United Rail Passenger Alliance

Vol. 2, No. 22 – August 23, 2005

1. What’s a good socialist to do these days? First, the socialists lost control of the federal government after seven decades of decadence and failed social experiments. Then, they lost control of the California governorship to an immigrant Hollywood superstar that’s (gasp!) a moderate/conservative Republican. At the same time, more and more Americans are realizing that the term “intelligentsia” is not a term for true intelligence, but rather a codeword for liberal bigotry that tolerates no one who doesn’t agree with them.

   Now, on the Left Coast, one of Amtrak’s various attendant sycophant wholly owned lapdog organizations has taken a bold step to stop this decline in socialist dominance. Apparently the organization just can’t stand the fact that a Republican is the author and initial sponsor of S. 1516, the Amtrak reauthorization bill. Yes, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was even the past Majority Leader of the Republicans in the senate had the bad taste to coopt yet another socialist icon program in the form of Amtrak, and write a bill that everyone can embrace. Well. Obviously this just wouldn’t do. How to make this palatable to their socialist members, who for all these years have been indoctrinated that only socialist efforts on behalf of Amtrak are acceptable, especially since this group’s national parent organization is blessing this bill?

   Fortunately, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was not an on-rushing Republican train. Yes, relief was at hand. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, a widely respected leading Democrat is a co-sponsor of S. 1516! So, in every communication from the Left Coast group, the Lott bill has become the Lautenberg/Lott bill. That rather neatly solved the problem, with a prominent Democrat name in the forefront. See how easy it is to solve dilemmas if you escape from reality?

2. Memo to various cities and towns: don’t do a deal with Amtrak to fix up your local train station, or you’ll be left holding the bag financially. Once again, Amtrak wants to fail to pay for contracted renovation work in a station Amtrak will occupy because it is inconvenient to pay for the renovations. In this case, it’s Fresno, California that is left holding a $600,000 bag that Amtrak won’t pony up the money for; as usual claiming poverty. Hmmmmm … Amtrak signed a contract for these expenses, and knew it had to budget for them. Amtrak knew the work had commenced and was nearing completion. Why couldn’t Amtrak live up to its obligations? Fresno city government is considering suing Amtrak for the failed payments.

   This is not the first time this has happened. About three years ago, a similar situation happened in Albany, New York. Amtrak said it was too broke to pay its contracted share then, too. Plus, Amtrak, an original participant in the renovation of the Foley Post Office in New York City to create a new Penn Station mercifully pulled out of that program, citing a lack of funds. So, there is a history here.

   In the same vein, there is also a sad history of many cities and towns, such as Tempe, Arizona and Montgomery, Alabama that renovated train stations for Amtrak, only to find their stations standing empty in a very short period of time because Amtrak either cancelled or moved their trains away from the stations.

   The moral of the story? If you put local money into a train station, make it a point of civic pride, and think you’re creating an attractive gateway to your city, it probably means that Amtrak will abandon you in short order. Think twice before committing local money to a company that has no compunction about defaulting on its contracts so it can continue to pour money into the Northeast Corridor.

3. URPA receives lots of mail in various forms; much from worried passengers wondering what is about to happen to their train and planned vacation. Two examples this week include an inquiry from a passenger in San Diego, planning to travel with an infant for a Christmas trip this December all the way across the continent to here in Jacksonville, via the Sunset Limited. The anxious mother was aware that the Sunset can be occasionally tardy, and she was wondering how to plan. Would the train be one day late? Two days late arriving in Jacksonville, she asked?

   Another correspondent from West Virginia is planning to come to Florida next March, in a sleeper on the Auto Train. This is high dollar travel. The couple was worried that they had seen nothing, and could find nothing, about whether or not the Auto Train would even be running next March. And, since they are planning to travel in a sleeper, they had also heard a rumor that Auto Train was taking some sleepers off the train in favor of coaches.

   These questions prove the theory that if Amtrak, aided and abetted unwittingly by the national press, would stop setting its corporate hair afire in public, that maybe – just maybe – people wouldn’t start thinking that the company won’t be around and available for passenger travel, comfort, and convenience.

   It’s mystifying that Amtrak spends $75 million a year on marketing, sales, and advertising. Yet, most people in this country, along with their local governments and potential partners in the travel industry, don’t know that Amtrak exists. Amtrak is still the best kept secret in America. Where is all of this money going? How wisely is it being spent? When is the last time anyone outside of the Holy Northeast Corridor saw a paid advertisement for Amtrak?

   Plus, too, Amtrak has one of the best corporate communications departments in the country. These talented people really know their stuff. When are they going to be turned loose with a good and useful public relations campaign?

   All of this brings up the issue of personal responsibility; is Amtrak willing to continue to live on more and more free federal monies handouts and continue to do nearly nothing to help itself? It’s hard to feel sorry for something that won’t help itself, and always wants to rely on the financial generosity of someone else in the form of the federal government.

   What’s really interesting is that URPA gets so many inquiries from people who want information about Amtrak; information that could and should be provided by the company. Does no one trust Amtrak, anymore?

4. The passenger train in the 20th Century was considered to be one of the shining symbols of the success of capitalism, and a point of pride for private enterprise. How did this American icon go from being a showcase for a huge and powerful industry to a welfare supported stepchild of government and a rallying point for socialists?

   First, look at history. The railroads, from the end of the Late War of Northern Aggression through the middle of the 20th Century were considered the evil aggressors of private enterprise. There were railroad robber barons, stock manipulators, favored shippers, and a host of other sins that brought on early government regulation to protect the public interest. The Golden Age of railroading wasn’t really so golden, but this was a very powerful industry that pretty much got what it wanted. In return, government gave it burdensome taxation, heavy regulation, and treated it as a public utility, even though it was a privately owned industry.

   As the world progressed, automobiles and trucks and highways all were improved, but the railroads were still heavily taxed and regulated. The railroads were expected to make a profit, but only after government took its pound of flesh.

   The successful introduction of the Boeing 707 at the end of the 1950s/beginning of the 1960s spelled the end of passenger railroading as it was historically known. The 707, along with the modern glamour of astronaut space travel, automobiles that could drive 70 MPH all day, and an ever growing interstate highway system all combined to make passenger train travel passe.

   This was also a time in America when the Flower Children and hippies were on the rise, anti-war protestors were regularly featured on the nightly broadcast news, and what had been normal was no longer acceptable. It was the end of graciousness and good taste, the end of personal responsibility, and the beginning of the coarsening of America. McDonald’s and Burger King were in full scale war to dominate American cuisine. Suddenly, a meal served on a white linen tablecloth with silver and china in a dining car was no longer important. Pullman Company sleeping cars weren’t as attractive as the new roadside Holiday Inns with their swimming pools and black and white television in every room. Even the federal government got into the act, by taking away profitable U.S. Mail contracts from railroads and giving them to airlines and trucking companies. One huge source of income (NOT subsidy) suddenly disappeared.

   In short, the passenger train – as it was operated, and in the time frame all of this was occurring – became less and less important to the traveling public, and less and less desirable.

   The private railroads, too, were undergoing huge changes. Small roads were merging together to form larger, more competitive railroads. Many railroads were either in bankruptcy, or soon to be headed there. The downfall of Penn Central wasn’t far away. Like the Boeing 707 for passengers, the semi-trailer truck with all of its flexibility was the siren song of the freight industry. Railroads were doing everything (much of which turned out to be short sighted) possible to cut costs and retrench into a position that was thought tenable. A large part of that was getting relief from the burdensome passenger and commuter trains, no longer the symbol of railroad might and glory. Stations and terminals that had been built as temples to financial glory quickly became huge liabilities that couldn’t be justified. Fleets of passenger cars and accompanying dedicated locomotives that were nearing the end of their service life needed to be replaced at huge cost. Railroads saw no way out of a financial quagmire that would drown the rest of their business. Anything that resembled railroads, even streetcars and trolleys were done away with in favor of soot belching diesel busses that “were more modern.”

   So, the most conservative administration since the Hoover administration took on the problem and created the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Note that the word “corporation” is part of the name. The Nixon administration planned for Amtrak to be run like a private company, and expected it to make a profit. The original projection was that the first $140 million of federal subsidy would tide the company over until profitability could be reached in short order after the beginning of Amtrak on May 1, 1971. Talk about projections gone awry.

   In 1971, everyone thought the most successful business model in the passenger transportation business was the airlines. So, Amtrak tried to make itself an airline on wheels. It didn’t work. Then, the Ford administration, trying to help the fledgling Conrail gain some financial advantage, decided the Northeast Corridor was better under the stewardship of Amtrak than the successor to the once might Pennsylvania Railroad. Amtrak is still choking trying to digest that decision.

   All of this brings us to today, and today’s much different passenger rail marketplace.

   Many of the railroad passengers at the advent of Amtrak still remembered interminable troop trains of World War II and the Korean conflict. The railroads, in an effort to justify getting rid of trains in a heavily regulated environment, contributed, too, to running off passengers by running mechanically unsound trains, dirty trains, and trains with no amenities. You had to really WANT to ride a train to subject yourself to the machinations of the last days of private passenger railroading. That was over three decades ago. Many of those riders are either dead or too old to travel any more. Today’s Amtrak passengers have probably never ridden anything other than Amtrak unless they traveled by train in a foreign country.

   The American transit industry is mercifully once again alive and healthy, with new rail transit systems being planned every day. Busses are now giving way to light rail and heavy rail systems. Cities like New Orleans are welcoming new streetcars onto roads once considered the sole domain of automobiles.

   The railroad industry has lost much of its abusive regulatory system. Even the airlines are barely regulated the way they were under the old Civil Aeronautics Board. The free market system is thriving in the travel and transportation industry.

   Airlines have pretty much destroyed themselves. Service levels are abysmally low, many prices are high for last minute travel, and security concerns have turned every airline passenger into a potential terrorist. There is no gracefulness and charm left in the airline industry. Crassness prevails everywhere.

   All of this leaves huge opportunity for the uniqueness of passenger rail travel, whether by Amtrak or by another provider, as envisioned in S. 1516. The marketplace is different, the public mood is different, and the host railroads have stopped retrenching and are now in an aggressive posture, looking for every revenue and profit possibility.

   Many socialists resolutely say that passenger rail transportation can never be profitable, nor appealing to private business. Why is that? What rule is there that says only government can operate passenger trains? Why can’t clever entrepreneurs with marketing savvy operate passenger trains? If the socialists are relying on history and what happened to passenger trains and railroads in the post WW II era, then they are sadly hanging onto history that is just that – history, not modern reality.

   FedEx has easily proven that point that private business can do a better job than government, in the form of the post office. Even the military, that paragon of government, is contracting out many mundane services to private contractors so members of the military may concentrate on what they are hired to do, which is protect us from the bad guys.

   So, why can’t modern passenger trains be reliable, desirable, and (should we whisper it?) profitable? They can. But, it takes an open mind to come to the realization. As long as the socialists insist that the government can be the only reliable provider of passenger rail service, then it will always be doomed to be a stepchild of government and a hindrance to private enterprise.

   Free federal monies in the form of subsidies are not the answer. Business smarts and American ingenuity are the answer; an open mind being the most important element. S. 1516 provides the first steps in this direction. Clear thinking people are rushing to embrace this, realizing we don’t have to settle for anything less than all we are capable of accomplishing.