Version XIV - This Was The Week That Was
August 10, 2001
And, here we go again. Another week to remember for Amtrak. At first, we thought it was another dog days of summer week, but, we were wrong. Here’s what is happening.
- It’s overall good news for long distance travelers in the east. Schedule changes soon to be formally announced will take (probably) the Silver Star all the way to Boston from Miami, most likely along the shore route in New England. No final confirmation that it will be the Star and not the Meteor or Palm, but the Star seems the most logical candidate since it’s northbound New York Penn arrival time is scheduled for 3:48 P.M. and southbound departure is 11:35 A.M.; both times allows plenty of running time to and from Boston and are marketable hours without changing the schedule south of New York.
Other changes are that Boston will see more capacity to and from Chicago, and that New York and Chicago will welcome the return of a full service long distance train via Philadelphia.
The downside mentioned is that New York will lose some overall capacity to the West with these new shifts made.
Also being mentioned is that the Pennsylvanian will have a change of schedule for better times in the east, but late night times at Chicago. >From a standpoint of those traveling only to or from Chicago and stops close by, this is not good news. But, for all of the other cities and towns along the route, many of these will see an improved schedule with better connections to the east coast.
Still no word on the possibility any time soon on the startup of the Crescent Star. Like the proposed FEC service in Florida, outside money is required to make this happen. Since no money spigots have been turned on, or are likely to be turned on, it could be a years-long wait for passengers waiting to take these trains.
Elsewhere, here in Florida late word is that the Silver Palm will regain its old moniker of the Palmetto, and along with that, the attributes of the former’s service. The Silver Palm as we know it today will go away, to be replaced by the Palmetto as an all-coach, no diner, no sleeping car train, between Tampa and New York. Tampa and Miami will lose direct train service between the two giant cities. This will, however, reopen Tampa as a maintenance base for servicing the Palmetto.
- On the Left Coast, the Amtrak West and the Coast Starlight has informed city leadership at Davis, California that the train will no longer serve the city. Davis will retain all other Amtrak services it receives through corridor operations and the California Zephyr.
In a letter from Amtrak West corporate communications to the city manager of Davis, Amtrak noted that on a daily basis, the Starlight “only” averaged a little over nine passengers per train, and noted that the market times of the stop of 11:43 P.M. northbound and 6:38 A.M. southbound. The letter also gave the reasons for the September 30th discontinuance as “…due to declining ridership, the need to improve travel time and reliability, and to increase efficiency.”
An important note needs to be made here. The general manager of the Coast Starlight is one of Amtrak’s best front line managers. He came to the Starlight from the Crescent, where he was instrumental in turning that train into a model for all other single level trains in the east. As did his Starlight predecessor, he well understands the importance of small details when running a quality train, and he has an excellent understanding of marketing. This decision had to be a corporate decision, and not a product line decision.
Let’s do some quick math. We’ll be conservative about this. Amtrak West’s letter states that there is a little over nine passengers per train, per day. Round that off to 18 passengers per day, northbound and southbound together. Now, presume every one of these passengers is traveling either a short distance or on some sort of discount ticket, each averaging about $45 per ticket. So, we multiply 18 passengers times a fare of $45 each, times 365 days per year, to reach a conservative total of $295,650 income for the Starlight per year for Davis passengers.
Capitol Corridor trains stop at Davis every morning starting before 6:00 A.M., so there is no savings here on station agent salaries. There is a savings, however, in late evening, because the last Capitol Corridor train calls at Davis at 9:29 P.M.
At best, we can identify some minor station agent employee savings, but certainly not anywhere near a quarter of a million dollars, which they are likely to give up in revenue by not stopping at Davis.
Is this yet another Amtrak senior management decision that seems to have been made from another planet? There are many Amtrak assistant general managers running their product lines that would love to have a steady flow of 18 passengers a day at an intermediate station stop. Is this another example of foolish savings that cost much more in revenues than savings?
- Inquiring minds want to know why Acela ridership is holding steady or rising slightly south of New York Penn, but is declining between New York and Boston. All of that shiny new catenary, improved schedules, and new gee-whiz passenger equipment seems to be leaving New Englanders cold.
Has anyone taken a look at the fare structures? Perhaps if Amtrak wasn’t trying to pay off all of its debt out of first year Acela fares, then ridership would be higher.
Amtrak has not been nearly as strong in the Boston-New York market as it has been in the New York-Washington market. One size may fit all, but one marketing strategy certainly doesn’t work in a non-mature market where long distance train riding is still something of a curiosity.
Think about this: other than Acela Express and Acela Regional service, what does Boston have? It has ONE train a day between Boston and Chicago (and that’s been a rump section of a longer train split in Albany), it has no connections to the north (We’ll hold our collective breath until Guilford allows the Maine service to start), no connections to Canada, no connections to Empire service other than through the one daily train to Albany on the Lake Shore Limited, and no direct connections to anywhere else other than through New York City, such as on the Twilight Shoreliner.
So, this behemoth colonial city that has been a transportation hub since the earliest days of British colonization has had very few train choices under Amtrak’s stewardship. No wonder they’re paying the high Acela fares and then staying away in droves. Until New Englanders think of Amtrak the way New Yorkers think of Amtrak, then an entirely separate marketing campaign is called for so Acela can be successful.
- In the Unreality Department, film fans and television viewers will be seeing a lot less of Amtrak in the future. Up until now, Amtrak has had a successful liaison office in California working with the movies and television industries, helping provide producers with Amtrak trains and equipment when necessary. This was never done for free, big bucks have been paid Amtrak for this “service.”
Those days are now gone. Someone in Amtrak senior management made a decision that this type of free publicity, from which Amtrak actually received revenues, was too bothersome to worry with, so the liaison department has been disbanded. That will certainly show those uppity film and television people who want to use a real train in their movies and shows that millions of people watch who is really in control. Let them go to the private car owners. Amtrak doesn’t need all of that free, positive publicity, does it?
- Still in La La Land on the Left Coast, yet more astounding news comes from Amtrak West. Those nice people at Disney, who have more money than the United States Treasury, cheerfully paid Amtrak to “wrap” the exterior of a car (such as transit busses are done in many cities) as a Disney promotion to use in Pacific Surfliner sets. The car selected for the honors was a Superliner II coach.
Oops. Superliner II equipment has been largely taken out of service to save on mileage-based lease payments, including the wrapped Disney car.
Someone at Disney noticed this, and allegedly became annoyed that the car they were paying for to run up and down the railroad was sitting in a coach yard gathering dust.
Amtrak solved this problem, however. They have put the car back into the Pacific Surfliner consists, but allegedly as a non-revenue car, which keeps the lease payments down. So, Disney is happy because a wrapped car is running through Southern California promoting Disney. And, Amtrak is living up to their agreement. It’s just that the car runs empty and devoid of passengers to keep the bean counters monitoring the lease payments happy, too.
- A trip report on the City of New Orleans was posted to the All-Aboard list late this week, praising the readiness of the equipment used on the City, which is based in New Orleans.
New Orleans is one of the best run outposts of Amtrak. The New Orleans Gulf Coast Business Group managers keep to strict policies of being on hand when trains arrive and depart, and ignore weekends. They stay in constant partnership with their local mechanical forces to make sure that all trains in and out of New Orleans are maintained as well as possible. They also make sure the New Orleans crew base operates efficiently.
There are many areas of Amtrak such as New Orleans where more things go right than wrong. Often, many of us don’t do enough to recognize the good parts of Amtrak.
No matter how many ills we find every week of the follies of Amtrak senior management and the questionable policies and decisions that come out of the Amtrak Board of Directors, it must be acknowledged that a lot of people every day pull out their bubble gum and bailing wire and keep Amtrak trains running as well as they can, given the circumstances they work under. These are the unsung heroes of American railroading. Rarely do the freight railroad employees work under the constraints and conditions that Amtrak employees do. Most Amtrak front line managers are paid thousand of dollars less than their counterparts at the freight railroads. Even Amtrak union employees generally enjoy an overall lower level of pay than freight railroad union employees.
While we correctly question Amtrak senior management, we heartily thank Amtrak front line employees for keeping things together as well as they do. It’s not unusual for a station agent to dip into his or her own pocket for mundane office supplies. It’s not unusual for sleeping car attendants to provide their passengers with their own amenities so they will have a more pleasant trip. It’s not unusual for Amtrak employees to lose a lot of sleep to make someone else more comfortable.
That’s a wrap on another week at Amtrak. Next week, it’s no telling how many more decisions are going to be made by Amtrak senior management. Here’s hoping they are the right decisions.
Bruce Richardson
Jacksonville, Florida