United Rail Passenger Alliance

Volume 3 Number 28

1. Big changes are occurring at the top of Amtrak and with Amtrak’s nominal owner and banker. United States Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta has resigned his cabinet office, and is leaving President Bush’s cabinet on Friday, July 7th. Also leaving is Department of Transportation General Counsel Jeffrey A. Rosen, who is moving to the Office of Management and Budget.Mr. Rosen these past few years has served as Secretary Mineta’s designee on the Amtrak Board of Directors.

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Volume 3 Number 27

1. We start this week with a clarification of last week’s item about the comparison of employees in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Engineering Department and Amtrak’s Engineering Department.The comparison made was that BNSF has roughly 200+ department employees, and Amtrak about the same number, 225, while BNSF operates a railroad of 32,000 route miles, and Amtrak operates roughly 600 miles of route, primarily on the Northeast Corridor and a stretch of track that is 70 miles long in Michigan.

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Volume 3 Number 26

1. TWA was fortunate to hear from two former Amtrak high ranking managers and one railroad industry professional concerning last week’s presentation about the Empire Builder, the service failure of the Hoosier State, train no. 318, and Amtrak costs and the Northeast Corridor. Here is what our correspondents had to say.
2. “The other important point that contributes to the Empire Builder’s continuing success is that it is one of the only long distance trains that has not been regularly ‘messed with’ by corporate. The GM has been allowed to run that train as he always has and make improvements to the service on a continuous basis. Read more…

Volume 3, Number 25

1. Amtrak has been naughty, again. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on May 29th the Hoosier State, train no. 318 from Chicago to Indianapolis had a gross passenger service failure.As the Sun-Times reported, the train’s engineer allegedly ran a red signal around 9 P.M., near Dolton, Indiana, a far suburb of Chicago. This would have put the train about 30-40 miles from its originating terminal in downtown Chicago. Running a red signal on a train is one of the worst and most serious safety infractions that can occur on any railroad, and is dealt with harshly by all company and regulatory parties concerned.

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Volume 3 Number 24

1. Things are beginning to get interesting. Amtrak’s embattled employee unions are taking note of some of the changes either being proposed or being wrought by Amtrak’s Board of Directors. Most of these changes are very good, but the unions, who have been so victimized by previous Amtrak leadership, are looking at everything with a jaundiced eye.One of the best innovations (advocated for a long time by URPA) is a study to see what benefits will be generated by outsourcing Amtrak’s two telephone reservation centers, one in Riverside, California, and the other in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area.

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