This Week At Amtrak 2004-10-06
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Vol. 1, No. 6 – October 06, 2004
- The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has politely declined to be held up by Amtrak for an annual subsidy of $2.5 million to keep the Three Rivers train running. PennDOT has said the cost is too rich for the Commonwealth’s coffers, in addition to already paying for the Keystone Service.
Other states pay for trains, too, but as usual, more questions are raised than answered. Inquiring minds have asked, as an example, why every other state than New York pays for regional train service, such as California for the Pacific Surfliners, Capitols, and San Joaquins; Missouri for the Kansas City-St. Louis runs; Illinois for the Illini and Illinois Zephyr; and North Carolina for the Carolinian and Piedmont service, yet New York State doesn’t pay a dime for the Empire Service trains. New York does kick in for the Adirondack, which is smalltime compared to the multiple-frequency Empire Service trains.
Here’s another consideration: North Carolina pays a lot of money for the Carolinian, which runs from Charlotte, North Carolina through Raleigh and Richmond to Washington and up the NEC to New York City. This train is crowded, especially North of Richmond with a good amount of local on-off business that has no affect in North Carolina. So, how much money is North Carolina paying for a train that has a lot of business that may not be filtered down to credit on the books for North Carolina, but the state may be paying for the expenses? The same thought holds for Pennsylvania, since all of the Keystone Service trains run between Philadelphia and New York on the NEC, all open for local business, too. States like North Carolina are even paying for Amtrak station agents that benefit the company far beyond just meeting trains at a local station. How much of a burden are the states taking on that’s far more benefitting Amtrak than the states that are footing the bill?
Look at Amtrak’s own bizarre bookkeeping. Acelas, Metroliners, and Northeast Regional trains all share the same tracks, stations, route, and most support services between Washington and Boston, Yet, under Amtrak accounting, Acelas and Regionals are making money while Metroliners are not. In the past, it’s been Acelas and Metroliners making money while Regionals have not. How can these costs be so creatively apportioned so that one set of trains on the same tracks lose money while the others don’t?
And, one last question on the subject. Boston now has an operator other than Amtrak running its regional rail commuter system. Los Angeles and Metrolink are doing the same. Every year we hear squeals of protest from states at budget time about how even Jesse James had more courtesy than Amtrak because he at least used a mask and a gun when he held up his victims instead of the chutzpah Amtrak demonstrates each year at what it costs to run state trains. When are the states going to learn that the best situation for everyone is to put state sponsored trains out to competitive bidding? Do you really need a national reservations center to run local trains? A little creativity on the part of the states could be saving local taxpayers a lot of money.
When the true costs of running state supported trains is known, then perhaps states will be more willing to run more trains to more places more often. As long as the current cost structure is maintained, states will be rightfully reluctant to spend money on something that may be way overpriced and under performing.
- How little are you willing to settle for? That’s the real question for today’s passenger train supporters.
“But, Amtrak is all we’ve got, and if we lose it, we’ll have nothing!” wails the True Believer, just like a co-dependent, love sick teenager. “We’ve got to save it at any cost!”
If that’s the case, and you’re a True Believer, how long are you willing to settle for next to nothing? Most of the national system consists of single trains serving huge cities and small towns once a day. In some instances, only three times a week. Major cities and tourism destinations, such as Nashville, Phoenix, and Las Vegas have no service at all. Think about an important city the size of Atlanta or Denver, and each has only one train a day, not necessarily going to other nearby cities where travelers want to go. And, what about Houston? This behemoth of a city has only one train, three days a week.
And, then, there’s the NEC, hosting the greatest number of cities with the greatest number of trains, and the worst passenger traffic matrix of all. The operation of the NEC presumes that travelers only want to travel in North-South city pairs. What about New Yorkers that want to travel to Chicago? One train a day is operated between perhaps the two greatest cities in our nation. And Boston, where you can’t even go west anymore in a sleeping car after November 1st. Don’t even think about going to Montreal from Boston, because “you can’t get there from here.”
This is what so many people are fighting so hard to protect? Amtrak and its various wholly owned lapdog organizations have become adept at ginning up crisis concepts, looking for more support through negative motivation. As every fundraiser knows, it takes a crisis to spur people to action. Without a crisis, there is no need for increased support, either financially or emotionally. This holds true for both Amtrak and its various wholly owned lapdog organizations.
Amtrak as we know it has no concrete expansion plans for the national system. It’s satisfied to run a skeletal system with little or no hubbing capabilities. Once again, as was true a century ago, it’s easier for freight to cross the country on a train than passengers.
One slightly famous, 30 year resident of New York City that is a wonderful photographer and author, once commented about Amtrak’s NEC service to New York. “Well, New Yorkers expect to be able to go anytime to Penn Station and board a train. That’s why we take the train.” While passengers in Houston peer down the tracks in vain waiting days at a time for a passenger train to appear, New Yorkers would be upset if they had to wait for hourly headways. This is equality or federalism at its best?
In reality, no one is well served by Amtrak. NEC riders have few East-West choices, even though the Allegheny mountains were tamed over 150 years ago. At the far southern end of the NEC in the Norfolk, Virginia/Hampton Roads area, no trains are available to go West or South, only North. In fact, anywhere South of Washington and North of Jacksonville, Florida on the East Coast, you can only travel North-South, with only one provision for East-West travel. It’s the same story in California. And, in so many other places. Amtrak’s skeletal system does not come close to matching the travel potential of passenger rail travel demand.
Amtrak was at its zenith in 1992. Since then, the Pioneer, Desert Wind, and Broadway Limited have all disappeared. The Gulf Coast Limited came and went, the Silver Palm turned back into the coach-only Palmetto, and the Three Rivers has been given a death sentence. The Kentucky Cardinal and Janesville Rockets were both mercifully short-lived. The Sunset Limited left Phoenix, and the Texas Eagle no longer serves Houston. The Montrealer is dead and gone, now only a day train over part of the route.
How does this problem get fixed?
- First, stop running trains on the NEC that are nearly empty. At least a third, if not more, of the NEC resources schedule could be moved to other parts of the country, with no loss in mobility for the Northeast. There are probably too many Pacific Surfliner departures, too.
- Second, realize that every route in the national system could easily support three daily departures, as is found in the Northeast/Florida routes. Frequency equals convenience and travel choices, which equals higher ridership.
- Third, stop closing stations. There are plenty of ways to fix Amtrak’s station costs, including franchising, cutting deals with local governments for station costs, and other plans. A staffed station is a station that is alive and seeking business. The whole world, especially many of Amtrak’s travelers, does not depend on toll free telephone numbers and Internet web sites as sole sources of travel information.
- Fourth, stop focusing on what Amtrak doesn’t have, and use the strengths it does have. Many of the unique and appealing features of passenger rail travel, such as dining cars, lounges, and sleeping cars are not considered priorities at Amtrak, but rather, burdens. Change that attitude, and start providing riders with the strength of passenger rail travel, not the imitation of airplane or bus travel.
- And, fifth, stop settling for nothing and wailing about not having enough. It’s not a question of free federal monies from Washington, and it’s not a question of robbing states blind through the 403(b) program. It’s about having the corporate resolve to expand the company, and understand that an additional train through Albuquerque is just as important as putting new concrete ties on the NEC roadbed.
Your congressman is not the answer to this question, either. It’s the Amtrak board of directors. This group has the legal responsibility of the stewardship of the future of Amtrak. Only when this board demands of management more than the status quo that has languished for the last three decades will the future improve.
