchburg servce. Scheduling trains from either Norfolk or Newport News to Richmond, Charlottesville, and Lynchburg, or beyond to Roanoke would open up tremendous connectivity opportunities for Virginia travelers which do not exist today. If you want an all-train route from Williamsburg to anywhere on the Cardinal route in West Virginia, unless you want the discomfort of the Thruway bus, you must travel all the way north to Washington to go back southwest to West Virginia.

A connection such as this would not only be a huge boost to the state sponsored trains, but also a great gift for connectivity for the six Amtrak long distance trains involved in these routes, too. Everybody wins, nobody loses in this scenario.

Many other corridors with state sponsored routes have such simple opportunities to greatly expand the potential of their routes, reestablish connectivity with Amtrak long distance trains, and provide popular travel options for passengers – which is really what all of this is about.

It's good to have reservations

 

Amtrak's current reservations system skews heavily towards coach travel; some people are not even aware many Amtrak trains offer business class or sleeping car services. Some live reservations agents act as if they are loathe to talk about anything other than coach seats.

This problem will be solved by contracting with professionally operated reservations services as the airlines and hotel chains do today. Everything can and should still interface with Amtrak's reservations system, but each state will either want their own reservations system or be a part of a pool system with nearby states for maximum efficiency.

How much will all of this cost?

All of this will cost money, but, when you base the cost of ongoing service with a new, efficient operator versus the continuing cost of the consistently highest cost operator (Amtrak) then all of this becomes not only affordable, but in the long run healthy.

Remember, Amtrak accounting is based on losses per passenger. Forever we have heard the more passengers Amtrak carries, the more it loses. There is never any calculations made for efficiencies of volume or quantity – only higher losses because of higher ridership.

In the real world of AIPRO members, high volume efficiencies do count, and count a lot. Plus, none of the new services will have the crippling headquarters overhead Amtrak continually has as a boat anchor around its corporate neck, nor will any of these new operators be saddled with expenses of the NEC which somehow always seem to be spread throughout Amtrak instead of isolated where they belong.

In short, small and efficient operations, similar to those of short line railroad management will be put into effect, eliminating all of the corporate overhead waste which has been a part of Amtrak for decades. Before long, the new operators will have more frequent, longer and better trains, and at a lower cost.

Beyond just train service

 

Many other revenue generating opportunities will be present, as well. Each corridor will be a good candidate for onboard publications such as magazines and route guides, all which can be advertising based.

Seat-back video services can be offered on demand and as pay-ver-view for movies and games, and these same video screens can be used to promote dining and lounge car services as well as upgrades to first class services and other routes. Advertising can be sold to outside parties who will be happy to have captive audiences.

Reservations systems can offer services beyond train tickets; rental car, hotel reservations, even theatre and event tickets can all be offered on a single reservations system with commission fees flowing to the system owner.

Onboard sponsorships can provide revenues; how many coffee or tea makers would like to be known as the exclusive provider of their wares, as well as specialty desserts in the dining car and specialty drinks in the lounge car?

A properly motivated and fully staffed marketing department, beyond standard advertising media efforts, can stimulate group travel (Such as theatre group travel to shows in larger cities; this type of trip would be possible because of most likely increased frequencies by better operators.) or join with organizations such as credit unions to promote passenger rail travel through credit card deals or inhouse promotions for discounts.

The only restriction on other potential revenue related to corridor passenger train service is the restriction on one's imagination and business savvy.

In the end

 

The Great Recession and its lingering effects are going to be positive catalysts for corridor passenger train travel because Amtrak's inability to operate efficiently and in the best interests of its largest customers – state departments of transportation – will force the self-interest of the stewardship of state budgets to look beyond Amtrak to a much brighter future.

United Rail Passenger Alliance has a spiffy updated homepage and some materials on the web site have been reorganized for ease of use. We invite you to visit www.unitedrail.org to see the changes.

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator during the Bush I years, and former Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as the Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver has started a new series of reports, entitled the Gil Carmichael Report, Investing in Interstate 2.0. The reports are free, informative, and a must read for anyone serious about the future of railroads in the United States. Contact the report distributor at [email protected] for your very own copy.

 

[jis]

.... And if pigs could fly .....

 

[user 1215]

The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail; January 10, 2012

A Companion Digest of Events, Opinions, and Forecasts to

This Week at Amtrak

 

By J. Bruce Richardson

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

Americas foremost passenger rail policy institute

 

Jacksonville, Florida United States of America

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] http://www.unitedrail.org

 

 

Volume 2, Number 2

​

Founded over 35 years ago in 1976 by the late Austin Coates, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, New York, and other locations. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents and a compendium of This Week at Amtrak, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

 

URPA is not a membership organization.

 

 

 

Too many people are familiar with the tragedy of co-dependency, an abnormal condition where often a physically or emotionally battered spouse or mate stays or keeps going back to someone who is abusing them. The co-dependent person thinks they are acting and behaving rationally, and they really do love the person who is doing the abuse. Its a sad, sad condition which is heartbreaking for those around someone who is co-dependent, because no matter how much you try and help them, they keep running back for more abuse.

 

Its much like the situation between Amtrak and its legions of True Believers who refuse to see the forest for the trees, and, in many instances, want to embrace something new and better, but are unable to do so because of so many decades of Amtrak and its wholly owned lapdog organizations propaganda which have somehow convinced nearly an entire nation of otherwise rational people to believe Amtrak is the only and single, with no exception choice for passenger rail service in America.

 

Here at Business and Politics of Passenger Rail and sister publication This Week at Amtrak we receive lots of mail after each issue. Every one of us involved in these publications deeply appreciates the time and effort someone takes to send perhaps a quick note agreeing with us, or a longer missive providing some detail as to why we are not only wrong, but obviously it was a result of disagreeable breeding on the part of our ancestors. Then, theres the one gentleman who has the answer to every problem: its all the Republicans fault, no matter what the issue.

 

It doesnt matter what the message, all are welcome and each one is read and internally commented upon. If youre dedicated enough to be a regular reader of this space and wish to comment good or bad more power to you, and thank you for your efforts.

 

What the latest batch of mail regarding the most recent issue of Business and Politics and thoughts about future passenger train operators in a post-Amtrak monopoly demonstrated is how much some folks are like a beaten puppy; theres a ray of happiness just from being a puppy, but a belief nothing can be accomplished beyond what Amtrak deems possible simply because, well, Amtrak has said so.

 

One thing Amtrak has seldom done and everyone who is not Amtrak routinely does is plan for success.

 

Its not a difficult concept or process, it merely requires a positive disposition and the ability to think like a rational business person.

 

If you are a true student of passenger rail, and you do your own research and draw conclusions with an open mind, then everything proposed in the last issue of Business and Politics is not only possible, but desirable. Most of the items related to improved customer/passenger service, where the needs of the current and potential passengers are forefront, as opposed to the needs of the company.

 

When passengers are happy, they return.

 

One gentleman correspondent pointed out that concept isnt working very well for the airlines, so why should it be expected in passenger rail?

 

An excellent point. Let us digress for a moment.

 

In the early days of air travel, until the arrival of the airline knows as Peoples Express, air travel was considered an occasion for good customer service, dressing well for travel, and high expectations of comfort and reliability.

 

The, Peoples Express arrived, bringing Greyhound-style service to an airport near you.

 

From that point on whether by great coincidence due to changes in society or the opening of the floodgates flying started to become more of a chore than a pleasure. From the last days of the venerable Eastern Air Lines with its surly cabin crews, to the constant downgrading of personal space as seats kept getting smaller and smaller and leg space pretty well completely disappeared, to the cattle calls of Southwest, airline travel simply deteriorated as a travel experience. Add the tender ministrations of the Transportation Security Administration when it checks every grandmother in a wheelchair to see if shes a terrorist, and air travel is hardly bearable.

 

Which is why there is such a huge opportunity for passenger rail travel.

 

Despite the fact some passengers on Amtraks Northeast Corridor who are professional worry-warts fret constantly every passenger isnt screened for terrorist devices (an always comical suggestion), passenger train travel has the ability to be very pleasant, from start to finished, especially when a well-prepared crew is aboard.

 

This is a major marketing and sales point that is a gift from the airlines to passenger trains, and not to be taken lightly.

 

The other obvious advantages of trains: walking around space, dining and lounge cars, easy handling of excess baggage, the ability to create multiple classes of service on each train, and, of course, the ability to serve cities and towns in the middle of town, not some far-off former corn field that has become an airport miles out of town, all make creating a pleasant and marketable experience for train operators.

 

The other trick in planning for success is planning for realistic marketing. Amtraks allocation of resources to marketing is so small, in many parts of the country where the companys best performing trains serve, there is no marketing at all. Amtrak remains Americas best kept secret.

 

Planning for success includes planning for robust marketing and sales.

 

One Business and Politics reader brought up the question of Amtrak having multiple frequencies on each of its existing long distance routes. The huge advantages of this are obvious, from the spreading of station costs across more frequencies to more and better travel choices for passengers are just two.

 

But, Amtrak True Believers and the various WOLOs instantly point out at least a dozen bad reasons why this cant be accomplished, from no equipment available to the host railroads would never allow it.

 

Both of those excuses are right up there with the standard Amtrak excuse, the dog ate my homework.

 

No equipment available? Find some to lease, or place an order with a car builder for leased equipment. Thats what the airlines do; why cant Amtrak?

 

The host railroad wont allow it? The law says they have to allow it; everything comes down to a matter of negotiation.

 

Why are Amtrak True Believers and WOLOs so very timid when it comes to Amtrak or passenger rail expansion? Everybody claims they want more trains to more places, but throw up their hands in despair when it comes to figuring out how to do it.

 

The corporate mind-set at Amtrak is to maintain, and not do much more. The past half a dozen Amtrak presidents have all talked about maintaining the long distance route networks, but rarely have talked about expanding that network. Why? The old chestnut about no money for expansion? Did anybody ask anybody about that? Did Amtrak management EVER go to Congress with an aggressive plan to expand the long distance system as we know it today, along with a financing plan and say, Mr./Ms. Banker (Member of Congress), we have a plan for expansion which will benefit you and your state/district, and wed like to discuss how to make this a reality.

 

Heres another example of the mind-set which has been created.

 

Here in Florida, debate has been going on for three gubernatorial administrations about restoring passenger train service to the Florida East Coast Railway route between Jacksonville and West Palm Beach. Its the fastest, straightest route to Miami and the riches of Floridas Gold Coast. Passenger service has been missing since the violent, bomb-infested strike of the early 1960s. Before the strike, the FEC hosted all of the Miami-bound Atlantic Coast Line streamliners including the East Coast Champion and the seasonal Florida Special, as well as the Havana Special (pre-Castro), and the Chicago/Midwest trains, the Dixieland, South Wind, City of Miami, and Royal Palm. This is a railroad which was principally built for passenger business, and entire cities all along the Florida coast were developed for the winter tourist trade.

 

The State of Florida has put up over $100 million to make this happen. Two levels of service are proposed; extending one of the existing Florida service trains over the route by splitting it in Jacksonville, and then intra-Florida service between Miami and Jacksonville.

 

The Florida Department of Transportation has taken a somewhat relaxed public view of all of this, and appears content to allow Amtrak to make a series of demands for this new service without objection. The FDOT seems to believe its only obligation to the taxpayers of Florida is to be a money conduit for state funds.

 

There seems to be very little interest in establishing this service independently, even though the FEC is a well-run, well-managed railroad, and could probably operate the service at a lower cost than what Amtrak will try and extort to start the service.

 

Never forget that in any given situation when it comes to corridor or regional service, Amtrak is ALWAYS the highest bidder to operate a service.

 

Here in Florida, nobody seems to be chatting with any of the members of the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators (AIPRO, www.passengerrail.org) to see if some sort of hybrid service can be put together, with a lower cost operator of intra-state service, and still being able to host an Amtrak long distance service. Why is this?

 

Planning for success is not difficult, and its a rational thing to do. Its taken 40 years for the national mind-set to come to incorrectly believe only Amtrak is capable of running a passenger train in these several united states. How long is it going to take to wake everyone up and realize the potential opportunities are nearly endless?