United Rail Passenger Alliance

Volume 3 Number 31

1. There was a startling news announcement by the Associated Press in Florida and some of the Southeastern states last week. Many Florida news outlets picked up the story that said a freight train derailment in California was disrupting Amtrak service for about 1,000 passengers, some as far away as Florida.The Associated Press breathlessly reported that service on the tri-weekly Sunset Limited, which travels between Los Angeles and Orlando, was cancelled due to the freight train derailment.Oops! The Sunset Limited hasn’t operated east of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit almost a full year ago. Of course, the CSX main line between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida has been reopened for months now, but still not a Sunset Limited in sight. One rather flimsy excuse is that so many of the Amtrak stations were blown away or heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina. But, we all know, Amtrak has a long, long history of bringing in portable trailers for temporary stations when a permanent building isn’t available.

   Part of Amtrak’s annual subsidy of free federal money this year was to operate the Sunset Limited on its full route, from Los Angeles to Orlando, not just half way to New Orleans. Back in 1993, the State of Florida provided tens of millions of dollars to make the old L&N (now CSX) main line serviceable for passenger train traffic. Where is the Sunset Limited? Inquiring minds want to know.

2. The future of passenger rail is heavily entwined with the future of freight transportation in our country. Many have noted for many years the lack of coherent, overall transportation policy in the United States which addresses the needs of all forms of transportation, beyond airlines, highways, and commuter rail.Gilbert E. Carmichael of Meridian, Mississippi, the former Federal Railroad Administrator in the Bush I administration, is a longtime proponent of an overall national transportation policy. There is not a more distinguished American voice on this subject. He recently spoke before the Mississippi Senate Highways and Transportation Committee in Jackson, Mississippi about this subject on the state level. Mr. Carmichael’s statement is below [edited for space; the full text is here].
   

   July 25, 2006

   By
   Gilbert E. Carmichael

   Senior Chairman, Intermodal Transportation Institute/University of Denver
   Former Chairman, Amtrak Reform Council
   Federal Railroad Administrator, 1989-1993

   … Allow me to make three points that underscore the need for fresh thinking about how Mississippi state government organizes and executes its important transportation functions.

   During the past 25 years, a revolution has occurred in transportation. A global intermodal freight network has evolved. It is now the global standard for moving freight. This intermodal network is sharply focused on speed, safety, reliable scheduling, and economic efficiency. It builds on the strengths of each mode, who have become partners in offering service. It makes use of the cargo container. Cargo ships and airplanes span the oceans. The freight railroad is the high-speed, long-distance land transport artery. The truck provides local feeder service at origins and destinations. This intermodal system works. It continues to grow. Its future success will hinge partly upon our ability to further improve the routes and terminals which make it work. Yes, a revolution in freight transportation has occurred. But the general public certainly is not aware of it. Most public officials and opinion leaders don’t even know of its existence.

   My second example is an outgrowth of the first one, and is taking place right here in Mississippi. It’s the Meridian Speedway. It isn’t a race track. It’s a rail corridor jointly developed by Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern [railroads]. This is a high-speed, high capacity rail freight route between Meridian and Shreveport. The Meridian Speedway is emerging as the most important east-west rail corridor across the Deep South. This project will surely be the most important transportation improvement in our state for at least the next decade. It offers impressive economic development potential. Elsewhere in North America several regional intermodal terminals are being built to combine the traditional notion of transferring freight between rail and truck, but also to place freight customers’ regional distribution centers at these transfer points. The community leadership of Meridian is considering such a facility. Again, here we have a project of vital importance to our state’s future, and most people don’t know about it.

   My final example is a report commissioned by the National Center for Intermodal Transportation after the September 11, 2001, tragedy. It represents a consensus of transportation experts who concluded that the nation needs a new transportation agenda. The disruption caused by the events of September 11 disclosed serious flaws in our transportation systems. But the terrorist attacks only magnified problems and defects which have existed for years. This report is brief and easy to read. It should prompt fresh thinking about how we face today’s needs and tomorrow’s challenges.

   Although dramatic changes have occurred in transportation during the past quarter-century, the organization and structure of our federal and state transportation agencies is still locked into a style and mind set that prevailed before the intermodal revolution occurred. We need reform I offer the following recommendations.

   • A fourth member should be added to our … Mississippi Transportation Commission. The new member … would be appointed by the governor and would also serve as the chief executive of the Department of Transportation. The governor is the state’s chief executive. The DOT represents a major executive function. The agency needs close working relationships with programs under the governor’s jurisdiction – economic development, finance, tax policy, and so on.
   • The chief executive of the DOT should have two principal deputies, one to oversee policies and programs associated with freight transportation, the other to carry out an identical role in passenger transportation.
   • Senior executives of the DOT should have a working knowledge of the new principles of intermodal transportation, because a majority of policy decisions and projects need to be carried out with intermodal needs given priority – for both freight and passenger improvement. …

   Dividing the DOT’s executive functions – policy, planning, programs, grants – into two main functions – freight and passenger – makes practical sense. It also would make a powerful statement that we in fact do understand that the world has changed. Think about it. By tradition, government agencies concentrate on infrastructure. Highway agencies build and maintain roads. Airport authorities build and maintain airports. We hand out grants to other modes to help them upgrade infrastructure. There are several things wrong with this arrangement. It leads to one-dimensional thinking. We concentrate on infrastructure, but we don’t really pay much attention to how it is used – or where the most promising opportunities exist. Freight’s intermodal network has succeeded because it is customer-driven. Our “infrastructure mentality” also causes government officials to view the modes in insolation, yet the intermodal system prospers by efficiently unifying them.

   This division of responsibilities will help eliminate another unhealthy tradition. Among public officials at all levels of government – including many in transportation agencies – the ignorance of freight transportation is almost universal. Some regional planning agencies have developed transportation plans which devote more attention to bicycle paths than to freight transportation. Yet for every passenger moving on America’s transportation system, a ton of freight is moving. Ignorance about freight leads to bad decisions and missed opportunities. Nearly all of our recent progress and innovation in transportation has come in the freight area, and nearly all of those gains are attributable to action by the private sector – not government. And I believe that freight will continue be the category in which we achieve the most impressive gains. Unfortunately, government is heavily involved in passenger policy. Government has resisted reform and modernization. We badly need an intermodal systems approach to passenger service in America. In this regard we are at least 20 years behind the freight industry.

   Finally, under this obsolete thinking which focuses on individual modes, individual infrastructure, and a lack of knowledge of customers and markets, some important issues fall through the cracks because they don’t have a government “home.” The most striking example is the intercity bus industry. We are in danger of losing it. Most people don’t care. They should. In many markets there is no alternative commercial service – today or in the future. As commuter air service retreats from cities of less than 100,000 population, people will still have to get to airport, only they will be farther away. The choice is simple – bus or private car. I believe that a major early project for a new passenger division of the reformed Mississippi DOT would be a thorough, market-based, and visionary analysis of what it would take to achieve a substantial expansion of private-sector intercity bus service in our state.

   Thank you.

   Gil Carmichael may be reached at gil@missouth.com

3. Last week, TWA featured an essay by URPA Vice President William Lindley on an example of how the passenger rail matrix theory developed by the late Dr. Adrian Herzog can be implemented to the advantage of improved passenger service in the Southeast, particularly focusing on North Carolina.Mr. Lindley, of Scottsdale, Arizona, writes this week further on the subject.
   

   Improving Passenger Train Travel in the Southeast – Part II

   By William Lindley

   Last week I wrote about how North Carolina could make good advantage of a second trainset in addition to the one it currently has for the “Piedmont.” It was good to have feedback from TWA readers and hear this got a few people thinking.

   It is discouraging, however, that after all these years, the Piedmont carries only 70 daily passengers each way. NC DOT reports 4,442 total riders (about 140 per day, or 70 each way). It seems the Piedmont is generally comprised of only two single-level coaches and one lounge car. The State, I understand, already owns three locomotives, two lounges, and five coaches, with an additional coach-baggage car being the one under refurbishment. That’s a huge investment for just seventy persons, who easily could be carried in two Greyhound buses; the point of my article was to show how modest expansion could well more than double the return on that investment.

   I find it even more discouraging to hear from our readers that previous efforts to operate additional service into South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia ran aground on the shoals of parochialism (“I’m not going to pay to run ‘your’ train.”). I’ve had the same frustration here in Scottsdale, Arizona. For years the city has resisted extending a bus route to serve the popular Pavilions shopping center which adjoins our city limits but sits on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community: city officials have told me “We’re not going to pay to run a bus that draws shoppers away from ‘our’ shops” – no matter if that’s where residents want to go.

   Defeatist attitudes are hard to overcome. A correspondent wrote that “Richmond is not a major destination for Georgia and North Carolina travelers.” Which is odd, because tomorrow, Friday, August 4th, there are eight nonstop flights from Charlotte, North Carolina to Richmond, Virginia; there are 14 from Atlanta, Georgia to Richmond; and there are 21 non-stops from Charlotte to Atlanta. Even assuming smaller planes and modest load factors, that’s 43 plane loads, or at least 2,000 daily passengers each way – not even accounting for all the intermediate points not served by scheduled airlines. That is easily a sufficient market for rail service, and one large enough for trains to complement, rather than be in competition with, existing air and bus services.

   I proposed terminating the Carolinian at Washington because I was looking at changing only one route. A full system approach instead would keep run-through operation, perhaps to Boston or Albany, as part of almost every “conventional” train on the Northeast corridor becoming a through train to off-Corridor points. Corridor service then would be long-distance “conventional” service, alternating hourly with higher-speed trains operating Washington – Boston.

   In the coming weeks we will look more at how regional state-sponsored services can best utilize their assets to maximize taxpayer return on investment.

4. Also last week, a TWA reader who is a regular rider on Amtrak’s Empire Service between the Hudson River Valley and New York City offered his experiences riding the Empire Service and his factual past experiences with Amtrak’s reservations centers – both the automated “Julie” system and live agents.Another TWA reader, Ed Tyrrell, a veteran Amtrak Philadelphia reservations center employee, e-mailed a rebuttal, offering a different perspective.
   

   “I understand that when someone is dissatisfied with Amtrak’s reservation center service, the reason for the shortcoming does not matter to that customer. None-the-less, as an Amtrak reservation center agent for 13 years, I feel compelled to respond to the caustic comments in your latest letter.

   “Like any other group of employees doing a job, Amtrak Reservation Sales Agents range in their performance and effectiveness. I can’t claim we are all great, but I do know there are many agents at the Philadelphia call center that do a wonderful job. Amtrak’s customer service has won awards over the years from industry organizations. The level of call monitoring by supervisors has increased considerably over the years, and agents are monitored not only by their own supervisors, but by others, as well. The assessments of monitors supervisors do are reviewed by other supervisors. This means calls are listened to by supervisors, who make objective and subjective assessments of the calls and record them, and then their assessments are reviewed by other supervisors who listen to the same calls, review the assessment of the call, and assess the assessment. These assessments are reviewed with the agent and the agent is coached for improvement. The difference in how our call center operates now, and how it operated when I started at Amtrak, is the difference between night and day. The systems that have been put in place to improve the quality of the product and service deserve praise.

   “Whether you hate ‘Julie’ or love her, that system has also won travel industry awards. As to the effectiveness of the system when there are delays, whether it be ‘Julie’ or an agent, the information available on delays is usually the problem in supplying accurate information. Delay information in the train status record, and accompanying advisories, is often sketchy, delayed in its availability, and sometimes downright confusing, particularly if busing is being provided in lieu of train service.

   “You quote someone as saying ‘The Amtrak customer service representative told me my train was currently boarding on the platform right where I was standing.’

   “Amtrak reservation agents do not have, nor have we ever had, information in our reservation system as to what track a train is boarding or will board on. If the customer was given that information by one of our agents, if was because that agent went the extra step to either call the station or the operations center in Wilmington, to get additional information, beyond what was in the status record or accompanying advisories. If the information was unfortunately wrong, it was not the reservation agent’s fault.

   “I am about to retire, after working for various companies for approximately 30 years doing programming and systems work, and as a supervisor and manager, in the main frame computer field, and then working the last 13 years as a reservation agent, and more recently as an e-mail and Internet support desk agent, and North American Rail Pass agent. With this range of work experience and responsibility over my working lifetime, I believe I can look at the quality of work being done by those around me and make an objective assessment, and I strongly feel the highly negative comments in this week’s newsletter are undeserved.”