URPA Newsletter

[saxman]

Not too much different than what the Freights have done on a daily basis. I remember sitting outside of Little Rock for 6 hours, because of "congestion." We sat 5 miles outside of San Jose for "track repair," for nearly 4 hours.

 

[George Harris]

After reading this it makes me wonder if frontal lobotomy is a requirement for employment at Amtrak and Union Pacific. I would not even try to discest the overwhelming lack of sense displayed by all involved. - that is except the local people in Logan County.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; December 21, 2006

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 50

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is a

nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans for

passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville,

Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California,

Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Tennessee. For

more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and

other documents, 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.

SPECIAL NOTE: This is the 50th and final TWA for 2006, unless breaking

news warrants publication between now and the first week in January,

2007. Thank you for reading and contributing to TWA in 2006.

1) For the last two weeks here at This Week at Amtrak, not to be confused

with Amtrak This Week, which is published by Amtrak for its employees

each week, we have been taking a weekly look at how Amtrak in Chicago

handled the early winter storm that blew through the Midwest in recent

weeks.

We have noted how this year, Amtrak Chicago has been well prepared for

the first winter storm from a mechanical standpoint. Unlike years past,

mechanical issues were not the problem when things got below freezing in

the Midwest.

We have also noted the fallacies of Amtrak's centralized national

operations control center in Wilmington, Delaware, and, as is so often

the case, for any stranded trains and passengers in what CNOC considers

"bow and arrow country" (defined as anything west of Harrisburg,

Pennsylvania, and south of Washington, D.C.), the cavalry is pretty slow

to come to the rescue.

The statement about CNOC stands, but it should be noted some Amtrak

managers have pointed out in the particular situation regarding the

Midwest storm, two other factors came into play.

First, Union Pacific Railroad, once upon a time, a long time ago, one of

the premier passenger railroad in the country, and today, often Amtrak's

worst nightmare (in recent years, a company spokesperson for Union

Pacific labeled passenger trains "novelty transportation"), kept telling

Amtrak during the storm the railroad, while temporarily blocked by

falling trees and other problems, would be open soon.

As far as we know, Union Pacific Railroad never told Amtrak not to

dispatch trains from Chicago to various points in the Midwest while the

storm was howling through the countryside.

Second, some of the Amtrak Central Division trains, headquartered in

Chicago, are dispatched by Amtrak personnel in Chicago. While the Chicago

dispatchers knew the trains sent out early in the day were stranded along

the way, they kept sending trains out while they were under the

impression that Union Pacific Railroad was, indeed, going to clear the

railroad and keep things fluid.

So, there is enough sin here to go around for everyone. CNOC didn't keep

tight enough reins on things and make sure employees on the trains had

proper coverage and replacements when necessary, along with enough busses

for stranded passengers. It was up to non-Amtrak local emergency

personnel to yet, again, bail Amtrak passengers out of a dangerous

situation.

Union Pacific Railroad kept an optimistic eye on things, but didn't

perform in clearing tracks, even when they said the tracks would be

cleared. In the face of such a strong storm, that is no surprise, but

someone should have said, "it's doubtful the railroad will be open"

instead of saying the tracks would be cleared under probably impossible

conditions.

Amtrak Chicago dispatchers should have used a few more grains of salt in

their decision making sending out later trains, even though UP said the

railroad would be open. If the early trains were not getting through,

chances are the later trains would not, either.

2) Perhaps some of the changes needed to solve problems like those noted

above are in the works. New Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant has

given the nation an early and worthy Christmas present with a long

overdue housecleaning at the upper levels of Amtrak management.

While it is always sad when someone loses their job, particularly at this

time of year, sometimes for the good of all, it must happen.

Notably gone are former head of marketing Barbara Richardson, and former

head of corporate communications William Schulz. With the exit of these

two executives, Mr. Kummant will be able to put a new, positive face on

Amtrak's message to the public, its passengers, and the news media. Two

executives closely intertwined with the Northeast Corridor are gone, and

replacing them is the hope a new message will be crafted that Amtrak's is

America's passenger railroad, not the Northeast - and then America's -

passenger railroad.

In the past, Amtrak's sales and marketing budget has been about $75

million dollars a year, roughly half of what it should be for the

revenues Amtrak generates before state and federal free monies are

included in revenue figures. The result of this, along with unfathomably

bad marketing strategies, has been that Amtrak is America's best kept

secret. Hopefully, a new head of marketing for Amtrak will be able to

quickly prove that a prudent investment in national marketing will erase

Amtrak's secret status, and the true demand for passenger train travel by

Americans and visitors to America will quickly come to the surface.

From a corporate communications (or public relations, as it also entails)

standpoint, Amtrak regularly misses huge opportunities to be innovative

in the news media from a feature story standpoint, and seems content to

only focus on damage control that has been caused by its previously

annual begfest for public monies. Corporate communications/public

relations is an art that can prove to be not only fruitful in results

when applied correctly, but can often be as, or perhaps more, powerful as

paid marketing campaigns.

Also gone is Amtrak's chief financial officer, with no permanent

replacement named. Again, this is a key position which must be open to

innovation as Amtrak moves to improve its financial reporting system. It

is much more critical to have someone who will not say "but, we've always

done it that way!" versus someone who wants to maintain the status quo.

Replaced is the head of Amtrak's legal department. The departing chief is

staying for 90 days to assist in the transition, and Eleanor Acheson, a

former assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration will be

the new legal boss.

Al Broadbent, the chief risk officer is gone, and replaced by James

McDonnell.

In an interesting move, the vice president of planning, Paul Nissenbaum,

has been replaced by Roy Johansen, a management consultant, and the

former VP is finishing some projects and later moving to another

executive position in Amtrak. This will be the first time in a long time

someone from outside the company - presumably without an agenda or

previous alliance other than that directed by the board of directors and

Mr. Kummant - has been in charge of shaping Amtrak's future.

Also gone is Tom Schmidt, the top transportation officer, who just joined

Amtrak earlier this year from CSX. This is surprising, considering his

short tenure, but comments have been made that since he was brought in by

Amtrak's recently departed acting president, he did not have much of a

constituency at Amtrak.

The chief customer service officer, Emmett Fremaux, will now report

directly to Mr. Kummant, and will now also have marketing and sales

reporting to him. Perhaps a notable change in Amtrak's corporate culture

and presentation to the traveling public would be to get rid of the

annoying phrase and title "customer service," and replace it with

"passenger service." Amtrak doesn't have customers, it has passengers.

The only customers Amtrak has are those who purchase services from Amtrak

(such as the commuter railroads who buy the service of Amtrak's operating

crews) and those who use what is left of Amtrak package express services.

Everyone who rides on a train is a passenger, not a customer. Thinking -

and using - the concept of "passengers" distinguishes Amtrak from all

other businesses, and focuses on its main reason for existence, the safe,

comfortable, reliable, and expedient carriage of passengers.

Everyone who is a close Amtrak watcher knows these first and important

changes should be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We all wait in

breathless anticipation of the many more needed changes to occur, on

behalf of the American taxpayer and Amtrak passengers.

3) Amtrak This Week, Amtrak's in-house employee publication for December

18, 2006, notes that an agreement has been reached with the TCU (union)

and Amtrak about new call center employees.

Amtrak had been studying the idea of outsourcing call center

(reservations center) work to save money. This new agreement solves that

problem, and keeps all call center activities in-house. Existing call

center employees will continue at their current wage and benefit levels,

and part-time employees may continue their employment at Amtrak in their

current status. However, new call center employees, hired after January

1, 2007, will be hired at a reduced wage rate to align that cost with the

rest of the domestic call center industry.

Amtrak has agreed not to outsource the call center operations for five

years, unless at least six months' notice is provided before or after the

end of the five year period, if the company chooses to outsource.

This agreement is a wonderful example of a company and one of its unions

working together to meet the needs of everyone. Current employees lose no

ground, new employees come in at a more reasonable rate for the company,

and everyone meets their goals. It's a win-win.

4) Amtrak is ending calendar year 2006 with the largest board of

directors it has had in years. There are six members, Chairman David

Laney, and R. Hunter Biden, Floyd Hall, Donna McLean, Mary Peters who is

the new Secretary of Transportation, and Enrique Sosa. Joining the board

ex-officio and non-voting is President and Chief Executive Officer Alex

Kummant.

5) The December edition of Amtrak Ink, the multi-page, monthly Amtrak

employee newsletter, features a front page story that shows why the head

of Amtrak's corporate communications department is mercifully departed.

The story is about a new effort to seek partnerships to rehabilitate many

of Amtrak's passenger stations. Considering the importance of this effort

about Amtrak station rehabilitation from a standpoint of the company

financially, how it will have a very positive impact on passengers

(again, the reason for Amtrak's existence), and how it will help promote

new business, one has to wonder why this has not been picked up by the

news media. But, if Amtrak hasn't told anyone, then it's no surprise this

is an unnecessary secret. Here's the story.

[begin quote]

Web Site to Generate Investment in Station Rehabilitation

Leading the effort to bring together public officials and business

communities across the country to revitalize train stations, Amtrak

launched its Great American Stations Web site this month.

Acting as a central point for a range of station-related information, the

site provides information and resources associated with station

ownership, links to information about the Americans with Disabilities

Act, background about potential funding sources for rehabilitation and

upgrades, and advice on how to get started on renovations.

According to the site's editor, Suzi Andiman, the site is designed to

foster partnerships with local communities to make investments in

stations.

"Many stations are in need of renovations that could greatly benefit not

only the local community and traveling public, but also serve as an

economic development engine in the heart of a city or town," said

Andiman.

In addition to the site serving as a resource in and of itself, Amtrak's

own know-how is being made available to communities who want to learn

more about reinvigorating their stations. To that end, jurisdictions may

direct their station renovation-related questions to Government Affairs

department field directors. While Amtrak actually owns a relatively small

number of stations around the country, its employees have a great deal of

experience and knowledge to offer localities.

While the site was launched featuring the stations along the Empire

Builder route, it will ultimately feature all of the stations Amtrak

serves.

"As we build the site on a route-by-route basis, we have the opportunity

to really tailor it to the needs of its end-users," said Senior Director,

E-Commerce Kathleen Gordon. The site will be continually updated with new

routes; the California Zephyr is next.

The site also has the potential to become a great tool for the company's

departments, as it provides useful station information in one central

location. The site is found at www.greatamericanstations.com

The core members of the team that developed the Great American Stations

Web site reflect the multi-department collaborative effort behind the

endeavor. Accomplished mostly in-house, the project required

contributions from the E-Commerce, Amtrak Technologies, Government

Affairs, Customer Service and Corporate Communications departments.

[End quote]

6) A traveling URPA member who is a hardcore airline road warrior had an

opportunity to take a round-trip ride on Wondertrain Acela earlier in

December. Here is his report.

[begin quote]

I got to use Acela trains on a recent business trip. I arrived at Penn

Station New York at 5:25 for 6:00 P.M. Acela 2119 to Washington. I stood

in the ticket line behind 20+ passengers, with just two agents at peak

Tuesday rush hour. They were in no hurry the line is glacial. I boarded

with five minutes to spare, find the "quiet car," and get settled.

Train leaves on time, moves three car lengths, stops, then lurches

through the track ladder to the Hudson tunnel. The train is 80% full. The

conductors enforce the Quiet Car rule: no cell phones, no loud talking.

Through Secaucus Junction on rough track at 55 MPH. Trucks are very

noisy. Quiet Car rules don't seem to apply to the conductor's radio. Trip

to Newark very ordinary: rough, and not very fast.

Leave Newark down :02 after 90 second stop, and car fills up. Beyond,

track is much smoother and very fast, but still very rough by European

standards and not at all like a Superliner at 75 MPH on welded rail on

BNSF. Way too rough to write on fold-down table. Hard even to read.

Meets with northbound trains produce loud jolts.

Arrive Philadelphia at 19:05, many passengers off, few on, leave on time

at 19:07.

Time for dinner. I walk one car to the snack car. Typical Amfleet-like

environment, but NO LINE. No one on this train is buying food and drink!

The only seating is at awkward bar seats for about seven passengers.

Space is mostly taken, but by laptop brigade, not diners. For $13.25 plus

$2.00 tip, I buy a tasteless turkey hoagie (no lettuce or veggies), chips

and a miniature white wine, all served up in the usual brown paper box.

Design of service area requires lots of wasted back-and-forth motion by

the attendant. The wine is okay. The food would be better at Subway at

$4.00. No space at the sterile bar area, so I bounce back to coach. This

is not the diner on the Congressional Limited! 19:25 arrive Wilmington,

60 second stop. Several off, nobody on. Car now 60% full. Leave on time

at 19:26. Track is back to being too rough to write. Lots more curves

here. Bathroom doors are hard to lock, hard to unlock. Interiors are

weirdly designed (is that Bombardier's doing? Or, Amtrak's?) In the

coach, you can't take trash to the bin without making the automatic car

doors open. At least the overhead bins are big which is a good thing

because the car-end luggage racks are tiny.

20:05 arrive Baltimore. Several more off, nobody on. 20:07, leave

Baltimore two mins early. 20:10 arrive BWI: another half dozen off,

nobody on. 20:20 leave BWI one minute early. Quiet car now 25% full.

20:40 arrive Washington five minutes early. As a corridor train, this was

okay, but no big deal. Speed was not apparent, and below Philadelphia,

train was very lightly loaded. But the "normal" hassles of flying were

missing: Snarly TSA snoops, cramped, dirty, dry airplanes, multiple

lines, cramped center seating, long, expensive taxi ride to/from airport,

airline peanuts and $5.00 beers, abusive airline ticketing policies, air

traffic control delays.

The next day I rode Acela 2166, the 1:00 P.M. train from Washington to

Providence, in first class.

First class has the same seats, but wider spacing. Two attendants work

the car, which is half full; it was never full except New York to New

Haven. Very polite, attentive service, like good airline domestic first

class. Lunch menu offers choice of turkey hoagie or shrimp Caesar salad,

wine included. Like good airline first class in quality. Dinner choice of

meatloaf, chicken gumbo, veggie lasagna, with free wine and cocktails.

Cell phone talkers show why the Business Class Quiet Car is nice idea.

Employee - customer ratio here is much higher than on a Superliner train,

even in the sleepers.

Just as rough as last night. Daylight reveals that parts of the NEC look

better at night.

First class is a real step up, but worth the price?

My impression from observing loads and turnover: passengers view Acela

NOT as "very fast" (who knows? Cars don't have speedometers) but merely

as a limited-stop "express service."

[End quote]

7) Again, this Christmas, we thank and honor all of the Amtrak employees

who will be working and away from their families this busy Christmas

season. While many of Amtrak's host freight railroads will have freight

operations shut down for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Amtrak will

still be running, "having the railroad" to itself without freight train

interference. On those trains will be many employees making sure their

passengers are having a safe and pleasant Christmas journey. In addition,

there will also be operations employees, dispatching, commissary,

ticketing, reservations center, station, and many other areas where, on

December 25th it will "just be another work day." Thank you to each one

of those employees who will be working so the trains will continue

running and taking holiday travelers to their destinations.

8) And, finally, to the 84% of Americans who are Christian, "Merry

Christmas!" To the two percent of Americans who are Jewish, "Happy

Hanukkah!" To the other 14% of Americans who are of other religions, or

no religion, Happy Holidays!"

The will end the year for This Week at Amtrak. See you again the first

week of January, 2007. Thank you for reading and commenting on TWA in

2006.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

mailto:[email protected]

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; January 9, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 1

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is a

nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans for

passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville,

Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California,

Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Tennessee. For

more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and

other documents, 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.

1) Welcome to another year of This Week at Amtrak. We hope this will be a

positive and eventful year for all parties concerned.

2) Harrumph. Amtrak finally ... finally ... got a major puff piece out of

the national news media on ABC World News Sunday night (January 7, 2007)

and the people who don't understand Amtrak and the realities of passenger

rail travel are acting like the Republic is about to fall.

In his popular Reporter's Notebook series, ABC correspondent Bill Redeker

actually did some homework and, even more astounding, actually took a

ride on two Amtrak long distance trains to find out what is going on in

the dining cars with simplified dining car service.

Mr. Redeker, unlike most of the national media, actually seems to

understand something about long distance train travel. To add to the

positives, Brian Rosenwald, the man who invented the modern Coast

Starlight, and is currently Amtrak's senior director of customer service

(who, in reality, for all of those of us who know and respect Mr.

Rosenwald and his work, should really be the Vice President of Customer

Service instead of in his present job, and, just to make the point again,

the job should be titled Vice President of Passenger Service, since

Amtrak has passengers, not customers) went along for the ride and did a

good job of explaining things to ABC's Redeker.

Ignorant critics are crying foul, because the story focuses on the

ongoing saga of the disappearing dining car instead of how much free

federal money Amtrak receives every year.

What these ignorant critics don't understand - it's impossible to believe

this learning curve is so hard to comprehend - is the uniqueness of

passenger train travel, and beyond competing in some commuter markets

like Washington, D.C. to New York City, there is NONE, ABSOLUTELY ZERO

competition or cross elasticity between jet airplanes and long distance

passenger trains. The only similarity between the two modes consists of

the fact that both are commercial common carriers, and both have

departure and arrival terminals. Beyond that, you are talking about two

unique forms of transportation with unique markets and unique benefits.

That's it. Any comparison beyond that is invalid and unworthy of

intelligent conversation.

As an example, on the subject of compensation for lounge car attendants,

the critic tried to compare the salaries of lead service attendants in

Amtrak lounge cars with flight attendants, noting that the average LSA

makes about $7,000 a year more than the average flight attendant.

So? What's your point?

Flight attendants have one set of job requirements, and lounge car

attendants have another. Flight attendants spend every night in a hotel

or motel room when on the road working their flight schedules, and LSAs

spend work nights in a crew dorm, and have to make their own beds. By the

way, that $7,000 a year differential works out to a difference of $135 a

week, which isn't much money. As far as the invalid comparisons between

Amtrak dining car employees and typical restaurant workers, that

comparison is even more frivolous. Restaurant workers seldom work all

three meals a day as every Amtrak dining car employees does, and, again,

they go home at night, where dining car employees retire to a small

cubicle only the size of a small bed, with no in-room plumbing.

Yes, Amtrak pays its onboard employees more than supposedly comparable

jobs off the train. But, in most cases, those land-based employees don't

have the level of skill and safety training that Amtrak employees have,

and the chefs and cooks aren't working in a moving, rocking kitchen where

even a minor derailment can mean a scalding death or disfigurement.

Think, too, about the just past holidays. If an Amtrak employee doesn't

have much seniority, they are going to be away from home and family and

children for most holidays, instead of at least waking up in the same

house as their families.

Mr. Redeker's story was noteworthy. Even though it had the usual lines

about Amtrak losing money, at least it didn't make viewers believe Amtrak

was headed for oblivion and wouldn't be running the next time someone

wanted to ride a train. Small steps are important steps.

3) It's notable for the record that last month, during the first heavy

Denver snowstorm, Amtrak's California Zephyr - the only Amtrak train

serving northern Colorado - kept on running while Denver's famed airport

was completely shut down, and highways became impassable for automobiles

and trucks. Yes, the California Zephyr ran 10 hours late, but it kept on

running. The Zephyr operates over BNSF tracks between Chicago and Denver,

and Union Pacific tracks between Denver and Emeryville, California (the

San Francisco Bay area).

4) We are all awaiting the naming of a new Amtrak vice president for

marketing, and a new head of corporate communications. Together, they

will craft Amtrak's public and marketing image, and hopefully, start to

tell the Amtrak story as it should be told, versus the constant-crisis

viewpoint which has been incorrectly presented in the past.

When you have about half of the marketing money to work with that a

normal company the size of Amtrak has, you have to be clever, and use all

available resources to their maximum potential (not to mention the

occasional raiding of someone else's budget for a good cause).

In the past, when promoted properly (that translates to outside efforts

by public relations professionals instead of Amtrak's usually dismal

inhouse efforts), equipment displays have been huge public draws in large

and small Amtrak cities and towns.

Here are the requirements: a house track at an Amtrak station (so as to

not foul the host railroad's main line), a locomotive, and "one each" of

whatever type of rolling stock is to be on display, such as a diner,

lounge, coach, and sleeping car. Add a few onboard crew members acting as

tour guides, and some folks in the diner whipping up some inexpensive

free food, and you produce a crowd of people highly curious about the

state of train travel in America.

A number of years ago, this type of equipment display was done in

Orlando, Florida. The result? A reported 10,000 people walked through the

train. In Memphis, Tennessee in 1999, another 10,000 people walked

through a Superliner trainset on a sunny Saturday. In February 1999, in

small Charlottesville, Virginia, in less than three hours, over 1,000

people toured a Superliner trainset.

What is important to this is that potential passengers actually get to

visit and experience passenger train equipment, and understand the

facilities and amenities. A first hand look often means a sale, and every

time these types of events are held, ticket sales increase.

For an ambitious marketer, every station in the Amtrak system with a

house track is a potential equipment display site. It's cheap marketing

(especially if you can steal some funding from the operations department

to pay for OBS salaries and train miles), and it's highly effective

marketing. It's the type of plan Amtrak needs so it can reintroduce

itself to America.

Here's an idea which will make the bean counters and lawyers cringe. Make

it widely known in the advertising world and movie and television

production worlds that Amtrak is changing its long standing policy of an

automatic "no" to any request to use Amtrak trains and equipment in

movies or television shows or advertisement, and make a trade: use of the

equipment for prominent, realistic. and truthful display of the company

name and logo as part of the movie, television, or advertising

production. Charge a small fee to cover some out of pocket expenses for

Amtrak, but make the hallmark of the deal the use of the equipment, name,

and Amtrak logo. This instantly becomes free advertising for Amtrak,

piggybacking on someone else's corporate advertising budget, or someone

else's movie or television production budget.

More importantly, it keeps Amtrak from remaining America's best kept

secret. Amtrak could double it's marketing and advertising budget (a good

idea, but probably not realistic at the moment), or it can be clever and

find ways to use its current assets for future promotions.

It's time for Amtrak brass to stop thinking about all of the

inconvenience of sharing its goodies with the public, and think about all

of the benefits to be accrued for just following simple public relations

strategies.

5) Back in the halcyon days of the Sunset Limited and City of New Orleans

Promotional Office, when Amtrak corporate communications and marketing

was described as grim and grimmer, we did something very unusual. We

actually contacted local and national publications (and broadcast media)

and pitched story ideas to them. We didn't believe Amtrak should be

America's best kept secret, so we plunged wildly ahead and threw out

story ideas for consumer and professional travel publications, bridal

magazines (take part of your honeymoon on Amtrak; some were interested in

this as a new and novel idea), and regional magazines such as Southern

Living for stories on regional trains like the Crescent, which served

regional food in the dining car.

What most people don't realize is that media editors are always open to

any new and good idea. Those millions of pages don't get filled up by

themselves, someone has to actually plan what is found on those pages.

Amtrak has huge opportunities for self promotion to the national media.

It just has to get over its corporate shyness and bad attitude that the

only stories written about Amtrak are crisis stories.

6) Two last ideas. This idea was used successfully in both Memphis and

San Antonio in 1999. When having a static equipment display, either the

night before or the evening of the display, after the public has gone

home, host an invitation-only reception in the lounge car with a dinner

in the dining car. Invite local city and county officials, along with

convention and visitor bureau officials, local hoteliers and others

prominent in the local tourism industry and - wait for it - local media

food critics to sample and rate Amtrak dining car food the same as they

would a local restaurant (this was successful before Dining Car Lite, but

is still a workable idea if the presentation is good). For a cheap price,

this creates huge amounts of local goodwill (be sure and include the

local Amtrak station agent in the crowd since they remain the local

contact for many), raises visibility, and establishes new Amtrak

credentials in the local tourism market.

Who knows, inviting a few hotel executives may actually lead to (gasp!)

Amtrak being included in hotel guest room directories as an important

local contact for passengers traffic. Can you imagine, checking into a

hotel room outside of the Northeast, picking up your local guest room

directory in your hotel of any size, and, right there along with all of

the local airline information, seeing how to reach Amtrak? Could that

also (dare we dream?) lead to local free transportation between hotels

and the Amtrak station just like between hotels and airports?

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.orgmailto:[email protected]

 

[frj1983]

Here's an idea which will make the bean counters and lawyers cringe. Make

it widely known in the advertising world and movie and television

production worlds that Amtrak is changing its long standing policy of an

automatic "no" to any request to use Amtrak trains and equipment in

movies or television shows or advertisement, and make a trade: use of the

equipment for prominent, realistic. and truthful display of the company

name and logo as part of the movie, television, or advertising

production. Charge a small fee to cover some out of pocket expenses for

Amtrak, but make the hallmark of the deal the use of the equipment, name,

and Amtrak logo. This instantly becomes free advertising for Amtrak,

piggybacking on someone else's corporate advertising budget, or someone

else's movie or television production budget.

______________________________________________________________

"Prominent?" "Realistic?" "Truthful" display???????????

Oh come on, when was the last time a TV/Movie writer cared anything about making anything about Amtrak or trains realistic or truthful. It revolves around the story and who cares whether things are truthful or realistic. I think it's more realistic for Amtrak to become involved with the online travel companies like Orbitz, etc. Time to find a way to advertise with them and become prominent on their websites. Partner time?

 

[haolerider]

Here's an idea which will make the bean counters and lawyers cringe. Makeit widely known in the advertising world and movie and television

production worlds that Amtrak is changing its long standing policy of an

automatic "no" to any request to use Amtrak trains and equipment in

movies or television shows or advertisement, and make a trade: use of the

equipment for prominent, realistic. and truthful display of the company

name and logo as part of the movie, television, or advertising

production. Charge a small fee to cover some out of pocket expenses for

Amtrak, but make the hallmark of the deal the use of the equipment, name,

and Amtrak logo. This instantly becomes free advertising for Amtrak,

piggybacking on someone else's corporate advertising budget, or someone

else's movie or television production budget.

______________________________________________________________

"Prominent?" "Realistic?" "Truthful" display???????????

Oh come on, when was the last time a TV/Movie writer cared anything about making anything about Amtrak or trains realistic or truthful. It revolves around the story and who cares whether things are truthful or realistic. I think it's more realistic for Amtrak to become involved with the online travel companies like Orbitz, etc. Time to find a way to advertise with them and become prominent on their websites. Partner time?

IMHO:

Bruce Richardson's comments and suggestions are a real "statement of the obvious". Of course it would be great to have equipment displays at various locations around the country! It would also be great to have enough equipment to provide regular scheduled service on a consistent basis. It would also be great to have switch engines in remote locations to move that "phantom equipment" to the dedicated track at the stations, but again, the reality is that there is no equipment in most of the Amtrak locations and there aren't enough employees to go around as it is, let alone have them work these displays.

Of course it would be great to have Amtrak equipment featured in movies and television, but the reality is that this is not a market in which you tell the producers that you have equipment when you really don't - or it is the wrong kind of equpiment - not historic or dated to fit the time frame of the movie,etc.

I enjoy reading Bruce's newsletters, if for no other reason than to get a different perspective - which can be a good thing - but there is enough pontificating on the internet without adding more.

 

[AlanB]

I enjoy reading Bruce's newsletters, if for no other reason than to get a different perspective - which can be a good thing - but there is enough pontificating on the internet without adding more.

Yes, they're always fun to read. Often filled with flights of fancy, but occasionally there are good ideas or at least thought provoking comments within them. And perspective, stopping to at least take a look from a different point of view is never a bad thing. There's always more than one way to solve a problem, so watching both sides of the story is always a good thing if one really wants to succeed.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; January 12, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 2

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) Last week's This Week at Amtrak brought some interesting comments this

week. One, from a middle-aged wag in California noted how difficult it

often is to find an Amtrak train station in any given city or town. He,

and another gentleman noted that road signs appear for almost any reason

these days along public right-of-way, announcing the smallest and most

insignificant public park, tourist trap, or commercial venture, yet,

rarely do signs appear directing the general population to the nearest

Amtrak station.

This problem was solved a number of years ago here in Jacksonville

because URPA founder Austin Coates made it his mission to badger the

Florida Department of Transportation into erecting signs along Interstate

95 and other feeder roads to the specific Jacksonville Amtrak station. In

North Carolina, a state which has a high interest in passenger rail, many

signs are present along I-95 directing drivers to the various stations in

the state. This is true elsewhere, but not everywhere.

Is this yet another worthy and inexpensive mission Amtrak has failed to

spend the salary of a junior manager on to reap hundreds of thousands of

dollars worth of free publicity by announcing to all drivers directions

to the nearest Amtrak station? Isn't this something that could become a

motivating project for a rising young star in the Amtrak firmament; a

year's worth of effort that would produce incalculable amounts of revenue

for years to come? Can someone start working on this, today?

2) Another area of consideration are official state tourism Internet

sites. Every state has one, but not every state mentions Amtrak as a way

or getting to or getting around the state. This is another case of

"Amtrak blindness," where travel planners and promoters have no idea

Amtrak exists, or, if it does, it goes anywhere someone may want to

travel. The same holds true for state department of transportation

Internet sites. Lots of things about highways and interstate highways,

but, often, not a word about passenger rail. At least, we could hope

Amtrak becomes an afterthought, instead of no thought at all.

3) If you love to go to the movies, you know it has become common

practice to screen commercials before the movies, in addition to

previews. Some of this movie theater commercials, such as the famous

Coca-Cola Christmas bears are great fun and have a huge impact. These

commercials are generally considered institutional advertising, versus a

specific type of advertising which has a call to action.

A dark movie theater with a huge screen provides the most conducive

atmosphere for absorbing visual images accompanied by high quality sound.

Imagine what an impact a wide screen movie theater commercial for Amtrak

could have on people who have never ridden a passenger train, much less

seen a train. A clever marketer could find a way in a short commercial to

introduce the high points of train travel such as accommodations,

scenery, the ability to move around, food service, and much more. All on

a huge movie screen in a slickly produced advertisement.

4) Here in Florida, tourism is big business. In fact, we rely on tourism

so much that everything we do in Florida is geared to the Yankee

tourists. We don't have rain in Florida - we have liquid sunshine, so we

don't scare the tourists away.

As a result of this we've learned a few things about reaching tourists.

One of the best way to reach tourists is through the paid brochure racks

at Florida Welcome Centers and in motel lobbies. These racks feature all

sorts of tourist attractions, discount books, and more. The racks are

found not only in Florida, but almost anywhere there are travelers. The

cost of stocking these racks is cheap, and the cost of printing in huge

bulk quantities is often much cheaper than reaching targeted demographics

in traditional publications.

If Amtrak used these racks, it's doubtful anyone already on a trip would

change their mode of travel. However, we know materials picked up from

these racks are read and absorbed (and can be tracked through coupon

codes and other ways) and acted upon. A brochure read today may not cause

an instant reaction, but a brochure read today may cause a reservation

for the next holiday trip.

5) Let's go through an exercise together as to how Amtrak can greatly

improve its financial fortunes with a relatively small cash investment.

Here are some things we know:

- Amtrak's greatest potential for growth, in terms of both revenue and

profits is in the national system, outside of short distance corridors.

The trains and routes involved, and the FY 06 load factors for each train

are the Coast Starlight, 56%; Empire Builder, 59%; California Zephyr,

50%; Southwest Chief, 63%; Sunset Limited, 44%; Texas Eagle, 49%; City of

New Orleans, 49%; Lake Shore Limited, 63%; Capitol Limited, 61%;

Cardinal, 51%; Auto Train, 53%; Silver Meteor, 57%; Silver Star, 55%;

Palmetto, 44%; and the Crescent 49%. All of these trains, with the

exception of two, are traditional long distance trains with baggage cars,

coaches, sleepers, diners, and lounges. The Palmetto has no sleepers, and

food service is limited to a lounge car. The Auto Train, has no baggage

service, but does handle the carriage of automobiles, vans, and

motorcycles along with all other long distance train amenities.

- All of the above named trains are running with relatively small

consists, with limited sleeping car and coach space.

- The average load factor on these trains for FY 06 was 53%. A long

distance train is considered "sold out" at a load factor of 65% due to

on/offs and seat/berth turnover.

- The total revenue produced by these 15 trains for FY 06 was

$382,200,000, solely from ticket revenue and food and beverage sales.

- Advertising and sales expense for these 15 trains was $18,900,000. In a

normal company, advertising and sales costs would be budgeted at roughly

10% of revenue, or $38,000,000.

- We want to increase revenue/income without dramatically increasing

expenses. Since the 15 trains are running an average load factor of 53%,

and a sold out train runs at a 65% load factor, we should be able to

raise the load factor by 10% without adding any additional equipment or

onboard employees, except in the dining car where 10% larger crowds could

be expected.

- For mathematical equation purposes, let's divide the revenue by the

advertising cost to determine that under present conditions, it costs

$1.00 in advertising and sales costs for every $20.00 in revenue

generated. Expressed another way, every percentage point of load factor

costs $356,603 to generate.

- We know this is simplistic, because like every other costs, advertising

and sales costs are not measured on a dollar-for-dollar basis. However,

for hypothetical purposes, this model is the simplest way to demonstrate

an approximate cost to increase revenue passenger miles and load factor

on Amtrak's 15 long distance trains.

- If we want to increase the long distance train load factor by 10%, by

this formula we must increase the long distance train advertising and

sales budget by $356,603 x 10, to equal an increase of $3,566,030 in

advertising cost to generate an increase of long distance train revenue

by $71,320,600, without adding any additional equipment to existing train

sets, no additional stations or route changes, and only minimal costs for

additional onboard supplies such as sheets and pillowcases, dining and

lounge car food, and additional dining car personnel. This requires no

new concessions by the host freight railroads, no new union agreements,

no experimentation in new programs, and no new management structure.

It's always prudent to be conservative when estimating costs and income.

Let's triple the amount in advertising and sales costs to generate

another 10% load factor. That will make the new figure $10,698,090, or

15% of the anticipated revenue.

So, using the conservative cost figure, this simply requires an increase

of $10,698,090 in Amtrak's long distance train advertising and sales

budget, which is .003 of Amtrak's FY 06 expenses. In other words, it's

pocket change in the overall Amtrak universe of spending, which would

generate an additional $71,320,600 in high profit revenue.

Amtrak long distance train revenue passenger miles for FY 06 were

2,430,166,000. The average revenue passenger mile generated just under 15

cents per mile. To generate $71,320,600 in additional revenue for a long

distance system increase of 10% of the load factor, 475,470,666

additional revenue passenger miles will have to be generated (about 19%

of the revenue passenger miles now generated).

Now that we have demonstrated how much passenger revenue is just waiting

to be harvested, when each of these trains consistently start reaching

about 60% load factors, start adding sleeping cars and coaches to the

consists. Again, the incremental costs of adding these cars to existing

trains with no new train miles, but an increase in seat miles, can make

more of a dramatic difference in income for Amtrak's long distance

national network. All Amtrak passenger trains, be it a single level train

with Viewliner sleeping cars, Heritage diners and Amfleet coaches, or a

Superliner train with every car configuration available, can run up to 18

cars per consist without having an impact on the hotel power head end

electrical supply from the locomotive (In Canada during the heavy summer

travel months, the Canadian, from Toronto to Vancouver, using the same

electrical system as Amtrak, regularly runs 20 and 21 car consists.). It

is rare today to see a typical Amtrak long distance train with more than

nine or 10 cars. When you double that number of cars, you double the

number of revenue opportunities, but don't double the costs because of

static train mile costs, station costs, and headquarters overhead costs.

Let's be blunt. With Amtrak's present anemic long distance system (with

the caveat of having the Sunset Limited and Cardinal run daily), it is

not unreasonable to determine that the long distance system, with better

marketing and longer consists, could generate a much higher return on

investment and positive cash flow for the railroad than any other part of

the company, including the Northeast Corridor and the obviously cooked

books of the Acela service. By doing this, Amtrak would be living up to

its original mandate and mission to operate a viable long distance train

network and provide a service to those Americans and visitors to America

who wish to choose passenger rail as their preferred mode of intercity

travel. All without continuing handouts of free federal money.

6) To augment our brief exercise above, review this article from Andrew

Selden which ran in TWA issue number 3-45 on November 8, 2006.

[begin quote]

By Andrew Selden

Some of the data that no one (including Amtrak itself) seems to

understand about the Empire Builder, and the interregional trains

generally, includes these points:

- The Empire Builder is, by a wide margin, the highest grossing (in

ticket revenue) single train that Amtrak operates, despite being ...

- ... the most geographically-isolated train in the country, and

traversing the least-populated route in the country.

Isn't that remarkable? How could those two conditions co-exist?

- The Empire Builder also generates, by a VERY wide margin, the highest

output of any single train Amtrak operates. Output is measured by revenue

passenger miles, not ridership. Ridership (which is a measure only of

transaction volume) is almost irrelevant to any meaningful measure of

performance of any passenger transportation service (except in cases like

urban transit systems where fares are not variable with distance, and

headcount is a valid proxy for revenue, but still not output).

- The Empire Builder's remarkable results come about because it has the

longest average trip length of any train in the system, over 800 miles.

That means that the average passenger is on board for about 18 hours.

Some traverse the entire route, and some even travel beyond by connecting

to or from other trains at the three end-points. This average trip length

is functionally identical to the average trip length in the U.S.

commercial aviation industry. Every seat and every berth on this train

turns over on average two to three times every trip.

- Calculations made by the Minnesota Association of Rail Passengers,

before Amtrak stopped carrying mail and express on this train, the Empire

Builder contributed from its revenues about $20,000,000 a year in free

cash flow, after paying all of its direct operating expenses, towards

Amtrak systemwide overhead and fixed costs.

- The Empire Builder would do even better commercially if Amtrak would

add capacity to the train. It runs with one fewer coach and sleeper

lately than it used to in the 1990s. That is not because demand is lower

-- in fact, demand is very high and growing --- but because Amtrak does not

have, or chooses not to assign, additional cars to this train.

- The Empire Builder, year in and year out, has extremely high

utilization. Its load factor (the proportion of available seat miles that

are occupied by paying passengers, i.e., available seat miles divided by

revenue passenger miles) is in the range of about 60%. A long distance

train is functionally sold out at about 65% (because of all of the many

on-and-off boardings across its long itinerary), and the Builder is in

fact sold out during the summer and holiday peak periods, especially in

the sleepers. This compares well to the regional corridors, including the

Northeast Corridor, where load factors range from the high 20% range to

about 35-40%, which means Amtrak cannot sell, or even give away, well

over half of its inventory in the short corridors, where it competes with

private automobiles.

- As a group, the long distance trains require (depending on whom one

asks) between $100 million and $300 million a year in subsidy (at

Amtrak's current and bloated fixed costs; Amtrak refers to the $300

million figure, while a Federal Railroad Administration study a few years

ago pegged the losses at under $100 million); the rest of the $1.3

billion annual subsidy goes to subsidizing the Railroad Retirement Fund

and debt service (from borrowings used for the Northeast Corridor eight

years ago), totaling a little over $200 million, and the rest -- about

$750 million a year -- subsidizes Amtrak's short distance corridor

services. Of that $750 million, more than 90% goes to support the

Northeast Corridor. The long distance trains collectively produce about

half of Amtrak's total output of transportation, on less than a quarter

of the annual federal subsidy, while the short distance corridors produce

the other half of system output on about three quarters of the subsidy.

The long distance trains are nearly full, while the short distance

corridor trains, statistically speaking, are more than half empty. Which

of these services is "successful"? Which has the greater growth

potential? In which segment does the federal government pay more subsidy

in the aggregate, or per passenger mile of output?

- Despite the foregoing, Amtrak has always plowed, and continues to this

day to plow, the vast majority (historically, nearly 95% of its available

investment capital -- its annual free subsidy from the federal government)

into the short corridors, and 90% of that has gone into the Northeast

Corridor, where over the last two decades, in purely financial terms,

Amtrak has achieved a negative rate of return on invested capital -- it

loses more money there every year than it ever has, and the annual losses

are continuing to increase.

- In terms of capital investment, while the Northeast Corridor has

received more than $20 billion over the last 25 years (which is equal to

nearly $55 billion in today's dollars), the Empire Builder has received

NO net capital investment at all. Amtrak has never addressed what

performance metrics the Empire Builder -- and its sister trains -- could

achieve if they were to add carrying capacity to match latent public

demand for this service, and especially if they were to be networked into

reliable interconnections with other existing trains and routes to allow

usage by people in still more origin-destination city pairs than can now

use these once-a-day (or less) services.

Thus, when we see discussions along the lines of, "What is to be done

with this train/these long distance trains? It/they cost(s) so much, yet

seem(s) so popular," it's perplexing, because no one ever wants to get

into the actual results of operations of the Empire Builder, which by

ordinary business standards are very, very good. If Amtrak were being run

like a business, instead of a subsidized public transit service for the

Northeast, it would be pouring capital into the Empire Builder and the

other long distance trains, rather than starving them and then wondering

why they aren't doing well, by Amtrak's distorted measures of

performance.

[End quote]

7) Going back to last week's TWA and the ABC News story about the

changing Amtrak dining cars, it's tough not to consider what a 10%

increase in load factor would do for Amtrak's food and beverage business

on long distance trains.

Superliner dining cars were designed for a crew of 11 employees. The cars

were designed to be full service rolling restaurants offering full menus

of freshly prepared food. Amtrak is currently running crews of less than

half of that under the new Dining Car Lite program. Those numbers will be

decreased further by the combination of the dining and lounge cars into

one car.

The only bright spot from a passenger perspective (and, lest we forget,

providing service and transportation to passengers is Amtrak's sole

reason for existence) is the extended hours of the new cars, from early

morning to late at night. In other words, when the car is out on the

road, other than for the few hours of night time rest the crew has, the

car is making money. That is not the case with today's dining cars, which

are only open a very limited number of hours, mostly for the convenience

of the crews instead of the passengers.

Since Amtrak says it loses about $300 million a year on long distance

train operations (but the FRA says that figure is less than $100 million

a year), what would an increase of over $71 million a year in revenue

with only minimal, incremental increases in expenses, do to the Amtrak

long distance system? That extra $71,000,000 may make decision makers sit

up and take notice how important the long distance system is, and how a

minimal amount of investment in the system produces far greater return on

investment than any possible amount of money invested into short distance

corridors.

A huge potential for Amtrak is sitting right under its corporate nose.

Let's hope someone doesn't sneeze and blow it away.

8) As noted late last year in TWA, the cost of making the Sunset Limited

and Cardinal into daily trains is minimal in relation to the high cost of

continuing the trains under tri-weekly service. When you consider the

above scenario about filling existing trains to capacity, it's a natural

progression to think about all of the lost revenue, matrix connections

for passengers, and how poor tri-weekly service is in relation to daily

service on any route. It is a minimal equipment requirement to move the

Cardinal into the daily category, but a full turn of the Sunset Limited

from Los Angeles to Orlando requires one trainset for every departure

from Los Angeles. To take the train daily will require four more train

sets. Looking at Amtrak's current equipment roster, that is possible.

9) The next big question beyond that is putting the Sunset Limited, or a

substitute for the Sunset back into service between New Orleans and

Orlando (or Tampa). This continuing gaping, embarrassing hole in Amtrak's

national system only exists because Amtrak management is unwilling to

make a return of the Sunset a reality. In just another 100 days, it will

be a full year since CSX released the track between New Orleans and

Jacksonville for use by Amtrak. The old canard about stations closed due

to hurricane damage we know is a smokescreen, because so many other

Amtrak stops are a mere "wide spot in the ballast" along a railroad main

line. All of the platforms at the existing Amtrak stops are still in

place, and useable. All of the stations east of Mobile, Alabama are in

full working order. Most of the stations to the west of Mobile, such as

Bay St. Louis and Biloxi, received no damage.

Amtrak played an important role in the rehabilitation of New Orleans

after Hurricane Katrina. While the rest of America supports the Gulf

Coast, why is Amtrak snubbing this important region, and why is it

continuing to hinder a resurgence of tourism (many of the casinos are

back open) by not providing a train, such as the Sunset Limited, or a

replacement train running between New Orleans and Jacksonville or

Orlando?

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

mailto:[email protected]

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; January 18, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 3

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) MEMO TO: Amtrak Corporate Communications Department

SUBJECT: Stop playing defense, and go on the offense

COMMENCEMENT DATE: The sooner, the better

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You've been doing a better job lately telling the Amtrak story, but,

please, make at least one more giant leap forward. Too many reporters who

should know better are misconstruing facts about Amtrak?s long distance

train national network.

With the reintroduction this week of the Lott-Lautenberg senate bill (S.

294, renamed the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007)

reauthorizing Amtrak, and the resultant press coverage, in story after

story we have seen phrases such as "money losing long distance trains,"

or "lightly used long distance trains" from sources such as the

Associated Press and Reuters, both of which should know better.

Why aren't you doing more to stop this nonsense? Your own figures from FY

06 show 2,430,166,000 revenue passenger miles were generated by the long

distance train national network, while the combination of all NEC trains,

including Wondertrain Acela was just 1,482,448,000 revenue passenger

miles, and the short distance trains, which includes state supported

trains, generated only 1,448,903,000 revenue passenger miles.

To put it another way so everyone can understand, 15 daily and tri-weekly

long distance trains in each direction generated 2.4 billion revenue

passenger miles, 40 daily NEC trains in each direction generated 1.5

billion revenue passenger miles, and 102 short distance daily trains

generated 1.4 billion revenue passenger miles.

Not to make too fine of a point, but 2.4 billion revenue passenger miles

from 15 trains (two of which aren't even daily) versus 2.9 billion

revenue passenger miles from 142 NEC and short distance trains hardly

seems like "lightly used long distance trains." [You may wish to point

out another figure, that 3,731,200 passengers rode those "lightly used

long distance trains." Now, please be careful using this number, because

it is only a body count, and has no link to definitions of load factor,

average length of trip, or revenue passenger miles. But, it does say that

1.2% of Americans rode long distance trains last fiscal year. There is a

lot of infrastructure maintained in this country for a lot more money

every year that is used by far less than 1.2% of the population. This is

not an expression of modal envy, but an expression to allow Amtrak?s

first professional board of directors and a new president and chief

executive officer an opportunity to stop the federal money flow into a

black hole known as Amtrak and commit the same amount or less money into

a healthy and robust Amtrak that meets its original mission and function

- to create and maintain a realistic part of the domestic transportation

matrix of providing a passenger rail component that efficiently operates

passenger trains for all purposes, including leisure travel, family

travel, or business travel.]

>From a financial aspect, the 15 trains in the long distance network, on

average each generate $23,868,066 in gross revenue (before any subsidy),

and the 142 trains in the NEC and short distance networks only generate

$7,035,810 each on average in gross revenue. The total operating expense

(according to Amtrak figures) was $1.1 billion for the NEC and short

distance networks, and $841 million for the long distance train networks.

The average load factor on the 15 long distance network trains was 55.1%,

on the 102 short distance trains, 40.7%, and 45.2% on NEC trains.

As to the "money losing" aspect, that Amtrak figure is confusing and

needs to be cleared up. The FY 06 books show a positive cash flow for

Acela, without any subsidy necessary. But, the same books also show a

subsidy requirement for other NEC trains, which use the same stations,

same dispatching personnel, same tracks, and same reservation system as

the Acela trains. Please explain how one set of trains, Acelas, with

2,668,200 riders can "make money," while other NEC trains, with 6,840,200

riders, loses money.

We also know your executives have made statements that the long distance

system loses $300 million a year (and the FRA in the past has put that

figure at $100 million), but your FY 06 books show that figure at $481.6

million. Where are the books being padded? What is being charged against

the long distance system that isn't being charged against the short

distance or NEC trains?

Is the difference in the cost of maintenance of way of the NEC, which you

are charging to capital costs instead of operating costs? Are you even

charging a set track fee to Acela and other NEC trains, or are you

dumping everything into a capital costs account the "pretty up" the

operating books? If the true federal operating subsidy is a total of $584

million, and you received $1.3 billion from the federal government, where

did the rest of the money go, after Railroad Retirement mandatory

payments and debt service?

All of this can be very confusing, so you can see why the corporate

communications department needs to go on the offensive, issuing outright

challenges to reporters who are not communicating the true Amtrak story.

The public and politicians have time and again been fed wrong information

about the long distance system, and haven't bothered to do any digging on

their own. Most reporters have just regurgitated old saws about Amtrak

failures without looking at real facts. It?s the job of the corporate

communications team to clean up that mess, and get the right story out to

the public.

The Amtrak Corporate Communications Department doesn't just work for the

part of Amtrak that runs the NEC; it works for all of Amtrak, including

the part of Amtrak here in bow and arrow country, west of Harrisburg,

Pennsylvania, and south of Washington, D.C.

We all have to remember the concept that Amtrak has "lurched from crisis

to crisis" as Reuters reported this Tuesday, January 16th, was mostly the

making of its two last presidents and CEOs, George Warrington and David

Gunn, who seemed to specialize in "the sky is falling" when it came to

talking with the media and politicians. We know all of that alleged

lurching was Amtrak-made more than anything else. Now, it?s up to the

corporate communications professionals to clean up the lurching mess and

get the facts straight so the public and politicians have a real picture

of Amtrak.

2) For general purposes, beyond Amtrak corporate communications, while

we're on the subject of silly and useless figures, when can we kill and

bury the absolutely wrong and serves-no-purpose image of "losses per

passenger"? What does this mean? Some people like to quote the figure

based on passengers on the Sunset Limited, some people like to quote the

figure as an average of every passenger Amtrak carries, whether it be

someone with an average trip length of 800 miles, or an average trip

length of 27 miles. Either way, it?s meaningless. One also must realize

that when the figure is quoted, it is based on the number of passengers

that very instant; add or subtract just one passenger, or annul one train

for a day, and the entire figure changes.

3) Speaking of public relations disasters, take a look at the story,

reprinted by permission of and copyright 2007 by the Fort Worth

Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas. The story originally was published

Sunday, January 14, 2007.

[begin quote]

Women's offer to help is derailed

By Dave Lieber

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The train trip sounded like a terrific idea. Members of area chapters of

the Red Hat Society planned a weekend trip from Fort Worth to San

Antonio. They bought round-trip tickets on Amtrak and prepared to hit the

rails.

Only the train was four hours late arriving.

But when it finally got to the Fort Worth station that day in October and

the 38 members of the social organization prepared to board, they didn't

know that the worst was yet to come.

"A comedy of errors," trip organizer Debbie Brookshire later told me.

The women who sat on the lower level of the bilevel train were told at

first that they couldn't get any dinner because the train was late. The

women persisted.

"They told us, 'We'll have somebody come down and take your order,'"

Donna Morris said. "We never saw an Amtrak employee."

One of the women called a relative who worked at a restaurant in Waco.

When the train stopped there, the relative brought food on board.

The rest of the Red Hatters sat on the upper level. When they walked to

the dining car, Brookshire said, Amtrak personnel "jumped in our faces."

The staff said that the dining car was about to close and that they had

not known the women were coming.

Brookshire told them they had bought their tickets two months ago. "It's

not my fault the train was late," she told them.

Morris, who sat downstairs, remembers going upstairs to get ice.

"The guy serving the food was on the phone," she said. "It was obviously

a personal call. He said, 'I love you, too.' He wasn't talking to his

boss. He hung up and turned around. We said, 'We need some ice.'"

She said he replied, "I got off the phone for that?"

"Isn't that your job?" Morris asked.

"You don't have a clue what my job is."

She answered, "Well, you're not driving the train, so can I have some

ice?"

You've got to admire the Red Hatters' spunk.

There were other problems. The downstairs passengers complained of being

too hot, while the upstairs passengers said their cars were too cold. And

nobody could fix it.

The train finally arrived in San Antonio around 4 a.m. Of course, the

taxis that had been arranged to take the women to their hotel were long

gone.

The weekend in San Antonio, the women told me, was terrific. But when it

came time to leave, several of them rented cars to get home rather than

ride again on what they had come to call Damntrak.

Red Hat members complained. An Amtrak representative offered the entire

group vouchers equivalent to the value of half of their round-trip

tickets. The women talked it over. At first, they thought they could use

them for a future Red Hat train trip. But many of the women vowed never

to ride the train again.

So they came up with another idea. What if they donated the vouchers to a

nonprofit organization that helps military families?

They had a group in mind: Family & Friends for Freedom Fund, based in New

Jersey, helps military families travel to meet wounded members in all

branches of service as they recuperate in military hospitals. Fund

founder Paula Sturla told me she was excited about the Red Hatters'

generous offer.

So the Red Hatters explained their plan to an Amtrak representative. But

the Amtrak official said it was not possible because it was against

Amtrak's rules. All vouchers must be used by the passengers to whom they

are assigned.

The Red Hatters were miffed. "Here we're trying to do a good deed,"

Brookshire said. "Military people don't make a lot of money. We wanted to

help them. If somebody gets wounded and gets sent back to the States to a

medical hospital and a wife is clear across the country and can't afford

to go to the hospital, they could take the voucher and say: 'Here is your

ticket. Go help your husband.'"

The Red Hatters called the office of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth,

Morris said. A caseworker tried to persuade Amtrak officials to make an

exception and provide assistance to military families with wounded

relatives.

But Amtrak wouldn't budge.

So the women called The Watchdog.

I had several conversations with Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman in

Chicago. He explained that the policy is strictly enforced because Amtrak

wants to avoid its vouchers being sold on the black market.

"They are not transferable because we don't want them abused, and we want

the people who deserve the compensation to receive it," he told me. But

he said he would see what he could do.

Days later, he called back and said the policy was rigid.

However, he told me the fund could apply for "a standing discount" that

can be used for anyone traveling under the group's auspices. He asked me

to put the group's leaders in touch with him to apply for the discount.

I'm taking care of that.

Still, I wondered whether everyone in the travel industry has a policy

prohibiting the transfer of such vouchers.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King told me: "Our vouchers are

transferable to anyone. Our policy is that you can't sell or barter them,

but if you'd like to transfer them, you are allowed to."

The Red Hatters, meanwhile, are not happy with Amtrak.

"They are the most rigid organization that I have ever dealt with in my

life," Morris said. Yet the offer of a standing discount for the Friends

for Freedom Fund, she said, is "better than nothing."

The Watchdog column appears Fridays and Sundays. Dave Lieber,

817-685-3830 [email protected]

[End quote]

Apparently, there are, as they say, "still a few bugs in the system."

Some fact checking reveals other passengers have encountered the same

kind of service on the Texas Eagle, a train, when it was under the

direction of a product line manager, that was known for good service. The

Eagle has an OBS staff from the Chicago crew base.

This is not the first time a Chicago crew has been criticized for

rudeness and abruptness. There seems to be a strange phenomenon that some

crew bases habitually have abusive employees when it comes to passengers,

and other crew bases exemplify all of the good things about passenger

service. The only explanation for this is the state of crew base

management. Good crew base managers motivate and demand good work from

their employees, while uncaring or bad crew base managers allow employees

to run amuck with no consequences. These type of stories indicate more

housecleaning is needed at Amtrak to weed out many of the employees and

managers that never should have been hired for passenger service jobs in

the first place. It is neither fair to the employee or passenger when

someone doesn't have the emotional and professional qualifications to be

helpful and pleasant to all passengers. The result is unhappiness on

everyone?s part.

4) (Sigh) Another week, another missing Sunset Limited east of New

Orleans. Where are you, Sunset Limited? We're waiting.

5) Here?s a maddening story from December 20, 2006 in The State, the

excellent daily newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina.

CSX wanted to add a two mile passing siding in the center of a small

South Carolina town called Irmo. Near the proposed siding are 2,500 homes

and three schools.

Keep in mind a piece of the CSX main line track already goes through

Irmo. No Amtrak trains use this part of CSX.

Mayor John Gibbons and Irmo residents believe a new siding in town would

allow multiple trains to use the siding to keep the CSX main track fluid.

Irmo residents say the siding would cause noise and shake their homes.

Irmo was founded as a railroad whistle stop in the late 19th Century.

Right now, up to 20 trains run daily through the community, and Irmo sits

in the middle of a 30 mile segment of single line track without a siding.

In the real world, that?s known as a bottleneck.

Current freight train loads include coal, auto parts and grain, say CSX

officials. Somehow, town leaders have jumped to the conclusion that

because CSX wants to keep its trains moving efficiently, suddenly

chemicals and other dangerous freight cargo will be on those trains.

CSX spokespersons say the new siding, wherever it?s finally located, will

have an electronic warning system, electric switches, and other features

experts call the best safeguards against wrecks.

But, Irmo worrywarts aren't convinced. They want no part of "progress."

These are the moments when you have to wonder if all of those residents

and government officials who enjoy the many benefits of the federal,

state, and local taxes that CSX and other railroads pay would be happy to

get rid of that tax income if those pesky trains disappeared. Perhaps

they would also be happier to have all of those additional huge semi

trucks on the local and state highways, too that would appear to replace

railroads. Maybe they would like the marked increase in the cost of

everything from electricity to groceries on store shelves without the

benefit of freight moving over railroads.

The residents of Irmo and most other places need to get over themselves.

Railroads aren't any more interested in unsafe operating conditions than

trackside dwellers are who choose to have homes near railroad tracks.

This type of "not in my backyard" argument is just plain silly.

6) Oops! Those readers of TWA who are direct subscribers most likely were

puzzled last Friday when a repeat of a December TWA showed up in

e-mailboxes. You guessed it. The computer did it. No, really, it was a

combination of computer and operator error. When several readers were

kind enough to notify us of the problem, we were able to correct the

error, and send out the proper text for January 12, 2007.

Our apologies to anyone who was inconvenienced by our error.

If you are reading someone else?s copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.orgmailto:[email protected]

 

[George Harris]

5) Here?s a maddening story from December 20, 2006 in The State, the excellent daily newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina.
CSX wanted to add a two mile passing siding in the center of a small South Carolina town called Irmo. Near the proposed siding are 2,500 homes and three schools.

Keep in mind a piece of the CSX main line track already goes through Irmo. No Amtrak trains use this part of CSX.

Mayor John Gibbons and Irmo residents believe a new siding in town would allow multiple trains to use the siding to keep the CSX main track fluid. Irmo residents say the siding would cause noise and shake their homes.

Irmo was founded as a railroad whistle stop in the late 19th Century. Right now, up to 20 trains run daily through the community, and Irmo sits in the middle of a 30 mile segment of single line track without a siding. In the real world, that?s known as a bottleneck.

Why don't people who come up with this sort of nonsense simply get laughed off the stage? The founding of the town in 1890 was because of the railroad. It was originally a fueling stop in the days of wood burners. This particular piece of the CSX was originally the Columbia Newbury and Laurens, and was no more and no less than a line connecting those three places. The large number of trains is proablaby because it it taking a goodly portion of the traffic that comes off the Clinchfield, running Spartanburg, Laurens --> CN&L --> Columbia --> ex-SAL main.

Almost equally silly was a complaint I ran across the other day fram a resident of Frisco, Texas about train noise. Let's see, the town was named for the railroad, should that maybe tell you something about what runs through the center of town?

Duhh?

George

 

[AmtrakWPK]

And the real estate salespeople selling homes probably know the train schedules and do their best to make sure that they show homes when there are no trains scheduled, and tell folks that those tracks are hardly ever used.

 

[frj1983]

And the real estate salespeople selling homes probably know the train schedules and do their best to make sure that they show homes when there are no trains scheduled, and tell folks that those tracks are hardly ever used.

Or more likely, people pay no attention to "those trains" because they're always passing through and who worries about them. Until you move into a house near the tracks. I once lived in a house right next to the tracks. Granted, it was not a main line, but many trains rumbled down the track with loaded coal cars to the power plant. Was it bothersome? for the first few weeks, and then it blended into the background. What bothers me more these days are those who have to drive their cars around with the music turned up so loud that the house rumbles. I guarantee you, those people will be deaf by their mid-thirties! Then they'll be looking for someone to sue.

In the meantime, the trains keep rolling!!

 

[WICT106]

This Week at Amtrak; January 26, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 4

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) So many of us have been wondering where the Sunset Limited is, east of

New Orleans. It's been AWOL since a couple of days before Hurricane

Katrina hit in 2005. Even though CSX, the host railroad for the Sunset

east of New Orleans released its post-hurricane rebuilt track to Amtrak

for the Sunset on April 1, 2006, there's been nary a Sunset in sight.

Amtrak hasn't notified its unions of a discontinuance, and it says the

train is coming back. But, when? And, what has been the delay?

Here's a glimmer of information which may shed some light on the subject.

SunHerald.com, the online web site of The Sun Herald in Southern

Mississippi, datelined a story from Pascagoula (Senator Trent Lott's

hometown) about Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's recent appointment

of a new member to the Southern Rapid Rail Transit Commission, which is a

governmental body consisting of members from Mississippi, Alabama, and

Louisiana that promotes passenger rail along the Gulf Coast. This is the

same group that originally created the late, but successful Gulf Coast

Limited of the 1990s, that ran daily between New Orleans and Mobile,

Alabama, over the same tracks as the Sunset Limited.

Here's a quote from the story by Sun Herald staff writer Donna Harris:

[begin quote]

Amtrak is in talks with the Southern Rapid Rail Transit Commission about

implementing various passenger services, including the Sunset Limited.

The Sunset line once ran from Orlando to Los Angeles, making stops in

Mobile, Gulfport and New Orleans.

The transit commission penned a resolution urging Amtrak to develop a

detailed corridor investment and implementation plan. The commission has

said it will work with Amtrak to pursue federal, state and local funding

for operational and infrastructure costs.

Commissioner Elizabeth Sanders of Mobile told the Associated Press in

November that the commission is asking for just under $22 million in

federal funding to improve the tri-state rail system. The funding must be

matched by the three states.

[End quote]

So, is the real culprit for the delay of putting the missing link of the

Sunset Limited and Amtrak's national system back into place that Amtrak

is just waiting for someone else to pony up the money to do this, even

though the Sunset has always been operated as part of the national

system, and has never had any individual state funding?

Is this the beginning of some sort of plan where all long distance trains

will be carved up into state-sponsored links where Amtrak seeks state

funding instead of using its own marketing muscle to attract riders to

earn revenue to operate trains?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Amtrak seeking state funding for

corridor trains. California has proven the theory of good local marketing

for corridor trains easily replaces high state subsidies demanded by

Amtrak, as long as Amtrak has nothing to do with the local marketing.

But, holding a national system restoration hostage in exchange for all of

the benefits to the national system through matrix opportunities, plus

Amtrak's national mission to operate a healthy rail passenger system is

just wrong.

Jesse James at least had the professionalism and courtesy to use a gun

and a mask when he was robbing someone. If Amtrak is trying to do the

same thing to the Gulf Coast states, then shame on Amtrak.

2) Last week, we discussed much about how the national news media reports

incorrect facts about Amtrak, and how that hurts the company and its

efforts to operate a national long distance system.

One startling, incorrect fact was reported on National Public Radio's

Morning Edition on Tuesday, January 23rd. Reporter Nancy Solomon of NPR,

as if she was reporting gospel, said Amtrak's Northeast Corridor props up

the rest of the long distance trains in the country by generating more

cash, and therefore subsiding the alleged money losing long distance

trains.

Aaarrrggghhhhh!

How can any reporter that is supposed to be enlightened about the subject

they are reporting on, report such nonsense?

The answer is, because Amtrak corporate communications and Amtrak

executives have allowed this to happen for far too long, without

challenge or an attempt to present the true facts.

Even the federal Government Accountability Office gets it wrong, and

things like this make it into print, and people actually believe this

nonsense.

When is all of this going to stop?

Reviewing last week's TWA, for all of those sitting in the back of the

classroom, we discover ...

[begin quote from last week's TWA]

[Amtrak's] own figures from FY 06 show 2,430,166,000 revenue passenger

miles were generated by the long distance train national network, while

the combination of all NEC trains, including Wondertrain Acela was just

1,482,448,000 revenue passenger miles, and the short distance trains,

which includes state supported trains, generated only 1,448,903,000

revenue passenger miles.

To put it another way so everyone can understand, 15 daily and tri-weekly

long distance trains in each direction generated 2.4 billion revenue

passenger miles, 40 daily NEC trains in each direction generated 1.5

billion revenue passenger miles, and 102 short distance daily trains

generated 1.4 billion revenue passenger miles.

Not to make too fine of a point, but 2.4 billion revenue passenger miles

from 15 trains (two of which aren't even daily) versus 2.9 billion

revenue passenger miles from 142 NEC and short distance trains hardly

seems like "lightly used long distance trains." ...

From a financial aspect, the 15 trains in the long distance network, on

average each generate $23,868,066 in gross revenue (before any subsidy),

and the 142 trains in the NEC and short distance networks only generate

$7,035,810 each on average in gross revenue. The total operating expense

(according to Amtrak figures) was $1.1 billion for the NEC and short

distance networks, and $841 million for the long distance train networks.

The average load factor on the 15 long distance network trains was 55.1%,

on the 102 short distance trains, 40.7%, and 45.2% on NEC trains.

As to the "money losing" aspect, that Amtrak figure is confusing and

needs to be cleared up. The FY 06 books show a positive cash flow for

Acela, without any subsidy necessary. But, the same books also show a

subsidy requirement for other NEC trains, which use the same stations,

same dispatching personnel, same tracks, and same reservation system as

the Acela trains. Please explain how one set of trains, Acelas, with

2,668,200 riders can "make money," while other NEC trains, with 6,840,200

riders, loses money.

We also know [Amtrak] executives have made statements that the long

distance system loses $300 million a year (and the FRA in the past has

put that figure at $100 million), but your FY 06 books show that figure

at $481.6 million. Where are the books being padded? What is being

charged against the long distance system that isn't being charged against

the short distance or NEC trains?

Is the difference in the cost of maintenance of way of the NEC, which you

are charging to capital costs instead of operating costs? Are you even

charging a set track fee to Acela and other NEC trains, or are you

dumping everything into a capital costs account the "pretty up" the

operating books? If the true federal operating subsidy is a total of $584

million, and you received $1.3 billion from the federal government, where

did the rest of the money go, after Railroad Retirement mandatory

payments and debt service?

[End quote]

Along this same subject was a Washington story generated last week by the

Associated Press and distributed nationwide. It ran in a number of

newspapers, and even in such places as Business Week magazine. There was

a time when those of us who used to be in the news business knew we could

depend on the AP for accurate reporting. Those days seem to be

disappearing.

The AP story was an interview of Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant,

and covered a wide range of topics. The AP reporter, Sarah Karush, seems

to have done some homework in preparation for the interview, but clearly

not enough homework.

Part of the story states:

[begin quote]

The government-owned corporation reported record ticket revenue of $1.37

billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, an 11 percent increase over

fiscal 2005, with ridership ticking up 1 percent to 24.3 million

passengers. The system, created in 1970 to take over declining passenger

rail service, is heavily dependent on government funding; it received

$1.3 billion from Congress, including a $485 million operating subsidy,

for the 2006 fiscal year.

... A November report by the Government Accountability Office concluded

that long-distance routes -- such as the Sunset Limited from New Orleans

to Los Angeles and the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle -- account

for 15 percent of riders and 80 percent of Amtrak's losses, and provide

little public benefit.

[End quote]

The statement made by the GAO report is actually accurate, but totally

meaningless. Yes, when you look at raw ridership numbers, long distance

trains did account for 15 percent of warm bodies that stepped onto Amtrak

trains.

However, again, this statement means nothing, unless you're writing about

single-zone pricing in transit. Other than Amtrak - and this is a long

standing, self-inflicted wound by Amtrak for decades, now - no other

common carrier, whether it's an airline, bus company, or steamship

company, reports pure ridership numbers as a measure of success. These

numbers mean nothing. Revenue passenger miles are the only true

measurement, and they are the only measurement which is reported in the

national media when writing about airlines and bus lines and steamship

lines' success or failure.

So, why, when writing about Amtrak does the press continue to only write

incorrectly about ridership? How can the press continue to embarrass

itself this way? If they can't get something as simple as this correct,

what else is the press getting wrong?

Just for the sake of covering the same ground again, ridership is only a

measurement of the number of bodies carried. Ridership does not measure

how far each body is carried, nor how much is paid to the common carrier

to carry the body. Revenue passenger miles - a measurement of how much

revenue is generated by carrying each passenger one mile - tells the true

story.

Using FY 06 numbers, an average passenger traveling on the Ethan Allen

service in New England has an average length of trip of 191.1 miles, at

24.76 cents per mile of revenue. That means the average passenger

generates $47.31 per trip.

An average passenger on the Palmetto, which serves the East Coast between

New York and Georgia, has an average length of trip of 446.9 miles, at

16.55 cents per mile of revenue. That means the average passenger

generates $73.96 per trip.

Which passenger would you rather have? One that generates $47.31 per trip

on any given departure of the Ethan Allen on any given day, or one that

generates $73.96 per trip on any given departure of the Palmetto on any

given day?

Both riders count as one passenger when looking at the way the ridership

figures are incorrectly used. Yet, one passenger accounts for only 64% of

the revenue of the other passenger. This is why it is so important to

only talk in terms of revenue passenger miles.

You may wish to say "aha!," obviously what matters is the Ethan Allen

passenger generates more revenue than the Palmetto passenger, and,

therefore, the Ethan Allen is the superior business model.

Well, no, that's not true, either.

The Ethan Allen generated 21,447,884 available seat miles for FY 06, and

the Palmetto generated 147,065,912 available seat miles. At 24.76 cents

of revenue per mile, (21,447,884 total seat miles for sale multiplied by

24.76 cents per mile potential revenue), the Ethan Allen could

theoretically generate $5,310,496 in annual revenue. Using the same

formula for the Palmetto, $24,339,408 in annual revenue could

theoretically be generated. Again, which train is the best business model

to follow?

The Ethan Allen has a route length of 241 miles, and the Palmetto, 829

miles. The Ethan Allen has two exclusive stations to serve the route, and

the rest are shared with other trains. The Palmetto has no exclusive

stations; all are shared with other trains. The Ethan Allen uses the New

York City crew base, and overnights the train crews in Rutland, Vermont

at Amtrak's expense. The Palmetto uses the same crew base, and overnights

the train crews in Savannah, Georgia. Both trains have all reserved coach

seating, business class service, and lounge/café car service. The

Palmetto carries a baggage car, the Ethan Allen does not. The Ethan Allen

is primarily financed through the Vermont State Department of

Transportation, and the Palmetto receives no state financing.

Other than the baggage car, the only real difference between the two

trains is the route length and the number of cars on each train. Even if

the Ethan Allen carried an identical consist as the Palmetto, the shorter

route could still not hope to generate as much revenue as the longer

route.

The only difference in costs are fuel, train and engine crews, and train

mile costs. Most other costs remain very close. It's the great difference

in the revenue opportunities that distinguishes they two trains. This

also explains why it is so dangerous to only measure Amtrak success by

ridership, and not revenue passenger miles.

And, by the way, the Ethan Allen has a load factor of 38%, and the

Palmetto, 44%, which shows the Palmetto outperforming the Ethan Allen in

every category that matters.

In other parts of the AP narrative, the story says,

[begin quote]

Amtrak's new president wants to upgrade the passenger railroad's image

and the tracks it shares with the nation's increasingly busy freight rail

carriers, and he expects the federal government to help.

... Alex Kummant said he found the much-maligned railroad in better shape

than he expected. But he said it could still do a better job taking

advantage of a growing appetite for rail travel fueled by high gas prices

and highway congestion.

"There is a lot of good news to talk about," Kummant told The Associated

Press in an interview in his office atop Washington's Union Station. "You

have to build the Amtrak brand for people."

Amtrak needs to work with states to expand service over medium distances

and improve the long-distance trains that account for most of its losses,

Kummant said. Government incentives to stimulate capital investment in

the nation's nearly maxed-out rail infrastructure are also key, he said.

Kummant, ... said expectations that Amtrak could be self-sufficient are

misguided. He noted passenger rail is subsidized throughout the world.

There could be room to partner with the private sector, he said, but

added: "You need to walk before you can run."

Amtrak supporters are hopeful the new Congress will pass legislation

introduced last week by Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Trent Lott,

R-Miss., that would establish funding targets for Amtrak for the next six

years. It would also create a program of capital matching grants for

states that want to invest in "corridor service" -- the term Amtrak uses

to describe frequently traveled routes up to about 500 miles, such as the

northeast corridor running from Boston to Washington. Currently, 14

states pay Amtrak for service.

Kummant said the shorter routes are Amtrak's real growth opportunity.

"We can offer genuine solutions to public transportation problems with

that type of service," he said.

Rail service on such corridors can be competitive at 80 to 100 miles per

hour, without trying to provide capital-intensive high-speed service, he

said. Amtrak's fastest train, the Acela Express on the northeast

corridor, reaches 150 miles per hour, but such speeds require upgraded

electrical systems and tracks.

[End quote]

Much of this is refreshing to read. It's nice to know the company is in

better shape than expected, and Mr. Kummant wants to improve the sadly

tarnished Amtrak image, plus he is eager to expand the company to meet

the growing demand for passenger rail service. More power to him.

Here is the first glimmer of what may be questionable. Mr. Kummant says

Amtrak needs to work with various states to expand service over medium

distances and improve the long distance trains that account for most of

the losses.

Let's stop right here.

Again, here is the statement that long distance trains account for most

of the losses. Really? Is everyone sure? While Amtrak's books are being

untangled from years of Enron-style booking, are we really, really,

really sure the long distance trains account for most of the losses? How

is this so, if these trains have the highest load factors, generate huge

amounts of revenue passenger miles, and a single daily train route has

more financial muscle than a whole group of NEC or short distance trains?

Until we know for sure (and many of us are pretty sure that statement is

wrong about the long distance trains after a lot of research by some

impressive railroad professionals), can Amtrak and its executives and

spokespersons please stop using such declarative statements? Can we at

least have some modifiers on those statements that say, "we don't know

for sure, but we may suspect blah, blah, blah"?

Mr. Kummant says that 500 mile corridors can prove to be the hottest area

of growth for the company. That's well and good, depending on how those

corridors are put together. One very positive thing he says in the

article is rail service in these corridors can be competitive at 80 to

100 mph, without having the capital intensive costs of the normal

definition of high speed rail.

Somebody please give the gentleman a medal out of petty cash. Yes, yes,

yes. That is so very true. Rail can be very satisfying to the traveling

public at speeds which are easily achievable on most of today's

infrastructure, with few modifications for slightly higher speeds. Beyond

bragging rights, there is little incentive to create what is considered

true high speed rail at enormous capital costs before a mature system of

conventional speed corridors are developed at much lower investments.

Corridors averaging 500 miles in length, or even up to 700 or 800 miles

in length can easily host cheap to operate, but high passenger

satisfaction trains similar to the Palmetto of today. The Palmetto in its

various incarnations, has always been a nearly sold-out at times cash cow

for Amtrak that has been inexpensive to operate. One locomotive, a half

dozen or more cars, including a decent food service car, an upgraded

business class car, and coaches, plus a baggage car on a mostly daylight

schedule is a very attractive business model to follow. Staffing levels

are kept relatively low, there are good RPMs, and often only two train

sets are required for daily operation.

Use the route of the Crescent south of Washington, D.C. as an example of

how this type of operation can mesh well with long distance trains. There

are plenty of NEC trains between Boston and Washington without adding

another frequency. However, the trip from Washington to Atlanta, Georgia,

via Charlotte, North Carolina is about a 12 hour trip. The Crescent

travels over this segment of its route mostly at night. Add a daytime

frequency between Washington and Atlanta, a la the Palmetto. Since you're

already establishing a crew and turn maintenance base in Atlanta, add

another mostly daylight run, of, again, about 12 hours from Atlanta to

New Orleans, but off of the Crescent's current daytime portion of that

run by a few hours to provide the full benefits of a second frequency.

Suddenly, the route now has multiple frequency service with very

inexpensive operating characteristics, and the only new addition is a

small turn maintenance and crew base in Atlanta. Major cities like

Charlotte now have good daylight service on a route which was previously

only served at night.

Look at almost any other Amtrak long distance route, and working in 12 to

15 hour time frames for route lengths, see how many cheap and easy to

operate trains can be added to the Amtrak system. Then, start doing the

math. We know adding a frequency to a route more than doubles ridership

because more people have more travel opportunities at times that are

convenient for the passenger, not the Amtrak operating department.

Station and infrastructure costs go down because expenses which were

formerly the burden of one train are now spread out over two or more

trains.

Further in the AP story, the following was reported:

[begin quote]

Kummant said he had no intention of abandoning long-distance routes,

loosely defined as those longer than 500 miles. But he said he is working

with Amtrak's board of directors, made up of appointees of President

Bush, to come up with a strategy that might include breaking some long

routes into multiple state corridors.

Amtrak is criticized for the losses in the long-distance routes, but if

those routes were eliminated, they would be very hard to re-establish,

Kummant said. Still, he predicted future growth will likely come from

corridor service, while long-distance ridership will remain flat.

[End quote]

If breaking some long distance routes into multiple state corridors means

augmenting the current long distance trains with the type of daylight

operations outlined immediately above, that is good. If this statement,

which desperately needs clarification, means ending seamless long

distance trains in favor of short distance corridor trains that would

require passenger transfers from one train to another, that is totally

unacceptable. If this statement means similar scenarios to the hijacking

of the Sunset Limited restoration for return in exchange for state funds,

that is also unacceptable.

Amtrak's mission is to operate a healthy national trains system, not a

disjointed series of corridors. As said before, that is nothing wrong is

corridors as support for a good long distance system. Corridors in place

of long distance trains goes against everything for which Amtrak was

created, and is painfully, again, transit mentality versus passenger

train mentality.

Mr. Kummant said long distance ridership will remain flat, that growth is

in corridors. Okay, why will long distance ridership remain flat? Because

in the last few years Amtrak has been systematically reducing train

consists, and, therefore having less product to sell to passengers?

Because Amtrak spends less than half on national system sales and

marketing that it spends on NEC marketing, and only slightly more than on

state supported corridor marketing? Is it possible that if Amtrak beefed

the consists back up to their original sizes of only less than a decade

ago, and actually spent a few dollars on long distance train marketing

and stopped keeping Amtrak as America's best kept secret that long

distance train ridership would not remain flat?

If long distance train ridership remain flat, that is only because Amtrak

management chooses to keep that ridership flat. Amtrak has resources to

increase the ridership, but it also must have the corporate will to do

so.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; February 1, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 5

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) (Sigh) There is Amtrak winter naughtiness again in Chicago. Many of us

had optimistically thought the Winter of '07 was going to be the winter

Amtrak got over its many bad weather operating problems in Chicago. Alas,

that doesn't seem to be the case.

Here's what Amtrak's internal daily report had to say about the Cardinal,

running from Chicago to New York City via Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and

Washington.

[begin quote]

The report for January 31st says:

Train 50 [The Cardinal, complete with sleeping cars, dinette, and

coaches, departing Chicago on Tuesday, January 30th at 5:45 P.M., Central

Time] ... operating with locomotive 205 and 6 cars reported south at Dyer

[indiana, 29 miles out of Chicago and one hour and 12 minutes after the

scheduled Chicago departure] that all toilets were inoperative account

frozen, except for (1) toilet in lounge car. Beech Grove mechanical

advised to meet train in Indianapolis, but advised that if they were able

to thaw toilets that there might be freeze damage and that toilets could

freeze again after departure. Due to health and sanitation issues with

one working toilet and unable to confirm repair of frozen toilets,

decision was made to arrange for busses and terminate train. (2) busses

were secured to meet train at Cincinnati where 46 passengers where

transferred to the busses to destination.

[End quote]

What the report doesn't say: The trainmaster in Chicago ordered the train

out of the initial Chicago terminal in this condition, with toilets

frozen, despite the protests of the train's conductor.

The train was terminated at Cincinnati, 319 miles out of Chicago and at

3:00 A.M. because of the unsanitary conditions.

Contrary to internal Amtrak advisories, operating employees report the

train came from the yard in this condition, and the conductor, upon

reporting the inoperative toilets, was ordered by management to depart

anyway. The crew was unable to do anything to fix the toilets and gave up

near Dyer, where they advised the Operations Center of the problem.

Mechanical personnel from Beech Grove Shops were to meet the train at

Indianapolis but said that even if they could thaw out the frozen

toilets, there could be leaks due to burst pipes, and the toilets could

freeze up again shortly afterwards.

Buses were called to meet the train at Cincinnati, where passengers were

transferred and taken to enroute destinations up to Washington, D.C.

Passengers for Northeast Corridor points north of Washington were handled

by NEC trains.

Food and beverages in the lounge/dinette car were loaded onto the buses

and provided complimentary to passengers; meal stops were made by the

buses on Wednesday.

Equipment was deadheaded from Cincinnati to New York.

Looking at this situation, one Washington wag commented, "Seems to be a

common problem. A terminal manager will push a train out of his area in

order to improve his on-time batting average and if it hits the fan later

on, well, it's someone else's problem.

"The other question is why the yard crews and management in Chicago still

can't find the 480-volt electrical service to keep the equipment warm

during layovers. [installed and intended to avoid problems exactly like

this one.]"

At this early date, we know the Chicago Amtrak boss is a longtime

operations veteran and good railroader and will likely take action, but,

also, what does President and CEO Alex Kummant know about this

personally, and what will he do to rectify such problems?

2) Other folks in Illinois, not riding the Cardinal of January 30th, are

excited about the possibility of expanding Amtrak service in their state.

United States Senator **** Durbin is among those pushing for expanded

service.

Reporter Thomas Geyer, writing in the Quad-City Times, on Saturday,

January 27th, which covers events in Rock Island, reported on a public

meeting about Amtrak.

[begin quote]

"We've been going to Washington for many years in pursuit of rail service

for the Quad-Cities and we always came away empty," Rock Island City

Manager John Phillips said. "For years, the people there would just stare

at us blankly, not giving us any indication that things would ever be

different."

Now, he said, it seems as though things are different, "and with Amtrak's

success in Illinois and elsewhere, federal lawmakers are taking a fresh

look at things."

[senator] Durbin, along with George Weber, chief of the passenger rail

division of the Illinois Department of Transportation, or DOT, and Ray

Lang, Amtrak's senior director for governmental affairs, gave their ideas

to a crowd of about 200 people during an hour-long meeting at Rock

Island's Abbey Station.

... Amtrak's goal is to double the number of riders nationwide by 2020,

he [Lang] said, adding that Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail

service. The company's future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles.

He said Illinois is one of 14 states that have a rail service contract

with Amtrak.

[End quote]

Oops! What? Did the Quad-City Times reporter correctly quote Mr. Lang, a

long time Amtrak public affairs veteran and experienced spokesman, saying

"Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail service. The company's

future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles."?

Putting two and two together, and hoping it doesn't add up to five, we

have last week's offering from Mr. Kummant in the Associated Press

article which was printed across the land that long distance train

ridership was expected to be flat, and reiterating the belief in state

sponsored corridors of 300 to 500 miles in length.

3) But, wait, there's more. Amtrak This Week, the company's internal

employee communication (and no relation to This Week at Amtrak),

prominently features Mr. Kummant's writings, saying:

[begin quote]

Dear Co-workers,

Let me take a moment to bring you up to date on a couple of important

issues, one of which is the work we're doing to improve our long-distance

on-time performance. Because it's essential that we foster a productive

relationship with our freight partners at all levels, I've met with each

major host railroad CEO at least once, the most recent visits being to

BNSF and NS just this month. In addition to targeting some of our

chronically late trains, we're also identifying new ways to expand

capacity for growth and improved reliability in the future.

While I'm far from satisfied with the current state of long distance OTP,

we've seen some solid improvements on Auto Train and Silver Service

trains since we began targeting those trains with CSXT in August. Auto

Train OTP has improved 27 percentage points, Silver Meteor 38 percentage

points and Silver Star 22 percentage points (comparing Aug. 1 through

Jan. 25 to the same period last year).We still have work to do there, but

I know the crews aboard the trains have noticed the difference.

Poor OTP sets off a downward spiral that affects not only passengers'

confidence in Amtrak, but also taxes our crews and puts our equipment

cycling and servicing way out of whack.

I have another meeting with UP's CEO Jim Young next week, and I will

continue to keep you informed about what we're doing on this front.

[End quote]

Did you notice that one line neatly tucked into the statement: "In

addition to targeting some of our chronically late trains, we're also

identifying new ways to expand capacity for growth and improved

reliability in the future."?

Let's look at some of those words, again: "expand capacity for growth and

improved reliability in the future."

What type of growth are we talking about? Most likely corridor growth,

but, the majority of Mr. Kummant's writing seems to be about the long

distance network. Is it possible that Mr. Lang, who is far down the

corporate food chain from Mr. Kummant, was just continuing to spout the

company line as instructed, where Mr. Kummant may be signaling a change

in thinking about the many possibilities for growth and financial

improvement through the long distance system?

Time, of course, will tell, but this provides a possible glimmer of hope

that "someone gets it" when it comes to the many virtues of Amtrak's long

distance network of trains.

4) Another interesting note from Amtrak This Week; apparently Amtrak is

beginning a campaign to stop being America's Best Kept Secret:

[begin quote]

Marketing and Product Management:

Amtrak Chairman David Laney and Westwood One's Jim Gray will present the

"Amtrak/Westwood One Player of the Year" award during the Amtrak Super

Bowl XLI halftime show on Westwood One Radio.

[End quote]

Well, if you're going to stop being a secret, it's nothing like making a

splash in radio during the Super Bowl. Good work, Amtrak.

5) An Amtrak/passenger rail update from here in Florida reveals that the

State of Florida, which under now retired Governor Jeb Bush in 2001 set

aside $60 million for implementation of Amtrak service over the Florida

East Coast Railroad from Jacksonville to West Palm Beach where the

service would join the existing coast service down to Miami on the old

Seaboard Air Line/CSX main line, still has the money waiting for use for

this project. Sources say Florida DOT and Amtrak are still having

discussions regarding the implementation of this service.

6) Beginning today, Jim Young of Union Pacific Railroad will become the

railroad's chairman of the board, following the retirement of ****

Davidson, a 47 year UP veteran. Mr. Davidson was chairman of UP for 10

years.

Notable about Mr. Davidson's service to the UP was the indigestion of the

Southern Pacific Railroad takeover by the UP and the resulting and still

recurring problems with the Sunset Limited and Coast Starlight routes for

on time performance issues, plus, the comment by his former chief

spokesman labeling Amtrak passenger trains as "novelty transportation,"

as opposed to being a part of our nation's domestic transportation

network.

We wish Mr. Young, the new chairman of UP, every success in his

leadership of the company.

6) The Mobile, Alabama Press-Register reported Sunday, January 28th on

the death of the lead partner in the redevelopment of the former

L&N/CSX/Amtrak hurricane damaged station and office building on Mobile's

waterfront next to downtown.

The remaining partners in the project, which will demolish the old

building and build the 241-unit Water Street Landing, will still create

Mobile's first waterfront condominium project. The project will include

60,000 square feet of retail space, and will be built on the west side of

the existing CSX main line track. Water Street Landing will be built next

to the Mobile convention center, which is also built atop the CSX track,

creating a tunnel for all trains.

The Mobile station was the station with the worst damage from 2005's

Hurricane Katrina, and became unusable. The platforms still remain.

The lack of use of this station facility is one of the ongoing "the dog

ate my homework" excuses by Amtrak for not restoring the Sunset Limited

east of New Orleans and into Florida.

In reality, this new development should not hamper development of a new

or temporary Amtrak station while the project is being built. It is

merely an inconvenience that can be overcome by any Amtrak management

that may be interested in restoring this vital part of Amtrak's national

rail system.

7) One other notable retirement has occurred as of today, February 1st.

Capitol Hill is noting the departure of Glenn Scammel, as the Staff

Director and Senior Majority Counsel of the Rail Subcommittee of the

House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. Scammel was a long Republican Hill staffer, and before that, served

his country in the military in Judge Advocate General's work. Mr. Scammel

is a bona fide fan of trains and planes, and his passion showed in his

always excellent work. He has been highly active in successful efforts to

clean up Enron-style compulsions in Amtrak's daily corporate life, and

help guide the railroad on the road to ultimate success as a vibrant and

healthy company. Many of Mr. Scammel's labors haven't been seen by many

outside of Washington, but have been felt by nearly everyone.

Mr. Scammel was more than a bureaucrat, he was a visionary that demanded

compliance with the law, accountability of the people's money and

resources, and a workable plan for the future. Much of the good

legislation introduced by Republicans regarding railroads and Amtrak was

often the handiwork of Mr. Scammel and his staff.

He says that in the process of retiring from government service, he is

now "privatizing" himself, and plans to work in the private sector in

Washington. We are all fortunate this great public servant who has given

so much to his nation will continue to contribute to the public good

through new avenues of endeavor.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

mailto:[email protected]

 

[Trogdor]

... Amtrak's goal is to double the number of riders nationwide by 2020,he [Lang] said, adding that Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail

service. The company's future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles.

He said Illinois is one of 14 states that have a rail service contract

with Amtrak.

[End quote]

Oops! What? Did the Quad-City Times reporter correctly quote Mr. Lang, a

long time Amtrak public affairs veteran and experienced spokesman, saying

"Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail service. The company's

future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles."?

Anyone actually reading the article would already question whether the answer to that question is yes. The fact is, the statement (about Amtrak not looking at long-distance trains) is not put in quotes, meaning that the reporter is not directly quoting the Amtrak official, but rather paraphrasing what was said. Without the full quote and context of the statement, there's no way we could really know what he was talking about. He could have been just referencing that particular proposed service (to the Quad Cities), which would likely be run as a corridor rather than a long-distance train.

Then again, it's not like I expect anything from Bruce Richardson.

 

[haolerider]

... Amtrak's goal is to double the number of riders nationwide by 2020,

he [Lang] said, adding that Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail

service. The company's future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles.

He said Illinois is one of 14 states that have a rail service contract

with Amtrak.

[End quote]

Oops! What? Did the Quad-City Times reporter correctly quote Mr. Lang, a

long time Amtrak public affairs veteran and experienced spokesman, saying

"Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail service. The company's

future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles."?

Anyone actually reading the article would already question whether the answer to that question is yes. The fact is, the statement (about Amtrak not looking at long-distance trains) is not put in quotes, meaning that the reporter is not directly quoting the Amtrak official, but rather paraphrasing what was said. Without the full quote and context of the statement, there's no way we could really know what he was talking about. He could have been just referencing that particular proposed service (to the Quad Cities), which would likely be run as a corridor rather than a long-distance train.

Then again, it's not like I expect anything from Bruce Richardson.

Just a quick comment about Bruce Richardson's comments regarding Amtrak and the Super Bowl. Amtrak has been a sponsor of the Mondy Night Games on Westwood One radio network for almost 7 years and have made this presentation every year at the Super Bowl. It is not televised, but is certainly part of the radio broadcast, so this is not something new.

Bruce is like most people. Unless you hear or see something directly, most people assume there is no advertising and/or promotions - while the opposite is true. Amtrak does market and advertise, but not in all markets and not on the TV or radio station each of us may use. Different market segments call for different tactics.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; February 16, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 6

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) Thanks to all those who inquired about the missing editions of TWA

these last two weeks. Due to a pressing need to complete some large

projects, it was not possible to produce TWA and meet other deadlines. We

hope this has not caused any inconvenience.

2) According to the National Association of Railroad Passengers and other

groups and some media, the sky is yet again falling, and the Earth

continues to rush up to meet it.

Yes, it's that time of year when the reigning administration submits an

annual budget to Congress, and, of course, there is never enough money

suggested to please those who think government money grows on trees.

The Bush administration has suggested a small budget for Amtrak for

Fiscal Year 2008 of $900 million. Horrors. Just $100 million shy of a

billion dollars in free federal monies, and the fatalists think all of

the nation's passenger trains will grind to a screeching halt any minute,

now.

When cooler heads look at the budget picture, we know a couple of things

to be true, versus the dogmatic rhetoric that comes from all of the usual

suspects.

While $900 million is less than previously allotted by Congress in the

final budget figures (the only ones that really matter, by the way),

Amtrak usually gets $1.2 billion or more each year, lately. For FY 2006

and FY 2007, Amtrak got $1.3 billion each year.

Keep in mind all national operations and NEC operations together, plus

continuous upgrades to the Northeast Corridor can be accomplished with

this small budget request. So, even if this budget suggestion was

ultimately turned into law, Amtrak would not be shut down, nor would

passenger trains operations be curtailed.

Now, let's look at the crux of the problem of budgeting free federal

monies for Amtrak every year. Here is what the United States Department

of Transportation said regarding the FY 2008 Amtrak budget request.

[begin quote}

Focusing Amtrak's Spending Priorities

The Administration believes that scarce taxpayer dollars must be spent

wisely, including the funds provided to Amtrak. Led by its Board of

Directors, Amtrak made some progress in 2006 to strengthen its finances

by increasing revenues and controlling costs. While Amtrak's recent

performance is encouraging, it continues to under perform overall.

Amtrak's system-wide on-time performance again dropped in 2006 to 68

percent, and it required $490 million in operating subsidies, mostly for

its money-losing long distance trains. When last measured for 2002, the

net Federal subsidy per thousand passenger miles traveled was $199.90 for

rail, $5.87 for commercial aviation, and -$.95 for highway users

according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. While Amtrak

carried 24 million passengers in 2006, domestic air carriers that year

flew 656 million passengers.

Historically, Amtrak has been hampered by a lack of accountability, poor

design, and mismanagement. The latest critical review of Amtrak comes

from the Government Accountability Office, which concluded, among several

findings, that Amtrak's long-distance trains "show limited public

benefits for dollars expended," and that "these routes account for 15

percent of riders but 80 percent of financial losses." To turn the

enterprise around, the Administration has urged basic reforms that would

empower local communities and ultimately customers to determine the most

efficient way to run trains. The Administration expects the Board's

newly-installed management to make significant changes required to enable

the company to succeed without Federal operating subsidies. The

Department plans to administer Amtrak's subsidy with this goal in mind.

The 2008 Budget proposes a subsidy that would require that Amtrak make

hard choices about its services and commit to running the railroad more

like a business. The request is part of a multi-year program to reduce

and then eliminate Amtrak's reliance on Federal operating assistance as

required by the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997 (49 USC

24101). For 2008, the Budget recommends $900 million for intercity

passenger rail, but only $800 million for Amtrak directly. This amount

includes $300 million for operating costs, compared to the $490 million

Amtrak received in 2006, beginning the phasing out of operating

subsidies. The Budget continues to fund Amtrak's infrastructure needs

with a capital request of $500 million, which is equal to the 2006

enacted level. This level should underwrite Amtrak's ongoing efforts to

rehabilitate the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston,

which is by far its most heavily used and important route. In addition,

the President's Budget requests $100 million for capital matching grants

to States for intercity passenger rail projects. This new program would

give local communities resources to direct investment in facilities that

reflect their top rail transportation priorities. The Administration

believes the Federal Government should help States fund capital projects

where there is strong demand for rail service, and help foster managed

competition among rail operators to encourage innovation and cost

control.

[End quote]

Look at some of the same, often useless and incorrect phrases used in the

budget request: "mostly for its money-losing long distance trains. When

last measured for 2002, the net Federal subsidy per thousand passenger

miles traveled was $199.90 for rail, $5.87 for commercial aviation, and

-$.95 for highway users according to the Bureau of Transportation

Statistics ... latest critical review of Amtrak comes from the Government

Accountability Office, which concluded, among several findings, that

Amtrak's long-distance trains "show limited public benefits for dollars

expended,' and that "these routes account for 15 percent of riders but 80

percent of financial losses.' ... should underwrite Amtrak's ongoing

efforts to rehabilitate the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C.

and Boston, which is by far its most heavily used and important route

..."

We know the long distance trains are not money losers, too many studies

have shown that above the rail, the long distance trains at the minimum

break even, and most even throw off extra cash to fund other parts of the

company and operations.

The most incredible statement comes abstractly from the Government

Accountability Office, saying Amtrak's long distance trains show limited

public benefit for dollars spent and that routes account of 15% of

riders, but 80 percent of financial losses. To Amtrak's credit, in the

original GAO report (GAO-07-15) of November 13, 2006, the company

responded by reminding the GAO that actually, the long distance trains

account for 47% of passenger miles generated system-wide.

The last incredible statement is that the NEC is by far Amtrak's most

heavily used and important route. While it may carry the most passenger

bodies, it does not generate the most passenger miles, and the importance

of the NEC would be debatable to anyone living outside of the NEC area

served, particularly if you live in one of the rural areas of America

where Amtrak is the only common carrier available for use.

What this boils down to is that the Bush administration is operating from

flawed data, simply because that is what it has been fed to use. We know

the GAO report is deeply flawed, because it has used bad data supplied by

... Amtrak. We know Amtrak's data is flawed, because its books are still

a financial quagmire that is taking months to just begin to untangle.

Also, in the past, Amtrak has always incorrectly highlighted the

importance of the NEC and its version of high speed rail at the expense

of the rest of the national system. Looking at Amtrak past marketing and

public relations exercises shows a distinct disdain for anything other

than the NEC, and these defective efforts are coming back to haunt Amtrak

as it tries to look at itself seriously as a national common carrier.

Most importantly, Amtrak itself has continuously, mostly for the benefit

of the NEC, used passenger body counts instead of the transportation

industry gold standard of revenue passenger miles to measure success. By

sheer body counts, the long distance trains do carry less passengers,

which is a meaningless statistic. By revenue passenger miles, the long

distance trains generate 47% of the system wide passenger miles, a huge

amount.

In summary, what we are seeing every year from the White House is a

budget decision based on flawed data, that ultimately was generated by

Amtrak. Until Amtrak can convince budget decision makers about the real

numbers and needs, bad budget requests will continue to flow into the

national debate.

The oddest, and funniest news story to come so far from this year's

budget discussions? New Mexico Business Weekly, on Tuesday, February 6,

2007 ran a headline saying, "Proposed Bush budget would banish NM's

Amtrak service." The story went on to say, in a declaratory fashion with

no attribution, "The president's 2008 budget proposal would cut Amtrak's

funding from $1.3 billion to $900 million and eliminate the Southwest

Chief and Sunset Limited passenger lines."

You can't make this stuff up. Where does such nonsense come from, in what

is supposed to be a respected business publication?

2) In good news, Amtrak seems to be putting together a new advertising

push. The bad news is that the advertising seems to be just for Acela

trains on the NEC, and not the whole system.

On February 9th, Adweek, a well-respected industry magazine of the

advertising and marketing biz, reported that Amtrak is making a

multimedia push for the winter and spring travel season. The campaign is

based on research that shows travelers are taking less vacation time and

are therefore more concerned with the comfort and quality of their

leisure-time activities.

Adweek says the campaign seems to mostly be aimed towards NEC Acela

trains. There is no mention of the much more important national system

trains which generate greater amounts of revenue passenger miles and cash

for the system.

Here's the distressing part: Amtrak spent slightly less than $20 million

on ads last year, down 66 percent from the previous year. Why such a

drop? Was this due to the Acela trains being out of commission last year,

so Amtrak didn't think it was important to advertise the rest of the

system?

In terms of advertising spending, $20 million, for a company the size of

Amtrak, is, at best, trivial spending for something like advertising.

Now, here's an interesting twist to the whole advertising scenario.

On February 7th, Amtrak announced it has contracted with a multi-cultural

marketing communications firm to launch a multi-cultural advertising

campaign for both Acela trains and the long distance system. The firm,

based in Atlanta, Georgia, will help Amtrak develop promotions, special

events, and public relations. These are all things Amtrak desperately

needs, and undoubtedly will help Amtrak gain new riders.

A "Welcome On Board" ad will encourage audiences to consider Amtrak long

distance trains when planning trips, especially family vacations. An

Acela campaign will target business travelers.

Hey, this sounds great. Promoting the long distance system, getting some

good public relations going, and special events.

But, the ads will only target multi-cultural audiences via print, online

and radio advertising in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington,

and Miami. Both campaigns will be aired only through African American and

Hispanic media outlets.

What about the rest of us? Is Amtrak saying that no one other than

minorities ride long distance trains? What about the other thousands of

media markets outside of the major centers listed above? Don't people in

the other 40+ states want to ride passenger trains, too? Or, will they

just have to figure out things the best way they can and discover Amtrak

on their own?

These two campaigns are a bare minimum start, but nothing more than that.

3) In the last issue of TWA, we read about a meeting held in Illinois

regarding expansion of Amtrak service in that state. The following quote

appeared:

[begin quote]

Oops! What? Did the Quad-City Times reporter correctly quote Mr. Lang, a

long time Amtrak public affairs veteran and experienced spokesman, saying

"Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail service. The company's

future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles."?

Putting two and two together, and hoping it doesn't add up to five, we

have last week's offering from Mr. Kummant in the Associated Press

article which was printed across the land that long distance train

ridership was expected to be flat, and reiterating the belief in state

sponsored corridors of 300 to 500 miles in length.

[End quote]

This has a happy ending. Ray Lang was apparently misquoted, as often

happens in the press. A sharp-eyed TWA reader, Eliot A. Keller of Iowa

City, Iowa sent the following e-mail to TWA:

"He was misquoted.

"I was there in Rock Island.

"He said the biggest growth in ridership was expected in the future on

trains serving those routes." [Meaning corridors, and not long distance

routes; that the company is still looking at long distance routes.]

That is a great improvement over what was reported in the Quad-City

Times. Thank you, Mr. Keller for helping clarify that issue. That puts a

much more positive spin on things.

4) Two very different weather and train operation reports and statements

were made February 13th and February 14th as harsh winter weather rolled

across North America.

Amtrak issued an internal System Operations Flash Report on February

14th, warning of the coming weather, and made plans to cancel or

terminate early 50 trains in the Midwest and Northeast.

VIA Rail Canada, on the other hand, on February 13th, warming to the

conditions of the same storm, issued this public announcement:

[begin quote]

VIA Rail Canada is preparing for major winter storm

Montreal - In light of the major storm that is expected to hit Central

Canada and the Maritimes over the next couple of days, VIA would like to

remind its passengers that is has taken all the necessary steps to offer

safe and reliable travel to those using its intercity and longer distance

trains in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. While heavy snow and severe

weather can shut down highways and airports, trains are typically not

affected to the same degree.

As weather predictions worsen, VIA normally faces increased demand. VIA

will add cars to accommodate the demand but urges customers to call ahead

to be certain of available space. To book, customers can call 1-888-VIA

Rail, (842-7245), TTY 1-800 268-9503 (hearing impaired). Tickets are also

available at kiosks in major Corridor stations, online at www.viarail.ca,

or through travel agents.

VIA offers a stress-free, safe and comfortable winter travel alternative.

For a complete listing of train departures, station and on-board services

as well as fare plans, visit VIA's Web site at www.viarail.ca (

http://www.viarail.ca/en_index.html )

[End quote]

Our tough Canadian cousins seem to relish winter, not be afraid of it.

Come on Amtrak, get with the plan.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

 

[haolerider]

This Week at Amtrak; February 16, 2007
A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 6

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) Thanks to all those who inquired about the missing editions of TWA

these last two weeks. Due to a pressing need to complete some large

projects, it was not possible to produce TWA and meet other deadlines. We

hope this has not caused any inconvenience.

2) According to the National Association of Railroad Passengers and other

groups and some media, the sky is yet again falling, and the Earth

continues to rush up to meet it.

Yes, it's that time of year when the reigning administration submits an

annual budget to Congress, and, of course, there is never enough money

suggested to please those who think government money grows on trees.

The Bush administration has suggested a small budget for Amtrak for

Fiscal Year 2008 of $900 million. Horrors. Just $100 million shy of a

billion dollars in free federal monies, and the fatalists think all of

the nation's passenger trains will grind to a screeching halt any minute,

now.

When cooler heads look at the budget picture, we know a couple of things

to be true, versus the dogmatic rhetoric that comes from all of the usual

suspects.

While $900 million is less than previously allotted by Congress in the

final budget figures (the only ones that really matter, by the way),

Amtrak usually gets $1.2 billion or more each year, lately. For FY 2006

and FY 2007, Amtrak got $1.3 billion each year.

Keep in mind all national operations and NEC operations together, plus

continuous upgrades to the Northeast Corridor can be accomplished with

this small budget request. So, even if this budget suggestion was

ultimately turned into law, Amtrak would not be shut down, nor would

passenger trains operations be curtailed.

Now, let's look at the crux of the problem of budgeting free federal

monies for Amtrak every year. Here is what the United States Department

of Transportation said regarding the FY 2008 Amtrak budget request.

[begin quote}

Focusing Amtrak's Spending Priorities

The Administration believes that scarce taxpayer dollars must be spent

wisely, including the funds provided to Amtrak. Led by its Board of

Directors, Amtrak made some progress in 2006 to strengthen its finances

by increasing revenues and controlling costs. While Amtrak's recent

performance is encouraging, it continues to under perform overall.

Amtrak's system-wide on-time performance again dropped in 2006 to 68

percent, and it required $490 million in operating subsidies, mostly for

its money-losing long distance trains. When last measured for 2002, the

net Federal subsidy per thousand passenger miles traveled was $199.90 for

rail, $5.87 for commercial aviation, and -$.95 for highway users

according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. While Amtrak

carried 24 million passengers in 2006, domestic air carriers that year

flew 656 million passengers.

Historically, Amtrak has been hampered by a lack of accountability, poor

design, and mismanagement. The latest critical review of Amtrak comes

from the Government Accountability Office, which concluded, among several

findings, that Amtrak's long-distance trains "show limited public

benefits for dollars expended," and that "these routes account for 15

percent of riders but 80 percent of financial losses." To turn the

enterprise around, the Administration has urged basic reforms that would

empower local communities and ultimately customers to determine the most

efficient way to run trains. The Administration expects the Board's

newly-installed management to make significant changes required to enable

the company to succeed without Federal operating subsidies. The

Department plans to administer Amtrak's subsidy with this goal in mind.

The 2008 Budget proposes a subsidy that would require that Amtrak make

hard choices about its services and commit to running the railroad more

like a business. The request is part of a multi-year program to reduce

and then eliminate Amtrak's reliance on Federal operating assistance as

required by the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997 (49 USC

24101). For 2008, the Budget recommends $900 million for intercity

passenger rail, but only $800 million for Amtrak directly. This amount

includes $300 million for operating costs, compared to the $490 million

Amtrak received in 2006, beginning the phasing out of operating

subsidies. The Budget continues to fund Amtrak's infrastructure needs

with a capital request of $500 million, which is equal to the 2006

enacted level. This level should underwrite Amtrak's ongoing efforts to

rehabilitate the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston,

which is by far its most heavily used and important route. In addition,

the President's Budget requests $100 million for capital matching grants

to States for intercity passenger rail projects. This new program would

give local communities resources to direct investment in facilities that

reflect their top rail transportation priorities. The Administration

believes the Federal Government should help States fund capital projects

where there is strong demand for rail service, and help foster managed

competition among rail operators to encourage innovation and cost

control.

[End quote]

Look at some of the same, often useless and incorrect phrases used in the

budget request: "mostly for its money-losing long distance trains. When

last measured for 2002, the net Federal subsidy per thousand passenger

miles traveled was $199.90 for rail, $5.87 for commercial aviation, and

-$.95 for highway users according to the Bureau of Transportation

Statistics ... latest critical review of Amtrak comes from the Government

Accountability Office, which concluded, among several findings, that

Amtrak's long-distance trains "show limited public benefits for dollars

expended,' and that "these routes account for 15 percent of riders but 80

percent of financial losses.' ... should underwrite Amtrak's ongoing

efforts to rehabilitate the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C.

and Boston, which is by far its most heavily used and important route

..."

We know the long distance trains are not money losers, too many studies

have shown that above the rail, the long distance trains at the minimum

break even, and most even throw off extra cash to fund other parts of the

company and operations.

The most incredible statement comes abstractly from the Government

Accountability Office, saying Amtrak's long distance trains show limited

public benefit for dollars spent and that routes account of 15% of

riders, but 80 percent of financial losses. To Amtrak's credit, in the

original GAO report (GAO-07-15) of November 13, 2006, the company

responded by reminding the GAO that actually, the long distance trains

account for 47% of passenger miles generated system-wide.

The last incredible statement is that the NEC is by far Amtrak's most

heavily used and important route. While it may carry the most passenger

bodies, it does not generate the most passenger miles, and the importance

of the NEC would be debatable to anyone living outside of the NEC area

served, particularly if you live in one of the rural areas of America

where Amtrak is the only common carrier available for use.

What this boils down to is that the Bush administration is operating from

flawed data, simply because that is what it has been fed to use. We know

the GAO report is deeply flawed, because it has used bad data supplied by

... Amtrak. We know Amtrak's data is flawed, because its books are still

a financial quagmire that is taking months to just begin to untangle.

Also, in the past, Amtrak has always incorrectly highlighted the

importance of the NEC and its version of high speed rail at the expense

of the rest of the national system. Looking at Amtrak past marketing and

public relations exercises shows a distinct disdain for anything other

than the NEC, and these defective efforts are coming back to haunt Amtrak

as it tries to look at itself seriously as a national common carrier.

Most importantly, Amtrak itself has continuously, mostly for the benefit

of the NEC, used passenger body counts instead of the transportation

industry gold standard of revenue passenger miles to measure success. By

sheer body counts, the long distance trains do carry less passengers,

which is a meaningless statistic. By revenue passenger miles, the long

distance trains generate 47% of the system wide passenger miles, a huge

amount.

In summary, what we are seeing every year from the White House is a

budget decision based on flawed data, that ultimately was generated by

Amtrak. Until Amtrak can convince budget decision makers about the real

numbers and needs, bad budget requests will continue to flow into the

national debate.

The oddest, and funniest news story to come so far from this year's

budget discussions? New Mexico Business Weekly, on Tuesday, February 6,

2007 ran a headline saying, "Proposed Bush budget would banish NM's

Amtrak service." The story went on to say, in a declaratory fashion with

no attribution, "The president's 2008 budget proposal would cut Amtrak's

funding from $1.3 billion to $900 million and eliminate the Southwest

Chief and Sunset Limited passenger lines."

You can't make this stuff up. Where does such nonsense come from, in what

is supposed to be a respected business publication?

2) In good news, Amtrak seems to be putting together a new advertising

push. The bad news is that the advertising seems to be just for Acela

trains on the NEC, and not the whole system.

On February 9th, Adweek, a well-respected industry magazine of the

advertising and marketing biz, reported that Amtrak is making a

multimedia push for the winter and spring travel season. The campaign is

based on research that shows travelers are taking less vacation time and

are therefore more concerned with the comfort and quality of their

leisure-time activities.

Adweek says the campaign seems to mostly be aimed towards NEC Acela

trains. There is no mention of the much more important national system

trains which generate greater amounts of revenue passenger miles and cash

for the system.

Here's the distressing part: Amtrak spent slightly less than $20 million

on ads last year, down 66 percent from the previous year. Why such a

drop? Was this due to the Acela trains being out of commission last year,

so Amtrak didn't think it was important to advertise the rest of the

system?

In terms of advertising spending, $20 million, for a company the size of

Amtrak, is, at best, trivial spending for something like advertising.

Now, here's an interesting twist to the whole advertising scenario.

On February 7th, Amtrak announced it has contracted with a multi-cultural

marketing communications firm to launch a multi-cultural advertising

campaign for both Acela trains and the long distance system. The firm,

based in Atlanta, Georgia, will help Amtrak develop promotions, special

events, and public relations. These are all things Amtrak desperately

needs, and undoubtedly will help Amtrak gain new riders.

A "Welcome On Board" ad will encourage audiences to consider Amtrak long

distance trains when planning trips, especially family vacations. An

Acela campaign will target business travelers.

Hey, this sounds great. Promoting the long distance system, getting some

good public relations going, and special events.

But, the ads will only target multi-cultural audiences via print, online

and radio advertising in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington,

and Miami. Both campaigns will be aired only through African American and

Hispanic media outlets.

What about the rest of us? Is Amtrak saying that no one other than

minorities ride long distance trains? What about the other thousands of

media markets outside of the major centers listed above? Don't people in

the other 40+ states want to ride passenger trains, too? Or, will they

just have to figure out things the best way they can and discover Amtrak

on their own?

These two campaigns are a bare minimum start, but nothing more than that.

3) In the last issue of TWA, we read about a meeting held in Illinois

regarding expansion of Amtrak service in that state. The following quote

appeared:

[begin quote]

Oops! What? Did the Quad-City Times reporter correctly quote Mr. Lang, a

long time Amtrak public affairs veteran and experienced spokesman, saying

"Amtrak is not looking at long-distance rail service. The company's

future is servicing corridors 300 to 500 miles."?

Putting two and two together, and hoping it doesn't add up to five, we

have last week's offering from Mr. Kummant in the Associated Press

article which was printed across the land that long distance train

ridership was expected to be flat, and reiterating the belief in state

sponsored corridors of 300 to 500 miles in length.

[End quote]

This has a happy ending. Ray Lang was apparently misquoted, as often

happens in the press. A sharp-eyed TWA reader, Eliot A. Keller of Iowa

City, Iowa sent the following e-mail to TWA:

"He was misquoted.

"I was there in Rock Island.

"He said the biggest growth in ridership was expected in the future on

trains serving those routes." [Meaning corridors, and not long distance

routes; that the company is still looking at long distance routes.]

That is a great improvement over what was reported in the Quad-City

Times. Thank you, Mr. Keller for helping clarify that issue. That puts a

much more positive spin on things.

4) Two very different weather and train operation reports and statements

were made February 13th and February 14th as harsh winter weather rolled

across North America.

Amtrak issued an internal System Operations Flash Report on February

14th, warning of the coming weather, and made plans to cancel or

terminate early 50 trains in the Midwest and Northeast.

VIA Rail Canada, on the other hand, on February 13th, warming to the

conditions of the same storm, issued this public announcement:

[begin quote]

VIA Rail Canada is preparing for major winter storm

Montreal - In light of the major storm that is expected to hit Central

Canada and the Maritimes over the next couple of days, VIA would like to

remind its passengers that is has taken all the necessary steps to offer

safe and reliable travel to those using its intercity and longer distance

trains in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. While heavy snow and severe

weather can shut down highways and airports, trains are typically not

affected to the same degree.

As weather predictions worsen, VIA normally faces increased demand. VIA

will add cars to accommodate the demand but urges customers to call ahead

to be certain of available space. To book, customers can call 1-888-VIA

Rail, (842-7245), TTY 1-800 268-9503 (hearing impaired). Tickets are also

available at kiosks in major Corridor stations, online at www.viarail.ca,

or through travel agents.

VIA offers a stress-free, safe and comfortable winter travel alternative.

For a complete listing of train departures, station and on-board services

as well as fare plans, visit VIA's Web site at www.viarail.ca (

http://www.viarail.ca/en_index.html )

[End quote]

Our tough Canadian cousins seem to relish winter, not be afraid of it.

Come on Amtrak, get with the plan.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Sometimes a little information is a dangerous thing!

Amtrak has a long distance train advertising campaign, as well as an Acela (NEC) campaign for the spring, so there should be no fear that the long distance trains are being forgotten.

As far as the Multicultural/Diversity agency running ads in large market areas, this is no different than what has been done in the past. There has always been a portion of their budget set aside for diverse market segments and those ads are funded from the national budget. Other cities/regions will use the same ads and place them in the smaller market cities.

No fears Bruce - Amtrak will market to everyone - even URPA followers.

 

[AlanB]

Sometimes a little information is a dangerous thing!
Amtrak has a long distance train advertising campaign, as well as an Acela (NEC) campaign for the spring, so there should be no fear that the long distance trains are being forgotten.

As far as the Multicultural/Diversity agency running ads in large market areas, this is no different than what has been done in the past. There has always been a portion of their budget set aside for diverse market segments and those ads are funded from the national budget. Other cities/regions will use the same ads and place them in the smaller market cities.

No fears Bruce - Amtrak will market to everyone - even URPA followers.

I can only guess that he used selective reading when browsing Amtrak's press releases. :blink: After all here it is clear as day, a full description of the ads for the long distance service.

 

[MrFSS]

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 7

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) What is your world view of Amtrak? Do you consider it an essential

public/social service? Do you consider it mostly a regional commuter

service? Do you consider it a provider of long distance transportation

as part of our national transportation matrix? Do you consider Amtrak a

fascinating part of your hobby world that you hope the federal

government will continue to fund endlessly for your enjoyment?

People who are interesting in Amtrak make up disparate parts of the

national population. While many are indifferent to the fate of Amtrak,

others are passionate about its existence. Many who are passionate about

Amtrak are also mostly ignorant about the realities of Amtrak, and what

it takes to run a passenger railroad.

From the outside, an easy answer to almost all of Amtrak's problems is

to throw more money at the company. Just give it more money and

everything will be fine. Well, no, that is probably the worst possible

scenario for Amtrak because more money only enables bad corporate

behavior and provide no incentive for improvement.

On the money front, the current Amtrak board of directors and

administration has quickly learned how to play the ongoing Washington

game of requesting free federal monies, and getting most of what they

want. It's the Amtrak apologists and mostly politically naive "Amtrak at

all costs, right or wrong" supporters who don't seem to want to

understand the process.

During the past two federal budget cycles, we have seen Amtrak, with all

due respect accorded to its money managers on Capitol Hill, create a

budget request process that has been done professionally and with

forethought. This year, the Bush administration requested $900 million

for Amtrak through its annual budget process. Keep in mind the term

"process." A Republican administration has made a request of a Democrat

congress. That means at best, the Republican request is a faint

blueprint for what Congress will actually enact in final legislation.

Amtrak has made for FY 2008 a direct request to Congress of $1.53

billion, up from the FY 06 and FY 07 budget of $1.3 billion.

Now, here the comes the part most people don't seem to want to grasp or

understand, and which no one outside of the budget writers at Amtrak

will every know the real answer to: How much of Amtrak's budget request

is "blue sky, best case scenario"? Anyone savvy in the ways of

negotiation - and Amtrak's annual Congressional free federal monies are

always a product of negotiation - knows that you always start high, and

settle for less than you requested. That's simply the way the process works.

Most people would be hard pressed to name any federal agency which

receives 100% of its requested annual budget. Some people in Congress

are always likely to say, "Well, we can do X if we cut 1 or 2 % from

everyone else's budget." That is simply the way things get done in a

civilized society.

Those individuals and organizations like the National Association of

Railroad Passengers who want to hold their collective breaths until they

turn blue because in their view Amtrak isn't getting every red cent it's

requesting simply aren't living in the real world.

An amusing aside to the budget debate this year has been NARP's public

disappointment in the new Democrat controlled congress. Apparently,

there has been too much wishful thinking that once "our people" were in

control, all of Amtrak's problems would be solved because Democrats

would be much more sympathetic to every one of Amtrak's needs. Whoops!

The reality is, those who are in power and show some personal

responsibility, do what is best for the commonweal, not always what is

best for perceived favorites.

For those of us intimately familiar with politics, we know that once in

power, everyone who joined our side to get us into power usually did so

for a specific agenda, and then demand their agenda be followed. That's

just not possible. When you are an elected leader, you do what is right

either from a moral or ethical basis (hopefully, both) and follow the

law. If personal agendas interfere, then you were not the right person

to be elected. While Amtrak supporters and apologists may think they are

right, they are probably not taking a global vision of everything in the

transportation field that must be considered in a budget process. An

Amtrak apologist's "emergency" is not an airline foamer's "emergency."

It's up to the budget writers on Capitol Hill to figure out the real

emergencies and allocate monies accordingly.

2) We continue to hear the same drivel that no passenger railroad system

in the world can exist without public monies. Why is this considered a

basis for Amtrak funding? We note in the latest Amtrak budget request to

Congress the company has announced that despite an increase in operating

expenses, it plans to hold the line on its request for an operating

subsidy at the same as previous years, $485 million for the entire

system. In other words, Amtrak is saying it would rather first help

itself, either through internal savings, an improvement in the way it

does business, or (gasp!) improved ridership and revenue, than simply

ask the federal government for more money.

Finally, we have arrived at Valhalla. Amtrak has said, "No, thank you, I

can help myself." This is a red letter year for Amtrak.

Real businesspeople, looking at passenger rail from a real business

standpoint instead of through the rose colored glasses and soft bigotry

of lower expectations, know that passenger rail in a truly competitive

environment can not only be self-sufficient in many areas, but it can be

profitable, too, in the context of traditional passenger rail, such as

long distance trains.

Looking at Amtrak as it currently is shaped, the company will never be

able to charge enough for tickets on corridor trains as demonstrated on

the Northeast Corridor to fully support the cost of those trains and the

infrastructure required to operate them. But, in a more mature long

distance system, the numbers show those trains throwing off large

amounts of excess cash (called "profits" in the real world, which by the

way is not an obscene term), and those trains can be more than

self-sufficient.

3) How do you strike a balance between these two systems? In pre-Amtrak

days, many of the private railroads, such as the Pennsylvania, Southern

Pacific, Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road, Chicago Northwestern, and

others operated commuter businesses in addition to fleets of long

distance trains. Some digging through musty archives shows that the

commuter operations, which we operated by government direction, the same

as public utilities, rarely made money. It was the long distance fleets

that covered many of the expenses of the commuter trains.

In today's Amworld, those economics have been nearly reversed. More

emphasis has been placed on high cost, low revenue commuter operations

as public utilities, and little interest has been paid to low cost, high

revenue long distance trains. To make matters worse, anyone from those

days of yesteryear that understood the true economics of pre-Amtrak

passenger trains are either 25 years into retirement, living in a

nursing home, or simply dead.

Amtrak has become - as often happens when a private industry passes into

public hands - a social tool rather than a fully functioning passenger

railroad. Politicians and Amtrak apologists have succeeded in turning

Amtrak away from its original mission of providing a robust, national

passenger rail system into a series of competing-for-budget-dollars

disparate corridors loosely linked by scarce long distance trains.

4) We are seeing an emphasis by Amtrak on the development of 100 to 500

mile corridors, hopefully paid for by individual states which have an

interest in these trains. To no one's surprise, in Illinois, which has a

whole host of new corridor trains this year, ridership has soared. We

have no real reported figures on the success of these trains, because we

only know ridership, which is just a count of warm bodies. We don't know

revenue passenger miles, which show real results. But, we do know that

ridership has soared.

Two other areas are looking at expanded service, both which will be

important additions to Amtrak's national system, but will most likely be

supported by state monies. The first is reintroducing the Coast Daylight

in California, between the San Francisco Bay area and Southern

California. This is about a 500 mile run, and it will nicely connect all

of the Southern California corridor services with all of the Northern

California corridor services, creating a huge opportunity destination

matrix for connecting passengers. Best of all, the train will mostly

duplicate the route of the Coast Starlight, which should not only free

up a lot of revenue space on the Starlight for passengers traveling

outside of California on that high revenue train, but it will also

spread out station and other infrastructure costs to two trains, instead

of all costs being heaped on the Starlight.

In other words, this will be a low cost train to implement, an extra

frequency should drive up demand and create greater revenue passenger

miles, and more space will be available on the Coast Starlight for

passengers traveling long distances and connecting to other trains,

which, in turn, will generate even more revenue. There is no downside to

the creation of this train.

The next good opportunity is coming from residents in Oklahoma and

Kansas who want an extension of the state supported Heartland Flyer,

which currently runs between Fort Worth, Texas and Oklahoma City. This

spunky little train, which currently connects with the Texas Eagle in

Forth Worth, has huge potential if it is expanded to its natural

endpoints in Kansas City (or, better yet, Chicago) and San Antonio.

A renewed Heartland Flyer running San Antonio; Fort Worth; Oklahoma

City; Newton, Kansas (picking up the current route of the Southwest

Chief at that junction); Kansas City, or even on to Chicago would be

another powerhouse train that would be cheap to operate, have a route

over the friendly BNSF Railroad versus the difficult Union Pacific

Railroad, and become an important passenger corridor.

Advantages include twice daily service between San Antonio and Fort

Worth in a vibrant part of Texas, and twice daily service on the

Southwest Chief route between Newton, Kansas and Kansas City. Again, you

have the same advantages as found in California, with a sharing of costs

between two trains instead of all costs heaped on one train, and the

connection matrix possibilities go through the roof, providing huge new

opportunities for passenger demand and revenue passenger miles.

5) This demonstrates the tricky shoals which must be navigated between a

policy of only developing relatively short corridors, or looking

globally at what can be accomplished to benefit the entire Amtrak system

by being just slightly more creative in thinking in terms of

connectivity and passengers who may wish to travel further than what one

state may be willing to pay for each budget year.

Think something like this won't work? It already does, in the case of

the Carolinian in North Carolina, which runs between Charlotte, North

Carolina and New York City. The State of North Carolina, one of the

leaders in promoting responsible passenger rail service, shares the cost

of the Carolinian with Amtrak, even though the train travels far beyond

the borders of North Carolina.

This same type of thinking needs to be applied to an expansion of the

Heartland Flyer beyond Texas and Oklahoma. As a stand-alone train, the

Heartland Flyer is mildly successful, but expensive to operate. As an

expanded train between to natural endpoints instead of artificially

created endpoints, it has much greater potential to earn more revenue,

serve more passengers, and, with proper accounting (not necessarily

accounting as we have historically experienced at Amtrak), can cost less

and less in state subsidy to operate because it has more and more

revenue from a greater pool of sources.

How many other examples like this can be found, just waiting to be

exploited?

6) There are more signs of an improved and enlightened Amtrak

management. In the February 20th edition of the employee newsletter

Amtrak This Week, the first item says, "Note: We appreciate the hard

work put in by all of the employees - from the train crews to those who

kept the railroad open and moving - who did their best despite the very

tough winter weather conditions we experienced last week. Thank you for

your dedication and commitment."

And, the next item speaks volumes, and hopefully will have a huge

impact,"Mechanical: Distribution of seatback cards with information

about the new Trip Ratings program (passenger survey) is being completed

on Acela, Regional, Keystone, Vermonter, and all long-distance trains."

Now, let's hope somebody reads these survey cards and reacts

appropriately. This should be a tremendous tool for improvement.

7) During the past year, much has been said and done about Amtrak

onboard food service. Extreme measures have been taken to allegedly save

money, while overall downgrading the level of dining car service and

cutting important employees.

There is one area which has been overlooked. Many of the progressive

chains of fast food restaurants have found new profits and more loyal

customers through longer hours of being open. Many quick service

restaurants, which previously closed at 10 P.M. or earlier, have

extended their hours to 1 A.M. or later, and some have gone to offering

24 hour service.

Amtrak briefly experimented with this on the Sunset Limited in 1999 and

2000 with the 24 hour dining car concept, which was well received by

both passengers and onboard employees.

Best of all "the numbers" worked, and the participating union thought

enough of the idea to allow the successful experiments to take place

while temporarily waiving union rules for when onboard crews are

supposed to have guaranteed hours of when to sleep (This had nothing to

do with the number of hours available for sleep, but rather when those

hours would occur.).

Since Amtrak is already running food service cars, no extra

infrastructure is required; just one or two more employees, the cost of

which are quickly covered by the increased utilization of the dining car.

Amtrak has partially moved to this concept by beginning to offer "all

day dining," from early morning to midnight. This helps tremendously,

but still leaves a large gap during nocturnal hours, which many

passenger are entraining and detraining, and would like some sustenance.

Amtrak already has the completed studies on this (Of which this writer

was paid to do, as well as conducting the onboard test runs), and has

the proof positive that this idea is not only a good idea, but a

financially rewarding idea, as well.

8) The ongoing saga of the missing Sunset Limited east of New Orleans,

now missing for 18 months, is getting some strong goosing from the

Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers under the leadership of its

president, Jackson McQuigg, and several dogged members who have a strong

interest in the return of the train.

Working professionally, the group has begun to put pressure on members

of Florida's congressional delegation, including both Corrine Brown and

Ander Crenshaw of Jacksonville. Congresswoman Brown plays an important

role on the House Transportation committee and is keeping this issue

alive. Pressure is also being brought to the office of Senator Mel

Martinez, Florida's junior senator. The Sunset also serves the district

of Representative John Mica, who has also played important roles on the

transportation committee.

The best wisdom available is that Amtrak is trying to hold out for the

affected states to cough up money to operate this long distance train

that has been a part of the long distance system since 1993 east of New

Orleans. It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out

with new Congressional pressure being brought to bear on Amtrak.

The Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers has been doing important work

for the restoration of the Sunset. In combination with other pressures

being brought to bear on the subject, success can't be far away.

9) The Rail Passenger Association of California & Nevada and NARP are

holding a joint membership meeting and conference March 17 in Los

Angeles. The keynote speaker for the event will be Amtrak President and

CEO Alex Kummant. A number of other speakers will be present, notably

URPA Vice President of Law and Policy Andrew Selden. He will participate

in a panel discussion regarding "Amtrak and the Future" along with some

lesser participants. Further details can be found at www.railpac.org.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; March 1, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 8

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) Oh, my, it seems that some "amateurs" are trying to do the wrong

thing, according to National Association of Railroad Passengers Executive

Director Ross Capon.

The restoration of the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans has been high

on the passenger rail agenda for many of us here in Florida and along the

Gulf Coast. Gone since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the absent Sunset has

created a large hole in Amtrak's national network of trains. CSX, the

Sunset's host railroad east of New Orleans, released a newly repaired

main line to Amtrak for service April 1, 2006, after damage from Katrina

was fixed. Some station damage has remained, but nothing worse than

Amtrak has routinely dealt with in other locations while still providing

passenger train service.

Most of Amtrak's excuses for not restoring the Sunset have been in the

"the dog ate my homework" category. It appears that Amtrak is holding

out, hoping a coalition of Gulf Coast states will cough up money to pay

for a restored Sunset Limited. This dangerous precedent would make any

long distance route vulnerable to discontinuance until local money was

found to run a train.

URPA has been pushing hard for this restoration, along with the excellent

and independent efforts of the Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers, and

several well-connected individuals in Florida who fully understand the

need for this service. A number of mayors from cities and towns along the

abandoned Sunset route have joined the effort, as well as distinguished

members of Congress who represent districts and states along the forlorn

route.

NARP's Mr. Capon, however, sees things differently. Here is an e-mail Mr.

Capon sent, in effect, telling everyone to cool their jets and let the

"experts" at NARP handle the matter.

[begin quote]

Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 2:25 PM

Friends--

There is no possibility that Amtrak will reinstitute a train that serves

Mobile at bad times, which would be needed to produce a reliable same-day

connection from #2 to a restored New Orleans Florida service.

Making the case for any restoration is tough enough without advocates

burdening the case with specifics that most outsiders would regard as

micromanaging--including politically connected outsiders whose help we

need to press for restoration.

--Ross

[End quote]

Well. The entire future of the Sunset route depends on a small city like

Mobile, Alabama have a marketable time? Hmmmm ... let's look at some

other major cities and their "marketable" times.

Columbia, South Carolina, Silver Star - 1:44 A.M., southbound; 1:12 A.M.,

northbound

Cleveland, Ohio, Capitol Limited - 2:31 A.M., westbound; 2:06 A.M.,

eastbound

Cleveland, Ohio, Lake Shore Limited - 3:27 A.M., westbound; 4:02 A.M.,

eastbound

Cincinnati, Ohio, Cardinal - 1:03 A.M., westbound; 3:02 A.M., eastbound

Carbondale, Illinois, City of New Orleans - 1:21 A.M., southbound; 3:16

A.M., northbound

Fargo, North Dakota, Empire Builder - 3:35 A.M., westbound; 2:13 A.M.,

eastbound

Spokane, Washington, Empire Builder - 1:40 A.M., westbound; 1:15 A.M.,

eastbound

Lincoln, Nebraska, California Zephyr - 12:08 A.M., westbound; 3:56 A.M.,

eastbound

Salt Lake City, Utah, California Zephyr - 11:33 P.M., westbound; 3:15

A.M., eastbound

Topeka, Kansas, Southwest Chief - 1:09 A.M., westbound; 5:20 A.M.,

eastbound

Little Rock, Arkansas, Texas Eagle - 3:10 A.M., westbound; 11:34 P.M.,

eastbound

San Antonio, Texas, Sunset Limited - 3:00 A.M., westbound; 10:25 P.M.,

eastbound

And, there are, of course, other examples. Apparently, "marketable times"

are not a factor for Amtrak service in these cities. One must realize

that any long distance train will serve some markets at good times, and

other markets at bad times. When scheduling a train like the Sunset

Limited that literally is the only train in North America to travel coast

to coast, some markets will not receive the best times.

When dealing with people - like this writer who used to have some

responsibility for the marketing of the Sunset Limited - making decisions

about which markets to emphasize and which to realize will have less than

perfect service, and adding in the needs of the host railroad, and also

adding in the operating characteristics of each train, there has to be

some hard decisions made and some "give and take" as schedules are

tweaked for optimum performance.

The easiest solution is to run at least two schedules on each route, with

a "flip" schedule, and markets served at less than perfect times of one

schedule are then afforded good service on the flip schedule. Also

helpful is to fill in some markets with short "daylight" service on

corridors where corridor and long distance trains complement each other

and share expenses and provide better travel opportunities to generate

higher revenue passenger mile counts.

Mr. Capon also seems to not understand the economics and dynamics of the

Sunset Limited. While as typical of any long distance train, the Sunset

provides lots of "local" service between numeral intermediate station

stops, much of the success of the train is because of its important place

in Amtrak's passenger matrix of delivering passengers from one passenger

junction to another. A good deal of the business of the Sunset east of

New Orleans consisted of passengers who were "bridge" traffic, moving

from points west of New Orleans to either Jacksonville, where the train

connected with Florida service trains, or to the train's ultimate

destination of Orlando, the single largest vacation destination in the

country. While Mobile, Alabama is an important small city on the route,

the operations of the Sunset east of New Orleans were not wholly

dependent on Mobile's business.

We know NARP has had a too-cozy relationship with Amtrak for a long time,

including taking payments from Amtrak for operating a customer advisory

panel. We also know NARP is Amtrak's greatest apologist, and seldom seems

willing to prod Amtrak to do anything different than what Amtrak is

willing to do on its own.

2) For those who may wish to question Mr. Capon specifically on his

choice of words and explain exactly what he meant in the above e-mail, he

will be appearing with URPA Vice President of Law and Policy Andrew

Selden in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 17 at a joint membership meeting

of NARP and the Rail Passenger Association of California & Nevada. Mr.

Capon and Mr. Selden will be featured on a panel with the topic of

"Amtrak and the Future," after the keynote speech by Amtrak President and

CEO Alex Kummant.

The meeting should provide an excellent forum for the discussion of the

topic of the Sunset Limited at length, with views from all parties. For

more information on the meeting location and time, visit the RailPac web

site at www.railpac.org

3) Dealing with some old, but fun business: A few Amtrak locomotives,

fresh from the paint shop, were sporting misspellings on their sides.

Someone in Amtrak's shops affixing decals of Amtrak's logo on the

locomotives, had a bad moment and reversed two letters of the Amtrak logo

on the engines. What was supposed to be "AMTRAK" came out "ATMRAK"

instead. The fun part is that these locomotives passed inspection by

several pairs of eyes and made it out into main line service for a period

of time before anyone noticed the problem.

At first, no one believed this, thinking photos of the engines with the

typos were merely hoaxes that had been conceived used the popular Adobe

Photoshop computer program. But, it turns out, the photos - and the typos

- were real, and the decals had to be corrected and re-affixed.

Any of us who regularly deal with words and proofing know it's far too

easy to look at something you see everyday and read the whole word the

way we imagine it to be, instead of reading letter-for-letter. Sadly,

this column is often proof enough of that concept, even though it is

rigorously edited and sent through a thorough spell checking several

times before publication. It's just hard to believe something as large as

an Amtrak locomotive got past so many eyes before the error was

discovered.

4) Chicago and the Midwest have taken the brunt of a lot of winter

weather misery this year, not to mention the failure of the Chicago Bears

to win the Super Bowl. Here's a report of what happened in the Chicago

Amtrak yards the Monday after the Super Bowl.

[begin quote]

The Chicago melt-down on Monday was pathetic. Apparently all the

mechanics and yard crews laid off for the Super Bowl. Train 301(5)

departed 43 minutes late but that was only AFTER its frozen cars were

swapped for the Superliner set that was supposed to be for 303(5); but

even that one had never been serviced after coming in on Sunday night.

Pity the passengers and crew who were on 303(5); even after additional

time to service the all-Horizon consist, it had frozen toilets in every

car and left Chicago over 3 hours late, arriving in

STL just a shade under 5 hours late.

They all KNEW that the Horizon set for 301 had frozen toilets but the

crew was told that Mechanical was working it; in reality there was not a

single mechanic to be found, either inside the train or servicing it

outside. There WAS an oil heater aimed at the toilet tank of one of the

frozen Horizon cars, but it was stone cold; not even turned on!

The mechanical foreman claimed only one pipefitter showed up and he

needed three, so nothing was going to get done.

[End quote]

One has to suppose that football beats passenger service, every time.

5) On a positive note the Amtrak Central Division News, distributed to

all employees in Chicago and elsewhere in the Midwest, featured a front

page story in its December issue with the headline "Save the service,

serve the snacks." The story exhorts onboard personnel to use "emergency"

snacks provided on all trains to appease passengers who may be angry or

distraught because of delayed trains.

[begin quote]

If you've been on a train that is delayed, you know what can happen:

Passengers begin to wonder what's happening and why. Try as you might to

inform, calm and appease them, sometimes it's all for naught. That's when

it may become necessary to introduce service recover meals. Do you know

about these?

These individually wrapped, "emergency" snack packs include bottled

water, cheese and crackers, a cookie and some trail mix. They can work

wonders on delayed long-distance or short-haul trains, according to

Cynthia Winslow, Assistance Superintendent of On-Board Services.

"They've given us an easy and effective option for service recovery,"

Winslow said. "The snacks seem to be well-received and appreciated by our

passengers, because sometimes all they're looking for is that good-faith

effort and attentiveness on our part."

Learn where these service recovery meals are on your train, and find out

from a manager or supervisor under what circumstances you are to use

them."

[End quote]

(Sigh) "Do you know about these?" That's just depressing there would be

anyone working as part of an Amtrak onboard crew that doesn't know about

these simple and good examples of making service recovery efforts. And,

apparently, they are to be used only after OBS personnel have tried to

"inform, calm, and appease" passengers. So, the snacks are only a last

resort? Not to be used except in extreme emergencies? No chance this

simple gesture could be made without OBS employees being painted into a

corner by passengers?

The story also indicates that some crews may not be making a "good-faith

effort" or providing "attentiveness" on the part of Amtrak. Why is the

concept of good passenger service so hard to grasp?

6) Old Amtrak employees may go away for a while, but eventually they seem

to return to their past haunts. Anne Witt, formerly Anne Hoey of the

George Warrington era of Amtrak has returned to the company as vice

president of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development. The newly

formed department focuses on Amtrak's growth strategy and encompasses

state corridor and commuter contracts, freight railroad relationships,

real estate and other business development opportunities.

Ms. Witt rejoins Amtrak from another high profile, customer focused

agency, the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles. Her

previous positions with Amtrak included vice president in a number of

departments, such as Service Standards, Service Operations; Reservations,

Sales and Customer Relations; Customer and Corporate Communications and

Corporate Management.

Outside of Amtrak, Ms. Witt has been busy holding senior-level positions

at other large agencies, including Montgomery County Maryland's

Department of Environmental Protection, the D.C. Department of Public

Works, and the Children's National Medical Center.

One can conclude Amtrak is not through recycling lifetime government

bureaucrats that go endlessly from one government job to the next, and

back again.

7) Here is an interesting essay from Paul Weyrich, former member of the

Amtrak Board of Directors, and currently the Chairman and CEO of the Free

Congress Foundation in Washington.

[begin quote]

Free Congress Foundation Commentary

Why the Next Conservatism Should Bring Back Streetcars

By Paul M. Weyrich

January 31, 2007

Streetcars? What could conservatism have to do with streetcars? Some of

you may be wondering if I have slipped my trolley.

Maybe I have, but wanting to bring electric streetcars back to our cities

is no sign of it. In an earlier essay on the next conservatism, number

ten in this series, I argued that conservatives should want to bring our

cities back. Too many of them have become cold, hard, empty places,

devoid of life and unable to perform the important functions cities have

in any culture. Well, it turns out that if you want to bring cities back,

you also want to bring back streetcars.

A great new book, Street Smart: Streetcars and Cities in the 21st

Century, explains why. Streetcars, it seems, are one of the most powerful

tools for reviving cities. Several American cities have already brought

the streetcars back, with tremendous positive effects on re-development.

Kenosha, Wisconsin, brought streetcars back for just $6.2 million, and

the new streetcar line has already brought $150 million in development,

for a return on investment of 2,319%. Portland, Oregon, put in a downtown

streetcar loop 4.8 miles long for $55 million; it generated over three

billion dollars in new development. A 1.2 mile extension of the original

loop brought in another $1.35 billion in development.

Why do streetcars bring new development? There are several reasons.

First, middle-class people with significant disposable income like riding

streetcars. That is not true of buses. Second, streetcars are "pedestrian

facilitators." People who ride through a city on a streetcar tend to get

off and on, walking for a while, then riding some more. While they are

walking, they go in stores, stop in restaurants for something to eat,

maybe see a movie or get tickets for a show. In other words, they spend

money downtown. Middle-class pedestrians are the life blood of a city,

and streetcars make it easy for them to get around.

Third, from a developer's perspective, a streetcar line is a guarantee of

high-quality public transportation that will be there for decades. That

is not true of buses; a bus line can be here today, gone tomorrow. The

investment in track and overhead wire streetcars require means their

routes don't get up and move. Not surprisingly, bus service does little

or nothing for development.

Beyond their positive effects on re-development, there is another reason

the next conservatism should want to bring back streetcars, and passenger

trains for that matter. Thanks to trains, streetcars, and interurbans

(which were big, fast streetcars that ran from cities far out into the

countryside), travel in America used to be a lot more enjoyable than it

is now.

Today, we don't really travel. Instead, we are just packaged and shipped.

That is true of air travel, which has become an ordeal, and also of much

driving. One interstate highway is much like another and driving in or

around cities often means getting caught in traffic congestion, which

everybody hates.

The next conservatism's theme of Retroculture wants to bring back good

things from the past that we have lost. Pleasure in travel, in the

journey itself, should be one of those good things. Life is too short to

make travel into misery, when it can be fun.

Yes, riding streetcars is fun. Our grandparents used to enjoy riding the

streetcars. They have a feel to them that is completely different from a

bus. You can take my word for it. I have ridden streetcars all over the

world. Better, the next time you are in a city that has streetcars, or

Light Rail, take a ride. You will see the city in a whole different way.

And I think you will enjoy the experience.

A few years ago, I was in Denver with a friend, a United States Senator,

who was a strong opponent of rail transit. Denver has a Light Rail

system. I asked him if he would take a ride on it with me, and he agreed.

About half way through our ride, he turned to me and said, "This is

nice."

Our cities, if they are to be living cities, need streetcars. The next

conservatism should work to bring the streetcars back, as one of many

nice presents the past can offer the future. Resurrecting good things

from the past is what conservatism should be about.

[End quote]

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe, should be

addressed to [email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

_______________________________________________

TWA mailing list

[email protected]

http://lists.unitedrail.org/mailman/listinfo/twa

 

[frj1983]

OK my PC froze up as I was responding to a message and seemed to just post incompletely what I was trying to say. For my own edification, is there any way to competely delete a message and start over?

 

[AlanB]

OK my PC froze up as I was responding to a message and seemed to just post incompletely what I was trying to say. For my own edification, is there any way to competely delete a message and start over?

There is no way for you to delete a message, you would have to ask one of the moderators to do that for you. Of course you can edit your post and simply replace whatever did show up with what you really want.

 

[frj1983]

OK my PC froze up as I was responding to a message and seemed to just post incompletely what I was trying to say. For my own edification, is there any way to competely delete a message and start over?

There is no way for you to delete a message, you would have to ask one of the moderators to do that for you. Of course you can edit your post and simply replace whatever did show up with what you really want.

OK

That's what I thought thanks for letting me know Alan!

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; March 8, 2007

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 4, Number 9

Founded over three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., URPA is

a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans

for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in

Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota,

California, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. For more detailed information, along with a variety of

position papers and other documents, 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.

1) Amtrak has started its winter/spring leisure travel advertising

campaign for 2007 by placing ads in 12 top markets. Target marketing, of

course, is very important, and getting the biggest bang for every

marketing buck is critical, too. However, Amtrak does serve over 500

destinations in the continental United States, plus some locations in

Canada. It's kind of tough to expect many results from just advertising

in the top 12 markets ...

2) Here's a fascinating bon mot turned up by one of URPA's numbers

crunchers, derived directly from Amtrak data: Revenue and ridership are

up, but during the last fiscal year (2006), passenger miles dropped once

again to 5,361,517,000. In FY 05 the figure was 5,419,720,000, and a

decade or more ago, it was around 6.5 billion revenue passenger miles per

year.

This means even though the false measurements of increased ridership and

revenues may be climbing, the actual number of revenue passenger miles -

the only true measurement used in the real world of common carriers - has

declined.

The most likely cause of this is an increase in short haul trains (which

are the most expensive to operate and can't cover their costs with true

accounting numbers that include all appropriate allocated expenses) and

small increases or decreases in long distance train travel, most likely

due to the alarmingly short consists of most long haul trains as compared

to a decade ago when much more of Amtrak's long distance fleet was

roadworthy.

3) A regular commuter rider on Amtrak's Empire Service in and out of New

York City provided this fascinating use of an Amtrak diesel locomotive:

[begin quote]

... (I)t was pretty interesting. That was a day last summer when one of

our favorite conductors, Artie, earned his stripes as a true hero of the

people. On our way home after some violent summer squalls had been

through, a big tree ended up right across the tracks a bit south of the

Rhinecliff station.

The southbound train had already beaten us to it and CSX had been

notified. So a couple of hours passed, with the conductors bugging CSX to

come and do something, and CSX basically just making promises without

giving any real information on where they were in the process. So after

going to the grapevine they eventually got wind of the fact that in all

that time, CSX had gotten as far as contacting the members of a road crew

that was on its way to meeting up for deployment - from Syracuse, about

200 miles away. It would have been well past midnight before the crew

even arrived.

So Artie went out and conducted a slow and delicate dance in the waning

daylight. He had his train push north while the southbound train pushed

south, and together they slowly rotated the tree so that it ended up

lying between the northbound and southbound tracks. I wonder what the CSX

ground crew thought when they arrived.

[End quote]

Good going, Conductor Artie. Nothing like taking some personal

responsibility and using some initiative to take care of your passengers

and your train. This guy should get a medal.

4) URPA stalwart Dennis Larson, Vice President of the Minnesota

Association of Railroad Passengers, shares some numbers from the cold,

Upper Midwest.

[begin quote]

March 2 - The second major snowstorm in Minnesota and Wisconsin within

the last week, along the Empire Builder route, is now wrapping up with

over a foot of snow and more, once again.

People were sleeping at the airport due to delayed flights and most

schools and events were closed or cancelled as were some business places.

Highway travel was discouraged and I-35 south of the Twin Cities from

Albert Lea to Ames, Iowa was closed by the highway patrol as was I-90

west of I-35 to the South Dakota border. There are railroad-type cross

arms that block the entrance ramps when these highways are closed.

But Empire Builder arrivals are not doing all that bad though considering

the poor weather conditions. The evening arrivals of the Empire Builder

from Chicago to the St. Paul Midway Station are below-

2007-03-01: Scheduled: 10:31 PM Actual: 12:04 am Delay: 93 minutes

2007-02-28: Scheduled: 10:31 PM Actual: 11:31 PM Delay: 60 minutes

2007-02-27: Scheduled: 10:31 PM Actual: 10:24 PM Delay: 0 minutes

2007-02-26: Scheduled: 10:31 PM Actual: 10:23 PM Delay: 0 minutes

The morning arrivals of the Empire Builder to the St. Paul Midway Station

from the Pacific Northwest are below-

2007-03-02: Scheduled: 7:05 am Actual: 7:01 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-03-01: Scheduled: 7:05 am Actual: 7:02 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-02-28: Scheduled: 7:05 am Actual: 6:46 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-02-27: Scheduled: 7:05 am Actual: 7:15 am Delay: 10 minutes

2007-02-26: Scheduled: 7:05 am Actual: 7:01 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-02-25: Scheduled: 7:05 am Actual: 7:19 am Delay: 14 minutes

2007-02-24: Scheduled: 7:05 am Actual: 6:29 am Delay: 0 minutes

[End quote]

5) Things haven't been quite so rosy for the Empire Builder's sister

transcontinental train, the California Zephyr, which operates between

Chicago and Emeryville (San Francisco), California.

Mr. Larson made this note from a November Zephyr report:

[begin quote]

Looking over Amtrak's California Zephyr report for November, I see it has

nearly 5 hours of make up time [automatically built into the schedule] so

they have been sitting for 11 hours [due to delays] plus another 5.

Amtrak makes big talk about dining car losses but an Amtrak train person

with overtime collects on average a bit over $27 per hour.

So Amtrak is paying out at least an extra $300 per person in wages plus

all those mis-connect charges, which amounts to thousands.

Their report of November 2006 shows the California Zephyr was standing

for 38,203 minutes, or 26 ½ days! Amtrak-caused delays amounted to over

60 hours for the month. Most of the delays attributed to the host

railroads were slow orders amounting to 10.6 days.

[End quote]

And, then there is this, also from Mr. Larson.

[begin quote]

Regarding references to on time performance of the California Zephyr

[which operates on the BNSF from Chicago to Denver, and the Union Pacific

from Denver to Emeryville, California] ...

In December of 2005 the Zephyr had an on-time record of 5% and the

average delay minutes per trip was 552 minutes. Figure in the recovery

time of 299 minutes and the train arrived on average 4 hours 13 minutes

late. In November of 2006 the train arrived on average 5 hours and 29

minutes late. At this rate of decline, the train will not only be

standing still longer than it is rolling, but every single mode of

transport including horseback and a very slow boat on the river will

operate at higher average speeds than the Zephyr in a very short time.

All this on the all-weather mode that is suppose to save America from

highway and air gridlock.

This information is buried in Amtrak's monthly report on its website.

[End quote]

6) Amtrak shares this with us via the company's employee newsletter,

"Amtrak This Week" of February 12, 2007, about what it is doing to

improve cold weather service.

[begin quote]

Overhauled Horizons Withstand Cold

Last week, some service in the Midwest was cancelled due to freeze damage

to Horizon equipment as a result of bitter cold conditions in Chicago. A

collaborative effort between the Transportation and Mechanical

departments that included redeploying preventive maintenance employees to

help thaw and prep the trains helped get the schedule back on track.

While this work required more time and manpower in the extreme cold, by

Thursday, full service from Chicago had resumed.

As part of the company's drive toward a state of good repair, a Horizon

overhaul program - the first for the 17- year-old cars - was begun in FY

'05. The four-year program includes modifying the equipment for winter

weather conditions, and of the 41 cars overhauled, only three were

affected by the extraordinarily cold temperatures last week. Why the

three were affected by the weather is being investigated, and

modifications will be made accordingly. Of the trains not yet overhauled,

root-cause analysis is currently being performed on the failures to

better target problem areas as part of the overhaul process.

The Horizon fleet is about 50 percent overhauled, with five cars

currently at Beech Grove, 8 scheduled for overhaul this fiscal year and

another 21 next year. The company's aggressive state-of-good-repair goals

over the past several years have contributed significantly to improved

reliability, and there's still more work to be done.

[End quote]

Next question: When is Amtrak's "state of good repair" mantra going to

extend to the long distance Viewliner and Superliner fleets so enough

equipment can get out on the road and start generating some high value

revenue and revenue passenger miles for Amtrak, not to mention fulfilling

Amtrak's original mission of providing America with a true nationwide

network of passenger trains?

7) Here's a reminder of the Saturday, March 17th joint meeting in Los

Angeles of the Rail Passenger Association of California & Nevada and the

National Association of Railroad Passengers. Featured speakers will be

Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant, and URPA Vice President of Law and

Policy Andrew Selden, along with others.

Also appearing will be Ross Capon, NARP Executive Director, on a panel

regarding the future of Amtrak.

For decades, RailPac has long been closely associated with URPA, and much

of the senior leadership of RailPac have been contributing members of

URPA. This meeting should prove to be fascinating as Mr. Selden and Mr.

Capon advance ideas on the future of Amtrak, and Mr. Kummant's keynote

address possibly may provide a glimpse of his ideas about the future of

the company he now heads.

Also up for discussion will be institutional views on the future of the

Sunset Limited east of New Orleans, which has not been in operation since

prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. URPA has been strongly advocating for

the return of this vital part of Amtrak's national network, and other

organizations outside of Florida and the Gulf Coast states have taken a

less vigorous approach, apparently in fear of losing favor with Amtrak

management.

If you're near Southern California and can attend this meeting, the $35

advance registration fee ($40 at the door) should be a small price to pay

for an informative day. Further information is available at

www.RailPac.org

8) Word has come of a needed second Amtrak frequency between Seattle and

Vancouver, British Columbia. Amtrak's Cascades service has been a popular

cross-border passenger train, and a second trip is being made possible by

expansion of BNSF's line between the two cities.

There is one area of dissension, however. The Vancouver Sun reports the

Surrey United Naturists Association is planning to register the group's

dismay over what it considers the imposition of a second Cascades train

along Surrey's coast line by staging a mass mooning under the banner

"BNSF Butt Out of the Beach."

The nudist group appears to want the beach alongside which the new Amtrak

train will run all to itself, and feels a new Cascades train full of

gawking passengers will interfere with the privacy of the group.

Actually, it's tough to wrap your mind around the fact this group is

worried about privacy.

BNSF officials expect to complete the track improvement by the summer of

2008, in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The project has

been in the works for over six years.

9) A private web design in Peoria, Illinois (You remember the hackneyed

phrase, "Let's see if it will play in Peoria.") has come up with an

interesting service for those who wish to monitor Amtrak's on time

performance levels.

The company has provided a free web site which will provide a three week

accounting of Amtrak on-time history for any given train to any given

destination. The site can be found at

http://web.peoriadesignweb.com/cgi-bin/amtrak/train.cgi to keep track of

your favorite trains.

Faraz Hussain of Peoria Design Web explains how the site was developed:

[begin quote]

My motivation for developing the on-time performance calculator was so I

could schedule my squash matches with my opponents at my destinations.

Squash is similar to racquetball in that it is an indoor court sport. I

live in Peoria where there are not many squash players so I travel to

Chicago and St. Louis often from Bloomington to play better players.

So knowing the statistical delays helps me realistically plan my day when

I arrive at my destination. The program is just a program that retrieves

information from Amtrak site behind the scenes. I based it off a similar

search engine I developed, Medreport.org. Medreport.org lets you create

reports by scanning up to thirty websites and extracting content based on

your search criteria.

The program did not take more than half a night to develop as I was able

to copy/paste a code from Medreport.org . I knew this tool would benefit

many others which is why I invested more time to make it robust and easy

to use. I am now working on a 'Catch a train' script that finds where a

particular train is on its route.

[End quote]

This could easily prove to be a user-friendly tool that will benefit many

Amtrak-watchers.

10) The United Transportation Union has published a six-point plan it

feels will help improve both Amtrak and the life of its union members who

work for Amtrak.

[begin quote]

Highlights of the six-point Amtrak reform plan include:

. Congress must pass a long-term authorization bill that provides at

least $2 billion per year, to be fully funded by appropriators.

. Labor/management relations must be reformed. Amtrak must stop

withholding reasonable wage increases by blaming unpredictable federal

financing for the carrier. Most Amtrak employees are entering their

eighth year with no general wage increase.

. A new Amtrak board of directors should be created with members -

including a voice for employees - who actually believe in maintaining and

strengthening a national Amtrak system. Board members who pursue

self-destructive policies for Amtrak do not serve in the interest of the

company, its workers or the 25 million passengers who depend on Amtrak

service.

. After 30 years of under-funding, Amtrak has taken on substantial debt

that should be paid down with federal assistance.

. The way Amtrak security costs are paid must be reformed. Specific

expenses associated with the defense against terrorism should be borne by

the Department of Homeland Security.

. To ensure independent oversight, the Inspector General of Amtrak should

be separated from the company. It should not work as an extension of

Amtrak management as it does today.

March 7, 2007

[End quote]

11) Here's a nugget of information from an Amtrak daily operations report

that shows someone cares about Amtrak trains and passengers.

[begin quote]

Train 6(04) [Eastbound California Zephyr] Delayed at Omaha, NE by

Mechanical Failure

The outbound crew reported (3) blower bearing adapter bolts on coach

34001 axle #1 were missing. The contractor that waters the train was able

to obtain bolts at a local hardware store and replaced them. The

contractor also reported the plates that hold the bolts in were upside

down.

Delay: 6(04) 41"

[End quote]

Note to the Amtrak Mechanical Department: Sometimes, just a quick trip to

the corner hardware store can solve a host of problems.

12) And, this, from another Amtrak internal operations report about train

no. 91, the southbound Silver Star, preparing to leave New York City for

Florida:

[begin quote]

Train 91(06) Late Departure, New York, NY

Train 91(06) was delayed in Sunnyside Yard account [passenger cars]

C/25091 and C/25097 shopped/cut due to frozen waste lines. C/25014 and

C/25015 were substituted then C/25014 shopped/cut due to frozen waste

line, C/25082 was substituted. Also necessary to thaw frozen lines on

C/25005.

Delay: 91(06) 1'43"

[End quote]

Apparently, Amtrak's winter weather woes are not just limited to Chicago.

13) What's the latest on the restoration of the Sunset Limited east of

New Orleans, into Florida? Nobody seems to know.

A number of concepts seems to be floating around, including putting back

the short-lived late 1990s Gulf Coast Limited daily service between New

Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, and then adding a separate tri-weekly

service between New Orleans and Orlando, which would operate separately

from the Sunset Limited, and originate in New Orleans. No direct

connection from the Sunset would be available eastbound; an overnight New

Orleans stay would be required. Westbound, a same day connection would be

available.

Other reports still circulate regarding extending the City of New Orleans

from New Orleans to Orlando.

One obvious connection which would greatly extend matrix opportunities

would be to re-extend the Palmetto south from Savannah to Jacksonville,

where hubbing opportunities with a Florida Panhandle/New Orleans service

could be restored. The Florida Coalition of Railroad Passengers under the

able leadership of President Jackson McQuigg continues to take a strong

leading public role in the effort.

14) In the "What Were These Guys Thinking?" Department, comes this story

from a TWA reader from Omaha, Nebraska, who was on the California Zephyr

February 19th.

The Associated Press reports that five men forced off the Zephyr for

smoking marijuana were discovered to be carrying a simple cardboard box

holding $700,000 in U.S. savings bonds, allegedly stolen from a Nevada

home.

The men were traveling from Sacramento, California to Chicago to

illegally launder the bonds. The five men, whose ages range from 24 to 42

were smoking pot on the train. When they were asked to leave the train

because of the pot smoking at Helper, Utah, about 100 miles south of Salt

Lake City, they were met by local authorities and a drug-sniffing dog.

The dog reacted strongly to two bags. The Helper police searched the bags

and found the bonds inside the cardboard box.

All five of the men were released on bond.

The moral of this story? When you're running from the law carrying huge

amounts of stolen federal bonds, don't do something stupid like smoke

dope in public places along the way. Then, again, it doesn't take a

rocket scientist to be a bond thief, so these same non-rocket scientists

probably wouldn't think twice about smoking dope, either.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week 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

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe, should be

addressed to [email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

SPECIAL NOTE:

TWA (for those who are direct subscribers; not recipients through a list)

is now sent through a new system, and has a Sender address of

[email protected]

If you have e-mail filters on your system, you may wish to adjust your

filters inorder to continue to receive This Week at Amtrak. If you do

miss any issues, every issue is archived at www.unitedrail.org

_______________________________________________

TWA mailing list

[email protected]

http://lists.unitedrail.org/mailman/listinfo/twa