AIRNet-21 An interesting proposal

Ignoring the rail industry’s difficulties deploying PTC, the NEC for decades has utilized an ATC cab signal system that successfully protected passengers from violations of operating authority, while dispatcher-controlled software provided positive protection for track workers. In 1995, Amtrak began to implement its Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES), which 20 years later has yet to be completed south of New York.

Connecticut’s Governor Malloy recently complained to the USDOT that Amtrak has repeatedly proven incapable of executing major projects on time and budget. Amtrak received about $3 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009—the Stimulus Act. Much of Amtrak’s stimulus money remains unspent, while Amtrak’s approved and funded infrastructure work remains unimplemented.

This is not an Amtrak workforce issue. Amtrak’s workers have labored hard and successfully to provide a reliable, safe passenger railroad. It’s a project delivery and infrastructure funding process issue.

This requires a new transformational process, which generates a steady, reliable source of non-appropriated money for Amtrak’s infrastructure. “American Intercity Railroad Network for the 21st Century” orAlRNet-21, is such a new process. It creates an “off-budget” funding stream that causes more than a billion dollars annually to be invested in Amtrak’s owned infrastructure. It includes incentives and penalties to achieve project delivery focused on fixed project budgets and hard final completion dates using construction and project management techniques the private sector routinely employs. It eliminates the allocation of Amtrak’s NEC costs to non-NEC trains and, consequently, it increases Amtrak’s political viability and broadens its political support. AlRNet-21, by means of a stock spin-off, separates Amtrak into two federally owned entities:

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