Version XXIX-A – This Was The Week That Was – An Amtrak Saga

November 27, 2001

So much to talk about, so little time.

1. We don’t know if the check should be in the mail: It seems that Amtrak is trying to deal with some potential fuzzy math on how much it owes vendors. The fuzzy part is that probably, the company doesn’t know.

   Just in case, on November 9th, Amtrak sent a letter to all (most; some vendors report not receiving one; is this an indication of the problem?) vendors saying
   

   Sir/Madam:

   We are in the process of conducting a review of our vendor accounts. Accordingly, we are requesting the assistance and cooperation of our vendors by providing us a current statement of our account showing all open transactions.

   Should you not be able to provide an open item statement, please send us a copy of your aged trial balance of our account, or any other source that will allow us to review all open items including: invoices, charge backs, allowances, credits, and overpayments. If there is a zero balance on our account(s), please indicate such below.

   Since this is an Accounts Payable special project, we have established a separate mailing address for this request. Kindly include the name and telephone number of the individual we may contact if follow up is needed. …. (end of letter)

   Maybe it’s a good thing that passenger trains run on a fixed guideway track. With these people in charge that don’t even know how much they owe routine vendors, it may be a surprise where trains would end up without being pointed in the right direction.

   This sounds like that $3 billion in known debt may turn out to be a low figure …

2. The guys and gals at Amtrak marketing are doing things better than ever. The new Fall 2001 timetables reveal some fascinating thinking about what Amtrak senior management obviously thinks about the “great unwashed masses” that live west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and south of Richmond, Virginia.

   With the exception of the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited, and connections shown from the three Florida trains and the Carolinian to Boston, all timetables for any train service north of New York City have been wiped clean from the national timetable. In its place is an advertisement for Acela service, with a small, brief mention at the bottom that other service to New England is listed in the separate (But equal? Hardly. Reading the Northeast timetable, you would be shocked to know Amtrak goes to other parts of the country.) Northeast timetable.

   Apparently, Amtrak senior management doesn’t believe that any of us would want to travel anywhere north of New York City.

   In place of where the Twilight Shoreliner, Vermonter, Ethan Allen Express, Maple Leaf, and Adirondack used to be shown in the national timetable are in house ads for Acela and 15% off for seniors who travel.

   So, your sweet Aunt Gertrude wants to travel from Omaha to St. Albans, Vermont. She asks that nice young man that lives next door to read the national timetable for her, so she can call Amtrak and make sure she books the right train.

   Oops! There’s nothing in the national timetable for that nice young man that lives next door to read! Sweet Aunt Gertrude didn’t ask for the right timetable. Silly her! She forgot that anything north of Richmond, Virginia and east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is sacred Northeast Corridor territory, and can’t be sullied by being included in a national timetable.

   Please, name ANY other common carrier that publishes two timetables instead of one national timetable? Yes, all publish some types of regional timetables, but do they leave out an entire part of the country in the national timetable? Probably not.

   When will we, as traveling Americans experience relief from these people running Amtrak today? How many more major mistakes are they going to have to make before someone shows them the door? The ARC already got the clock running for the end of Amtrak and the beginning of Amtrak, Jr., now, how long are these people going to hang around causing even more problems?

   The best domestic Christmas present the Bush administration could give taxpayers and the passenger train riding public is to have the courage to show this present group of Amtrak senior management the door immediately, and at least install a benign caretaker management that would not continue to do the harm these people are doing everyday.

3. A fascinating bit of information came floating over the Internet this week from an Amtrak conductor based in Boston.

   The gentleman, who, it is vividly apparent, is dedicated and determined to do two things everyday when he comes to work: provide good passenger service, and run his train in the safest possible manner.

   There is nothing more that could be asked of any good employee. This gentleman works on the new Acela equipment.

   But, he has an ongoing problem that no one seems in a hurry to solve. He’s been working on this problem for over a month.

   All he wants is to have one of the shiny new Acela “high speed trainset” manuals that came with the shiny new Acela trainsets and were issued to conductors, engineers, and even some lead service attendants on the NEC. When something breaks when he’s on the road or something goes wrong, he wants to know what to do to fix it and keep his train moving in a timely manner.

   He doesn’t want to supplant any other union jobs, and he doesn’t want to fool with anything dangerous. He just wants to know what to do when routine things go kaput so he can throw a switch or something simple like that to keep things running.

   Often, he says, passenger safety issues are involved.

   But, gee, he was told in New York City that since he was a Boston conductor, he couldn’t have a New York manual (Perhaps it’s written in a different language, since the two cities are so far apart?). When he got home to Boston and asked for a manual, there was a great scratching of heads and wonderment if someone like a conductor should be entrusted with such a vaunted document. Consultations were made, phone calls were placed, but, still, no manual.

   So, out of frustration, he’s sent e-mails to some company officials and made a general plea on the Internet for help since some Amtrak officials monitor the Internet chat group he’s a part of on a regular basis.

   This is just one more very sad part of the Amtrak saga. Ask employees to go out every day and do a good job, but don’t give them the right tools for the right job. Things just don’t need fixing at the very top, they’re broken all the way down to the front lines, too.

4. There has been no word lately on what happened to those 93 passenger cars Amtrak put up on the auction block in November. Some were sold, some weren’t, no details have been revealed.

   What we do know is that some vital assets were stripped away from the company because of Amtrak senior management’s scorched Earth policy. If it doesn’t relate to the NEC or Acela, it can’t be worth worrying about, it appears.

5. The latest item to come to the surface is that Amtrak senior management wants Congress to pass immediate legislation that will excuse Amtrak from having to write its own liquidation plan, as triggered by the ARC finding earlier this month.

   They claim it’s unnecessary, since Congress has signaled that trains will keep running.

   Is this another example of them not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time?

   Since they can’t say the dog ate their homework, keep in mid what they are asking: They want the Congress of the United States of America, comprised of 435 voting members of the House of Representatives, and 100 voting members of the Senate, to pass a special bill just for these Amtrak senior executives, that will then have to be signed by the President of the Unites States (who is currently otherwise occupied by running a war) so they don’t have to put together a document of undetermined length.

   Is this chutzpah, or what?

   They are probably right that any liquidation plan they write will go in the circular file. But, that’s OK, they are still fulfilling their legal requirement.

   If the very top brass doesn’t want to write this document, isn’t that what junior executives are for? The law does not specify how the plan should be written, what size or shape it should be, and how in depth it should be. It just says “liquidation plan.”

   Well, take some junior executive, give him a word processor, and tell him not to leave his office until he’s done. After all, all of those college loans he took out to get through graduate school had to mean something.

   What we’re talking about is textbook stuff to liquidate a company. Not brain surgery.

   But, why is Amtrak senior management balking? What are they afraid of revealing if someone starts looking too closely? What are they hiding? All sorts of possibilities of corporate and financial naughtiness come to mind almost immediately. Enquiring minds want to know why they are so reticent. What are they protecting?

That’s it for another few days as the real struggle continues to tell the truth about the necessity of a true national system of passenger trains, not disjointed corridors kept together by a patchwork of connecting trains.

Remember, we are a country that needs and demands a NATIONAL system, which includes ALL of the country, not just a favored region or left and right hand coasts. Only when we have a national system will we have the right system for Amtrak, Jr.