Archive
Archive for 2006
Volume 3 Number 40
- Another week, this time the first week of the new fiscal year, and another week when the Sunset Limited is not running east of New Orleans. Has anybody seen the Sunset Limited?
- For all of the things Amtrak is doing, it’s what Amtrak is not doing that is making a negative difference.For too long, Amtrak has considered marketing and related activities beyond the Northeast Corridor (or, here in bow and arrow country, which means anywhere west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and south of Washington, D.C.) as unimportant. At best, Amtrak has paid lip service to marketing the national system, but the bulk of the marketing and advertising dollars have gone into trying to bolster the sagging NEC.
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- The end of the federal government’s and Amtrak’s fiscal year is just hours away. Looks like Amtrak survived another year to live and provide passenger rail service for another day. Fiscal Year 06 will be remembered as the year that fortunately for Amtrak, former President and CEO David Gunn was shown the door, and a new chief steward of Amtrak appeared on the scene less than a month before the end of the fiscal year.Most notable for FY 06 was the complete absence of the Sunset Limited operating east of New Orleans. Amtrak told its unions the train was not discontinued, but was unable to operate due to a lack of station infrastructure and right of way. CSX solved the right of way problem by releasing the track east of New Orleans to Jacksonville on April 1st for use by Amtrak. The station facilities smokescreen is just that – smoke and mirrors. If Amtrak has the internal will to operate this train, which the State of Florida contributed $7.5 million to in 1992/93 to upgrade infrastructure and build station facilities in Florida’s panhandle, the train will be running. So far, the public or other interested parties have not heard any reasonable excuses, beyond the dog eating Amtrak’s homework, for the train not to be running.
- New Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant continues to strike a positive note as he communicates with his employees. Here is what he had to say in the internal employee newsletter, “Amtrak This Week” on Monday: Read more…
Volume 3 Number 38
- Cooperation for a common goal is considered to be a good idea. The common goal of this exercise is for the freight railroads to run Amtrak trains in a timely manner. Chip Jones, the very good transportation reporter for the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch wrote last week that CSX is working with Amtrak to improve on time performance.The crux of the matter is this: CSX has a contractual obligation, agreed upon when Amtrak began operating in 1971, to operate all passenger trains on a priority basis, with clearances over freight trains. This is the deal the freight railroads made with the devil to be relieved of regulatory requirements to run their own passenger trains and turn over all operations to Amtrak.
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Volume 3 Number 37
- Memo To: Alexander Kummant President and CEO, Amtrak/National Railroad Passenger Corporation Washington, D.C. September 12, 2006Welcome to your first day as the new chief steward of Amtrak, our national passenger railroad. We look forward to working with you as you improve the company.
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Volume 3 Number 36
- By the calendar, it’s still summer, but for all practical purposes, the summer travel season has ended. However, with less than a month to go in Amtrak’s fiscal year, the Sunset Limited is still not running east of New Orleans. What’s taking so long?As noted last week in TWA, Amtrak was considering dropping one daily roundtrip between the Northeast and Williamsburg, Virginia, which in 2007 will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Virginia colony at nearby Jamestown (Or, as we native Virginians like to think, the beginning of Civilization.). Over one million visitors are expected for the celebration, and Amtrak was very close to dropping one of only two daily trains. This is a vivid demonstration of how Amtrak’s annihilative planning department operates in more of a vacuum than anything else. We see this same phenomenon regarding the Sunset Limited. Partial facts are given out about ridership east of New Orleans and nocturnal station stops. None of that hardly matters. What matters are total revenue passenger miles, the Sunset east of New Orleans as part of Amtrak’s national route matrix, and overhead or connecting business between the Amtrak hubs of New Orleans and Jacksonville and Orlando. As long as the Sunset Limited doesn’t run east of New Orleans, there is a huge gap in Amtrak’s national long distance system, one which a lot of public money on all levels went into in the early 1990s to plug. We must question how good of information is flowing to the ultimate decision makers at Amtrak about the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans. Is the full story being told? Is all of the high volume connecting business at Jacksonville and New Orleans being considered? Even if the Sunset Limited remains terminated at New Orleans, is a daily replacement train between New Orleans and Jacksonville and Orlando being considered, which would eliminate all of the nocturnal station stops? There are so many options available to Amtrak to continue to live up to its corporate name: National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Please, note the word “National.” It means everybody, including the residents of the Gulf Coast and Florida’s panhandle, currently without any train service, at all.
- It is difficult to imagine what various and alleged stakeholders in the search for a new president and CEO of Amtrak were expecting from the Amtrak Board of Directors. Were they expecting another transit official who believes in the wrongly perceived glory of power of government over private enterprise? Where they expecting a resurrected, retired railroad executive who has always wanted to run passenger trains, but couldn’t at the freight railroads? Were they expecting a long lost child of the late Amtrak Chairman and President Graham Claytor who would carry on the family tradition?It’s no telling who was expected, but we know we have former Union Pacific Vice President Alexander Kummant. Mr. Kummant, 46, who has also worked for a number of other private industries outside of the railroad industry, is an enigma to almost all Amtrak watchers. Somehow, in the closed minds of some, this disqualifies him from being the next chief steward of Amtrak. Here is what one longtime Washington wag had to say: Read more…
Volume 3 Number 35
- In a surprise move to Amtrak watchers, Amtrak’s Board of Directors hired a new president and CEO today, despite the fact there is no principal Amtrak shareholder in the form of a permanent United States Secretary of Transportation or a fully populated Amtrak board.Alexander Kummant, formerly of Union Pacific Railroad is the new chief steward of Amtrak. Here is Amtrak’s press release: Read more…
Volume 3 Number 34
- Whither the Sunset Limited, still? As noted last week, the Sunset Limited is still not operating east of New Orleans, with no announcement in sight as to when it will resume operation. The only solid information available is through a letter sent to an Amtrak union official which said the Sunset is not slated for discontinuance. That’s tough to imagine, especially since it has been a full year now since the train operated east of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.A lot of city, town, and state money went into extending the Sunset from New Orleans to Florida in 1993, including $7.5 million from the State of Florida for track upgrades, the addition of track sidings, and 80% assistance to local governments for station rehabilitations or new stations constructed. Public money in Mississippi and Alabama also went to similar purposes. No public money has ever been used for operating subsidies.
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Volume 3 Number 33
- Whither the Sunset Limited, again? America’s only transcontinental passenger train still only covers half of a continent. When will it return? When will Amtrak keep its obligation to the American taxpayers who are helping pay for this train, and resume running it? When will Amtrak keep its obligation to its employees who worked to make this train successful, but have been rewarded by being out of a job for over a year, now?Amtrak has offered excuse after excuse, to union leaders, its employees, and others. Publications such as Trains magazine, which should be monitoring this situation, have instead blithely accepted many excuses including Amtrak’s all-time-most-successful excuse: “The dog ate my homework.”
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Volume 3 Number 32
- A lingering question last week in TWA regarding the lack of passenger rail service east of New Orleans by the Sunset Limited still hangs in the air.Interestingly, in the meantime, one of Amtrak’s most prolific apologists, Trains Magazine, in the September 2006 issued published a story by longtime writer Bob Johnston bemoaning this very topic.
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Volume 3 Number 31
- 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.
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