Vol. 2, No. 28 - October 04, 2005
- Golly, gee whiz, wow. It sure didn’t take long for Amtrak to reestablish the running of the Texas Eagle and the Sunset Limited into Texas following the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. Could that be because hurricane damage was minimal, or because Amtrak made the intentional decision not to run the train so it could allegedly save a few bucks, never mind the needs of passengers? Inquiring minds want to know.
Again, the question must be asked, who benefited from this horrible decision to suspend train service? Certainly not the Amtrak employees whose runs were cancelled. Certainly not the host freight railroad, who lost the train-mile revenue. Certainly not the traveling public, who were left standing on the station platform with no alternate transportation. We already know that Amtrak had confirmed a $120 million cash surplus for the fiscal year, so the suspension didn’t keep Amtrak from over drawing its checking account. So, who benefited? Some mid-level managers who want to look good for their bosses? Someone who has a bad performance report and wanted to put some glitter back into it? Somebody, somewhere had a reason to make this sinister decision. Maybe one day we will all learn the real reason.
Plus, will we ever be able to trust Amtrak again when there is another service annulment? Will we always wonder if there really is a reason, or just another excuse to allegedly save a few bucks?
Speaking of anticipated train annulments, it’s time to remind Amtrak yet, again, that it is now October, and fall has officially begun. As a result of this, the weather is beginning to cool in many of Amtrak’s service areas, and winter is just a very short time away. Winter will bring freezing temperatures, often for days at a time, and Amtrak’s maintenance and mechanical forces, especially in Chicago, need to start preparing now for this non-phenomena. Winter comes every year, just like clockwork. Once again, Amtrak, it is not acceptable for you to act like you’re caught unawares in January and February that it’s winter in the northern part of the United States and passenger railroad equipment needs special attention.
So, now, while you’re thinking about it, swing by the local hardware store and pick up some snow shovels and rock salt. Get some warm work gloves for the guys who have to work outside. In Chicago, maintenance folks, it is your responsibility to see that idle equipment is plugged into the always available electrical shore power that will keep the heating systems working on the coaches, sleepers, diners and lounges. It is the responsibility of the supervisors of the maintenance men and women to see that this job is performed. And, it is the responsibility of the managers of the supervisors to see that this job is performed. Lame excuses like frozen equipment are not acceptable to stranded passengers and those who think financial accountability is important.
Somehow, year in and year out, VIA Rail Canada, Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railroads all seem to regularly run their trains in the very worst of winter weather without fail. Here in the USA, CSX, Norfolk Southern, CP, CN, UP, and BNSF, not to mention the various commuter agencies, all manage to operate their railroads in freezing winter weather. It always seems that it’s only Amtrak that has difficulty in the winter. No more excuses, Amtrak. Winter is coming. Be prepared.
- Good for Amtrak and a host of others in Louisiana. Those management wizards at FEMA, the Regional Transit Authority of New Orleans, Amtrak, the Capital Area Transit System, the Kansas City Southern Railroad, and others are all proposing that an approximately 85 mile long commuter run be set up between the old KCS depot in Baton Rouge, and New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in the Central Business District of New Orleans. FEMA is being asked to pony up $25 million over three years out of the billions it is receiving to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. The service would be offered on a twice daily basis.
The idea behind the service is to allow the estimated 200,000 New Orleans residents who have relocated to Baton Rouge to have an easy way in and out of New Orleans as the work begins to rebuild the city.
This is a great idea. The key to this idea is that the host freight railroad, Kansas City Southern, is part of the group suggesting the service. If the host railroad is onboard, then there is usually very little objection. KCS was one of the original railroad partners that built NOUPT in 1954.
About five years ago, KCS was also a willing partner with Amtrak in the aborted startup of the ill-named Crescent Star, the train that was supposed to split from the Crescent in Meridian, Mississippi, and run exclusively on KCS tracks via Vicksburg to Dallas. The idea did not die because of KCS, but because of Amtrak’s poor management.
One very good thing about this proposal is that it restores passenger service to a previously all-freight line and all-freight railroad only since the beginning of Amtrak.
The $25 million proposed cost for just three short years (approximately $695,000 a month) aptly demonstrates the very high costs of operating short distance commuter trains, a situation normally that Amtrak does not need to find itself in, except in this emergency instance.
- We know that the powers that be in Washington are planning to pour another $200 billion or so into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and that money is going to have to come from somewhere. Budget writers are looking at every possible scenario to find the money, including what many lawmakers in Washington consider to be pork barrel projects. Unfortunately, Amtrak in many minds wrongly comes under that heading.
So, don’t be surprised if Amtrak’s proposed budget in the Senate of $1.4 billion gets trimmed by $100 million or so. It’s likely to happen. That same thing is also likely to happen to every other federal budget item as well, so Amtrak won’t to be singled out in this process.
Now, before the various sycophant rail fan organizations in Amtrak’s Automatic Amen Corner start to use silly phrases like “shutdown budget,” lets take a look at reality. In his October 1st Employee Advisory this week, Amtrak President and CEO David Gunn (the third of the Transit Trio of Tom Downs, George Warrington, and Mr. Gunn), noted that for the immediate past fiscal year, the operating subsidy budget, which is the amount of free federal monies used to subsidize all operations, was just $570 million, and he expects a $540 million budget for this fiscal year. That’s for both the national system and the Northeast Corridor. As long as Amtrak has $900 million or so for the budget year, there is absolutely no chance of it shutting down. Anything in excess of that amount simply goes to the upgrade and rebuilding of the Northeast Corridor and other capital projects (which are funded entirely out of free federal monies), and capital upgrades have NOTHING to do with keeping the railroad running from an operating and cash standpoint. While it may be inconvenient not to do some capital improvement projects in the next year, that is about all it amounts to - inconvenience. Remember, Amtrak itself says it only costs $540 million in free federal monies to subsidize operating the whole system beyond what it makes from passenger ticket revenue (over $1 billion a year). Add that amount, and a few odds and ends, and you don’t have a “starvation” or “shutdown” budget.
Use of both of those terms is both reckless and irresponsible. Too much of the traveling public already thinks Amtrak is about to go away, and, as a result, is staying away from trains in droves. The last thing Amtrak needs is for obtuse socialist rail fans and Amtrak sycophants to start that sorry tune again, driving even more people away.
- In the same October 1st Employee Advisory, Mr. Gunn also had the very happy prediction that both the Crescent and the City of New Orleans would be back operating into New Orleans by the end of this month. This is excellent news. No mention was made of the drastically truncated Sunset Limited, which hopefully will follow shortly into New Orleans. The big hurdle will still be getting the Sunset further east over the wrecked CSX bridges and trackage between New Orleans and Pascagoula, Mississippi. Word from CSX headquarters in Jacksonville is that many offices are empty and telephones are being answered by voice mail because so many execs and managers are on the Gulf Coast making sure the massive rebuilding process is hurrying along as much as possible while being as prudent as possible in the process.
This week Norfolk Southern announced that it has reopened its intermodal terminal in New Orleans, a major step for the railroad. Many may recall that just a month ago, Norfolk Southern facilities in New Orleans were completely flooded and under many feet of water. This will be a huge boost for help for the rebuilding of New Orleans.
- The newly restarted Texas Eagle last week ran smack into a landslide in Missouri early one morning. Some boulders had fallen onto the tracks, and thanks to the quick work of the Eagle’s engineer complete disaster was avoided. This type of natural disaster is always bound to happen, as sad as it is when it does happen. Amtrak and its host railroads have enough problems with wrecks like this, and then even more when irresponsible drivers play “beat the train” at grade crossings and end up never going over another crossing again, such as happened at a grade crossing last week in Connecticut with a Wondertrain Acela accident.
- Here are some interesting statistics and thoughts from Dennis Larson, Vice President of the Minnesota Association of Rail Passengers.
“Watching the fare wars, Minneapolis to Chicago average round trip air fares paid had been in the neighborhood of $500 and up. Now they are around $180+ round trip. Amtrak Empire Builder coach fares currently have been at $103 each way on peak days, about $47 on low travel days like a Saturday morning eastbound and in the low $60’s otherwise. So the Builder most of the time is the price leader, if that is a good thing.
“Most of the air seat miles flown are in bankruptcy. Nationally the rate is 50 percent, the prediction is that 90 percent of the air seat miles will soon be in bankruptcy.
“Amtrak is getting nearly double the rate of air on average and Greyhound is doing the same. Watching some Greyhound city pairs, fares have gone from $26 to $39. Where there is little or no competition with air or rail on short trips, rates are a higher rate, priced into the stratosphere.
“While Amtrak and Greyhound combined are small potatoes in the transport world, I think the airline crowd will eventually be doing the same. Even Southwest airlines will eventually not be able to make money on pre-purchased fuel and prices will go back into the stratosphere along with auto and home heating fuel.
“The last passenger mile report shows airfares in August nearly identical to a year ago even though fuel is much higher.”
- Lowlife pond scum Internet pirates have hijacked the unitedrail.org domain name, and are using it to spam most of the free world. There is nothing URPA’s web master can do about this (other turning purple with rage over it, which he is doing on a regular basis). If you receive some of this illicit spam, please delete it. URPA has nothing to do with it. The unitedrail.org domain name is used exclusively by URPA for incoming mail only, not for any outgoing mail.
- A new white paper, Concepts of the Successful Long Distance Train of the Future, is now available on the URPA web site, http://www.unitedrail.org.