United Rail Passenger Alliance

On the pattern for progress

By William Lindley

What is the path to the future of American passenger rail? A new pattern must replace what has generally become decades of slow decline. Let’s start by comparing Amtrak to the Detroit automakers.

Chrysler and Ford have recently been newsworthy for, at long last, realizing their stodgy business-as-usual ways were leading straight to a vanishing point. Cerberus, which bought 80% of Chrysler, needs to build trust with its employees, its designers, and its customers, while finding profitability. Alan Mulally, Ford’s new president who recently brought Boeing back from uncertain skies, found multiple layers of Ford management and all of them jealously guarding information — it’s no wonder union members complained management wouldn’t tell them anything; one boss didn’t even know what the next boss was doing!

It seems “management” has finally looked in the mirror and quit blaming every problem on the unions. On the flip side, if you ask for the moon and you’re promised it, what good is a promise from a company that ceases to exist? These “oldthink” paradigms are fading from view in the face of a global economy.

Now if any progress is to be made toward bringing passenger rail to more Americans, Amtrak should learn from what is happening at Ford and Chrysler. “Oldthink” Amtrak, as we have seen in our recent weekly columns, leads to dwindling ridership in Florida, and stagnation at best elsewhere.

Yes, Amtrak’s situation today is remarkably similar to that of the Detroit automakers — decades of losing market share, top-heavy management, entrenched relations with unions, and serious resistance to change. Amtrak’s predicament is complicated by having not only twenty-odd crafts, but the several freight railroads to deal with. Like the automakers, though, there is a glimmer on the horizon in new leadership. Amtrak’s Mr. Kummant could well turn things around.

Even among passenger rail advocates, though, “oldthink” lingers. For too long I have heard advocates bemoan “we can’t” as an excuse. As in, “we can’t reroute train X because we will lose this route forever.” This is just the sort of nonsense that Ford’s Mulally dismisses in a recent Business Week article. Whether it’s automobiles or passenger rail, if there’s a real business reason for something, you can find a way to do it.

One example is the Sunset route. In last week’s column, we read the major choke point on the Union Pacific Railroad is between New Orleans and Houston.

Let us ignore the wailings of “you can’t cut this route” and consider what might happen if, in exchange for giving Union Pacific a two-year pass on Houston – New Orleans trains, Amtrak got UP to agree to daily Houston – Dallas – Fort Worth and continuing daily San Antonio – Fort Worth service, in conjunction with operating on the Kansas City Southern from New Orleans via Baton Rouge, Alexandria, and Shreveport to Dallas; and then via Trinity Railway Express trackage to Fort Worth, and on the Union Pacific line via Sweetwater and Midland-Odessa to El Paso?

In combination with extending the Heartland Flyer so it covers San Antonio – Fort Worth – Oklahoma City – Newton, Kansas, suddenly a whole matrix is created, with strong ridership potential.

And, as for rerouting away from some cities and towns, some will complain, we need this route as a placeholder! As a placeholder for what? Thirty more years of waiting?

Yes, there should be at least one daily passenger train between New Orleans and Houston. But, that’s not the question. There are enough “should be’s” in what Amtrak could do, to fill the Grand Canyon. No, the question is, what can be done to maximize equipment utilization, passenger-miles, revenue, and the political power generated by new ridership. The question for Amtrak is how to best capitalize on each region’s newly formed rail networks, both local (like the TRE) and state-supported (like the Heartland Flyer). The pattern for passenger rail progress in the next decades will follow those lines.

Everywhere you look this pattern is starting to emerge. In Florida, we see metro Miami’s Tri-Rail as a feeder for the south of that state, soon to be augmented in the Orlando area with a local train; one need only add the local train network serving St. Petersburg – Tampa – Bradenton – Sarasota and vicinity to complete the picture. In Arizona, Governor Napolitano is set to release a report which may well call for Phoenix – Tucson service to complement the soon-to-open Phoenix light rail and the modern streetcar now being designed in Tucson. Both Dallas and Los Angeles are also well along in the process.

Connect the dots … this is the pattern for the future, and it’s what Amtrak needs to embrace. Boeing found the way. Ford and Chrysler are finding it. Amtrak, are you next?

I was in Denver last weekend for a Saturday wedding, and spoke to passengers who came to the wedding on No. 6, the California Zephyr, from Oakland.

This was train number 6 of the 24th, due into Denver Friday night at 7:00 P.M. It arrived at 7 A.M. Saturday morning. The passengers were not happy.

They described what we would consider “normal” delays coming over the Sierras, but then said when they awoke Friday morning, they were in Elko, Nevada, and had been stopped for some time, and stayed stopped at Elko for three more hours. Elko is just 567 miles from the Zephyr’s origination point where they boarded, and still 833 miles from Denver. They had traveled less than half of the distance to their destination.

They described the railroad crew as having offered basic updates (“freight train traffic and track problems”), but said what saved the day was the OBS crew who were patient and jocular through the delay, saying “this is normal for this train.”

I asked why they hadn’t disembarked at Salt Lake City, the next stop after Elko, and flown ahead. They said that they don’t fly ever, but even if they had been willing to, by the time the train arrived at Salt Lake, they thought it was too late in the day to try. They did say the conductor on board east from Salt Lake City had promised a 14-hour run to Denver and a 7 A.M. arrival, which the train made. (The Rio Grande Zephyr always made that trip in 14 hours.)

These folks won’t fly, did NOT say “never again,” did board the return California Zephyr of the 27th to go home, but also said that they were very disillusioned, and would try not to travel on the Zephyr again.

The usual URPA Intranet chic-chat ensued, with a few comments about the service, including this bit of information which was offered.

Following is the Amtrak report from 26 MAY 2007; the specifics of the over three-hour disabled freight train delay are not given:

Train 5/6 Delayed by Temporary Speed Restrictions/Freight Interference

Train 05/06 was delayed operating between MP 603.75/Alazon and MP 561.1/East Elko on the Shafter Subdivision of the UPRR due temporary speed restrictions in effect. The train was further delayed operating between Elko and MP474.75/Battle Mountain on the Elko Subdivision by temporary speed restrictions.

Delays: 06(24) 37″ SPR-WNN 1′41″ WNN-XSZ 3′15″ ELK-Disabled FRT TRN

In the end, all of this was too much for URPA take-no-prisoners numbers cruncher Dennis Larson. Here is how he summed it all up.

The figure to watch these days is not the on time performance but the average delay minutes over the recovery time as it is one thing to be 31 minutes late, another to be 31 hours late.

Another troubling indicator Amtrak publishes is the delays per 10,000 miles. Union Pacific is, of course, number one in delays, but Norfolk Southern is right behind. UP shows slow orders as the culprit, NS shows freight train interference – people get to sit and wait for the NS coal trains go by.

The Lake Shore Limited is now at 339 minutes average delay, five hours and 39 minutes per trip, and the California Zephyr is now at 356 minutes average delay, but over a much longer distance. Besides all that, the Capitol Limited is also in the perfect never-on-time league at 260 minutes average delay, worse than the Coast Starlight.

We know infrastructure is probably the root cause of all this, but attitude, something the railroads have carried on for generations, certainly has a hand in all this.

The BNSF continues to lead the pack in delivering passenger trains to the terminal on time. The Southwest Chief, an all BNSF routed train is now arriving only seven minutes behind the recovery time – the Builder is at 32 minutes in spite of the Canadian Pacific.

The average delay minutes per 10,000 miles on the BNSF is 971 minutes. UP is at 2,568; NS at 2,426 minutes; CP at 1,848 and CSX at 1,745. And, the BNSF is one of the most heavily used rail systems in the U.S. The BNSF should be the worst — rather than the best — if it was purely an infrastructure problem.

What does all of this mean? From one standpoint, it means Amtrak is paying a fortune in millions of dollars of overtime for onboard service crews, train and engine crews, and station agent staffs, not to mention what is paid in customer re-accommodation charges, especially when hotel nights, meals, and airline tickets are involved.

Two things need to happen to solve this solvable problem. First, Amtrak’s mechanical forces need to take responsibility for complete maintenance and upkeep of all equipment. The Amtrak budgeteers need to make sure the mechanical forces have all of the necessary parts and equipment to keep the fleet operating at optimal level. Every piece of equipment that fails due to deferred maintenance or no maintenance costs money in some form or another, be it a late train, displaced passengers, a clogged freight train main line, or any other number of fiascoes.

Second, Amtrak must find a way to have better relations with its host railroads. A contract is a contract; a signed deal is a signed deal. We know the host railroads chafe under what they perceive as the unfair yoke of passenger rail, a deal they made with the devil nearly four decades ago when everything was much different from today. We know many executives, managers, and workers in the freight railroad industry hope those pesky passenger trains would just go away, and travelers would come to their senses and either drive or fly to their travel destinations. But, that isn’t going to happen. Whoops! Passenger trains have suddenly become popular again (despite Amtrak’s best efforts to remain America’s best kept secret), and it looks like passenger trains are here to stay (and the system will grow, if enough people listen to solid economic reason beyond any dream of people who just like to watch trains go by).

So, Amtrak needs to be the instigator of all of this, first cleaning up its mechanical house, and then finding a way to be a partner — not an adversary — of its host railroads. Amtrak never has a problem asking for the maximum free federal monies donations for the Northeast Corridor upkeep; why be shy about asking for one-time handouts to put the rolling stock and locomotive fleet in superb order? More dramatic things have happened in history; this can happen, too.

Greetings. First to introduce myself briefly — I’m one of the younger generations of Amtrak riders, only 24, but someone who hasn’t been on a commercial airliner for a domestic trip since 1997. All my journeys of any length save one (driving) have been on Amtrak.

I’ve ridden the Sunset Limited, Southwest Chief, Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, Empire Builder (more times than I can count), Capitol Limited, Crescent, and City of New Orleans, along with Cascades service, the Adirondack, the Maple Leaf, and the Northeast Corridor. It isn’t a hobby for me; all the trips have had purposes other than traveling for the sake of traveling. I simply utterly loathe being crammed into an aluminum tube for any length of time, and of course, these days first class tickets on an airliner cost substantially more on many flights than sleeping accommodations on Amtrak do.

Reading through the United Rail website has led me to have some ideas in the vein of expanding service on largely existing routes, which after some opportunity for research during a period of convalescence I had, I decided to put together for your perusal.

I’ve been reading through your proposals for the revival of Florida service with intense interest. There is, however, a unique opportunity that I think you missed out on when considering the possibility of extending the Silver Meteor to Montreal, one which could allow a complete revitalization of service on the single-level trains along the East Coast.

Montreal is the operating base for VIA Rail’s Ocean service to Halifax. Provided six times daily, the Ocean is able to run with three consists. These use the Renaissance cars purchased from the failed Chunnel service; there are a total of 139 of these cars, 72 of which were sleepers. But, the three consists of the Ocean, which is to my knowledge the only sleeping service on VIA Rail which uses the Renaissance cars, each have only eight sleepers, and when demand is greater in certain seasons “Easterly” service with older cars is used instead. The Chaleur, the Canadian, and the Hudson Bay service also use the older sleepers. So if only 24 of the new Renaissance cars are being utilized by the Ocean, that leaves VIA Rail with 48 sleepers doing nothing.

If we’re going to be running the Silver Meteor out of Montreal, why not eliminate Amtrak equipment from the train entirely, and instead rent Renaissance consists from VIA Rail to operate the train with, or at least use Renaissance sleepers and business-class cars taken from the NEC Regional services (which run massively under capacity anyway) for the long-distance coaches?

The consists could be maintained in Montreal and operate with very extensive sleeping car service. For example, a typical consist might have eight sleepers, two dining service cars, and ten coaches for a full maximal 20 car train. This train could be split at Jacksonville with one section running through Orlando to Tampa and the other section running down the FEC to Miami, possibly as a straight shot without any station stops, which could be gradually added as communities along the route built the facilities with their own money if they decided they wanted passenger service.

The result of this would be to free up all the Viewliner sleepers currently utilized on the Silver Meteor for service elsewhere. There are several possible applications which have plenty of potential to use these sleepers, which number a total of twelve. One of these is to add an additional car to your proposed Palmetto extension. By running the sleepers on the rear of the Palmetto, the second sleeper could be set-out in Orlando, allowing passengers bound for that popular tourist destination to take the Palmetto and sleep comfortably past the 5 A.M. arrival for several hours. The delay at Orlando to set-out a sleeper wouldn’t be long enough to hamper the operation of the train, and pushing back the arrival time in Tampa slightly would just make it more convenient there for the sleeping car passengers, also. That would require only another three sleepers and have nine available for other services.

More sleepers would be required for the Cardinal under your proposed modifications to its route, but I understand this is well within the current 39/50 ratio of Viewliners in use to those needed. If that’s the case, then we have a chance at using the nine available sleepers to revive an additional train to service New York and Washington D.C.

Using the Manhattan Limited concept from 2000 or so of running a late evening departure from New York with daytime service at Cleveland and all stations west, a reduced service train with a single sleeper and a diner lite along with three to four coaches could be run out of New York City. A connecting train with another sleeper, a cafe car, and a couple more coaches could run out of Washington, D.C. — this might cause maintenance issues for the sleeper, but it does not seem much of an issue to deadhead the sleepers as necessary on a Regional train to NYC for maintenance. This leaves us with three sleepers which could profitably be used to revive the Lake Shore Limited’s extension to Boston, where there would, after all, now again be maintenance facilities for Viewliners under your plan.

The Capitol Limited extension to Florida could go through to Miami instead of Tampa, and replace the Silver Meteor as a second Orlando-Miami frequency. As an alternative to the restoration of the Sunset Limited on its original route, daylight service between New Orleans and Miami via
Jacksonville and Tampa could be offered by a schedule change in the City of New Orleans, extending it to Florida and providing a second Chicago-Florida service. The main disadvantage would be problematic connections with the incoming western trains to Chicago if the City of New Orleans leaves earlier; however, the additional and offsetting advantage of doing this is that several cars could be dropped from the City of New Orleans in New Orleans and added to the westbound consist of the Sunset Limited, which would allow for the restoration of direct Chicago – Houston service without actually requiring any new stations or trackage utilization.

A further interesting possibility would be the ultimate restoration of the Sunset Limited as a transcontinental train, but with its final destination as Washington, D.C., not Florida, using the Superliner maintenance facilities there. The train could run on a schedule which would allow all-daylight service to Atlanta, which would mean that there would now be two frequencies between Washington D.C. and Atlanta, one offering overnight service and one offering daylight service, and, again, now two options between Atlanta and New Orleans, one daylight and one overnight.

With a 10 P.M. arrival in Atlanta and 10:30 P.M. departure, the ~9:30 A.M. arrival of the Sunset Limited in New Orleans would allow for plenty of time for the layover required to connect the City of New Orleans cars for Houston. In fact, it might be possible to get the Sunset Limited out an hour earlier than the current schedule provides, allowing for a more comfortable 8:15 P.M. arrival in Houston, and reducing the length of the layover in San Antonio for the passengers on the Texas Eagle through cars while still providing for a reasonable scheduled arrival time in Los Angeles.On another matter — does the Auto Train really make sense as being exclusively available for passengers with automobiles? It seems that it could expand its revenue considerably by offering express service intoFlorida from Washington D.C. The train could depart from D.C. with plenty of time to arrive in Lorton, where the auto racks could be attached to the train, and then run on its existing schedule to Sanford, where the auto racks could be detached. The train could then proceed to Miami with a single stop at Orlando. Sanford and Lorton would remain auto-passenger stops only, but passengers from Miami and Orlando to D.C. or vice-versa could now have the option of a non-stop run with enhanced service, and somewhat increased prices to reflect this.

The departure of the train from D.C. could be timed so that the first Acela Express of the day from Boston would arrive in time for passengers to transfer from it to the Auto Train. The cumulative result would be a massive increase in available space on the collective Florida Service trains, with a very wide variety of options including times and accommodations, between the northeast and Florida. All Superliner operations in Florida would then terminate in Miami.

On the western trains, I can see two similar possibilities which are not unfeasible for a rational Amtrak to reach for in improving service. There has been considerable popular demand for the resumption of the “Coast Daylight” from San Francisco to Los Angeles; however, recalling the proposal made earlier on your URPA website about concentrating west coast superliner maintenance in Los Angeles by extending the California Zephyr to Los Angeles. In this proposal, the California Zephyr would be extended to San Jose and then run up the existing Caltrain route into downtown San Francisco. There would be plenty of layover time provided in San Francisco — where the station already exists for Caltrain service, and Caltrain could be contracted to provide baggage and ticketing service — in case the California Zephyr was late-running into San Francisco so that the run from San Francisco to Los Angeles (on a twelve hour schedule) could be made on time, with a comfortable early morning arrival of 8:30 A.M. or so. This would concentrate superliner maintenance in Los Angeles and provide a direct San Francisco – Los Angeles overnight service.

The eastbound schedule would have to be pushed back by several hours to allow for an 8:00 A.M. arrival in San Francisco, but this would actually be positive — even a 9:30 P.M. arrival in Denver would not be unreasonable, with sleeping car passengers from Denver to Chicago essentially unaffected. Arrival time into Chicago would still not be so late as to prevent transfers to the Capitol Limited, never mind the Lake Shore Limited.

The second possibility is a riskier one, but one which could serve a lot of people if it was done right. This is, of course, restoring service to Phoenix. Currently, this is impossible with the Sunset Limited; and certainly we cannot assume Amtrak can arrange for the restoration of the trackage west of Phoenix necessary to do this. However, the “Peavine”, the BNSF line from Williams Junction to Phoenix, offers a real possibility at restoring service to Phoenix. A sleeper and two coaches (one with a cafe) could be detached at Flagstaff from the rear of the Southwest Chief; baggage service could be provided by a baggage car on the end of this consist (with the sleeper as the second to the last car to keep it away from the engine).

This train would run about an hour behind the Southwest Chief to Williams Junction. After stopping here, the train would proceed down the “peavine”, making one more stop, in Williams itself, where the privately-run depot for the Grand Canyon Railway could be used, again with the existing staff contracted to provide ticketing and baggage service. The train would then proceed on a leisurely overnight schedule to Phoenix with no further stops; the slow going as the train navigated the connection between the BNSF Mobest Yard and the Union Pacific trackage in Phoenix would work to the advantage of the sleeping car passengers, who would arrive at the still-manned (as I understand it was left that way to facilitate ticket purchases and bus connections — this may have changed, however?) Phoenix station with a comfortable early-morning arrival. Since there are no servicing facilities in Phoenix, the train could then proceed to Tucson, which is of course a service stop for the Sunset Limited and could be serviceable for turning what could be called the Arizona Chief, along with providing direct connections to the Sunset Limited, if somewhat awkward ones.

The main key to these elaborations on your series of May proposals is of course the ability to free up 12 Viewliners by relaunching the Silver Meteor with rented VIA Rail equipment. This doesn’t alter any of the superliner proposals, naturally, though completing all of them (including running the Sunset Limited daily) would probably require extensive repairs of all existing damaged equipment, and the pressing of the transition sleepers into service as regular sleepers (though this doesn’t seem like it would be a problem — couldn’t single-level crew dorms be used directly ahead of the transition sleepers for the crew? Bare-bones conversions of older single-level equipment could accommodate these need cheaply, without having to restart superliner production).

But, the chance for also considerably expanding the eastern single-level service through such an arrangement with VIA Rail is one that should, I think, be given some serious consideration. I’m not sure if my availability estimates for the Renaissance cars are correct, but even with a reduced consist the Silver Meteor could be run with Renaissance sleepers in some numbers to free up the existing Viewliners if the necessary arrangement could be worked out with VIA Rail. This possibility would be a very unique chance to utilize the extension of Silver Meteor to Montreal to gain access to an additional pool of sleeping cars.

I think these expansions, in connection with those proposals made in the last few newsletters, bring about the maximum expansion of Amtrak possible, largely with existing equipment (albeit counting the rebuilds of wrecked and abandoned units) which does not entail the expense of restoring stations and station staff on routes which have been closed for quite some time, and would not demand much expansion of the support infrastructure, either. It’s very true Amtrak can’t afford in its current situation to begin aggressively building new routes, but largely within the limits of the existing system, some excellent possibilities appear to exist for generating considerable additional revenue. I’d be interested to hear some thoughts on this matter (especially the idea of leasing VIA Rail equipment), and perhaps if I’ve overlooked any possible expanded routes which could be done on the cheap like the proposals that you’ve made re: Florida and the Cardinal.

Sincerely, Marina Collette

… Also, I’m wondering if in all the discussion about shorter consists, missing service cars, etc., we’re not losing sight of the fact that Amtrak is withdrawing cars rather than maintaining them. If there are cars in “storage” that should be in use, it just might be that they cannot be used until they are maintained. One “benefit” is that the company does not have to pay the costs of bringing idled equipment up to operating standards. Another “benefit” is that on a daily basis it costs less to keep a smaller fleet running than a fleet that actually has the potential of generating revenue.

Don’t forget Amtrak made a conscious business decision to mothball cars and shorten consists, taking away huge amounts of available revenue space. This follows the Amtrak management philosophy of saving as much as possible on expenses, even when you lose large amounts of revenue, which most likely cover the expenses you are saving. This government-type of thinking (we are a monopoly, and, therefore, we know best, plus it’s not our money we’re playing with) has had a profound, disastrous effect on Amtrak.

When a company always knows it’s going to get an annual infusion of free federal money, what is the driving force behind generating more revenue to depend less on free federal monies? None. Amtrak managers must be held accountable for every revenue dollar they choose to discard as well as every dollar they save.

Believe it or not, Amtrak is not all about saving money. It has a mission, defined by Congress, to provide a nationwide passenger rail system in this country, well beyond short, expensive, corridors. Part of its mission is to be as robust as possible, while operating the largest system possible. Efficiency is important, and desirable. Discarding higher revenue in lieu of free federal money borders on fraud.

My trip this week on the Sunset Limited … mirrored that of the New Orleans based train and engine crew. So, I spent Monday night in Beaumont.

I had not been to the Amtrak depot at Beaumont since I left Amtrak. At that time it was a small waiting room in the Union Pacific Yard Office, a small metal building I considered to be a very poor excuse for a passenger station. It did at least have a pay phone, Coke machine, and basic protection from the elements, you know … a roof.

When I arrived in Beaumont on Monday on Train 1, I was horrified to see that it was now worse. Appalling, nauseating, horrific, embarrassing, revolting. These descriptors are all accurate. This, after along the way on the Sunset I was pleasantly surprised to see the money that had been spent at Schriever, and that the cities of Lafayette and Lake Charles had upgraded their depots.

Tuesday morning I would take train 2, the eastbound Sunset Limited, back to New Orleans. Actually, I would board in the afternoon as delays between Los Angeles and Beaumont would have the train 5 hours and 30 minutes late on arrival.

The hotel I stayed in was the MCM Elegnate Beaumont Hotel. Not a bad hotel at all. After having breakfast, I asked the manager at the front desk if the shuttle would take me to the Amtrak station. She said that it would not be a problem.

Ten minutes later I returned with my luggage and was ready to go to the station. The hotel manager looked at me cautiously and said, “Are you SURE you want to go to the Amtrak station?” I assured her that I knew what I was in for. She then relayed stories about previous guests who went ballistic on the van driver once they figured out they were being dropped off in that dump of a facility.

It was raining pretty good and I knew I would have about a two hour wait, but I was not about to miss that train. The hotel manager suggested it would be wise if I were armed, given the part of town where Amtrak stops.

The fact a manager at one of Beaumont’s nicer hotels has to warn its patrons about going to the Amtrak station speaks volumes about the problems plaguing Amtrak. I would hate to be a responsible party with Amtrak, the host railroad, or the City of Beaumont when an Amtrak passenger bleeds to death after being robbed at night at the poorly lit depot because there was no phone or no one around to call for help.

This shot is of the platform looking timetable west. This bench is the only seating available. There are no trash cans at this stop. The collection of trash (and garbage bag) by the bench is just disgusting:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757829

Upon detraining, this abandoned truck loaded with trash is all that greets passengers. Looking at this I had mixed feelings about the rain and clouds. If the sun were out baking this trash, the aroma would have been a bit more ripe than it already was. On the other hand, the clouds and rain meant I was getting wet. I think I had the best scenario:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757929 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757930 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757926 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757923 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757916

Both the hotel van driver and the Amtrak crews I spoke to told me they have seen passengers taking refuge from the weather inside this truck. What, exactly, does an Amtrak passenger trying to avoid getting soaked at Beaumont have to sit in? Take a look:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757924

Of course, let’s not forget the rotten bench that is provided:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757931

At long last, my chariot arrives! Amtrak P 42 DC 171 leads Train 2 into the station:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757941

Though I had been there for a couple of hours, the outbound crew still had not arrived by the time the train got there. Amtrak had set back the crew’s on-duty time based on what delays they expected the train to incur, so they did not have enough time to get their paperwork together and get to the station before the train did. Here are a few shots of the inbound crew, on-board service crew, and passengers stretching their legs during the 30 minute wait for the crew:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757942 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757943 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757945 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=757946

I was not impressed with what I saw at Beaumont. Not my railroad, so I guess not my problem, but I can say that in all of my experiences even on the freight side of railroading, I have never seen such a hostile environment for anyone waiting for a train. I am not sure I will ever get over waiting in the rain for two hours at a public passenger rail facility in this country.