A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from
United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203
Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA
Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org
http://www.unitedrail.org
Volume 5, Number 18
Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute that focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents, visit the URPA web site at http://www.unitedrail.org.
URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.
1) Hide the womenfolk and children. Make sure the little animals are safe. Batten down the hatches and start preparing yourself for something so scary, so difficult to imagine, so heinous, it can’t be mentioned in polite society.
If you dare, read on ... but be warned.
If things continue in the travel industry the way they appear to be headed, we could, one day very soon, in a location near and dear to you, experience Amsky.
Somebody, somewhere in a dark room no one should enter, is probably already dreaming about such a calamity. Looking at the present condition of the airline industry, even though the overall reasons are different from the passenger railroads in the 1960s, the effect is the same. Hauling passengers in airplanes has become hideously unprofitable due to rising fuel costs, expensive union costs, and mostly inept management which never had a “Plan B” for any of the contingencies currently facing the airline industry.
Amtrak is so ineffective in the marketplace, automobile travel has become so expensive, and bus travel (Which is considered respectable in most countries, including Canada.), is so disrespected in the United States, that someone in either some elected office or some bureaucratic pigeonhole in some executive branch of government, is going to declare air travel “essential” to the maintenance of the commonweal, and thus, demand the federal government take over the passenger air business, creating “Amsky.”
Heaven help us all.
2) The myriad woes of the airline business often dominate discussions here at United Rail Passenger Alliance because of the necessity of understanding the full picture of our domestic transportation network. When one part of the network (such as passenger rail now) is broken, then the entire network is out of balance. If the airlines become much weaker, then the network will be more than out of balance; it may well collapse.
Neither Amtrak nor the North American highway system is prepared to handle that possibility.
3) Here are some of the discussions floating through URPA’s Intranet. First, came this news report from the highly respected Aviation Week publication.
[Begin quote]
Decrying the “sad state” of U.S. commercial aviation, former American Chairman and CEO Robert Crandall yesterday declared three decades of deregulation a failure and said that treating airlines like a regulated utility must be a part of a broad solution to their current financial crisis.
“We have failed to confront the reality that unfettered competition just doesn’t work very well in certain industries, as aptly demonstrated by our airline experience and by the adverse outcomes associated with various state efforts to deregulate electricity rates,” Crandall told aviation and financial industry professionals gathered at the Wings Club in New York City. “It’s time to acknowledge that airlines look and are more like utilities than ordinary businesses.”
While the rapid rise in jet fuel prices has complicated the job of airline managers, fuel prices are not at the core of the industry’s precarious financial state. Inadequate scale isn’t to blame either, he added.
“The arguments in favor of consolidation are unpersuasive,” he said. “Mergers will not lower fuel prices, and they will not increase economies of scale for already sizable major airlines. If consolidation were really the answer, it is conceivable the system could be run by a single efficient operator.”
Instead, Crandall continued, the industry’s goal should be to harness competition and regulation to create a system responsive to both the imperative of efficiency and the desirability of decent service — now unacceptable “by any standard.”
In addition to reregulation, Crandall called for:
• Overhauling price structures to “recapture” full costs and earn the profits needed to sustain the huge investments essential to the industry’s future.
• Amending the Railway Labor Act to require binding arbitration to encourage both labor and management to adopt more moderate positions than has been true in the past while simultaneously moving all airlines closer to labor-cost parity.
• Revising U.S. bankruptcy laws to deprive failed carriers of the right to use lower costs to undercut the fares offered by “their more prudent rivals.”
• Regulating the number of flights scheduled to what runways, terminals and air traffic control facilities at airports can handle.
• Shrinking schedules proportionately to each airline’s current frequency share as a way to pressure carriers to use the largest feasible aircraft in each slot.
• Imposing more stringent financial standards that new airlines must meet to eliminate or discourage “short-term antics” by start-ups that have destabilized the pricing structure required by a healthy industry.
• A more accommodating stance by Washington towards industry collaboration to achieve more intensive asset utilization and more efficient operations.
Crandall also noted, however, that industry regulation will be insufficient to rescue the commercial air transportation industry. Also needed is a national transportation plan of U.S. aviation goals, including a comprehensive redesign of the air traffic control system. “Unhappily,” he added, “such a plan does not exist.”
[End quote]
And, then the internal discussion began.
[Begin multiple quotes]
Since deregulation, the airlines have a net loss of 13 billion dollars, good in the short term for the customer. All they have to do is find investors willing to fund them and suppliers willing to put up with a bankruptcy every few years. We need cheap airfares like we need cheap oil. so we can fly and fly and fly and then drive and drive and drive.
– – – – – –
To sound a somewhat contrary-wise note, perhaps what we need are real bankruptcies in the airline industry, the kind that result in receivership and/or liquidation. Not fake stiff-the-investors, stiff-the-lenders without fundamental restructuring style of bankruptcy we've seen in recent years. Isn't it odd that none of the "majors" in recent years has been liquidated? One of the functions of bankruptcy – as a concept – is to take assets out of the hands of the inept, and that hasn't happened in the airline industry. "Regulated utility" is a synonym for cartel.
– – – – – –
Chapter 11 was designed to do everything possible to keep businesses going, to protect workers and patrons, and in the theory there would be a chance to earn out of difficulties and thus repay more to creditors. The usual result is the majority of the funds available for distribution are soaked up by the trustee, the enterprise stays in business a little longer providing subsidized competition and weakening the survivors, and the investors and creditors do no better than had liquidation occurred.
Chapter 11 has become a corporate tool. Some companies have been in and out like the cuckoo in the clock. Time for reform?
– – – – – –
I tend to agree, but it would help if the airlines could import some of those price-insensitive Amtrak sleeper travelers, and if the public generally demanded a higher service standard than cattle-car/steerage. Oh, that's right, air travel has also been ruined anyway by the nail-clipper-Nazi morons. Never mind.
– – – – – –
The question for which I've never heard a good answer – why are today's major legacy carriers sacred cows that should not be allowed to go under, whereas Braniff, Eastern, TWA, Pan Am, etc. were considered expendable in their day? Chapter 11 was not intended to be a crutch for executives who refuse to adapt and a subsidy for inefficient labor practices.
– – – – – –
Glamour.
The airlines are beautiful, the pilots don't wear overalls, the stewardesses are not fat and ugly, and the cargo is not coal.
– – – – – –
I don't think labor has done well out of this. I hardly come in contact with an airline employee until I'm on the 'plane these days. I suppose the leasing companies price in for getting stiffed every few years so they are happy to keep putting the kites out on lease to even dubious start-ups, let alone the legacy carriers. It's the passenger that seems to go on winning since fare increases don't seem to stick for very long.
– – – – – –
Price a last-minute, non-Saturday night ticket today to someplace other than a multi-carrier hub and you will quickly see some astonishing fares – Grand Rapids to Rochester, MN for close to $1,000; Minneapolis to Louisville, on a regional jet, no less, for over $1,300, for example. Long-lead, Saturday night stay over trips can still be found for $300-400, even over long distances. But, business travelers are getting stuck, again.
From my vantage point (I fly 100,000 miles a year on average), we are quickly headed back to the future in the form of the mid-1970s: a few large carriers, this time with overlapping national monopolies built on fortress hubs where they have 80-90% market share (in the 1970s, the CAB orchestrated a regional-based national cartel, with United and American holding the transcons, and carriers like Western Airlines, Delta and Continental having regional monopolies fed by smaller carriers like North Central or Southern); and sky high, demand-insensitive pricing and the "competition" occurring in the areas of frills and fringe issues (in the old days, champagne on Western, fancier food on Delta, or premium brand booze on Continental). The non-business traveler flew less frequently and much more selectively, and leisure pricing was manipulated to fill marginal seats, but the carriers depended on gouging business flyers, who were relatively price-insensitive, for their base of operating revenue. We're coming full circle.
– – – – – –
The conventional wisdom is that most airlines are so leveraged that any strike of almost any length can be financially fatal. (Not that the freight railroads are especially combative in this department either.) Southwest prospered in part by standardizing on one type of aircraft and cross-utilization of personnel. Wait in a terminal sometime and compare the turnaround time on a plane between say AA and Southwest. It's startling. The last figures I saw proved this: Southwest had far higher aircraft utilization hours than other carriers.
One anecdotal factor that makes me think that leverage is driving the fear of wholesale revision of labor rules is the fairly common practice of "informational" picketing against airlines in the last few years. The rail unions rarely if ever go for less than the jugular. This makes me think even the airline unions have concluded – like management – that any insignificant strike that shuts down operations could kill the carrier.
– – – – – –
[From an Amtrak Golden Spike travel agency owner] Having been there, and in the industry in the beginning, and making the prediction that deregulation would result in an oligopoly with the end product being fewer flights to fewer places with fewer services and higher fares, I feel vindicated.
At the time I was teaching transportation principles at Fullerton College, I was interviewed and sought out for answers on how this flood of new carriers (World Airways, People Express, Hawaiian Express ... all the greats) with low fares could possibly be bad for the consumer. I predicted an oligopoly within five years. As the flags started to fall it looked like I was an expert, as the Old Boy Carriers, American, United, TWA, Pan Am found themselves in this strange thing called the free market and had no idea how to react. They attempted to continue to deliver high levels of service and maintenance, with the attendant high union salaries and work rules (sound familiar anyone?), but did not understand market pricing.
As a result, when World Airways announced a fare of $99 each way Los Angeles/Newark and Los Angeles/Honolulu, they dropped the fares ON THE ENTIRE SYSTEM to $198 round trip, instead of meeting only the immediate threat. Like the dinosaurs before them, some powerful entities (Pan Am, TWA, National, Eastern) died, while others adapted and became birds of prey. While I despise what the man did to the industry, I must give the devil his due; Robert Crandall, considered a mean SOB by his friends, played hard and dirty, using the airlines powerful SABRE computer system to bias information to the public and travel agents, not to mention timing the billing of interline ticketing of targeted carriers to the same day that payrolls, airplane payments, and fuel contracts were due, driving cash poor carriers out of business (good-bye Braniff and your colorful planes and the Concorde).
Meanwhile, over at United, Robert Fox took a more above board, but, just as effective tactic of fending off an attack by dropping their fares in the threatened market to meet the new guy, and flooding the market with airplanes (wouldn't you really feel safer/better on a REAL airline?) and generally stomped the new guy to death. Either way, the new guys went away, or, where convenient, were swallowed whole by the big fish (good-bye PSA and AirCal), and fares went higher, and cities lost service.
There were some interesting variations on the theme and some amusing missteps (America West flies Los Angeles to Colorado Springs for $69, United matches, but only services Colorado Springs via Denver. The fare Los Angeles/Denver is $200. It seems that United's flights Denver/Colorado Springs started showing extraordinarily high no-show factors, while Denver/Los Angeles flights were running full. It took United marketing two months to figure out people were buying Los Angeles/Colorado Springs tickets and simply skipping the unused Denver/Colorado Springs flight, since Los Angeles/Denver at a good fare was what they wanted in the first place.
United – FURIOUS at being snookered by travel agents and customers, threatened to punish both appropriately by pulling accreditation of travel agents and threatening prosecution of passengers – proceeded to drop Los Angeles/Denver to $69 and flooded the market with airplanes. America West, abandoned by people who really only wanted cheap fares to Denver, withdrew from the market and (And has since been absorbed into that Penn Central of airlines, US Airways) the prediction of an oligopoly was coming to pass. The only thing I was off on was the timing, I never thought it would take 30 years to reach the true oligopoly we have today.
Ah, you say, but what about Southwest? Perpetually profitable, popular and ever-growing into backyard airports like Chicago Midway, Dallas Love, BWI, Southwest would seem to show that there is still competition in the airline business. Hate to tell you this folks, but Southwest (and I mean this as a compliment) is NOT AN AIRLINE, it is a bus with wings. A very GOOD bus with wings, but a bus nevertheless. Ten minute turn times at Phoenix, a one plane (B737 series 300-800), low paid, multi tasked employees, including the pilots. No frills, although the other airlines trashed them in the move to accounting nirvana, but good dependable schedules and consistent, but, minimal on board service (average flight time 90 minutes or less).
Herb Kelleher knew what he was making, and never, ever forgot what that was. Though low paid, the employees were treated well and were happy and loyal, as were the customers. The bus with wings works, but it is NOT an airline. Every attempt to duplicate them has failed, because they tried to make an airline act like a bus with wings. But I digress ...
That venerable Man of the People and Nobel Prize Winner, former President Jimmy Carter, and his minion Alfred Kahn at the CAB, fixed the finest, safest air travel system in the world ... which was not at the time broken. This was the same crowd that protected us from that evil monopoly, American Telephone and Telegraph. The world was made safe from AT&T's good service and regulated rates to give us ... a deregulated nightmare of off-brand phone companies, break-up of service providers, repair and installation, long distance and other formerly unified services under one evil roof. Today, we are in a Brave New World ... with no control over prices or services of an oligopoly that has as a leading member ... AT&T.
(NOTE: To give due credit to the Republicans, deregulation of the air industry was started under the administration of Richard Nixon, who also gave us Amtrak and Watergate. He was great at foreign relations, but never got a hold of this domestic thing.)
The moral of the story ... some things don't lend themselves to a complete free market. No form of transportation since the birchbark canoe has ever made a profit in the free market carrying passengers. Some form of direct subsidy (transit) or indirect protection (regulated and protected markets) has – and probably always will be – necessary to move people, who don't act as normal commodities should. Now, we see the airlines in desperation trying to get passengers to act like freight. Get delivered, get X-Rayed, sit around for a few hours, don't fall off of the conveyor belt, don't eat, drink, or leak, and get the Hell off the property as soon as the container is opened.
Thomas Jefferson had it right when he said the government that governs best governs least, at least when it is joined with that unknown author that said "if it ain't broke, don't fix it.” So what's the answer? Well Shakespeare had it right when he said "The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers AND THE BEAN COUNTERS! (caps and new translation by author).
Seriously, though, the current American transportation system is badly broken, and there is very little hope of intelligent change regardless of which of the new hacks becomes president. If Congress does not step up to the plate and show some grit (not likely), things are going to get much worse before they get better. Perhaps the Supreme Court will find an appropriate case to allow them to mandate a National Transportation System designed by People Who Know What They're Doing and Aren't Lawyers. What are the odds ...
Now you know why I teach instead of write airline tickets now ...
– – – – – –
It's "beyond" my ability to know how best to run a business in a semi-regulated environment. And, maybe "semi-regulated" is part of the problem. How much should government regulation and/or subsidy prevent the "invisible hand" of the market place from doing its job?
I loved to talk to my Grandfather about the railroad business (he was the court-appointed trustee of the New Haven Railroad during its first bankruptcy). I clearly remember him talking about how the construction of the Connecticut Turnpike wiped out the freight business on the NH Railroad. His comment was something like this: "The State of Connecticut built the Turnpike right along side our right-of-way. The trucks jumped on there and beat the Hell out of us [hauling freight]." I'm not saying the government shouldn't build highways, but the unintended consequences are significant. The same situation exists with the important barge traffic on rivers. The government builds locks and dams so barges can navigate our major river systems – which, of course, takes huge amounts of business away from the railroads.
I think it's safe to say our over dependance on highways is a direct result of the government building highways everywhere – duh. I bet $4.00 per gallon gas will start "correcting" this imbalance pretty fast.
– – – – – –
Multiple modes, all made possible by funding from elected public government, gives users choices. It is incumbent upon users of the modes to provide a service that consumers are willing to pay for. It's called "competition."
One of my schoolteachers decades ago taught us: "It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools."
The rails ran off most of their high value freight; the shipping companies more or less forced stack trains into the industry.
Rail also has to compete with other modes for public support. Shame on them if they can't argue their own case effectively.
– – – – – –
For whatever reason the "woe is me" attitude seems to afflict certain industries. Case in point – mine. I went to a professionals gathering on Thursday night and started talking to a fellow architect who laid into the all-too-familiar litany: low fees, impossible clients, inability to hire decent help, etc., etc. This is not the first time I've run into this. I don't know if all the real estate agents, accountants, IT people and attorneys in the room were bellyaching amongst themselves – maybe they do – but, I doubt it. It's gotten to the point where the AIA (American Institute of Architects) is unofficially referred to as "Ain't It Awful." I find socializing with other architects to be a depressing prospect, and avoid it whenever possible. Sometime back in the 1950s, a similar crepe-hanging, self-defeating groupthink took over at the railroads. There are innovators and progressive forces which pop up once in a while, but they often get beaten down. And the worst of the "woe is us" faction seemed to end up at Our Favorite Passenger Carrier.
It's the poor craftsmen who blames his tools. Similarly it's an inept executive who blames irresistible forces at large in the world – or those idiot clients/customers/passengers – for all his problems.
– – – – – –
"And the worst of the "woe is us" faction seemed to end up at Our Favorite Passenger Carrier."
Ain't that the truth. I'm reminded of the time I proposed a St. Louis/St. Paul train (through Galesburg) to an Amtrak marketing guy. His comment: "You couldn't fill up a bus on that route." Never mind that a Burlington Northern Railroad boss in Galesburg told me: "You could run that train tomorrow at 80 mph – all the way." And, never mind that a St. Louis/St. Paul train would expand the matrix exponentially.
I guess if you figure you will strike out for sure, why even step up to the plate?
[End multiple quotes]
As you can see, the discussion is far and wide, with all types of views.
This is something which must be taken seriously by everyone interested in passenger travel, in every mode of transportation.
We know oil exploration in Brazil has found huge new fields of oil, and the Brazilians are not worrying about tree huggers when drilling for oil. In less than five years, huge amounts of oil will be flowing freely from Brazil. In Texas, former oil wells that in their latter days had become low producers and too expensive to pump, are now back running, because the high price of crude oil has made them profitable, again. Oil from sands in Canada is also now profitable because of the higher price of crude oil.
None of this is relevant to today, or next week, or next year. Refinery capacity in this country is artificially constrained because radical environmentalists will not allow oil companies to use their profits to build new capacity because of some proposed threat of some species of frogs or something or other. Nuclear power, most favored by the French, even though they will surrender to anyone about anything at the drop of a hat, continues to be off of the discussion table because of some remote possibilities of problems, not the realities of modern safety methods.
The Chinese and Indian economies are booming, sucking up huge supplies of oil that used to go to Europe and North America.
Efficiency and good business plans are the key words for hope for the future. There seems to be a dearth of good business plans in the airline industry and at Amtrak.
Intercity bus travel is making something of a small comeback on the East Coast, but Greyhound is still considered by most travelers to be beyond the carrier of last resort; it’s unthinkable to most people to consider traveling by bus.
4) The quickest two solutions to fixing this mess are for two carriers to stand up, alter their business plans, and take a look at reality.
First, Greyhound and others in the bus business need to radically change their image. Reach for the middle class and above traveler, and stop catering almost exclusively to the lower end traveler. Experiment in more than one class of travel (perhaps one bus on a route with “coach” service, and another with exclusive “business class” service at a higher price). Think about additional stops and stations at destinations where passengers are, such as suburban stops in addition to downtown terminals. Offer more onboard amenities and more comfortable seats.
Second, Amtrak needs to stop focusing on unprofitable, short corridors and take a realistic look at its long distance network. With the exception of Auto Train, there are no Amtrak short distance or long distance trains operating at maximum length. More cars equals more capacity equals more revenue passenger miles. The cost of additional assistant conductors and car attendants is far less than the amount of revenue generated by additional passengers. The cost of trains miles doesn’t change, and the basic cost of train and engine operating crews doesn’t change (other than as just mentioned, perhaps an additional assistant conductor). The station costs don’t change, and the reservations costs don’t change. Any additional costs for equipment maintenance and getting cars out of the storage line are minimal compared to the positive changes in income.
Why is it so hard for Amtrak to understand this basic principle?
On many routes, additional frequencies would present something of a hardship, but no insurmountable obstacles for host freight railroads. Yes, mainlines are jammed. But, yes, clever minds should be able to figure this out without a lot of bloodletting.
Amtrak has a huge opportunity on its hands, handed to them on a silver platter. Now is the time to act, and now is the time to start becoming more than an insignificant blip on the radar of our domestic transportation network.
5) Just briefly, other solutions are viable, too. At one time, the American maritime industry boasted a large passenger fleet of ships that operated coastal and river routes. Until the start of World War II, overnight passenger service by coastal steamer was available between Northeast Florida and the Middle Atlantic states, on a slower, but rival schedule to passenger trains. Port cities such as Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and Norfolk saw regular passenger steamers calling regularly at city docks.
On large, navigable rivers like the Mississippi, there used to be plenty of room for barges and paddle-wheeled steamboats in regular passenger commerce. Once we get over the alleged compelling need for airline speed, and go back to the restfulness of leisure travel at ground speeds, perhaps this type of travel may return.
The Alaska Marine Highway today boasts regularly scheduled overnight ferry and passenger service between the Lower 48 and Alaska, and is considered quite a good service. On the Right Coast, several daylight intercity ferry services are offered.
6) Here’s a happy note. On Amtrak’s web page (www.amtrak.com), a new feature has been added. “Historical On-time Performance” allows visitors to the site to check on any train in the Amtrak system, it’s on-time history, and the causes of any late trains. “Track and signals,” train interference (freight trains or other passenger trains), and “passenger” are the three categories shown, with a percentage of each contributing to a number of late trains. Amtrak boldly names, names, too, including its own when an internal problem causes the delays. In addition to Amtrak, the information shows which host railroads are to blame for dispatching or infrastructure problems, and which delays are caused by passengers (such as passengers requiring emergency medical service along the route, or trains stopped for the detraining of undesirable passengers into police custody, or any other number of reasons).
This is a pleasant and much-needed step towards accountability both for Amtrak and its host railroads.
7) In the last TWA we talked about a Jacksonville area teenager who was unfortunately killed by a CSX freight train as the teen and two of his friends were illegally fishing from a CSX trestle.
Well, you guessed it. This week, the teen’s mother filed a lawsuit against CSX and the train’s engineer, seeking compensation for the boy’s death. Here is the story from a local television station.
[Begin quote]
News4Jax.com
Mother Of Boy Killed On Trestle Sues CSX
POSTED: 6:37 pm EDT June 13, 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The mother of a 17-year-old Clay County boy who died last month when he couldn't get off a CSX train trestle before being struck by a train is suing the railroad and the engineer who in charge of the train.
Wesley Whiddon Jr. was killed May 14 when he was fishing from the railroad bridge over Black Creek. Two other Fleming Island High School football players on the trestle with Whiddon escaped with minor injuries.
The wrongful-death lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $15,000 from the railroad and its senior road foreman of engines, Dennis Merrill.
The lawsuit claims the trestle was regularly used by residents of Clay County for fishing and crossing Black Creek and the railroad failed to close or fence off the property or post adequate warning signs of the danger of being on the trestle.
Clay County sheriff's deputies and residents told Channel 4 it is an area frequented by teenagers despite a total of four trespassing signs posted at both ends of the trestle.
Among other claims, the suit also alleges the train was traveling faster than permitted, which caused the 100-car train to strike the boy before he could get off the trestle.
The train's conductor, David Jones, told investigators that the train was going between 35 and 40 mph when it rounded the corner and he saw the boys on the trestle.
Jones said he expected the boys to jump, "Because that is what people usually do." When they didn't, he threw the emergency brake.
The suit was filed in Clay County Circuit Court on Thursday by the Cook, Hall and Lampros law firm out of Atlanta. The suit seeks a trial by jury on all claims.
A CSX spokesman told Channel 4 late Friday afternoon that they had not yet received the lawsuit and could not comment on it.
[End quote]
How many things are so very wrong about this frivolous and greedy lawsuit? The mother of the boy didn’t bother to teach her son to respect “no trespassing” signs and to keep off of dangerous railroad trestles and now wants compensation? Despite the fact four plainly lettered danger signs and no trespassing signs were posted, the lawsuit still wants to railroad to do more? Does the lawsuit say no one – other than the mean, deep pockets railroad – should take any responsibility for their own actions, especially when illegally trespassing on someone else’s private property? How does the plaintiff know the train was going too fast? What criteria is being used?
So very many people can’t understand why private freight railroads resist the confiscation of their property for use in passenger service, such as new commuter services. This is the reason why. Anyone, at anytime, can file a frivolous lawsuit against a railroad, and the railroad has to pay to defend itself, plus any type of settlement which may be forthcoming either through arbitration or order of a court.
Here in Florida, the consummation of a commuter rail deal in Central Florida was delayed for a year allegedly because CSX demanded it be held harmless in any type of accident or other scenario involving contact with human beings. With this type of lawsuit outlined above being a nearly daily occurrence for railroads, why would railroads want to invite more of the same with commuter service or other passenger service?
In Massachusetts, where the same discussion is taking place between CSX and local governments for additional commuter service outside of Boston, a similar situation happened. A freight car, on a private siding, wasn’t tied down properly, and went wandering on its own out on to mainline track, where it collided with a commuter train, involving injuries, but no deaths.
The result was lawsuits filed not only against the commuter carrier, the lumberyard which owned the siding and was responsible for the wandering freight car, but CSX only because it owned the tracks. It will cost CSX a fortune to defend these lawsuits, and probably have to pay for some damages, too.
Again, this begs the question, why would CSX or any other private railroad want its property treated as a public utility, and subject to lawsuits by passengers because something happened beyond the railroad’s control?
If America wants more commuter or regional rail service, and it wants it on private property with the property owner responsible for each and every thing which happens, no matter who is at fault, then some type of reasonable protection must be afforded to the private property owners before commuter rail will grow.
If you think this is a problem which needs to be fixed, take a trial lawyer to lunch and explain to them the realities of personal responsibility.
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J. Bruce Richardson
President
United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203
Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA
Telephone 904-636-7739
brucerichardson@unitedrail.org
http://www.unitedrail.org
Sunday, February 22, 2009
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