WSJ article about Richard Anderson

[Dakota 400]

I was also looking at the potential for a second train down that way that terminated in Atlanta called the Peachtree. I’m not sure if it would be practical to do both an FL and an ATL train, though.

Practical? I agree that it would not be. Mid-West snow birds have little interest in wintering in Atlanta. A Peachtree connecting in Atlanta with the Crescent might be attractive, but that is about a far fetched possibility as an all Sleeper Car train on any LD train.

 

[Ryan]

bonuses based off what appears to be effectively cutting Amtrak to the bone.

What are the parameters of his bonus structure?

 

[bretton88]

Has he ever taken a long distance train? That's what he's trying to cut in the way of service - baggage, food, etc. What about the rest of his cronies? They ever take an overnight trip INGOGNITO so they really experience the service? I doubt it. The conductor would probably throw them off the train because they'd complain so much.

Yes he has. There where confirmed reports of him taking the Capital Limited and the Coastal Starlight. He even mentioned he did not have a good experience in a sleeper on the CL at an RPA convention in Chicago. I suspect that experience played a role in him decided the superliners where past their expiration date.

 

[NSC1109]

Practical? I agree that it would not be. Mid-West snow birds have little interest in wintering in Atlanta. A Peachtree connecting in Atlanta with the Crescent might be attractive, but that is about a far fetched possibility as an all Sleeper Car train on any LD train.

I was thinking more along the lines of a "Southeastern Hub" network, such at Atlanta-Montgomery-New Orleans, Atlanta-Macon-Savannah, and Atlanta-Greenville-Charlotte.

The SE US is severely lacking in service. No corridor service, only once-a-day-each-way LDs. A good place to study expansion.

 

[west point]

A tablet ? Air travel is standardized for the whole world. Even just one RR does not have a standardized format,, For airline persons enroute flying is relative simple standards as opposed to RRs. Aproach procedures to airports are different but usually at most only take 10 minutes. RRs ? ? ?

 

[dlagrua]

In reply to Dakota 400 and getting off topic for a bit. A Florida to Chicago Amtrak train may not return anytime soon. It is my understanding that part of the route ran on old ex Monon RR tracks through Indiana. They were poorly maintained and the trip was slow at something like 30 hrs CHI-MIA. The tracks were eventually abandoned and the line is now out of service. The IL. to Fl. train was called the Floridian. For a while you also had the Midwest Autotrain on that route but the starting point was at a yard in Louisville, KY, quite a distance from Chicago. When it was part of the Floridan the auto carrier loading process kept the Floridan held over for up to 2 hours further delaying the trains schedule. Can anyone see Anderson supporting this?

 

[NSC1109]

In reply to Dakota 400 and getting off topic for a bit. A Florida to Chicago Amtrak train may not return anytime soon. It is my understanding that part of the route ran on old ex Monon RR tracks through Indiana. They were poorly maintained and the trip was slow at something like 30 hrs CHI-MIA. The tracks were eventually abandoned and the line is now out of service. The IL. to Fl. train was called the Floridian. For a while you also had the Midwest Autotrain on that route but the starting point was at a yard in Louisville, KY, quite a distance from Chicago. When it was part of the Floridan the auto carrier loading process kept the Floridan held over for up to 2 hours further delaying the trains schedule. Can anyone see Anderson supporting this?

I don’t think anyone is suggesting bringing back the Midwest Autotrain, only a CHI-MIA or TPA train. Even then, you’d only be looking for new rights between Indianapolis-Cincinnati-Atlanta-Jacksonville. Use the Hoosier State’s old time slot between CHI and IND. You’d also have to negotiate new rights between Jacksonville and south Florida, but with CSX apparently turning over part of the A line, it would make things easier.

Connecting back to topic: Anderson is correct in saying that expansion of corridor services has to happen; it does. But at the same time he should look at ALL markets that aren’t being served.

 

[jis]

I don’t think anyone is suggesting bringing back the Midwest Autotrain, only a CHI-MIA or TPA train. Even then, you’d only be looking for new rights between Indianapolis-Cincinnati-Atlanta-Jacksonville. Use the Hoosier State’s old time slot between CHI and IND. You’d also have to negotiate new rights between Jacksonville and south Florida, but with CSX apparently turning over part of the A line, it would make things easier.

Couple of observations:

1. The Hoosier State slot is available only four days a week. The other three days it is used by the Cardinal, and almost everyone agrees that the Cardinal should become a daily train. If that comes to pass, there will be no Hoosier State slots available anymore.

2. I suspect that the details of ownership of the Palatka - Deland segment will have almost no impact on the difficulty or ease of negotiating an overall trackage agreement between Jacksonville and Miami. As usual SFRTA and CFRC should be easy as will Amtrak between Deland and Palatka. But without CSX playing easy between Jacksonville and Palatka, and Poinciana to Mangonia Park, the whole thing falls apart. In getting trackage rights the hardest tog et critical segments even if it is 100' is the governing segment.

As an aside, the issues with getting to and through Atlanta has been discussed ad infinitum on this forum in the past, so no point in rehashing those 20 page discussions all over again.

 

[west point]

CHI - Florida thru ATL ? several points. The ATL situation is nearly terrible. The old SOU RR royal palm route ( NS) and its timing would be the best for Amtrak. The CHI - Cincinnati route does need major upgrade. However the timing is such that the Cardinal could be combined CHI - CIN with this train. Gives more possibility of a daily Cardinal. Whether additional improvements on NS CIN - JAX would be many is questionable. That timing would allow connections to the Crescent in ATL. South of JAX ? Well CSX ------

Here is link for the Royal Palm 1951 schedule. Note all the connections at CIN that could be future services to CIN connecting to Royal Palm with slop for the Cardinal. Note times in ATL for the Crescent to / from Birmingham and south to NOL.

http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track2/newroyalpalm195103.html

 

[jis]

Last I looked NS has not really been very receptive to any additional service on any of the existing routes. Isn't it a bit far fetched to think they would look benevolently at an attempt to place a passenger train on one of their heavily used routes with significant operational challenges?

 

[Anthony V]

Last I looked NS has not really been very receptive to any additional service on any of the existing routes. Isn't it a bit far fetched to think they would look benevolently at an attempt to place a passenger train on one of their heavily used routes with significant operational challenges?

In addition, that route also misses Louisville and Nashville, two cities that should be on the national network. South of Nashville, it can be routed through Chattanooga and Atlanta, then onto Florida, Sharing the Silver Service route south of Jacksonville.

 

[Seaboard92]

From Cincinnati you should serve the ex Louisville & Nashville route to Nashville. Granted the southern has Knoxville which wouldn’t be bad to get either. But eventually we might if the NER keeps extending west from Roanoke.

 

[WICT106]

In reply to Dakota 400 and getting off topic for a bit. A Florida to Chicago Amtrak train may not return anytime soon. It is my understanding that part of the route ran on old ex Monon RR tracks through Indiana. They were poorly maintained and the trip was slow at something like 30 hrs CHI-MIA. The tracks were eventually abandoned and the line is now out of service. The IL. to Fl. train was called the Floridian. For a while you also had the Midwest Autotrain on that route but the starting point was at a yard in Louisville, KY, quite a distance from Chicago. When it was part of the Floridan the auto carrier loading process kept the Floridan held over for up to 2 hours further delaying the trains schedule. Can anyone see Anderson supporting this?

This topic has been given extensive debate, both here and at other fora: Chicago to Florida

See also my quote here: Travel to Florida

Basically, one has to address the lack of affinity for Florida - Chicago travel not being as high in the Midwest as it is in the Northeast. Also the track alignments have not been upgraded since the early 20th Century, so even the fastest train would still take something on the order of 36 hours. Compare that time with the WI - FTL time of 24-26 hours by car. Unless you rebuild the tracks, and straighten the route, which will cost beaucoup dollars, you will not see as much traffic as the market might allow. Many non rail fans compare train time with drive time, and on this route the trains lose.

 

[neroden]

I was able to read the article w/o paying on my laptop. As it turns out, he really likes his job. He joined a section gang on the NEC recently when two train came in from either direction. The crews pulled him under some equipment where they go for protection and he apparently really loved it. That came from Amtrak’s head of engineering. Anderson also loves a good fight. He did it at NWA and DAL, and now Amtrak.

Something else I found out is that Gardner does have previous rail experience: he apparently used to be a conductor on short line railroads, but the article doesn’t name which one.

A few things that I thought were notable:

He wants to put tablets in cabs, much like what pilots have now. It would need to be an exception due the current FRA regs, though. I believe they want to use it as a “moving map”, likely as an additional safety reference with signals, switches, speed restrictions, etc, listed. Think of it as an ATCS Monitor on steroids.

Then the article drones on about how SS and LD services lose money while the NEC is a pot of gold.

I actually think Anderson wants to do the right thing.

The problem is that he's been totally bamboozled. He actually thinks that Amtrak's accounting is honest, which it is not. It is blatantly fraudulent. Until Anderson realizes that he's been looking at fraudulent accounting, he can only make bad decisions -- it's not possible to make good decisions based on bad data.

That's why he needs to be fired. He is so brain-damaged that he actually claimed Amtrak's accounting was accurate in a letter to the Senators who were questioning him over totally ******* moves like the proposed Southwest Chief bustitution. Mr. Anderson has access to the RPA's audit of Amtrak's accounting; if his brain were working right, he'd be fixing the accounting fraud and getting good data. Defending the phony accounting is a sign of a diseased mind, and he's never going to be able to do competent work when he's basing it on fantasy-world faked-up numbers.

The article in the WSJ, of course, has the same problem; it's repeating the accounting frauds.

 

[neroden]

If Mr. Anderson and Mr. Gardner have railroad experiences that have been positive, maybe it's time to take a hopeful view of what lies ahead for Amtrak.

The problem is not their intent. The problem is that they are looking at falsified data. The FAKED accounting they are looking at is claiming that the so-called long-distance trains cost lots of money, but this is false. Boardman knew that this was false and made a presentation to Congress explaining it.

Anderson doesn't seem to understand it, even when given an audit of Amtrak's accounting on a silver platter.

Every time anyone talks to anyone in Amtrak management, hammer home that the RPA White Paper was an audit of Amtrak's route accounting, and that Amtrak's route accounting is essentially fraudulent.

I analyze businesses for a living in my career as an investor. I would never invest in or make a business deal with Amtrak because the management believes its own fraudulent accounting. Amtrak will never have a successful public-private partnership with the fraudulent accounting (they actually could have successful PPPs if they had honest accounting). Governments don't want to make deals with Amtrak for the same reason, Amtrak's fraudulent accounting. I have said this to every relevant Amtrak official I've encountered. It really should be Amtrak's top priority to fix their accounting.

Anderson, incredibly, still seems to believe that Amtrak's route-level accounting is genuine, which it isn't.

 

[frequentflyer]

The entity that gives Amtrak money has shady accounting practices (ie. moving funds for Social Security to the General Fund and claiming SS is close to insolvent), so we should not be surprised that Amtrak uses accounting sleight of hand.

 

[neroden]

The entity that gives Amtrak money has shady accounting practices (ie. moving funds for Social Security to the General Fund and claiming SS is close to insolvent), so we should not be surprised that Amtrak uses accounting sleight of hand.

True. We should continue pushback against that shady accounting too! Al Gore tried to fix that with a "lockbox" for Social Security, but G W Bush stole the Presidency and here we are....

It's pretty obvious that that particular shady accounting is pushed by people who want an excuse to attack Social Security. And Amtrak's shady accounting may be pushed by people who want an excuse to attack the profitable long-distance trains. (They aren't all profitable... but you wouldn't need shady accounting to attack the Sunset Limited, so the shady accounting would only be needed for the purpose of attacking the Auto Train, Silver Meteor, Lake Shore Limited, etc.)

 

[thebeav7874]

This Summer, the Coast Starlight is running with only 2 coaches (not including the business class car). As recently as last year, there was always a minimum of 3 coaches (plus biz) in peak season. This Summer, coach sells out (check it out yourself on the website or app). You know they’re turning away coach sales. No guarantee someone turned away from coach is going to spring for business class, let alone sleepers.

Part of the Anderson plan to show reduced ridership?

 

[NSC1109]

This Summer, the Coast Starlight is running with only 2 coaches (not including the business class car). As recently as last year, there was always a minimum of 3 coaches (plus biz) in peak season. This Summer, coach sells out (check it out yourself on the website or app). You know they’re turning away coach sales. No guarantee someone turned away from coach is going to spring for business class, let alone sleepers.

Part of the Anderson plan to show reduced ridership?

Either that, or the Superliners are needed elsewhere to make up for OOS equipment. But I would agree that Anderson and Gardner are up to something.

It’s a shame...the CS was easily my favorite LD train out of the three I rode on a few years ago. Something about being near the water, I suppose.

 

[thebeav7874]

I'm skeptical that sell-out data is captured/retained. It wouldn't bode well if the "plan" is to show ridership levels dropping in an effort to justify further downgrade/discontinue long-distance routes.

 

[neroden]

Coast Starlight is one of the clearly-profitable trains, and can sell out three coaches reliably in the summer. This seems like sabotage to me. Get it documented and write to your California, Oregon, and Washington state representatives.

 

[Larry H.]

Yes I think were seeing a repeat of the mid 60's when railroads made every possible move to discourage passengers from using the trains so that they could get rid of them. Its not that we don't need or have passengers for the routes in question, rather its a lack of funds combined with poor equipment as well as on board amenities that rail travel generally was good at. One thing as far as coach travel goes is what happened to the large mens and womens rooms that had several banks of toilets and mirrors and wash basins along with a bench seat or two to make the ride easier to handle.

 

[jloewen]

Yes I think were seeing a repeat of the mid 60's when railroads made every possible move to discourage passengers from using the trains so that they could get rid of them. Its not that we don't need or have passengers for the routes in question, rather its a lack of funds combined with poor equipment as well as on board amenities that rail travel generally was good at. One thing as far as coach travel goes is what happened to the large mens and womens rooms that had several banks of toilets and mirrors and wash basins along with a bench seat or two to make the ride easier to handle.

I remember when the Wabash was trying to get rid of its passenger trains, so they petitioned to drop the Blue Bird, I think it was, that connected STL and CHI, through Decatur, IL. They argued, they still had the "Decatur Local" that connected Decatur to Chicago, and they didn't have enough patronage for TWO trains on that route so close together in time, and the Local served at least eight towns that the Blue Bird bypassed, so it was the more important train to keep. So the ICC allowed them to drop the Blue Bird. A few months later they were back, petitioning to drop the Decatur Local, arguing that it had few passengers, and using a time period when the Blue Bird was still in service! As the Decatur newspaper pointed out, who would take the local when they could take the express?! But of course the ICC caved again.

 

[Larry H.]

I lived though that period while attempting to travel by rail. They Blue Bird had a fan car on the end and the day I was able to finally ride it they put a freight car hooked to the fan tail parlor car so that your view was ruined. Was that an accident I rather think not. I still have photos of the draperies hanging by a few hooks making them look pretty sad. About that same year I took the train overnight from New York City to St. Louis, can't recall the carrier. What I do remember is that none of the seats would recline and all the windows were covered in frost so most of the ride you couldn't see out. The cars had no drinking water and the diner was serving some pretty sad food. The UP to California I rode mostly the Kansas City part of the City of St. Louis. While the diner tried to be maintained I remember that standing in the hall waiting to get a table water would off and on drip though the ceiling into the waiting line. The man in charge said they had been reporting the leak to be fixed for months and no one was doing anything about it. The Empire Builder we rode the day the 30 day notices to discontinue service and turn it over to the government were posted in the cars. It ran about five sleepers of which almost no one was in. We had tired repeatedly to get a sleeping compartment from Vancouver and the answer kept coming back to the ticket sellers that the train was "sold out" in the sleepers. The agent told us to take the train down to a stop outside Seattle and wait for the EB and ask the conductor about a room when it came in. We did that and of course they had all kinds of open rooms which was a relief. While my grandfather boarded to our room I waited for the ticket agent to print the tickets along with the break man. As we stood in the station the train started to pull out without us and the fellow yelled, "they can't start that train without me". But they did, it had to back up to pick us up. (It was still a wonderful condition train with the kinds of cars long gone). In 1961 when I was in college the train trip from KC to St. Louis often was five hours late.

 

[TWA904]

Maybe our view of Mr. Anderson need a revision based on recent news.

Others are welcome to disagree with I following post, but it is my opinion based on my experiences.

Mr. Anderson being the head of NWA was not something that I remembered. NWA provided excellent flights for me when I flew on them. The absorption of NWA into Delta went well from my perspective as a guest on previous NWA flights that took place at the time.

Delta is an airline that has continued to improve its service while American and United try, but still continue to fall short for whatever reasons, and I have flown on both. I have a flight soon from MSP to YVR in First Class on Delta and received an e-mail from Delta offering the opportunity to select an entree for my lunch. I was pleasantly surprised and the two choices were appealing.

If Mr. Anderson and Mr. Gardner have railroad experiences that have been positive, maybe it's time to take a hopeful view of what lies ahead for Amtrak.

Mr. Anderson has no previous railroad experience.

When Mr. Anderson became CEO at NWA it was profitable. When Mr. Anderson became CEO at DL it was also profitable. He has never had to turn a money loser into a money maker.

I've read before that some NEC trains run at a 20% load factor. How long could DL or NWA have stayed in business with routes with a 20% load factor. Not Long.