This Week At Amtrak 2004-09-03
Vol. I, No. - September 03, 2004
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Sad, but, true, Amtrak is using the occasion of the end of its mail and express business to hack away at the national system.
Two trains, the Palmetto, currently operating between New York City and Tampa/Miami will be truncated to New York to Savannah, Georgia service, and the Three Rivers, currently running from New York to Chicago via Pittsburgh will be eliminated, and combined with the Pennsylvanian into a single coach-only train running New York-Pittsburgh-Chicago.
Cities losing train service in Florida include Waldo, Ocala, Wildwood, and Dade City. These stops will be replaced by a Thruway Amtrak bus, which will also add Gainesville as a bus stop.
On the Three Rivers route, Youngstown, Akron and Fostoria, Ohio will lose service, as will Nappanee, Indiana.
The ironic part of this is that Amtrak is hailing these changes as a way to “improve core passenger service.” No one has yet to adequately explain how losing train service is an “improvement” over present conditions. Some of these stations losing service have had passenger service since the earliest days of the routes, dating back to nearly a century or more.
Apparently, Amtrak President and CEO David Gunn believes that multiple frequencies with load factors of less than 40% in some cases are preferential for the NEC, but national system routes cannot have multiple frequencies, even with good or above average ridership. What’s good for the goose must definitely not be good for the gander.
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Some of the most interesting things come in by flying over the transom. This was sent by a third party reliable source, from a conversation in the last 10 days. “… (T)he growth in intercity rail is corridors. In Europe they are killng off most of their traditional overnight long distancetrains in favor of connected corridors.” This quote came from someone at Amtrak’s Washington headquarters that deals with the future of Amtrak. No wonder the Palmetto is being shortened, and the Three Rivers and Pennsylvanian are being combined. For anyone who is keeping score,the loss of the Palmetto will mean that Florida, which includes Orlando, the continually largest vacation destination in the world, will lose one third of its North/South-Eastern Seaboard passenger rail service (exclusive of the Auto Train).
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Amtrak’s press release of September 3rd touting the Palmetto and Three Rivers changes made one other mention: “…(T)he passenger railroad will also reduce the number of locomotives it needs by shortening trains to and from Chicago.” Amtrak always seems to be happy to take revenue producing equipment out of service. As of September 3, 2004, Amtrak’s roster shows 1,406 active passenger cars in its fleet (not including locomotives or mail and express cars), with a daily requirement of 1,149 cars needed to maintain existing services. On that particular day, 1,162 cars were available for use.
Amtrak shows 48 Viewliner sleeping cars in the fleet, with a daily requirement of 38 cars, leaving 10 cars in reserve, or 26% of a fleet of cars less than 10 years old needed for reserve. Twenty-six percent? How much revenue opportunity is being lost by not operating these cars?
Amtrak also shows 22 active Heritage dining cars in the fleet, with a daily requirement of 15 cars, leaving seven cars in reserve, or 32% of the dining car fleet out of revenue service. Again, 32%? Is this the best use of assets? Does non-free federal money in the form of passenger ticket or food service revenue mean anything to Amtrak? Or, would the company rather just have the American taxpayer continue to fund the railroad instead of a competent management team finding ways to create income without government handouts?
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As many are aware, Amtrak recently lost its chief financial officer, who departed for greener pastures. To replace him, Amtrak posted a public job listing. In case you’re interested, here are some of the requirements for the job: Must have a Master’s degree in business administration, accounting, finance or equivalent experience, education and/or training. CPA designation preferred. Must have 5-15 years in a management capacity … travel commitment is 10 percent. …Must maintain standards of confidentiality and a strong commitment to ethical practice. The salary range is $95,000 to $240,000 annually, and relocation benefits may apply.
Finally, Amtrak is willing to pay closer to market rates for good talent. For too long, too many good people have stayed away from Amtrak employment for many reasons, among them the low pay and commitment to starvation financial diets if you don’t work on the NEC. Hopefully, thecompany will eventually attract a better cadre of executives than now exists at the railroad.
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Back during the various customer service and safety employee bloodbaths of the Warrington administration, the extra boards were abolished for a number of onboard services and train and engine services positions. One of the results of this has been late initial terminal departures, due to non-rested crews. If a crew comes in on a late inbound train, no matter how quickly the mechanical forces turn the equipment for return, it doesn’t do any good because each T&E crew must have a lawful rest period before going back out on the road. Since there are no extra board employees to fill these gaps, passengers are stranded in terminals waiting for crews to be rested. We’re still seeing the fallout of decisions to cut the wrong type of employees at Amtrak. Employees that made a difference in safety and passenger service were cut on the national system, but those which filled the ranks of one of the largest federal jobs programs in the Northeast often remained.
Another result of this recently has been trains operating in California have been run without assistant conductors. The word is that in this part of Northern California, nobody has been hired in 20 months, and a class of new hires to fill the assistant conductor ranks is small. How long is Amtrak willing to take safety risks with both employees’ and passengers’ lives to meet a budget goal?