United Rail Passenger Alliance

Vol. 1, No. 4 – September 22, 2004

1. Memo to Amtrak: Today is the first day of Fall, meaning the beginning of cold weather. Please note, that very, very soon, the weather will turn freezing in Northern states, including Illinois. Therefore, cars in the Chicago yards will be subject to sleet, snow, and constant freezing conditions. This is not a ‘maybe’ situation, this is a ‘certain’ situation. Do not insult us all again this year with the excuse that ‘it’s one of the coldest winters we’ve experienced lately.’ That excuse is not viable. Winter is coming, plan for it, including making sure that all rolling stock, motive power, and switches are ready for inclement weather. All of this equipment was designed to work in both warm and freezing environments; it’s a matter of planned maintenance, not pure luck that keeps this equipment working in all weather conditions.

   If VIA Rail Canada, the freight railroads, commuter railroads, and just about every other type of transportation can keep running in harsh winter conditions, then Amtrak should be able to keep running, too.

   There was a time, not so long ago, even during the age of Amtrak, when passenger rail travel was considered to be a dependable, all-weather form of transportation. Amtrak’s mission is to be a national passenger railroad, not a fair-weather passenger railroad that looks for every lame excuse not to run trains and save budget money. Amtrak’s president and CEO claims to be ‘a real railroader.’ If this is true, demonstrate that Amtrak can meet the challenges of inclement weather, and not act like a hapless wimp.

2. Perhaps the Sunset Limited should be renamed the Hard Luck Sunset Limited. After continually being battered by poor dispatching and handling by Union Pacific Railroad and the usual internal maintenance issues, the Sunset has now been further victimized by one tropical storm and three hurricanes battering Florida, all in the areas served by the Sunset.

   Thanks to UP handling and Mother Nature, it seems almost as many runs of the Sunset have been annulled as operated this year. Hurricane Ivan’s rampage through Pensacola and the Florida panhandle means more annulments.

   The Sunset is one of America’s most storied trains, and is the oldest continually operated train in the country. The OBS crews of the Sunset are some of Amtrak’s finest, and are accustomed to working under fatiguing conditions. This train deserves a break, to be allowed to operate as intended, providing the level of service it is capable of providing. Any nefarious plans by Amtrak to change the operating characteristics of this train, such as reduced dining car and sleeping car service will be both unwelcome and unwise. Instead of planning to gut this train, the better response is to improve this train, with a goal towards changing its tri-weekly schedule into a daily schedule. Anything less will just result in higher operating deficits and more financial pain.

3. A brief thought on the benefits of institutional memory: When Amtrak, under the stewardship of the non-lamented Thomas Downs, discovered, albeit too late, that reduced train service also automatically translates to reduced revenues and less places to allocate fixed overhead costs, the company restored some of the Downs-era cuts in train service.

   Now with the slaughtering of the Three Rivers and the Palmetto service in Florida, we’re poised to see the same thing happen, again. Why is this learning curve so difficult to achieve?

4. Hurricane season and the Fall also bring about the annual gnashing of teeth over Amtrak’s share of free federal money for the next fiscal year. Amtrak, and its wholly-owned lapdog organizations are yet again bleating that the ‘mere’ sum of $900 million, as designated by the White House is a ’shutdown’ budget. Huh? $900 million generously covers the company’s operating deficit, interest payments, and railroad retirement contribution.

   Does ’shutdown’ mean that if no capital improvement monies come for the Northeast Corridor, that the entire passenger railroad will be shutdown in retribution? Let’s say this again: Amtrak’s mission is to run a national passenger railroad, not just be a long distance transit operation running on the NEC. Lack of funds for upgrading the NEC has NOTHING to do with running trains in Arizona or Montana. This type of annual blackmail by David Gunn and Amtrak has become tedious, and no longer is effective.

   The Senate has initially provided $1.2 billion for Amtrak for FY 2005, and the House, in what can only be described as a bizarre political move, zeroed out Amtrak funding along with a host of other programs. Saying things will all come out in the wash, the House probably in the end will go along with the $1.2 billion recommended by the Senate, the same amount of free federal monies given in FY 2004. It is still not apparent where much of FY 2004’s money went, considering Amtrak’s current and continual poor performance in many areas.

   Overall, is this largely not a matter of a corporate version of ‘personal responsibility?’ Amtrak seems to do very little to help itself generate more revenue, in fact, large parts of the country often go months without any type of marketing from Amtrak promoting train service. Corporate whiz kids at 60 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington scratch their heads and lament that no one is riding trains. Perhaps if Amtrak stopped being the best kept secret in the travel industry, then more passengers would ride trains, revenues would increase, political pressure would decrease, and the world would be a better place.

   The Republic of California (thanks to all who pointed out the incorrect labeling of California as a Commonwealth last week) doesn’t trust Amtrak to help itself with marketing, so it pays for marketing for Amtrak 403(b) trains in California. The state discovered that it’s cheaper and more effective to provide marketing than pay Amtrak to do nothing. Other states and the federal government, take note. Follow your instincts, not Amtrak’s demands.

5. One of the quickest fixes for Amtrak is a new board of directors. The Bush administration has done its part, by naming new members to the board. The Senate, however, has failed miserably, holding up Amtrak board confirmations because of intramural battles in Senator Daschle’s Democrat caucus. President Bush did an end run around this colossal mess by making two recess appointments to the board, including Floyd Hall of New Jersey and Enrique Sosa of Florida. Both are well known businessmen with outstanding corporate credentials. Along with board chairman David Laney and Secretary Mineta’s DOT representatives, the board should be able to start addressing many of Amtrak’s problems.

   An interesting note is that the old board appointed David Gunn as President and CEO. With an entire new board appointed by a different president that appointed the old board which hired Mr. Gunn, it will be interesting to see what theatrics may result from hard-nosed businessmen dealing with a decades-long government bureaucrat that has a long, long history of relying on government handouts instead of corporate self reliance.

   One of the saddest notes on the current board situation is the sidelining of board nominee Louis Thompson. Mr. Thompson, a great patriot and American, is perhaps the most qualified board nominee in the past 30 years. Mr. Thompson, who recently retired from distinguished service with the World Bank in Washington, led the World Bank’s interests in railroads, and was a former head of the NEC Improvement Project. Mr. Thompson knows railroads, finances, unions, and operations. For his nomination to be placed on hold by internal senate politics is a modern day tragedy that is denying Amtrak and the American people exactly the type of leadership that Amtrak so desperately needs to move ahead in a positive fashion.

   If his nomination is not approved before this session of Congress is concluded, we can only hope the White House will renew his appointment in front of perhaps a friendlier Senate after the elections. Amtrak cannot afford to be without the services of Mr. Thompson.

6. Amtrak has recently debuted its updated web site. At first glance, the improvements seems great, with the site more functional and responsive.

   Amtrak’s timetables, due out again at the end of October, are a constant bright spot for the company. Each issue is better than the previous, with more information and better presentation.

   Another change is the introduction of two recently refurbished SuperLiner 1 sleeping cars. Amtrak has made some excellent upgrades in the cars, most of them long overdue. It’s hard to realize that the first order of SuperLiners and Amfleet equipment is now older than the Heritage fleet cars were when Amtrak came into being in 1971.