United Rail Passenger Alliance

Vol. 2, No. 2 – January 31, 2005

1. We collectively grieve at the loss of Amtrak Conductor Thomas Ormiston, who was aboard Metrolink train 901 involved in the wholly tragic and unnecessary accident in Southern California on January 26th. Included in the death toll of 11 were two Union Pacific train crew members as well. Railroading has always been, and always will be a dangerous profession. We applaud those who provide this vital service to our nation at their own personal risk.

   Fortunately, Southern California authorities have charged the man responsible for this wreck with 11 counts of murder, as is appropriate. For too long, authorities have not understood that railroads and railroaders are innocent victims of selfish and foolish acts by the public.

2. The respected daily newspaper, The Tampa (Florida) Tribune ran a story last week about the Silver Star returning to Tampa service, and now the city has both dining car and sleeping car service. The Star’s reappearance in Tampa replaces the all-coach Palmetto, which, under Amtrak’s butcher knife, was shortened to a southern terminus of Savannah, Georgia in order to save on T&E and OBS crew turns.

   The Tribune noted that ridership is up since the Star’s return, and that for 2003, the beautifully restored Tampa Union Station served about 43,000 passengers on the Palmetto. Tampa was seventh among the 29 stations served in Florida by Amtrak.

   Back in 1999, URPA did a study of Tampa and Florida passenger ridership, using 1993 as a benchmark year, since it was the last year that full-size 18 car passenger trains utilizing HEP Heritage sleeping car equipment served Florida. During that year, Tampa enjoyed the service of two trains, the West Coast sections of the Silver Meteor and Silver Star. Tampa was a maintenance base for the West Coast sections of both of those trains.

   Here are the circumstances of Tampa service at the time:

   • In 1993, both the Silver Meteor and Silver Star were split in
     Jacksonville, with Miami and Tampa sections operating as separate trains south of Jacksonville.
   • The Palmetto terminated in Jacksonville, running as a day train to New York City.
   • In 1994, schedules were changed to extend the Palmetto to Tampa, adding a diner and sleeping cars, and removing the Tampa section of one of the other trains. This still maintained two daily trains in and out of Tampa and three daily trains in and out of Jacksonville.
   • In 1995, the first of the Transit Trio of Downs, Warrington and Gunn, Tom Downs, initiated the Mercer cuts, discontinuing the Palmetto, leaving only one daily train serving Tampa. Later, the Tampa maintenance and crew base was closed, and service was reconfigured to run through Tampa on the way to and from Miami. At that point, midday Tampa schedules where changed to early morning and late night departures, and Tampa ridership continued to plummet.
   • In 1997 and 1998, the Silver trains were converted from Heritage sleepers to Viewliner sleepers and all Eastern trains with sleepers were assigned to the common consist pool.

   Here are the actual figures for Tampa Union Station ridership:

   FY 93 – 149,722 passengers
   FY 94 – 126,417 passengers
   FY 95 – 58,200 passengers
   FY 96 – 35,869 passengers
   FY 97 – 30,207 passengers
   FY 98 – 39,936 passengers
   2003 – 43,000 passengers

   Actual figures for Florida ridership:

   FY 93 – 1,262,059
   FY 94 – 1,167,838
   FY 95 – 1,125,571
   FY 96 – 1,002,009
   FY 97 – 928,252
   FY 98 – 976,301

   URPA estimated (using Amtrak figures) that closing the Tampa maintenance and crew base and other changes saved, conservatively, less than $4,000,000 per year (on the high side), but loss in revenue due to route restructuring, schedule changing, and participating in the common consist pool was conservatively estimated at over $14,000,000 per year. Therefore, $14,000,000 in revenue was lost to save $4,000,000 per year in expenses.

   This is identical to the current dead end thinking of Amtrak for cutting back the Palmetto and the Three Rivers. Yes, you save lots of dollars in expenses, but in almost every instance, you lose more dollars in revenue. When will this learning curve cease and reality set in?

   This also vividly demonstrates what happens when Amtrak intentionally constrains capacity. By replacing the Heritage sleeping cars with Viewliners (which were not replaced one-for-one, but rather 50 Viewliners replaced nearly 100 Heritage sleepers) and forcing a common consist pool to try and stretch capacity for a smaller fleet, Amtrak gave up millions of dollars of revenue in favor of saving many fewer millions of dollars of expenses.

   Imagine if the national system were allowed to grow at its natural rate, how large and robust it would be today, depending less and less on free federal money and more and more on unfettered market demand, even with Amtrak’s abhorrent marketing strategies that are counter intuitive to any real growth strategies.

   Keep in mind that Amtrak’s corporate culture rewards the saving of expenses, but offers no rewards for increasing revenues. When you can always depend on lots of free federal monies to keep the bank account fat, you don’t have to worry about pesky annoyances like customer service and convenience, and riders.

   If you would like to read the entire report, it can be found in the dusty far back corner of the URPA archives at http://www.unitedrail.org titled Suggested Rationalization of Amtrak Florida Service, March 5, 1999.

3. A TWA reader e-mailed at the end of the Christmas holiday how proud he was of Amtrak’s personnel, as compared to those of US Air who staged a holiday work slowdown and caused havoc to untold numbers of travelers. The reader stated that Amtrak crews and personnel showed up to work through the holidays and kept the trains running. Very true, and many Amtrak employees are to be commended. However, here is the story of two of Amtrak’s Stars during a peak travel period of the Christmas holiday season.

   This story of two southbound trains takes place on both the Left Coast, with train no. 11, the Coast Starlight, and on the Right Coast, with train no. 91, the venerable Silver Star.

   As reported in the last TWA, some politically naive Amtrak apologists and cultists tried to downplay the complaints of a passenger on the Silver Star because (Gasp!) … he was a Republican. Actually, the gentleman in question is esteemed railroad entrepreneur and former Amtrak board member Ross Rowland, someone to be taken seriously. Here is his story, as he shared it over the Internet shortly after his ill-fated trip:
   

   “Just survived a round trip NYP-Deerfield Beach, FL. Southbound on #91 [Silver Star] on 12/21. 4 hrs. late leaving NYP a/c frozen cars (came in off the Lake Shore Ltd.). How many years has Amtrak been running these cars and hasn’t yet figured out how to keep them from chronic freeze-ups?? Train not watered leaving Sunnyside so all toilets stopped functioning by Philly. Train not watered until Jacksonville, FL. Entire train a rolling stink bomb!! When I approach the female Conductor in Wash. about critical we get watered she says since we’re 5 hrs. late and thus out of our ‘slot’, there’s no available carmen to service us. When I suggest that the coach/sleeper attendants and she could get the hoses into the tanks and take water she looks at me like I just suggested suicide!!!

   “Still takes 47 mins. to change power-brake test etc. Immediately upon leaving Wash. female Conductor comes through sleeper banging (and I mean banging-not knocking) on all doors saying, ‘get your ticket stubs ready, I want to see ‘em’! She then proceeds from room to room checking the stubs (waking those who retired early) even though she had all the tickets in the manifest envelope left for her by the NYP- Wash. conductor! During this drill she has her RR radio turned up full blast so that every radio transmission rattles the windows!! And she’s sporting a chip on her shoulder big as a house! Trust me, you could send this one to charm school once a month for life and only waste money. I’d write her up and send it to Mr. Gunn but I know from previous experience that it’s next to impossible to fire them and they know it! Most tragic part of it is that she kills it for the vast majority of Amtrak on board people who try to give good service. We continue to lose time enroute arriving Deerfield Beach 7 hrs.32 late. There’s no doubt that the vast majority of the people on this sold-out (oversold in coach) train joined the rapidly growing ‘never again’ club!!

   “The Northbound trip on 98 [Silver Meteor] leaving Deerfield Beach on 12/26 was more or less a repeat performance except for the non-functioning toilets. We were running respectfully close to the advertised until we got into the Carolinas on CSX. We sat at a distance signal just South of Rocky Mount, NC for 3 hrs. 37 mins. a/c ‘frozen switches’. You see there had been a snow ‘storm’ the night before depositing 1.5 inches (yes-inches-not feet) and CSX was not able to keep the RR operating! Amazing how these people are still in business-despite themselves. Some of the CSX trackage in the Carolinas is so rough I’m truly amazed we stayed on the rails. I’m talking DANGEROUS rough!! We continued losing time, arriving NYP 5 hrs 22 late on the 27th.

   “The attendant on my sleeper Northbound hadn’t the remotest idea of what ‘service’ means. He slept through 2 stops, not appearing in the car until 0845 by which time nearly every call light was on. When I asked him where he’d been his answer was, ‘I need my sleep’. As in the case of the Southbound Conductor, this guy sure ruins it for those who do it right, and I dare say the vast majority of the people on this sold-out train also vowed ‘never again’!!

   “Hard to imagine how many folks Amtrak might carry if they could learn to run on schedule and hire help that made you feel like they appreciated you as a customer???

   “Unfortunately I’m afraid we needn’t worry!

   “What a shame!! -Ross Rowland”

   (Sigh) And, here’s the story of train No. 11, the southbound Coast Starlight of December 29th. The full three page letter, written by Gary and Karen Preston (Amtrak Complaint Reference No. 1082791) and copied to various Amtrak senior management, board members, and members of the Congress is far too long to reprint here. However, here are the “highlights:”

   • The train suffered a major headend (locomotive hotel power) power failure and yet continued along its route (Seattle to Sacramento) in subfreezing conditions.
   • Heating and toilet facilities failed.
   • The train stalled completely in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
   • No blankets or other provisions to fend off freezing onboard conditions were provided.
   • Food service (in a fully stocked diner) was stopped and passengers went hungry for over 18 hours.
   • A man asked to have just a plain piece of bread and was told “no.”
   • The local chapter of the American Red Cross in Klamath Falls had to intervene, providing coffee and doughnuts to the hundreds of Amtrak passengers onboard the stranded train at the Klamath Falls station (not in the middle of nowhere stranded on a side track) on the freezing train.
   • Passengers were finally taken by bus to their final destinations.
   • Adding insult to injury, Amtrak lost the Preston’s baggage for two days.

   Amtrak has to be rescued by the American Red Cross? So, now, does Amtrak officially qualify as a “disaster?” Apparently, only if you’re riding one of its long distance national system trains.

   How do disaster stories like these happen? A large part of the problem is due to the last restructuring of Amtrak done by President and CEO David Gunn to make Amtrak “more like a railroad,” bringing back divisions, old railroad titles for managers, and other changes.

   One of the good things that happened under the stewardship of Tom Downs, the first of the Transit Trio of Downs, Warrington, and Gunn, was the creation of product line mangers, individuals who actually “owned” a train, and were responsible for it from endpoint terminal to endpoint terminal. As a result of this, when problems arose, someone had a very personal and specific interest in solving problems, and was directly accountable for service recovery.

   Under the changes wrought under Mr. Gunn, the third of the Transit Trio, those product line mangers disappeared, and each train is under the tender care and graces of whichever division it is operating over at any given moment. Therefore, a division manger is merely shepherding a train over their division and taking no ownership responsibility.

   Those who believe that CNOC in Wilmington, Delaware, Amtrak’s 24 hour a day operations center will leap into the fray and solve all problems are often mistaken. CNOC will address the problem, but not always the details that can turn a bad passenger experience into a horrid passenger experience.

   Here are some other interesting thoughts that also took place on that same fateful day, December 29th during the peak Christmas holiday travel season:

   • Amtrak had an equipment requirement of 92 Superliner coaches that day, only 86 were available for service. There was also a requirement for 83 sleeping cars, only 85 were available. While the company met its requirement, keep in mind these are SYSTEMWIDE numbers, which meant there were only TWO spare sleepers anywhere in the United States.
   • There was a requirement of 38 Viewliners for that day, and only 38 were available, with 11 out of service. There were no spare Viewliners if a car was bad-ordered.
   • On the NEC, there was a requirement of 75 locomotives, and only 67 were available for service.

   There are so many other horror stories (including ones of bed bug biting and sleeping car mattresses so soiled and dirt visible through sheets that passengers refuse to sleep directly on them), cars not meeting health and sanitary conditions, trains stopping because of running out of diesel fuel (and, AAA does not make trainside calls with diesel fuel) and much more that it all can’t be listed here.

   The one overriding question is this: Amtrak President and CEO David Gunn is constantly making the point that he is working to bring Amtrak back to a state of good repair. Really? Where? Even Amtrak’s greatest embarrassment on President Bush’s inauguration day on January 20th, the failure of two worn out switches at Washington Union Station that delayed scores of trains, cannot easily be explained away. How long will the public, Amtrak’s passengers, and Amtrak’s owners, the federal government, allow Mr. Gunn to run this railroad in such a poor condition that can obviously be hazardous to the health and well being of Amtrak passengers?

   This is not a question of under funding, as is the automatic whine of Amtrak, its various wholly owned lapdog organizations and Amtrak apologists and cultists. This is a matter of management expertise and focus. This is a matter of worrying as much about the national system as the NEC.

   We can only hope the new Amtrak board of directors is paying attention. America deserves a better passenger railroad than the one being run by David Gunn.

4. President Bush has re appointed two Amtrak board members who served as recess appointees last year. Floyd Hall of New Jersey and Enrique Sosa of Florida have had their nominations sent to the Senate for confirmation. Here’s hoping the Senate acts quickly and judiciously.

   Other board seats remain open. The White House needs to renominate Louis Thompson, retired worldwide railroad expert from the World Bank, perhaps our country’s leading expert on passenger rail. His nomination was blocked last year by the infamous Senator No, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who lost he bid for re-election in November. With Senator Daschle gone, Mr. Thompson will have an excellent change of joining the Amtrak board if the White House understands the importance of his renomination during this new Senate session.