Version XVIII - This Was The Week That Was
September 7, 2001
It’s amazing what getting past the Labor Day holiday will do to get things moving.
What a week.
What a great beginning.
What potential.
This could be the start of a national watershed for passenger rail in the United States.
It’s cause for celebration.
- As reported by Laurence Arnold of the Associated Press and Don Phillips of the Washington Post, Republican Don Young of Alaska, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to introduce legislation next week that will hopefully supercede existing legislation under consideration for high speed rail in the United States.
Existing bills, which have been opposed by many people who have looked to the future with vision instead of with a clouded view created by Amtrak’s chronic failures, have only addressed a small, inconsequential part of the need for creating a new, solid infrastructure for existing passenger rail requirements and the eventual development of high speed rail when a mature traditional system is in place.
Chairman Young’s bill offers up to $71 billion in new monies for passenger and commuter rail, versus the existing $12 billion in the older bills.
More importantly, Chairman Young’s bill separates the future of high speed rail service from the future of Amtrak. Amtrak cannot access the $71 billion in funds which would be used to build rail lines, upgrade existing freight and commuter lines, eliminate railroad/highway grade crossings and make other designated improvements to allow sustained running speeds of 125 mph or higher.
Under the other bills previously introduced in the House and Senate, Amtrak would be the effectual steward of the funds, and $12 billion would have to be spread out over 11 designated corridors in the country. This $12 billion request amounts to shortages of billions of dollars that would be needed to bring projects to fruition.
Privately, many Amtrak senior and middle level managers had been hoping for quick passage of the older $12 billion bills because they characterized the bills as a “bailout” for Amtrak that would give it hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed cash as it administered the use of the funds. This has been rigorously opposed by many members of the House and Senate, and organizations such as URPA, which have recognized the dire consequences of Amtrak’s present fiscal position and its inability to help itself find fiscal soundness.
In Chairman Young’s bill, Amtrak would be able to be a bidder as an operator of new services started using parts of the $71 billion. It would allow Amtrak to be on equal footing with other operators of new systems.
Buried in the last line of the Phillips story in the Washington Post about the new bill was this intriguing sentence: “This month, the Bush administration started to form a passenger train policy, expected to be announced next year, that could restructure Amtrak.”
As the Bush administration is demonstrating across the board in all areas, it is an administration that sets goals, quietly marshals its resources, and starts on the road to achieving those goals. This seems to be the case with Amtrak, too. The interesting part will be a question of how many of the present Amtrak Board of Directors will be part of this solution, and whether or not any of the present Amtrak senior management will be the implementation team for this restructuring.
- The August and September management employee separation plans continue to draw from all parts of the company, including Mahogany Row in Washington. A very senior vice president, brought to the company as a protege of Tom Downs (they had previously worked together as bureaucrats in other areas of government that had nothing to do with rail of any type), is reportedly already off the property. This vice president hasn’t been spotted in several weeks, and Amtrak officials have turned down speaking invitations on the VP’s behalf.
As reported before, other vice presidents from Intercity are taking the retirement package, and others are choosing to leave through voluntary separation.
Things seem relatively quiet in the company as a result; everyone is waiting to see who will be left standing after all these people depart, and then the remaining managers are restructured under the plans being drawn by Ed Walker, who was last known as President of Intercity. As reported before, Don Saunders, Vice President of Intercity in Chicago, is currently Acting President of Intercity while Mr. Walker works on the restructuring.
- Current Amtrak Reform Council Vice Chairman and Former Amtrak Board of Directors Member Paul Weyrich published an article this week expressing his belief that Amtrak is in deep financial trouble.
Mr. Weyrich, a fiscally conservative Republican, bemoaned the fact that Amtrak receives far less in subsidies from the federal government than highways or the aviation system. He cites a litany of items about how Amtrak works, and goes into detail about the Acela program. Says Mr. Weyrich: “It seems clear that Acela won’t end up generating the sort of revenue Amtrak needs to balance the books. Amtrak counters that right now there are only a few Acela trains in service. Wait, they say, until all 20 train sets are in operation. I take the Thomas the Apostle view of things at this point. Namely, I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Mr. Weyrich made a number of other salient points, and then made a prediction of what will ultimately happen: “… what will Congress do? ARC goes out of business the first of December 2002. Will Congress take the recommendations of ARC seriously?
“This is especially of concern if ARC makes a finding that Amtrak cannot be self-sufficient by 2002. …
“My guess is that 2002 being an election year, Congress will punt. It will probably ignore its own mandate and just continue to subsidize the status
quo. … I doubt Congress will face the politically difficult choices when it comes to our national rail passenger system.
“Probably Congress, which created ARC, will let it go out of business. Thus there will be no oversight of Amtrak. …”
- As reported on the All-Aboard list today, when Amtrak has a sale, they don’t kid around. Amtrak advertises its Rail Sale on the www.Amtrak.com web site. Space offered is usually for segments of trains which are running pretty close to empty. At the prices being offered, the trains must be running with a NEGATIVE amount of passengers to merit these fares.
Some examples of today’s offerings: The Kentucky Cardinal, through the Rail Sale is offering Jeffersonville (Louisville) to Chicago for $6.60 (that’s correct, six dollars and sixty cents) during the last two weeks of September. Also available is Chicago to Indianapolis for $3.30 in the same time period. So you don’t have to look it up, the mileage from Jeffersonville (a suburb of Louisville) to Chicago is 307 miles. The mileage from Chicago to Indianapolis is 196 miles.
You couldn’t ride a bicycle that distance that cheaply.
Other pricing includes Chicago to Toledo for $6.60 in the same time period, and from St. Louis to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois (160 miles) for $3.90 from September 18th to November 11th.
As pointed out by Gene Poon on the All-Aboard list when these fares were posted, it costs Amtrak more than these fares to cut and process these tickets, and there’s not much cash flow here. This can only mean Amtrak is trying to boost the ridership numbers and gross revenues. Perhaps some Amtrak manager is trying to make a case for ridership so they can soak some of the states for 403(b) funding?
- Your humble correspondent has been made aware of a gathering in Philadelphia on the weekend of September 15th and 16th.
Chaired by Dr. Richard Rudolph, a current member of the Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee (and two term former chairman of that body), the gathering is labeled Representing Rail Passengers’ Interests Conference. It is being held outside of the aura of the Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee, and is being privately funded.
The organizers of the conference have made sure that attendees understand this conference is free of any type of funding with strings attached from Amtrak or any other body which may seek to influence the members on behalf of Amtrak or any other commuter system or transit system.
Representing Rail Passengers’ Interests - A Conference for Passenger Rail and Transit Customer Advisory Organizations & Advocates will explore how these advisory and advocacy organizations throughout the United States and Canada can improve their practices to better represent rail passengers in a coherent, proactive, and effective manner. The conference is spearheaded by some members of the Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee and commuter rail advisory boards.
Conference participants will be provided the opportunity to share information regarding their respective organizations and exchange ideas concerning best practices of such committees, boards and councils. Interactive workshops held throughout the conference will focus on a number of key questions and are designed to provide new insights and tools to improve the quality and effectiveness of advisory and advocacy service.
These interactive workshops will be led and supplemented by experienced speakers who will facilitate the interaction and share their advisory and advocacy expertise.
Interactive workshops include
- Advisory Committee and Board Organizational Structure - The Nuts and Bolts of Our Operations
- Needs Assessment and Generating Recommendations - What is Needed and How Is It Obtained
- Promoting Greater Dialogue and Consultation - Improving The Channels of Communication, Advising, and Advocacy
- Constructing Links With Other Passenger Groups - Multi-Modal On A New Level
- Funding Strategies and Support - How Best To Pay For and Staff The Work We Do
- Addressing The Unique Needs of Persons With Disabilities - Access To Rail Travel, The ADA, and Beyond
- Future Directions - Building Upon Our Conference Success.
Invited speakers include Mr. Kenneth Bauer, President, Long Island Railroad; Mr. David Bertram, Former Chair, Central Rail Users Consultative Committee, London, England; Mr. Ross Capon, Executive Director, NARP; Honorable Brent Coles, Mayor of Boise, Idaho and President, U.S. Conference of Mayors; Mr. James Coston, Member, Amtrak Reform Council; Mr. George Haikalis, President, Institute for Rational Urban Mobility; Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman, U.S. Senator representing Connecticut, and Chair, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee; Honorable James McGovern, Member of Congress representing Massachusetts; Honorable Richard Shelby, U.S. Senator representing Alabama and Ranking Member, Senate Budget Subcommittee on Transportation, and Mr. David Solow, CEO, Metrolink (Southern California Commuter Rail).
Registration is $165 per person if received before September 7th, or $200 at the door on September 15th.
For further information, contact Richard Rudolph, Ph.D., RRPI Conference Planning Chair at 207-642-5161 or write to RRPI Conference, P.O. Box 9373, St. Louis, Missouri 63117.
What a week. Chairman Young’s $71 billion bill is, for the first time, an honest approach to the challenges of the future because it addresses realistic long term needs, has a reasonable funding mechanism, is properly administered, and appears to be the opening salvo of the formulation of a national transportation policy, with an emphasis on passenger rail development.
This is far, far different from just throwing money at Amtrak as it exists today. This is a bill that recognizes the needs of passenger rail, freight railroads, individual states and their unique needs, and a policy for the future. This bill will stand and be a catalyst to prosperity for rail no matter what happens to Amtrak as we know it today.
It’s a bill whose time has come.
Rejoice!
Bruce Richardson
Jacksonville, Florida