1. Word has come from Gil Carmichael, former Federal Railroad Administration Administrator and Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council.
   

   PRESS RELEASE

   For Immediate Release

   ITI’s Gil Carmichael Calls for holistic transportation policy

   - Says Two, New Intermodal Trust Funds Should Subsidize “Ethical” Intermodal Transportation System -

   DENVER, CO, September 18, 2009 – In recent comments to the 68th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO), held in Biloxi, Mississippi, Gil Carmichael, Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute (ITI) at the University of Denver, said the key to solving the nation’s 21st century transportation problems lies in establishing a holistic approach funded by two, new intermodal trust funds – one for freight movement, the other for passenger transit, and both based on miles traveled.

   Speaking to a technical session of 1,200 government and association members from 12 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, addressing today’s transportation challenges, Carmichael said the nation needs to establish an ethical and sustainable “intermodal” transportation system that incorporates both freight and passenger rail in order to produce a new transportation structure that meets 21st century needs. This system should be a joint public- and private-sector initiative that builds and expands upon the success of the Interstate Highway System of the last century.

   “The Interstate Highway System that was built has served us well,” he said. “But today we have a population that has doubled in 50 years; we have a deteriorating and badly congested transportation infrastructure that cannot meet consumer demand; and we have a growing global economy that requires interconnected, intermodal transportation. The solution to meeting this century’s challenges lies in building ‘Interstate 2.0′, an ethical, fuel efficient, intercity, rail freight and passenger transportation system that reconnects our center cities, bus and transit lines, energizes our economy,  and sustains our environment. It is a logical and necessary next step forward.”

   Among the challenges addressed by the two-day conference was the major dilemma of how a new transportation policy and such a massive intermodal transportation system would be  paid for – especially with the end of the highway trust fund and declining gas tax revenues in sight. Carmichael offered several paradigms to address this concern:

   • Develop a Holistic Transportation Policy. “Historically, this nation has had a ‘single mode’ mindset.” he said. “Our federal government and state DOTs have not addressed transportation as an interconnected, intermodal system, choosing instead to address each mode independently. That myopic approach will no longer work in our global business environment. Today, the public and private sectors need to partner and address our transportation requirements as they relate to two intermodal modes – freight and passenger rail. This involves utilizing our 240,000 miles of existing (and paid for) rail Rights of Way (ROW) and upgrading about 30,000 miles of it to high-speed, grade-separated track. We should provide the private railroads with a 25 percent investment tax credit to encourage them to upgrade and double- and triple-track their main lines to increase speeds and double capacity. A high-speed rail network that reconnects our center cities, major airports, and ports is vital to 21st century transportation and economic development.”
   • Create Two Intermodal Trust Funds. “One of the dilemmas we are faced with is: how do we pay for this intermodal system?” he asked. “We paid for the Interstate Highway System with a highway trust fund from gas tax usage. The gas tax worked well for the highway and it is about to expire. To replace it, I strongly recommend the U.S. put into place two, new intermodal trust funds to pay for this new multimodal transportation system. There would be one tax for intermodal freight movement and another for passenger transit. And it would be simple to implement cost per mile traveled rather than cents per gallon.”
   • Reorganize State DOTs to Oversee Intermodal Transportation. “With a new intermodal transportation system in place, we should reorganize our state DOTs so we have two separate departments that are responsible for intermodal freight transport and passenger transit, respectively,” he explained. “We can no longer afford to administer effective transportation policy on a single mode basis. States would also build or lease high-speed track on the private railroads’ ROWs to allow new, modern, intermodal freight and passenger trains.”
   • Utilize Our New Technologies. “We have the technology, such as GPS and PTC, to make this intermodal transportation system work, and technology continues to advance,” said Carmichael. “High-speed tracks could be grade separated just like the Interstate Highways so we can safely run passenger trains at 110-125 MPH and freight trains at up to 90 MPH, vastly increasing freight capacity. This could cut highway fatalities by at least 50 percent and drastically reduce the stress, wear and tear, and cost of maintaining the highways, thus extending its life.”
   • Increase Freight Capacity and Stimulate the Economy. “A major public-works project of this magnitude will add millions of new and permanent jobs, will produce a prosperous economy, just as Interstate I did, and will build a long-lasting, truly sustainable transportation system,” said Carmichael. “We can electrify the rails by mid-century, producing a new source of energy and weaning ourselves off of our dependence on foreign fossil fuels. It will then be an ethical and sustainable system that increases freight capacity and protects our environment.”

   In closing, Carmichael said: “A new holistic, ethical transportation policy will build upon the strengths of each mode, will reduce injuries and deaths, will be environmentally benign, will not waste fuel, will not cost too much to use, and will provide ongoing economic stability. This 21st century intermodal transportation infrastructure will use the ‘steel wheel and steel rail’ – the same as it did in the 19th century – as its fundamental element of transport.”

   About ITI

   The Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver offers an Executive Masters Program that awards a Master of Science in Intermodal Transportation Management from the University of Denver. This graduate degree program prepares transportation industry managers for the increasingly complex, global business environment where knowledge of finance, quantitative processes, supply chain, law, and public policy issues as well as freight, passenger, and intermodal transportation operational strategies are critical management tools for success.  For more information on the ITI Executive Masters Program call: 303-871-4702 or visit: www.du.edu/transportation.

   Whatever plan moves us into the future – and Mr. Carmichael usually has the sharpest eye on the future – is going to have to find new ways to pay for the next generation of railroads and highways. The original highway trust fund at one time was sacrosanct, and left alone. Too many uninspired members of Congress kept looking at the pool of money and thinking about how many local pork barrel projects in their districts could be funded with someone else’s money, and ever since then, the highway trust fund lost its integrity. If Congress has the will to plan correctly for the future, it will have the necessary nerves of steel to set up new funding mechanisms which again become sacrosanct and are dedicated to the very important cause of surface transportation. It’s time for Congress to adopt the stepchild and call it its own.

2. The gun haters are going nuts. This week, the Senate passed a bill requiring Amtrak to restore the rights of gun owners to transport guns on Amtrak under proper safety precautions in baggage cars.

   To read some of the hilarious, delirious ravings of the gun haters, you would think the Senate is inviting known terrorists to a tea party and asking them to bring along their weapons of choice.

   Amtrak used to allow guns onboard trains in baggage cars, prior to September 11, 2001. Since then, Amtrak – acting on its own after 9/11 and the later Madrid train bombings – banned guns from its trains.

   However, the Senate, in an overwhelming majority vote, has told Amtrak either figure out a way to get the guns safely and securely back on trains, or your free federal monies go away, as soon as March of 2010.

   The gun haters, with great whining and gnashing of teeth, have said it’s impossible to make this happen.

   More rational people have reminded one and all we have this controlling document in our lives as Americans – it’s know as the Constitution for those who may have forgotten about it with everything going on in Washington these days – which plainly and loudly says Americans have the right to own and carry guns.

   These same rational people also like to point out the TSA (Those same passenger-friendly people who love to watch us take off our shoes in airports.) already has lots of plans in place for things like guns on Amtrak.

   The sooner they return, the better.

3. Union Pacific Railroad, the railroad everyone thinks loves to hate passenger trains, apparently is willing to make some money embracing one particular passenger train.

   The Chicago Tribune reported today, in a story datelined Denver, the Ski Train may be back this winter, operating between Denver and the Winter Park resort. Previously operating for 69 years, the Ski Train was thought to be dead when its previous owner ended the operation and sold his passenger rail equipment to a Canadian scenic passenger operator.

   In came Iowa Pacific Holdings, with former Amtraker Ed Ellis now as President of Iowa Pacific, and the Ski Train is back on schedule. Iowa Pacific operates other short passenger routes, mostly as scenic and entertainment trains.

   Mr. Ellis said Iowa Pacific would use Iowa Pacific equipment and contract with Amtrak to provide train and engine crews. A deal has not been finalized with Amtrak.

   Okay, let’s take a roll call.

   Union Pacific, which, through its official spokesman once described Amtrak as “novelty transportation,” is striking a deal with an operator to allow a seasonal, regularly scheduled passenger train operate over its tracks, which it could have easily let go away after the original operator pulled out.

   Then, Amtrak, which sometimes thinks of itself as “novelty transportation” instead of being an important part of our domestic surface transportation network, is in the process of cutting a deal with someone else to run passenger trains.

   Gosh (gasp!), could capitalism in passenger rail be rearing its allegedly ugly head and someone has figured out how a passenger rail operation can make money for all parties concerned?

   What’s wrong with these people? Aren’t they listening to all of the alleged experts that continuously drone on and on and on that only government is capable of running any sort of passenger train in the proper manner (Which means at a loss.)?

4. Lots of mail came into the This Week at Amtrak e-mailbox after the last issue of TWA calling for another operator to replace Amtrak. Here’s a sample.
   

   As the British would say: “Here, Here” to your latest newsletter! What about a new corporation formed by a consortium of freight railroads to run a national passenger railroad system? Since there is little more consolidation to be done between the big boys, perhaps the congress and courts would approve such a novel arrangement as there would be no freight competition issues. The freight lines would benefit from aid in infrastructure construction, and having open knowledge of all passenger operations, the freight lines would certainly be more flexible in schedule development/alternate routes even over competing lines since the passenger business would benefit all of them. Now, that “by George” would be a nice trick to pull off, especially since it might even make sense!

   The message both Joe & Joe (Boardman and Biden) should hear is: If you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all. Give it up!

   I like the idea of shutting-down Amtrak, but suggest a slight variation.

   Keep Amtrak in operation. However, quarantine Amtrak between Washington, DC; Boston, Springfield, Massachusetts; Albany, New York; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Transition the remainder of the inter-city passenger rail network, and the franchise rights for additional rail services, to one or more other entities.

   If Amtrak believes their NEC is so profitable and is the only part of their network deserving investment, as demonstrated by their actions, and trains in the remainder of the country are bleeding amounts of red-ink exceeding the combined inventory of all retail stationery stores, give Amtrak what it wants!

   Let’s see how long Amtrak can survive with the NEC and a reduced or zero subsidy.

5. And, finally, this advertisement for a vacant position for a qualified person at Amtrak came floating in to TWA.
   

   Inspector General – Eff. 09/04/09
   Location:     District of Columbia-Washington
   Req. Number:     90000243
   Description:     THE SAFETY OF OUR PASSENGERS, OUR EMPLOYEES, THE PUBLIC AND OUR OPERATING ENVIRONMENT IS OUR HIGHEST PRIORITY!
   Position Title: Inspector General
   Department: Office of Inspector General
   Location: Washington, DC
   Posting #: 90000243

   INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL APPLICANTS

   SUMMARY OF DUTIES: Amtrak’s IG reports to the Chairman of Amtrak’s Board of Directors and the Congress. The IG will keep them currently informed, by means of periodic reports required by the IG Act, concerning fraud and other serious problems, abuses, and deficiencies relating to the administration of programs and operations administered or financed by Amtrak, to recommend corrective action concerning such problems, abuses, and deficiencies, and to report on the progress made in implementing such corrective action. Amtrak’s Inspector General will:

   • Serve as the conscience of Amtrak.
   • Work with Amtraks Board of Directors and the Congress to improve program management.
   • Maximize the positive impact and ensure the independence and objectivity of Amtrak OIGs audits, investigations and other reviews.
   • Use Amtrak OIGs investigations and other reviews to increase integrity and recommend improved systems to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.
   • Be innovative, question existing procedures, and suggest improvements to programs.
   • Where appropriate, build relationships with program managers based on a shared commitment to improving program operations and effectiveness.
   • Work with Amtrak to address company-wide issues, both independently and collectively.

   EDUCATION: An undergraduate degree is required.

   PERFERRED EDUCATION: An advanced or Masters degree in an applicable field is preferred.

   WORK EXPERIENCE: The Inspector General should have the following:

   • Be an independent-minded leader who possesses the integrity to ensure Amtrak’s full compliance with the IG Act.
   • Either be a sitting Inspector General or Deputy Inspector General, or have recent similar experience.
   • A minimum of 10 years cumulative progressively responsible administrative, managerial and supervisory experience that provides extensive knowledge of auditing and inspection practices, law enforcement policies and procedures, accounting, internal controls, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration, and/or investigation techniques.
   • A comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the audit, investigation and evaluation standards issued by the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and the Government Accountability Office.
   • Direct experience working with upper management, the media and Congress.
   • Significant experience in management and a thorough understanding of Federal and IG audits, investigations, law enforcement and evaluations involving large scale companies and operations.
   • Evidences familiarity with the Comptroller General’s auditing standards.
   • Ideally, have an understanding of railroad operations.
   • Strong analytical skills and judgment to support critical decision making.
   • Unquestioned ethical standards, high level of integrity, sound professional judgment, strong leadership skills, an understanding of business acumen, a high level of common sense and the ability to think logically.
   • The ability to work under pressure and make sound decisions with limited information.
   • Significant experience with leadership, human capital, and managing budgets.
   • The ability to build a strong team; the IG should not be intimidated by a talented staff.
   • Strong coalition-building and interpersonal skills to form solid relationships both internally and externally; s/he can work through internal conflicts and/or disagreements successfully.
   • Excellent written and oral communication skills, including a strong ability to present to audiences both large and small.
   • High energy and committed work ethic.
   • No personal or professional relationships with Amtrak that would hinder the candidate’s ability to be objective and independent with respect to audits and investigations of Amtrak and its operations.

   OTHER REQUIREMENTS: The Amtrak Inspector General will have the responsibility of assuring best practices in the Amtrak OIG. The Inspector General will supervise over 90 OIG employees in conducting independent, objective audits, evaluations and investigations relating to Amtrak programs and operations.

   This individual must demonstrate credibility, integrity and objectivity, be a strong communicator internally and externally, and have extensive relevant experience.

   The successful candidate will have a strong commitment to the Amtrak mission. The candidates commitment should reflect an interest to help build the Amtrak enterprise, creating best practices for a “first class” organization for the passengers, employees and stakeholders. The successful candidate must also demonstrate an equally strong commitment to implementing all requirements of the IG Act.

   SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: 99 employees and 8 ARRA employees

   TRAVEL: Less than 25%

   AMTRAK EMPLOYEES MUST COMPLETE A JOB OPPORTUNITY APPLICATION TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION.

   Hiring Range:     $246,000.00 – $268,000.00 Annually
   Last Date to Apply:     09/30/09
   Position Type:     Permanent
   Job Category:     Inspector General
   Years of Experience:     10 – 15
   Travel Requirements:     <25%
   Relocation Benefits May Apply:     Yes
   Classification Agreement:     No
   Referral Bonus:     2500 pts

   Well, Amtrak ASKED for all of the right things. It’s another story as to whether or not the new IG will be able to accomplish anything without the type of interference which seems to have occurred in the immediate past.

If you would like to print a pre-formatted copy of this post, simply press the “click this post” button at the top.

1. Here at home in an adjoining county to the south is St. Augustine, which bills itself as the Ancient City. St. Augustine, Florida has been around as a point of civilization since 1565, and was pretty much a sleepy, colonial town, even after Florida statehood in 1845. It wasn’t until the notorious Henry Flagler, business partner of John D. Rockefeller (Some historians say Flagler was the smarter of the two ruthless business partners.) came vacationing in Northeast Florida in the 1878 that he noticed sleepy St. Augustine.

   Mr. Flagler came to Jacksonville for the temperate climate. (A century ago, oranges were still a cash crop in Northeast Florida.) He crossed the might St. Johns River (The only major river in North America which flows north.) and traveled by passenger train to St. Augustine in 1883. There, he found a slumbering city of Spanish descent which afforded cooling ocean breezes, a pleasant bayfront view, and a rural county seat.

   Mr. Flagler took a liking to St. Augustine, and starting building hotels and the Florida East Coast Railway. His first hotel, the Ponce de Leon – begun in 1885 and which today is the home of Flagler College – became an overnight success as a playground for the Gilded Age rich and famous. More hotels followed, with Mr. Flagler becoming St. Augustine’s most prominent part-time denizen.

   Not content to stop at St. Augustine, Mr. Flagler pushed his new railroad and string of hotels and resorts southward, creating such famous Florida hot spots as Ormond Beach/Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Stuart, Palm Beach (Where Mr. Flagler eventually built his permanent home and today’s world famous The Breakers hotel and resort, the only remaining asset of the original Flagler System.), Ft. Lauderdale, and, in partnership with Julia Tuttle and her family, Miami and Miami Beach. Mr. Flagler’s railroad entrepreneurship didn’t end in Miami; he gazed further southward and saw Key West, the southernmost point of the United States, and promptly in 1905 began building the Florida Overseas Railroad, one island at a time from South Florida to Key West, completing the huge project in 1912.

   Depending on your favorite Florida historian, there is debate as to whether or not Henry Flagler or Henry B. Plant, who owned a freight shipping company and small railroads, and in 1879 combined his holdings into the Plant System (Later, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.), building to the west coast of Florida via Orlando, invented modern Florida by the strength of their iron horses.

   Of course, it was the common use of residential air conditioning in the late 1950s which created the most modern version of Florida, and allowed inland cities and towns away from cooling ocean and Gulf of Mexico breezes to grow and prosper. The coming of the Space Age at Cape Canaveral on the Florida East Coast Railway really put Florida on the international map.

   But, no matter who your preferred railroad robber baron was prior to the Florida Land Boom of the 1920s, it was the railroad which created Florida, and especially St. Augustine.

   St. Augustine was the home of a violent and deadly railroad strike in 1963; FEC non-operating employees went out on strike over several issues. The FEC continued to run trains with management personnel, but the strike turned violent with numerous bombings of bridges and trains, resulting in deaths, permanent injuries, and general mayhem.

   By the time of the strike, Florida was served by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, the Atlantic Coast Line, the FEC, and, into the northeast corner of Florida, the Southern Railway.

   While the Seaboard’s Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Palmland, Sunland, and a host of local trains traveled down the middle of the state on SAL’s mainline through Ocala, the Coast Line trains, the East Coast Champion, the Everglades, and the trains it operated in conjunction with the FEC, such as the famed Winter-only Florida Special, the Havana Special, and the trains from the Midwest, including the Royal Palm, Dixieland, South Wind, Seminole, and City of Miami all stormed through St. Augustine on their way to and from Miami.

   The 1963 strike ended all of that. The FEC’s named trains simply disappeared, annulled because of the strike and the continuing violence and threats of violence. The trains handled by the Coast Line moved inland westward, from the FEC to soon-to-be merger partner’s SAL lines down the middle of the state.

   By court order, train service briefly returned to the FEC from 1965 to 1968, with a lone locomotive and two trailing cars – offering coach seating and parlor car seating, but no food service – running up and down from North Miami to Jacksonville’s union terminal. (The main FEC station in downtown Miami had been torn down by 1965 as part of urban renewal in downtown Miami.)

   Even FEC retirees who chose to come to Jacksonville from Miami when traveling by train, went via the Seaboard or Coast Line because it was safer, had more frequency offerings, and full train service.

   In the late 1990s, in the George Warrington era of Amtrak, there was a brief flurry of activity in St. Augustine because discussions and negotiations were underway to return passenger train service to the FEC, courtesy of Amtrak and a ton of money (Now allocated elsewhere.) from the State of Florida.

   Plans were laid, station sites were identified (The FEC, like so many other railroads which exited the passenger business had executives at the time who wanted to make sure those pesky passengers stayed away, so all but one or two FEC passengers stations were either demolished, sold, or had their tracks ripped up.), and cities and towns along the east coast competed to see whether or not they could snag one of the limited number of station stops planned for the new service.

   St. Augustine, once the railroad king of Florida and still the corporate home of the FEC until 2008, decided to build a new station on the FEC main line directly across the street from St. Augustine’s general aviation airport, claiming it was creating an “intermodal” center of transportation. No one ever quite explained what the attraction would be for private pilots to fly into the St. Augustine airport, tie their planes down, and then board a passenger train, but that was the plan.

   All of those plans came to a screeching halt when Mr. Warrington’s Acela bubble burst, and the Northeast Corridor Service which was supposed to save the entire company ended up having the company coming close to being liquidated.

   Now, in the third century of trains through St. Augustine, once again there is talk of passenger trains calling at St. Augustine. Several local government groups along the FEC are petitioning popular Florida Governor Charlie Crist to apply for free federal monies to pay for restoring service between Jacksonville and Miami via St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Fort Pierce, Jupiter, and into West Palm Beach where a new connection would be built for the trains to join the former SAL main line (Now Tri-Rail commuter line and present Amtrak line.) to take the train into Amtrak’s Miami/Hialeah southern terminal.

   The scary part of this is the news media is reporting these funds are being asked for to use for high speed rail, not conventional rail. While the FEC is a very good piece of railroad with excellent infrastructure, no one would ever confuse it with high speed rail. Some of the logic goes the incremental approach should be taken, first restoring service, and then eventually upgrading the service to high speed over a specified period of time.

   What is interesting about this is the current ownership of the FEC, RailAmerica, Inc., which in turn is owned by Fortress Investment Group. RailAmerica, in addition to owning the FEC, owns nearly four dozen other short line and regional railroads in the U.S. and Canada.

   RailAmerica is a solid company, with good financial performance. Fortress Investment Group is a giant fund which controls many companies, all on a private basis. This means there are no individual stockholders or Wall Street money managers demanding RailAmerica do this or that to shore up stock prices, and no public reporting of financial results. In other words, the managers are free to carry out any prudent business decisions they see fit (Within the framework of the law and overall regulations.), including striking a deal with Amtrak to run trains on their property.

   If it makes money and doesn’t interfere with RailAmerica’s other mission of supplying outstanding freight service, then there is an interest.

   If the State of Florida does strike a deal for stimulus money for this route, there isn’t much standing in the way of restored passenger service between Jacksonville and Miami via the FEC, with the exception of creating a new equipment pool.

   Initial plans were to move the Silver Meteor from Orlando to the FEC, which is a very, very bad idea. Why would anyone want to take service away from one of the world’s busiest vacation destinations in Central Florida to serve the towns of Florida’s east coast?

   A better solution is to find additional equipment, or, perhaps split a train in Jacksonville (Which Amtrak did from its very beginning until the horror of the common consist in the 1990s, and the closing of the Tampa crew and maintenance bases.), with half of the train traveling via Orlando and half of the train traveling via St. Augustine. Other options are to extend other trains from the Midwest or Northeast south to Miami via the FEC, such as the Capitol Limited or City of New Orleans via Mobile, Alabama. Extending an existing Superliner train would require less equipment than starting a complete new route.

   As usual, it’s all going to come down to politics. Which state (Other than Illinois.) has the most juice in Washington? Which state has the best planning? Which state can move the quickest?

   St. Augustine may or may not have train service again, 125 years after Henry Flagler became serious about hauling passengers into Florida to fill up his elegant hotels and resorts. If it does, yet another of the dozens and dozens of gaps in America’s passenger rail system will be rightly filled.

2. Inquiring minds want to know: With all of the money being thrown around Washington, and every city, town, village, hamlet, and their dog making plans to snap up as much money as possible to expand everything from local trolley systems (A good idea.) to major commuter rail systems to sprucing up stations, where are Amtrak’s plans for the future? What about fleet expansion, Rail Passenger Association of California President Paul Dyson wants to know? The single-level sleeping car order for the east coast trains doesn’t do anything to expand capacity; it just keeps enough new equipment floating into a maintenance-weary fleet to delay total breakdown.

   What about new routes? We know three restart routes are being studied (The Sunset Limited east of New Orleans, the Pioneer, and the North Coast Limited/Hiawatha.), but, what about bold, new plans to fill in so many of the other gaps in the country outside of the Northeast Corridor?

   And, the easiest thing of all, what about all of the other dozens and dozens of pieces of equipment sitting around in the weeds on wreck line tracks, waiting to be re-loved and repaired? When will Amtrak ask for money to fix this stuff, too?

   A dose of reality for True Believers is Amtrak is lagging behind everyone else in vision, if not outright bold management. Yes, Amtrak Interim President and CEO Joseph Boardman seems to be nudging things in the right direction – only marginally and slightly so – but, when is he or the Board of Directors going to give things a major shove in the right direction?

   Wise gray head Gil Carmichael has called for at least 150 new trainsets to ready Amtrak for his brilliant Interstate II strategy. While to some that may seem a big number, it’s only a starting point.

   Remember, Amtrak today has considerably less than 2,000 cars on its total roster, including active cars and cars sitting in the weeds on the wreck line. In the mid 1960s, just before the invention of Amtrak, there were over 5,000 passenger cars in the combined national fleet of America’s passenger carriers, and that was a depleted number from the halcyon post-World War II days of rebuilding the worn out war time fleet of cars.

   Now is not the time for timidity and reliance on the graciousness of others for survival. Now is the time for bold plans, bold action, and an understanding of how easy it is to bring America’s passenger rail system from an asterisk on the charts of transportation output to a real figure representing growth and prosperity.

3. While we’re on the subject of history, News From 1930 blog on the Internet came up with this fascinating gem, reporting what was written in The Wall Street Journal from June 16th through the 21st in 1930:
   

   Pullman Company [Operator of the nation’s sleeping car business over the majority of passenger railroads.] purchases in the last year: 1,165,000 towels, 444,000 pillow slips, 387,000 sheets, 63,000 porter’s jackets, 5,786,000 paper bags for women’s hats. Launders 278 million items annually.

   That’s a lot of items, especially for the first year of the Great Depression. At one point early in the 20th Century, it was said the Pullman Company made up more beds every night than the largest hotel chain in the country.

4. Now, what? Amtrak’s highly respected Inspector General, Fred E. Weiderhold, Jr. suddenly retired from Amtrak after 35 years, including being the watchdog who kept the contractors honest when the NEC was electrified north of New Haven, Connecticut.

   This happened practically overnight, and was unexpected by most. The Boston Globe wondered in its news columns what brought on this sudden urge to retire, but no one is talking. It should be noted in the same several day period Mr. Weiderhold retired, at least three other government IGs were forced out of their jobs by the Obama Administration without reasonable explanation.

   National Railroad Passenger Corporation
   60 Massachusetts Avenue NE
   Washington, DC 20002
   www.amtrak.com

   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

   ATK-09-047

   Contact: Media Relations (202) 906-3860
   June 18, 2009

   Amtrak Inspector General to Retire

   Fred E. Weiderhold, Jr. Served Amtrak for 35 Years

   WASHINGTON – Amtrak Inspector General Fred E. Weiderhold, Jr. today informed the Chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors that he is retiring after 35 years of loyal service to the railroad.

   “As Amtrak’s first and only Inspector General, Fred has made important contributions in helping the Board of Directors understand key issues facing the railroad and made useful recommendations to improve how we do business,” Amtrak Chairman Thomas Carper stated. “We thank him for his dedicated service to Amtrak and wish him well in his retirement.”

   Carper added that under the federal Inspector General Act, the Amtrak Inspector General is appointed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Carper said he takes this responsibility seriously and will soon undertake a search for a replacement that can continue to maintain the integrity, independence and objectivity required of the position.

   In addition, Carper said that he has confidence in the Inspector General staff and expects them to carry on their important work during this interim period, including providing effective oversight of how Amtrak is handling the stimulus funds it received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

   Mr. Weiderhold has been the only person to serve as the Amtrak Inspector General since former Amtrak Chairman W. Graham Claytor, Jr, asked him to establish the Amtrak Office of Inspector General (OIG) in 1989. Previously, he was Amtrak’s first Special Assistant to the Chairman for Employee Relations, conducting special investigations and acting as the company’s first employee ombudsman. He has been one of the longer serving Inspectors General within the OIG community.

   About Amtrak

   Amtrak has posted six consecutive years of growth in ridership and revenue, carrying more than 28.7 million passengers in the last fiscal year. Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail service to more than 500 destinations in 46 states on a 21,000-mile route system. For schedules, fares and information, passengers may call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com.

5. The Holland, Michigan Sentinel on Monday, June 22, 2009 reported ridership on Amtrak’s Pere Marquette is down 12.7% this May compared to a year ago, and a state senate committee which funds the service is looking to slash funding for the train.

   Only 8,500 people boarded the route in May of 2009, or an average of 137 passengers per departure. All of the usual reasons were given for low ridership, including low gas prices and the slowed economy.

   Here’s the problem no one seems to want to understand: As long as government funding as the primary source of revenue for these short, perpetually money-losing routes is necessary, politicians are going to always be looking for ways to cut budgets, and low return on investment programs are usually the first to go.

   Too much of Amtrak relies on this very type of funding. There are unceasing stories from New England about those states wanting to cut funding for local trains (This, of course, does not include Amtrak Interim President and CEO Joseph Boardman’s home State of New York where he previously served as head of the state department of transportation. New York only funds one Amtrak train, the Adirondack, even though the entire Empire Service trains, with only an average load factor of 35%, gets a free ride with an all-federal subsidy.). Oklahoma pays big bucks for the tiny Heartland Flyer with even worse transportation output performance.

   What will it take to make Amtrak and its True Believers understand a healthy and robust long distance system throws off enough excess cash (profits) these short distance trains can be mostly internally subsidized? Why perpetually fight these annual political battles when the simple answer is vision and expansion, even if it’s just making the existing skeletal long distance system train consists longer?

   Why is this such a difficult concept to understand? Why do so many ill-informed people think it’s perpetually okay to support failure when success is within easy grasp?

6. Here’s some heartburn for those who believe the passenger business can never be profitable: Carnival plc, which owns Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard Line, and The Yachts of Seabourn in North America; Costa Cruises in Europe; P&O Cruises, Cunard Line, and Ocean Village in the Untied Kingdom; AIDA Cruises in Germany; Ibero Cruises in Spain and Brazil; and P&O Cruises Australia in Australia and New Zealand, operates 88 cruise ships with a passenger capacity of approximately 169,040 souls. Carnival also marketed and operated 16 hotels or lodges with approximately 3,500 guest rooms; approximately 560 motor coaches used for sightseeing and charters, 24 domes rail cars, which run on the Alaska Railroad between Anchorage and Fairbanks, Whittier and Denali, and Whittier and Talkeetna; 2 luxury dayboats; and sightseeing packages.

   Carnival plc, headquartered in London, when tracing its heritage back through P&O Princess Cruises, was founded in 1850. Television fans may remember the real Princess Cruises happily loaned its ship, the real Pacific Princess, to Aaron Spelling and ABC to create the wildly popular television hit, The Love Boat, which spurred the modern cruise line renaissance.

   All of this, by the way, is somehow accomplished without any government subsidies and is effected through private capital and entrepreneurship.

7. William Lindley of Scottsdale, Arizona has some thoughts on state passenger rail organizations. Mr. Lindley, a longtime professional associate of URPA, is a past president and treasurer of the Arizona Rail Passenger Association, and currently serves as a writer and editor for the group’s newsletter.
   

   What does a rail passenger association really need to do? A recent report illustrates how what looks like failure to uphold principles may have helped doom a major city’s plans for modern passenger train service.

   In Atlanta, Georgia, a proposed green space called the “Decatur Beltline” would remove track connections which permitted trains to connect in all directions from Atlanta’s downtown yards and stations. According to the National Association of Railroad Passengers Newsletter of May 2009, this “pitted local environmentalists against passenger train advocates (Georgia ARP remained officially neutral to minimize bad blood among erstwhile allies.)”

   Say, what? Since when would a responsible passenger advocacy group roll over and play dead when the future of any kind of sensible passenger train operations is threatened? When I saw that I had to do some digging.

   According to a November 30, 2005 Associated Press report, Ed McMahon of the Urban Land Institute called for using Atlanta’s “unused” railway tracks for a linked system of parks, paths and transit. Now, while this is certainly an admirable goal, according to AP, “A panel of transportation experts raised concerns when it found isolated parts of the loop would not have riders to support trains, trolleys or whatever transit options are proposed.” In other words, here we go again with removing a vital railway link – which can’t be relocated – in favor of some green space which can be placed anywhere.

   This conflicts with the goals of a long-proposed and eagerly anticipated downtown intermodal terminal at approximately the site of the original Atlanta Union Station, and with an immediate connection to mass transit MARTA’s hub, the Five Points subway station, from which trains radiate north, south, east, and west.

   Atlanta’s other former main station, Terminal Station, on the Southern Railway, had south-facing stub-end platforms and was on Southern’s mainline just west of Union Station. Although the Richard B. Russell Federal Building replaced Terminal Station in the 1970s, a single through-track connection to the Union Station area still exists … but neither Terminal Station nor the current Peachtree station used by Amtrak can reasonably be expanded for the demands of an expanded modern passenger operation.

   The Five Points site is within walking distance to Georgia State University buildings, the popular Underground Atlanta shopping and nightlife district, and the downtown sports arenas. Furthermore, there is potential at a downtown terminal for a building with visual and interpretive ties to Atlanta’s historic train stations and its growth as the key city to the “New South” – building on the idea of the station as gateway to the city.

   The City of Atlanta, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper article of March 5, 2009, said that the State Department of Transportation’s “vision of high-speed rail would discourage future residential development.” Amazingly, the city seems thereby to value a few new apartments over connecting the entire metro area with its downtown transit center.

   With the Georgia DOT’s March 2009 removal of its objection to the park project, trains will only be able to reach downtown via the west side connection. Amtrak’s Crescent and commuter trains from the north and east would have a two-mile backup move to reach a new downtown station.

   Now, without the eastern loop connection, Amtrak would likely have to stop at a new station with a MARTA connection – a new stop miles further northeast from downtown than even the existing Peachtree Station. This would mean requiring longer trips for most users, and a
   change of subway trains for many. This site, like Peachtree, has little potential for filling the perceptual role of a Gateway.

   So, now, let’s return to that quote again:

   “… pitted local environmentalists against passenger train advocates (Georgia ARP remained officially neutral to minimize bad blood among erstwhile allies.)” – NARP Newsletter, May 2009.

   I wasn’t privy to the discussions but this certainly sounds like a failure to uphold the principles which should govern a passenger rail association. Rail passenger associations are neither historic preservation groups (the National Railway Historical Society fulfills that goal) nor are they railfan groups. Our associations are not yes-men to Amtrak, the railroads, local transit operators, real estate interests, sports teams, or environmental groups.

   Indeed, the whole point of such a rail passenger association, as a non-profit institution, is a fiduciary (meaning: a relationship of confidence and trust) and a moral obligation to guide the progress toward modern and expanded passenger rail service. This is a charitable goal because passenger trains improve our quality of life, offer transportation options to everyone, improve our economy, and improve our environment … everyone wins with better public transit.

   So was Georgia ARP’s failure to object to the removal of a vital transportation link a breach of trust for the objective of advocacy? Again, I wasn’t there so I can’t say, but if NARP’s account is correct, placing “not upsetting so-called environmentalists” above “fulfilling the confidence placed in your organization to preserve and enhance passenger train service” seems
   highly suspect.

   Because detailed coverage has proven difficult to find in newspapers or on-line, I dearly hope one of our Gentle Readers more familiar with the subject can soothe my fears.

8. Six months from today is Christmas Day!