URPA Newsletter

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; August 25, 2008

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 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 5, Number 24

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico,

the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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 is smiling approvingly at one its bankers, Senator **** Durbin

of Illinois, who has filed a bill in the United States Senate to provide

Amtrak with $2.8 billion to overhaul existing equipment and build new

rolling stock.

If this bill becomes law (and, it is only in very early stages), Amtrak

must take this opportunity to properly equip itself for the future – both

financially and to meet passenger demand – with the correct selection of

equipment, not just replacements for existing rolling stock.

URPA has updated its 2005 white paper, Concepts of the Successful Long

Distance Passenger Train of the Future.

The update is attached, and may also be found on URPA’s web site,

www.unitedrail.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

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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]

URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

____________________________________________________________

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[Kramerica]

That was a short one. Is Bruce sick?

 

[WICT106]

This Week at Amtrak; September 3, 2008

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

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

Volume 5, Number 25

…………………………………

1) Thanks for the overwhelming response to the last issue of TWA’s presentation of the updated Concepts of the Successful Long Distance Passenger Train of the Future. In addition to the basic distribution through TWA, there have been over 600 additional downloads of the white paper from URPA’s web site, and there have been visits to the web site from over 60 countries around the world, including mainland China and Russia. It’s tough to know how that white paper translates into the two languages of China and Russia, but it’s nice to have a diverse readership base.

One sad note since the publication is the loss of GrandLuxe Rail Journeys, operator of the former American Orient Express. Since we last talked, the upscale passenger rail tour company with exquisite equipment and service abruptly ceased operations.

Some have speculated the high cost of the service was the problem, others have blamed the economy in general. Perhaps, on closer examination some good guesses can be made, such as offering a "Ritz Carleton" product to a "Marriott" audience. Also, equipment utilization was poor, with the equipment sitting idle more than running over the road.

Some have placed the blame for the demise at the feet of Amtrak, but that’s a hard case to make, since Amtrak only provided locomotives and train and engine crews.

For whatever the reason for the grievous loss, it’s hard to imagine that superb equipment will sit idle for long; some entrepreneur will figure out a way to put it back on the road under a different umbrella.

Some longtime railroaders didn’t bemoan the loss, saying they were worried too many people were confusing the high-priced luxury service with routine Amtrak service, thinking the high-priced service was the wave of the future instead of the development of robust Amtrak long distance passenger train service on the model of the Empire Builder (Which is the old Sunset Limited and City of New Orleans and Crescent model from the days of Amtrak’s Gulf Coast Business Group in the late 1990s under the superb and caring leadership of Deborah Wetter and Dave White and Mike Chandler and Tommy McDonald with help from luminaries such as Don Norville and Victor Francis and many others – probably one of the finest groups of passenger railroaders ever assembled in modern times.).

Perhaps, if we as a nation are lucky, Peter Armstrong, head of Canada’s Armstrong Group, which operates the Rocky Mountaineer service in Western Canada, will come south of the border and take over the GrandLuxe franchise.

Peter Armstrong was a Gray Line tour bus operator who successfully bid for the Rocky Mountaineer franchise when VIA Rail Canada’s long distance network was chopped into pieces in the early 1990s. Peter took a handful of old Canadian National Blue and Yellow smooth sided coaches, slapped on a coat of new paint on the outside, spiffed up the inside best as he could, and started rolling down the track from Vancouver, British Columbia into modern railroading history. He took a moderately successful route of VIA Rail Canada and applied sound private business principles to the operation, along with a liberal sprinkling of guts and intestinal fortitude. There were some scary moments at the beginning, but Peter made it work.

It worked good enough that on an early Spring morning in 1993, the late Henry Christie, the man who created Amtrak’s "A" and "B" lists which would determine which Heritage cars would live to see another day of service after installation of head end power, and which would be put up for sale, walked the train in Vancouver station with a critical eye towards running gear and general mechanical issues. Henry was not a man to trifle with when it came to railroad equipment, either passenger cars or freight cars or locomotives. Henry was an Englishman who had an Irish mother (He never did celebrate the Fourth of July even after becoming an American citizen; he felt it wasn’t fair to his mother country.), and he could always turn a colorful phrase.

Henry looked at the Rocky Mountaineer closely, pronounced a few wheel set needing attention soon, and then confidently boarded the train for a day’s journey to Kamloops, British Columbia. Driving back to Vancouver that evening with Peter Armstrong at the wheel of a rental car, Peter filled us in on the background of the privatization of the Rocky Mountaineer. It was an extraordinary story of vision, willpower, and knowing the marketplace.

It’s been close to 20 years since the Rocky Mountaineer went private, and it’s a great performer both financially and as a vital part of Western Canada’s tourism industry. The now-defunct GrandLuxe equipment would have a superb future under the ownership of Peter Armstrong.

2) We have just seen the successful evacuation of New Orleans for Hurricane Gustav, and, this time, Amtrak played a role. City of New Orleans, Sunset Limited, and Crescent trainsets, along with other equipment positioned in New Orleans hauled thousands of passengers from New Orleans to safety in Memphis and other points. This all came about because the federal government contracted with Amtrak to provide the service.

Even New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, home to Amtrak and Greyhound, again played a pivotal role in keeping New Orleans safe. Many will recall it became a makeshift jail during the Hurricane Katrina problems three years ago, and, this time, it became a staging area for evacuating residents by bus and train.

The building, built in 1954, resembles a granite fortress. One can imagine that magnificent, sturdy structure just laughing at Mother Nature as she throws everything she has at it, and it all just rolls off the building.

As we are grateful New Orleans and its residents suffered far less this year under Gustav than exactly three years ago under the destruction of Katrina, we can’t help but remember it’s been exactly three years since Amtrak operated the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans, even though CSX released the track for use on April 1, 2006. Amtrak has the corporate gall to still note in its timetables the suspension of the service, and that future service will be determined at a date in the future.

Of course, Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant was quoted in an issue of Passenger Train Journal magazine this year saying passengers and advocates for the return of the Sunset Limited should "get over it," that the Sunset is not likely to return east of New Orleans. Amtrak’s hubris on this and many other subjects is astounding to many clear-thinking people, especially since 46% of the revenue of the Sunset Limited when it ran its full route was generated east of New Orleans.

3) Here are some words of wisdom from Andrew Selden, URPA Vice President of Law and Policy and President of the Minnesota Association of Railroad Passengers.

[begin quote]

Gridlock is a term usually applied to traffic locked in a closed system where congestion blocks all movement. But the term also can describe a broken political process, like what we have today with U.S. transportation "policy."

Our federal system, with the U.S. national government acting as an "umbrella" layer over 50 independently sovereign states is a recipe for wild excess on one extreme (various redundant regulatory schemes come to mind), or paralysis on the other. That's what we face in the area of transportation.

Mary Peters, former Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration and currently U.S. Secretary of Transportation, has been advocating as federal "policy" the devolution back to the states of primary authority and responsibility for identifying, prioritizing, and pursuing transportation investment, in all modes, but especially roadways. In most areas of public policy, states would embrace and welcome this. Getting the dead hand of the federal government out of the way and moving government domestic programs down to state and local governments is almost always a very good idea.

But with Peters' transportation initiative, most of the states have balked, demanding (at a National Governor's Conference) instead a larger federal role. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, said, "We are joining together … to force Washington to get serious about building our nation's infrastructure."

How exceedingly odd. Why would states, which would ordinarily leap at a federal effort to shift major programs back into state control, demand that the feds instead increase their role in transportation?

Because, it turns out, Secretary Peters is also trying to shift a major part of the responsibility for funding transportation investment back to the states.

So we have the prospect of states actually telling the feds that they prefer to keep and even enlarge the federal role and the funding that goes with it rather than accept responsibility for having to increase state fuel and motor vehicle taxes to pay for state and local transportation projects. They would rather suffer inequitable and politically-based federal transportation funding paid for by the federal gasoline tax, and prioritized by individual members of Congress slinging pork for their home districts, than raise state taxes (or enter into toll-driven private sector "partnership" deals) to pay for their own priority projects.

So, while our existing, aging, roads and bridges continue to crumble under traffic loads far beyond their capacity, and we suffer a ludicrous and ignorant intercity rail passenger "policy," our elected public officials are engaged in a political "gridlock" of trying to force someone else to pay for public investment of enormous value to the safety and prosperity of this country.

Secretary Peters launched a second round of her initiative in July. In it, she advocated refocusing federal highway spending on rural interstates (!), shifting other federal spending to bloc grants to states and regional planning agencies, allowing local prioritization of projects (but with a foolish federal chokehold – more on this below), and accelerating federal funding approvals.

Many traditional politicians and highway interest groups labeled the plan "dead on arrival." Why? Two reasons: Peters' plan presupposes more local funding and private sector investments, supported by tolls, and it allows states and regional planning agencies to shift more federal funding to transit, including rail.

But even the proposed increase in federal willingness to fund rail programs is not a good thing for intelligent rail development programs, because Peters' plan would make the same blunder on a national scale that bone-headed federal policies forced onto the Northstar Regional Rail project in Minnesota. The federal proposal would "Define success in terms of increased travel time reliability, decreased delays hours [sic] and improved condition of bridges and pavement."

That single criterion – reduced net travel time as compared to roadway alternatives – is what kept Minnesota from extending Northstar to St. Cloud (where huge demand for rail service exists) or adding a close-in stop at the existing Foley Boulevard park-and-ride, where thousands of daily commuters will be forced to continue to use diesel buses to get to Minneapolis, the U of M and St. Paul rather than use the trains (which will roll past the parking lot which backs up on the BNSF right-of-way) because the feds won't allow the trains to stop there.

Contrast what passes for policy development in the U.S. with current studies under way in England. Railway Age reported in June:

BRITISH track authority Network Rail (NR) is to conduct a strategic review into the case for building a series of new railways across the country's network.

Five routes are being considered by NR, all radiating from London: the West Coast Main Line from London to Glasgow via Birmingham and Manchester; the Chiltern line from London to Birmingham; the Midland Main Line to Nottingham, Derby, and Sheffield; the East Coast route from London to Edinburgh via York and Newcastle; and the Great Western Main Line from London to Bristol and Cardiff.

While NR is not prepared to suggest the routes could be new high-speed lines, there have been growing calls for a network of 250km/h to 350km/h routes to be built to add capacity to Britain's constrained conventional network, which has seen 40% growth in passenger numbers, and 60% growth in freight volumes.

In the U.S., it will take continued public pressure from rail advocates to persuade Congress that rational investment in a network of high-performance (not "high speed") rail services is the best way to alleviate congestion, protect the environment, reduce petroleum dependence, and give travelers a decent choice of alternatives. Only then will we break the current gridlock.

[End quote]

4) Mr. Selden adds further insights on a related topic.

[begin quote]

Amtrak under CEO Alex Kummant is continuing its long slide into irrelevance. Amtrak's market share (including in the NEC) dropped again. Kummant led the Company to an increased annual loss in 2007. On $165 million increase in ticket revenues, and $110 million increase in total revenues, Kummant produced a $53 million increase in the net loss and a whopping $280 million increase in total loss on the year, of $1.338 billion on total revenue of $2.15 billion. $180 million in increased labor costs from forced labor settlements were a major factor in the results, but expenses surged in every major category except casualty claims. The Annual Report, published months late (by SEC standards), called this "… a good year."

The Annual Report, almost devoid of critical and relevant metrics of segment performance such as load factor, return on investment, and output in passenger miles, is a depressing celebration of Amtrak's squandering of hundreds of millions of dollars of free federal subsidies on its absolutely least productive and most grossly over-served markets. Amtrak's total revenues were higher in 1998 than in 2007, although "passenger ticket" revenues did reach a new record last year. Its operating ratio, at 1.48, has not improved in ten years.

What has improved is federal support. Amtrak's subsidies during the Bush administration have averaged about $1.2 billion a year, fully 50% more than during the Clinton years. (Discounted for inflation, the growth in subsidy has not been that great in "real" terms.) But judging from the financial results reported for 2007, that money has not been prudently or effectively invested. Management's entire focus has been on its least productive services, the short distance regional corridors.

[End quote]

5) On a very sad note, retired Amtrak exec Jim Larson passed away yesterday in Northern Virginia. He retired about 10 years ago, and had recently been in poor health. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. Mr. Larson was one of the stalwarts of Amtrak who helped hold the company together and form it into a working entity. Our sympathy to his family and many friends.

6) This communique comes from Gil Carmichael’s Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. This will be an important gathering.

[begin quote]

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Public-sector Transportation professionals to gain know-how from New Freight training program at University of Denver

- Transportation Experts Gil Carmichael and Andrew Goetz Say Transportation Planners to Study the Synergetic Issues that Affect Both Freight and Public Transportation -

DENVER, CO, September 2, 2008 – The Intermodal Transportation Institute (ITI) at the University of Denver, in a joint venture with the National Center for Intermodal Transportation (NCIT), is sponsoring a 2 ½ day training program called "Intermodal Freight Transportation and the Public Planning Process" that is aimed at educating public-sector transportation agency personnel about the synergies it has with the freight sector. It will be held at the University of Denver, Monday through Wednesday noon, October 13-15.

The instructional program for public-sector transportation agencies is being led by Professor Michael D. Meyer, PhD, Professor of Civil Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of the faculty team of ITI at the University of Denver. He developed the program as a means of increasing the awareness of the importance of the movement of goods and the impact that this movement is having on the nation’s overall transportation system and economic welfare.

"This important freight training program will deal with the synergies involved between the public and private sectors, and it is ideal for professionals working at state DOTs, MPOs, transit agencies, port authorities, or other public-sector transportation planning agencies who want to learn more about how the global intermodal freight transportation sector works," said Andrew Goetz, Professor and member of the ITI faculty team. "Given that freight transportation has been growing considerably due to increasing volumes of international trade, our transportation planning agencies at the federal, state, and local levels need to be more knowledgeable about how freight moves and what can be done specifically to accommodate an interconnected intermodal transportation system."

Gil Carmichael, Founding Chairman of the ITI Board of Directors and former Federal Railroad Administrator, emphasized the importance of a public/private sector joint effort if we are to solve the nation’s existing transportation crisis. "Federal and state governments need to work together to create a partnership with the freight railroads to build at least 30,000 new miles of grade-separated, double and triple track, connecting the major cities, ports, and airports," said Carmichael. "Doing so will create an ethical transportation system where each mode does what it does best. This key training program for public-sector transportation will answer questions dealing with topics such as: how public investment in the nation’s transportation system will benefit the movement of freight; what types of strategies are most effective for successful interfaces between public- and private-sector interests; and how to get freight stakeholders interested in the transportation planning process in order to maximize an intermodal freight and passenger transportation network. This program will stress the need to understand the synergies between the mode segments, which will be intermodal in nature, much safer, much more environmentally benign and will produce maximum fuel efficiencies."

"Learning more about the intermodal freight sector is a necessary prerequisite to working with the freight community in developing strategies to address the transportation capacity needs of the future," said Goetz. "This important public-sector training program is exactly what public-sector transportation planners need to help educate them on developing the natural interfaces between the freight and passenger modes. This will help prepare the next generation of public transportation leadership."

Participants will hear from executives from maritime, trucking, railroads, transit, and intercity transportation on their respective transportation modes and on the challenges of creating a truly intermodal transportation system. In addition, the participants will attend a lecture by Alberto Alemán, the CEO of the Panama Canal Authority, on one of the most important transportation infrastructure projects in the world, the Panama Canal Expansion Program. A focus of the program will be on data, analysis, and modeling and using these tools for freight planning. Importantly, the program will also examine the advantages and disadvantages of different funding sources and strategies for developing a strategic freight investment plan and a process for incorporating freight concerns into statewide and metropolitan transportation plans.

The registration fee for the training program is $1,500.00 and covers 2 ½ days of instruction, program materials, meals, and an ITI-University of Denver certificate of participation upon completion. Additional information or registration forms for this significant public transportation training program can be obtained at: www.du.edu/transportation or by calling 303-871-4146 or 303-871-4702. Interested parties are encouraged to register early as participation is limited to 25 attendees.

About ITI

The Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver offers an Executive Masters Program that awards a Master of Science in Intermodal Transportation Management from the University of Denver. This graduate degree program prepares transportation industry managers for the increasingly complex, global business environment where knowledge of finance, quantitative processes, supply chain, law, and public policy issues as well as freight, passenger, and intermodal transportation operational strategies are critical management tools for success. For more information on the ITI Executive Masters Program call: 303-871-4702 or visit: www.du.edu/transportation.

About NCIT

The National Center for Intermodal Transportation (NCIT) is a partnership between the University of Denver and Mississippi State University. NCIT builds upon the activities of the Intermodal Transportation Institute (ITI) at the University of Denver and the activities of the centers with transportation focuses at Mississippi State University. NCIT is a part of the USDOT University Transportation Centers Program and was reauthorized under SAFETEA-LU.

[End quote]

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

[email protected]

URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; September 22, 2008

​

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

​

 

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

​

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

​

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

​

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail

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

Volume 5, Number 26

​

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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) It's been a lousy month for passenger rail. The horror of the Metrolink crash in Southern California with over two dozen deaths and dozens more passengers injured will remain with us for a long, long time.

 

 

 

Too many reports from both the news media and insiders have pointed to the simple cause of this passenger rail holocaust as human error – a locomotive engineer who wasn't paying attention to his job, blowing through a red signal, running a closed switch, and crashing head-on into an oncoming Union Pacific freight train.

 

 

 

2) It didn't take long for several things to happen, including plaintiffs running to the courthouse to file lawsuits, Metrolink senior management dissolving into disarray, a hue and cry from unions and others wanting to implement positive train control, and blame placed on Metrolink's private operating company for being the low bidder and thus demanding too much out of its employees.

 

 

 

Can we be candid with each other? No matter what the cause of this wreck, whether it was sloppy human error on the part of the deceased Metrolink engineer, an instant fatal heart attack for the deceased engineer, or him just closing his eyes long enough to rub an errant cinder from his eye, if there would have been a second pair of eyes in the locomotive, this accident would not have happened.

 

 

 

The oncoming Union Pacific freight train had a second pair of eyes in the locomotive, belonging to the train's conductor. Since the days of the caboose are long gone, conductors have ridden comfortably in the cab of freight train locomotives along with the engineer. Both stay vigilant for signals and oncoming problems.

 

 

 

Metrolink, like Amtrak, on short runs uses one engineer, with only one pair of eyes in the locomotive's cab. Yes, there is a deadman switch which automatically stops the locomotive unless manually set in a short certain period of time, but that doesn't do much for missing signals when the engineer isn't paying attention.

 

 

 

The reason, of course, for a single engineer is for the railroad to save money. In this case, the savings to Metrolink of an assistant engineer's salary on that particular train will instead cost someone $200 million (the federally-mandated cap on accident settlements), plus the cost of new equipment, cleaning up the mess, and lost revenue.

 

 

 

When putting together a business plan, the idea is to factor in ALL costs, and see if a profit can be made. Naturally, business people want costs to be as low as possible, so profits can be realized. That's all okay, because that's the way the system works, and it's a good system. However, when you're talking about safety issues, sometimes the most cost-effective way is not the best way.

 

 

 

3) Some agitate for a system known as positive train control, which is based on a global positioning system. Every locomotive – thus, every train – is outfitted with this system, and every dispatcher knows every moment where every train is located, including if a train is or is not where it's supposed to be at that moment.

 

 

 

This is nothing new; it's been around on some railroads for many years, and, even before the age of global positioning systems, there still was a system of positive train control. People at railroads are no dummies, and they can figure things like this out.

 

 

 

It costs a lot of money to implement and monitor these systems. Since the Metrolink crash, the estimate has been in the billions of dollars for every railroad to install and implement the system nationwide.

 

 

 

Positive train control is a good thing, but ... for the cost, would it still be cheaper, more efficient, and, safer, to put a second pair of eyes in every locomotive cab? Has anyone done a cost/effect study on this? Have the unions taken a position of wanting positive train control, but not more employees?

 

 

 

4) The long term, fascinating part of this Metrolink mess concerns the California courts. Many of us in the real world outside of California know that state's courts to be, shall we say, less than normal when it comes to rendering reasonable decisions. In other words, it's a paradise for attorneys seeking to color outside of the lines.

 

 

 

So, Congress mandated a cap of $200 million for damages in any railroad crash, including crashes by Amtrak and Metrolink, and every other commuter operation. You may recall this was one of the areas of contention which kept Central Florida from having a new commuter rail system this year, because CSX didn't want any liability for crashes of its freight trains with commuter trains on state owned commuter tracks. (Exactly the identical scenario Union Pacific faces in California with the Metrolink crash, where UP was only traveling over the route using trackage rights, not infrastructure ownership.)

 

 

 

California attorneys have already sent smoke signals up via the news media they will try and get around the $200 million cap so their clients have a "fair share" of the financial pie from this crash. Legal observers will be keen to watch these developments for a number of reasons.

 

 

 

Passenger rail observers need to be watching these developments as if their lives depended on it, because the entire future of passenger rail may very well depend on these court cases.

 

 

 

Freight railroads hosting long distance and commuter passenger trains will always first make the case their tracks are unavailable for use by passengers because of capacity constraints. But, really, the greatest fear is liability.

 

 

 

The motto of every tort attorney is "sue anything that moves, or, better yet, anything or anyone who has deep pockets." Since the dawn of the railroads nearly 200 years ago, there has always been a belief by the public that no one or no organization has any deeper pockets than railroads, no matter how close any single railroad may be to bankruptcy.

 

 

 

Tort attorneys inherently believe the public – no matter how ignorant, stupid, or just plain dumb – should be protected from themselves, especially by companies with deep pockets. If tort attorneys had their way, our entire existence would consist of being wrapped in a protective cocoon from the moment we are born until we die, and heaven help the cocoon that wasn't fire proof, earthquake proof, or idiot proof.

 

 

 

Without a doubt, the Metrolink crash, especially since it was a result of human error, will have a cooling effect on any railroad's desire to discuss new passenger service. It's just too much of an exposure to risk.

 

 

 

But, you say, there are insurance companies to cover these losses up to $200 million. No, not really. Even if SOME of the cost is bourne by good risk management and insurance underwriting, there is still millions of dollars of exposure that can't be covered by insurance (Not to mention the mere cost of the insurance premiums.).

 

 

 

Thanks to sky high gasoline prices, commuter rail has become attractive to many people and many local and state governments. What's old has become new, and it looks good. But, one commuter rail engineer, paying more attention to texting on a cell phone than doing his job, may have put a stake through the heart of a resurgence of commuter and passenger rail. A lot of freight railroad presidents and vice presidents are going to have to be persuaded all over again how attractive the income from passenger and commuter rail is before they will happily allow more trains on their tracks.

 

 

 

Or, there will be more deals like the proposed deal here in Central Florida where the state or some regional or local entity will out and out purchase the tracks and infrastructure, and the freights will become tenants with trackage rights, but absent any liability whatsoever for any type of crash, spill, derailment, or hangnail found on a civilian due to freight train operations.

 

 

 

Everybody wants something from the freight railroads, but few realize how much the freight railroads have at risk when even a trespasser steps onto railroad property.

 

 

 

We are reminded again about the brainless trespasser in Boston who, during the night, climbed on top of a parked Amtrak Acela train set at the Boston terminal, touched a hot overhead wire, and just about fried himself to death. Instead of him being prosecuted by Amtrak for trespassing and a number of other misdemeanors, he's suing Amtrak (you can't make this stuff up) because his attorney says Amtrak SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IN ADVANCE a drunk college-aged young man was going to find the top of a parked Acela train set in the middle of the night at a closed passenger station an attractive place to practice his climbing skills and then be stupid enough to touch a live electrical wire. Since these dregs of the human gene pool are everywhere, it's easy to understand why railroads want as little human interaction as possible. When you put people in passenger and commuter trains, you're flying into the statistical face of something going wrong and some passenger and their attorney deciding the deep pockets of the railroad just caused them to hit the legal lottery jackpot.

 

 

 

4) We mourn the death of the Metrolink passengers and the deaths of railroad crews. We praise the rescue teams, who witnessed unspeakable carnage in that Metrolink coach where the locomotive was plowed halfway back into the car by the impact of the wreck. We live in fear of the tort attorneys and what mess they are going to make of commuter and passenger rail.

 

 

 

We live brightly for another day where every train arrives at its terminal intact, on time, and with everyone healthy.

 

 

 

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URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.

 

 

 

J. Bruce Richardson

 

President

 

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

 

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

 

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

 

Telephone 904-636-7739

 

[email protected]

 

http://www.unitedrail.org

 

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http://lists.unitedrail.org/mailman/listinfo/twa

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

But, you say, there are insurance companies to cover these losses up to $200 million. No, not really. Even if SOME of the cost is bourne by good risk management and insurance underwriting, there is still millions of dollars of exposure that can't be covered by insurance (Not to mention the mere cost of the insurance premiums.).

Isn't there some insurer that would be quite happy to provide $200 million coverage limits for this sort of policy, provided the client paid appropriate premiums? The 2007 Berkshire Hathaway annual report mentions a policy they sold with a $7.1 billion premium...

 

[user 1215]

This Week at Amtrak; September 25, 2008

 

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

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

 

Volume 5, Number 27

​

 

 

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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) ONBOARD AMTRAK TRAIN NUMBER 97, THE SILVER METEOR, Southbound, between Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Thursday, September 25, 2008 – The Silver Meteor is running about a half hour late south of Orlando, but that’s okay. Just before noon, we came to a sudden stop somewhere 20 minutes past the middle of nowhere in the fern growing area of Volusia County (west of Daytona Beach for those unfamiliar with Florida geography). Our locomotive engineer had spotted a stalled truck at a roadway grade crossing, and was able to bring the Meteor to a stop before slamming into the truck. After waiting 25 minutes for a tow truck to arrive and clear the tracks, we were on our way without harm or injury to anyone. It’s a good day for the train and engine crew; an often unavoidable accident scenario failed to materialize.

 

Load factor leaving Jacksonville in the three sleeping cars, dining car, lounge car and three of the four coaches which are occupied is hovering around 50%; not bad for an early fall trip after school is back in session.

 

Downline business is brisk for the Florida part of this journey. More passengers board in Jacksonville than detrain, and every station stop brings new passengers boarding, including sleeping car passengers.

 

This onboard services crew of three sleeping car attendants, one dining car chef, one dining car lead service attendant and one dining car waiter, plus two lounge car attendants and one coach attendant (for four coaches) is on the last nine hours of its weekly run between the Miami crew base and New York City, and return.

 

2) The crew, like the passenger cars, are beginning to show some weariness. Everyone is friendly and has a smile on their face, but as we race closer and closer to Miami, the anxiousness to be home shows.

 

The coach attendant gave up on keeping the coaches anywhere neat and tidy. Some restrooms are nearly inhabitable, others are completely non-habitable.

 

Tony, the young man who is one of the lounge car attendants, has his necktie flying at half-mast, and it’s tough to determine if he’s fashionably sporting a two day growth of beard, or if he just didn’t bother to shave before coming on duty this morning. He’s chugging an energy drink to keep his obviously heavy eyelids open, and, when he’s seated at a table for the moment while no passengers are at his counter, he’s busying himself with games on his cell phone. The other gentleman lounge car attendant doesn’t bother to wear a necktie or uniform vest or name tag.

 

The sleeping car attendant in the first sleeper is napping. Jay, the attendant in this car, however, keeps his car in good order, and is frequently checking with his passengers to see how he may serve them.

 

Safety doesn’t seem to be much of an issue with many on this train and engine crew; car doors have been propped open (many don’t fully work), and there is a propped open door between the forward sleeping car and the baggage car, which has both of its doors open at each end, exposing the trailing locomotive without any foothold between the baggage car and the locomotive. An over-enthusiastic, enquiring rail fan could easily bring harm to themselves on this train.

 

One thing is certain. When Amtrak still had onboard service chiefs, silliness like this didn’t exist if the chief was on the ball. This is a crew with no supervision, and it shows.

 

This also brings up the question: since the demise of the Pullman Company less than five years before the advent of Amtrak, why has the crew quality declined so much? Why do all other areas of the travel and hospitality industry, from air lines to cruise lines to hotels demand and receive so much more from their employees than Amtrak ever has since it formed in 1971? Why is it okay for railroad onboard employees to have sloppy appearances, for ticket agents to often look unkempt? Doesn’t anyone understand the appearance of employees directly impacts performance and customer/passenger acceptance?

 

3) Breakfast was available in the dining car after leaving Jacksonville this morning, and, while the selection was slim, the food was served hot and had a good presentation, even if it was served using disposable plates and cups.

 

Lunch was a nice variety, ranging from burgers (turkey or beef) to meatballs over yellow rice to a chicken salad sandwich. As always, a vegetarian lunch was available, too. Dessert was a special treat, a chocolate and cherry torte, good enough to be found in any restaurant. Today’s beef cheeseburger, a warmed up pre-cooked concoction, could best be described as, well, close to unacceptable. Whatever cow gave it’s life for that cheeseburger, gave its life in vain.

 

4) The state of the passenger car rolling stock on this train which used to be the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (the Silver Meteor was the first streamlined train from New York to Florida, dating back to the 1930s), is less than stellar. Most of the problem stems from poor maintenance. It is a sad irony this equipment is principally maintained in Miami at the Hialeah shops. Before controlled by Amtrak, the Hialeah shops were rated as one of the two best in the country, the second being King Street in Seattle.

 

A comparison of this equipment to the real world would be that of an aging Holiday Inn about to lose its franchise because of a lack of maintenance. Rusty metal in the Viewliner sleeping cars, chipped paint, doors that don’t work ... you name it. The large surface areas are mostly clean, but the "details" usually found in the best housekeeping are missing. Anybody’s fussy mother would look at this level of lack of cleanliness and only snort in derision at so much dirt and filth left behind by the cleaning crews. These sleeping cars are only a dozen years old, but they’ve been run hard and never put away for any type of extensive maintenance. Fifty of these cars remain in active service, with a daily use requirement of 39 cars. Twenty-two percent, with a replacement value of over $1 million per car of this Viewliner sleeping car fleet is always out of service.

 

The exciting video and audio systems which equipped these cars when new are long gone. Door handles and locks have been replaced with hardware store fixtures. Window shades have been replaced with curtains because the shades no long go up and down. The seats, which convert into beds remain comfortable. The annoying chair in the full bedrooms which was welded in place and prevented the lavatory door from opening fully has been replaced by a clever folding chair which allows for extra seating while permitting the door to open fully.

 

The dining car, of Korean War era heritage and a survivor of Henry Christie’s "A" and "B" list for equipment to convert to head end power, has been recently refurbished, and is neat and clean, but has a lunch counter feel to it. The carpets are replaced by linoleum, and spray paint has been liberally applied to every surface, whether or not it was originally intended to be painted.

 

The three decades old lounge car and coaches have all recently been refurbished, too, but hard wear has taken a toll. Missing molding, carpet replaced by linoleum in the lounge, and various signs of hard use are everywhere.

 

This lounge car is one which has been converted for either lounge or lounge/dinette use. There is the usual assortment of lounge rats hanging out, plus some families and assorted passengers using computers, taking advantage of an electrical outlet at every table.

 

There are no longer any crew cars on single-level long distance trains, so revenue sleeping car space must be taken out of service to house crew members.

 

From a distance, the outside of the train looks good; up close, there are missing decals, cracked and peeling paint, and a general lack of upkeep.

 

5) Stations along the route in Florida which were originally built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad have mostly seen better days. While the relatively new (built in the 1970s by Amtrak) station in Jacksonville has seen some much needed improvements, many of the other stations have that look of benign neglect, and hope for a better budget year next year.

 

6) By federal statute, Amtrak has the right of way over all freight trains, and on this day, CSX has given us the railroad. We’ve had one stop other than for the stalled truck in Volusia County, and the quality of the ride has been superb. Once bumpy track has been replaced with smooth-as-glass continuous welded rail, and we know why the this railroad used to be referred to as the Seaboard Air Line.

 

Rail fans and Amtrak apologists will protest this account; after all, the train arrived on time, departed on time, and arrived at my destination station on time. The trip was overall uneventful, and everyone smiled.

 

Anyone who understands the business of travel and hospitality is appalled. Whether or not Amtrak receives mountains of free federal monies every year, it is still a business, but it operates like a poorly-run government agency, with no accountability. If Amtrak is going to succeed, it needs to shed its ambivalence towards most things proper, and start behaving like it has constant adult supervision.

 

7) This is the long distance network of Alex Kummant’s Amtrak, the one so many people are now clamoring to bring new train service to their cities and states.

 

If you were considering one particular phrase to describe today’s Amtrak, you could probably do it with just one word – mediocre.

 

Sleeping car passengers are paying multiple hundreds – and sometime, thousands – of dollars to ride in equipment which would embarrass the sloppiest hotelier. Coach passengers are riding in tin cans with upholstered seats that don’t even measure up to the Spartan standards of some commuter railroads.

 

In his third year of stewardship of Amtrak, President and Chief Executive Officer Alex Kummant’s railroad is generating more buzz in the local and national news media than has been generated for decades. Americans are rediscovering an important part of our domestic transportation network – passenger trains. Congress is moving towards a long-awaited reauthorization of Amtrak, and state governments are plotting and planning expansion of state and regional rail routes.

 

At this moment, about all anyone can do is plan, because Amtrak through the years has squandered its resources, decimated its fleet of rolling stock, and stubbornly stuck to a bad business plan which has resulted in Amtrak remaining technically bankrupt since its founding in 1971.

 

8) Let’s repeat Andrew Selden’s assessment of Amtrak, as published in this space earlier this month.

 

(Begin quote)

 

Amtrak under CEO Alex Kummant is continuing its long slide into irrelevance. Amtrak’s market share (including in the NEC) dropped again. Kummant led the company to an increased annual loss in 2007. On $165 million increase in ticket revenues, and $110 million increase in total revenues, Kummant produced a $53 million increase in the net loss and a whopping $280 million increase in total loss on the year, of $1.l338 billion on total revenue of $2.15 billion. $180 million in increased labor costs from forced labor settlements were a major factor in the results, but expenses surged in every major category except casualty clams. The Annual Report, published months late (by SEC standards), called this "... a good year."

 

The Annual Report, almost devoid of critical and relevant metrics of segment performance such as load factor, return on investment, and output in passenger miles, is a depressing celebration of Amtrak’s squandering of hundreds of millions of dollars of free federal subsidies on its absolutely least productive and most grossly over-served markets. Amtrak’s total revenues were higher in 1998 than in 2007, although "passenger ticket" revenues did reach a new record last year. Its operating ratio, at 1.48, has not improved in ten years.

 

What has improved is federal support. Amtrak’s subsidies during the Bush administration have averaged about $1.2 billion a year, fully 40% more than during the Clinton years. (Discounted for inflation, the growth in subsidy has not been that great in "real" terms). But, judging from the financial results reported for 2007, that money has not been prudently or effectively invested. Management’s entire focus has been on its least productive services, the short distance regional corridors.

 

(End quote)

 

9) At this given moment, Amtrak has a passenger car fleet of 1,345 active cars for nationwide use. Daily requirements call for 1,072 cars, so there is a very small cushion for cars to be taken out of service for maintenance, or if some cars are lost due to wrecks.

 

There are another 200 or so identifiable cars beyond the active car roster, a few of which are being rebuilt and refurbished to be put back into service, and others which Amtrak claims it has no money to rehabilitate so they can again generate income and revenue to the company.

 

If Amtrak was serious today about any small or medium expansion of its network, it could only dream and run trains on paper. There are so few passenger cars left that any type of serious route expansion is in jeopardy.

 

10) The House of Representative this week passed reauthorization legislation for Amtrak which is coupled to a bill requiring the installation and implementation of positive train control systems for all railroads throughout the country (Positive train control is a system which automatically stops a train if it has run a red stop signal or is in the wrong place at the wrong time instead of where the dispatcher has placed the train.).

 

The reauthorization legislation, which has not yet passed the Senate, will authorize (but, not appropriate; that is a separate process) billions of dollars for Amtrak, including the upgrading of some currently derelict passenger cars.

 

What the reauthorization doesn’t do is require Amtrak to be a better run company, nor spend its resources where the most good is accomplished, such as in the national long distance network.

 

The specific uses for the money is mostly up to the Amtrak Board of Directors and Amtrak’s cadre of executives. That’s pretty scary, because most likely most of the money will be spent propping up expensive-to-operate, but low revenue short distance and regional trains.

 

11) Amtrak’s moment is now; the opportunity is at hand to take advantage is a growing interest in a full renewal of passenger rail travel coast to coast. The looming question is whether or not Amtrak’s management understands the gravity and opportunity of the moment, and will do something which will benefit both Amtrak and our nation.

 

 

 

 

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J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

 

[Larry H.]

Wow,

I was just going to write that very letter! Just returned from a round trip to Washington D.C. and New York from southern Illinois thru Chicago. It was nearly unbelievable the crowds at Union Station. I haven't seen anything like that since the early 60's at christmas.. New York was mobbed. Lines stretched for blocks to board even the short distance trains on a monday evening. That was exciting.

What really bugged me as usual was that so many new customers and so little ability to give them a good impression.. Maybe they don't need one? As mentioned many rail fans will support anything on wheels and tracks.. The ability of amtrak to operate a decent set of employees and equipment slips farther nearly every time I ride. I ride because I want and like rail travel. But I also would like "responsibility" by Amtrak to operate a passenger system to drastically change.

This time the diner crew on the Capitol Limited were forced into the new CCC car. The hated it and said so when you could get their attention. A set of worse people in one place I have never experienced since amtrak was formed.. Dinner was a two hour ordeal from 8pm to 11pm. With many disturbing occurrences. We were seated in what should have been the lounge area of the car since it was obvious that a full train could not handle the load in the diner. The waiter, a man, was rude, irritating and totally ignored the passengers.. When he did respond to a request it was only after going after him and then a curt retort was always coming from him. A number of poor coach passengers were summarily told to return to their coach cars as no seats were available. The coachs were only called after 11pm, and then most weren't interested.. One poor woman tried to pass through the car while he was standing taking our order, he turned and glared and refused to move over a bit even though the passenger had excused her self in order to pass. We had a coach passenger who refused to be turned away at our table and she waited for the two hours before getting her check and then only after we went over to the other section of the car only to find the three waiters sitting at there tables having dinner while letting us sit.. Very aggravating.. No offers for a second set of coffee was responded to. A totally unexceptable performance. At lunch the two people at our table spent a half hour trying to flag anyone down to ask for something and no one would respond.. When they did finally get up and go after the waiter they were told no deserts were served available. In Chicago on return I overheard other passengers that had taken that train that day saying how bad the fellow in the diner was, it was the same set of people. They wouldn't last a day in a regular restaurant!

On the Lake Shore the waiter was "manic" to say the least, he may have been off his medicine. He ran literally down the aisles holding trays of food over passengers heads, tossing things on the tables and throwing his feet into the air with each plate put on the table.. He ran back to the food section and threw the doors open and shut with loud bangs that had everyone rolling their eyes. Oddly at breakfast he was rather calm and quite good.

The Lakeshore dinner had good food, and overall the amfleet car wasn't offensive, except for the end towards the sleepers of which there were three, where the center table had been removed and boxes of supplies just sat on the floor in the middle of the dinners.. How unprofessional can you get?

It was the first time in a Viewliner sleeper and I found the experience somewhat mixed. My roomette was fairly quiet, but my moms bedroom was the worst rattling mess I have ever seen.. This is where the total lack of supervision is obvious. I think if you gave me a day or a few hours I could figure out how to make a secure door or add some kind of rubber strips to make the door fit soundly instead of banging all night long. Yes I noticed the cut out metal on the restrooms where the locks should have been and were replaced by ill fitting hardware.. In the roomette it was impossible to close the curtains since the Velcro was missing or in locations that didn't match the walls or other curtain.. This is common but I have never seen it so bad as these. I told the attendant that someone needed to standardize the heights of the velcro so they matched and be sure they were all there.. How long have these been this way? The reading lights were either burnt out or barely lit. When I tried to adjust one it fell out in my hand..

I had ridden the LS years ago and the same totally inadequate lounge (better described as a bare diner) was running. What would it take to remove tables on one end and install seating for relaxing if you wished? Here again a total disregard for comfort and the public.

It was raining during the trip out of Albany and the vestibules were dripping water and very slippery. I mentioned it to the Conductor and all he said was, what do you expect its raining. I expect someone to fix it...

I too have often wondered why they can't see that the cars are not cleaned correctly, things are broken, ect.. NO Supervision that means anything.

Then the Acela which was a very interesting first for me. The train was nicely designed, but the seats cushions were worn out due to cheap construction no doubt. The crew was excellent.. Our real irritation there came from a miss-understanding as to the acela lounge. We had sleeper tickets from new york for that day, but when we entered the lounge the man behind the counter looked at the tickets which were for business acela seats and summarily told we belonged in line at gate F, your in the wrong place. We stood a bit at the door to the F entry, there were chairs with several passengers inside, but the man wouldn't allow us to enter saying we had to wait outside.. I was so mad I went back and told the fellow in the lounge what I thought.. I told him had he simply ask in a nice way if we were going to be traveling by sleeper that day he could have ascertained in a nice way if we actually were entitled to use the lounge, instead of basically throwing us out.. As I turned to leave a passenger had came in behind me as I told the counter person about it, I was surprised to see it was Joe Liberman! We had almost upgraded to first class, I wish now I had, might have had an conversation about amtrak with him?

Overall many people as I felt as though they were being treated like cattle instead of expensive fare payers. A very sad situation to me. Nearly everyone we ran into had some kind of story about something they experienced on their trip that should have been avoided. One lady mentioned her toilets didn't work on the SWC. Will they ever fix that?

Trains have a chance to really become a major way to once again move people in this country. But unless congress allows for improved service instead of micro managing in a detrimental way, and amtrak is run by some people who really want to get things right, I fear the chance may be lost..

 

[AlanB]

It was raining during the trip out of Albany and the vestibules were dripping water and very slippery. I mentioned it to the Conductor and all he said was, what do you expect its raining. I expect someone to fix it...

The vestibules on all trains, except for Acela which has a sealed connection between cars, get wet when it rains. They collect snow too when it snows. They aren't hermetically sealed and as the cars bump and move around gaps do appear in the diaphragm. They were never designed to keep out the rain, so therefore there is no way to fix them to keep out the rain.

 

[Larry H.]

Thanks Allen, the last time I rode the lakeshore there indeed was snow in the vestibules on leaving buffalo. I guess your correct on the rain, but in all the years I have ridden trains its the first water I have seen dripping from the seal.. In fact it rained into and out of chicago and no rain in between the cars. I still think there is a flaw perhaps in that one. In fact none of the other cars were leaking now that I think about it..

 

[gswager]

The top and sides of the seal do good job, but the weakest part is bottom. That's why the snow which is lighter than water drops can fly into it.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; October 13, 2008

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

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

Volume 5, Number 28

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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) For Amtrak True Believers (to liberally borrow a famous phrase), it's the best of times, and it's the worst of times. True Believers believe it's the best of times because of what's in the official summary, below, from the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Realistic people who believe in the business of passenger rail (as opposed to the welfare state concept of passenger rail as a public right) know it's business as usual.

[begin quote]

H.R. 2095, THE RAIL SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

DIVISION A – THE RAIL SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

H.R. 2095 reauthorizes the Federal Railroad Administration ("FRA") and provides $1.625 billion for our nation's rail safety program over the period encompassing fiscal years 2009 through 2013. The authorization of the rail safety program expired a decade ago, in 1998.

The bill clarifies that the mission of the FRA is to ensure that safety is the highest priority; creates a new position of Chief Safety Officer; requires the Secretary of Transportation to develop a long-term strategy for improving rail safety, which must include an annual plan and schedule for, among other things, reducing the number and rates of accidents, injuries, and fatalities involving railroads; and requires annual reporting from the Secretary on the Department's progress in implementing unmet statutory mandates and open safety recommendations by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General and the National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB").

WORKER AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Mandates Installation of Positive Train Control.

Requires all Class I railroads and intercity passenger and commuter railroads to implement a positive train control system by December 31, 2015, on all main-line track where intercity passenger railroads and commuter railroads operate and where toxic-by-inhalation hazardous materials are transported. In addition, includes a grant program for the deployment of various positive train control technologies, electronically controlled pneumatic brakes, rail integrity inspection and warning systems, switch position indicators, remote control power switch technologies, track integrity circuit technology, and other technologies.

Hours of Service Reform.

Provides signal and train crews with additional rest; prohibits them from working in excess of 12 hours; extends hours-of-service standards to railroad contractors; limits limbo time; requires retrofitting or replacement of camp cars; and requires railroads to develop fatigue management plans through a mandatory risk reduction program.

Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance.

Directs the NTSB to establish a program to assist victims and their families involved in a passenger rail accident, modeled after a similar aviation disaster program.

Locomotive Cab Safety.

Requires the FRA to complete a study on the safety impact of the use of personal electronic devices by safety-related railroad employees during the performance of their duties. The study will also look at other elements of the locomotive cab environment that could harm the employee's health and safety. Based upon the results of the study, the Secretary may establish regulations on the use of personal electronic devices in the locomotive cab.

Training.

Establishes minimum training standards for railroad workers; requires certification of conductors; and a study on certification of other classes and crafts of employees, including carmen and signal employees.

Medical Attention.

Prohibits railroads from denying, delaying, or interfering with the medical or first aid treatment of injured workers, and from disciplining those workers that request treatment. Also requires railroads to arrange for immediate transport of injured workers to the nearest appropriate hospital.

Emergency Escape Breathing Apparatus.

Provides emergency breathing apparatus for all crewmembers on freight trains carrying hazardous materials that would pose an inhalation hazard in the event of unintentional release.

TRACK SAFETY

Concrete Crossties.

Directs the FRA to develop and implement regulations for all classes of track for concrete rail ties.

Track Inspection Time.

Requires the FRA to study track inspection procedures, including time intervals between inspection, repair priorities and methods, the speed of track inspection vehicles, and the territories inspectors must cover.

GRADE CROSSING SAFETY

Toll-Free Number to Report Grade Crossing Problems.

Requires the railroads to establish and maintain a toll-free telephone number for reporting malfunctions of grade crossing signals, gates, and other devices and disabled vehicles blocking railroad tracks.

Sight Distance. Requires the FRA to develop model legislation to encourage States to adopt and enforce laws regarding overgrown vegetation, standing railroad equipment, and other obstructions at grade crossings, which can obstruct the view of approaching pedestrians and vehicles.

Accident and Incident Reporting. Requires the FRA to conduct periodic audits of railroads to ensure they are reporting all accidents and incidents to the National Accident Database.

National Crossing Inventory. Requires railroads to report information, including information about warning devices and signage, on grade crossings to enable the FRA to maintain an accurate inventory of such crossings.

State Action Plan.

Requires the Secretary to identify on an annual basis the top 10 States that have had the most grade crossing collisions, and to work with them to develop a State grade crossing action plan that identifies specific solutions for improving safety at grade crossings.

Emergency Grade Crossing Improvements.

Establishes a grant program to provide emergency grade crossing safety improvements at locations where there has been a grade crossing collision involving a school bus or multiple injuries or fatalities.

ENFORCEMENT

Penalties for violations.

Increases civil penalties for certain rail safety violations from $10,000 to $25,000. The minimum civil penalty remains $500. For grossly negligent violations or a pattern of repeated violations, the maximum civil penalty is increased from $20,000 under current law to not more than $100,000. Also increases the maximum penalty for failing to file an accident or incident report from $500 to $2,500.

Enforcement Transparency.

Requires the FRA to provide an annual summary to the public of all railroad enforcement actions taken by the Secretary.

Railroad Radio Monitoring.

Authorizes the FRA to monitor certain railroad radio communications for the purpose of correcting safety problems and mitigating the likelihood of accidents or incidents.

Inspector Staffing.

Increases the number of Federal rail safety inspectors and supporting staff by 200.

OTHER SAFETY HIGHLIGHTS

Bridge Safety.

Requires the FRA to issue regulations requiring each track owner to develop and maintain an accurate inventory of its railroad bridges; determine, and update as appropriate, the safe capacity of each bridge; maintain the original design documents of each bridge, if available, and a documentation of all repairs, modifications, and inspections of each bridge; enforce a written procedure that will ensure that its bridges are not loaded beyond their capacities; conduct regular comprehensive inspections of each bridge; and designate qualified bridge inspectors or maintenance personnel to authorize the operation of trains on bridges following repairs, damage, or indication of potential structural problems.

Solid Waste Processing Rail Facilities.

Ensures that State governments are able to protect their citizens against environmental hazards, such as noxious fumes or leaks into groundwater, which could result from operation of a waste processing facility by a railroad.

Tunnel Information.

Requires railroads to maintain certain information related to structural inspections and maintenance activities for tunnels, and requires railroads to provide periodic briefings to the government of the local jurisdictions in which the tunnels are located, including updates whenever a repair or rehabilitation projects alters the methods of ingress and egress into and out of the tunnels.

H.R. 2095, THE RAIL SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

DIVISION B – THE PASSENGER RAIL INVESTMENT AND IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

H.R. 2095 reauthorizes Amtrak and provides a total of $13.06 billion over five years to help bring the Northeast Corridor to a state-of-good-repair, and encourage the development of new and improved intercity passenger rail service through an 80-20 Federal/State matching grant program. It also provides $1.5 billion for the planning and development of high-speed rail corridors.

Increases Capital and Operating Grants to Amtrak.

H.R. 2095 authorizes $5.315 billion (an average of $1.063 billion per year) to Amtrak for capital grants and $2.949 billion (an average of $589.8 million per year) for operating grants. Past inconsistent Federal support has hampered Amtrak's ability to replace catenaries, passenger cars, bridges, ties, and other equipment necessary for Amtrak to provide service. These capital grants will help bring the Northeast Corridor to a state-of-good-repair, and allow Amtrak to procure new rolling stock, rehabilitate existing bridges, and make additional capital improvements on its entire network. In addition, the operating grants authorized under the bill will help Amtrak pay salaries, health costs, overtime pay, fuel costs, facilities, and train maintenance and operations. These operating grants will also ensure that Amtrak can meet its obligations under its recently negotiated labor contract.

Develops State Passenger Corridors.

In an effort to encourage the development of new and improved intercity passenger rail services, the bill creates a new State Capital Grant program for intercity passenger rail projects. The bill provides $1.9 billion ($380 million per year) for grants to States to pay for the capital costs of facilities and equipment necessary to provide new or improved intercity passenger rail. The Federal share of the grants is up to 80 percent. The Secretary of Transportation would award these grants on a competitive basis for projects based on economic performance, expected ridership, and other factors.

Relieves Congestion.

H.R. 2095 authorizes $325 million (an average of $65 million per year) out of the State Capital Grant program for "congestion grants" to Amtrak and the States for high-priority rail corridors to increase capacity along certain lines in order to reduce congestion and facilitate ridership growth.

Provides Funding for High-Speed Rail Corridors.

The bill authorizes $1.5 billion ($300 million per year) for grants to States and/or Amtrak to finance the construction and equipment for 11 authorized high-speed rail corridors. The Federal share of the grants is up to 80 percent. The Secretary of Transportation would award these grants on a competitive basis for projects based on economic performance, expected ridership, and other factors.

Improves On-Time Performance.

By law, Amtrak is given preference over freight traffic on lines outside the Northeast Corridor. However, many of Amtrak's service routes outside the Northeast Corridor suffer from poor service reliability and on-time performance. This performance prevents Amtrak from retaining and attracting new ridership, and increases Amtrak's operating costs. The Department of Transportation Inspector General recently reported that if Amtrak achieved an 85 percent on-time performance outside the Northeast Corridor in fiscal year 2006, it would have saved Amtrak $136.6 million, or almost one-third of its operating budget. H.R. 2095 empowers the Surface Transportation Board ("STB") to investigate whether and to what extent delays or failures to achieve minimum on-time performance standards is the result of a host rail carrier. If the host rail carrier is found to be at fault, then the STB may award damages that would be used to improve service on the impacted route.

Reduces Amtrak's Debt.

Federal support of Amtrak was cut drastically in fiscal year 2000 and 2001, forcing Amtrak to assume a large amount of debt just to stay afloat. Amtrak has aggressively targeted this debt, paying down $600 million from 2002 through 2007. H.R. 2095 helps Amtrak to take further steps to reduce its debt, authorizing $1.404 billion (an average of $280.8 million each year) for debt service through FY 2013. This funding will allow Amtrak to focus its resources on improving existing services and making additional capital and operational improvements.

Establishes an RFP for High-Speed Rail Service.

H.R. 2095 directs the Secretary of Transportation to issue a request for proposals for projects for the financing, design, construction, and operation of 11 federally-designated high speed rail corridors. Proposals would need to meet certain financial, labor, and planning criteria, as well as a detailed description to account for any impacts on existing passenger, commuter, and freight rail traffic to be considered. If the Secretary receives a qualifying proposal, she would be directed to form a Commission to study any proposals received. The Secretary would issue a report to the Congress on the Commission's findings and her recommendations for each of the corridors. Any further action on a proposal would need legislative approval by Congress.

Resolves Disputes between Commuter and Freight Railroads.

Currently, no Federal guidelines exist to mediate disputes between commuter rail providers and freight railroads over use of freight rail tracks or rights-of-way, nor is there a standard forum for negotiating commuter rail operating agreements. The bill establishes a forum at the STB to help complete stalled commuter rail negotiations, helping our rail network operate as efficiently as possible. This section is identical to a provision of H.R. 2701, the "Transportation Energy Security and Climate Change Mitigation Act of 2007", as ordered reported by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on June 20, 2007.

Provides Funding for Washington Metro System.

The bill authorizes $1.5 billion for fiscal years 2009 through 2019 for capital and preventive maintenance grants for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ("WMATA"). These funds are not available until WMATA notifies the Secretary of Transportation that certain amendments to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Compact have taken effect, including an amendment requiring that all payments by local signatory governments for WMATA for matching Federal funds authorized by this section are derived from dedicated funding sources. In addition, these funds may be used only for the maintenance and upkeep of the Washington Metro system and may not be used to increase the mileage of the rail system. The Federal share of the grants shall be for 50 percent of the net project cost of the project.

[End quote]

What you have just waded through is the executive summary of the long-awaited Amtrak reauthorization from the House and Senate, which has received President Bush's seal of approval. This reauthorization goes back several years to when former Senator Trent Lott first teamed with Senator Frank Lautenberg for an overdue reauthorization. The bill hung around the Senate for a couple of years, and finally passed, and went to the House where it passed after it was combined with a safety-related bill for required implementation of positive train control (anti-collision) systems nationwide.

Amtrak True Believers have been overjoyed by this bill, believing Amtrak "finally" has the money and recognition it deserves.

Oops! This bill has come at a time when it is the worst of times.

What most people fail to realize is this bill is an AUTHORIZATION, for $13 billion for Amtrak, not an APPROPRIATION for $13 billion for Amtrak.

It really doesn't matter how much money Congress authorizes for anything; all that matters is how much money it appropriates. When Congress appropriates money, it actually writes a check. An authorization is, in congressional parlance, just a "begging license" an agency or arm of government can use in hopes someone in Congress will make an appropriation based on a previous authorization.

In today's toxic economy, an authorization is worth much less than it was 10 minutes ago.

When you add up the $700 billion Congress appropriated for the credit crisis rescue plan, and the few other hundred billions here and there Congress and other feds have thrown into various pots these past couple of weeks, suddenly, a trillion dollars has gone missing.

Anyone who believes the budget writers in Congress of either party are going to be willing to up the funding on almost any program other than programs to stimulate the economy, cover the military, or fund essentials probably also believes in the Easter Bunny, too.

Senator John McCain during his campaign has already said should he be elected, he will freeze all government programs at the current level of funding, and determine on a case-by-case basis any budget increases his administration will request, based on all of the monies already spent over the past month.

2) So, while this much anticipated reauthorization does a lot of good things, it changes nothing when it comes to providing more money for Amtrak. It does allow Congress to consider giving more money to Amtrak and passenger rail, but it does not appropriate (write a check) for any new money.

Now, more than ever, Amtrak will have to prove to a broke nation how important a part of the domestic transportation network it really is ... keeping in mind, Amtrak's total transportation output remains roughly that of motorcycle riders in the country today.

This is the time Amtrak's numerous misdeeds and gross miscalculations are going to come back to haunt it, as savvy budget writers are going to want to know exactly what they're getting from Amtrak for their money.

Can Amtrak instantly expand its existing service? No, not even by 10% because it has chosen to let its rolling stock fleet deteriorate to such a point hundreds of passenger cars are out of service, or have been sent to the scrap dealers.

Can Amtrak start new state routes, even if the states pony up the money for them? Not easily, for the same reason. Where is the equipment coming from?

Can Amtrak talk about new routes and new services to meet new demands? Not easily, because it has such a poor relationship with most of its host freight railroads; those private carriers are unwilling to put their bread and butter business of freight hauling at risk to accommodate more Amtrak trains, either in terms of increased frequencies or new routes.

3) Here's a little gem tucked into the many hundreds of pages of the Amtrak reauthorization. For some reason no rational person can figure out, the qualifications for the Amtrak Board of Directors has been modified to essentially include anyone who has recently been breathing.

The gutting of the list of qualifications for board members means Amtrak will go back to being subject to the stewardship of a collection of political hacks whose only qualification for serving on the board was support of the people in power in Washington.

Once again, the fox will be watching the hen house, because Amtrak board members will not have enough business knowledge or corporate leadership experience to adequately question the many questionable proposals which surface from Amtrak's executive corps for board approval to become company policy.

We're going back to the days where anything good that happens at Amtrak is most likely the result of some sort of corporate accident.

4) The reauthorization also includes lots of big bucks for Amtrak to "study" all of the reasons why it refuses to reinstate that Sunset Limited east of New Orleans to Jacksonville (and/or Orlando), and look at some other route revivals, such as the Pioneer and the old North Coast Limited transcontinental route via southern Montana. All three of these routes will be welcome additions to anyone who believes in the business of passenger rail, but the downside is these route will – if reinstated – be done by congressional mandate, such as is the Cardinal route, which currently operates via West Virginia at the behest of Senator Robert Byrd.

New routes are good; congressional mandates, while convenient for route restoration, are not as good. One look at the Cardinal, which is operated in such a half-hearted way by Amtrak, proves the point.

The Cardinal (nee, the C&O's George Washington), has some of the most spectacular scenery on any route west of the Rocky Mountains. Under Amtrak's tender mercies, this train is operated only three days a week, mostly with leftover equipment, and no full dining car. A dianoetic person would take one look at this train's metrics, and declare it has been intentionally set up to fail.

Looking at the Cardinal from a business standpoint, along with the Sunset Limited, and it has some of the greatest potential of any train in the Amtrak system for expansion, growth, and greater revenues.

What will follow for the Sunset east of New Orleans, the Pioneer, or the North Coast Limited if they are imposed on Amtrak under the same conditions? Can we expect a begrudging operation of the trains, but no real effort to make them in any sense successful?

5) From the safety standpoint of the reauthorization, if you're a railroad manager having to foot the bill for the mandates, you're not a happy camper. For the rest of us, most of the components of the bill are welcome and will hopefully lead to a safer working environment for all railroaders, railroad passengers, and those doing business with railroads.

6) Various queries have come to This Week at Amtrak about this year's presidential election, and what we have to look forward to if either candidate wins (For some, "none of the above" is not a bad choice, but that's another discussion for another place.).

Based on history and what we know today, here is what to expect. Neither candidate of the two major parties has taken a firm stance specifically on Amtrak.

If Senator Barack Obama is the next president, he likely will follow the traditional Democratic Party treatment of Amtrak and consider it a labor issue. What is good for his organized labor constituents will be good for Amtrak. Senator Obama did vote "yes" on the Amtrak reauthorization bill, without comment.

It is important to note there have only been two times in Amtrak's history where a large part of its route system has been slashed, and both of those times have been under Democrat presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton).

Amtrak was formed under a Republican president, Richard Nixon.

If Senator John McCain is the next president, he likely will continue to take a stance against Amtrak, but it's important to understand why he takes the stance he consistently does, and is often misrepresented for his stance.

If you study Senator McCain's opposition to Amtrak, it's not against passenger rail, nor against our country having a viable passenger rail system. Senator McCain has consistently been against the corporate shenanigans played by Amtrak management, and the copious amounts of free federal monies which have been given to Amtrak with no performance measurements attached to the monies. Senator McCain considers the way Amtrak operates (and, based on the bad information which has been supplied to Senator McCain by Amtrak itself) to be wasteful and the product of bad business decisions. As so often happens with anyone who has pushed back against Amtrak True Believers, Senator McCain has been instantly and constantly labeled anti-Amtrak, without explanation.

If Senator McCain is elected president, he is likely to do little to improve Amtrak because of his past experience with it, but, because it has become a popular bipartisan program in Congress, can do little to kill it, either. He most likely will demand more accountability out of Amtrak, which is a good thing. Senator McCain voted "no" on the Amtrak reauthorization, and issued a statement saying it was based on cost, not ideology against passenger rail travel.

In short, whichever major party candidate wins, Amtrak is likely to stay pretty much the same way it is now. Only through public pressure will Amtrak reform itself, and that's not likely to happen with the present management and board of directors in place.

Most people don't understand how small Amtrak is in Washington, as compared to other parts of the federal government. Amtrak often receives a fleeting glance in the overall scheme of things, not the type of scrutiny is deserves so it can be improved one way or the other.

The present diminishing oil crisis (at this writing, oil is around $80 a barrel, a bargain in today's world) once again shoves Amtrak away from the public consciousness. We can only hope the public will continue to demand more passenger rail options and governments on every level will embrace the progress which comes with new passenger trains arriving and departing on a daily basis.

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[haolerider]

This Week at Amtrak; October 13, 2008
A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

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

Volume 5, Number 28

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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) For Amtrak True Believers (to liberally borrow a famous phrase), it's the best of times, and it's the worst of times. True Believers believe it's the best of times because of what's in the official summary, below, from the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Realistic people who believe in the business of passenger rail (as opposed to the welfare state concept of passenger rail as a public right) know it's business as usual.

[begin quote]

H.R. 2095, THE RAIL SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

DIVISION A – THE RAIL SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

H.R. 2095 reauthorizes the Federal Railroad Administration ("FRA") and provides $1.625 billion for our nation's rail safety program over the period encompassing fiscal years 2009 through 2013. The authorization of the rail safety program expired a decade ago, in 1998.

The bill clarifies that the mission of the FRA is to ensure that safety is the highest priority; creates a new position of Chief Safety Officer; requires the Secretary of Transportation to develop a long-term strategy for improving rail safety, which must include an annual plan and schedule for, among other things, reducing the number and rates of accidents, injuries, and fatalities involving railroads; and requires annual reporting from the Secretary on the Department's progress in implementing unmet statutory mandates and open safety recommendations by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General and the National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB").

WORKER AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Mandates Installation of Positive Train Control.

Requires all Class I railroads and intercity passenger and commuter railroads to implement a positive train control system by December 31, 2015, on all main-line track where intercity passenger railroads and commuter railroads operate and where toxic-by-inhalation hazardous materials are transported. In addition, includes a grant program for the deployment of various positive train control technologies, electronically controlled pneumatic brakes, rail integrity inspection and warning systems, switch position indicators, remote control power switch technologies, track integrity circuit technology, and other technologies.

Hours of Service Reform.

Provides signal and train crews with additional rest; prohibits them from working in excess of 12 hours; extends hours-of-service standards to railroad contractors; limits limbo time; requires retrofitting or replacement of camp cars; and requires railroads to develop fatigue management plans through a mandatory risk reduction program.

Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance.

Directs the NTSB to establish a program to assist victims and their families involved in a passenger rail accident, modeled after a similar aviation disaster program.

Locomotive Cab Safety.

Requires the FRA to complete a study on the safety impact of the use of personal electronic devices by safety-related railroad employees during the performance of their duties. The study will also look at other elements of the locomotive cab environment that could harm the employee's health and safety. Based upon the results of the study, the Secretary may establish regulations on the use of personal electronic devices in the locomotive cab.

Training.

Establishes minimum training standards for railroad workers; requires certification of conductors; and a study on certification of other classes and crafts of employees, including carmen and signal employees.

Medical Attention.

Prohibits railroads from denying, delaying, or interfering with the medical or first aid treatment of injured workers, and from disciplining those workers that request treatment. Also requires railroads to arrange for immediate transport of injured workers to the nearest appropriate hospital.

Emergency Escape Breathing Apparatus.

Provides emergency breathing apparatus for all crewmembers on freight trains carrying hazardous materials that would pose an inhalation hazard in the event of unintentional release.

TRACK SAFETY

Concrete Crossties.

Directs the FRA to develop and implement regulations for all classes of track for concrete rail ties.

Track Inspection Time.

Requires the FRA to study track inspection procedures, including time intervals between inspection, repair priorities and methods, the speed of track inspection vehicles, and the territories inspectors must cover.

GRADE CROSSING SAFETY

Toll-Free Number to Report Grade Crossing Problems.

Requires the railroads to establish and maintain a toll-free telephone number for reporting malfunctions of grade crossing signals, gates, and other devices and disabled vehicles blocking railroad tracks.

Sight Distance. Requires the FRA to develop model legislation to encourage States to adopt and enforce laws regarding overgrown vegetation, standing railroad equipment, and other obstructions at grade crossings, which can obstruct the view of approaching pedestrians and vehicles.

Accident and Incident Reporting. Requires the FRA to conduct periodic audits of railroads to ensure they are reporting all accidents and incidents to the National Accident Database.

National Crossing Inventory. Requires railroads to report information, including information about warning devices and signage, on grade crossings to enable the FRA to maintain an accurate inventory of such crossings.

State Action Plan.

Requires the Secretary to identify on an annual basis the top 10 States that have had the most grade crossing collisions, and to work with them to develop a State grade crossing action plan that identifies specific solutions for improving safety at grade crossings.

Emergency Grade Crossing Improvements.

Establishes a grant program to provide emergency grade crossing safety improvements at locations where there has been a grade crossing collision involving a school bus or multiple injuries or fatalities.

ENFORCEMENT

Penalties for violations.

Increases civil penalties for certain rail safety violations from $10,000 to $25,000. The minimum civil penalty remains $500. For grossly negligent violations or a pattern of repeated violations, the maximum civil penalty is increased from $20,000 under current law to not more than $100,000. Also increases the maximum penalty for failing to file an accident or incident report from $500 to $2,500.

Enforcement Transparency.

Requires the FRA to provide an annual summary to the public of all railroad enforcement actions taken by the Secretary.

Railroad Radio Monitoring.

Authorizes the FRA to monitor certain railroad radio communications for the purpose of correcting safety problems and mitigating the likelihood of accidents or incidents.

Inspector Staffing.

Increases the number of Federal rail safety inspectors and supporting staff by 200.

OTHER SAFETY HIGHLIGHTS

Bridge Safety.

Requires the FRA to issue regulations requiring each track owner to develop and maintain an accurate inventory of its railroad bridges; determine, and update as appropriate, the safe capacity of each bridge; maintain the original design documents of each bridge, if available, and a documentation of all repairs, modifications, and inspections of each bridge; enforce a written procedure that will ensure that its bridges are not loaded beyond their capacities; conduct regular comprehensive inspections of each bridge; and designate qualified bridge inspectors or maintenance personnel to authorize the operation of trains on bridges following repairs, damage, or indication of potential structural problems.

Solid Waste Processing Rail Facilities.

Ensures that State governments are able to protect their citizens against environmental hazards, such as noxious fumes or leaks into groundwater, which could result from operation of a waste processing facility by a railroad.

Tunnel Information.

Requires railroads to maintain certain information related to structural inspections and maintenance activities for tunnels, and requires railroads to provide periodic briefings to the government of the local jurisdictions in which the tunnels are located, including updates whenever a repair or rehabilitation projects alters the methods of ingress and egress into and out of the tunnels.

H.R. 2095, THE RAIL SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

DIVISION B – THE PASSENGER RAIL INVESTMENT AND IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

H.R. 2095 reauthorizes Amtrak and provides a total of $13.06 billion over five years to help bring the Northeast Corridor to a state-of-good-repair, and encourage the development of new and improved intercity passenger rail service through an 80-20 Federal/State matching grant program. It also provides $1.5 billion for the planning and development of high-speed rail corridors.

Increases Capital and Operating Grants to Amtrak.

H.R. 2095 authorizes $5.315 billion (an average of $1.063 billion per year) to Amtrak for capital grants and $2.949 billion (an average of $589.8 million per year) for operating grants. Past inconsistent Federal support has hampered Amtrak's ability to replace catenaries, passenger cars, bridges, ties, and other equipment necessary for Amtrak to provide service. These capital grants will help bring the Northeast Corridor to a state-of-good-repair, and allow Amtrak to procure new rolling stock, rehabilitate existing bridges, and make additional capital improvements on its entire network. In addition, the operating grants authorized under the bill will help Amtrak pay salaries, health costs, overtime pay, fuel costs, facilities, and train maintenance and operations. These operating grants will also ensure that Amtrak can meet its obligations under its recently negotiated labor contract.

Develops State Passenger Corridors.

In an effort to encourage the development of new and improved intercity passenger rail services, the bill creates a new State Capital Grant program for intercity passenger rail projects. The bill provides $1.9 billion ($380 million per year) for grants to States to pay for the capital costs of facilities and equipment necessary to provide new or improved intercity passenger rail. The Federal share of the grants is up to 80 percent. The Secretary of Transportation would award these grants on a competitive basis for projects based on economic performance, expected ridership, and other factors.

Relieves Congestion.

H.R. 2095 authorizes $325 million (an average of $65 million per year) out of the State Capital Grant program for "congestion grants" to Amtrak and the States for high-priority rail corridors to increase capacity along certain lines in order to reduce congestion and facilitate ridership growth.

Provides Funding for High-Speed Rail Corridors.

The bill authorizes $1.5 billion ($300 million per year) for grants to States and/or Amtrak to finance the construction and equipment for 11 authorized high-speed rail corridors. The Federal share of the grants is up to 80 percent. The Secretary of Transportation would award these grants on a competitive basis for projects based on economic performance, expected ridership, and other factors.

Improves On-Time Performance.

By law, Amtrak is given preference over freight traffic on lines outside the Northeast Corridor. However, many of Amtrak's service routes outside the Northeast Corridor suffer from poor service reliability and on-time performance. This performance prevents Amtrak from retaining and attracting new ridership, and increases Amtrak's operating costs. The Department of Transportation Inspector General recently reported that if Amtrak achieved an 85 percent on-time performance outside the Northeast Corridor in fiscal year 2006, it would have saved Amtrak $136.6 million, or almost one-third of its operating budget. H.R. 2095 empowers the Surface Transportation Board ("STB") to investigate whether and to what extent delays or failures to achieve minimum on-time performance standards is the result of a host rail carrier. If the host rail carrier is found to be at fault, then the STB may award damages that would be used to improve service on the impacted route.

Reduces Amtrak's Debt.

Federal support of Amtrak was cut drastically in fiscal year 2000 and 2001, forcing Amtrak to assume a large amount of debt just to stay afloat. Amtrak has aggressively targeted this debt, paying down $600 million from 2002 through 2007. H.R. 2095 helps Amtrak to take further steps to reduce its debt, authorizing $1.404 billion (an average of $280.8 million each year) for debt service through FY 2013. This funding will allow Amtrak to focus its resources on improving existing services and making additional capital and operational improvements.

Establishes an RFP for High-Speed Rail Service.

H.R. 2095 directs the Secretary of Transportation to issue a request for proposals for projects for the financing, design, construction, and operation of 11 federally-designated high speed rail corridors. Proposals would need to meet certain financial, labor, and planning criteria, as well as a detailed description to account for any impacts on existing passenger, commuter, and freight rail traffic to be considered. If the Secretary receives a qualifying proposal, she would be directed to form a Commission to study any proposals received. The Secretary would issue a report to the Congress on the Commission's findings and her recommendations for each of the corridors. Any further action on a proposal would need legislative approval by Congress.

Resolves Disputes between Commuter and Freight Railroads.

Currently, no Federal guidelines exist to mediate disputes between commuter rail providers and freight railroads over use of freight rail tracks or rights-of-way, nor is there a standard forum for negotiating commuter rail operating agreements. The bill establishes a forum at the STB to help complete stalled commuter rail negotiations, helping our rail network operate as efficiently as possible. This section is identical to a provision of H.R. 2701, the "Transportation Energy Security and Climate Change Mitigation Act of 2007", as ordered reported by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on June 20, 2007.

Provides Funding for Washington Metro System.

The bill authorizes $1.5 billion for fiscal years 2009 through 2019 for capital and preventive maintenance grants for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ("WMATA"). These funds are not available until WMATA notifies the Secretary of Transportation that certain amendments to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Compact have taken effect, including an amendment requiring that all payments by local signatory governments for WMATA for matching Federal funds authorized by this section are derived from dedicated funding sources. In addition, these funds may be used only for the maintenance and upkeep of the Washington Metro system and may not be used to increase the mileage of the rail system. The Federal share of the grants shall be for 50 percent of the net project cost of the project.

[End quote]

What you have just waded through is the executive summary of the long-awaited Amtrak reauthorization from the House and Senate, which has received President Bush's seal of approval. This reauthorization goes back several years to when former Senator Trent Lott first teamed with Senator Frank Lautenberg for an overdue reauthorization. The bill hung around the Senate for a couple of years, and finally passed, and went to the House where it passed after it was combined with a safety-related bill for required implementation of positive train control (anti-collision) systems nationwide.

Amtrak True Believers have been overjoyed by this bill, believing Amtrak "finally" has the money and recognition it deserves.

Oops! This bill has come at a time when it is the worst of times.

What most people fail to realize is this bill is an AUTHORIZATION, for $13 billion for Amtrak, not an APPROPRIATION for $13 billion for Amtrak.

It really doesn't matter how much money Congress authorizes for anything; all that matters is how much money it appropriates. When Congress appropriates money, it actually writes a check. An authorization is, in congressional parlance, just a "begging license" an agency or arm of government can use in hopes someone in Congress will make an appropriation based on a previous authorization.

In today's toxic economy, an authorization is worth much less than it was 10 minutes ago.

When you add up the $700 billion Congress appropriated for the credit crisis rescue plan, and the few other hundred billions here and there Congress and other feds have thrown into various pots these past couple of weeks, suddenly, a trillion dollars has gone missing.

Anyone who believes the budget writers in Congress of either party are going to be willing to up the funding on almost any program other than programs to stimulate the economy, cover the military, or fund essentials probably also believes in the Easter Bunny, too.

Senator John McCain during his campaign has already said should he be elected, he will freeze all government programs at the current level of funding, and determine on a case-by-case basis any budget increases his administration will request, based on all of the monies already spent over the past month.

2) So, while this much anticipated reauthorization does a lot of good things, it changes nothing when it comes to providing more money for Amtrak. It does allow Congress to consider giving more money to Amtrak and passenger rail, but it does not appropriate (write a check) for any new money.

Now, more than ever, Amtrak will have to prove to a broke nation how important a part of the domestic transportation network it really is ... keeping in mind, Amtrak's total transportation output remains roughly that of motorcycle riders in the country today.

This is the time Amtrak's numerous misdeeds and gross miscalculations are going to come back to haunt it, as savvy budget writers are going to want to know exactly what they're getting from Amtrak for their money.

Can Amtrak instantly expand its existing service? No, not even by 10% because it has chosen to let its rolling stock fleet deteriorate to such a point hundreds of passenger cars are out of service, or have been sent to the scrap dealers.

Can Amtrak start new state routes, even if the states pony up the money for them? Not easily, for the same reason. Where is the equipment coming from?

Can Amtrak talk about new routes and new services to meet new demands? Not easily, because it has such a poor relationship with most of its host freight railroads; those private carriers are unwilling to put their bread and butter business of freight hauling at risk to accommodate more Amtrak trains, either in terms of increased frequencies or new routes.

3) Here's a little gem tucked into the many hundreds of pages of the Amtrak reauthorization. For some reason no rational person can figure out, the qualifications for the Amtrak Board of Directors has been modified to essentially include anyone who has recently been breathing.

The gutting of the list of qualifications for board members means Amtrak will go back to being subject to the stewardship of a collection of political hacks whose only qualification for serving on the board was support of the people in power in Washington.

Once again, the fox will be watching the hen house, because Amtrak board members will not have enough business knowledge or corporate leadership experience to adequately question the many questionable proposals which surface from Amtrak's executive corps for board approval to become company policy.

We're going back to the days where anything good that happens at Amtrak is most likely the result of some sort of corporate accident.

4) The reauthorization also includes lots of big bucks for Amtrak to "study" all of the reasons why it refuses to reinstate that Sunset Limited east of New Orleans to Jacksonville (and/or Orlando), and look at some other route revivals, such as the Pioneer and the old North Coast Limited transcontinental route via southern Montana. All three of these routes will be welcome additions to anyone who believes in the business of passenger rail, but the downside is these route will – if reinstated – be done by congressional mandate, such as is the Cardinal route, which currently operates via West Virginia at the behest of Senator Robert Byrd.

New routes are good; congressional mandates, while convenient for route restoration, are not as good. One look at the Cardinal, which is operated in such a half-hearted way by Amtrak, proves the point.

The Cardinal (nee, the C&O's George Washington), has some of the most spectacular scenery on any route west of the Rocky Mountains. Under Amtrak's tender mercies, this train is operated only three days a week, mostly with leftover equipment, and no full dining car. A dianoetic person would take one look at this train's metrics, and declare it has been intentionally set up to fail.

Looking at the Cardinal from a business standpoint, along with the Sunset Limited, and it has some of the greatest potential of any train in the Amtrak system for expansion, growth, and greater revenues.

What will follow for the Sunset east of New Orleans, the Pioneer, or the North Coast Limited if they are imposed on Amtrak under the same conditions? Can we expect a begrudging operation of the trains, but no real effort to make them in any sense successful?

5) From the safety standpoint of the reauthorization, if you're a railroad manager having to foot the bill for the mandates, you're not a happy camper. For the rest of us, most of the components of the bill are welcome and will hopefully lead to a safer working environment for all railroaders, railroad passengers, and those doing business with railroads.

6) Various queries have come to This Week at Amtrak about this year's presidential election, and what we have to look forward to if either candidate wins (For some, "none of the above" is not a bad choice, but that's another discussion for another place.).

Based on history and what we know today, here is what to expect. Neither candidate of the two major parties has taken a firm stance specifically on Amtrak.

If Senator Barack Obama is the next president, he likely will follow the traditional Democratic Party treatment of Amtrak and consider it a labor issue. What is good for his organized labor constituents will be good for Amtrak. Senator Obama did vote "yes" on the Amtrak reauthorization bill, without comment.

It is important to note there have only been two times in Amtrak's history where a large part of its route system has been slashed, and both of those times have been under Democrat presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton).

Amtrak was formed under a Republican president, Richard Nixon.

If Senator John McCain is the next president, he likely will continue to take a stance against Amtrak, but it's important to understand why he takes the stance he consistently does, and is often misrepresented for his stance.

If you study Senator McCain's opposition to Amtrak, it's not against passenger rail, nor against our country having a viable passenger rail system. Senator McCain has consistently been against the corporate shenanigans played by Amtrak management, and the copious amounts of free federal monies which have been given to Amtrak with no performance measurements attached to the monies. Senator McCain considers the way Amtrak operates (and, based on the bad information which has been supplied to Senator McCain by Amtrak itself) to be wasteful and the product of bad business decisions. As so often happens with anyone who has pushed back against Amtrak True Believers, Senator McCain has been instantly and constantly labeled anti-Amtrak, without explanation.

If Senator McCain is elected president, he is likely to do little to improve Amtrak because of his past experience with it, but, because it has become a popular bipartisan program in Congress, can do little to kill it, either. He most likely will demand more accountability out of Amtrak, which is a good thing. Senator McCain voted "no" on the Amtrak reauthorization, and issued a statement saying it was based on cost, not ideology against passenger rail travel.

In short, whichever major party candidate wins, Amtrak is likely to stay pretty much the same way it is now. Only through public pressure will Amtrak reform itself, and that's not likely to happen with the present management and board of directors in place.

Most people don't understand how small Amtrak is in Washington, as compared to other parts of the federal government. Amtrak often receives a fleeting glance in the overall scheme of things, not the type of scrutiny is deserves so it can be improved one way or the other.

The present diminishing oil crisis (at this writing, oil is around $80 a barrel, a bargain in today's world) once again shoves Amtrak away from the public consciousness. We can only hope the public will continue to demand more passenger rail options and governments on every level will embrace the progress which comes with new passenger trains arriving and departing on a daily basis.

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

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J. Bruce Richardson

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United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

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Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

_______________________________________________

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What's happened to URPA? It's been almost a month since the last edition of Bruce's running commentary.

 

[MrFSS]

What's happened to URPA? It's been almost a month since the last edition of Bruce's running commentary.

Hard to say. It was regular as clock work for a long time and then became very sporadic.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; November 17, 2008

​

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

​

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

​

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

​

 

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

​

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail

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

Volume 5, Number 29

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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) Another day, another departed Amtrak president and chief executive officer. Add Alex Kummant to the roster of Amtrak stewards who have lasted three years, or less.

After two years and less than two months, Mr. Kummant resigned from his Amtrak post on Friday, November 14, 2008, and left the building. Literally. Longtime Chief Operating Officer William Crosbie is the interim Amtrak President and CEO.

There have been no hard facts which have emerged about the departure, but the best information available at the moment points to enough of a disagreement between Mr. Kummant and Chairman of the Board Donna McLean over how to handle certain financial matters to force Mr. Kummant into the unemployment line. Mr. Kummant was hired by the board chaired by the now departed David Laney, and succeeded by Ms. McLean, a professional Washington lobbyist.

As another Amtrak departed steward, David Gunn, discovered, it’s not a good idea to squabble with the real boss and expect to win. Tom Downs, Amtrak chief steward back in the Clinton years, discovered that, too.

The usual obligatory and nice things were said by Ms. McLean about Mr. Kummant in a written statement on Friday. Beyond that, and the general noise emanating from the National Association of Railroad Passengers – which never met an Amtrak president, executive, manager, or employee that it didn’t like, always hoping to curry favor instead of having to take real positions – not much has been said about Mr. Kummant’s departure. He came, he warmed the seat, he glad-handed a lot of folks, had an unworkable business plan for the future of Amtrak, he departed in a huff.

We wish him well in his future endeavors, and thank him for his service.

2) So, where does all of this and the recent change in administrations in Washington leave us?

It’s not a pretty picture.

President-Elect Obama made lots of campaign promises about transportation and Amtrak. They were enunciated in a letter the campaign sent to the October 10th passenger rail summit held in Meridian, Mississippi, and sponsored by the respected Southern High Speed Rail Commission, under the chairmanship of former Amtrak Chairman of the Board John Robert Smith. Here is the relevant content of the letter.

[begin quote]

We appreciate the opportunity to share our thoughts with you about the importance of supporting our nation’s freight and passenger railroad systems. Thank you for gathering here to work on national solutions to this critical infrastructure challenge, and for your ongoing work to formulate a regional rail strategy to spur growth across the South.

I don’t have to tell you that Governor Dukakis and Mayor Smith are highly knowledgeable on rail issues and that they bring decades of experience and leadership in crafting and implementing policy solutions in this area. Their work together, and with all of you, shows that this is not a partisan issue. In the face of economic crisis, we must not forget: our economic future and long-term competitiveness depend on strengthening our critical infrastructure. This is not a Democratic or a Republican challenge, it is an American challenge.

Amtrak, freight rail and commuter rail are absolutely vital to America’s transportation system, and we need to strengthen them now, not starve them. Metro Chicago is a central rail hub for North America and Joe has been riding Amtrak to work throughout his career, so we know how important rail is to our country. That’s why we support substantial investment – investment in infrastructure and investment in the rail workforce.

Rail is a highly efficient way to transport freight and relieve congestion on our highways. And Amtrak is the only reliable form of transportation in many parts of the country. Rail modernization is central to a safer, more reliable, cleaner and more energy-efficient transportation future that helps address traffic problems and climate change. We cannot afford to wait on funding for updated infrastructure and technology to meet increasing passenger and freight demand. That’s why we have both supported rail transportation throughout our careers. As you may know, we both cosponsored the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act in the U.S. Senate, and supported the successful effort to get this important legislation to the President’s desk this year.

And we will continue fighting for rail when we’re elected. Our National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank will be funded with $600 billion over 10 years to expand and enhance, not replace, existing federal transportation investments. We must invest in rail projects for economic and environmental reasons, and this proposal is key to long-term investment.

... (A) strong national transportation infrastructure system is in our national interest – for our economy, national security and quality of life.

Rail infrastructure is important, and it’s just as important to take care of the workers who operate and maintain it. Building, operating and maintaining a modern rail network will create good jobs that can’t be outsourced. That’s why we are proud to stand with the men and women who build and operate our rail systems and their unions. We will fight for the pay and benefits they’ve earned, and the training that they and the next generation of workers will need to stay at the cutting edge of innovation.

We see a future where a modernized rail system plays an increasingly important role in our transportation mix. ...

Sincerely,

[signed] Barack Obama/Joe Biden

[End quote]

Again, lots of good campaign promises were made in the letter above. All of the rhetoric is good, and the promises all sound good. But, what about the cost?

The letter promises a $600 billion National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to be funded over the next 10 years, to pay for federal projects above and beyond existing federal transportation investments. That sounds good. Where’s the money coming from? We’re talking about six-tenths of a trillion dollars in addition to other money already committed.

Which brings us to Amtrak’s piece of the pie in the newly minted reauthorization bill just signed by President Bush. Amtrak has been promised a lot of money in that bill – again, in the billions every year – but, only promised. Amtrak still has to go through the appropriations process, where the checks are written, but there are no guarantees the priority of Amtrak has risen at all in the minds of Congress, who writes the checks.

For those who forgot and didn’t notice, Congress has in the past few weeks written over $1 trillion dollars in rescue monies for various financial institutions and related problems. It also looks like Congress is about to carve about another stimulus package for taxpayers (and, lower end non-taxpayers, too) and maybe ship some money to Detroit for the automakers. We’re talking more hundreds of billions of dollars.

Forget about millions of dollars. These days, projects in the millions are chump change. Today, we talk in billions and trillions in Washington. Scary, huh?

Let’s look at Amtrak’s typical priority in Washington budget-making circle, no matter who is in charge.

There’s national defense and foreign aid. Homeland security. There are all of the entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. Add on the needs of the education folks. Don’t forget the ethanol subsidies and other agriculture subsidies. There’s the cost of government itself. Plus running federal law enforcement and all sorts of aid to states and cities through the pork process. Add on hundreds of other routine federal government expenditures which are favorites of various worthies elected to represent us in the House and Senate. Typically, after all of that, you come to transportation.

In line in front of Amtrak are the highway interests (don’t ever get in the way of the highway interests, or you could become a foundation for a new highway overpass), and the aviation interests, which will tell you they are barely in any better financial shape than the banks. There are the maritime interests, which remind us how important they are to keep the goods we buy from foreign countries flowing so we can continue to run up the foreign trade deficit. Then, the regional and local transit folks get in line, because each one of them has a guardian angel in Congress. What’s left? Amtrak, usually with its hat in hand, hoping for some table scraps from the federal smorgasbord.

3) Why isn’t Amtrak in a stronger position with the federal government? If you have a decade or so, we can get into that in detail. If you don’t, just sum it up in two words: corporate hubris.

Amtrak is the Britney Spears of the federal government. It wants everyone to love it and give it money, but it continues to do impossibly reckless things and ignore any helping hand that is offered to it.

Amtrak’s current Alex Kummant business plan is to emphasize expensive-to-operate, impossible-to-make-money-on, short distance corridors, mostly paid for by state government money. All this does is create cash flow for Amtrak, since it usually operates these services at breakeven or at a very modest profit. These services do little in the big picture to bolster prospects for Amtrak’s future.

Amtrak’s long distance system, where the majority of its congressional support comes from, continues to languish in a mild stupor of neglect. Even though the long distance trains, when honest accounting methods are used, do much better financially than short distance trains, Amtrak ignores them in favor of the Northeast Corridor and short distance routes.

Let’s have just the briefest reviews of the NEC and Acela service. All trains in the Northeast use the NEC infrastructure between Washington and Boston, which is mostly owned by Amtrak. A short part of it between New York City and New Haven, Connecticut is own by the State of New York, and operated by the honorable Metro North commuter system.

Two types of Amtrak trains trundle through the NEC every day; Acela, and the newly named Northeast Regionals. Other trains, such as the Southeast long distance trains, and the Keystone Service trains also operate along the corridor, as also do a huge number of local commuter service trains owned and operated by state and regional authorities.

Keep in mind all of these trains use the identical tracks, identical stations, identical power generating system, identical reservations system, identical personnel, and have identical Amtrak corporate overhead. Since, in the unique situation of the NEC Amtrak owns and operates the track and infrastructure, one supposes every Amtrak train which visits this infrastructure is charged similar usage fees.

But, Amtrak claims the Acela service is profitable, and the Northeast Regional service is not. How can that be? Same track, same maintenance, same infrastructure, same stations, same, same, same, everything. Since an Acela trains operates at higher speeds than a Northeast Regional or long distance train on the NEC, shouldn’t it cost more to host an Acela train than one of the other trains? After all, the cost of track maintenance is based on the need for speed, not the color of the railroad ties. How can a few Acela trains, as opposed to a larger number of Northeast Regional trains and long distance trains, operate at a profit, and the others operate at a loss? Inquiring minds want to know.

This is the type of situation Amtrak constantly placed itself in with official Washington. It places itself in all sort of awkward scenarios, and tries to convince everyone the sky is green when we know it’s blue.

4) So, here we are in November of 2008. A new Congress will convene in January, with both houses of Congress firmly in the hands of the Democrats. We have a Democrat as president, and a decades-long Amtrak NEC daily rider as vice president.

Under the new Amtrak reauthorization, the Amtrak Board of Directors is expanding from seven member to nine members. The new president of Amtrak, no matter who he or she will be, will again, for the first time in several years, be a voting member of Amtrak’s board.

The current members of the Amtrak board, Republicans Ms. McLean, the chairman, and Nancy Naples of New York, will remain on the board until their terms expire. The Democrats, Vice Chairman Hunter Biden (38 year-old son of the new Vice President), and Thomas Carper of Illinois, will also remain until their terms expire. The current fifth member of the board, Mary Peters, the Bush administration Secretary of Transportation, will leave the board in January when the new Obama administration comes to town.

Since, under the new authorization, the Secretary of Transportation is no longer an automatic board member, the board will have four functioning members after January 20, 2009, with five vacant slots for appointment by Mr. Obama.

You ask what are the legal requirements for these new board appointees? According to the new law, only that they were recently breathing on a regular basis. Otherwise, the board is open to any appointee a president chooses to make, and a senate chooses to confirm.

Based on how things work in Washington, don’t look for these five board seats to be filled and confirmed by the Senate as swiftly as an Acela train allegedly operates. There is a good chance a new president and chief executive office of Amtrak will be chosen by the current board’s remaining four members after January.

Simply put, Amtrak can’t afford to go many months virtually headless, as it did between the departed David Gunn and Alex Kummant when David Hughes warmed the president’s seat on an interim basis.

Current Interim President William Crosbie is not a favorite on Capitol Hill for testimony, and even though professional Capitol Hill lobbyist Amtrak Chairman of the Board Donna McLean will be at his side advocating Amtrak’s positions, it’s going to be tough to make a lot of performance promises to congressional committees when no one knows what direction a new, permanent president will take Amtrak.

Expect a holding action, and continuation of business as usual for Amtrak for the time being. Don’t expect any flashy initiatives, investments in new passenger rolling stock or locomotives, or route changes. Expect things to remain the same. And, in that vein, don’t expect any requests for huge amounts of money, beyond Amtrak’s usual annual requests. It’s unlikely Amtrak funding will meet the authorization levels simply because there isn’t much money to be had in Washington.

Within 48 hours of the end of the presidential election, victorious Democrats wisely started immediately lowering expectations on how many campaign promises would be met and how quickly they would be met. Phrases like "in the next two years," "late in the first term," and, even "sometime in the second term" were suddenly popularly in play and applied to every facet of federal spending, including Amtrak.

Fair? Probably, not. Real? Yes. Campaign promises and the reality of budgets and the associated horse-trading often don’t go hand in hand.

5) Now, let’s look at the positive side of things. We simply don’t know what the new board appointments over the next year will bring. We have no idea if another Haley Barbour, Ralph Kerchum, Charlie Luna, or Paul Weyrich is waiting out there. We may be especially fortunate and have former World Bank railroad wiz Lou Thompson, a well-respected Democrat, make it to the board. To balance the board, who knows, maybe even one of America’s best visionary railroaders, former FRA Administrator Gil Carmichael, may be appointed?

At this point, we just don’t know. We also don’t know what criteria will be used by the board to select a new president and chief executive officer. We’ve had the Transit Trio, we’re had a freight railroader, and we’ve had various others, from retired freight railroad execs to Washington insiders. Maybe we’ll be fortunate, and someone like former Amtrak Vice President Bob Vanderclute will enter the contest, or maybe someone from the inside, like Amtrak Vice President Richard Phelps, will step up to the plate.

Hopefully, the board will look at a broad variety of skills needed by a new Amtrak president, the most important being the ability to have a vision beyond the NEC. Hopefully, the next Amtrak president will understand the value and power of the national long distance system, and appreciate the proven fact and long history showing when healthy long distance trains exist, a robust system is created which can then mutually exist and cross-support short distance trains, and the two types of trains feed each other and share infrastructure costs.

Hopefully, the board will begin immediate work on selecting a head hunting firm (better than the last one selected) which understands a resume with lots of entries shouldn’t be the sole criteria for Amtrak’s next president. We tried that, and he just left last Friday.

7) Here’s an interesting idea. We’ve talked about this before, and it’s worth repeating. The current issue of Amtrak’s system timetable is excellent. Every year, they get better and better, with useful information, good presentation, and the addition of outside advertising which helps pay for the cost of the publication.

Since the printed timetables are one of Amtrak’s consistently bright spots, here’s a proposal: Whoever is in daily charge of Amtrak’s timetables should be Amtrak’s new president. Where else in Amtrak do we see constant improvement, from both a customer and financial standpoint? Where else in Amtrak do we see innovation and clarity? Where else in Amtrak do we see consistency and accuracy? Whoever is in charge needs a promotion. All of this good work should be immediately spread to other parts of Amtrak, too.

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

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All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe, should be addressed to http://mhtml//00000048/!x-usc:mailto:[email protected]

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J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

 

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[frj1983]

The usual obligatory and nice things were said by Ms. McLean about Mr. Kummant in a written statement on Friday. Beyond that, and the general noise emanating from the National Association of Railroad Passengers – which never met an Amtrak president, executive, manager, or employee that it didn’t like, always hoping to curry favor instead of having to take real positions – not much has been said about Mr. Kummant’s departure. He came, he warmed the seat, he glad-handed a lot of folks, had an unworkable business plan for the future of Amtrak, he departed in a huff.

The underline is mine,

But I think it funny that J Bruce would say this, because when Kummant was hired, J Bruce spouted great praises at the Board for hiring him...it almost sounded like the coming of the messiah. And by the way since J Bruce has the answer for all of Amtrak's woes, why don't we nominate him for the currently open President position?

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

The letter promises a $600 billion National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to be funded over the next 10 years, to pay for federal projects above and beyond existing federal transportation investments. That sounds good. Where’s the money coming from? We’re talking about six-tenths of a trillion dollars in addition to other money already committed.

Actually, that sounds disappointingly small. I think we ought to be spending $100-$200 billion per year on high speed intercity track alone for at least the next 10 years.

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; November 24, 2008

​

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

​

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

​

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

​

 

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

​

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail

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

 

Volume 5, Number 30

​

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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) Let us be radical. No, let us be practical. Which, in this case, is being radical, because we’re talking about a future direction for Amtrak.

If we dwell too much on Amtrak’s recent past, it just becomes depressing. But, you say, this last year Amtrak has enjoyed record revenues and passenger counts. Yes, we say, but Amtrak is also in a deep and continuing financial free fall, and has the worst economic performance it’s had in its history, even during the dark years of the George Warrington stewardship when he hocked everything in and out of sight to raise cash instead of asking for free federal monies to bolster his failed Acela program. But! you gasp, aren’t you against free federal monies? Yes, of course, but it was a worse decision to not ask for the money than to go to the sources Amtrak went to and made various deals with the devil.

The simple bottom line is Amtrak is in its worst financial condition of its existence because it chooses to be, not because of any perceived slights by various White House administrations, or low funding from Congress.

Travel back in time with us to what today is considered by some to be Amtrak’s Golden Age (Yes, just close your eyes and believe; it’s no worse than believing in the Easter Bunny.).

Amtrak’s Golden Age can be described as the latter half of the Graham Claytor stewardship era at Amtrak. For those new to the class, Graham Claytor was a courtly Southern gentleman, late of the Southern Railway, who became Amtrak’s combined Chairman and President in 1982, and stayed until 1993, the longest term for any Amtrak president.

During the Claytor years the head end program for upgrading passenger cars from antiquated steam heat and air to complete hotel power from the locomotive was completed, the Viewliner sleeping cars were ordered, and the second round of Superliners were ordered. New trains and new routes came into being, and it wasn’t unusual for single level trains to stretch to 18 cars in length, and run nearly full. When he left Amtrak, the company was in fair financial condition, was routinely stable, and required only a modest subsidy in the low hundred of millions of dollars, not billions of dollars.

Graham Claytor was a quintessential railroader who understood both politics and railroading, particularly passenger railroading. While at the end elderliness caught up with him, for the most part he ran an Amtrak that by the standard of today’s Amtrak was a huge success.

One thing he often remarked about was route accounting; he was against public route accounting. He knew (and turned out to be right) as soon as individual figures were released for specific routes, various heretics would take those figures and twist them away from recognition and use them as a weapon against overall funding for Amtrak. He knew the idiotic figures of over $400 per passenger loss for everyone riding the Sunset Limited would become a farce turned into fact, and it would be nearly impossible to kill this junk information.

Think of this: when Mr. Claytor finally retired, the annual Amtrak free federal money faucet drained somewhat less than $400 million from the federal treasury, compared to today’s $1.3 billion plus splurge. And, more equipment was being operated over more routes providing better service throughout the nation. Amtrak may be hauling more warm bodies today, but the revenue passenger mile count and load factors (the only two measurements which count in the real world) are not better than they were in 1993 when Mr. Claytor came home to Florida’s west coast.

Was Graham Claytor’s Amtrak perfect? Not be a long shot; many of the problems of that era spawned the problems of today. However, as far as the overall health of the company, and what the officers of the company at that time had to work with compared to today and the results that were produced with the assets of the day, run circles around Amtrak as we know it today and the French-style thinking of surrender at every instance a problem occurs.

2) Where does the Amtrak Board of Directors find another Graham Claytor? There may not be another one exactly in his mold, but there are certainly people with vision and understanding of the American transportation scene who could lead Amtrak to prosperity instead of financial doom.

In the last issue of TWA, we spoke of stars like former Amtrak Vice President Bob Vanderclute, who makes anyone’s short list of good presidents. Current Amtrak Vice President Richard Phelps would be a viable choice. Reaching back a few years, former Amtrak Gulf Coast Business Group General Manager Deborah Wetter, now a transit system chief executive in Wisconsin could bring a calm, deliberate freshness to Amtrak’s executive suite, along with her love and complete understanding of trains and every facet of passenger railroading, and superb executive skills.

Then, too, perhaps an outside visionary.

3) How would a visionary mold Amtrak into a viable company? What would the goals be for Amtrak? How can Amtrak stop being a step-child of government, and work towards being self-sustaining?

First and foremost, the pursuit of financially prudent objectives. Amtrak’s current failed business plan calls for a reliance on states and regions to pay Amtrak to operate short distance and regional routes at breakeven or at a very modest profit. Every year these routes are at risk due to fluctuations in state budgets or changes in state executive and legislative leadership. While these routes do produce high ridership counts, they also produce low revenue passenger miles rates in relationship to expenses and short length of trips. Both of these combine to be detrimental to passenger rail financial viability instead of helpful to the bottom line. These routes also generally require frequent stops and lots of parking and station facilities (Which can be good under the right circumstances.).

Amtrak also devotes over 75% of scarce capital resources to the upgrading and upkeep of the Northeast Corridor which runs between Washington and Boston. This Amtrak owned and operated piece of infrastructure has often been referred to as a black financial hole for Amtrak, not in the least because of the huge amount of upkeep required to keep the NEC as a host facility for various local and regional commuter operations which do not pay full value for use of the infrastructure, but also because Amtrak virtually bans freight movement on the corridor, which would help pay for the cost of maintenance

As has been said in this space before numerous times, Amtrak skeletal long distance network is the financial savior of Amtrak. The long distance system has the best financial performance of all categories of routes in the Amtrak system, has the greatest potential for passenger growth, has the greatest potential for political growth, and, most importantly, actually fulfills Amtrak’s mandated mission to provide a national passenger railroad (Many people forget Amtrak is just a trade name for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation; which includes serving all of America west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and south of Washington, D.C.).

Once a mature national system is back in place, then a robust long distance system can cross-subsidize a short haul/regional feeder system, and stations and infrastructure and headquarters costs can be shared. The way the current system works, the few long distance trains being operated have little to do with the short distance and regional trains, and neither benefits greatly from the other.

Also, a fully mature and robust long distance system is the only rational prelude to a future high speed passenger rail system in North America. Those who point to Europe as a good example of passenger rail systems (When, really, Europe is a good example for so few things outside of selected gourmet cooking and certain types of cheeses and automobiles.), what they fail to realize is the only reason high speed rail in Europe is successful is solely because Europe has a highly developed and mature steel wheel on steel rail traditional passenger rail system which serves as a feeder to high speed systems. Without these feeder system, European high speed rail would just be another expensive, failed experiment.

Many will remember the infamous "do-nothing" Congress Harry Truman constantly and bitterly complained about in the 1940s. Much the same could be said about Amtrak’s various presidents since the retirement of Graham Claytor in 1993. Every president since then has claimed the majority of his time has been spent holding the company together, begging for money, and/or betting the farm on Acela service on the NEC, a business strategy doomed from the start (See every reason outlined above.).

Not a single Amtrak president has presented a realistic vision for the company, nor how to sustain future viability. Vision conception has been left to company outsiders. Isn’t it time Amtrak had a real planning department – dreamers, all – who have the hard data to back up a dream and make it a reality? Where are the modern day Budds to create the next generation of Zephyrs? Where are the dynamic planners of Pullman-Standard who plotted and planned for passenger rolling stock that would end up serving America for decades beyond the originally intended service life, and do so with dignity? Where are the visionaries who created the Broadway Limited and the 20th Century Limited, and inspired a race measured by elegance, refinement, and good taste, while racking up profits?

Everyone seems to forget Amtrak has, by law, access to every two streaks of rust masquerading as railroad tracks in this country. Now, practically speaking, every two streaks of rust in this country don’t need or deserve passenger rail service. But, along viable routes there is a need – and desire – for practical and rational passenger rail beyond the needs of basic transportation (That translates to sleepers, diners, lounges, and first class coaches.).

But, you whine, there isn’t enough capacity for the host freight railroads to allow more passenger trains on their tracks! Yes, in many instances that may be true. However, since when do true entrepreneurs let problems like that stand in their way? What’s wrong with some high-spirited negotiations, planning, and horse-trading between Amtrak and the host freight railroads to find a solution to that problem? Confiscate the tracks? Nah, that’s socialist and unrealistic. Build entire new right of ways? Nah, that’s just horribly expense and dumb. Figure out how to expand the current infrastructure through clever combinations of public and private investment? Yes, now we’re talking. You say it can’t be done? Why? Has anyone ever tried to do that? Has there ever been a well run railroad which didn’t want to improve its infrastructure and use someone else’s money to do it?

As much as Amtrak’s has been America’s greatest kept secret lo these many years since May 1, 1971, and as much as there are now former passengers numbering into the millions who have sampled Amtrak and vowed "never again," Amtrak does have the power of the federal government behind it, and the ability to properly present itself as America’s passenger railroad, much as VIA Rail Canada has done in our neighbor to the north. A visionary president will stop allocating nickels and dimes to Amtrak’s sales and marketing budget (At the moment, less than 4% of Amtrak’s revenues, which is at a minimum 6% below where it should be of at least at 10% of revenues.) and make a full court press to fill the trains. For FY 2007, Amtrak had a systemwide load factor of 49%, somewhere more than 15% south of where it should be to break even by normal common carrier standards. This leaves plenty of room for a couple of choices, such as reallocating equipment to where it will serve more passengers, or beefing up advertising to put more faces in windows without having to add a lot of new rolling stock in order to start boosting revenues and lower Amtrak’s dismal operating ratio of 1.48 (The lower the number the better, anything above "1" indicates expenses outstrip revenues, or, in other words, it’s bankrupt.).

A visionary will ask why Amtrak has such few equipment choices, and why nothing new is on the drawing boards. Taking the past into the future, what about modern day rail diesel cars (now called DMUs) for short, expensive runs with few passengers? Why run a full train when one or two DMUs with lower crew costs will get the job done more than adequately?

What about a proper array of sleeping cars where every type of traveler can be accommodated according to need and the willingness to pay? Sleeping car prices are currently sky-high, and, if Amtrak is selling out many of its sleepers (which it is) at those prices, why isn’t there a backorder of hundreds of new sleepers to meet demand?

How about a new range of dining options based on passenger service, not commissary convenience or the fewest possible number of food service employees working too hard to provide good passenger service?

How about drastic changes in the way Amtrak operates stations, such as switching to the airline model where local government or local private investors pay for all station facilities and Amtrak is just a tenant, paying only its share of operating costs?

Here is the short summary: Will Amtrak’s board of directors select another Alex Kummant who is only stopping by for a short time while the ink drys on his resume, or will the board make a truly bold selection who understands and demands growth in real transportation output, investment driven by return on investment, not politics or a priori assumptions, and consider more or less the whole country, not just the small area north of Washington, D.C. and east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania? If these three goals are met, the politics will fall in line and disappear, Amtrak will become financially strong and not at the mercy of every budget cycle in Washington and assorted state houses, and passenger rail will rejoin the full domestic transportation matrix where it belongs, instead of being "novelty transportation" the is considered both bizarre and unable to show a profit.

4) Just as the rising price of a barrel of oil has made pumping oil in North America profitable again, so has that same rising price made passenger rail attractive again to many Americans (It was always viable, but no one paid any attention to it.). One last thought; allegedly wise and sage people – generally folks who wish to maintain some sort of fantasy instead of facing real facts – will try and convince you passenger rail is not profitable anywhere in the world, it can’t be profitable in America, and it should be considered a cost of running government, just like the building and maintenance of roads.

When you come across one of these misinformed and misguided lost souls, confidently look them in the eye, and, using current conditions, demand, prices of oil, and a host of other factors, dare them to use real, generally accepted accounting practices, and come up with those loss numbers without fudging the facts.

There was a time in this great country, before the Boeing 707 jet, and before the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System, when passenger trains were profitable, with long distance trains cross subsidizing short distance and regional feeder trains.

That profitability disappeared because of the loss of glamour of the train to the jet and automobile, the inability of the railroads to compete for passengers because of oppressive government regulation, and the looming cost of re-equipping America’s passenger train fleet with a second generation of post-war equipment in the late 1960s. Add murderous real estate taxes on station and yard facilities, taxes on infrastructure and rolling stock and locomotives, and taxes on every paper clip used by railroads, and passenger trains were doomed.

Much of that has changed. A new generation of Americans who never rode a sweaty, foul-smelling and crowded troop train to World War II or Korea is ready to embrace passenger rail as something new – and, oddly and ironically enough – glamorous. There is no joy or luster to flying on a jet airplane, only annoyance and discomfort. Interstate highways have lost their allure and are often as crowded as surface streets.

Since the debut in 1976 of the first Love Boat movie on television, followed the next year by the long running television series, the cruise industry, once decimated by the maritime unions, has flourished for more than three decades with larger and more ostentatious new ships launched every year. By today’s average cruise ship standards, the ill-fated Titanic was an oversized rowboat. Once the original Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary and the SS United States were all retired by the 1970s, also victims of the Boeing 707, who would have believed the cruise industry would have come roaring back, with the strength of a hurricane, to recapture one of the crown jewels of the travel industry, and be wildly financially successful, too?

Do you really want to have a debate, taking the position passenger rail in the future will never be break even or profitable?

The Amtrak Board of Directors has two simple choices for the next president and chief executive officer. The board can choose and seat-warmer who will smile at the camera when testifying before Congress and beg for more money, or it can choose a visionary who will look at Amtrak and say, "I can make something of this; I can take this unholy mess and turn it into something America will boast to the world about how good it is, how sustainable it is, how much it contributes to America’s position of strength in the world."

The choice is up to the Amtrak Board of Directors. We can only hope the board will make a wise choice.

5) You may notice the date on this missive; it’s November 24th. Exactly one month from today is Christmas Eve. And, this Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, a day all Americans enjoy for being close to home and hearth. Except those who will be working to keep Amtrak running, maintaining its status as a 365 day a year operation. To all of those Amtrak employees who will be working so hard this week taking so many Americans to their holiday destinations, we say thank you for a job well done, and thank you missing a holiday with your family so we may be with our families.

There is something special about railroaders, and often that something special is wonderful.

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This Week at Amtrak; November 26, 2008

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A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

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Volume 5, Number 31

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Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.

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1) Joy! We’re still 24 hours away from the official start of the Christmas season when Santa Claus brings up the rear of New York City’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but the holidays are coming a wee bit early.

Today, the Amtrak Board of Directors chose one of its own as Amtrak’s Interim President and Chief Executive Officer for a term of one year, while the board searches for a permanent replacement for the departed Alex Kummant.

Why the unrestrained happiness? Because the board has acted like a normal, professional corporate board and made a wise decision to elevate one of its own members into a daily executive position to keep the company on an even course (Even though that course may be very wrong if it continues to emphasize short distance corridors.).

Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Joseph Boardman, who will be leaving that position January 20, 2009 when the new administration takes power in Washington, and has served since 2005 as the United States Department Secretary of Transportation’s designee on the board, starts his new job today as Amtrak’s Interim President and CEO. It’s a very common occurrence for a sitting board member to take daily control of a company when its chief executive is removed in a unpleasant way, as was Alex Kummant earlier this month.

Here’s the official press release from Amtrak.

[begin quote]

Amtrak Media Relations

(202) 906-3860

AMTRAK SELECTS TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY VETERAN AS PRESIDENT & CEO

WASHINGTON – The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Board of Directors announced today that it has chosen Joseph Boardman, a nationally recognized transportation industry professional, to become president and chief executive officer of the company, effective November 26.

Boardman offers nearly 34 years of experience in the surface transportation industry at city, county, state, and federal government levels; most recently as the administrator at the Federal Railroad Administration.

"In an attempt to maintain the momentum at Amtrak, while finding a permanent CEO candidate, the board has appointed Mr. Boardman for one year, but will conduct a search in the coming months for a permanent CEO," said Board Chairman Donna McLean. She added that "Amtrak is at a critical juncture and needs a vigorous management vision and ability to take advantage of this unique time. The board has unanimously chosen Mr. Boardman in this capacity because we have complete confidence that his depth of experience and leadership skills will allow Amtrak to maintain growth and implement the requirements of the recently enacted authorization legislation."

"Joe Boardman knows the industry extremely well, but what makes him exceptionally qualified for the position is that he has the unique perspective of having known Amtrak as a customer and state partner, administrator, and has been involved with Amtrak, in one role or another, over the course of many years," said board Vice Chair Hunter Biden. "Joe is the right person to help Amtrak during this important period," he added.

Having served as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration since April 2005, Boardman was the Department of Transportation designee on the Amtrak board of directors. Prior to his tenure at FRA, he served as commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation beginning in July of 1997. There, Boardman led a transformation effort that better enabled the agency to respond to the challenges associated with an expanding global marketplace. In this capacity, Boardman was deeply involved in the operation of the large complement of Amtrak service in the state. In addition, he was chief operating officer of Progressive Transportation Service, Inc., a transportation management company. He was chairman of the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board in 2005 and chair of the American Association of the State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Standing Committee on Rail Transportation from 2000-2005.

"I am humbled that the board selected me to lead the company, on an interim basis, at this very exciting time. Over the past decade – in one capacity or another – I have been an active participant in the affairs of Amtrak. I have come to know the company, the culture, a number of employees, and I am keenly aware of the challenges facing us right now," said Boardman. "In my view, a national intercity, interconnected passenger rail service is critically important for the mobility and energy independence of the United States."

Joe Boardman fills the position following the departure of Alex Kummant earlier this month. Chief Operating Officer William Crosbie served as acting CEO in the interim. "The board is grateful to Bill Crosbie for his dedication to Amtrak and for managing the company during the transition," McLean added.

Boardman is a lifelong resident of New York, and is the second of eight children born and raised on a dairy farm in Oneida County, which two of his siblings currently operate. In 1966, he volunteered for service in the United States Air Force, serving in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. Upon receiving an honorable discharge from the Air Force, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Economics from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and a Master of Science in Management Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He presently resides with his wife Joanne in Washington, D.C., and has three grown children.

[End quote]

Many will recall Mr. Boardman’s outrage as commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation when Amtrak took New York’s money to upgrade and rehab the Turboliners, which were owned by the State of New York and promised for service between Albany and New York City, and then mothballed by Amtrak management because it claimed the Turboliners used too much fuel and carried too few passengers. The train sets were stored out of New York State, and Mr. Boardman let Amtrak know of his unhappiness of the whole mess. Now, he’s running the company. How much better can it get than this, that someone former Amtrak management scammed in recent history is now running the company?

It is important to make note of his statement, "In my view, a national intercity, interconnected passenger rail service is critically important for the mobility and energy independence of the United States." If this statement is interpreted correctly, he’s saying "national intercity" as in "all over the country," "interconnected" as in a "seamless system with decent connections and a smooth flow of traffic," and "mobility ... United States," which, again emphasizes the entire country, and not just relatively useless short, disconnected corridors.

The coming actions of Mr. Boardman hopefully will give us a better view of how the Amtrak Board or Directors believes Amtrak should fulfill its mission of providing a truly nationwide passenger rail service to cities and towns both large and small.

2) Some further information has become public, courtesy of Paul Weyrich, Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation in Washington, D.C., and former member of Amtrak’s Board of Directors. The following column appeared Monday, November 24th in newspapers around the country, and was released the next day (yesterday, Tuesday, November 25th) through the Free Congress Foundation’s daily commentary service.

Here is Mr. Weyrich’s information.

[begin quote]

Free Congress Foundation Commentary

The Possibility of a Better Future for Amtrak

By Paul M. Weyrich

November 25, 2008

The 111th Congress recently passed an authorization bill which provides more money for Amtrak than any bill passed in history. President George W. Bush signed the bill. For the first time Amtrak has been granted more money than required to keep the railroad operating. True it is that the appropriators will determine how much money Amtrak actually receives. But for the first time the President-elect has said he supports Amtrak. Moreover, the Vice President-elect rode Amtrak to and from Wilmington, Delaware every day Congress was in session from 1973 through 2008. He said, "I intend to see to it that Amtrak will become a first-class railroad." Amtrak has been carrying a record number of passengers on almost all its trains. Even with gas prices dropping Amtrak has continued to set new records. This is as close to Nirvana as it gets.

So why would Alex Kummant abruptly resign at this moment when an Amtrak President finally can accomplish something? The explanation given by Amtrak itself was inadequate and maybe disingenuous. He has been unavailable to comment. Amtrak officials zipped up like a third-grader’s snowsuit. We don’t know whom the Board has in mind to take Kummant’s place. Amtrak Presidents in the post-Graham Claytor era have not lasted long. With a new more sympathetic Congress, some stability would be appreciated.

After weeks of trying to learn what was going on, I finally determined that there apparently was a personality conflict between Kummant and the Board. It began back in Seattle at an off-site meeting when the Board believed that Kummant talked down to them. Matters continued to deteriorate all summer. It seems that Kummant thought the Board ought to set broad policy and should not be heard from again. Having served on that Board for six years I can tell you that the Board is very active. I was Chairman of the Strategic Marketing Committee. I was continually in touch with management people in my area. In fact, I was the first person on that Board to challenge some of the policies of Graham Claytor. The more the Board continued to intervene in management matters, the more Kummant resented it. Finally the Board made it clear that it regarded Kummant’s tenure as the equivalent of a bad marriage. In fact, Kummant and the Board engaged in a nasty exchange of e-mails. The Board set about trying to come up with a statement which would have given Kummant cover. The decision to let him go was made some time before he actually left. The story got out because Kummant’s packed boxes were seen. Also, a complex California trip which had been designed for Kummant was cancelled. Instead it was an extremely tense time at Amtrak. The Acting President is someone whom David Gunn had brought in. At age 44 he has had a long career in Canadian railroading and transit. He has dual Canadian and America citizenship. His tenure is thought to be short-lived. The Board apparently had been searching for a new CEO even while Kummant was still in charge.

So watch for an announcement, perhaps at the first of the year, of a new CEO who understands that the Board will be active in management issues. Whoever it is will come in at an unprecedented time for Amtrak. The railroad always has had strong support in Congress. This is the first time since President Richard M. Nixon signed the Amtrak Bill against the advice of his aides Haldeman and Ehrlichman that the railroad will have strong support from the Executive Branch. Perhaps this time the Board will come up with a CEO who will cultivate better relationships with Board Members. If there is such a person he or she probably will have a long tenure. If the new person could get along with Board Members life at 60 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, would be much better.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.

[End quote]

3) So, what is Mr. Boardman walking into? Let’s go to the blackboard.

Everyone has seen Amtrak’s constant happy talk about rising ridership and revenues. Yes, well, that’s all very nice if you believe in Santa Claus (If you do believe in Santa Claus, please stop reading, now.).

We will start with Amtrak’s annual report for fiscal year 2007. Keep in mind these are Amtrak figures. Waaaaay in the back of the annual report is a page of performance indicators. A table is shown, displaying figures from FY 98 to FY 07, a 10 year period. Take a look at some of the comparisons.

Federal operating grant (free federal monies) – FY 98, $202 million; FY 07, $485 million, an increase of 140%.

General capital funding – FY 98, $134 million; FY 07, $772 million, an increase of 476%

Operating ratio – FY 98, 1.50; FY 07, 1.48 (Operating ratio is total expenses to total revenue; a profit is only shown when the ratio is under 1.)

Current assets – FY 98, $868 million; FY 07, $605 million, a decrease of 30%

Current liabilities – FY 98, $621 million; FY 07, $960 million, an increase of 55%

Working capital ratio – FY 98, 1.40; FY 07, 0.63, a ratio less than 1 indicates negative working capital

Year-end cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments – FY 98, $275 million; FY 07, $234 million, a decrease of 15%

On time performance, systemwide – FY 98, 79%; FY 07, 69%, a decrease of 10 percentage points

Systemwide passenger miles – FY 98, 5,304 million; FY 07, 5,654 million, an increase of 7%

Systemwide seat miles – FY 98, 11,426 million; FY 07, 11,568 million, an increase of 1%

Systemwide load factor – FY 98, 46%; FY 07, 49%, an increase of 3 percentage points

Systemwide route miles – FY 98, 22,000; FY 07, 21,000, a decrease of 5%

Train miles – FY 98, 33 million; FY 07, 37 million, an increase of 12%

Passenger miles per train mile – FY 98, 160.7; FY 07, 151.4, a decrease of 6%

Ticket yield (ticket revenue per train mile) – FY 98, 17.8 cents; FY 07, 26.9 cents, an increase of 51%

Yield (Passenger related revenue per passenger mile) – FY 98, 18.9 cents; FY 07, 27.9 cents, an increase of 48%

Average length of trip, per passenger – FY 98, 251.4 miles; FY 07, 219.1 miles, a decrease of 13%

Total revenue per seat mile – FY 98, 14.9 cents; FY 07, 19.5 cents, an increase of 31%

Total expense per seat mile – FY 98, 23.1 cents; FY 07, 29.2 cents; an increase of 26%

Core revenue per seat mile – FY 98, 11.3 cents; FY 07, 16.4 cents, an increase of 45%

Core expense per seat mile – FY 98, 18.8 cents; FY 07, 26.1 cents, an increase of 39%

Systemwide ridership – FY 98, 21.1 million; FY 07, 25.8 million, an increase of 22%

Stations served by Amtrak – FY 98, 508, FY 07, 497, a decrease of 2%

Let’s summarize.

Increases:

• Federal operating grant – 140%

• General capital funding – 476%

• Operating ratio (declined, which is a positive increase)

• Current liabilities – 55%

• Systemwide passenger miles – 7%

• Systemwide seat miles – 1%

• Systemwide load factor – 3 percentage points

• Train miles – 12%

• Ticket yield – 51%

• Yield – 48%

• Total revenue per seat mile – 31%

• Total expense per seat mile – 26%

• Core revenue per seat mile – 45%

• Core expense per seat mile – 39%

• Systemwide ridership – 22%

Decreases:

• Current assets – 30%

• Working capital ratio from positive to negative

• Year-end cash – 15%

• On-time performance by 10 percentage points

• Systemwide route miles – 5%

• Passenger miles per train mile – 6%

• Average length of trip, per passenger – 13%

• Stations served by Amtrak – 2%

More reporting areas increased than decreased. But, it’s the critical areas which decreased which make such a difference:

– Amtrak has a negative working capital ratio, meaning it’s always starved for ready cash

– Current assets are down, giving the company less to work with for growth potential

– On-time performance went from bad to abysmal, and puts the company in a bad light with its passengers

– Systemwide route miles declined, shrinking the system and providing less opportunities for growth

– Passenger miles per train mile declined, meaning fewer passenger were on a train at any one time a train was moving one mile

– The average length of trip sharply declined, and when combined with fewer passenger miles per train mile means Amtrak’s actual transportation output declined (further rendering the ridership figures even more meaningless)

– The number of stations Amtrak serves declined, meaning Amtrak has the potential to reach fewer and fewer Americans.

Some of the areas which increased bring negative results, too.

– A larger federal operating grant means Amtrak was unable to run its own trains with its own resources by a greater deficit.

– A larger general capital funding grant means more things had to be fixed or upgraded, and the physical plant is deteriorating.

– Current liabilities soared, meaning more money is owed, creating more interest expense.

– Total expense per seat mile almost kept pace with total revenue per seat mile, negating gains.

– Core expense per seat mile almost kept pace with core revenue per seat mile, negating gains.

Overall, this is a dismal picture. Amtrak is standing on the steps of the coliseum playing its fiddle while Rome is burning all around it. Amtrak’s foolish and desperate public relations fog it has created to mask its true performance in the end will only hurt the company and the efforts of any honest president and CEO to turn the company around with real financial performance so when it is time to figure costs and benefits of new equipment, new routes, and new trains, the figures will be so skewed no one can make sense of them.

Hopefully, Mr. Boardman, working in harmony with the Amtrak Board of Directors, will cease all of this public relations silliness and start concentrating on the real work of improving Amtrak financially, so the rest of the company can naturally grow.

Here’s a final example. Amtrak says it had a 49% systemwide load factor for FY 07. That’s about 16% lower than it should be for a common carrier to even begin to break even. Amtrak says for the same period of time it took a federal operating grant of $485 million to run every train in the system beyond the revenues generated by the trains.

Okay, if Amtrak is running a 49% load factor, that means the load factor can be increased to 65% without any additional costs of equipment, personnel, stations, or other most major cost factors. We will be talking about very minor increases in items to take care of a larger group of people, and very small incremental costs of the reservations system. But, no increases in extra cars or locomotives or onboard employees because all of these things are in place to serve the current 49% load factor.

So, we spend an extra $25 million in marketing to attract an additional 16% load factor on current trains on current routes on current schedules. Suddenly, we’re up to a 65% load factor. What revenue did we gain by spending that $25 million? Based on current Amtrak figures, an addition 16 percentage points of load factor generates an additional $277 million dollars, with no increases in operating expenses. That $277 million, less the $25 million for increased marketing, leaves $252 million to reduce the federal operating grant need to $233 million systemwide. Using this same logic by adding additional coaches and sleepers to existing trains and/or adding new frequencies on existing routes which will not add any infrastructure costs such as stations costs, and, suddenly, Amtrak’s need for federal operating grants (free federal monies) quickly and easily disappears. That leaves only capital needs which can be dealt with much easier without operating grants, and silly numbers like the Sunset Limited losing over $400 per passenger. With only capital needs for the NEC and a few other isolated spots, there are no losses per passenger.

No matter how much whining there is from those who falsely believe government has to run a passenger railroad because someone says it has to lose money, it’s tough to argue with cold, hard, facts. From a purely operating standpoint, Amtrak is not that far away from running a company which needs operating grants.

We will leave it to other issues of TWA to delve into Amtrak’s unholy accounting, and how many accounting items are mis-categorized and mis-labeled. It’s entire possible that today the long distance system, consisting of the Empire Builder, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited, Coast Starlight, City of New Orleans, Lake Shore Limited, Crescent, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and Auto Train already operate without the need for operating subsidies if everything in Amtrak accounting was properly labeled an allocated.

4) We welcome Mr. Boardman as a learned caretaker of Amtrak’s presidency. We welcome the Amtrak Board of Directors making such a decision in the best interests of the company while the political landscape calms down from the presidential election and change of power in Washington. Even though such an interim appointment in the past brought us the late George Warrington and the accompanying disasters (many of which are reflected still today in the numbers above) when he was permanently awarded the top job, we can’t help but hope for a better Amtrak and a better future under a permanent, new president in the next year.

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[AlanB]

Okay, if Amtrak is running a 49% load factor, that means the load factor can be increased to 65% without any additional costs of equipment, personnel, stations, or other most major cost factors. We will be talking about very minor increases in items to take care of a larger group of people, and very small incremental costs of the reservations system. But, no increases in extra cars or locomotives or onboard employees because all of these things are in place to serve the current 49% load factor.
So, we spend an extra $25 million in marketing to attract an additional 16% load factor on current trains on current routes on current schedules. Suddenly, we’re up to a 65% load factor. What revenue did we gain by spending that $25 million? Based on current Amtrak figures, an addition 16 percentage points of load factor generates an additional $277 million dollars, with no increases in operating expenses. That $277 million, less the $25 million for increased marketing, leaves $252 million to reduce the federal operating grant need to $233 million systemwide. Using this same logic by adding additional coaches and sleepers to existing trains and/or adding new frequencies on existing routes which will not add any infrastructure costs such as stations costs, and, suddenly, Amtrak’s need for federal operating grants (free federal monies) quickly and easily disappears. That leaves only capital needs which can be dealt with much easier without operating grants, and silly numbers like the Sunset Limited losing over $400 per passenger. With only capital needs for the NEC and a few other isolated spots, there are no losses per passenger.

Bruce couldn't be more wrong about this statement. In terms of corridor trains he's probably right, there is no increase in personnel. But when it comes to the LD's, such in increase in ridership I believe would see Amtrak adding personnel to the dining car staff, which would in turn increase operating costs. I'm not suggesting that all the extra monies that he's dreaming about would go away, but the bottom line is that operating expenses will indeed increase and cut into those numbers.

 

[user 1215]

There are about 14 long distance trains that operate diners. Of those, let's average four trainsets per route. That's 56 diners that are on the long distance corridors. An additional staff member for each would be around 56*$100,000, or $5.6 per year. That's still a small chunk of the $244 Mil in revenue if any of what Bruce envisions materializes.

 

[AlanB]

There are about 14 long distance trains that operate diners. Of those, let's average four trainsets per route. That's 56 diners that are on the long distance corridors. An additional staff member for each would be around 56*$100,000, or $5.6 per year. That's still a small chunk of the $244 Mil in revenue if any of what Bruce envisions materializes.

I didn't say that it was a huge expense, just that Bruce was wrong when he said that there is NO increase in operating expenses, and NO increase in personel.

 

[haolerider]

There are about 14 long distance trains that operate diners. Of those, let's average four trainsets per route. That's 56 diners that are on the long distance corridors. An additional staff member for each would be around 56*$100,000, or $5.6 per year. That's still a small chunk of the $244 Mil in revenue if any of what Bruce envisions materializes.

I didn't say that it was a huge expense, just that Bruce was wrong when he said that there is NO increase in operating expenses, and NO increase in personel.

Alan: You are very correct. Not only would there be a potential additional person in the dining car (and perhaps another in the galley), there would also be an additional coach attendant if there are enough additional coach passengers and there would be the associated costs for additional food, linens, and other supplies that vary with the counts. Bruce tends to simplfy details when it is to his advantage and magnify them when it is not!

 

[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; December 19, 2008

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

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

Volume 5, Number 32

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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 would our fathers say? Those of us just slightly beyond middle age remember a pre-Amtrak America, when railroads were run by professional railroaders – even the passenger services. The trains our fathers ran were run with a purpose, to either make money for the railroad, or lose as little money as possible for the railroad which had to run trains as mandated by government regulation.

Towards the end of the private passenger train throughout the 1960s, especially at the end of The Pullman Company days, things became a bit dicey, to say the least. But, the passenger rail industry was still in many instances operated as if passengers mattered. The Santa Fe Super Chief was never anything less than super, even the day before Amtrak Day on May 1, 1971. Seaboard’s Silver Meteor never lost its shine and luster. Union Pacific’s City of Los Angeles kept its dome diner through the end, and even though Arlo Guthrie sang of 15 cars and 15 restless riders on the Illinois Central’s City of New Orleans, the train still provided a good ride.

Even though many railroaders knew (And, some, feverishly hoped.) the end of private passenger service was coming, they refused to lower their standards. After all, those trains still carrying all of those still millions of passengers a year still had the company’s name on the side for all of the world to see.

And, then came Amtrak, the precursor to today’s nationalization of Wall Street, the banking industry, and the automobile manufacturing industry. Yes, those same fine folks who brought you the Post Office Department and then the USPS now brought you passenger rail service in 1971.

In the beginning, it was pretty-much okay, because a lot of the professional railroaders – who thought of themselves as professional railroaders and not employees of a company which depends on annual handouts of free federal monies – kept on doing what they thought they were supposed to do, which is run trains for the benefit of passengers and the company’s bottom line.

Along the way, our fathers retired or passed away, and took with them the last vestiges of professional passenger railroading. Gone now are what used to be necessities, like equipment held in readiness to handle surge demands or replace unexpectedly bad ordered cars and locomotives. Gone are the extra boards for employees, who were always available to man trains anytime an employee assigned to a regular run wasn’t available for work that day. Gone is the pride in the company, and the pride in the company’s name and reputation.

If you were a Seaboarder, you looked with scorn – or at least great skepticism – at a Coast Liner. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad were great rivals, fighting for every freight and passenger dollar, but ended up allies when the two companies merged to form what would later become today’s CSX, one of just a series of landscape altering mergers of the 1960s and 70s.

On the Seaboard’s Silver Meteor, every day at 3 P.M. complimentary fresh orange juice was served in the dining car. In addition to a Seaboard conductor and brakeman, the train carried a Pullman conductor, a Passenger Services Agent for coach passengers, and an onboard nurse in a smart blue uniform similar to that of an airline stewardess. (The nurses were allowed during the day to sit alone in Pullman rooms or roomettes instead of staying in the crew car, but were not allowed to close the door.) On the Coast Line’s famous winter train, the Florida Special, you were treated to a swim-suit fashion show in the Pullman lounge car, displaying the scandalous new bikinis being worn on fashionable Miami Beach, the train’s destination.

There were dome cars aplenty, Pullman lounges of many descriptions, coach lounges, café cars, grill cars, dining cars of both the railroad and Pullman variety, and all sorts of different types of sleeping car space, ranging from upper and lower berths to duplex roomettes to compartments, bedrooms, bedroom suites, and drawing rooms.

For non-Pullman passengers, there were a number of different designs of coaches, plus parlour car seats. Long distance coach seats were truly designed for sleeping, a far cry from today’s back-pain inducing Amtrak seats. Even more importantly, there was a coach attendant for every coach.

Most of this is gone, now. Those who falsely believe passenger train transportation should be treated as a government service (With associated levels of competence often thought of when dealing with government entities.) – and only a government service – are at the moment winning the day. Amtrak is about as bare-bones as you can get.

The whiners who believe only government can solve problems (At your expense, and mine, and, they also believe they know better than anyone else. If you don’t believe that, just ask them.) have no faith in capitalism (Except where it comes to their own companies.) and no faith in entrepreneurship. These single-minded people are content to settle for a middling status quo, almost content to eat every meal at Denny’s, except when it can be put on an expense account, then the best steakhouse in town is the order of the day.

These are not the people Amtrak needs today as friends, nor as employees or managers. What Amtrak needs are dreamers and visionaries, firmly grounded in the rigors and problem-solving tenants of capitalism.

Today’s so-called friends of Amtrak look at any train and think it’s wonderful. They don’t discriminate between trains which are financially viable, and trains which are a drain on the company. All they see are trains, and passengers riding the trains.

We need to stop here for a moment and talk about New York’s Staten Island ferry, a wonderful piece of government-owned transit which hauls millions of passengers a year. These marvelous ships ply their course hour in and hour out between lower Manhattan Island and Staten Island. At one time these ferries were privately owned, but eventually became part of government. Those of us of a certain age remember riding the ferries for a nickel, and then being aghast when the fare went all the way up to a quarter. For 25 cents you got the best view of New York City available, a brisk wind at your face, and a great ride.

One day, someone in government had an epiphany. They did some honest accounting (Often a rarity in New York government.), and discovered it was costing more to collect the 25 cent fare to ride the Staten Island ferry than it was producing in revenue.

Wisely, New York government made a decision to make the ferry ride free, eliminating the cost of collecting the fare, and everyone has lived happily ever after.

While this tiny microcosm of government sanity works in one place in a transit situation, it doesn’t mean it will work elsewhere.

We’ve said it before in the space, and we will say it again. Passenger rail has the potential to be nearly, or completely self-supporting with the right business model. It’s a business model which includes revenue-rich long distance trains which the public gladly patronizes, and short distance feeder trains which can be subsidized by successful long distance trains. All of this is beyond Amtrak’s current business model, or business models of those who advocate high-speed trains without a good feeder system.

Look at the recent anguish in the news media in Vermont about the annual funding for Amtrak state service. The usual gnashing of teeth occurred, and the media was full of horror stories and the usual claptrap about how the Republic would fall if the service was defunded. In the end Vermont lawmakers came up with the money, but this proved yet again when you depend on public financing for something that has a potential to be self-supporting, how much unnecessary public anguish occurs. You can take it to the bank those Vermont stories did more to keep riders away from Vermont Amtrak trains for fear or perception they were going away than new riders were attracted by the media attention.

2) Those who truly don’t understand or appreciate capitalism quickly try and shout down those with a vision and who deal in reality instead of government largesse. Non-capitalists worry endlessly capitalism may actually work, and better solutions may be found outside of the moldy corridors of large government. Even worse, non-capitalists are often proved wrong when pesky true facts get in the way of their dreams of government domination in all facets of our society.

For the moment, even though Amtrak recorded record drops in ridership last month, Amtrak has an almost unprecedented opportunity to waddle up to the government trough and take huge slurps of federal monies in the now-hallowed name of economic stimulus.

The question is, during this unique opportunity, is Amtrak ready for success? Does Amtrak have a viable business plan and the ability to spend zillions of dollars of economic stimulus money? Even more basic, does Amtrak understand how this perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for lots of money for new rolling stock, infrastructure enhancements to shorten schedules, new technology systems, and almost anything else anyone can think of can best be used to create a dynamic company which can move closer and closer to self-sufficiency?

3) Amtrak Interim President and CEO Joe Boardman has provided us some glimpses of his vision for Amtrak over the next year. It appears he supports long distance trains, which is excellent, but in the few media interviews available, has demonstrated a tremendous lack of non-focus on Amtrak’s core business. He’s expressed delight at the concept of electrifying rail lines from Maine to Miami, while worrying about carbon footprints. This is not the type of visionary thinking Amtrak needs right now. The visionary thinking Amtrak needs is to take what it has, and make it better, more useful, more passenger friendly, and more financially viable. Things like electrification need to be the purview of the Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, not Amtrak.

Another major distraction came in the past few days when Amtrak announced it was competing for federal funds to build an entirely new and passenger-only Northeast Corridor at a cost of somewhere between $30 and $40 billion. This is lunacy. Again, Amtrak needs to worry about its present system, and leave this type of infrastructure investment up to someone or something that has proven to be far more adept than Amtrak at managing infrastructure. A look at Amtrak’s stewardship of the current NEC quickly demonstrates Amtrak’s wholly inadequate management of the resource.

4) Everyone can hope the incoming Obama administration will be more adept than the previous post-World War II administrations at framing surface transportation policy. Since the current policy of every preceding administration is to build highways and airports, and then expand those same resources, it will be interesting to see what becomes of rail and water transportation. While an Obama administration is not likely to try and buck any maritime unions (Which will continue to guarantee most ships are manned by foreign crews; heaven help us in time of war.), we can hope for a new day of looking at rail and water transportation as more important parts of our domestic transportation network than they are today.

If, by some sort of minor or medium-sized miracle, anyone should ever take a look at a broad picture, and start coordinating planning and construction of a combination of transit, regional rail and long distance passenger rail systems, taking into account all future uses and inter-connectivity and the needs of freight haulers, then perhaps a sane transportation policy may emerge. In the meantime, if too many states continue to act independently, likely there will be an unmanageable hodgepodge of plans that begin and end nowhere.

At look at the coordination between Amtrak and Tri-Rail in South Florida shows how two systems can mesh successfully. Former Seaboard stations became poorly maintained Amtrak stations, but those stations are now spiffy Tri-Rail stations housing Amtrak facilities. Parking is greatly improved, amenities abound, and a double-tracking of the old Seaboard main line has helped tremendously with dispatching and on time performance. Everybody here is the winner, especially passengers. Once dingy facilities with marginal platforms have become showplaces for modern and efficient facilities and infrastructure. Everything works smoothly because there is coordination and planning, and, even more importantly, local leadership working for the common good of a regional plan.

This concept applied all over the country is a recipe for success.

As of this writing, it appears retiring congressman Ray LaHood of Illinois is slated to be the next federal Secretary of Transportation. Other than his ongoing support for union positions and overall support for Amtrak, not much is known about the man who will oversee what may be the largest transportation infrastructure building program in the history of our country. We do know as a Republican he works well with Democrats (Obviously, since he’s going to serve in a Democratic administration.), but he doesn’t have a lot of personal management experience; he mostly is a creature of government service, even before he was elected to Congress.

We can hope he will listen to various proposals and have an open mind to creating a true surface transportation policy beyond building and rebuilding highways.

5) The one man in America uniquely and unquestionably qualified to determine surface transportation policy is former FRA Administrator Gil Carmichael. He was kind enough to share his recent speech in New York City with us. Read and learn.

[begin quote]

RAILROAD BASED "INTERSTATE II"

Paper Prepared and Delivered By

GILBERT E. CARMICHAEL

Founding Chairman, Intermodal Transportation Institute

University of Denver

www.du.edu/transportation

United States Federal Railroad Administrator, 1989-1993

15th WORLD CONGRESS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

New York, New York

November 17, 2008

Any realistic discussion of the future of global transportation in this century – and of the role of railroads within that system – requires an understanding of the dramatic changes that have occurred in freight transportation during the past 25 years. A revolution has taken place. The general public is unaware of it. Far too many transportation professionals fail to understand its scope and significance. Since 1980 a global intermodal freight network has evolved. Today "Intermodal" is the world-wide standard for moving freight.

This global movement of freight is sharply focused on speed, safety, reliable scheduling, and economic efficiency. It builds on the strengths of each mode – ship, rail, and truck – who have become partners in offering service. It makes use of the versatility of the cargo container. Cargo ships and airplanes span the oceans. The freight railroad is the high-speed, long distance, lowest cost, transportation artery on land. The truck provides local feeder service at origins and destinations. Cargo airplanes deliver high-value, specialized freight. Overall, the operational and economic efficiency of freight’s intermodal network dramatically conserves fuel, reduces other environmental impacts, and is significantly safer! It represents the most economically, fuel efficient, and environmentally sustainable approach to transportation.

Railroads are essential to this system – and vital to its future growth. Today, a doublestack container train leaving a port in the U.S. West Coast can replace 280 trucks, run at speeds up to 90 miles an hour, and afford as much as nine times the fuel efficiency of container transport by highway. In North America the rail mode offers another important advantage. A majority of existing railroad rights-of-way have excess capacity. Furthermore, the rail network was created with rights-of-way of sufficient width to accommodate additional tracks and much more untapped capacity. It is reasonable to foresee doubling or even tripling the capacity of the existing route structure without having to acquire additional land. These existing routes connect all of our cities and ports.

As we ponder other future opportunities, the question of energy supply and cost cannot be ignored. Petroleum was established as transportation’s fuel of choice for two reasons. Historically, it has been available at relatively low cost. Equally important — or perhaps more so — petroleum provides a portable source of motive power. Today, we worry about both the cost and future availability of petroleum fuels. Somewhere out in this century we know that the supply will start to fall dramatically. Building more highways is definitely not the solution.

What are the options, if any? If fuel-cell technology eventually delivers a reliable power source at reasonable cost, it likely is the most desirable outcome, and could be adopted by both the railroad and highway modes. We know that trains, trucks, buses, and automobiles can run on natural gas. But that too is a finite fuel, and in the United States virtually all of our electric power generation capacity installed within the past 20 years has been gas-fired. A third option, with the most promising future supply, is electricity. In the foreseeable future, the railroad mode is the only candidate for large-scale benefits from electrification among the commercial transportation modes. Electrifying the North American rail system would make sense in a future of oil scarcity. It is not something to be rushed into right away, because the current infrastructure technology to deliver it to the locomotive is expensive to install and to maintain. The major sticking point, in my view, is the source of fuel for the electricity. It would be foolish to install an electrified delivery system for power generated from natural gas, for example, because the gas could be delivered directly to the locomotive. But a rail system run on power from nuclear, solar, windfarms, tides, and the like could in 20 or 30 years time have very strong appeal and possibilities. (There’s no telling what Jet A for airplanes will cost in the last half of this century!)

A final point about intermodal transportation and the energy situation is in order. The intermodal concept was designed at a time when oil prices were near 40 dollars a barrel. Prices dropped sharply in the mid-1980s, but rail intermodal expanded anyway. The recent whipsawing of oil prices has people wondering about capital investment. Intermodal freight movement makes sense irrespective of fuel prices. It is the energy-efficient service provider. If prices drop the container will still represent the lowest-cost option. If energy cost again double, intermodal simply will gain more market share. Intermodal systems have become a whole new transportation science.

Our success in freight intermodal transportation points the way to what I believe is the most promising strategy for North American transportation improvements, for freight and passenger, in the coming years. I call that strategy "Interstate II". In the last century we built 43,000 miles of grade-separated four-lane highways – the U.S. Interstate I. On the other hand, Interstate II is a vision of truly high-speed intercity/port travel that is based upon steel wheel on a steel rail, not pavement. It partners the superior safety and efficiency of rail transportation with the strengths of the intermodal system. Interstate II can be built on rights-of-way that already exist because there is ample room. I believe that we must build or upgrade about 30,000 miles of double and triple track corridors capable of running freight trains at speeds in excess of 90 miles an hour. That network would be augmented by as much as another 10,000 miles of high-quality conventional routings. This network would be the basis of Interstate II, a high-efficiency network of steel stretching from coast to coast and from Mexico City to Montreal. With GPS and the new PTC technology we should be able to very safely include passenger trains at speed up to 125 MPH. Such trains can be competitive in city pairs up to 500 miles.

As we consider the future there are opportunities for the application of Intelligent Transportation Systems in enhancing operational performance, optimizing utilization of facilities, cargo security, and promoting seamless freight and passenger transfers at intermodal terminals. The intermodal system requires efficient terminals. There have been significant improvements, but inefficiencies and bottlenecks remain. ITS also has an important role in the overall issue of transportation safety. As I said earlier, I believe that we now have the technological capability to maintain extremely safe conditions in railroad operations. That is less true in highway and terminal operations. A safety problem in one mode affects the overall performances of all modes in the intermodal system.

Globally, the intermodal revolution and its current operations have owed a great deal to the private sector. The North American intermodal system of ships, ports, trains, and trucks created by the private sector and designed to be responsive to the needs of freight customers. Most of the capital investments in equipment and terminals have private-sector origins. Some industry experts argue — and I agree with them — that intermodal has succeeded because it was a private-sector, customer-driven initiative. There is a role for government. I think it will be difficult in the United States to meet future capital needs for Interstate II without some form of federal, state, and private-sector participation. Proposals such as a 25% investment tax credits for railroad capital investment seem to me to be the right way to go because they limit the potential intrusiveness of public officials who are generally ignorant of transportation issues and realities, and whose agendas may differ from the purposes for which the intermodal system exists. I believe that a 25% tax credit will double the class I railroads annual infrastructure spending and dramatically reduce the congestion, stress, and cost to our highways.

I believe that we must be very cautious in defining the future role of governments as participants in this process. In particular, there is talk in the Unites States of reimposing the type of governmental economic regulation that existed prior to 1980. Only after that deregulation occurred did the freight railroad industry in the United States flourish after what had been 80 years of economic decline. Had that regulation remained in place I seriously doubt that the United States would now be part of the global intermodal revolution. The mere threat of re-regulation already is causing the financial community and railroad shareholders to question whether the freight railroad managements should continue to invest capital – because the return on that investment will be jeopardized by economic re-regulation.

Let me close with this. We now know that autos, trucks, and airplanes can not solve the world’s current transportation needs. Our new Congress and President plan to introduce infrastructure work programs to put people to work and restart the country. We have built all the highway systems we need. The focus should be maintaining the existing highways as well as reviving the private sector bus industry. Buses offer the most flexible solution for low density and connector routes. New national transportation programs must concentrate on partnerships with the private sector railroads to build Interstate II in the next 15-20 years. Investing $100-200 billion will create huge numbers of jobs, stimulate economic growth and provide a beautiful 21st century high speed intermodal freight and passenger system.

[End quote]

6) A sad note in today’s communique. Yesterday, the world lost former Amtrak board member Paul Weyrich at the too young age of 66. Mr. Weyrich had many accomplishments in life and was an ardent conservative supporter of transit and passenger rail. Perhaps what can best be said about him was he was a gentleman with a passion for knowledge and generously sharing that knowledge with others. He was a friend of United Rail Passenger Alliance and many other individuals and organizations.

Russ Jackson, one of the original associates of URPA these many decades, frequent correspondent to TWA, distinguished retired editor of Western Rail Passenger Review, and current editor of RailPAC’s web site wrote this tribute to Paul Weyrich.

[begin quote]

PAUL WEYRICH and Rail

Reported by Russ Jackson

Paul Weyrich, who passed away on December 17, 2008, was a Conservative. No doubt about it, and he led his group, Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, into commentaries about many subjects of interest to conservatives in this country. What set him apart as far as rail advocates are concerned was his devotion to improving rail transportation and its associated infrastructure. He served on the Amtrak Board of Directors, and was a member of the Amtrak Reform Council in the 1990's. He was a RailPAC Patron member for many years, and advocated improvements to not only Amtrak but also light rail projects throughout the United States. He and RailPAC Associate Director Ken Ruben exchanged many e-mails on rail advocacy. Yes, Mr. Weyrich was a "railfan," but like many of us also a "rail advocate."

In the July, 1996, issue of the Rail Passenger Review, of which I was then the Editor, the following article was published on p.5. Many rail advocates/supporters were surprised to learn about Mr. Weyrich:

The article as printed: "Conservatives and Mass Transit: Is It Time for a New Look?" is the name of a new study prepared for the American Public Transit Association by the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, written by William S. Lind and former Amtrak Board member Paul M. Weyrich. RailPAC member Bob Stevens in Helena, Montana, forwarded a copy for RailPAC to review, and we agree with Bob that "it may help diffuse some of the right wing animosity toward transit." The study begins by saying, "Traditionally, mass transit has not been of much interest to conservatives. Their disinterest stems from three perceptions: 1) mass transit is a government creation that would quickly cease to exist in a free market; 2) no conservative constituencies use mass transit; and 3) mass transit does not serve any important conservative goals." They go on to point out that each of those perceptions has some truth, but are open to question on conservative grounds. "The dominance of the automobile is not a free-market outcome, but the result of massive government intervention on behalf of the automobile. That intervention came at the expense of privately owned, privately funded, tax paying public transit systems." They say that conservative constituencies are turning to mass transit; "that usually means rail transit or bus on high speed busways," and mass transit can "serve some important conservative goals, including economic development, moving people off welfare and into productive employment, and strengthening feelings of community." But, it must be quality mass transit. Mr. Weyrich and Mr. Lind call for an informed dialogue between conservatives and transit authorities and advocates as, "Together they may find ways to provide better transit service that is also more efficient."

Paul Wilson wrote, Weyrich was, "A thoughtful voice on the right on may diverse matters, and among those were Amtrak and transit policy." In his final daily news column published December 18, Mr. Weyrich said, "It is the worst of times because the Bush administration has turned down 70 some cities which want light rail or streetcars. It is the best of times because Amtrak has set records in number of passengers carried. It is the worst of times because the airlines carry more people on one day than Amtrak does in a year."

The pro-transit movement will miss Mr. Weyrich, as he brought into advocacy many who would otherwise have opposed it.

[End quote]

For all of us who had our lives touched by Paul Weyrich, we extend our sympathy and sorrow to his surviving wife, children, and grandchildren.

7) As an end note to the first item in this issue, yes, my father was – and always will be – a railroader. At 87 today, he retired 25 years ago from CSX. He started as a young man before WW II in his native Norfolk, Virginia with the original Norfolk Southern Railroad, a small road in southeast Virginia and North Carolina, where his brother was an engineer. My father was a clerk, and, when an opportunity presented itself, he moved over to The Pullman Company in Norfolk, where he also had clerical duties. Two 60 year old photos of a 26 year old version of my father in Pullman offices in Norfolk’s union station hang on my office wall. He held a combo job there, both as a financial clerk, accounting for fares collected by Pullman conductors and dining car revenues, and was also a train inspector.

When an outbound train was backed into the station from the yards, he went onboard and inspected the Pullman cars for cleanliness and made sure everything was in good working order. During the 1960s, in the last years of The Pullman Company, and now with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad as a headquarters manager, he would still "inspect" the various Pullman cars we would travel in around the country, and not be pleased with what he found, especially when departing Penn Station in New York City. Sunnyside yards were never up to his standards for car cleaning and repairs.

My parents took advantage of railroad employee passes, including when they were married in January of 1945. After a ferry ride across Chesapeake Bay from Norfolk to Virginia’s Eastern Shore, they spent their wedding night in a Pullman compartment between the Eastern Shore and New York City, on their way to a traditional honeymoon in Niagara Falls. The story they still tell today is "helpful and friendly" Pullman employees, all buddies of my father, knocked on their compartment door every 30 minutes throughout the night to make sure the happy couple didn’t need anything.

Fortunately for my brother and I, my parents loved to ride the train. By the time either of us reached the age of 21, we had logged over 100,000 miles on America’s premier trains, all in Pullman space. Trains included the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Silver Comet, North Coast Limited, Western Star, 20th Century Limited, Capitol Limited, Golden State, City of Los Angeles, and many, many others. My parents and I were on the last Seaboard Coast Line Silver Meteor out of Penn Station in New York on April 30, 1971, and awoke on the first Amtrak Silver Meteor arriving home in Florida on May 1, 1971. Somewhere in North Carolina at the stroke of midnight, suddenly, Amtrak arrived for us. Prior to that, those early, pre-Amtrak days provided a view of America not readily available today.

So, speaking of our fathers’ passenger railroads is personal. The work ethic of that generation (My father worked full time and overtime at The Pullman Company all during World War II, and still found time to spend several shifts a week working at Langley Field’s coastal defense command in Norfolk as a volunteer since he wasn’t able to serve in the military.) is legendary, and their personal standards were often superb. They were the generation that learned from the Great Depression, and vowed to never have to live through those conditions, again. Their goal was a better world and a better place for their children to live and prosper.

We need to make sure we never let this generation down by being satisfied and comforted by a shoddy product such as is offered today by Amtrak. We can – and must – do better.

Merry Christmas! and Happy New Year! to all, and Happy Holidays! where necessary.

Thanks for subscribing to and reading TWA in 2008. We look forward to 2009.

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

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Telephone 904-636-7739

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[MrFSS]

This Week at Amtrak; January 5, 2009

​

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

​

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

​

America's foremost passenger rail policy institute

​

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

​

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail [email protected] •

http://www.unitedrail.org​

Volume 6, Number 1

​

Founded over three decades ago in 1976, 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, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. 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 the sixth year of This Week at Amtrak. Thanks for being a TWA reader, and thanks to all who took the time and kindness last year to write with thoughts, suggestions, other opinions, and questions.

From the beginning, TWA has worked hard to be a different voice about the business of passenger rail in North America. For too long, true debate about passenger rail has been shouted down by those who have blindly followed the Amtrak path as gospel, and who haven't bothered to think outside of the proverbial box to create a new and better world of passenger rail centered on success rather than the constant false propping up of failure. Detractors of TWA seem to be terrified someone in a position to do something act on the suggestions made here.

TWA is not for the faint of heart, and has never intended to be another cheerleader for the failures of Amtrak. TWA is a mix of news, facts, proposals and opinions not found elsewhere based on common sense, solid principles of self-reliance, a knowledge of railroading, and a belief entrepreneurs and capitalism are always a better alternative than government, and, when government intervention or financing may be necessary, the less the better.

Many, over these past six years have taken exception to those beliefs as espoused through TWA. That's fine, because then honest debate can occur. During the past decade we have seen Amtrak and passenger rail move from a partisan-Democrat issue to a non-partisan issue where people of all political beliefs have come to better understand the many advantages of a truly diverse domestic transportation network which encompasses more than air and automobile travel.

We have also, through a series of events and the unfortunate dying off of The Greatest Generation, seen a renewed interest in passenger rail by those who never witnessed the last two decades of private passenger rail travel and the ignoble replacement of the passenger train by the Boeing 707 as the preferred choice of the long distance traveler.

We have also witnessed a long-standing debate about modal envy, with passenger rail fans constantly whining about the unfairness of massive government subsidies to airlines in the form of government-owned airports and the air traffic control system and government-built and maintained highways for busses and automobiles.

This silly argument has fed fuel to the fire that passenger rail MUST be government subsidized, and has swept honest debate away from how passenger rail – which once was subsidy free, but had large Post Office and REA Express contracts – can again be subsidy free, even without the Post Office and REA Express. Too many people have blindly accepted arguments without truly thinking about the big picture, and have been more than willing to happily spend someone else's money in the form of government subsidies instead of doing real work and being as close to as possible – or completely – self-sustaining.

Just because something exists – especially if it is the only "something" existing – doesn't mean it is right or should be supported at all costs, with no quarter given to other options.

The passenger rail business in North America was once the envy of the world; companies like Canadian Pacific boasted of the world's greatest transportation system, consisting of CP's excellent passenger rail system, CP ships, which had a grand tradition of bringing immigrants to Canada, and later serving as a top notch passenger line, and, CP airlines, one of Canada's pioneer airlines, whose pilots played a pivotal role in World War II ferrying American-made bombers to Europe.

In the Lower 48, once mighty giants like the New York Central, Pennsylvania, Northern Pacific, Santa Fe, and other roads boasted of passenger trains that have lived on in history and are still a standard to be measured against for future passenger trains.

And, then, there is Amtrak. Created in financial crisis as a public solution to a private industry problem caused in large part by over regulation by the federal government, Amtrak has never fully found its way in the world. Constantly enabled by sycophants who cause more problems than they solve, Amtrak has been allowed to skate by decade after decade with little direction and little oversight of its constantly failing business plans. When an administration finally did stand up to Amtrak and demanded it do better, the sycophants instantly branded those simply asking questions and demanding sound business decisions as traitors and unworthies. How dare they demand success? How dare they turn over rocks exposing beds of worms and snakes? Why, no other passenger railroad in the world is profitable! Why should Amtrak be?

Why, indeed?

Simply, because it can.

If the rest of the world wants to be like lemmings and jump off of the cliff, why should Amtrak follow? Why shouldn't Amtrak work as diligently as possible to be a subsidy-free as possible? New York State's ONLY state subsidized train, the Adirondack, is currently the focus of yet another news media campaign, declaring it "endangered" because the New York Department of Transportation may not have enough money to subsidize it for another year in tight budget times.

How many times have we heard this sad story? How many thousands of potential passengers are discouraged from taking the train because they believe it is going away? How many New Yorkers will only hear "Amtrak" and not "The Adirondack," and think all Amtrak service is going away? If there were ways found to turn this route into a more self-sufficient route, these type of unhelpful media stories would simply disappear.

Some believe any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell the name right. Speaking from a professional marketing standpoint: hogwash. For all of the negative publicity caused by these annual subsidy soap operas, it takes millions of dollars in savvy marketing to put a positive, call-to-action message in front of the public to overcome the negative media stories.

So, here we go starting another year of This Week at Amtrak. We hope to provide you with a lively account of important events and proposals for passenger rail in 2009. Let's begin with two contributions from Andrew Selden, URPA's vice president of law and policy.

2) [begin quote]

Numbers

by Andrew C. Selden

As we enter a new year, Amtrak is already a third of the way through its 2009 fiscal year, which began October 1, 2008. It is useful to look forward to where Amtrak thinks its future lies, and back to reflect on where it has been.

Amtrak has another new CEO this year, Joseph Boardman, so a quick review of strategy seems especially appropriate. Mr. Boardman is a capable administrator (ex-chief of the New York state DOT, and lately of the Federal Railroad Administration), but his experience seems to have limited his vision to the usual, tired canard of "short corridors" being the wave of the future.

To show why "short corridors" (routes up to 500 miles, like the NEC, the Chicago-hub corridors, and the west coast corridors) are a dead-end spur, let's look at some hard data from Amtrak's FY '08, which ended last September 30, by comparing the key results of the nine short corridors based at Chicago with the seven long-distance routes that radiate out from Chicago.

9 Short Distance Trains 7 Long Distance Trains

Riders 2,604,100 2,012,500

Revenue $64,817,000 $198,770,000

Pass. Miles 410,498,000 1,388,906,000

These are interesting numbers. Look at the contrasts: in ridership, the only metric Amtrak ever talks about, the nine corridors carried about 29% more people. That means they also incurred greater costs for ticketing, marketing, stations, insurance, crew turns, equipment maintenance, etc., based just on handling that many more people.

But in the metrics that matter, which Amtrak always ignores, the seven long distance routes (diluted by the 3-day-a-week Cardinal), from 29% fewer passengers, and on two fewer routes, earned more than three times the revenue and produced nearly three and one-half times the transportation output as the short corridors.

But, you might say, what about all the people carried by those corridor trains? Aren't they helping relieve road congestion and save the environment? Well … not really. By a factor of 2-to-1, the highest ridership corridor into Chicago is the 86 mile Hiawatha line to Milwaukee, with 749,700 riders last year. To give you a perspective on that, local I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul (in the same metropolitan area) carries that many people every five days. So does I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago. So, this big-deal corridor with just one lane-hour a day of ridership on its 96 trains a week really isn't doing very much in terms of mitigating congestion or air pollution.

The weakest of the daily Chicago long distance routes, the City of New Orleans, carried 197,400 riders (about ¼ of the Hiawathas), but earned more revenue ($14.9 million vs. $13.5) and produced 150% more output than all of the Hiawathas combined.

If you were a manager of a business and had money to invest, into which of these two operations would you put your banker's money? Would it help you decide to know that the City of New Orleans was statistically sold out (at a 64% load factor) while the Hiawathas were more than half empty (40% load factor)? Which route has more growth potential?

This is Mr. Boardman's challenge: put his banker's free money into routes that don't do anything? Or, ones that really produce?

[End quote]

3) [begin quote]

Growth Prospects

by Andrew C. Selden

With the prospect of a trillion dollars in federal "stimulus" spending, every pig in Washington is lining up at the golden trough. Amtrak is no exception, but as always for the wrong projects. "Wrong" here meaning "least likely to accomplish anything productive." Amtrak's entire capital budget is focused as always on the NEC, and state-subsidized corridors elsewhere. At the same time, the Superliner fleet is both shrunken and wearing out. The oldest cars are nearing 30 years old.

And it's a shame because Superliners, especially Superliner sleepers, are the most profitable asset Amtrak owns.

The late Byron Nordberg and I figured out two things about Superliners back in the 1980s: First, what it would cost to lease them in trainset lots with a maintenance contract, and what a Superliner set can reasonably be expected to earn in typical western deployment (allowing for seasonality and downtime for maintenance and overhauls). It turns out that the former number is a fraction of the latter.

That means that if you can deploy the cars, you can pay for them easily from their own revenue. The remaining surplus eats away at system fixed costs.

And that means you don't need (or especially want) federal welfare to buy or lease them. All you need is vision and some initiative. All that is left is to show the lender you can reasonably expect to generate the revenue with which to pay the lease. Adrian Herzog's matrix equations solved that: at the same level of market penetration that Amtrak has today (i.e., you don't have to do anything differently or better than you already are doing, just do more of it in a way that is interconnected), by building a national scale interconnecting route matrix, new traffic literally falls off the tree into your trains at an exponentially-growing rate. Build a little matrix with maybe a 10% expansion of today's train-miles, and traffic and revenue doubles; build a bigger matrix, say double what exists today, and traffic and revenue grows so big so fast that you couldn't handle it if it showed up.

In my 1986 TRAINS Magazine article, we published the Southwest Transcontinental Corridor matrix and showed that twiddling with the Chief's route just a little (about 5% more train miles) multiplied the demand by 600%, on just one train.

When Dr. Herzog ran the matrix model on interconnecting the Southwest Transcontinental Corridor with the Central Transcontinental Corridor (accomplished by the simple matter of extending one Mule to Omaha, and adding a Cheyenne-Denver-Pueblo-La Junta shuttle) the numbers were so huge we didn't publish them for fear it would discredit the whole theory.

So it is not so much a matter of "Do we need 100, or 1,000, or 3,000 new Superliners?" as much as the idea that what we should do is start up a line to produce new Superliners at a modest rate, say six a month, and keep that line open indefinitely until the traffic growth starts to slow down, or we run out of track-time to run them.

[End quote]

4) We know by combing through various Amtrak information, it already has a very, very modest five year equipment plan, which is akin to having next to nothing. Here is what Amtrak has said it wants as of right now (hopefully, subject to rational thought and changes):

– Purchase 75 Viewliner class baggage and baggage dorm cars, plus 25 Viewliner class diners, and 15 Viewliner sleeping cars, for a total of 115 cars.

The baggage and bag/dorm cars are a wise investment; currently all baggage cars are from the Heritage fleet, and most are more than 50 years old. Even equipment built more solidly than a battleship eventually wears out, and this proud fleet of equipment deserves a decent retirement. The same is true for the single-level dining car fleet. One Viewliner class diner was put into service as a test vehicle in the 1990s, and with some modifications, can be brought back. However, a mere 25 diners only replaces what is on the road now, and does not allow for ANY expansion, a horrid mistake.

The idea of only buying 15 new Viewliner class sleeping cars is ludicrous. All this will accomplish is allow the current completely worn-out Viewliner sleeping car fleet to be cycled through heavy maintenance on a faster schedule, and, again, will allow for no expansion of sleeping car service. This seems to be a loud and clear signal Amtrak is not serious about new long distance service in the East.

– Purchase 40 new Acela cars, expanding 20 existing consists by two cars each.

The September issue of Railway Age had a hilarious item quoting now former Amtrak CEO Alex Kummant to the effect that "We're out of capacity" on Acela trains. The magazine reports that Acela is "so crowded, especially during peak travel periods" that cars will have to be added to the trainsets. Amtrak doesn't want to break up its two spare sets for the cars, and "there's no funds right now to pay" for more.

Inquiring minds want to know: Where exactly are these trains sold out, since their load factors hover around 50%? Is it just between Philadelphia and New York? What "peak travel periods" are we talking about, exactly? Evening rush hour? Thanksgiving? Maybe some demand-moderating pricing is a better solution.

If Acela is having crowding issues over its peak loading point, but with a 50% load factor overall, does that mean Amtrak maybe will address capacity issues on some other trains that have 30% higher load factors and capacity constraints over their entire routes? Like the Southwest Chief, Empire Builder and Silver Meteor?

– Purchase seven new high speed trainsets for the NEC.

To do what? Replace Acelas, when it wants to bolster that fleet first? To replace the old, reliable, recognized and respected Metroliner brand with a new level of service? To add more service to the NEC which today already is over-populated by Amtrak trains by at least 35%?

– Purchase 166 Superliner/California cars and three Talgo sets as state funds become available. This is a pay for hire idea, where the states pony up for the equipment, and presumably it doesn't come out of Amtrak's capital budget. Not a bad idea, if you can convince states to do the buying.

Recent Amtrak naughtiness uncovered late last year by the Sacramento Bee newspaper regarding Amtrak's alleged misuse of state-paid-for maintenance facilities in California may slow this process down, however. This far-reaching potential scandal could have an enormous effect on how Amtrak does business with its client state governments, and should be followed closely by every state DOT which currently does business with Amtrak.

– Repair and restore 25 wreck-damaged long distance cars for revenue service, including three Amfleet II coaches, one Amfleet II lounge car, nine Superliner coaches, seven Superliner sleepers, and five Superliner transition dorm cars.

Hmmmm ... those Superliners would go a very long way towards restoring Sunset Limited service (or a replacement service) east of New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, and, (are you listening, Amtrak?) work towards increasing the frequency of the Sunset Limited to at least five days a week, if not daily. It takes one trainset a full week to travel from Los Angeles to Orlando and return. Today, Amtrak is using three trainsets to operate the Sunset between Los Angeles and New Orleans, so, only two new trainsets would provide transcontinental service for five times a week.

In FY 08, with the Sunset only operating a truncated route between Los Angeles and New Orleans three days a week, the load factor was 56.7%, which still put it above the daily Crescent, Palmetto, Texas Eagle, California Zephyr, and tri-weekly Cardinal. Imagine how powerful a performer this train would be if it ran more than three times a week.

The Sunset Limited generated revenue of $8,046,900 and 66,149,000 revenue passenger miles at 12.1 cents per revenue passenger mile. The Sunset carried 71,700 passengers an average length of trip of 922.6 miles, with 105.8 passengers traveling every average mile.

– Repair and restore 67 Amfleet coaches for service, including 25 for the NEC, and 42 for state corridor service expansion as state funding permits.

– Repair and restore one single level damaged cab car to service.

As you can see, Amtrak's current equipment rehabilitation plan is squarely aimed at its least productive services, state supported routes and NEC service.

Amtrak seems to constantly forget its proper corporate name is the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Please note the name "National" as the first word in the company name, not "Corridor."

5) Here's a positive note from long-time professional railroader and URPA associate Rob Bohannan of Arizona.

[begin quote]

Empire Builder Trip Report

by Rob Bohannan

Portland [Oregon] Union Station quickly reminded me I was someplace where people believe in trains. One could have eaten off the floor, or used the polished marble walls as a mirror. Outside, a landscaped rose garden sets off the building nicely, and rails for a future light rail or streetcar are already installed in the street. With the Builder, Starlight, and Cascades, Portland is a busy place and has the takes-itself-seriously ambiance of an airport. Every departure brought a "Southwest Airlines gate" style drill, with dozens of people lined up and eager to board. The clientele were more like one would see on a cruise ship, or perhaps at a theme park or National Park – senior couples, singles, young couples, families, and so forth. The agents were friendly and helpful.

I chose to ride the Empire Builder's Portland section, train No. 28, specifically to enjoy the trip up the Columbia River gorge, and I was not disappointed. No. 28's conductor, a friendly fellow who clearly enjoys his job, provided a well-done narrative of the trip. The Superliner cars show their age – even the refurbished ones, but they seemed as clean as any airplane I have been on recently. The lower-level lounge car supper – a hot dog – was not particularly memorable. Number 28 has a nice "branch connection to the mainline" feel. At Spokane, Washington, No. 28 joins the main body of the Empire Builder which originated in Seattle, to become part of train No. 8.

I chose coach the first night – the Portland-Milwaukee price for a sleeper was breathtaking. The coach seats need to be re-upholstered – not because the fabric is worn, but because the padding beneath is so compacted from use as to be unbearably hard. I sat on my pillow!

At Essex, Montana, I stopped off and stayed at the Izaak Walton Inn – trackside, pleasant, and convenient to Glacier Park. The red "Jammer" bus picked me up right at the inn. The decor was "early foamer" with Great Northern Railroad, Empire Builder, etc. photos and memorabilia everywhere.

The next morning I reboarded the Empire Builder, No. 8, right on time. Almost immediately, I began a quest to upgrade to sleeper. Breakfast was okay; lunch – I had the open-faced roast beef sandwich special – was so good I had the same thing the next day traveling across Wisconsin. For dinner, I tried one of the "Havre chicken dinners" and I thought that was fine.

Throughout the day, the conductors made announcements that, again, were reminiscent of Southwest Airlines – "We have a full train today and you WILL have someone sitting next to you" in your coach seat, and so forth. Like the airline, the announcements were made pleasantly and often with a little humor. The upbeat morale of the crew was obvious throughout the journey.

After dinner, the conductor found me and announced I had a room, and to follow him up to the "832" car, where I was promptly installed in Roomette 3. The local upgrade price was reasonable – I think I was probably sold the room from Grand Forks even though we were just a little east of Minot at the time. What a treat – for a while I wasn't sure I would get to experience an overnight in a Pullman in the 21st Century! Of course, I learned in the process that Minnesota is the "land of 10,000 grade crossings." Railfan though I may be, I guess I am a little more open to "quiet zones" than before!

The next day was uneventful. The CP line across Wisconsin had reopened after the floods several days before and we were all treated to an up-close view of the floods. We were only 30 minutes late into Milwaukee.

I was sorry to leave No. 8 – I now understand why the Minnesota Association of Railroad Passengers is so proud of the Empire Builder!

[End quote]

The FY 08 load factor for the Empire Builder was 63.4%, one of the three top trains in Amtrak's long distance fleet.

This single daily train generated revenue of $59,389,600 and 409,480,000 revenue passenger miles at 14.5 cents per revenue passenger mile. The Builder carried 554,300 passengers an average length of trip of 738.7 miles, with 216.9 passengers traveling every average mile.

The secret is out about the Empire Builder, suddenly everyone's darling. Even Amtrak has begun to acknowledge the Builder as its "most popular" and highest revenue western train. In November 2008 the Builder earned nearly $4 million, still more than any other single train, even Auto Train. All of the Pacific Surfliners combined only earned $4.1 million. The Builder was the focus of an episode of "Extreme Trains" on the History Channel in early December.

6) It's amazing Amtrak didn't receive a lump of coal in its corporate stocking for Christmas. While Amtrak has been busy these past few years leasing out what it deems to be surplus locomotives, in December it has been leasing locomotives on the West Coast from its host freight railroad partners so it can get its trains down the tracks.

There has been a reported shortage of Amtrak-owned F59PHI locomotives; some are out of service for overhaul and other damage reasons.

Amtrak has been shifting them around the West Coast as needed, but at the moment there aren't enough to go around, and the only option seems to be to lease power from freight railroads.

As one observer puts it, "This situation would suggest the once-might P42 locomotive fleet is thinning out nationwide; as previously Amtrak would send extra ones West to make up for predicted shortages. Former Amtrak President and CEO David Gunn ditched the P40s, parking all of them; Amtrak is leasing out or selling as many as Connecticut and New Jersey and anyone else has wanted. The rest are unserviceable, and being robbed for parts."

It should also be noted someone needs to take a count of the idle locomotives sitting at Amtrak's Beech Grove repair facility, in Chicago's yards, and elsewhere, that have been pushed out of service for lack of Amtrak's desire to keep them in serviceable condition, either through routine inspections or minor repairs. Amtrak seems to be continuing the highly questionable practice of setting aside any equipment which may inconvenience the company (such as requiring routine maintenance), and just running the wheels off of anything remaining.

Amtrak just never seems to understand the concept of "stewardship" of assets and capital funds.

6) Much more and very serious naughtiness occurred during the Christmas travel season in the Midwest. Brutal snow storms blanketed the Midwest, and, again, Amtrak seemed to be caught completely by surprise that winter always comes after the fall season.

Equipment inexplicably froze up and was out of service, crews were not properly placed to prevent long delays due to crew times expiring on the federal hours of service law, and many other mishaps.

Here's what frosted the shorts of many: Amtrak seemed in too many instances to do its best/worst to provide the worst possible passenger service available, from lack of information to lack of sanitation provisions to stranding passengers on trains in rail yards less than 25 miles from their ultimate destination, and less than a mile up the line from its last station stop in civilization.

Far too many Amtrakers seem to forget they are in the PASSENGER railroad business, and PASSENGERS are their primary concern. There is an assumption made by many Amtrakers that passenger should sit down, shut up, and be grateful for whatever meager efforts Amtrak may make on behalf of paying passengers.

It almost rises to the level of a national disgrace.

Amtrak has so many opportunities, as a unique form of transportation to excel at passenger service. In light of how the airlines treat passengers these days, Amtrak could – with so little effort – simply vow to be the most customer/passenger friendly carrier in the country, and make passenger comfort at all times a priority. This includes basics like keeping passengers informed of new developments (or lack of new developments), going just half a step beyond normal to do the right thing and assist people who are stranded and at the complete mercy of Amtrak, and not have a "take it or leave it" attitude about every facet of Amtrak life.

Here's a news flash: Amtrak trains should be scheduled and operated for the convenience of the traveling public, not Amtrak's operating department. In this day and age of instant communications, there should never be a moment when a passenger or relative or friend of an in-transit passenger should not be able to know where a train is located, and when it will be arriving, barring extraordinary circumstances.

In places like Chicago, where huge amounts of money were poured in recent years into new facilities to keep passenger equipment from have frozen systems in the winter, then that problem should never occur, just because some errant mechanical employees didn't follow instructions or procedures. As one commentator noted in December, the old Santa Fe Railroad, which based much of its passenger service in Chicago, never seemed to have a problem with frozen equipment on its trains, because it prided itself on good passenger service. If the Santa Fe, of which there hasn't been a Sante Fe passenger train since April 30, 1971, could maintain equipment up to that standard in what today would be considered pre-historic times of mostly mechanical systems, when can't Amtrak do the same now nearly a decade into the 21st Century?

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]

URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

TWA mailing list

[email protected]

http://lists.unitedrail.org/mailman/listinfo/twa

 

[Larry H.]

I couldn't agree more, when I wrote recently that the old railroads would have handled the poor weather infinitely better I was roundly debated by the usual supporters of anything that runs is fine as long as it is on tracks.. Your mention of the Sante Fe in winter was most pertinent. Rail used to have a name for being reliable compared to other modes of travel. Along with all the other short comings mentioned above I have long maintained that Amtrak is not paying anything like the attention to the Passenger or the Conditions and accommodations that a "Passenger" system should. I have long been treated both well, and like cattle by Amtrak.. They need to get rid of the Cattle prodders..