Vol. 2, No. 19 - August 04, 2005
- A number of comments and thoughts came in this week regarding United States Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead’s proposal to end all onboard amenities on Amtrak long distance trains (without any mention from Mr. Mead of the various levels of service and amenities on transit-oriented NEC and other corridor trains). Here is a sampling of the comments.
From a TWA reader:
“Forty years ago, before Amtrak, the Illinois Central took the observation lounge car off the City of New Orleans.
“I wrote to object to the degradation in service. The IC’s response was much along the lines of Mr. Mead’s thinking. Revenue from (primarily) liquor sales on the car did not exceed the cost of operating the equipment.
“I wrote back and told them they had focused on the wrong end of the train. The locomotive, with its highly-paid crew and voracious appetite for fuel, cost a lot more to operate than the observation car did, while bringing in no revenue at all. I suggested they withdraw the locomotive and restore the lounge car, pointing out that its amenities, if they attracted something like 1.2 additional passengers, would erase the deficit they had projected.
“To their credit, they put the observation car back on the train.”
From Andrew Selden, President of the Minnesota Association of Rail Passengers and URPA Vice President and Guiding Light:
“… [H]ints at something that the Inspector General missed completely: on the western trains, the AVERAGE length of trip spans 18 to 20 hours and necessarily includes one night and at least three or even four meal periods. That is why sleepers, diners and lounges are not discretionary, dispensable amenities, but as necessary to the product definition as locomotives and brakes. We aren’t sure what the REAL average length is (it IS longer than 18 hours) because so far as I know Amtrak doesn’t really know itself how to treat as a single journey a trip that involves an inter-route connection. I know that when Mercer did their review for Tom Downs they flat out arbitrarily GUESSED it was 10% of passengers (I know that they guessed because their engagement manager TOLD me that in a private meeting in Amtrak’s offices). I’ll bet money that Ken Meade doesn’t know, either.
“18 hours is roughly 800 to 900 miles, depending on the route. So to the point that trains are out of their depth in long markets, it is worth noting what Dennis Larson has often pointed out: the average trip length on Amtrak’s LD trains is statistically identical to the average trip length on America’s trunk airlines. Thus, according to the Mead/Mineta logic, the minority few transcon air passengers should be disaccommodated to a series of linked short flights, connecting at Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Denver and Albuquerque. Then all those big, expensive long haul planes with their increasingly unused galleys serving loss-leader $6 snack-paks can be retired to the desert outside Tucson, and we can all enjoy a renaissance of the 737. Oops - Southwest is going the other direction, lengthening its flight stages, going transcon, and adding amenities to match the - dare we say it - COMPETITION!”
From a well-respected senior California wag:
“And we think of the unusual times, like when my wife and I sat on the Sunset Limited on a siding west of Maricopa, AZ (before it was the Phoenix ’station’) for 14 hours while the UP picked up some derailed grain cars ahead of us. Would Mead have passengers starve to death out there in the middle of nowhere even if some hardy souls chose to ride the train minus dining facilities? Would the UP run into the Colonel in Maricopa (if there is one)? Yeah, I know this is another ‘what if,’ but you had to be there with the crew taking good care of us, feeding us, keeping us informed, etc. Ah, Mead’s answer would be that things like that are too expensive so shut down the service, right? And to think, the Sunset Limited is still out there and people ARE riding it. Well fed, too.”
From another California wag, this time Southern California:
“This comes from a fundamental lack of any understanding about the travel industry in general and rail travel in particular. DOT believes that passengers travel because they must, and hence there is no need for any amenities to attract or retain passengers. This results in enlightened thinking about Amtrak as we see here, and an abysmal security service arrangement at the airports. There is a reason that the fastest growing form of discretionary travel (for several consecutive years) despite high fuel prices is … the RV. No permission required to travel (yet), no security searches, amenities according to your desires and ability to afford them, and for the most part friendly and helpful people in service positions that you deal with.
“The government has failed the traveling public and will doom rail travel and will (some say has) turned a once fine air travel system into flying Greyhounds. Until the DOT begins to have people placed in policy making positions that have actually seen and rode the mode that they are responsible for, this idiocy will continue. Perhaps Ken envisions bringing back the Harvey Girls?”
- The world is grateful that the disaster of Air France’s flight this week at Pearson International Airport in Toronto resulted in no loss of life and very few injuries. Much of the credit for saving the lives of the 297 passengers and 12 crew members goes to the 10 flight attendants on the jet airplane. For those not doing the math, that works out to one flight attendant for approximately every 30 passengers. Many people realize, but do not focus on the fact that flight attendants (in the United States, the number of flight attendants is regulated by the government based on the number of passengers on a plane) are in reality safety employees, not food service and comfort employees. In this instance, every flight attendant accounted for themselves well, and saved lives.
This brings us to the point of Amtrak, with President and CEO David Gunn’s and Gunn co-conspirator DOT Inspector Kenneth Mead’s continual insistence of trying to eliminate as many onboard service as possible in the name of economy. Like airline flight attendants, Amtrak onboard coach and sleeping car attendants, as well as conductors and assistant conductors all have specific tasks in case of derailments or disastrous crashes. When Mr. Gunn, the third of the Transit Trio of Tom Downs, George Warrington, and Mr. Gunn, and Mr. Mead make these foolish proposals, they are literally playing with the lives of Amtrak passengers.
They propose tens of millions of dollars for tunnel safety upgrades on the Holy NEC, and ask for more millions for homeland security threats, but overlook the most basic needs of onboard assistance for passengers. This is not only hypocritical, but some would consider near criminal in concept. Think back to the wrecks of the City of New Orleans at Bourbanais, the Sunset Limited in the bayous east of Mobile, the Sunset again in Arizona and at Eagle Lake, Texas. All of these situations would have been much worse without Amtrak onboard employees, some of whom lost their lives in these wrecks.
Amtrak needs more onboard safety employees, not less. Mr. Gunn and Mr. Mead need to deal with reality when they are making budget proposals. What price are they willing to put on human life?
- When is too much not enough? Amtrak’s excellent experiment with high service standards and upgraded equipment set to begin this month on the Empire Builder between Chicago and Seattle/Portland may be unintentionally torpedoed by too high sleeping car fares.
It is not uncommon in the travel industry to keep raising fares to the point of diminishing return; keep upping the fare or room rate a small amount at a time until demand flattens, and then you know you’ve reached the top of what the traveling public will pay.
Amtrak seems to be jumping right over this process, and going directly for very high sleeping car fares on the Empire Builder. As an example, for travel on the first of November, from Seattle to Chicago, Amtrak is using four pricing categories (just like the airline and all other common carriers). Charges range from $1,233 for a full bedroom for two people (former deluxe bedroom), down to $181 for a roomette (former standard bedroom). This spans the most expensive fare category to the least expensive. Fares include all meals. The question is, how many people will be willing to pay $1,233 for a two night trip? This is well above cruise line pricing for a similar experience, and rivals (if not exceeds) airline pricing for last minute, unrestricted travel. It is recognized that someone taking the train will travel for the experience and scenery as much as basic transportation, as found on an airliner. However, even though the elasticity between airline travel and Amtrak travel is often grossly overstated, someone, somewhere, should keep all of this in mind.
Other Amtrak long distance routes have similar pricing, and the sleeping car accommodations are often busy. The trick is, what is the traveling public willing to pay? And, after the first experience, will it be good enough for a second or more trip?
- One of Florida’s famous sinkholes developed last week (this time it was man-made, but still a sinkhole, none-the-less) underneath the CSX main line just north of Deland, inbetween Jacksonville and Orlando, the former Atlantic Coast Line route. This is the line all Amtrak trains in Florida traverse. Here is what is so unusual: the majority of Amtrak trains were rerouted over the other CSX main line in Florida, via Ocala, the former Seaboard Air Line route. It’s very rare these days for an Amtrak train to have a handy alternate route when a main line is blocked or disabled. The Union Pacific Railroad is performing some planned track maintenance this summer on the California Zephyr route between Denver and Salt Lake City. As a result a detour is planned on a parallel UP route via southern Wyoming. The days of duplicate rail lines are long gone, and Amtrak trains often take it in the throat when something blocks a rail line. These stories in Florida and on the California Zephyr route had happy endings.
- A day in the life of Amtrak’s operating department, Sunday, July 31st:
Active passenger car fleet (excluding locomotives): 1,401 cars; required for service, 1,112; available, 1,203.
Boston: High Speed Rail Yard derailment. Yard crew member sent to hospital for neck and back pain.
New York: Train 89, the southbound Palmetto, delayed departure of two hours and 37 minutes because of defective cars; when replacement cars cut in, one of those found also defective and a substitute for the substitute was made.
Miami: Train 98, the northbound Silver Meteor was an hour late departing Miami due to crew rest requirements. The crew had arrived Miami at 12:50 A.M., six hours and 35 minutes late on the previous day’s southbound Silver Meteor and did not have enough time for federally mandated rest.
Deland: As mentioned in the above item, the sinkhole developed on the CSX main line north of Deland causing delays, bussing, and reroutings of all Florida trains.
Washington: Train 29, the westbound Capitol Limited was delayed one house and 36 minutes departing because a sleeping car was bad-ordered due to a mechanical problem. A substitute car was taken off the inbound Capital Limited and placed on Train 29, but it had the same problem and had to be taken out and replaced with another sleeper off the inbound Capitol.
NEC, MidAtlantic Division: Train 97, the southbound Silver Meteor with one electric locomotive and 11 cars was stranded with no locomotive power. The train also lost the hotel power for the lights and air conditioning in the train, and passengers sat in the dark for and hour and a half. One hundred passengers were transferred to Train 163, and a rescue engine was dispatched from Philadelphia and added to the stricken Silver Meteor. The train deadheaded to Washington where passengers reboarded the train. On the way to Washington, the deadhead equipment was delayed in the B&P Tunnel due to a speed pickup fault on the rescue engine. It was necessary to restart the engine several times to proceed. The Silver Meteor was five hours and six minutes late departing Washington with a diesel locomotive.
And there were many more problems, but you get the idea. Amtrak is a company out of control, not because of money problems, but because of the problems caused by its hired management team. Amtrak apologists and cultists and their ilk will try to explain away these problems as inherent in any large organization. No, they are problems inherent in any organization that isn’t focusing on its core business of providing passengers with rail transportation.
- Initial reading of Senate Bill 1516, Senator Trent Lott’s Amtrak reauthorization bill, shows great promise. Analysis initially planned for this week will come later.
- 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.