This Week At Amtrak 2005-07-10
Vol. 2, No. 15 - July 10, 2005
- We collectively grieve with our British cousins over the senseless deaths, maiming, and wounding of hundreds of citizens of London who were innocently going about their daily routines on London’s renowned transit system this week. The cowardly acts of barbarian terrorists will not be forgotten or forgiven. These terrorist thugs have grossly miscalculated that they can intimidate the country of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair. England stood alone and brave and survived the Nazi onslaught at the beginning of World War II. These misguided terrorists have chosen the wrong targets; none of the civilized world will rest until these terrorists are either dead or utterly neutralized. None of us will risk the future of our children and grandchildren to the capriciousness of fundamental radicals that do not value human life.
- United States Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta has been getting very bad information from his staff. The secretary, who will go down in history as one of our country’s most important officials for the work he has done readying our country’s transportation network to guard against terrorism, has been spewing incorrect information about Amtrak, especially the national network.
Secretary Mineta’s staff has been telling him that the long distance trains cost over $900 million a year in free federal money to operate. This is completely wrong. Amtrak itself, says these trains need a subsidy of only $300 million and independent analysis by URPA shows the trains probably need closer to $200 million instead of $300 million in annual subsidy.
We commend Secretary Mineta for his good work in raising the profile of the Amtrak debate across the country and offering solutions (even if we all don’t completely agree with those solutions), but the constant use of bad information is both disconcerting and harmful. Secretary Mineta, the Bush Administration, and the American people deserve to be better served by his staff.
- Other silly information constantly used by too many people is the “subsidy per passenger” figures that are quoted by people who should know better. These meaningless figures, whether it’s referring to the entire system or one individual route can easily be manipulated to mean anything the user wishes them to under any circumstances. When referring to transit systems these figures may mean something, but for a passenger railroad, they mean nothing. All the users of these figures are doing is clouding the debate and helping to suppress real and useful discussion.
- On the Left Coast, one of Amtrak various attendant sycophant wholly owned lapdog organizations continues to do the silly bidding of its corporate masters at Amtrak headquarters in Washington. Originally using the incorrect designation of “shutdown” funding of free federal money if Congress only appropriated $550 million at the beginning of the budget discussion, the organization glided right into calling the new funding level of $1.2 billion a “slow starvation” level of free federal money. Oh, please. When are these socialist sycophants going to come into the real world? Let’s review reality, yet, again. Amtrak needs a subsidy of around $600 million to operate the national system and the NEC. It needs a couple of hundred million here and there for other obligations, such as Railroad Retirement contributions and debt service left over from the unholy stewardship of George Warrington, the second of the Transit Trio of Tom Downs, Mr. Warrington, and David Gunn. All of the rest of the money going into capital improvement projects, the majority of which are on the NEC. There is NO starvation involved here. There are only choices about what gets fixed when, not whether or not the company nor the Republic will survive. This type of inflammatory rhetoric is every bit as bad as Secretary Mineta’s use of incorrect subsidy figures for the national system.
One other point. Has everyone forgotten that all on its own, even with a dismal marketing effort (It’s amazing how any company can misuse an entire annual marketing budget of $75 million.), Amtrak still generates over $1 billion in fares and other revenues? That’s a huge amount of money, even by federal government standards. “Starvation?” Where? When? Just more misinformation from misinformed people and organizations who have an agenda they are trying to fund at taxpayer expense.
- Here’s a new favorite of many: “Amtrak spends $2 for every $1 it takes in for dining car and lounge car sales.” More hogwash. We have reviewed Amtrak’s food service sales here recently, and we know that their food costs are well within (and in some cases, below) restaurant industry guidelines. Even though the cost of employees is high, other costs are substantially low (such as no utilities, telephones, etc.). The only reason Amtrak food service costs are high is because Amtrak has chosen them to be high. Lounge cars are cash cows. Dining cars, when trains have good crowds on them, more than pay their way. Amtrak’s overhead should be low, since the commissary functions have been unwisely contracted out to private vendors.
Of course, there is the old canard that even under the private railroads, dining cars lost money. Really? Can anyone prove that with hard figures, not figures made up to justify ICC train-off orders?
Naturally, Amtrak is doing what it does best, which is cutting passenger services, such as food service on the Empire corridor trains in New York State and eliminating all hot food service on Metroliners. Somehow, Amtrak always thinks that passengers are going to accept whatever Amtrak deems acceptable for them, and be happy about it. Yes, well, the airlines used to think that, too. Look at how many airline legacy carriers are either currently in bankruptcy, on the edge or going into bankruptcy, or just emerging from bankruptcy. Passengers have a nasty habit of looking for what pleases them, not what is offered them. Amtrak needs to learn this lesson, before it cuts itself into oblivion, at great public treasury expense.
- The Sanford, Florida “regular” passenger station is about to go away. The Sanford station, first built by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1954, is in disrepair, and Amtrak and current station owner CSX are disputing over who is responsible for fixing the building. The station is designated the “regular” Amtrak station because it is next door to the Amtrak Auto Train station, and the two services don’t mix for the benefit of passenger convenience.
Sanford is a suburb of Orlando, but mostly serves local passengers because it is on the far side of the tourist part of Orlando. Nearby are stations in Deland and Winter Park, too. The Sanford station served 10,710 passengers last year. Apparently, Amtrak doesn’t think the convenience of this many passengers is worth settling the dispute with CSX and keeping the station open. The station has been unmanned for a number of years.
Amtrak is often willing to give up passengers for its own convenience. In the mid 1990s when the Viewliner sleeping car fleet was introduced on Florida service trains and Tampa went from having two daily trains to one to accommodate the smaller amount of Viewliners available versus the old Heritage fleet sleeping cars taken out of service at that time, Tampa lost 100,000 passengers a year in that switchover, which also including closing the Tampa maintenance and crew bases. One can only surmise that when you’re on a steady diet of free federal money every year, that things like passenger revenue really don’t count much.
- On Monday, July 11th, two Acela trainsets will return to service on the NEC, offering transportation between Washington and New York City. Let’s hope that Amtrak hangs on the reliable Metroliners until all of the Acela problems are under control.
- Apparently, if you buy a ticket on Amtrak, it doesn’t guarantee you transportation to where you’re going. Due to yet more CSX track work, Amtrak service south of Orlando in Florida will be curtailed on July 22nd and 23rd. Amtrak is offering no alternate transportation for those with paid tickets on these trains. Passengers will be on their own to find their way south of Orlando. Is there no accountability here? Does no one at Amtrak care about taking care of passengers? Once again, is only the convenience of the operating department considered and the passengers left to fend for themselves? There’s nothing quite like a service interruption at the height of the summer travel season. CSX is not to blame, here. Amtrak has the capability of providing alternate transportation, but obviously is choosing to ignore this option. Only when new management is installed at Amtrak that is more interested in passengers and customer service will atrocities like this end.
- Here’s an old favorite: Yet another Amtrak train ran out of fuel before completing its run. On July 2nd, the Silver Star’s T&E crew noticed that the locomotive was low on fuel when the train made its regularly scheduled stop in Richmond, Virginia, heading north to Washington. The crew contacted their dispatcher in Washington, and asked for a fuel truck. This was denied. The T&E crew was told to take a chance and bring the train into Washington, hoping there was enough fuel. There wasn’t. The train stalled at Alexandria, the last station before Washington. Another train, the Carolinian, rescued the Star by towing it into Washington from the Alexandria station. It’s fortunate the Star stalled in a station, and not out on the main line, and that the Carolinian was available to provide a rescue operation.
Loss of power also means loss of air conditioning on trains. It was July 2nd. One can only imagine what the outside temperature was, and you can be guaranteed that the inside temperature of the train very quickly rose to too high levels. Can you say “heat stroke?” Again, as above, the operating department made a decision for their convenience, not the convenience of passengers. How much more of this is going to be acceptable, even to Amtrak apologists and cultists?