Version XXVI – This Was The Week That Was – An Amtrak Saga

November 2, 2001

Here we are, Week 26, exactly the six month point for TWTWTW. It’s been an interesting run, keeping track of the deeds and misdeeds of Amtrak. Now that we’ve seen them in action for the first six months, no telling what the next six months will bring. But, to be sure, it will be interesting.

1. Hurry up and wait, but can we afford to? This week, Allan Rutter, the Bush Administration head of the FRA, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee that the administration favors funding Amtrak at its current levels, leaving everything “as is” for now, and having a major debate on the future of passenger rail transportation during the next calendar year.

   For some, that will seem like an eternity. For others, they will take it as a blink of the eye and more opportunity to engrain their thinking into the national psyche.

   Most thoughtful people want the administration to do something NOW about Amtrak and passenger rail. They want change, and they want results.

   Many are afraid that Amtrak, as a national carrier, is seeing its last days, and it will evolve into a hodge podge collection of relatively unconnected corridors that will not allow efficient long distance travel.

   Others see this as yet another opportunity to push expensive and fanciful high speed rail projects, that most likely will produce the same result as said above; lots of unconnected corridors with little hubbing or any sense of useful matrix.

   Maybe a national debate will finally bring to the forefront the true facts about how Amtrak should be positioned for the future.

   Perhaps the best message will finally emerge, that Amtrak is not competitive with the airplane, but rather it is competitive with the automobile and bus. Those are the two true markets that Amtrak can tap for an almost unlimited amount of future business.

   That does not preclude running speeds of up to 125 miles per hour, but it does preclude 150 mph and above running for right now.

   Only when this country becomes more like Europe, which has a fully developed steel wheel on steel rail traditional passenger system to feed the 150 mph plus trains, will high speed rail become realistic. Until then, it will continue to be disjointed demonstration projects that will only demonstrate the ability to chew through money at alarming rates of speed.

   When passenger rail can reemerge in this country at speeds in excess of 90 mph for everyday running, and the attorneys can get over the alleged liabilities of an industry that tries to live up to its potential instead of an industry that is ripe to pick the pockets of in liability litigation because someone doesn’t know how to heed a declarative warning at a grade crossing, then passenger rail will become even more favorable than today.

   If you want someone to blame for slower train speeds and more restrictive operating conditions, look to the legal system as much as to Wall Street and the need for stockholder dividends. Railroads have become an almost free ride for plaintiffs where the big, bad train jumped out and bit the unsuspecting drivers who ran grade crossing danger signals or pedestrians who trespassed on railroad property.

   The Bush Administration’s slow speed in naming the final member of the Amtrak Board of Directors goes hand in hand with FRA chief Rutter’s statement about waiting awhile to start the national debate. Many have been wondering when this vacancy will be filled, and a permanent chairman of the board finally named.

   On the issue of the Amtrak Reform Council issuing a final report, the sooner the better. Special interests are continuing to lead the charge to disband the ARC, which would be a tragedy.

   This workhorse group has had almost impossible conditions to work under, from a surly and reluctant Amtrak that has given it little or no cooperation, to the Clinton Administration that did next to nothing to help the council perform its duties and keep its congressional mandate.

   Clear thinking individuals know that the creation of the ARC was a brilliant stroke that intended to provide some independent oversight of Amtrak. Regrettably, too many people automatically assumed the ARC was “the enemy” and have done everything in their power to keep them from completing their work.

   The bright spot of the ARC has been its leadership, on both appointed and staff levels. These fine people have continued to work towards keeping their mandate, no matter how difficult the circumstances. One day very soon, many others are going to recognize how hard and well these people have worked for all of our benefit.

2. Other testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee this week signaled the next play in Amtrak’s spin control game. It appears one too many Amtrak public relations whizzes have watched too many episodes of The West Wing and taken it seriously. This continues to reinforce the belief among many that often Amtrak senior management can’t distinguish between reality and fiction.

   The Department of Transportation’s deputy assistant Inspector General made the statement to the committee that Amtrak needs to be excused from its self-sufficiency mandate next year if the company is expected to meet its security needs and concerns.

   Excuse me? Did your humble correspondent miss something here?

   This seems to signal that Amtrak senior management can’t concentrate on two issues at once. What’s wrong with this picture?

   Following the deputy assistant’s thoughts, George Warrington, Amtrak President and CEO also said, “With the economy contracting and public expectations about security and safety rising, the self-sufficiency deadline will force us to choose very soon between two evils,” according to the Associated Press.

   Does this mean that Amtrak will either have to spend big bucks to keep terrorists off of trains or not run them at all?

   This week we have heard a lament from the private freight railroads, with their hands out looking for alms from Congress, that they have had to spend several millions of dollars for security concerns since September 11th, and therefore, they should have free federal money, too. Apparently the did not spend enough to help Amtrak.

   So, exactly how much is Amtrak going to have to spend? There is a $1.77 billion bill working its way through Congress to address just these needs; is that not enough? What will Amtrak do?

   This looks suspiciously like the beginning of an argument from the transit-loving Amtrak senior management that those allegedly bad, money-losing long distance trains can’t be maintained because of security concerns. Yes, it’s too much of a risk to run trains outside of chosen corridors because somebody might try to use them as an instrument of terrorism.

   Let’s take a moment and review.

   • First, Amtrak senior management has tried to make national policy that the only good train is a corridor train.
   • Next, Amtrak’s president has testified before Congress that long distance trains lose money, and, therefore, are not worthy of maintaining in any rational manner.
   • Then, they have allowed the national fleet to atrophy to a point where it is below the minimum daily requirements for routine operations, and they have begun to sell off parts of the national fleet that could be used for expansion so there is no equipment for expansion.
   • Now, we are told that either they must be allowed to concentrate on security measures, and, therefore, they can’t also concentrate on meeting their congressional mandate for self-sufficiency.

   Does anyone else think there is a pattern developing here? Aside for the fact that they are saying they can’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, a case of genocide for long distance trains seems to be being built, nefarious brick by brick.

   It would appear on the surface that Allan Rutter and the Bush Administration, distracted as they may be by a war and its many requirements, need to do something now, not later. The longer Amtrak’s current senior management stays in place, the more endangered the passenger train becomes.

3. One of the single wisest people your humble correspondent knows constantly espouses about the making of choices, good and bad. The thought is that on almost everything done in life, there are good and bad choices to be made, and when we don’t make good choices, we pay the consequences.

   That seems easy enough to understand, by most.

   There has been much chatter this week about the repair or replacement of older Amtrak equipment. In this space last week, comment was made about the 93 cars that Amtrak has for sale.

   Amtrak has made a choice. Instead of attempting to use this equipment for expansion, they have chosen to jettison it. Some have said, “but, those mean people in Congress won’t give Amtrak enough money to fix the equipment, so why keep it?”

   That explanation won’t wash. Amtrak senior management makes choices everyday in the expenditures of the billions of dollars a year it has through either free federal money, ticket sales, money that is milked from states through the 403(B) program, real estate income, fiber optic hosting income, and more.

   Amtrak senior management makes conscious choices to starve the national system, while Club Acela locations are redecorated, NEC equipment is repainted, millions of dollars of new signage is put up, and other expenditures are made.

   The branding of Acela cost the company millions. The re branding of Pacific Surfliners and other services is costing a bundle, too. Yet, no one makes the decision to create new revenues through putting existing revenue producing equipment back on the road.

   What a concept. More interest in painted logos and signs than putting revenue producing cars from the wreck and injured line at Beech Grove back on the road.

   It’s a true statement that if the national system is starved long enough, it will die. It’s been hungry for years, now.

   Who is setting the priorities here? The Captain of the sinking Titanic may have been pleased that the ship’s band continued to play until the last moment to keep passenger spirits up, but he also made sure the crew launched as many lifeboats as possible.

   Too many lifeboats are sitting un launched at Beech Grove and elsewhere.

4. Here’s a mind twister for you that may have no rational explanation. There has been much carping over the past several years about the slowing of passenger train schedules, particularly due to mail and express handling. Much of this has been instigated by the host freight railroads.

   Well, here’s something to think about. Amtrak has five Intercity trains that run over the Amtrak owned and dispatched NEC. They are the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Silver Palm, Crescent, and Carolinian.

   All five trains run over the identical stretch of track from Washington to New York Penn.

   Now, try to figure this out.

   The Silver Meteor runs Northbound during peak morning rush hour, between 6:10 a.m. and 9:40 a.m. It runs from Washington to NYP in three hours and 30 minutes, passenger discharge only. Southbound, it runs NYP to Washington in three hours and 25 minutes, receiving passengers only, between 7:05 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Pretty good running time.

   The Carolinian, an all-stop train, runs Northbound, after the evening rush hour, in three hours and thirty minutes, making all stops and allowing passengers to board and detrain at any station, between 6:25 p.m. and 9:55 p.m. Southbound, it runs during peak morning rush hour times, under the same conditions, in three hours and 45 minutes, still a good schedule, between 6:05 a.m. and 9:50 a.m.

   But, the Silver Star, which operates in midday conditions has a different story. Northbound, passenger discharge only, the Star takes four hours and 24 minutes, between 11:24 a.m. and 3:48 p.m. Southbound, receiving passengers only, it takes four hours and 40 minutes, between 11:35 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.

   The Silver Palm, under the same conditions as the Star, Southbound towards the end of morning rush hour takes four hours and 40 minutes, between 7:45 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. and Northbound, during evening rush hour, it takes four hours and 28 minutes to make the run between 4:40 p.m. and 9:08 p.m.

   The Crescent, which has the same discharge/receive restrictions as the Florida trains, takes four hours and 45 minutes to go North midday between 10:25 a.m. and 3:10 p.m., and four hours and 29 minutes to go South during rush hour, between 2:26 p.m. and 6:55 p.m.

   Why can the Meteor and Carolinian make this trip so fast, but the Star, Palm, and Crescent can’t? The Meteor and Carolinian operate during rush hour times like the others, but seem to zip through the traffic. The midday trains seem to do the worst. Is there a convincing reason for this? The NEC is hardly congested midday, yet there is slow running. Enquiring minds want to know the answer to this.

   In the future, under a new administration that understand passenger rail versus transit needs, it will be difficult to ask the freight railroads to handle passenger trains when there is so much discrepancy on Amtrak’s own NEC.

   Or, is this just another example of NEC managers placing the needs of long distance trains well below everything else in the company?

That’s it for the first six months of TWTWTW. Let’s see what happens next.