United Rail Passenger Alliance

Volume 4, Number 10

By Paul A. Wilson, Ph.D.

Unique Positive Aspects of Conventional Speed Passenger Rail

1. Passenger trains serve big cities, suburbs and small towns equally well, without creating untoward disruption and NIMBY backlash. Indeed, suburbs that are a part of a healthy railroad system, both long distance and commuter, contain some of the most valuable and desirable real estate in the country.
2. Trains easily pick people up enroute at multiple stops, offering a robust matrix of origins and destinations to the traveling public. Even single route trains offer high levels of connectivity between online stations and adjoining communities.
3. Outside of cruise ships, no one else in the travel industry offers moving sleeping accommodations. Rail sleeper accommodations match the privacy of the private automobile, without the difficulties of providing the vehicle driver.
4. Onboard amenities are potentially without parallel, at least on land. No other form of transportation offers full meal service from a broad menu, space to walk around while in transit, or a full service beverage lounge open for extended hours. Passenger train travel also is provided without a necessary level of high security measures, avoiding the necessity of intrusive luggage and personal searches. There are no banned materials or legal substances on passenger trains; passengers may travel with all of their legal needs at all times.
5. Adding new destinations along existing routes can be achieved at low cost. Stations are relatively inexpensive and the costs of stopping and starting an enroute train are low.
6. Adding new routes or extensions of existing routes on existing railroad rights-of-way is relatively low cost, at conventional speeds (79 MPH maximum).
7. For a conventional speed passenger railroad, the rights-of-way already exist or have been land banked for the most part. No one’s property need be seized or disrupted. This is not true for most High Speed Rail schemes.
8. Steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology offers energy efficiency that’s nearly impossible to match. It’s hard to argue with the immutable laws of physics.
9. Passenger railroads operate on an environmentally-friendly basis, with relatively quiet operation and they do so on narrow rights-of-way, quite unlike super-highways and airports.

Current Problems with Intercity Passenger Rail in the continental United States

1. An atrophied, now skeletal national network means high unit costs and low productivity, due to Amtrak’s inability to realize economies of scale.
2. Privately-owned railroad infrastructure in most cases is subject to ad valorem taxation by localities.
3. Inefficient labor practices due to a small network, high operating subsidies, poor management, and a historical legacy of strict craft separation mean Amtrak has a high-cost, low-productivity work force.
4. Outside of the few Amtrak-owned lines, passenger trains compete with freight trains for access to routes owned and dispatched by freight railroads.
5. The current method of non-scheduled operations of freight trains on freight lines makes timekeeping difficult for time-sensitive passenger trains.
6. Unreliable and poorly maintained passenger equipment and locomotives creates Amtrak-caused delays, cancellations and many enroute customer service shortcomings.
7. Since the inception of Amtrak over 35 years ago, passenger railroading has been treated as a political football by many parochial interests, with scant regard for maintaining a true national passenger railroad service. Furthermore, the host freight railroads view Amtrak as an interloper on their properties and, in some cases, a general nuisance. Most host freight railroads do not consider the dispatching and hosting of Amtrak trains on their systems as a profitable activity, but an unwanted obligation agreed to by retired and/or dead senior managers who were anxious to get rid of private passenger service at the end of the 1960s at almost any price when railroads in general were on a downward spiral.
8. In the fastest-growing regions in the country, burgeoning freight traffic and decades of scant investment by private freight railroads in track and facilities has led to growing pains and severe congestion on some Amtrak routes that Amtrak has had to contend with, while having very little chance of resolution of a problem not of Amtrak’s own making.

Fixes (addressing the above, in order)

1. Expand the network where it makes sense, add second daily “flip” frequencies (at roughly 10 to 12 hours behind the other daily train) on some existing routes. At a bare minimum, expand consists to full strength where they were only a decade ago. Many Amtrak trains that are nine cars or less today used to run as many as 18 cars on a daily basis.
2. Offer a federal program of partial tax abatement for passenger-carrying freight lines and full tax abatement for those passenger-only facilities still in private hands. Better yet, localities should own and maintain the stations, just like they own the airports. Amtrak should be a tenant, not a landlord.
3. An expanding Amtrak won’t be so obsessed with “headcount” and other hobgoblins, like “featherbedding.” With more trains, low productivity will be largely a self-correcting problem. Raise productivity with more work being done because more trains are running, not by constantly trimming the workforce down to skeletal and unproductive levels.
4. Work with the freight railroads to “fleet” passenger trains with their existing intermodal freight trains. Fast intermodal trains and passenger trains run at roughly the same average speeds.
5. Bring back scheduling. The freight customers will love it and it will allow freight train crews to have a more normal life. This will attract more workers to the railroads at time they’re having problems with recruitment, retention and crew fatigue. Changes could be made to the Hours of Service law to encourage the railroads to move in this direction. Example: the current 12 hours on and 12 off would apply to scheduled movements, but non-scheduled movements would be subject to 8 on, 16 off.
6. First off, a no-brainer, devote more of Amtrak’s budget to maintaining long-haul rolling stock, the company’s primary physical asset outside the Northeast Corridor. The long-haul rolling stock is arguably Amtrak’s most productive asset. To handle enroute problems, bring back an old, reliable solution by assigning mechanical forces to stops with longer layovers, using contractors if necessary in locations that need only part-time workers. In addition, reform work rules to soften craft lines and refocus on providing the best experience for the customer, irrespective of one’s specific “job.” Example: Assistant conductors or onboard service employees could be cross-trained to perform simple repairs enroute, enhancing time-keeping, reliability and passenger comfort.
7. 1. Stop using Amtrak’s budget as a backdoor Railroad Retirement subsidy for the freight railroads. Eliminate the Railroad Retirement “excess” payments by Amtrak. Also eliminate RRB participation for Amtrak new hires and move new hires to Social Security, with a 401(k) defined contribution plan with hefty company match mandated by law. Allow all passenger rail operators in on the same deal. (This may lure the freights into the game by opening passenger-operation subsidiaries. See also Item 7d.)
   2. Relieve Amtrak of infrastructure ownership. The United States government would assume direct ownership of NEC and all NEC-related debt. The government would then lease the NEC to a regional authority for $1 a year, with regional authority operating it and providing maintenance. (Servicing the debt would be well worth the cost of getting the albatross off Amtrak’s books.) Turn Amtrak-owned lines (in upstate New York and Michigan) over to the Federal Railroad Administration for use as semi-high-speed test beds.
   3. Change Amtrak governance to eliminate, or at least balance out, the political influence on the board. The US Department of Transportation has been a source of unending frustration, and a font of much nonsense with regards to Amtrak. That being the case, eliminate the DOT secretary seat on the Board and replace the current board with an arrangement similar to the Amtrak Reform Council. Board seats are to be appointed by majority and minority leaderships in each house of Congress, plus the executive branch, subject to an up-or-down vote on entire slate by the Senate. The legislation would prohibit the Senate from “cherry-picking” appointees. This will ensure buy-in and investment from both parties in the success of Amtrak. Retain the current Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act language mandating transportation and business expertise for board members. Include one dedicated seat each for rail labor and host railroads (perhaps chosen by the Association of American Railroads) on the Board.
   4. Maintain Amtrak’s current statutory access to freight lines and the current liability caps, but explicitly prohibit franchising out routes, with one key exception. The track owners would be eligible to obtain either exclusive (new routes) or competing franchises (existing routes) on their own lines. This eliminates the fear of passenger rail being the “camel’s nose” for open access. FRA would establish minimum service standards for franchisees and develop formulas for operating subsidies payable to franchisees.
8. Float federal- and state-issued bonds on an 80%/20% federal-state split for critical new lines and improvements to existing lines, terminals and other bottlenecks, with states and regional authorities assuming title to the improved property. Track usage fees (per gross ton, per train movement, etc.) would service the bond debt and ongoing maintenance. FRA to develop formulas based on Return On Investment criteria to make sure the funds flow equitably to all regions and ensure sufficient revenue flows to service debt. ROI criteria and the need for sufficient revenues assume they will be mixed-use freight/passenger shared facilities. And lastly, provide regulatory relief from environmental reviews for railroad construction on existing rights of way.