This Week At Amtrak 2007-10-02
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Volume 4 Number 33
- President George Herbert Walker Bush, the father of the current President Bush, was probably, by resume, the most qualified man to be President of the United States in the 19th and 20 Centuries. In addition, he is a true gentlemen’s gentleman, and a master of making people in his company feel at ease.
Like his presidential son, though, Mr. Bush sometimes had a tough time coining a phrase. One of the phrases Mr. Bush was famous/infamous for was “the vision thing.” He knew what he wanted to say, and his thoughts about a vision for his country and the world were right, but he just couldn’t express himself off the cuff in the best manner.
If only that was Amtrak’s problem. Not only does Amtrak totally not understand “the vision thing,” it seems to go to great pains to prove how much tunnel vision it has as a corporation.
We know every president Amtrak has had since the late Graham Claytor has done their best either to run the company into the ground, or has been cleaning up after their predecessors who nearly succeeded in running the company into the ground. But, at some point, “the vision thing” has to kick in for the company to ultimately survive.
To give credit where some credit is due, the two Amtrak presidents immediately after Mr. Claytor, Tom Downs and George Warrington (the first two of the Transit Trio), did have a vision for Amtrak, even though it was completely flawed from inception. Mr. Downs and Mr. Warrington both envisioned the Acela project in the Northeast Corridor would save the company and create a pattern for the future of passenger rail in this country.
Of course, just the opposite occurred, and the deeply flawed Acela and its needs and the mismanagement of Mr. Warrington pushed Amtrak as far towards bankruptcy as it has ever been. But, give Mr. Downs and Mr. Warrington credit for at least having some sort of vision, wrong as it was in so many ways. And, give David Gunn credit for going into a desperate situation that still probably no one but him fully appreciated, and holding things together.
Alex Kummant, Amtrak’s current president and chief executive officer, apparently envisions picking up where Mr. Warrington left off, and making short distance and regional corridors the hallmark of Amtrak. Mr. Kummant also is pursuing a strategy where someone, other than Amtrak, pays for all of this new service.
The vision lacking here is real growth for Amtrak. With Amtrak just running modified busses on rails on behalf of states, the company is merely treading water, not growing. Amtrak works on a cost-plus basis for the states, and these contracts can’t really generate any legitimate cash or real profits for Amtrak; they just cover expenses along with a nuisance markup.
Everyone had hoped the Amtrak Board of Directors was going to select a real visionary to run Amtrak this time; someone who knew how to hire the right people to run the business while spending a lot of time building for the future of Amtrak. More than one candidate interviewed fit that description. Instead, they hired a technician with a resume, who has a history of only keeping jobs for a relatively short time before moving on to the next and better opportunity. The jury is a long ways from being in on Mr. Kummant, and, indeed, he has done many things right in his first year of service for the American people. But, we just haven’t seen “the vision thing” from him beyond what his staff has conjured up from the ashes of failed past Amtrak strategies.
What resources is Amtrak putting into working with others? Historically, Amtrak has put precious little human capital into paying attention to its important partners, such as cities and states. Since these areas are where Amtrak appears to be looking to build for its future, how much attention is it paying to these areas? How much is Amtrak out “beating the bushes” looking for new business opportunities? Does Amtrak care if any city or town wants a new station? Does it care if a state or city wants to restaff an unmanned station? Does it care whether or not important cities, towns, and communities around the country even have Amtrak service?
Amtrak’s long distance system, the core of its being and its only hope for a future, continues to languish. Mr. Kummant said in his one year anniversary address to Amtrak employees he’s planning for new rolling stock. But, what kind? Diners, sleeping cars, and lounges? Just coaches? Baggage cars?
We continuously hear from every quarter about a rail capacity crisis in our country, and how he freight railroads would be put to great discomfort if they had to run more passenger trains. Fine, but is anyone with any type of vision, beyond railroad icons like former Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Gilbert Carmichael, doing anything to fix this problem? What is United States Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters doing to help create a new vision? What is current FRA Administrator Joseph Boardman doing to help create a new vision? More importantly, what is Amtrak doing to heal relations with its host railroads and reach equitable agreements which meet everyone’s needs and allow Amtrak to grow? What is the Association of American Railroads doing to address the growing demand for passenger rail of all types? Does the AAR have a collection of research showing how once again, passenger and freight trains can successfully share tracks and still be profitable?
What about the money and financial people? Will we be mired in the mud of misinformation another four decades as we have been in the past, constantly touting the canard no passenger train can ever make money, under any circumstances? Why do seemingly intelligent people allow themselves to be unwittingly driven down this primrose path of thorns that is so blatantly wrong, and no one is questioning this thinking or bad reasoning?
- It’s desperately past time for Amtrak to stop focusing solely on failure containment, and start focusing on future growth and expansion. Just about every concept that could produce failure at Amtrak has been tried and proven to be correct in its failings. The only concepts that have not been fully exploited (but, are being partially exploited by the Auto Train and Empire Builder) are the successful concepts which were employed by the private railroads prior to Amtrak which operated successful passenger trains.
The Atlantic Coast Line, and its successor, Seaboard Coast Line, had no regulatory reason or legal duty to operate the seasonal Florida Special every winter. Yet, for over 75 years, the train ran, including up to and into the early days of Amtrak. The train ran, even through the dark days of the 1960s for railroads, because it made money. If the private railroaders, with only their own resources and no endless supply of free federal monies, could figure out how to run successful long distance passenger trains, why can’t Amtrak?
- We’ve known for years Amtrak has the least successful marketing department in the history of modern corporations. Despite this, Amtrak still seems to sell a lot of revenue passenger miles. Imagine what would happen if Amtrak ever did have a successful marketing effort. It would be, as they say, deja vu all over again as it was in the early days of Amtrak when extra cars were added to trains, occasional special sections of trains operated, and, heaven forbid, the company seemed to have a desire to please passengers more than vacuuming up government dollars in place of passenger revenue.
The question remains the same, where is the vision of the future of Amtrak, when it comes to marketing? Where are the helpful public relations and promotional efforts? Where is the news media being used to Amtrak’s advantage with positive stories about train travel in Sunday newspaper travel sections and magazines? Where are the advertising dollars being spent to generate high revenue and high revenue passenger miles sales on long distance trains? Why does Amtrak constantly shuffle around its marketing people, usually moving or getting rid of them just as the right kind of business relationships and partnerships are being formed?
- Trains Magazine, which often has an amusing approach to passenger rail (Trains has never really come to terms with the concept of passenger rail being a real business, as opposed to a nostalgic endeavor for the amusement of a small portion of the general population), in its October issue presented “Three plans for passenger rail — but no additional money.” The first plan was Amtrak’s strategic plan for 2008 and beyond, which really is only a plan for failure containment.
The second is a “National ‘Grid and Gateway’ proposed by NARP.” The plan of the National Association of Railroad Passengers goes into great detail over a 40 year period for taking just about every streak of rust called rails in this country and running some type of passenger train on them, but totally fails to mention who would pay for such a venture, or who would patronize such a venture. NARP’s plan can best be described as an expensive social program paid for by someone else that will keep its membership paying annual dues because someone actually came up with a plan of action, no matter how flawed.
The third is “California High-Speed Rail,” or, “How I spent my first $10 billion during my summer vacation.” High-speed rail is a great dream, but until this country has a fully mature conventional railroad system to feed high-speed rail, it’s just another expensive-to-plan pipe dream.
- URPA has a plan for the future of passenger rail in this country, and, indeed, North America. Much of the plan has often been chronicled in this space, plus in such as white papers as The Selden Plan and Successful Long Distance Passenger Trains of the Future found on our web site at http://www.unitedrail.org .
URPA’s vision is for Amtrak to roll up its corporate sleeves, apply generous amounts of elbow grease and foresight, and take what current assets Amtrak has and put them to use generating revenue and growth for the company. As that is being done, start immediately working towards the future, expanding the company and shedding unproductive efforts, such as the operation of regional services — including the Northeast Corridor — to other operators which specialize in short distance services.
Amtrak doesn’t have to remain a corporate cripple and child of government. It can begin to stand up on its own and walk, but it must first have a vision to do so. Simply taking more money from state governments to operate more marginal trains is not the answer. The answer is to operate trains as part of a long distance, national system which are real revenue generators with low operating costs.
Amtrak must stop things like owning train stations, and, instead, become a tenant in someone else’s property, which is cheaper and more productive. Does Amtrak really need to be worrying about mowing the lawn at the Jacksonville, Florida station, when, instead, some of the station employees could be helping passengers?
Amtrak has got to start thinking like a successful company, not like a government entity always depending on the largess of others for annual funding. Why would anyone want to be a someone else’s mercy when they can stand on their own?