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

December 05, 2001

Did somebody say Amtrak was going away? It sure doesn’t sound like it. Amtrak is continuing to spend money like there may be no tomorrow (which may be true if we’re not careful).

1. Word has come that a test train will run on December 20th from the new Louisville, Kentucky station to Nashville, Tennessee. The equipment to be used with the be the Kentucky Cardinal trainset that lays over in Louisville every day.The run is an invitation-only event that is so exclusive, even some of Nashville’s most prominent rail supporters have been snubbed.

   According to a CSX official, the running time from downtown Louisville to Nashville is about four hours in each direction. Currently the daily Louisville layover is about 13 hours, so that will give CSX plenty of time to deliver to train to Nashville, turn it, and have it back in Louisville in time for the leisurely stroll back to Chicago.

   We can only hope the running time on CSX will be better than the train currently makes between Indianapolis and Jeffersonville, the former terminus across the river from Louisville. To travel the 111 miles between the two cities, the Kentucky Cardinal takes about 4 hours and 40 minutes, which gives it a genteel, average speed of around 23 mph on the Louisville & Indiana Railroad.

   It’s trains like this that give proponents of high speed rail corridors and bashers of Amtrak’s long distance system fuel for their fires. Amtrak is supposed to be running a “modern” intercity passenger service. What’s so “modern” about 23 mph for 111 route miles?

   Keep in mind there is a pot of money currently available in Washington (that has been there since several years into the Clinton Administration) through the Federal Railway Administration that is intended for such upgrading projects and other things. (It’s the same pot of money that, if they every get off the dime, will fund the Florida East Coast Railway and Kansas City Southern extensions of the Florida Silver Service and the Crescent into Texas.)

   Does anyone care enough to upgrade the Louisville & Indiana so trains could run at an acceptable speed? Or, was the Kentucky Cardinal designed just as a mail and express run where speed doesn’t matter, and neither does passenger comfort and convenience?

2. Amtrak West passed out tee-shirts to employees in the last week or so reading “Amtrak to Las Vegas, We’re On A Roll.” In the middle of the two lines of type was some artwork of an Amtrak locomotive in the latest color design (Your humble correspondent has lost count as to which is the “latest” design, so it’s anybody’s guess what color scheme is being used), along with some Las Vegas hotels.So, the company that has taken headrests off of trains because it couldn’t afford them is passing out free “feel good” tee-shirts to employees?

   While Los Angeles-Las Vegas is one of the most heavily traveled city pairs in domestic transportation, another Janesville Rocket or Kentucky Cardinal is in the making here.

   The FASTEST projected running time for a new train is about six and a half hours on a good day with a tail wind, with actual running time projected at probably seven to eight hours from LAUPT to downtown Vegas.

   Driving time for most living in the Los Angeles area runs five hours, or less.

   And, how will one frequency per day help the interstate highway traffic situation?

3. On the most positive note of all, the Boston to Portland, Maine Downeaster service will have its inaugural December 14, with revenue service beginning December 15th, “if the creek don’t rise and Guilford can’t come up with any more excuses,” so they say.This new service will finally bring rail service back to Maine that is reasonably connected to the rest of the North American system. For decades, VIA Rail Canada served Maine in the dead of night with its Atlantic route, which ran from Montreal to Halifax, Nova Scotia via Saint John, New Brunswick and Moncton. The now defunct Atlantic went on a direct west to east heading through northern Maine.

   The new Downeaster service will serve Boston, Haverhill, Exeter, Durham, Dover, Wells, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, and Portland. There are proposed expansions to Lewiston/Auburn, Freeport and Brunswick.

4. Trying to get a read on what is going on inside of Amtrak while the “New Amtrak” is being created is like trying to herd geese. Everywhere you listen, there is a different type of honking going on.Talking to folks at company headquarters at 60 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, you hear a lot of gloom and doom. Phrases like “keep your head low and put your time in” seem to be common. Very few positive words emit from Washington. Many high profile members of Amtrak senior management seem to have nearly vanished from view.

   Zoom across the country to Los Angeles, and the attitude seems to be “Crisis? What crisis? We’re just crewing and dispatching trains from here like always. All of this will blow over. Next problem.” The Left Hand Coast seems to be dealing with all of this better than the Right Hand Coast.

   Then, there is the middle, where there seems to be a mix between “business as usual” and “we’re dispatching trains from here like always.” Word from the middle seems to be that of concern, but we’ve still got a railroad to run, so let’s keep filling jobs that are open, handing out promotions, and wait to see what happens.

   One uniform message does come through from all areas, though: company wide, morale is VERY low. That’s not to be unexpected.

   Amtrak’s long time employees have been in a continual crisis mode for years. One budget crisis after the other seems to be normal. Making more out of less is common.

   The best hope is that Congress and the Bush Administration will act for restructuring and reorganization within the 90 day framework as set forth by the Amtrak Reform Act of 1997, and not try to stretch the debate out another 90 or 180 days. That would be intolerable to keep the company – and country – waiting to know what the New Amtrak is going to be like and how it will be structured.

5. The Gulf Coast Business Group, continuously the most aggressive and forward thinking of the Intercity business groups, has hired its own advertising agency, the Godwin Group of Jackson, Mississippi.Godwin maintains offices in New Orleans and Miami.

   Godwin has an impressive client list, including the former American Hawaii Cruise Line and its sister line that had been formed by the joint parent company (that included Delta Queen Steamboat Company) to market mainland to Hawaii cruises.

   The important point is that Godwin has a strong and successful understanding of travel industry marketing and advertising. Your humble correspondent has seen a number of examples of Godwin’s excellent work. Don’t let the Jackson, Mississippi hometown color your thinking. Remember, this is the same city that is also hometown to the MCI Worldcom telecommunications giant.

   Amtrak’s former Madison Avenue agency in New York City severed its relationship with Amtrak a number of weeks ago, over unspecified differences.

   Amtrak, on a national basis continues to work with an agency that specializes in reaching the African American market and an agency which specializes in sports marketing.

   The Godwin Group will work on the City of New Orleans and Crescent routes exclusively, through the Amtrak national marketing department.

   Previously, the Crescent was served by the Crescent Promotional Office, based in Meridian, Mississippi, and, prior to the 2000 reorganization of the Amtrak national marketing department, the City of New Orleans was served by the Sunset Limited and City of New Orleans Promotional Office, based here in Jacksonville, Florida.

6. United Rail Passenger Alliance has experienced a surge in visits to our web site where the new “Analysis of the Amtrak System Indicates Long Distance Trains, Not Corridors, Are the Moneymakers” charts are posted.So far, the response to URPA has been very gratifying, including encouragement from several state organizations. URPA is planning to put this information into a user-friendly format and distribute it quickly to the news media and other interested parties.

   Some within URPA, which have been compiling this data from Amtrak sources for a number of years, have been surprised at the reaction to the information, thinking this was “old news.”

   But, for many, this is the first time these numbers have been seen in this form and in this type of head to head comparison. While other organizations have been good soldiers and supported the Amtrak party line, they may have neglected to offer any independent analysis of Amtrak’s ongoing situation.

   Of all of the responses received about the URPA charts, there has only been one negative public reaction from someone questioning the numbers because they came from URPA. There’s always one unconvinced critic in every group.

   Let it be known to all that right now, the passenger railroad industry is in a shooting war over what the future will bring in the form of the New Amtrak. Lots of trial balloons are being floated by lots of people, from pundits to corporate spokespersons. All sorts of ideas are being discussed, and, ultimately, some sort of deal will be struck that will define the New Amtrak.

   Anyone putting less than a full heart and soul effort into this process is not serious about shaping the New Amtrak and passenger rail service in the United States starting next year. Now is not the time for the feint of heart, nor the timid. Now is the time for overt action and the thinking of rational people.

   URPA is committed to continuing to fully participate in this process, including the presentation of data and other information as it becomes available.

   If you or your organization needs assistance in making your case for a viable national system, contact us by email or telephone.
   As we have in the past, we have the ability to work with state and local organizations to make the right case for a proper and viable national passenger rail system.

As the year continues to wind down, every day brings us closer to the advent of the New Amtrak. One can only hope that the New Amtrak will be a unified, national system that includes both viable long distance trains and short distance corridors, operating in harmony with each other.

To have anything less will be to have nothing.