United Rail Passenger Alliance

Vol. 2, No. 25 – September 14, 2005

1. It’s September. The House and Senate are back in Washington, everyone from the judicial and executive branches of government are back from vacation, and things are revving up for action, even with the major distractions of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the Supreme Court nomination hearings. One piece of legislation that holds great promise is S. 1516, the Lott Amtrak reform bill. It will be fascinating to watch and see what amendments and deletions are made to the bill as it works its way through the legislative process.

   Since S. 1516 once again gives Amtrak yet another new lease on life, wouldn’t it be wonderful if this was the beginning of a process where an “apology free” passenger rail system was put in place? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to recommend to someone in confidence that yes, you can take the train and have a pleasant trip without fear of mechanical breakdown, busstitutions, no working sanitary facilities, or terrible treatment by onboard crews? Wouldn’t it be nice to say to potential passengers that yes, you can get there from here, without having an extra two days of travel because Amtrak has such a skeletal system, and usually only one frequency per route? Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no more tri-weekly trains, only healthy and robust trains that had high load factors and high returns on revenue passenger miles?

   Only a fantasy? No, not really. It’s all possible, if Amtrak changes its focus from a socialist all-corridor, all the time philosophy to one that respect’s Amtrak’s original mandate to operate a functional national system for the benefit of all of the contiguous 48 states, and not just favored coastal states that can’t manage a corridor rail program on their own.

   Amtrak can be better, and it must be better. Amtrak’s board of directors has the professional clout to make this happen, as well as the fiduciary responsibility to make the absolute best use of Amtrak assets in every respect.

   It’s time to focus away from the failed policies of the past, and focus on positive policies for the future that include prosperity, self-reliance, and passenger service. It’s time to stop apologizing, stop accepting failure as normal, and stop allowing groups that fear change to make policy for the rest of us.

2. Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! Or, perhaps, just an enthusiastic, yet unrefined Zowie! is appropriate. Amtrak is doing something right, that should have been done a long time ago. Amtrak is raising its fares across the board, but only minimally and reasonably so in most areas, due to increased fuel and other costs. The real improvement is coming on the Northeast Corridor, where the prices of Amtrak’s Smart Passes are being dramatically raised. Currently, some of these passes are discounted as deeply as 70% (yes, you amazingly read that correctly) off of regular fares on Regional trains. Those discounts are being changed to a still whopping 50%, but any improvement in this situation won’t be turned down. The translation in dollars and cents is that a monthly pass to ride the 91 miles from Philadelphia to New York City will rise from the current $633 to $1,008. Needless to say, pampered well-to-do and wealthy NEC riders using these passes are screaming bloody murder. The riders were given only two weeks notice of the change, which is probably a bit soon in a civilized society.

   Let’s take a reality check here. If you are wealthy enough to live 91 miles from where you work and expect to pay to go to and from work approximately 21 days a month, you’ve already planned to pay the $633, or roughly $30 a day to commute. Under the new fares, which are still too much of a giveaway, you will now pay roughly $48 a day for the same commute. But, if you decide to eschew the services of Amtrak and drive, at current gas prices hovering near or above $3.00 per gallon for gas, plus the cost of wear and tear and maintenance, and the unthinkable daily cost of parking your gas-guzzling vehicle in New York City, $48 a day for commuting is still a bargain.

   Does Amtrak need to be subsidizing well-to-do and wealthy NEC commuters? No, not at all. This is pure transit mentality that is costing Amtrak, and the American taxpayers a fortune. How can Amtrak, with a straight face, go hat in hand to Congress and ask for an annual subsidy of free federal monies when it is so heavily subsidizing transit patrons? Lowering the discount to 50% helps, but this needs to be virtually eliminated as soon as possible. New Jersey Transit took over Amtrak’s Clocker trains running exclusively between New York City and Philadelphia for these same commuters during the Acela brake problem fiasco. Amtrak needs to move more business over to NJ Transit, which is in the business of low fares and carrying people on a daily basis to and from their offices. Currently, there is a cross platform connection between SEPTA and NJ Transit for Philadelphia commuters who feel they must economize their commuting costs. It may take longer, but who said life was easy?

   One high flying legal eagle has suggested that these deep, obscene discounts may even be illegal, since Amtrak’s original charter is to operate a national system of long distance trains, not clearly what is a daily commuter service for a privileged few. The New York Times reports that about 18,000 of these passes are sold throughout the NEC for various segments. The bottom line of any fare hike on a transit system is that invariably, fewer passengers use the system. This is a good thing. Keep in mind that the body count of the number of passengers means nothing unless you’re a transit system, which Amtrak is not, no matter how much it improperly acts like one. It’s only the amount of revenue and number of passenger miles in revenue passenger miles that counts towards the bottom line. Fewer commuter passengers paying higher fares and generating more revenue is considered an improvement, not a detriment.

   Here’s another thought. Amtrak is forever falsely claiming that Wondertrain Acelas make money, and that Regional trains over the identical route lose money. Well, gee, if you’re going to offer 70% discounts on a route on the Regionals and not on Acelas, does this add into that equation? Does this mean that the “success” of Acelas may not be quite as much as touted?

   Early every morning, several lightly populated NEC trains depart Washington going north, headed for New York City. These trains are launched primarily to meet the needs of commuters from Philadelphia and points north. Without these wealthy leeches, Amtrak could probably easily cut back on its frequencies and save a huge amount of money and have available equipment to disperse to other money making routes.

   This huge improvement for Amtrak has to be a direct result of the handiwork of Amtrak Chairman of the Board David Laney and Amtrak’s Board of Directors. It’s virtually impossible to think that Amtrak’s one-note, transit-loving, unwashed socialist planning department would ever come up with such a plan, and certainly Amtrak’s hired management help, who love transit even more, are not likely to promote this type of sea change in Amtrak thinking. We can only hope more changes like this will be forthcoming, and soon.

3. Amtrak deserves some more praise, too. An alert TWA reader forwarded a Washington Post article published last Sunday, September 11th. This fascinating article provides a day by day account of what happened in New Orleans prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, and for the time after, too. The Post mentions Amtrak’s equipment move of 20 cars out of Amtrak’s downtown New Orleans coach yard to higher ground in McComb, Mississippi. What we didn’t know prior to this, that Amtrak confirmed in the article, is that on the Saturday prior to the hurricane’s arrival on Monday, when the city was under a voluntary evacuation order, Amtrak made an offer to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to fill the 600 empty seats on the equipment train and take residents to safety in McComb. The hapless mayor refused, and the train left New Orleans completely empty.

   As mentioned in TWA last week, Amtrak also make equipment available for an evacuation train after the storm. Even though there were seats for hundreds, only 97 people rode the train from New Orleans’ Avondale Yard to busses which would take them to Texas. The train made only one trip before Texas closed it doors, citing too many evacuees with no place to put them.

   Amtrak’s corporate heart was in the right place, and the company certainly fulfilled its obligations to help as many people as it could. Too bad local incompetence prevented hundreds from being taken to safety and were instead left to the sometimes fatal hazards of the New Orleans Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center.

4. In case some people have wondered where New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal is located, it is on the edge of downtown, and shares a common fence with its next door neighbor, the Superdome. When the Superdome was built 30 years ago, it was built on former coach yards of passenger stations which had become obsolete and combined into NOUPT when the terminal opened in 1954.
5. More good news includes this information from Norfolk Southern, on the freight railroad’s return to New Orleans, after rebuilding its hurricane ravaged bridge over Lake Pontchartrain between Slidell, Louisiana and New Orleans.
   

   “NORFOLK, VA (September 13) — Sixteen days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Norfolk Southern Corp. has completed repairs to its Lake Pontchartrain Bridge, restoring rail freight service into New Orleans and reopening important interchange points with western rail carriers.

   “… Nearly five miles of track were washed from the top of the 5.8-mile long rail bridge and into the lake. Nine cranes on barges were used to lift the track out of the water and back onto the bridge. Nine miles of track running through New Orleans itself required major repairs due to washouts and other water-related problems.

   “Since the hurricane struck, Norfolk Southern employees have inspected some 1,400 miles of railroad track, removed 5,500 downed trees, installed 11,000 railroad ties and unloaded and surfaced track on 55,000 tons of ballast to restore bridges and rail lines to service.

   “While repairs were being completed, freight that regularly traveled through New Orleans for connection to other carriers was rerouted through the railroad’s other gateways.

   “‘With the reopening of the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge, we are ready to assist in the transportation of supplies and materials in and out of the city,’ said Norfolk Southern President Wick Moorman. ‘We are committed to serving New Orleans over the long-term, and our rail line can serve as a vital link in the recovery process.’”

6. Other railroads are still working as quickly as possible to restore their own rail service to New Orleans (beyond outer areas such as Avondale Yards) including Kansas City Southern, CSX, CN/IC, and UP/BNSF.