United Rail Passenger Alliance

Dear Amtrak Co-workers:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Phelps as Vice President, Transportation, effective March 15.

Working 33 years at Amtrak, with 25 years in Operations, Richard brings to this position a wealth of knowledge and experience coupled with a strong focus on customer service.

On the West Coast, he has been instrumental in maintaining excellent relationships with our state, commuter and freight partners. Since 2002, Richard has led the Southwest Division as General Superintendent and previously held positions that included Chief Transportation Officer, Amtrak West; Assistant Vice President, Service Standards and General Manager, Commuter Operations.

In his new role, Richard will be responsible for directing the Transportation department’s team of over 8,000 employees and providing safe and efficient train operations with an overall focus on safety and quality service.

Please join me in congratulating Richard Phelps in his new position.

I would also like to thank Jon Tainow, who served as acting Vice President, Transportation during this interim period. Jon will return to his official position as Systems Operations Chief.

Sincerely, /s/ William L. Crosbie

Chief Operating Officer

Among the expected improvements are:

• First, wireless Internet service on the Northeast Corridor, with leather seats also on the way. Once established on the NEC, these improvements may migrate to other corridors, such as the Empire Corridor.
• An electronic ticket program will replace paper tickets; passengers will be able to print their tickets at home and skip standing in line at the station ticket window.
• Electronic improvements for transferring data from individual trains to central computers for use elsewhere. Such improvements include transmitting credit card transaction data, and also sending location, speed and other train movement data that will allow passengers at up line stations to know when to expect an arriving train.
• Most short distance Empire Corridor trains are without food service; rolling food carts have been tested and performed well financially, allegedly nearly breaking even.It’s interesting to note that a rolling food cart up and down the aisles of coaches, which requires one employee to man, does better than one employee offering food service from a standing position behind a counter. This seems to be a question that needs further investigation. Amtrak has always said the biggest cost of food service came from employee costs. What’s the difference between an employee walking the aisles, and an employee standing behind a counter? Many of the food service cars are not full lounge cars, but cars with coach seating and food service counters. Are we getting the whole story, here?

The single daily frequency Vermonter as it is known today would disappear, and be replaced by two daily frequencies, one originating in St. Albans, and a second originating in White River Junction, 118 miles south of St. Albans. Instead of traveling all the way to Washington, the two trains would terminate in New Haven, Connecticut, and offer cross-platform hubbing opportunities for passengers wishing to travel elsewhere in the Amtrak system.

Through the years prior to Amtrak, RDCs were a popular alternative for private railroads to offer passenger service on short distance routes without the full expenses of complete trains with locomotives and coaches. Today, RDCs are still successfully operated by VIA Rail Canada.

The genial Tom Rader, owner of Colorado Railcar which manufactures the DMU units, has been taking DMU demonstration units around the country for local politicos and others to view the striking advantages of this equipment. Earlier in March, Mr. Rader brought a set of double-decker DMUs to here in Jacksonville and hosted a demonstration.

After touring the equipment, it’s obvious this is very well-planned equipment, highly functional, and sturdy. Interior appointments are more than adequate and pleasing to the eye, as well as comfortable. Obviously, a great deal of thought was put into the planning of this equipment, and many minuses of other similar equipment were discarded before this equipment came off the drawing board.

If Vermont takes the plunge with this new equipment and the planned three year demonstration works, an entire new era of less expensive passenger rail operations could be dawning that will provide critical feeder systems into other traditional long distance trains.

The DMUs are ideal for daylight hops (it’s easy to see how food service areas can be incorporated into the current designs for any runs over three hours) on lightly traveled lines, where a traditional train may possibly breakeven, but a DMU, with a lead unit and one or two trailing cars would definitely make money.

These cars are already FRA compliant for crash worthiness, and are ready to be built. It will be exciting to watch the metamorphosis of an entirely new (in modern times) segment of passenger rail service.

On March 19, 2007 at approximately 7 P.M., Train 383, the Illinois Zephyr from Chicago to Quincy, Illinois, with Amtrak Engine No. 100 stopped on the BNSF main line at Aurora, Illinois about 40 miles west of Chicago. Engine No. 100 was shut down; no traction and no head end power to provide hotel lights, or heat and power to operate plumbing systems to the passenger cars.

It didn’t take long to determine the locomotive was out of water.

A rescue engine, Amtrak Engine No. 95 was ordered to be prepared by the diesel shop in Chicago. Meanwhile a taxi was called, to take the engineer and a conductor back to Chicago, to deadhead the rescue engine No. 95 to Aurora. Buses were also ordered for passengers.

Passengers sat for about an hour on the train with no lights and heat in dropping temperatures. Snack packs and bottled water were made available to passengers. BNSF, the host railroad, did not want one track of its main line blocked by the dead Amtrak train, so it sent a yard crew and light engine from nearby Eola, Illinois to drag the dead Amtrak train to commuter service METRA’s platform at the Aurora Transportation Center.

There, the stranded Amtrak passengers were allowed to detrain and wait in the heated and lit Metra station.

Three buses arrived Aurora at 10:15 P.M. Thirty passengers boarded local buses making all stops on the Illinois Zephyr’s route to Galesburg. Twenty took a third bus, to run express to Macomb and Quincy, the last two stops, 202 and 258 miles from Chicago. Six passengers had already given up and arranged their own transportation; they got their tickets back, for a refund. Eighty-five passengers chose to wait for the train to get fixed.

Meanwhile, Amtrak Mechanical from Chicago arrived and found the water pump on the Amtrak Engine No. 100 was missing a plug, causing all the water to leak out. With assistance from METRA Mechanical, they fabricated a plug out of wood and banged it in, then added 160 gallons of water. Engine No. 100 came back to life, right around the same time the rescue engine No. 95 arrived from Chicago.

Then, engine No. 95 had problems, even though it had just been released by the Chicago shops, and Mechanical from both Amtrak and METRA had to work on it. Finally the Illinois Zephyr, with both locomotive units on line, departed Aurora at 12:07 A.M., just less than two hours after it was supposed to have arrived in Quincy, about 220 miles away.

The train had been delayed 14 minutes at its initial terminal in Chicago, because engine No. 100 quit running on the platform five minutes prior to departure time. At that time the engineer reported low water.

Amtrak Mechanical added 100 gallons of water to it and sort of wished everybody the best of luck. The original backup plan reportedly was to have BNSF Mechanical add more water to the engine somewhere along the line; but someone decided not to authorize that, perhaps to save a few dollars, and to keep the train running.

The Amtrak crew on train No. 383 is supposed to lay overnight and run the return trip, train No. 380, the next day. Due to the extended time on duty, they couldn’t do that. Another crew had to be called, deadhead 258 miles to Quincy, and run the return trip, train No. 380. On that trip the engine No. 95 (the original rescue engine) had some more mechanical issues, but they still had the engine No. 100, wooden water pump plug and all, and train No. 380 arrived early in Chicago, anyway.

Balance out the cost of fixing the engine No. 100 right in the terminal (or even of paying BNSF a few dollars to water the engine out on the road) against the cost of the taxi back to Chicago, the train mile payments to BNSF for the deadhead move of the engine No. 95 and for pulling the dead train into the station at Aurora, the payment to METRA for the use of their facility and for their Mechanical helping out Amtrak Mechanical (And who knows … maybe the cost of the broom or whatever they cut up to fabricate the wooden plug?), the cost of the bustitutions, the cost of the extra crew that had to be called next day to work the return run, the lost revenue from the six passengers who gave up and went home, and the cost of the snack packs and bottled water for the passengers while they waited five hours.

Delay: Train No. 383, the Illinois Zephyr, 5 hours 07 minutes.

Train 49, Lake Shore Limited: $7,631.25

Train 22, Texas Eagle: $475.00

Train 353, Wolverine: $375.41

Train 6, California Zephyr: $5,762.01

Total Cost: $24,877.41 for one single day in one connecting city.

The Cardinal, Train 51 of March 16, 2007, which runs from New York City to Chicago, departed New York City Pennsylvania Station combined with a Regional corridor train, as is the normal procedure. It departed late because of mechanical problems. The Regional equipment split off at Washington, D.C. as planned, and the Cardinal continued on its way to Chicago. Not long after departing Washington, the crew reported no working toilets in the coaches and food service car, nor in most of the Viewliner sleeping car. A few toilets were still working in the Viewliner and they were designated as public access for the entire load of passengers; that portion of the car had been set aside as dormitory space for the onboard service crew.

The Cardinal is routinely serviced at Russell, Kentucky, about 700 miles from its initial terminal in New York City. At this servicing stop, someone decided to see if filling the water tanks on the coaches, food service car and Viewliner sleeping car might help out with the toilet problem.

Each car tank took a great deal of water; and miraculously, all the toilets started to function.

Nearest anyone can tell, what happened was the mechanical forces at Sunnyside Yard in New York City didn’t water the train before dispatching it to Pennsylvania Station in New York City, so that as soon as the little remaining water in the tanks was used up, the toilets quit working.

It should be noted that along the route of the Cardinal, south of New York Penn Station, at Washington, D.C., just 225 or so miles into the train’s journey, there are complete car watering spigots and hoses on every platform, including the one used by the Cardinal that day. Just perhaps, since most long distance trains routinely sit in Washington for about a half hour while electric engines are swapped for diesel engines, the intrepid Washington mechanical forces could check to see if there is enough water in each of the cars?

Fortunately, both speeches were video taped, and edited (for time; YouTube only allows videos of 10 minutes or less) versions may be viewed on YouTube. The link for Mr. Kummant is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVYXdBL5cr4

William Lindley of URPA offers these highlights from Mr. Kummant’s remarks.

Random quotes and notes, March 17, 2006.

“We are a vehicle of economic development … We need a more vital network. … We need to meet the needs of growing states … We need to address overall freight and passenger [railway] capacity … For the price of one highway interchange we can build a state corridor …”

Is Mr. Kummant the first Amtrak president ever to see his company positively? He talks about growth, and how trains help people and the economy. This is refreshing.

“Los Angeles – Las Vegas is still on our radar.”

“On the East and West coasts … we should run ‘Moose to Mouse.’”

“There has been no real Federal policy discussion or framework for passenger rail in about a decade” since the 1997 Amtrak Reform & Reauthorization Act.

“Between 1980 and 2004, Class I trackage has decreased 38% while traffic rose 81%.”

Asked about using lawsuits to force railroads to improve Amtrak’s time performance, he said lawsuits were generally “not productive.”

On passenger-miles, he said 45% of system [revenue] passenger-miles come from the 15% of the network that is the long-distance trains. 2.6 billion in 2003, 2.4 billion in 2006.

“…[T]he system [as a whole] will never make money,” but the goal is to reduce overall “operating ratio” which equals “Federal operating subsidy.”

“We need to earn the right to grow.”

The link for Mr. Selden’s speech is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HFfbb-VTmM

Longtime URPA Vice President and well-respected professional journalist Russ Jackson reported on Mr. Selden’s presentation.

This report covers the presentation by Andrew C. Selden, representing the United Rail Passenger Alliance. He is President of the Minnesota Rail Passenger Association, and an author of many articles on rail passenger policy and theory. He was a finalist candidate to be President and CEO of Amtrak in 1998. In 1986 he was described by the late David Morgan at TRAINS magazine as “The dean of the pro-passenger Amtrak critics.”

“We share a passion for passenger rail,” Mr Selden began. He expressed his confidence that much of what he heard from Mr. Kummant this morning was encouraging. The market for intercity rail traffic is exploding, but “Amtrak is flat and declining.” It “costs $3 to bring in $2, and the trend never gets better. The network is shrinking!”

Citing 2006 figures from Amtrak’s own reports, Mr. Selden reported income from passenger related activity last year was $1.565.5 billion, other income (excluding Federal subsidy) was $451.4 million. Total Expenses were listed as $3,301.6 billion, yielding a loss of $1,284.8 billion which had to be covered by federal subsidy.

“They have reached the conclusion that growth is not possible without subsidy growth.” But, growth “is not possible with heavy subsidy. Look at their 30 year history. Why are we stuck with this situation?” For one thing, “ridership” is not output. Headcount does not translate into growth in the areas that do count.

Mr. Selden then cited examples of how Amtrak “does not know its product,” even though these same figures are available to them. The Chicago “hub” last year had two categories of trains, Group A and Group B:

Ridership (the headcount) A 1,750,000 B 2,150,000

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) A 250,000 B 1,400,000

Load factor (PM/TM) A 51.2% B 55.9%

Revenue (000) A 41,000 B 180,000

“Now,” Mr. Selden said to a crowd carefully listening to something they had not heard before, “Obviously, Group B excels Group A in each of the important financial categories, so shouldn’t Amtrak be concentrating on providing resources to contribute to the success of Group B?” The question was then answered, that Group A is the eight “corridor” trains going through the Chicago hub, while Group B is the eight “long distance” trains that are criticized so heavily.

California has the same story: Group A outshines the ridership of Group B by a factor of 10; but the load factor (passenger miles/train miles) for A is 33% to 57% for B, the Revenue Passenger miles were close, 200 to 190, and the Revenue was 40 to 25 in favor of group A. Group A is the California corridors, while Group B is the Coast Starlight alone. Just one train does almost as well as all the corridor trains combined.

“If you want growth, put it where you are most likely to get a full return.” At Amtrak, like most big businesses, “management chooses where to put its capital resources and prioritizes spending.” The greatest growth for Amtrak “appears to come from the lowest cost potentials, the long distance trains.” Amtrak should “throw out the Route Profitability System of accounting that misleads management on its true revenue potentials and replace it with a business-oriented system.” Mr. Selden co-authored a study in 1984 on Amtrak Accounting, which was published in Passenger Train Journal.

Mr. Selden then discussed the Matrix theory of how many potentials for growth are being ignored at Amtrak, citing the Albany, New York hub as an example. This theory, developed by Mr. Selden with the late Dr. Adrian Herzog and Byron Nordberg of URPA and RailPAC, shows that today different trains serve that area, from Toronto, the Empire corridor services, long distance trains, Vermont and Montreal services, etc. He pointed out how by adding a train coming from Boston that the incremental increase in all the four categories discussed above explodes.

Time did not allow for a full question and answer period, but many meeting attendees came up to ask questions into the lunch period.