United Rail Passenger Alliance

By Dennis Larson

Recent This Week at Amtrak issues have been keeping readers informed about Amtrak’s basic maintenance failures around the country such as keeping train sets watered, fueling of engines before departure, and simplistic cleaning. The solution seems simple enough, hire more help. But looking at the Amtrak manpower report of December 2006, published on March 14, 2007, there are all ready 3,892 people doing just this. Compared to other carriers with similar transportation output, Amtrak’s mechanical department is more than adequately staffed as is the entire organization.

But, for all of Amtrak’s shortcomings, there is an area of the mechanical department that is doing well — the high-speed maintenance department — even if the price is steep. Several years ago, the high-speed Acelas were in the news with a myriad of problems, and the problems were so severe the entire fleet was taken out of service for months. The root cause of the Acela problems centered on the suspension and braking components which were obviously was not up to the task of carrying the added weight of the heavy steel frame mandated by the Federal Railroad Administration. In general, the FRA was lauded for this decision, but the Acela-based equipment design as used abroad without FRA modifications had all ready turned in a fatality-free record for decades, as have similarly designed lightweight equipment in the Orient.

The high-speed train sets in their original configuration were very reliable with uptime in the high 90 percent range. But after the work over by the FRA, these beasts take constant maintenance to keep rolling safely. The FY 2006 maintenance bill for Acela train sets was $47,531,000, up from $33,070,000 in 2005.

So far in 2007, October, November and December, $12,479,000 was spent on Acela maintenance at the 289 employee high speed maintenance facility. The Beech Grove facility, that services Superliners and other non-Acela equipment with 333 employees, had an operating expense for the same period of $1,844,000. Amtrak’s FY 2007 forecast for Acela maintenance is $52,516,000.

The Acela annual maintenance bill would consume the equivalent of the entire gross passenger revenue of all the Pacific Surfliners combined, and then some.

The cost per passenger mile — just for Acela maintenance only — is 10.3 cents. The latest airline yield report just issued by the Air Transport Association is now at 13.1 cents a passenger mile.

Amtrak still insists the Northeast Corridor’s Acela trains are profitable. Would someone please rationally explain how this is so?

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to Offer Fastest Service Between Southern California and Southeast

OMAHA, Neb. and NORFOLK, Va., April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway will significantly improve eastbound domestic transcontinental service from Los Angeles to the Southeast on May 21. The service improvement in this important high-volume lane will result from shifting traffic from the Memphis gateway to the new Shreveport, La., gateway.

This new route, combining Union Pacific’s Sunset Route between Los Angeles and Texas with Norfolk Southern’s and Kansas City Southern’s joint venture line between Shreveport and Meridian, Miss., is nearly 150 miles shorter than the current route, making it the shortest, fastest and most reliable intermodal route between Los Angeles and the Southeast. This change will result in the following improvements: — Standard service to Atlanta will improve by one day … — BlueStreak premium service to Atlanta now will be available … providing truck-competitive transit speeds of 600 miles per day. … — There also will be improvements to other Southeast destinations.

Since expanding service and capacity in this lane in February, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern BlueStreak has been running 100 percent on time. Both railroads continue to make major investments to expand capacity and enhance service performance on this route. Westbound domestic service is expected to be shifted to the faster Shreveport gateway during the third quarter of 2007. International shipments will remain routed via the Memphis gateway, and customers can expect improvements to this service in the months ahead.

UP, Kansas City Southern, and NS can do this for inanimate freight, and brag about how fast the service is for freight customers. What reasonable steps will it take — making a strong business case, not emotional rhetoric — to make this same trip a reality for passengers, and, at the same time, make it desirable for the host railroads?

Where are all of the school-based programs teaching a new generation about passenger railroading? Does the NRHS have a secondary school or college campus program? We know the freight railroads are heavily supporting technical school training programs for train and engine personnel and other operating positions. But, where are the programs for all of the other areas?

Passenger railroading is on an upswing in North America. New commuter and transit systems are popping up everywhere, raising the visibility of steel wheel on steel rail transportation. The railroad industry needs to follow the cardiac-damaging, cholesterol-filled leadership of McDonald’s and Burger King. Get ‘em when they are young, and they will stay with you forever.