This Week At Amtrak 2005-07-15
Vol. 2, No. 16 - July 15, 2005
- A correction is in order this week, right up front. Last week, I referred to the people who visited murder and total mayhem on London’s transit system as various types of cowards and terrorists. A TWA reader and respected law enforcement professional from Tampa, Florida sent the following message. I stand corrected.
“They are MURDERERS … not merely mild mannered terrorists. As society is ‘dumbed down’ by using sterile terms such as ‘terrorists,’ people in the society are conditioned to accept this brand of horrendous criminals as standard for the day. More pundits should use the words murderers, criminals, and … well, I can’t use that term.”
- Crazed Hottentots are running amok and unchecked at the United States Department of Transportation in Washington.
First, USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta, a gentlemen who has had a distinguished career of public service from local to national levels, has been constantly quoting wrong figures about the cost of the Amtrak national system. Secretary Mineta and the debate about Amtrak’s future have been ill-served by his staff who have been supplying him incorrect and grossly misleading figures.
Now, the USDOT Inspector General, Ken Mead, is joining the lunacy by releasing a report suggesting that Amtrak would have an improved financial bottom line if the company eliminated sleeping cars, dining cars, and checked baggage service.
Well.
We know that Mr. Mead in the past - even though he is alleged to be and is supposed to be an impartial soul - has embraced the highly destructive transit policies of Amtrak management and the one-note, unwashed socialists in Amtrak’s planning department who only can fantasize about a railroad made up of money-losing corridors. Mr. Mead ignores the concept of a well-integrated system that includes healthy and robust long distance trains along with useful corridors that blend in harmony with Amtrak’s original - and only - mission to provide our country with a viable nationwide passenger railroad system.
Ever since Tom Downs, the first of the Transit Trio of Mr. Downs, George Warrington and current Amtrak President and CEO David Gunn tried to fashion the future of Amtrak into a glorified trolley system, our nation has been poorly served when it comes to developing a realistic surface transportation policy. No Republican nor Democrat in the past three decades has espoused a rational domestic surface transportation policy that includes a healthy mix of rail, highway, and water transportation.
Mr. Mead’s speculations, as with Mr. Mineta’s misquotes, are only confusing what should otherwise be an intelligent debate on the future of passenger rail in the United States.
Related to all of this, for those in the back of the class who are still napping, let’s review a couple of basic facts.
A passenger train without the unique attributes that make it an attractive form of transportation - such as diners, lounges, sleepers, and baggage cars - is nothing more than an oversized bus running on steel wheels over steel rails. And, unlike a bus, a stripped down train is not as flexible not dependable as a bus to reach many destinations. If you want to run busses, then do so. Don’t try and turn trains into busses.
Now, let’s look at the all-important economics for a moment. Studies done by URPA and others have continually shown that dollars from any source put into short distance markets and corridors create a negative rate of return on invested capital. Dollars put into long distance markets lessen the losses and thus earn a positive rate of return on capital. One dollar invested into any long distance market generates five to seven times as many units of transportation output and dollars of passenger ticket revenue, as the same dollar invested into any short corridor.
As long as Amtrak continues to put capital into the corridors and short distance markets at a rate of about 9-to-1 over the long distance markets, Amtrak will continue to achieve the same awful-and-declining financial results that put the company into the financial black hole that it is in today.
A quick summary: the future of Amtrak is in long distance trains in the national system. The only way to stem the ever-growing tide of free federal money into the company is to change the focus of the company from harmful corridors to robust long distance trains. Keep corridor operations (above the rail, not ownership of the tracks and infrastructure) that blend well with long distance trains, but stop betting the future and the farm on them.
Mr. Mead demonstrates in his presentation that he knows far too little about passenger rail operations to intelligently discuss the future of Amtrak. He needs to be inspecting paper clips instead of Amtrak future plans.
- More Acela trainsets, and thus more Acela departures are scheduled for next week. Bombardier seems to be ahead of its announced schedule to have the Acela up and running again after the brake fiasco. Bombardier continues to demonstrate that even in unfortunate instances, it is a classy company that deserves the respect of all.
- We’re less than a month away from the relaunching of the Empire Builder, running between Chicago and Seattle/Portland. Amtrak is upgrading the train, much along the lines that Brian Rosenwald successfully built the Coast Starlight franchise over a decade ago, and the former Amtrak Gulf Coast Business Group made upgrades to the Sunset Limited in the late 1990s.
Amtrak is repositioning the Empire Builder as a premier leisure-travel train. Amtrak is also working with tour operators in the United States and Europe to feature the route in their vacation packages. Winter ski packages will feature travel on the Empire Builder to the popular Big Mountain Ski Resort near the Whitefish, Montana Amtrak station.
Amtrak began training classes in May in Chicago and Seattle for train service and onboard services employees working on the route. A key component of the training is a Supplemental Service Standards manual. The manual will accompany the current Service Standards Manual.
The supplement establishes guidelines unique to the Empire Builder service from the start of the trip to the finish. As an example, it specifies how coach attendants should introduce themselves to each passenger, provide at-seat meals, and offer complimentary pillows along with blankets, which will be available for sale. The manual provides procedures for hosting the wine and cheese tasting events that will be held in the dining car for sleeping car passengers.
One of the upgraded components is the sleeping cars. Freshly rebuilt and refurbished, these cars offer a more relaxing atmosphere through an improved decor, and critical changes and improvements to sanitary facilities.
- Minnesota Association of Rail Passengers Vice President Dennis Larson offers always cogent views about the Empire Builder, which operates through his home area:
“From various sources including my own onboard, the Builder is operating with 400 - 450 sold spaces during the peak season along most of the route. During the off months it is a fraction of that. The year-round load, passengers per mile or seats and spaces that are sold from end point to end point average out to 180 annually, down from about 205 it sold previously.
“My perspective is that the Builder needs more space and a timely operation with good operating equipment first during the peak season to capture the revenue rather than turn the patronage away. The biffies should be clean and the cars should be clean without advertising that.
“Amtrak is whining between the lines about revenue. The passenger revenue is fairly constant at 39 million dollars even though actual loads have declined 12 percent and not including the $12 million they threw away from head-end revenue [When the mail and express part of Amtrak's business was discontinued.]. The yield per passenger mile by Amtrak standards is on the weak side at 12 cents, but they are identical to the average airline per mile rate. Amtrak is the only carrier that had been able to hold their yields at stratospheric levels, on average about 25 cents per mile, double that of the other carriers, airline and bus, and with small fare declines to boot. It does cost money to keep all those executives and administrators on the payroll, something that the media has not discovered yet so they ‘need’ high fares for them and the NEC’s free [federal] money.
“The Builder is a good first step, time keeping is not an embarrassment, passengers and crew in general all ready have a congenial relationship as compared to the Lake Shore Limited.
“The trains taking a major hit in revenue are of course the Sunset [Limited] and sadly the California Zephyr. The Zephyr had loads way over 200 when Las Vegas and Portland were served and it was called almost unmanageable because the train was so big. With Amtrak and Union Pacific expertise, the Zephyr average load is now about 150.”
- URPA has updated and upgraded our Internet web site, located at http://www.unitedrail.org. Included in the changes are a section featuring biographies and photos of officers, and also a new section featuring editorial use of materials and a speakers bureau. You are invited to view the changes and updates.