Archive
Archive for 2006
Volume 3 Number 30
- Bevies of mostly uninformed people, some with a specific agenda, seem to want the world to believe the privatization of British Rail was not only a mistake, but an utter failure. URPA Vice President of Law and Policy Andrew Selden begs to differ. Mr. Selden’s comments are below. Read more…
Volume 3 Number 29
- Have you noticed there is still no new president and chief executive officer of Amtrak? Considering all that’s going on, this is no surprise, and a good thing for whoever does eventually take the job.As noted in the last issued of TWA, Norman Mineta has departed as the United States Secretary of Transportation, and his designee on the Amtrak board, Jeffrey Rosen also is gone from DOT. Since the DOT secretary is the principal Amtrak stockholder by law, it would be tough to select a new head of the company without knowing who the real boss will be. Maria Cino, the Deputy Secretary of Transportation since 2005, is the Acting Secretary of Transportation. As of yet, the White House has not nominated a new secretary.
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Volume 3 Number 28
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- “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
- 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
- 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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Volume 3 Number 23
- A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was released in Washington earlier this week under the signature of JayEtta Z. Hecker, the Director for Physical Infrastructure Issues of the GAO. The report purports to predict what will happen to commuter agencies if the sky starts falling in the highly unlikely event Amtrak would cease operations because of its many financial and other struggles.This report can be considered from two different viewpoints. For Amtrak apologists and those wishing to prop up Amtrak at any price, “Commuter Rail: Commuter Rail Issues Should Be Considered in Debate over Amtrak” provides plenty of ammunition why Amtrak should be kept at least in a minimum level of existence, if for nothing more than a convenience for hidden funding and cheaply available workforce for some commuter agencies.For those more enlightened, this report demonstrates vividly why the Northeast Corridor infrastructure desperately needs to be pulled away from Amtrak in its present form and put under a separate, more accountable structure for the benefit of everyone including Amtrak, contracting NEC commuter agencies, commuters themselves, taxpayers on every level, and the commonweal. The report, as others before it, also points out a number of issues which need the utmost attention of the next President and CEO of Amtrak. Again, we see unforgivable business practices by past stewards of Amtrak which have caused the company – and the entire issue of viable passenger rail for the United States – to constantly be questioned as to practicality and desirability. Not until these issues are solved will Amtrak be able to begin to move forward to its rightful place as an important part of our domestic transportation network.
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Volume 3 Number 22
- Well, we were all set to possibly hear about a new President and Chief Executive Officer for Amtrak, and instead the White House has given us two new nominees for the board of directors.Yesterday, the Bush Administration nominated R. Hunter Biden of Delaware, and Donna R. McLean of Washington, D.C. as board member nominees, for Senate confirmation.
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Volume 3 Number 21
- Tick, tick, tick, tick … As of this writing, very close to the middle of May, no new Amtrak President and CEO has been named. We all await the choice of the Amtrak Board of Directors with great anticipation.
- Whoever becomes the next chief steward of Amtrak, there are several daunting tasks that need to be undertaken immediately, above and beyond the financial, mechanical, transportation, passenger service, and operating issues.The Amtrak marketing department needs to be taken apart and put back together with a group of new professionals dedicated to the concept of Amtrak’s mandate to operate a national system of long distance trains. With the new group needs to be a new budget for marketing and advertising, that is more closely aligned with private sector budgets matching marketing performance with company revenues. Amtrak is spending about half now of what it should in this area, and the results demonstrate both a too small budget and a too wrong focus for Amtrak advertising.
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