Dr. Adrian Herzog
10 July 1948 – 28 February 2001
Dr. Herzog speaks at the dedication of the Byron Nordberg plaque, Oceanside Transit Center
Remembered by Andrew C. Selden on 2 March 2001.
People who noted the passing this week of Dr. Adrian Herzog might want to ponder some of his accomplishments. Many in the rail advocacy movement are sometimes a bit long on rhetoric and emotion, and a little short on tangible achievements. These are a few of Adrian’s achievements:
- He was the one person who first conceptualized the Regional Rail program for southern California, and who first identified the UTDC (now Bombardier) bilevel car as the vehicle of choice for that application.
- He was the one who laid the conceptual and analytical foundation for expanding intercity service in the Southwest Corridor from the four local trains Amtrak was then operating between LA and San Diego to the service that exists today between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.
- He was first to identify the correct solution to numerous engineering challenges in Southern California, including the San Diegan line’s approach to San Diego at Palomar, and how to get a high speed railroad line over Tehachapi Pass.
- He was the one who first identified the correct definition of the Northeast Corridor as extending from Portland, ME to Richmond AND Charlottesville, VA. He was the first to propose extending NEC services into new markets as part of a regional matrix, and to advocate extension of NEC services onto Long Island, and up what is now the West Side Connection.
- He was the one who first conceived the notion and then the analytical framework for extending the Sunset Limited to Miami.
- He was the person who first explored why it made good economic sense to run LD trainsets through Chicago on coast to coast itineraries.
- He was the one who first proposed (and proved mathematically) that a fully developed national system could not be achieved without at least 1,500 additional Superliner railcars.
- He was the one who proved that the market for interregional passenger rail services was elastic with the size of the matrix of origin/destination pairs in the network, and who proved mathematically that ridership and output of a national system grew as the square of the size of the network.
- He was the one who demonstrated that a 5% expansion of the Southwest Transcontinental Corridor (for example) would drive a 600% increase in ridership, something that Amtrak (and others) are to this day too dull and too timid to grasp.
- He was the person who worked up the empirical proof that persuaded the Amtrak Board to order Graham Claytor to extend the Palmetto to Jacksonville over the bitter objection of Bill Norman.
- Adrian was the first to identify the strategic hubs of a successful national network of trains, at San Jose, Ft. Worth and New Orleans. He first identified the strategic value of the rail hub at Newton, KS as key to a fully developed midwestern network.
There are many other things that could be added to this list. Adrian was trained as a mathematician, the subject in which he had been awarded his doctorate. He became an astrophysicist, and devoted his career to teaching and mentoring young adults. In addition to his avocational passion for rail passenger service, he was an ecologist and explorer.
His loss is an immeasurable blow to the future of the American passenger train. It is also a wake-up call to those of us who survive….
– ACS
