This Week at Amtrak; May 1, 2008

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 14



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) Mayday! Mayday! Yes, it’s May Day, and Amtrak is having its 37th anniversary of operations, and it still needs all the help it can get.

On May 1, 1971, the corporate infant Amtrak, wrapped in swaddling clothes, replaced most of America’s private passenger train service with a soon-to-be-profitable national system. The fathers of Amtrak boldly predicted Amtrak would only need $140 million of free federal monies from the United States Treasury, and trains would once again be beacons of transportation in America.

Thirty-seven years and some $30+ billion dollars later, Amtrak is in worse shape today than it was on May 1, 1971.

Those of us boarding Seaboard Coast Line’s Train No. 57 (PennCentral Train No. 143) Silver Meteor in New York’s Penn Station on the afternoon of April 30, 1971, first for a ride down the PennCentral mainline to Washington, the RF&P Railroad to Richmond, and SCL tracks to Florida boarded a train that only showed a noticeable difference from trains a few days before by the passenger cars sporting a round Amtrak logo decal next to the vestibule doors, and different timetables stocked on the train. Otherwise, it was business as usual.

Sometime around midnight, as the Meteor was barreling southward in North Carolina on the old Seaboard Air Line mainline just north of Raleigh, the Meteor stopped being an SCL train and became an Amtrak train.

Things have never been the same since, regrettably so.

Flash forward to April 30, 1996, boarding the southbound Silver Meteor in Washington, Amtrak Train No. 97, heading home to Jacksonville, Florida. Heritage Fleet sleeping and dining cars are still part of the Meteor’s consist (although the Pullman Standard built SAL/ACL/FEC fleet has long been sold off, leaving the sturdier Budd built mostly UP/SP fleet which have been re-equipped with head end power for more reliable hotel power service to the train).

Pullman Company feather pillows have been replaced by something a bit less fluffy, but the newer Amtrak mattresses are still fairly comfortable in the sleeping cars. In the diner, a good breakfast menu is offered, all freshly prepared. The Meteor consist of an 18 car train, mostly full of paying passengers.

Today, the Silver Meteor is a mere shadow of its former self: no crew car, limited sleeping car accommodations, a dining car offering pre-packaged meals instead of fresh prepared food, and a much smaller consist. On a good day, the Meteor is a nine car train, including a baggage car.

The demand for passenger rail hasn’t changed since May 1, 1971, but the corporate philosophy of Amtrak has dramatically changed.

2) In 1971, Amtrak national system consisted of 29 routes listed by endpoints. Two of the routes included in the timetable, that of the Southern Crescent and the Denver and Rio Grande Western California Zephyr, were still privately operated; these two railroad’s didn’t join Amtrak in 1971.

1. New York – Boston
2. New York – Hartford – Springfield
3. New York – Washington
4. New York – Philadelphia
5. Philadelphia – Harrisburg
6. New York – Albany – Buffalo
7. New York – Pittsburgh – Chicago
8. New York – St. Louis – Kansas City
9. New York – Atlanta – New Orleans
10. New York – Miami and Tampa/St. Petersburg
11. Washington – Boston
12. Washington – Pittsburgh – Chicago
13. Washington – St. Louis – Kansas City
14. Norfolk/Newport News and Washington – Cincinnati
15. Chicago – Cincinnati
16. Chicago – Carbondale
17. Chicago – Springfield – St. Louis
18. Chicago – Milwaukee
19. Chicago – Detroit
20. Chicago–Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami
21. Chicago – New Orleans
22. Chicago – Houston
23. Chicago – Los Angeles
24. Chicago – San Francisco/Oakland
25. Chicago – Twin Cities – Seattle
26. New Orleans – Los Angeles
27. Seattle – San Francisco/Oakland – San Diego
28. Seattle – Portland
29. Los Angeles – San Diego

3) For those interested, the same first Amtrak National Timetable also listed the operating railroads. These are the railroads which “made a deal with the devil” to divorce themselves from passenger train operations, but readily agreed to dispatch Amtrak trains over their tracks at below-market train-mile rates, and with a priority over all over train operations. Congress also imposed an agreement that allows Amtrak COMPLETE access to every streak of rust in this country on these railroads if Amtrak believes it is in the best public interest to operate trains on those rails. That part of the agreement has long been in contention, as freight train demands have increased, and the freight carriers continually claim their bread and butter comes from freight trains, not Amtrak trains carried on a near non-profit basis.

1. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
2. Burlington Northern
3. Chesapeake and Ohio
4. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific
5. Denver and Rio Grande Western
6. Gulf, Mobile and Ohio
7. Illinois Central
8. Louisville and Nashville
9. Missouri Pacific
10. PennCentral
11. Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac
12. Seaboard Coast Line
13. Southern Pacific
14. Texas Pacific
15. Union Pacific

Of the 15 names of railroads listed, only the Union Pacific remains today; all of the others have merged into successor companies, including some into the Union Pacific.

4) In the Northeast, former PennCentral Metroliners were running, and some of the named trains included The Bostonian, The Bay State, The Colonial, Yankee Clipper, The Senator, Turboservice, Merchants Limited, The Patriot, The New Yorker, and The Murray Hill.

New York – Boston trains carried parlor cars (containing drawing rooms and day roomettes), coaches, and on some trains, dining cars. Other trains carried parlor club cars and snack bar coaches.

Outisde of the Northeast, other train still operating had fabled names like the Broadway Limited, Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Champion, Spirit of St. Louis, George Washington, James Whitcomb Riley, City of New Orleans, The Limited, Abraham Lincoln, South Wind, Texas Chief, Super Chief/El Capitan, Denver Zephyr, California Zephyr, Empire Builder, and Sunset Limited.

5) In 1971, Amtrak owned no track or mainline infrastructure, and trains were operated by contract crews of the host railroads. As originally envisioned, Amtrak was mostly an operating company, on the Pullman Company model, owning and operating rolling stock and locomotives, and little else. In the early days, Amtrak also had a penchant for adding extra sections of trains and additional cars as necessary during peak travel times.

The early managers of Amtrak actually believed they could make a success again of long distance passenger trains, and everyone in the company was focused on the company being self-reliant, not a long term ward of government that would never be self sufficient.

6) The Amtrak fleet was rationalized in the 1970s as Henry Christie made his famous “A” and “B” list of cars to keep and upgrade to head end power (The “A” list was almost exclusively made up of Budd built cars, which used a different assembly process than the more popular Pullman Standard built cars, which were deteriorating quickly in the 1970s, and mostly populating the “B” list, which meant they were to be put up for sale or scrapped.). New locomotives were on the purchase list, too, as well as a movement to get out of expensive-to-operate grand terminals in major cities that were build as sprawling monuments to the egos of railroad barons and the empires they controlled.

7) In 1971, the most chic way to travel was via jet airliner. Flying was still something of a novelty for most people beyond business travelers, and the United States was still thrilled about NASA landing on the moon in 1969. Trains were considered old and soiled, and not very stylish. Many people were willing to simply throw trains away, as they had been throwing away municipal trolley systems for decades, in favor of automobiles, interstate highways, Holiday Inns, and the famous 28 flavors of ice cream from roadside Howard Johnson restaurants.

Not surprisingly, Amtrak executives thought if passenger rail could be remade into the image of airline travel, then passenger rail would itself become chic, again. The result was a typical 70s color scheme of purple and orange imposed on formerly stylish rolling stock, to be followed by lime green, the “brown period,” and the “red period.”

It didn’t work.

Then, came the “bus” period. Why not strip trains down to the bare bones, and become Greyhounds on steel wheels? Who needs food? Who needs those high profit sleeping cars? Throw ‘em a cheese sandwich wrapped in cellophane and let them drink warm Cokes.

All of this was documented in the minds of industry watchers, but Amtrak never developed an institutional memory. The same ideas would be tried over and over again, with the same dismal results.

8) With the “help” of the Carter and Clinton administrations, Amtrak managed to shed many of its important long distance trains.

Through the years, trains came and went, including the Pioneer, Desert Wind, Sunset Limited east of New Orleans, North Coast Hiawatha, National Limited, Floridian, and more.

Some of the venerables disappeared, too, including the Broadway Limited, Champion, Denver Zephyr, George Washington, Texas Chief, and others.

The Santa Fe Railroad, ever proud of its passenger service until the very last moment, made an unique deal with Amtrak. It would allow its Super Chief/El Capitan name to be used by Amtrak only as long as Amtrak kept the rigid service standards in place the Santa Fe itself maintained. The result is today’s Southwest Chief after Santa Fe rather quickly revoked permission to use the Super Chief/El Capitan name after Amtrak failed to live up to Santa Fe standards.

9) Specifically for this column, URPA associates were polled to determine the current status of Amtrak. Here are the results.

How many presidents has Amtrak had? Other than Graham Claytor, have they rarely have lasted more than three years?

– Roger Lewis, Paul Riestrup, Alan Boyd, Graham Claytor, Tom Downs, George Warrington, David Gunn, and the incumbent, Alex Kummant. Other than the durable Graham Claytor, three years has been the average tenure of an Amtrak president.

What, if any, is Amtrak's greatest accomplishment(s)? Invention of the Superliner?

– I'll buy that [Superliners]. Stubbornness in the face of reality can't really be called an accomplishment.

– Getting Senator Roth to manufacture a “tax refund” of $2 billion for Amtrak, when it had never paid a dime of federal income tax.

– The thing is still around. Seriously. The fact that it's still around is an accomplishment in some ways, is a failure in other ways, is absolutely striking, and is nothing if not consistent!

– Amtrak excels at being a government agency when it wants to (purchasing thru the GSA and sundry other benefits) and for being a private corporation when it wants to (ducking FOIA requirements by declaring certain information "proprietary").

Which are Amtrak's greatest failures and shortcomings?

– Failures: Discontinuing long distance trains that serve important destinations like Las Vegas, and Phoenix. Sunset Limited still tri-weekly, etc. Not coming to grips with its accounting system yet! Overemphasis on the "success" of the Acela/NEC. A lack of really creative juices looking forward. No new equipment orders. No expansion of the rebuild program unless states pay for it.

Shortcomings: Marketing. Unable to come up with a marketing "catch phrase" that is timeless, like "Next Time Take an Amtrak Train" (my rewrite of SP's great slogan from the 40-50's). Refusal to GROW the long distance services. PERSISTENCE at getting the states to pay up or else. Allowing the Texas Eagle Marketing Group to do work that should be done by Amtrak.

– Biggest failure: collaborating with the Clinton Administration and rail unions in the active sabotage of the 1997 reform law, thus throwing away the liberation from prior statutory micro management of route structure, labor practices, etc., and the opportunity to reinvent and reconfigure Amtrak as a real transportation company. Virtually all subsequent mischief and deterioration flowed from that, further enabled by the appointment in both the Clinton and Bush years of politician board members who didn’t know what “fiduciary” means.

What is the most striking thing about Amtrak?

– It’s still here.

– It's still welded to Congress, and they care more about that than selling tickets.

– A culture of complete non-accountability (even as to legal requirements).

What can consistently and reasonably be said about Amtrak that is positive?

– The Northeast Corridor Improvement Project. Superliners. Station/train level employees who try to do the right thing even though they don't get much backing. The Amtrak Police force that is quietly, invisibly, doing its security duties without getting the TSA involved. Amtrak California/Caltrans Rail program. Capitol Corridor.

– It is not part of the federal government, and therefore the Treasury is not legally responsible for any of its obligations, as confirmed in multiple published legal opinions of the Comptroller General.

What are memorable quotes about Amtrak?

– "You guys could screw up a two-car funeral!" – Sen John Warner (R-Va), upon dramatically exiting a very late moving train at Alexandria, Virginia – apparently without benefit of a stepbox on the platform. Or words to that effect. The original utterance may well have been a little saltier.

– "Amtrak needs the courage to fire the employees it should have never hired in the first place." – A now removed Amtrak product line manager.

– One I heard on the Hill was: "If Amtrak were under the SEC's jurisdiction, its management would already be sharing cells with the Enron crowd."

10) Well, here we are in 2008. Where is Amtrak today? It has no sustainable business plan, other than to run trains on a contract basis for states which are willing to pay Amtrak’s high prices. The national system is a shadow of itself from the freight railroads, and a greatly reduced system from the original mission in 1971.

Everyone talks about fixing Amtrak, but no one seems to do much about it. A certain uninformed segment of the public constantly clamors for more money for Amtrak, claiming that will fix all of Amtrak’s problems, but they refuse to acknowledge reality that Amtrak needs to be internally healed instead of throwing more good money after bad.

On it’s 37th birthday, Amtrak slogs along with old equipment and incompetent management while passenger rail in Great Britain and Germany are prospering to the point of both expansion and successful privatization. These two systems across the pond are successful not because of government mandate or government policy, but because they have good business plans and they operate trains for the benefit of the traveling public, not their operating departments.

The United States is seeing a gratifying surge in commuter rail and steel wheel based transit. Adequate systems that were discarded decades ago as “too antique and too inconvenient” are being reborn and rebuilt at great public expense because they have a good business model for success.

The previous edition of TWA of April 18th presented a positive plan for regional rail here in the sprawling state of Florida. Many comments came into the TWA mailbox about the plan, including unrealistic ones from those suggesting all regional rail should serve airports (even where there is no rail anywhere near airports), and such details as making sure bicyclists and their bicycles are welcomed on regional passenger trains.

The most striking comments indicated a “pie in the sky” attitude about regional rail; many readers wanted to load up regional rail like lights on a Christmas tree, with all sorts of expensive ornaments that would marginally improve the system, but would otherwise cost more to implement than generate revenues to benefit the system.

There is a delicate balance between meeting overall demand versus individual constituency demand. Amtrak is currently striving to meet individual constituency demand for rail service, while often wholly ignoring overall demand.

Amtrak strives to create short, expensive to run trains with fare structures for revenues that can’t meet expenses. This is all done allegedly in the name of public good for whatever tree-hugging reasons there may be, or in the name of providing expensive service for relatively few people at the expense of everyone else.

Instead, Amtrak should create a business plan that best serves the majority of the country, and concentrate later on meeting smaller needs.

11) Saturday, May 10th, the day before Mother’s Day, is the first National Train Day. Amtrak will be holding celebrations at various stations and terminals around the country, including Tampa, Florida. Amtrak is coughing up money for some of the events, others are being funded by local and regional groups.

One has to ask, “what took so long?” It took someone 37 years to come up with an easy public relations idea such as this which will garner plenty of free media attention and public interest?

Perhaps, it’s a result of Amtrak being more welded to Congress than to its passengers. That’s the thing about government programs, even quasi-governmental programs like Amtrak. It’s always much easier to beg money from Congress once a year than create and maintain a viable program that believes in accountability and self-reliance.

12) Happy Birthday, Amtrak.



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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