URPA Newsletter

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

MrFSS

Engineer
Honored Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2004
Messages
9,712
Location
Central Kentucky
Used with the permission of the author.

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts fromUnited Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 34

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Tennessee. 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) Whither the Sunset Limited, still? As noted last week, the Sunset Limited is still not operating east of New Orleans, with no announcement in sight as to when it will resume operation. The only solid information available is through a letter sent to an Amtrak union official which said the Sunset is not slated for discontinuance. That's tough to imagine, especially since it has been a full year now since the train operated east of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.

A lot of city, town, and state money went into extending the Sunset from New Orleans to Florida in 1993, including $7.5 million from the State of Florida for track upgrades, the addition of track sidings, and 80% assistance to local governments for station rehabilitations or new stations constructed.

Public money in Mississippi and Alabama also went to similar purposes. No public money has ever been used for operating subsidies.

Amtrak, as witnessed by Tempe, Arizona; Ocala, Florida; and Tampa, Florida has a bad habit of gratefully receiving new or renovated station and infrastructure facilities from local governments and then either discontinuing, rerouting, or drastically reducing train service. It must be tough to look local officials in the face and say, "if you build it, we will come" when Amtrak has such an abysmal record to cutting and running.

2) A rumor was floating around this week that Amtrak had abolished the Lead Service Attendant job in the Pacific Parlour first class lounge car on the Coast Starlight, which has been the subject of so much contention over horribly late trains. The rumor also said that the equipment would be taken

off the train and sold.

Turns out part of the rumor was true, but this time, Amtrak did the right thing. The Los Angeles Crew Base is having difficulty finding enough LSAs to staff the car, so the LSA job was abolished, but replaced by a Service Attendant job. The only change passengers will see is that an SA cannot make

a sale of an alcoholic drink or other item (only LSAs can handle money). But, the Pacific Parlous car will still run, and still be staffed. It's better to keep such an icon and good passenger service car running, even without the revenue from the alcohol sales, than not running at all.

3) The Amtrak on-time performance problems with Union Pacific Railroad have become almost legendary. Many reasonable people have wondered why Amtrak has not taken some action to force UP to live up to its contractual commitments. Amtrak has finally done that. Here is a letter that has been released from Amtrak to Union Pacific.

August 4, 2006

Mr. Dennis Duffy

Executive Vice President, Operations

Union Pacific Railroad Company

Dear Mr. Duffy:

I am writing to seek your immediate assistance in correcting the chronic unacceptable performance of Amtrak trains operating on the Union Pacific Railroad, particularly Amtrak's long-distance trains.

It's sobering to look at how bad long-distance Amtrak train performance on UP has become. In July, 97% of the 211 long-distance trains operated primarily on UP arrived late (see Attachment 1). Even more amazing is the degree of lateness: 84% of long-distance trains arrived more than 2 hours late, 74% more than 3 hours late, and 66% more than 4 hours late.

To further put this into perspective, over 67,000 Amtrak passengers traveled on UP long-distance trains that were over 4 hours late ... in the month of July alone! The resulting damage to Amtrak's brand, reputation, and repeat business is immense.

The vast majority of delays are from causes attributable to UP - nearly 90% of all delays incurred by Amtrak trains operating on UP in July. As high as these UP-responsible delays are, they continue to increase (see Attachment

Amtrak has tried to work with UP to improve this situation. Our cooperation has ranged from adding over three hours of scheduled recovery time and changing the scheduled slot of the Sunset Limited, to repeatedly rerouting the California Zephyr away from the ridership-producing Rocky Mountain scenery for weeks at a time each summer to assist with UP trackwork, to modifying the schedule of the Coast Starlight last month on extremely short notice to support UP trackwork in Oregon.

In return, overall long distance train performance has continued to worsen. UP's encroachment on Amtrak's contractual and statutory rights reached a point this Spring where Amtrak had to initiate a contract arbitration over our right to operate, in which Amtrak prevailed by a unanimous 3-0 vote of

the arbitrators.

A primary root cause of this unacceptable performance is UP's chronic violation of the slow order limits in our UP-Amtrak operating agreement. Each of the four Amtrak long distance routes operating on UP is in violation of these clear contractual obligations.

UP is making investments in some of these slow order areas, and Amtrak appreciates that step in the right direction. However, these investments cover only a portion of the route-miles where slow orders exceed contractual limits, and have not been enough to bring slow orders into compliance with the operating agreement.

Clearly, we cannot continue like this. Tom Schmidt has requested a meeting with Joe Santamaria. I trust that Mr. Santamaria will be prepared to discuss with Tom a program for immediate corrective action, to be taken while simultaneously working to correct the chronic slow order contractual

violations on all Amtrak routes where they exist.

The responsibility for operating Amtrak trains with minimal delay over UP rail lines is clear in both federal law and in UP's operating agreement with Amtrak. The magnitude of Amtrak's performance problems on UP has begun to attract significant public attention. If our two companies cannot improve

Amtrak performance on UP, it is an invitation for government to solve our performance problems for us, an outcome neither of us wants to see happen.

Sincerely,

William L. Crosbie

Sr. Vice President, Operations/Amtrak

4) Also noted last week, Amtrak has renamed its weekly employee advisory publication to the clever name "Amtrak This Week." For those of us who write for a living, the improvement in quality to the "other, new kid on the block" This Week is both noticeable and appreciated. The tone has changed for the better, from one of "let me convince you what's right for you" to one of straight news reporting, where readers can decide for themselves what is right and wrong.

Here is a timely Amtrak This Week report on Amtrak host railroad on-time

performance.

August 14, 2006

Top Story: Update on Host Railroad OTP Discussions

Two weeks ago, Amtrak reported on its efforts to improve the on-time performance of its trains over CSXT territory between Florida and Washington D.C., just one component of its approach to improving unacceptable OTP over many freight routes.

Since acting President and CEO David Hughes met with CSXT Chief Operating Officer Tony Ingram in July, preliminary numbers point to small, but potentially encouraging OTP improvements. During the 30-day period before the meeting, none of the trains operated on time; for the period following the

meeting through yesterday, OTP for the Auto Train was 20%, Silver Meteor 9% and Silver Star 2%. While far from acceptable, the progress is viewed by Amtrak as a step in the right direction.

The executive-level dialogue with CSXT continued last week, when Hughes advised Ingram that Amtrak would commit resources to do its part to improve the performance of the Florida services. Amtrak is responsible for about 15% of the delays. Amtrak has added a second locomotive to Silver Service trains and is conducting an analysis of how to turn trains faster at the Lorton and Sanford Auto Train facilities, among other short-term considerations.

In a recent letter to the Union Pacific Railroad [see above], Senior Vice President of Operations William Crosbie sought UP's immediate assistance in improving the California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle on-time performance. In July, 97% of these trains were late, 66% of which were more than four hours late. Ninety percent of the delays Amtrak

encountered over the UP were caused by the UP. Amtrak has called for immediate corrective action, including reducing sloworder delays to within the contractual limit.

In the spring, Amtrak prevailed after it took UP to arbitration to enforce Amtrak's right to operate over UP during a period of track work in Missouri.

The effect poor on-time performance has on repeat business, brand and reputation - not to mention the toll it takes on its employees - is garnering public, congressional and federal attention.

5) The Amtrak This Week employee publication for August 21, 2006, has a fascinating discussion about passenger satisfaction.

August 21, 2006

Top Story: Customer Satisfaction Driven by OTP, Personal Experience

Train on-time performance and personal service are the two biggest factors affecting customer satisfaction, according to Amtrak research.

Earlier this year, Amtrak set six specific and measurable customer satisfaction goals. The first and most comprehensive goal is that 90% of passengers rate the service as "good" and would recommend it to others.

To measure how we're standing up to this goal, passengers are regularly surveyed using the Customer Service Index (CSI). For the most recent month on record - June - 76 percent of passengers rated Amtrak service as "good" (8-10 on a scale of 10).

In June, the most satisfied passengers and the percentage ranking their experience as "good" were on the following services: Downeaster (92), Illinois Zephyr (92), Piedmont (88), Empire (87), Hiawatha (86), Pere Marquette (86), Pacific Surfliner (85).

The common thread through the lowest ranking services was OTP, the subject of last week's Amtrak This Week "Top Story." These services and their "good" experience rankings were: Adirondack (48), Silver Meteor (51), Carolinian (51), Auto Train (55), Coast Starlight (51).

On-time performance isn't the only factor that leads to a negative experience. Passengers also tell Amtrak time and again that friendly and courteous crews make the difference when delays are encountered. For example, Auto Train lounge and dining car crew service in June was rated "good" by 81% of passengers.

Among the initiatives underway to improve passenger service is the deployment of customer service managers charged with improving service delivery.

On-time performance over host railroads continues to be a top issue for acting President and CEO David Hughes and members of senior management. In addition to the pressure being applied by Amtrak, recent federal and media attention has put new light on this problem. Look for more news in the coming weeks on this matter.

6) There are times when host railroads and Amtrak work together to achieve better scheduling during maintenance of way periods when track is being upgraded or maintained. Such an example is the route of the Pere Marquette, where an adjusted schedule for the train started in the middle of August and will continue until September 7th.

It is not uncommon for host railroads to wonder why Amtrak can't - or won't - adjust passenger train schedules to fit the needs of the host railroads. Overall, this is not an unreasonable question when both parties realize the big picture needs of the each other, and work to find some common ground that meets the needs of the host railroad shareholders and Amtrak passengers, too.

For too many years, Amtrak and its host railroads have been in adversarial positions. Amtrak today, and the lack of private passenger trains run by the host railroads, is the result of the railroads making a deal on their own volition at the end of the 1960s, knowing full well what Amtrak would be. On

the other hand, Amtrak, for all of its corporate life, has known that even though its existence and right to operate over all railroad tracks in this country has been granted by Congress, it still has much more than an ethical obligation to treat its host railroads with the same respect it hopes to be treated by those same railroads.

Somebody, somewhere, has to bring both sides to a bargaining table that updates and improves Amtrak's operating contracts with its host railroads where everyone feels they have made similar sacrifices instead of one party beating the other party. A healthy Amtrak paying a fair price under fair

conditions for use of host railroad tracks, and a healthy Amtrak being part of our domestic transportation network and serving a growing base of willing passengers is a good concept that needs to be implemented immediately.

7) The Federal Railroad Administration, State of Florida and the City of Boca Raton have imposed restrictions on Amtrak, CSX, and Tri-Rail commuter trains that run through the city. As of September 20th, no train running on the former Seaboard Air Line/CSX main line (not the nearby Florida East Coast Railway line) will be able to sound its locomotive horn at any time of the night or day. Instead, grade crossings have been improved to prevent any type of vehicles from crossing tracks when an on-coming train approaches.

Of course, the denizens of Boca Raton, a wealthy South Florida city (which, by the way, Boca Raton translates to House of the Rat), think noisy and unwelcome trains detract from their quality of life.

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad built those tracks during the Florida land boom in the mid-1920s, and they have seen heavy, continual use since then. Boca Raton is a town which grew up around the nearby FEC Railway, after it was developed by Henry Flagler and the FEC just before the Florida land boom. Folks, the railroad, which made Boca Raton possible and desirable in the first place, was there over eight decades ago, long before any current resident thought about moving to South Florida. If you don't like trains, don't move to a neighborhood around trains.

The horn restrictions, no matter how carefully a grade crossing is guarded, are just an invitation to accidents between trains and cars and pedestrians. The railroads live by the slogan "safety first." When did that become unimportant?

8) Last week was the first week TWA was distributed by a new e-mail server. Overall, things went well. However, there were two kick-backs from recipient e-mail systems that would have happened no matter what e-mail server was being used. Last week, the acronym for the old St. Louis Union Terminal (or, the newer St. Louis Union Trailers in mock celebration of the years-old "temporary" buildings used there by Amtrak) was used (we won't repeat that mistake). Two kick-backs said "message rejected for explicit sexual content." After a brief, baffling moment of scanning the content of TWA for such a problem, the culprit was discovered. From now on, it's just the St. Louis

Amtrak station.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to [email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state where you live. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to [email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org
 
No more LSA's in Palour car, does that mean no more wine tastings or just no revenue sales? So I take it the cast of 6 or so palour car attendents are gone? Richard Tulmy and his scenic talks/wine tasting made the trip a blast. He has a love for the rails and amtrak that very few share. That I will miss if its true, but happy the palour will continue to roll.
 
This Week's Edition, quoted with permission of the aauthor.

This Week at Amtrak; August 29, 2006
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 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 35

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. 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) In a surprise move to Amtrak watchers, Amtrak's Board of Directors

hired a new president and CEO today, despite the fact there is no

principal Amtrak shareholder in the form of a permanent United States

Secretary of Transportation or a fully populated Amtrak board.

Alexander Kummant, formerly of Union Pacific Railroad is the new chief

steward of Amtrak. Here is Amtrak's press release:

[begin quote]

WASHINGTON - The Amtrak Board of Directors today appointed Alexander

Kummant as President and CEO. The veteran railroad and industrial

executive will assume duties September 12.

Kummant previously served as a Regional Vice President of the Union

Pacific Railroad, overseeing 6,000 transportation, engineering,

construction, mechanical, and other employees supporting an 8,000-mile

rail network. He also served as the Union Pacific's Vice President and

General Manager of Industrial Products, a $2 billion revenue business.

In leading both units, Kummant was responsible for substantially

improved customer service, on-time delivery of client products, and

significant gains in financial and operational performance.

Additionally at Union Pacific, Kummant held the role of Vice President

of Premium Operations, overseeing the intermodal and automotive network

performance.

Most recently, Kummant served as the Executive Vice President and Chief

Marketing Officer of Komatsu America Corporation, a division of the

second largest supplier of construction equipment worldwide. He has a

continuing record as an adaptable change agent in diverse environments.

Kummant's first job on the railroad came at age 18 in Lorain, Ohio,

working on a track crew for the Lake Terminal Railroad at the U.S. Steel

Lorain Works.

"Alex Kummant has the outstanding credentials and experience to lead a

changing Amtrak that is more customer-focused and fiscally

responsible,"said Amtrak Chairman David M. Laney. "His appointment

fulfills the board's commitment to select an extraordinarily strong and

capable leader for Amtrak's future, building on the growing national

desire for more and improved passenger rail service."

Kummant fills a position that has been held by David J. Hughes on an

interim basis since November 2005. Formerly Chief Engineer of Amtrak,

Hughes will continue to serve with the railroad in a yet to be specified

capacity. "For the past nine months, David Hughes has stepped in and

performed exceptionally in leading our strategic reforms and operational

improvements," said Laney. "On behalf of the Amtrak Board of Directors,

he has our deepest admiration and respect, and we are delighted that he

will continue to play an important role in Amtrak's future."

A native of Ohio, Kummant holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering

from Case Western Reserve University, a Master's degree in manufacturing

engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from Stanford

University. He is married to Kathleen Regan Kummant, a former senior

executive with the Santa Fe and BNSF railroads.

The Board of Directors of Amtrak was assisted in its search by the

Washington D.C. office of Heidrick & Struggles, Inc.

[End quote]

Mr. Kummant's selection is interesting in many ways. His primary

railroad executive experience was with the Union Pacific Railroad, which

has been described by many as Amtrak's least willing and least friendly

host railroad. Perhaps his addition to the Amtrak executive suite will

provide a direct pipeline to UP's executive suite and a better

understanding between the two companies as to the obligations each have

on behalf of the passengers of Amtrak.

When examining the qualifications of Mr. Kummant listed in the press

release, straight down the line he fills the check list the board of

directors created for the next president; a list that included the

ability to work as an adaptable change agent in diverse environments, a

strong understanding of the financial side of the business, and

operational experience. Mr. Kummant fits all of those qualifications,

plus he has an engineering and construction background, which highly

qualifies him to deal with the infrastructure issues of the Northeast

Corridor.

An exciting aspect of Mr. Kummant's qualifications is his most recent

position of Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of

Komatsu America Corporation, a division of the second largest supplier

of construction equipment worldwide. Notice the word "marketing" in

there, a very important word. Mr. Kummant understands some reasonable

and practical effort must be made to attract customers/passengers to a

business. What a relief to have a new president and CEO with this

background.

Perhaps the most outstanding point about Mr. Kummant is what is lacking

... no background in public transit. Mr. Kummant is most definitely a

railroader, and not a trolley operator. He will not have preconceived

notions of the alleged benefits of bare bones coaches with plastic

seating and harsh lights stopping at unmanned stations. We don't know

where Mr. Kummant stands on expansion of the national long distance

system. We have to believe he and the board understand the importance of

the national system and the future success of the company will come from

the long distance system, not disjointed and high expense corridors.

A fascinating aspect is Mrs. Kummant, Kathleen Regan Kummant. Mrs.

Kummant was a former senior executive with the Santa Fe and BNSF

Railroads, UP's arch rival. If Mrs. Kummant worked for Santa Fe when

Mike Haverty was president of the company, we know she was highly

qualified. One can presume dinner table conversation will be lively.

What do we bring from this? The Amtrak Board of Directors, under the

leadership of Chairman David Laney (even in its present reduced state

because of too many vacancies) has done a good job of selecting the next

chief steward of Amtrak. We all need to judge Mr. Kummant for his

accomplishments, and how he will help fulfill the broad vision of the

Amtrak board and its determination to bring Amtrak to a point where it

is no longer a financial and political cripple.

Welcome, Mr. Kummant and Godspeed in your new challenge. Now, please,

just tell us so we will get it right, exactly how do you pronounce your

last name?

2) It is very important to take a moment and talk about the man who has

held Amtrak together since the merciful departure of David Gunn. David

J. Hughes, the former Chief Engineer of Amtrak will continue to serve

Amtrak in a yet to be defined capacity. Mr. Hughes has been an excellent

interim leader for Amtrak, picking up many of the broken pieces left by

Mr. Gunn, and starting to make incremental progress on many of Amtrak's

problems. Much of what Mr. Hughes has accomplished is not outwardly

evident to Amtrak's passengers and many employees. However, Mr. Hughes

made some critical personnel changes at the top of the company, and has

helped quell the overall bad atmosphere at the company while an orderly

search for a new, permanent president could be conducted by the board.

Thank you, Mr. Hughes for all you have accomplished. It has not gone

unnoticed. We know you will continue to accomplish much for Amtrak in

your next position with the company.

3) So, there is a new kid on the block, and he has a shiny new football.

What should he do with the football? Here's a list of things for Mr.

Kummant and the Amtrak Board of Directors to consider:

A) Continue to work to bring an orderly state to Amtrak's financial

house through new and better accounting and reporting systems.

Everything else that may be accomplished will all depend on having

reliable numbers and hard, unbiased information.

B ) Look strongly at Amtrak's relationship with its host railroads and

work hard to improve those relationships so both parties prosper. If

Amtrak needs to pay more to achieve a fair market price for use of

private freight rails, that should be a strong consideration. Both sides

need to feel that operating Amtrak trains is a winning proposition; as

long as the host railroads feel the federal government (Amtrak) is

confiscating their property one passenger train at a time, little or no

progress will be made.

C) Look inward at employees on all levels. The freight railroads, from

whence Mr. Kummant arrives, have learned how to trim staffs and operate

trains more efficiently. Amtrak needs to do the same thing, including

learning how to work positively with its unions and instigate contracts

that recognize the value of each employee. Most of Amtrak's senior

executives need to be replaced, the sooner the better. Everyone there

has a history, and most of the histories are not good. We see some

bright spots (see below about Florida service operation this week during

Tropical Storm Ernesto), but too many of Amtrak's senior and middle

managers have gotten away with corporate murder for too long. Bring in a

new cadre of executives who are qualified and compensated equivalent to

freight railroad executives, and let them make much needed changes.

Bring in a new marketing team that understands passengers and the needs

of all of the system, beyond the NEC and Pacific Surfliners. Bring in

people who understand accountability, that often maligned word "profit"

(which is a very good word), and passenger service above and beyond all

else.

Make an absolute qualification for continuing or new employment at

Amtrak an understanding and desire for good passenger service. No more

grumpy onboard employees or station agents. No more employees that never

should have been hired in the first place. No more employees with

individual agendas - just employees with the single focused agenda of

providing the best possible service to the highest number of passengers,

all in a gracious atmosphere.

D) Continue to repair relations with Congress and the Bush

Administration. David Gunn left a tarnished legacy of contempt and

tartness that accomplished little other than entertainment value. David

Laney and David Hughes have proven this budget year that professionalism

when dealing with Washington is far more important than breathless

headlines and pronouncements of doom and gloom. Pay Mr. Hughes the

compliment of continuing his good work on Capitol Hill.

E) Restore the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans. No good arguments

have been made for it not to be running, other than Amtrak doesn't have

the will to live up to its commitment to the cities and towns along the

route to provide a connection to the rest of the Amtrak network. Look at

all of the national system, and decide how to make it more dense, with

more frequencies, serving more passengers. Stop making poor decisions,

like the current proposal to drop one of two daily trains in and out of

Williamsburg, Virginia as 2007 will mark the 400th anniversary of the

founding of nearby Jamestown, and the beginning of Colonial Virginia.

Jamestown and Williamsburg are planning for one million visitors in

2007, many of them by rail. Cutting one of only two daily trains in and

out of Williamsburg and the Hampton Roads (Norfolk, Newport News,

Portsmouth, and Chesapeake) area is not a wise move.

F) Look at the nearly 700 pieces of passenger rolling stock in storage

because of wreck damage, out of date inspections, or other reasons, and

figure out how to get these millions of dollars worth of assets and

revenue generators back out on the railroad. Time after time it has been

demonstrated that very few companies cut their way to financial health.

Amtrak is no exception. While many changes need to be made, at the same

time "more trains to more places" needs to be Amtrak's unofficial motto.

G) Realize that passenger rail, as opposed to transit, is a people

business, which relies on station agents, safety employees on trains,

and reservations agents among other jobs. Unmanned stations, while

understandable in some locations, lose more business than the money

saved by not paying the salaries of station agents. Stations are an

integral part of every community, where local residents go to make

travel plans, purchase tickets, check baggage, and safely board trains.

Unmanned stations provide none of these benefits. While about half of

Amtrak's ticketing is now done by the Internet, that does not make up

for the lost potential of manned stations. The Internet is not an

acceptable substitute of real, live, smiling and informative people.

H) Make intelligent decisions about the future of sleeping car and food

service on long distance trains. Look at the results of this summer's

Empire Builder "experiment" (which really just provides a level of

service formerly found on Amtrak elsewhere) and see how many passengers

liked traditional passenger railroad service. Understand that all long

distance trains deserve the same attention and amenities found on the

Empire Builder. Understand many Amtrak employees are willing to make

long distance travel a pleasurable experience with morally admirable

food if only given the chance by Amtrak management.

I) Understand Amtrak's heritage and history. Those who don't know

history are doomed to repeat it. Amtrak has a long history of making

dumb and costly mistakes with little or no consequence to its managers

and senior level employees. Look back at what has been done before, and

embrace what was good, and discard what was bad. Amtrak's heritage is a

proud one, of passenger service that served our country well before the

jet airplane and Interstate highway system. There is still a place today

for long distance passenger service in our domestic transportation

network, but Amtrak sadly remains our nation's best kept secret. It's

time for Amtrak to start shouting about itself from the mountain tops,

and get over its corporate inferiority complex that it can't be an

important part of our country's transportation system.

J) Continue to work towards isolating the Northeast Corridor from the

rest of the Amtrak system so everyone will have a realistic

understanding of how Amtrak's finances actually work. It's important for

Amtrak to understand it was originally designed to serve all Americans,

not just parts of the country on the Right and Left Coasts and clustered

around the Great Lakes.

4) As mentioned above, as of this writing on Tuesday evening, August

29th, Tropical Storm Ernesto is making its way into South Florida,

maintenance and crew base homes of the Silver Meteor and Silver Star.

Many will remember last hurricane season's shameful cut and run strategy

by Amtrak, often leaving travelers stranded in hurricane areas by

shutting down rail service far too early in anticipation of storms.

Here is Amtrak's internal advisory on Tropical Storm Ernesto. What a

different a year and some new people at the top makes.

[begin quote]

System Operations

Flash Report

DATE: August 28, 2006

TO: Distribution

FROM: Jon Tainow

SUBJECT: Tropical Storm Ernesto

Report No: No.1 5:00PM August 28, 2006

Service Disruption Scenario

As of 2:00PM Tropical Storm Ernesto is approximately 15 miles

east-southeast of Holguin, Cuba. It has a poorly defined center and is

moving toward the northwest at approximately 10 miles per hour. This

motion is expected to continue over the next 24 hours. Maximum sustained

winds are 40 miles per hour. Tropical Storm force winds extend outward

for 70 miles. The storm is expected to strengthen after the center moves

over the waters to the north of Cuba tonight.

The storm is expected to make landfall as a possible Category 1

Hurricane late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, August 30th at the

southern tip of Florida near Miami Beach and continue moving northeast

along the coast effecting Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

CSX Operating Plans

CSX will remove crossing gates on the Miami Subdivision (Miami to West

Palm Beach, FL) beginning 12:00PM, Tuesday, August 29th. They will have

generators, ballast, and personnel ready to mobilize after the storm

passes.

Operating Plan for August 28, 2006

Train 91(28) (Silver Star) will operate New York, NY to Orlando, FL

only. Alternate transportation will operate for those passengers

destined for Kissimmee, Lakeland and Tampa. Regular thruway bus service

will operate normal.

Train 97(28) (Silver Meteor) will operate New York, NY to Orlando, FL

only. Alternate transportation will operate for those passengers

destined for Kissimmee only. Regular thruway bus service will operate

normal.

The remaining Florida service will operate normal.

Operating Plan for August 29, 2006

Silver Service Trains 98(29) and 92(29) will operate normal from Miami,

FL. An extra coach will be added to each train based on availability at

Miami.

Auto Trains 52(29) and 53(29) will operate normal.

Silver Service Trains 91(29) and 97(29) will operate New York, NY to

Orlando, FL only with no alternate transportation south of Orlando.

All other service operates normal.

Operating Plan for August 30, 2006

Silver Service Trains 98(30) and 92(30) will originate at Orlando, FL.

There are tentative plans, based on bus availability and weather

conditions, to offer alternate transportation for passengers at Tampa,

Lakeland and Kissimmee scheduled to board Train 92(30) and passengers at

Kissimmee scheduled to board Train 98(30). No other alternate

transportation will be offered.

No other service adjustments have been made for August 30 at this time,

however, it is possible that additional adjustments will be necessary

based on changes on the path and severity of the storm.

[End quote]

Wow. Did you notice some of the details above? Amtrak ADDED an

additional coach out of Miami if equipment was available. Trains

continued to run in and out of other stations in Florida (such as

Orlando, the single, largest vacation destination in the world). Some

alternative transportation was offered to non-storm threatened areas of

the state. It's hard to believe this is the same railroad as last year,

when the order of the day was to ignore the needs of passengers, lock

the door, and go home. Thank you, David Hughes and Jon Tainow for

understanding the obligations of your railroad.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state

where you live. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is

not shared or used for any purposes other than the distribution of This

Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to [email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This week's edition, quoted with permission from the author.

This Week at Amtrak; September 6, 2006
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 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 36

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. 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) By the calendar, it's still summer, but for all practical purposes,

the summer travel season has ended. However, with less than a month to

go in Amtrak's fiscal year, the Sunset Limited is still not running east

of New Orleans. What's taking so long?

As noted last week in TWA, Amtrak was considering dropping one daily

roundtrip between the Northeast and Williamsburg, Virginia, which in

2007 will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the

Virginia colony at nearby Jamestown (Or, as we native Virginians like to

think, the beginning of Civilization.). Over one million visitors are

expected for the celebration, and Amtrak was very close to dropping one

of only two daily trains. This is a vivid demonstration of how Amtrak's

annihilative planning department operates in more of a vacuum than

anything else. We see this same phenomenon regarding the Sunset Limited.

Partial facts are given out about ridership east of New Orleans and

nocturnal station stops. None of that hardly matters. What matters are

total revenue passenger miles, the Sunset east of New Orleans as part of

Amtrak's national route matrix, and overhead or connecting business

between the Amtrak hubs of New Orleans and Jacksonville and Orlando. As

long as the Sunset Limited doesn't run east of New Orleans, there is a

huge gap in Amtrak's national long distance system, one which a lot of

public money on all levels went into in the early 1990s to plug. We must

question how good of information is flowing to the ultimate decision

makers at Amtrak about the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans. Is the

full story being told? Is all of the high volume connecting business at

Jacksonville and New Orleans being considered? Even if the Sunset

Limited remains terminated at New Orleans, is a daily replacement train

between New Orleans and Jacksonville and Orlando being considered, which

would eliminate all of the nocturnal station stops? There are so many

options available to Amtrak to continue to live up to its corporate

name: National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Please, note the word

"National." It means everybody, including the residents of the Gulf

Coast and Florida's panhandle, currently without any train service, at all.

2) It is difficult to imagine what various and alleged stakeholders in

the search for a new president and CEO of Amtrak were expecting from the

Amtrak Board of Directors. Were they expecting another transit official

who believes in the wrongly perceived glory of power of government over

private enterprise? Where they expecting a resurrected, retired railroad

executive who has always wanted to run passenger trains, but couldn't at

the freight railroads? Were they expecting a long lost child of the late

Amtrak Chairman and President Graham Claytor who would carry on the

family tradition?

It's no telling who was expected, but we know we have former Union

Pacific Vice President Alexander Kummant. Mr. Kummant, 46, who has also

worked for a number of other private industries outside of the railroad

industry, is an enigma to almost all Amtrak watchers. Somehow, in the

closed minds of some, this disqualifies him from being the next chief

steward of Amtrak. Here is what one longtime Washington wag had to say:

[begin quote]

I'm not sure what to make of all this, but [Amtrak Chairman of the

Board] David Laney strikes me as neither an ideologue nor an idiot, so I

doubt he'd hire an ideologue or an idiot. That said, the last three

presidents - career public sector bureaucrats all - were not the "rails"

that NARP, etc., pretended they were, especially Mr. Gunn. Even with six

years under his belt at UP, [Mr.] Kummant is more of a "rail" than

Downs, Warrington and Gunn combined. A "rail" where it counts, in

knowing and understanding the challenges, corporate psyches and business

models of the modern-day investor-owned railroads. [Mr.] Gunn didn't

have a clue, aside from using the railroads as a punching bag when he

found it convenient. Their property is the only place Amtrak can grow

and expand. With Mr. Kummant we might finally get away from the "Perils

of Pauline" saga of the hapless NEC, the part of Amtrak that will always

manage to survive, one way or another.

So, Amtrak is trying something new, a president with zero public-sector

experience. Hoorah!

[End quote]

3) This Week at Amtrak has begun polling Class I Amtrak host railroads

about their relationship with Amtrak, and passenger rail in general. As

a coincidence, the Association of American Railroads issued a position

paper last month regarding the same subject.

Norfolk Southern responded to TWA's query.

[begin quote]

This is a brief note to reply to your ... letter ... . [O]ur office

coordinates passenger policy for the Norfolk Southern system.

In general, Norfolk Southern understands its long-standing (35 years and

counting) operating arrangements with Amtrak. We run Amtrak's trains as

best we can, given that the freight environment of 2006 is much

different from that of 1971.

In your letter you asked:

How do today's current Amtrak operations fit into Norfolk Southern's

business plan? How can future plans for expansion of Amtrak long

distance trains fit into Norfolk Southern's operating and capacity

scenario? What changes would Norfolk Southern like to see in how Amtrak

conducts business with its host railroads?

The most concise source of answers to these questions is probably the

position paper of the Association of American Railroads ("Passenger

Service on Tracks Owned by Freight Railroads"), found at this link:

http://www.aar.org/GetFile.asp?File_ID=290 [this document is not

available for copying, so you must use the link to view the document].

The best passenger operation is one that blends seamlessly. NS requires

new or additional passenger service to be "transparent" to freight

operations. We define transparency as "the provision of sufficient

infrastructure for passenger trains and freight trains to operate

without delay to either, and to allow for the growth of both."

Another document that may help with understanding NS's concerns is a

letter to planners of passenger service, attached. If the AAR position

paper appears to contain concepts embodied in our letter, it's not a

coincidence.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail or

call me ... .

Best wishes.

-- Bill Schafer - Director, Corporate Affairs, Norfolk Southern

[End quote]

Many misguided souls who believe governmental agencies are the only ones

qualified to operate passenger trains will be greatly enlightened by the

pragmatic document produced by the AAR. As the AAR speaks with a unified

voice for all member railroads, the creation and dissemination of this

document clearly demonstrates that passenger rail is not only on the

radar screens of all major railroads in this country, but passenger rail

has gone so far as to the creation of specific guidelines for planners

of future passenger rail of all types to follow.

Major excerpts of the Norfolk Southern planning document are below.

[begin quote]

June 15, 2005

To Planners of Passenger Train Projects:

Norfolk Southern welcomes the opportunity to work with state departments

of transportation, high-speed rail advocates, and transit and commuter

authorities to develop new or additional passenger rail services over

our tracks. We look forward to moving your projects forward as long as

they remain realistic and include our concerns.

Because of the popularity of passenger train proposals, we believe that

you should be aware of some of the principles that will underlie any

discussions we hold with planners. These principles are intended to

protect our "factory", which is the track and right-of-way needed to

produce our product - the present and future transport of freight - and

to protect the interests of our owners and employees. We foresee major

segments of our business - particularly the movement of truck trailers

and containers - growing significantly in the coming years as highways

become more congested.

These principles refer only to conventional intercity or commuter

passenger services and high-speed rail projects. Additional conditions

will apply to light rail and other public transit ventures. ...

CONVENTIONAL AND HIGH SPEED PASSENGER

We consider all passenger studies to be conceptual. Until serious money

is available to construct infrastructure, we at Norfolk Southern will

continue to regard passenger studies as hypothetical exercises. Their

conclusions will be subject to revision if funding for a project's

implementation becomes available.

We will coordinate infrastructure assessments. Studies intended to

estimate how much additional capacity is needed for passenger trains

(and how much it will cost) will be conducted by consultants approved by

Norfolk Southern, and will be paid for by the sponsoring public agency.

All studies and surveys must acknowledge that NS owns its corridors and

is entitled to fair compensation for their use. We maintain them and we

pay taxes on them. Please don't assume that the use of our capacity and

our asset is "free". Instead, please acknowledge in your studies and

reports that we are entitled to a fair return if the corridor is to be

used for passenger trains.

Passenger train operation must be "transparent" to our freight

operations. We define transparency as the provision of sufficient

infrastructure for passenger trains and freight trains to operate

without delay to either, and to allow for the growth of both.

Delay to freight trains by passenger trains, however minimal, is

unacceptable. Sufficient infrastructure must be furnished so that each

type of train can operate without getting in the other's way. The common

assumption that a proposed passenger train will impose "minimal

interference with freight operations" is a non-starter.

We will require new passenger train services to pay higher usage fees

than Amtrak pays today. Please do not use "Amtrak incremental cost"

factors in estimating the operating costs of new passenger services.

Amtrak was entitled to special rights in return for relieving the

freight railroads of intercity passenger train operation over

thirty-four years ago. There is no relationship between the rates Amtrak

pays and a fair, commercial return for use of private assets. We will

require operators of new passenger train service to negotiate

market-based operating agreements with us.

Liability will be a major issue. Based on our experience with commuter

authorities, the cost to the passenger carrier for indemnifying NS is

substantial. We will accept no new or expanded passenger operations

without adequate liability protection.

Cab signals for freight locomotives will be required if the top speed

for passenger trains is above 79 mph. Be prepared to equip the NS

freight locomotive fleet with additional cab signal and other safety

apparatus, and to pay for and maintain any additional signal

infrastructure required by speeds in excess of 79 mph.

Dispatching will remain with NS for all trains operating over NS tracks

after inauguration of passenger service.

HIGH SPEED CORRIDORS

High-speed corridors require careful planning. If the federal government

designates a corridor as "high speed", NS will automatically assume that

mainline tracks dedicated solely to high speed trains will someday be

built in the same corridor as our existing mainline tracks. Provisions

must be made for separate high-speed tracks throughout the corridor,

especially in urban areas. Highway or railroad overpasses/underpasses,

when built with public funds, must allow space for the additional tracks.

NS will require separate tracks for passenger trains operating in excess

of 90 mph. No heavy-duty rail freight line has 110-mph passenger trains

operating over it today. Where freight trains do operate over 110-mph

track (Northeast and Empire Corridors, for example), the penalties

imposed on freight trains are substantial. In a heavy-duty freight

environment (Cleveland-Chicago is one example), high-speed passenger

trains must operate over tracks dedicated to their use.

Railroading is expensive. 110 mph railroading is very expensive. As most

ridership analyses indicate, the greatest growth occurs with increases

in frequency, not speed. This implies that four round trips a day at a

top speed of 79 mph are much more cost-effective than four round trips a

day at 110 mph.

[End quote]

Our thanks to Mr. Schafer and Norfolk Southern for providing that

document and access to the AAR document.

There are several things which can be learned from this exercise, such

as the willingness of host freight railroads to engage in the passenger

business, as long as it doesn't interfere with the freight railroad's

main reason for existence: the haulage of freight in a profitable

environment. While private railroads have been treated and regulated in

the past as public utilities (as the airlines once were, too), it is

clear these are private businesses which are willing to share their

assets, as long as the sharing is done on a fair basis to the railroads.

This document, by the way, doesn't preclude any internal planning which

may or may not be done at the railroads regarding their own operation of

passenger trains.

4) A book has been on the market for a year now that is a fascinating

read for anyone interested in learning how railroads evolved into the

worldwide industry of today. Frank Richter has written a magnificent

book, "The Renaissance of the Railroad; A chronicle of the

transformation of the century" that tells the story of American

railroads from a technical, freight, passenger, and public perspective.

This book is a "must read" for anyone who wishes to have a full

comprehension and understanding of the railroad industry, and how all of

the pieces fit together.

Mr. Richter tells this story as only someone can who has been a well

known and respected reporter, editor, and publisher in the railroad

industry. Mr. Richter started in this field with his service during

World War II, and went on to found the publication Modern Railroads, and

later sell the company and move on to the publishing of Progressive

Railroading magazine. Mr. Richter has been an intimate with railroaders

on all levels, from the president's office, down to the folks who

operate the trains over the road. He has reported on technological

advances in railroading all over the world, and currently serves as a

Vice Presidente of Asociacion del Congreso Panamericano de Ferrocarriles

when he spends six months out of the year in Buenos Aires, Argentina

during the winter months, and the remainder of the year in the Chicago area.

Mr. Richter notes on page 68 of his book when in 1969 he was tipped off

the federal government was being inspired to take over the intercity

rail passenger service. This is his place in the galaxy of the railroad

world; if something important is going on, Frank Richter knows about it.

For whatever reason you may choose to read The Renaissance of the

Railroad, you won't be disappointed by what you will learn, suddenly

recall, or finally find that missing piece of the puzzle you have been

wondering about. This is a book that could only have been written by a

respected icon of the railroad publishing industry - one who reported

with great intellectual curiosity for the professionals in the industry,

not the watered down story telling for enthusiasts.

"The Renaissance of the Railroad; A chronicle of the transformation of

the century" by Frank Richter is published by authorhouse, and is

available in both soft cover and hardback, at www.authorhouse.com or

purchase the book at your local bookseller. The suggested retail price

for the soft cover edition is $13.50, and the hardback edition is $23.95.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state

where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet

connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from

[email protected]; we are unable to go through any

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is

kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes

other than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA

materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org
 
While I always find the URPA Newsletter interesting,

I am getting a little sick of the "David Gunn bashing" in each. So if you didn't like him or what he did, I respect Richardson's right to disagree, but to annoint Kummant an immediate "savior" seems to me "putting the passenger cars before the engine"...oh wait it does work that way. But I think you get my drift.
 
While I always find the URPA Newsletter interesting,
I am getting a little sick of the "David Gunn bashing" in each. So if you didn't like him or what he did, I respect Richardson's right to disagree, but to annoint Kummant an immediate "savior" seems to me "putting the passenger cars before the engine"...oh wait it does work that way. But I think you get my drift.
Email Richardson. I did on another matter and he pronptly answered me. I'm sure he would like your opinion, but then, maybe not. ;)
 
This Week at Amtrak; September 12, 2006

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 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 37

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. 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) Memo To: Alexander Kummant

President and CEO, Amtrak/National Railroad Passenger Corporation

Washington, D.C.

September 12, 2006

Welcome to your first day as the new chief steward of Amtrak, our

national passenger railroad. We look forward to working with you as you

improve the company.

We trust you will have no problem finding your way around headquarters,

and, later, there are several good restaurants in the area we would like

to recommend for lunch.

May we offer the following suggestions as you begin the task of moving

Amtrak forward?

- Please note the name of the company, the National Railroad Passenger

Corporation. The "national" indicates Amtrak's mission and

responsibility to serve as much of the continental United States as

possible. "National" does not indicate disconnected regional corridors

serving only part of the national population. As Amtrak lives by

taxpayer support, each American in each part of the country pays taxes

to support the company, and, therefore each American should be afforded

access to passenger rail. Regional favorites, such as the NEC, should be

primarily supported by regions served (such as is the case with

California's excellent passenger rail program), not at the complete

expense of everyone.

- We very much applaud the statements you made to your hometown

newspaper, The Chronicle-Telegram, in Ohio. Phrases like "The nation

needs a vision for its rail system, one that can safely support freight

and passenger trains," and your "self-described passion for turnaround

work" sound very good. Particularly well received is your statement,

"People talk about losses, but without splitting the capital spending

out from the operational dollars. Infrastructure dollars can hardly be

characterized as losses." Also, "The board has only asked me to run

Amtrak crisply and efficiently; to take a look at the entity as a whole

and drive the operation and the business, as it were. That can mean most

anything, but nobody has told me to dismantle anything." Please continue

to make such positive statements. Amtrak has suffered too long from poor

leadership that has talked more about losses and crisis than about

improving the railroad so it can be a robust, healthy organization in

charge of its own fate.

- As said many times before, Amtrak is the best kept secret in America,

regrettably. Please find new ways to make Amtrak more visible to its

owners, the people of America. In coming weeks we will talk more about

this, including some very successful programs initiated by the former

Gulf Coast Business Group that made sad trains into happy trains with

more passengers and more revenue passenger miles.

- Please, for the sake of the company and those cities and towns served

by the Sunset Limited and Cardinal, find a way to make these two trains

daily. As long as they operate on discreet routes but only on tri-weekly

schedules, costs will continue to be high and revenue passenger miles

low. Tri-weekly is the single most expensive way to operate trains that

have large infrastructure costs like stations. And, please take an

immediate look at what it will take to restore the Sunset Limited to

service east of New Orleans. The infrastructure is back in place, the

only thing missing are useable station buildings in Pascagoula and

Mobile, which can be handled by using portable station buildings which

have been used successfully elsewhere in the Amtrak system for years.

The latest silliness about restoring the Sunset Limited is the Florida

Department of Transportation hasn't asked for the train to be restored.

What? That makes no sense. You have stations, you have a strong railroad

infrastructure, and you have waiting passengers. Why do you need some

state bureaucrats to ask you to restore a train you were happily running

before Hurricane Katrina? Please tell you staff to quit stalling by

saying the dog ate their homework and get the train back.

We will talk more later; we know you're having a busy day. Thanks for

coming to help Amtrak be a better, more reliable, healthy, passenger

railroad.

2) The welcome arrival of a new Amtrak president and chief executive

officer hopefully brings along a large broom which will sweep some of

the executive debris out of Amtrak. There are so many areas which need

new leadership; perhaps, for the future of the company, chief among them

is strategic planning. Amtrak's planning department is where all types

of critical data is refined and organized so senior management and the

board of directors can make intelligent decisions about all aspects of

the company and passenger operations.

The most reasonable question to ask is, how good is the quality of this

information? Is the Amtrak middle management bureaucracy simmering along

in its usual best imitation of the late Stalinist Kremlin in Moscow? Are

too many lower level decision makers too content in their jobs so they

feel invulnerable? Of all of the places in Amtrak, both the planning and

marketing departments need the brightest thinkers and those willing to

think outside the standard Amtrak box.

Also, for a company which has been around since 1971, Amtrak needs

desperately to draw on institutional memory (whether from inside the

company on all levels or outside) to avoid again making the near fatal

mistakes it has in the past.

We know Amtrak is talking about tinkering with the long distance route

structure. Hopefully, most of what we will see will result in just talk,

and not the mistakes of the past such as those made during the Mercer

days of the 1990s, or the disastrous route cuts of 1979. Both the Mercer

and 1979 cuts only hurt the company, not helped it. While some expenses

decreased, there was an alarming decrease in revenue passenger miles and

passengers as well, that far exceeded any expense savings. Will this

happen, again? Will no one in the planning and marketing departments

understand the critical importance of the matrix theory, where one route

always feeds multiple other routes? ... That every route is part of a

system, not a disjointed corridor?

Will the marketing and planning departments understand the future of the

company is outside of the NEC and other corridors, and the tracks of the

freight railroads are the only place Amtrak can grow to prosperity?

Will the marketing and planning departments understand that passenger

counts and revenues are meaningless, and the only real measures for

success are revenue passenger miles and revenues that exceed expenses?

In the September 5th issue of Amtrak This Week (the OTHER This Week

publication) for employees, Amtrak said that 54% of the passenger

revenues originate on the Northeast Corridor. Big deal. More than 54% of

the company's expenses and need for subsidy originate on the NEC, so the

NEC still operates at a loss.

We all remember Disraeli saying "there are lies, damned lies, and

statistics." It's time for Amtrak to start reporting real statistics

instead of those published to make people feel good, but actually do

little to improve the fate of the company.

If the Amtrak Board of Directors and new President and CEO Alexander

Kummant are going to be well served and make good decisions, they need

good data to work from; no one is completely convinced the data coming

from inside the company meets that standard.

3) America lost a great railroader with the passing of Henry Christie in

August. For those of us who were privileged to know him and work with

him, all that can be said is that it was an honor to part of his world.

He was a brilliant man who generously shared his knowledge and wisdom.

Those readers of this space who worked with him know that Mr. Christie

was one of the great railroaders of the 20th Century, starting in the

steam era and ending his storied career deep into the electronic age.

Mr. Christie was a great debater, and loved to talk about his favorite

subjects - the most favorite of which was the railroad universe.

Following is his formal obituary, as supplied by his wife, Ann Christie,

one of the world's most delightful people.

[begin quote]

HENRY C. CHRISTIE, 79, died Monday, August 7, 2006 at St. John's

Hospital, Tulsa, OK after a short illness.

A memorial service will be at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, September 21, at First

United Methodist Church in Michigan City, IN.

He was born October 17, 1926 to Robert & Agnes (O'Brien) Christie in

Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. On December 17, 1976 in Kansas City, MO he

married Ann Mohegan who survives in Owasso, OK.

Henry's career was in the railway industry. He started his railroad

career with the Southern Railway in England and continued it after

immigrating to the United States December 1949. He worked for the New

York Central; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad; Amtrak;

Pittsburgh & Lake Erie and Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad.

After retiring Henry served as Secretary-Treasurer for The Air Brake

Association for 11 years, retiring again two years ago.

In lieu of flowers, the family request memorial contributions be made to

First United Methodist Church Music Department, 121 E. 7th Street,

Michigan City, IN 46360, The Railway Supply Institute, Inc., Scholarship

Program, 29 W. 140 Butterfield Road, Suite 103-A, Warrenville, IL 60555,

Salvation Army or the organization of donor's choice.

[End quote]

There are many details to Mr. Christie's career. Here is a bio of Mr.

Christie written by this writer in 1993 when Mr. Christie was working on

a consulting basis:

[begin quote]

Eastleigh Enterprises, Railway Consulting

Henry C. Christie

Eastleigh Enterprises is a railroad industry consulting firm,

specializing in equipment and operations issues. The firm offers

consultation for all phases of operations and rolling stock, as well as

analysis of costing, staffing, and budgeting. Eastleigh Enterprises also

offers engineering overviews and quality assurance services.

Henry C. Christie, as principal of the Canadian Premier Rail project,

provided the majority of the operating and maintenance expertise for the

study. Mr. Christie has excelled as a professional railroader since 1943

when he began his career as a Locomotive Cleaner and Fireman for the

Southern Railway in England. Since then, he has steadily moved through

the professional ranks of railroading in England and the United States,

where he has served the New York Central System; the Chicago, Rock

Island & Pacific Railroad Company; Amtrak; the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie

Railroad Company; the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad; and the

Electro-Motive Division, EMD.

Mr. Christie served as Chief Maintenance Officer of Amtrak, reporting to

the Vice President, National Operations, and was responsible for the

overall direction of running maintenance functions of locomotives and

cars for the corporation, excluding the Northeast Corridor. He was

responsible for daily activities, planning, control, direction and

budget monitoring. He was also responsible for initiating action

covering all maintenance programs, directives and instructions to the

field. He assisted the regional vice presidents in the running of

maintenance facilities under their direct control. He was also

responsible for maintenance details of contract negotiations with

various carriers. He had an immediate staff of 37 people; indirect

control of 2,400 people, with an annual budget of $78 million.

Mr. Christie also served Amtrak as the Director - Running Maintenance,

and Manager - Car Planning and Engineering [Mr. Christie was responsible

for drawing up the Amtrak Heritage Fleet A & B Lists; cars on one list

were kept for conversion to HEP power, and the other list of cars were

sold as surplus.].

At the South Shore, Mr. Christie served as General Manager - Motive

Power & Equipment, and also as General Superintendent, Transportation.

Mr. Christie was responsible for 16,500 cars and 105 locomotives as the

Chief Maintenance Office of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company,

with equipment capital expenditures of $75 million being processed in

certain years.

Mr. Christie's service to the Rock Island included duties as the

Assistant Chief Mechanical Officer - Locomotive and Assistant Chief

Mechanical Officer - Car. The two positions yielded combined

responsibility for 30,000 cars and 605 locomotive units. He also served

as the General Superintendent of the Car Department and Manager of

Engineering and Research Services.

Professional memberships include the American Society, Mechanical

Engineers; American Railway Engineering Society; Car Department

Officers' Association; and Locomotive Maintenance Officers' Association.

He is also a member of MENSA and the Union League Club of Chicago.

Industry related activities include AAR Mechanical Division General

Committee, AAR Special Equipment Committee, AAR Car Construction

Committee, various AAR ad hoc committees, and guest lecturer at the

Illinois Institute of Technology.

Mr. Christie co-authored various papers for the Pittsburgh Air Brake

Club and Central Air Brake Club of Chicago, and his writing has appeared

in Progressive Railroading magazine.

[End quote]

Not mentioned in the bio was his 1994 visit to the White House to

discuss the privatization of Amtrak. Henry Christie was a kind, generous

man who loved his work and his friends and family. He loved to sing

(hearing him sing opera was an inspiring experience), and most

mechanical things in the world fascinated him. Among his friends he was

also a famous cook.

Henry Christie will be missed by all of us who were privileged to know

him, and will be greatly missed by the industry he served and advanced

so well.

4) The New York Sun newspaper last week ran an editorial about it, and

the Boston Globe filed a news report about the financial relationship

between the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) and

Amtrak, and NARP's ability to think and react independently of Amtrak

management. As reported in this space earlier this year, NARP for a

number of years has been receiving annual financial payments in the tens

of thousands of dollars from Amtrak to operate Amtrak's customer

advisory committee. This occurred at the same time NARP, as a third

party, was lobbying Congress and others for higher federal subsidies,

without publicly disclosing the contractual arrangement with Amtrak.

URPA Vice President Bill Lindley writes, "According to The Sun's recent

editorial, 'NARP`s executive director, Ross Capon, says ... the

relationship has never come up in board meetings when members decided

whether or not to criticize Amtrak ...'

"Please be mindful of that carefully placed qualifier; NARP's official

criticisms of Amtrak seem to appear about as frequently as snowfall here

in Phoenix. The issue has certainly arisen before the NARP Board; as an

alternate at their Santa Fe meeting in 1997, during the discussion of

their budget, I questioned the $16,000 annual contract from Amtrak for

the Customer Advisory Council and how it imperiled the impartiality of

NARP. I explained it seemed to be in conflict with the assertion that

NARP has 'no association with Amtrak or the railroads.' (quote from NARP

brochure, 1974.) Mr. Capon was present during the brief but heated

discussion that ensued. The motion to exercise the escape clause in CAC

contract was tabled, and presumably never again revived."

5) President Bush has nominated Mary Peters as the new Secretary of

Transportation. Secretary-Designate Peters is from Arizona, and Mr.

Lindley, as mentioned above, a resident of Arizona, files this report.

"Through the Arizona Rail Passenger Association, I have worked on

numerous occasions with Mary Peters, whom President Bush has nominated

for Secretary of Transportation. I particularly remember her 1998

address to the Arizona Association of Railroad Passengers; she described

her mission as 'taking the department into the next century' through an

emphasis on multi-modalism; she noted that although the Department of

Highways changed its name to the Department of Transportation in 1974,

it had taken too many years for the agency to embrace ideas other than

highways; and she brought rounds of applause by explaining, 'we should

not widen highway corridors to 8, 10, and 12 lanes. We need to look at a

maximum highway configuration of 6 lanes ... Highways [alone] are not

going to meet our transportation needs in the future.'

"In 2000, as president of ARPA, I worked with her to bring a TALGO train

for display at Phoenix and a demonstration round-trip between Phoenix

and Tucson. Photos at http://azrail.org/archive/events/phoenix/2000

include a view of Ms. Peters with the TALGO on the platform at Coolidge.

"Arizona now is seeing the benefits of her leadership then. ADOT

undertook the hard job of implementing her vision; through the new

Public Transit Division, ADOT is supporting light rail in metro Phoenix

as it moves toward completion, and commuter rail as it begins to move

beyond the study phase toward implementation.

"Ms. Peters started as an office secretary at the Arizona Department of

Transportation and moved upward through transportation planning to

become director of that agency 16 years later. As Federal Highway

Administrator for several years starting in 2001, she gained experience

working within the Washington framework; most recently she was with HDR

Engineering as a transportation policy consultant.

"In the White House announcement last week, Ms. Peters said she wants to

tackle roadway congestion by modernizing transportation systems, such as

expanding the use of toll roads - just one example of how the DOT is

likely to change from business-as-usual under her guidance.

"Ms. Peters understands what highways can do, and what they can't; she

has been a supporter of passenger trains and multi-modalism; and she

knows how to set a direction and make things happen. She will make an

excellent Secretary of Transportation."

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state

where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet

connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from

[email protected]; we are unable to go through any

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is

kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes

other than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA

materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org
 
This Week at Amtrak

Volume 3 Number 38 — September 22, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006

Telephone 904-636-6760

Email [email protected]

www.unitedrail.org

Founded in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Arkansas. For more detailed information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents, visit the URPA web site at www.unitedrail.org.

URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from any outside sources.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cooperation for a common goal is considered to be a good idea. The common goal of this exercise is for the freight railroads to run Amtrak trains in a timely manner. Chip Jones, the very good transportation reporter for the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch wrote last week that CSX is working with Amtrak to improve on time performance.

The crux of the matter is this: CSX has a contractual obligation, agreed upon when Amtrak began operating in 1971, to operate all passenger trains on a priority basis, with clearances over freight trains. This is the deal the freight railroads made with the devil to be relieved of regulatory requirements to run their own passenger trains and turn over all operations to Amtrak.

Thirty-five years later, the railroad industry is in a much different stance than it was in 1971. Instead of being in a survival/shrinkage mode, America's railroads today are bursting at the seams with business of every type and description, including a refreshing clamoring for new commuter rail projects in and around cities of every size.

The railroads that did everything that could be done to get unused or lightly used trackage off of the tax rolls now suddenly find some of those then-redundant main and secondary main lines would be very profitable and useful in today's railroad world. In the 1960s and 70s, railroads were looking at a bleak future; today, our society has advanced enough to recognize each form of transportation in our domestic transportation matrix as an important part of the mix, and that includes both freight and passenger railroads.

The scenario today is that most Class I railroads, such as CSX, Norfolk Southern, CN, BNSF, CP, and Union Pacific have as much freight business as they can handle with their present infrastructure. And, most economists agree the railroad industry is poised for continued growth.

Therefore, adding passenger trains, or accommodating current passenger trains is a low priority on the railroad totem pole. But, the law says the railroads have to accommodate Amtrak.

Which brings us to what reasonable people usually do ... they sit down and come to a compromise that helps each party. In this instance, CSX is requesting longer transit times for Amtrak trains, such as the Auto Train, and the Florida service trains.

Amtrak apologists may harrumph about such a thing; today's schedules are generally hours longer than historic passenger train schedules over the same or similar routes. And, it is not improper to wonder how railroads in World War II managed to handle all of the wartime freight movements along with the wartime passenger train movements, plus the extra troop trains, all without the benefit of computerized signaling and using paper dispatching.

The best answer to that? That was then, and this is now. Before the wave of mergers began after World War II, there was far more main line track in this country, operated by dozens of railroads, not just seven Class I railroads and a number of smaller, regional railroads. At the beginning of WW II, much more track was double tracked on the main lines, instantly providing much more capacity. Very few cities had one dominant carrier; as an example, goods from the West Coast to Chicago could originate on the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, or Santa Fe, instead of now just UP or BNSF.

Reviewing the long range plans of all of the major railroads clarifies the infrastructure improvement plans of each railroad, some of which are already in progress, and others in final planning stages. The purpose of the freight railroads is to make money for shareholders, and the only way to do that is haul more freight. The only way to haul more freight is to have more capacity. Along with that increased capacity will be opportunities for new passenger rail service for both long distance and regional trains.

As all of this capacity is being built, the short term answer is for Amtrak and its host freight railroads is address the realities of today, and figure out how to run trains in a timely manner, which may include some schedule changes and longer trip times. When passengers know what schedule to expect, they accept the proposed trip time. When passengers are constantly abused by late trains, they become unforgiving and grumpy. Longer schedules for months or a few years is a small price to pay for passenger satisfaction and the ability of Amtrak to advertise itself as reliable domestic transportation.

In mid-August, a comment was made about West Coast socialist rail advocacy groups which support Amtrak. Now that all of the information is in, it is apparent that comment was in error. Tony Trifiletti, the president of All Aboard Washington explains.

When I saw Bruce Richardson's characterization of certain West Coast rail advocacy groups as "socialistic," I bridled a bit. You can call me a lot of things, but I get really angry if you call me a socialist. Them's fightin' words.

While most rail advocacy groups support Amtrak unconditionally, we at All Aboard Washington (formerly the Washington Association of Rail Passengers) support Amtrak but with a jaundiced eye. We understand Amtrak is the only game in town, so there is a certain degree of reflexive support. But many of us understand Amtrak has done a less than stellar job over the past 35 years, and not all of that is connected to a lack of federal funding. Amtrak is a government bureaucracy, and bureaucrats as a rule can't think like entrepreneurs. In fact it's not fair to ask them to, for they lack the training and the mind set to function outside the world of government.

Like most rail advocacy organizations, half our members are nostalgia buffs, members of the Greatest Generation, who tend to be New Dealers. Another large group are railfans, who tend to have strong ties to organized labor. A few of us are transportation professionals - veteran, retired and undiscovered - who try to think outside the box and often pound our heads bloody on the walls of that box.

Our journey to an out-of-the-box solution to America's passenger rail problems began at an annual regional meeting of Pacific Northwest rail advocacy organizations held in Portland in February 2000. Our chairman, Chuck Mott, had spent over a decade with the Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern railroads and had been an incorporator of Burlington Northern Air Freight, now BAX Global. Chuck knew the package business inside and out, and upon viewing Amtrak's presentation on revenue projections for the mail-and-express initiative, he saw immediately the Amtrak people were dreamers and lacking in good sense with no understanding of how difficult it would be to develop the level of business they projected, let alone figure out its profitability or lack thereof.

Then we heard a presentation on Amtrak's "glidepath to solvency," and at that point I attempted to introduce reality into the discussion, an attempt remembered today as "Tony's temper tantrum." I meant no animus toward the people at Amtrak, but it was patently obvious their glidepaths and initiatives were doomed to failure because they couldn't get beyond their bureaucratic mind sets. I made a terrible prediction as to what would happen, and it was with no small amount of horror I watched my prediction unfold over the ensuing years.

In April 2000, a group of us met at the Pizza Bank restaurant in Kirkland, Washington to discuss the possible demise of Amtrak and how we could preserve our Cascades Service trains in the event of its dissolution. We were officers and directors, yet we knew our sentiments were not reflected by a majority of our membership. Present were myself, Chuck Mott, J. Craig Thorpe and Dr. Hal Cooper. Craig Thorpe is America's leading railroad artist, and Hal Cooper, an engineering consultant, is the father of the Trans-Texas Corridors - but in their original configuration as a rail project.

At the Pizza Bank we agreed something needed to be done, and we thought getting all the West Coast rail advocacy organizations in one room would be a good start. We needed to hold a conference.

That conference was set for San Carlos, California on September 12, 2001 - and everyone remembers what happened the day before. Only those of us who came to the Bay Area by Amtrak's Coast Starlight got there. With most of our Oregon counterparts stuck on the ground and our California counterparts at their emergency stations, the conference was postponed. Fortunately, those of us who came by train left by train, and the trains were running despite a national emergency. That incident alone pointed to the criticality of a national rail system.

The conference was finally held in July 2002 in Sacramento. Unfortunately, what I encountered was a sea of denial. Despite the Amtrak Reform Council report, only the few of us from All Aboard Washington grasped the possibility that Amtrak could be in real danger. For most of the attendees from Oregon and California, it was as simple as the Democratic Party riding to the rescue or the backing of the invincible AARP. Some accused me of disloyalty to Amtrak, arguing that the only purpose of the conference should be to redouble our support of the beleaguered railroad. Others accused me of being unnecessarily alarmist. I left that meeting both dismayed and depressed.

In the summer of 2004, Chuck Mott came up with an idea for a pilot project that would hand the Southwest Chief back to the BNSF for a five year experiment. At about this time, Tom Till, who had been Executive Director of the Amtrak Reform Council, was working in Seattle for the Discovery Institute as manager of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant. Tom was holding a series of conferences at the Rayburn House Building in DC to discuss various privatization alternatives to Amtrak, and Tom thought enough of Chuck's concept to permit me to present it at his September 2005 conference. Tom Rader of Colorado Railcar eviscerated the concept with one pithy statement, but it was a valid comment - and it sent me back to the drawing board.

The critical idea I took away from Tom Till's conference was the "virtual" railroad companies of the UK privatization, who lease their trains, outsource their employees and run a railroad out of a small room with a few people, a computer and a bank account. Based on this concept and aiming for a grand design, Chuck, Craig and I wrote "A Privatization Paradigm for Returning Intercity Passenger Trains to the Class I Railroads". We have vetted this document through two passenger rail organizations, and initial reactions have been positive. (For those who would like to read the document and join our discussion, just request a copy via e-mail at [email protected].)

All Aboard Washington today is in the process of restructuring its board by bringing in outside directors, and we are searching for grant money to fulfill our mission in Washington state. We will soon be reaching beyond our current 500 members in a massive recruitment drive. We have taken the first steps in a long path, and we're eager to see where it leads.

Tony Trifiletti President, All Aboard Washington

Have you noticed the Sunset Limited is still not operating east of New Orleans? Various reports keep floating into the URPA nerve center here in Jacksonville, but still no sign of a train coming down the track. Presumably, Amtrak is still saying the dog ate Amtrak's homework, so it can't run the train.

Alex Kummant has now officially been in his new office as President and CEO of Amtrak for 11 days. Yet, all of this time, nothing has changed. After all, it has been 11 whole days. What's taking so long?

Here's a little secret: it's going to take a while before anything happens. Some are impatient, saying the "Bush management team" hasn't accomplished much, or has even gone backwards.

Take a chill pill.

Ending literally decades of corporate abuse and hanky-panky takes time, and it can't be accomplished over night. Most business professionals measure changes in corporate culture in terms of months and years, not in days and weeks.

Until the arrival of Mr. Kummant, there has been no "Bush management team" at Amtrak, but merely a board of directors appointed by Mr. Bush which has had to contend with an enormous, entrenched corporate bureaucracy that is unaccustomed to emitting any positive reaction to anything offered by the board of directors. The mercifully departed David Gunn was hired by the board of directors appointed by President Clinton, not President Bush. And, Mr. Gunn surrounded himself (as many high level executives commonly do) with people he felt he could trust from past working relationships. The management team inherited by the Amtrak board and now Mr. Kummant is a team not of their making.

The Amtrak Board of Directors has been doing plenty, considering what they inherited, and the management team they had to contend with under David Gunn. The also now-departed David Hughes, as acting president kept the company going until Mr. Kummant could arrive. So, while there may be some cosmetic changes, and hopefully soon some upper level personnel changes, don't expect anything to happen over night. A thoughtful steward of the company, there for the long haul (and, hopefully, the long haul trains), will first take a corporate temperature, and work with senior planners and numbers crunchers before major overhauls take place. No reasonable person should expect instant results. Those who do are always disappointed.

Former Amtrak spokesman, author, shill for high speed rail, and book huckster Joe Vranich has been browbeating the passenger rail countryside again, seemingly hoping to get enough people to listen to him so his latest book will rise higher in popularity on the Amazon.com ratings list. This gentleman, who has made a career about being visible enough to sell his own books, has been urging Congress to dump Amtrak and start fresh with his interpretation of how passenger rail should be in America. It's always interesting to see how many places Mr. Vranich pops up with the same song, but to a slightly different tune.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

To qualify for a free subscription to This Week at Amtrak, you must include your name, and the city and state where you live, along with your preferred e-mail address. We are unable to send TWA to addresses that require clearance before initial reception of the first e-mail. Also please verify that any email scanning software will permit messages from our mailing list. If you do not receive your personalized copy of TWA within two weeks, check your outgoing e-mail for viruses and please resend your request. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

6271 St. Augustine Road, Suite 24, PMB 303

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2555

Telephone 904-636-6760

Email brichardson.org

www.unitedrail.org
 
Former Amtrak spokesman, author, shill for high speed rail, and book huckster Joe Vranich has been browbeating the passenger rail countryside again, seemingly hoping to get enough people to listen to him so his latest book will rise higher in popularity on the Amazon.com ratings list. This gentleman, who has made a career about being visible enough to sell his own books, has been urging Congress to dump Amtrak and start fresh with his interpretation of how passenger rail should be in America. It's always interesting to see how many places Mr. Vranich pops up with the same song, but to a slightly different tune.
I love it. "made a career about being visible enough to sell his own books."

Can anyone think of anything this man has produced other than books and papers that find fault with those that are trying to do something?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My $0.02: if you see Vranich popping up somewhere, be sure to write a quick note to the responsible editors, pointing out the limits in his analyses.

Editors don't like looking underinformed. Trust me on this one.
 
Mr Vranich

seems to have developed a "book-publishing" cottage industry on slamming Amtrak. Does anyone really listen to him? I keep thinking of the old saying "methinks ye protest too much!"

Maybe we should encourage him to take his patented look at the airline industry and ask the question: when will the airlines begin paying back the hefty loans the government gave them after 9/11? Does "never" sound like the correct answer here?

Go Joe go, write about this or something else, it would be a breathe of fresh air...all sarcasm intended. Sorry, I'll turn my rant off now!
 
This Week at Amtrak; September 29, 2006

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 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 39

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and

Tennessee. 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) The end of the federal government’s and Amtrak’s fiscal year is just

hours away. Looks like Amtrak survived another year to live and provide

passenger rail service for another day. Fiscal Year 06 will be

remembered as the year that fortunately for Amtrak, former President and

CEO David Gunn was shown the door, and a new chief steward of Amtrak

appeared on the scene less than a month before the end of the fiscal year.

Most notable for FY 06 was the complete absence of the Sunset Limited

operating east of New Orleans. Amtrak told its unions the train was not

discontinued, but was unable to operate due to a lack of station

infrastructure and right of way. CSX solved the right of way problem by

releasing the track east of New Orleans to Jacksonville on April 1st for

use by Amtrak. The station facilities smokescreen is just that - smoke

and mirrors. If Amtrak has the internal will to operate this train,

which the State of Florida contributed $7.5 million to in 1992/93 to

upgrade infrastructure and build station facilities in Florida’s

panhandle, the train will be running. So far, the public or other

interested parties have not heard any reasonable excuses, beyond the dog

eating Amtrak’s homework, for the train not to be running.

2) New Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant continues to strike a

positive note as he communicates with his employees. Here is what he had

to say in the internal employee newsletter, "Amtrak This Week" on Monday:

[begin quote]

September 25, 2006

Dear Co-workers,

Just wanted to share with you some news on a couple of fronts. We're

closing the fiscal year in a solid financial position — we will have

exceeded our ridership and revenue targets, having carried 24.4 million

passengers and earned over $1.3 billion in ticket revenue.

As for the new fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, the board of directors

approved our budget for FY ’07 last week. Because Congress has not yet

voted on our FY ’07 appropriation, we will likely move forward based on

what they call a Continuing Resolution until an appropriation is

approved by both houses, just as we did last year.

I've already met with some members of Congress and my

relationship-building with Capitol Hill continues on Thursday, when I'll

be testifying before the House Railroads Subcommittee.

I want Congress to know that I am committed to advancing passenger rail

and Amtrak’s future. And I want to share with them what I've learned

about the progress Amtrak has made in the last couple of years toward

rehabilitating our Northeast Corridor infrastructure. I'll make sure

that what I tell them is posted in the Intranet so that you can read it.

On the on-time performance front, thanks to our efforts with CSX, we're

seeing some significant improvements in the OTP of the Auto Train and

Silver Meteor (versus this time last year) and we'll be asking CSX to

direct their attention to doing the same with the Carolinian, the Silver

Star and the Palmetto.

One other note about OTP — I want to congratulate everyone

associatedwith the OTP record Acela Express has had lately. We've

recently hadseveral 100% days, and as of yesterday maintained 91.4% OTP

this month.It’s a great example of what we can accomplish when we all

pull together.

Sincerely,

Alex Kummant

President and CEO

[End quote]

3) One sad but interesting note in the same edition of Amtrak This Week

is the announcement of new upper-level galley and dumb waiters being

installed in the first of the 13 Superliner I dining cars being

converted to new diner/lounge configuration at Amtrak’s Beech Grove

heavy repair and maintenance facility in Indiana.

While initially Amtrak may have found some economic relief from the

Diner Lite program, history teaches us the program is not going to last,

based on previous versions of this program in decades past, and the

still morally admirable food served on the Empire Builder and Auto Train

which have full diner kitchens, wait staffs, and complete menus.

Those of us, such as this writer, who have been paid by Amtrak to

perform dining car studies, know every Amtrak dining car has the

potential to break even, or even make money with the right formulas for

operation, including the 24 hour dining car concept.

Here’s a prediction: Diner Lite will probably last through the busy

summer season of 2007, but by the end of this new fiscal year, better

accounting numbers will demonstrate the re-introduction of full dining

car services which will help Amtrak operate more profitable trains in

the long distance system.

On the bright side, the Superliner I equipment is now older than the

Heritage Fleet equipment inherited from the private railroads when

Amtrak began in 1971. This equipment was due for a good make over.

Having a pool of diner/lounge cars could prove profitable when used in

conjunction with a full dining car on larger consist long distance

trains, offering a quick meal service versus the full sit-down service

of a regular dining car. It will be up to Amtrak’s new management to see

how profitable this concept can be.

4) Here’s a message found today in URPA’s e-mail. It speaks for itself.

[begin quote]

This morning I received an e-mail from the "Class Agent" of my high

school class, and he is trying to organize our 45th reunion for next

June 22nd through 24. I went to high school near Pittsfield, MA, so, out

of curiosity, I got on the Amtrak website to check out fares, round trip

from Galesburg, IL to Pittsfield, MA. for one adult (senior!). Depart

GBB on 6/21/07, return departing PIT 6/24/07.

The coach only fare was $160.65, but I'm not one to sit up all night, so

I priced a Viewliner Roomette on the Lakeshore between CHI and ALB, each

way, with the rest being just coach.

The total fare was $748.65!!!! Eastbound on No. 48, the accommodation

charge was $245. Westbound on No. 49, the accommodation charge was $343.

And this is pricing 9 months in advance. These people are nuts.

If they are selling out sleeping car space at these prices, they ought to

be building more sleepers as fast as possible. If they are NOT selling,

then they are just driving away business because they don't care.

As a reminder, Graham Claytor said at a NARP meeting years ago that the

long distance trains were operating in the black (above the rails) and

that the sleeping cars were covering ALL their costs. I was there, and I

heard him say it.

[End quote]

5) Yesterday (Thursday), as mentioned above, was Alex Kummant’s first

Congressional testimony experience. He had a message for everyone;

anyone who claims he was brought in by an Evil Republican board of

directors to dismantle Amtrak must not be paying attention to what he is

saying in sworn testimony:

[begin quote]

Statement of Alex Kummant, President and Chief Executive Officer,

Amtrak, before the Subcommittee on Railroads of the House Transportation

and Infrastructure Committee

September 28, 2006

Good morning, my name is Alex Kummant, and I have been Amtrak's

President and Chief Executive Officer since September 12. I appreciate

the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today.

I intend to keep my statement short to allow you as much time as

possible to ask me questions. But, let me start by telling you a little

bit about myself. I was born in Ohio and was raised both there and in

western Pennsylvania because my father worked as an engineer and later

an engineering manager for U.S. Steel. My Dad's work in the steel mills

wasone of the reasons why I chose engineering as a vocation and why most

of my professional life has been spent in industrial settings or in the

manufacturing of equipment to support heavy industry.

From 1999 to 2003, I worked for the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and at

the time of my departure was Regional Vice President of the Central

Division overseeing 6,000 transportation, engineering, construction

mechanical and other employees supporting an 8,000 mile-rail network. I

was responsible for customer service, on-time delivery, and the overall

financial and operational performance of the region. My time at the UP

left an indelible and abiding interest in the railroad industry. Even

today, I believe that the operations of a railroad represents some of

the most engrossing and challenging opportunities in terms of a

professional career. Therefore, the opportunity to join Amtrak is more

than just another job to me; it is a chance to get back into an industry

that has kept its hold on me and to advance something I believe in,

passenger railroading.

Amtrak is both a business and public enterprise. Amtrak was created by

Congress, it relies on funding from Congress, and in many ways you are

the company's primary shareholders. In my view, there are very few large

and complex operations that are so challenging both from a business

point of view, as well as a public or political point of view.

Also, I believe we are at a pivotal point in the history of rail

passenger service. I am committed to operating a national system of

trains. I believe long-distance trains are an important part of the

nation's transportation network, and I believe it is our challenge to

run them in the most efficient and effective way. That said, I

understand how important these trains are as a form of basic

transportation to many small communities across the nation. My

challenge, and that of our management team, will be to find the most

efficient and effective way to run them.

I also know that the fastest growing service we have is in rail

corridors. Those states that have the vision to develop their state rail

systems are beginning to see the benefits of that service. In the past

few years, the only new services that Amtrak has added are those that

are supported by the states. Developing these corridors, and by that I

mean providing regular and reliable service between city pairs of

300-500 miles, is going to be a major part and the driving force of our

future. I hope that in my time at Amtrak we will continue to see more

corridorgrowth and the realization of a federal and state funding

partnership for these corridors.

I am just beginning to understand how much work Amtrak has done in the

last few years in bringing the Northeast Corridor (NEC) and some of its

branch lines to a much higher level of utility. The NEC still requires a

significant amount of investment including large projects such as bridge

and tunnel replacement, but in terms of basic investment (tracks, ties,

signals) the company has used the capital money you have appropriated to

them wisely and strategically to update the NEC. In the coming years, I

think we will have to do a better job of explaining the importance of

these capital investments to you because this valuable work has

durability and demonstrable benefit. In fact, the work we have done has

allowed us to reduce slightly the Acela service travel time between New

York and Washington by 5 minutes in our new timetables.

To me, having been on the outside, I have always wondered why the Amtrak

debate is so emotional and at times acrimonious. It really needn't be,

especially now. At a time of high oil prices, growing highway and

airport congestion and record rail freight volumes, problems which beset

and constrain our transportation system, we should be embracing rail and

developing it as quickly and as responsibly as we can. We should get

beyond the debate of a few hundred million dollars of operating costs

and begin to realize the potential rail passenger service has to offer

with the right level of investment and a clearly defined federal policy.

I know many of you travel back to your district every weekend because

you feel it is the most effective way to keep in touch with the views of

the people you have been elected to represent. Just like you, I intend

to roam about the system. I will be on the trains, in the shops, on the

platforms and at the stations. I find the best ideas, often times, are

the ones given to you by those that are out there doing their jobs every

day. This is something my Dad learned when he worked large engineering

projects in steel mills and something he instilled in me.

In closing, let me assure you that I believe in rail passenger service,

and believe in Amtrak. I have a lot to learn, but I learn quickly. In

the coming weeks, I intend to shape and hone my immediate and near-term

goals and objectives, as well as get around and meet with many of you

personally, and I encourage you to offer me your counsel and advice. In

that vein, it is my hope that today begins a long and constructive

relationship.

[End quote]

What a refreshing and positive change from the normal "the sky is

falling" style of communication from the Amtrak Executive Suite.

6) For those of us who relish a touch of the bizarre, read this letter

from the United States Department of Transportation’s Inspector

General’s office to the Amtrak Board of Directors:

[begin quote]

Office of the Secretary of Transportation

Office of Inspector General

September 26, 2006

The Honorable David Laney

Chairman

Amtrak Board of Directors

60 Massachusetts Ave, NE

Washington, DC 20002

Dear Mr. Chairman:

On October 25, 2005, House of Representatives Transportation and

Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young asked Congressman Richard

Baker to lead a working group to evaluate information from the

Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Amtrak Inspector General,

and the Department of Transportation Inspector General regarding

Amtrak's management and performance. This request was prompted, in part,

by issues raised in the October 2005 GAO report, Amtrak Management:

Systemic Problems Require Actions to Improve Efficiency, Effectiveness,

and Accountability.

In March 2006, the Majority Members and the Democratic Members of the

Amtrak Working Group issued separate reports summarizing their findings.

The Democratic Members of the Amtrak Working Group included among the

recommendations in its report the following, "Our investigation

indicates that some of the deficiencies cited in the GAO report

represent a failure of Amtrak's Board of Directors. Accordingly, we

intend to request that the DOT IG conduct an investigation of whether

the Board of Directors is adequately carrying out its legal and

fiduciary responsibilities."

On April 25, 2006, the Democratic Members of the Amtrak Working Group

formally requested that our office undertake this investigation. They

cited concerns that Amtrak's Board of Directors has not exercised

sufficient oversight of the corporation or held management accountable

for results and whether the Amtrak Board's expenses are appropriate.

As a result, our office plans to conduct a review of how Amtrak's Board

of Directors carries out its responsibilities. In addition, we plan to

review the Board's expenses from Fiscal Year 2002 to the present as

requested. The objectives of this review are to determine (1) the rules,

procedures and authorities under which the Board operates, (2) whether

the Board has followed established processes and procedures, (3) whether

the Board has set long-term goals and performance objectives for Amtrak,

(4) whether the processes and procedures that the Board follows are

sufficient for ensuring oversight of, and requiring accountability from,

Amtrak management, and (5) whether the Board members' expenses comply

with corporate guidelines and whether those guidelines are sufficient to

ensure prudent use of corporate resources. The results of our review

will aid in identifying whether potential reforms to improve the Board's

performance are needed.

The work will be carried out in Washington, DC. The Program Director for

this review is Mitchell Behm, and Debra Mayer is the Project Manager. If

you have any questions or need additional information, please call me at

...

Sincerely,

David Tornquist

Assistant Inspector General

for Competition and Economic Analysis

[End quote]

Well, we know Amtrak continues to be a political football, but it’s

tough to figure out the motives behind this request by the minority

Democrat members of the Amtrak Working Group in Congress. Are they

trying to harass the current Amtrak board because they had the good

sense to fire David Gunn? Are they mad and jealous someone else is

playing with what they consider their oversized Lionel train set? Are

these the same Democrats who are members of the party which, in the

Senate, torpedoed the nominations of two highly prominent and even more

important, highly qualified Democrats to serve on the Amtrak board?

Interestingly, the majority of the time the Amtrak board will be audited

will be the time when the board was under the control of the departing

members which were nominated by the Democrat Clinton Administration. Can

anyone figure this one out?

If you are reading someone else’s copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state

where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet

connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from

[email protected]; we are unable to go through any

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is

kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes

other than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA

materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.orgmailto:[email protected]
 
This Week at Amtrak; October 6, 2006

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 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 40

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Tennessee. 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) Another week, this time the first week of the new fiscal year, and

another week when the Sunset Limited is not running east of New Orleans.

Has anybody seen the Sunset Limited?

2) For all of the things Amtrak is doing, it's what Amtrak is not doing

that is making a negative difference.

For too long, Amtrak has considered marketing and related activities

beyond the Northeast Corridor (or, here in bow and arrow country, which

means anywhere west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and south of Washington,

D.C.) as unimportant. At best, Amtrak has paid lip service to marketing

the national system, but the bulk of the marketing and advertising

dollars have gone into trying to bolster the sagging NEC.

Some Amtrak apologists will quickly point out that 54% of fare box

revenues come from the NEC. (Yawn) Big deal. It takes more than 54% of

the expenses to keep running the NEC, so it doesn't matter how much

revenue comes from there as long as it takes even more money to run the

services.

There was once a shining moment in Amtrak marketing in 1999 and 2000 in

the old Gulf Coast Business Group, which at the time controlled the

Sunset Limited, City of New Orleans, and Crescent.

At the same time, the Amtrak marketing department was undergoing some

upheaval and changes, so two independent entities were formed with

outside contractors, the Crescent Promotional Office and the Sunset

Limited and City of New Orleans Promotional Office.

Both of these ventures were successful in zeroing in on specific trains

and routes and drawing local business to those trains.

The budgets were small by marketing standards, because a lot of guerilla

marketing took place that produced results.

As an example, in the Sunset and City office, we (this writer) used a lot

of barter and public relations techniques. We would go to a radio station

in a city such as Daytona Beach, and create a program where a station DJ

would host a trip on the Sunset Limited from Daytona to New Orleans.

We gave the station free trips for the DJ host, the station manager, and

several pairs of tickets to give away as prizes. In exchange, the station

heavily promoted the trip, and listeners were allowed to purchase trips

in the group in order to travel with their favorite DJ and have a group

trip to New Orleans.

The bottom line? Lots of air time advertising Amtrak and the Sunset

Limited, new passengers who paid to travel with the group, and much of

the external cost for the specific project included giving away coach and

sleeping car space on the train which would have run empty anyway, so it

was turned into a valuable commodity for barter.

3) Other similar programs were put together for group travel for what are

known as affinity groups (people traveling together who have something in

common) such as credit union members, church members, and any other type

of organization. Other programs included working with television stations

on the same basis as radio stations (travel with your favorite

weatherman), and also working with local governments to jointly promote

Amtrak and local tourism.

The possibilities were, and are, endless. It takes a fertile mind that is

willing to think outside the standard marketing box, not be afraid to

advance ideas, and be able to do some horse trading.

Amtrak has a longtime policy of using empty seats and sleeping car space

for promotions, and the use of this space is not charged to anyone's

budget. Therefore, a lot can be accomplished without yet another budget

item to fight over at the end of the fiscal year.

4) For too long, Amtrak has been America's best kept secret. For those of

you outside Washington and the NEC reading this space, conduct your own

field test. Talk to 20 of your friends, co-workers, or neighbors who

don't know you have an interest in rail. Ask them if they know Amtrak

serves your town or city. Ask them if they have ever ridden on a

passenger train. Ask them if they have any idea of how to contact Amtrak

if the thought did strike them to want to ride a train. The results

shouldn't be shocking. Anyone who is a road warrior for business knows

every good hotel has a services directory in each room. In almost every

instance, there are telephone numbers for all of the local airlines, but

not a single number for Amtrak. Many hotels provide a shuttle service to

local airports, often miles away. Ask if you can get a shuttle ride to

the local Amtrak station. "Where? What? No, we don't go there." "But,

it's on the way to the airport!" "Sorry, we don't go there."

5) These are the types of problems that are best solved with an

aggressive promotional office program. These are the details that often

get left behind by marketing people who are usually thinking more

globally than on a local level. These are the "in fill" jobs that don't

cost much to do, but over a period of time can make a huge difference in

visibility and on an institutional scale, so that when marketing dollars

are spent in traditional venues, those dollars will have a greater

impact.

6) The art public relations means many different things to many people.

It can be a combination of damage control, warm and fuzzy creations,

factual presentations, and image building. All of it is something Amtrak

has failed to do on any regular basis. Amtrak spends less than $100

million a year on marketing and advertising, a small amount. A good

promotional office and educational program could be had for probably less

than five percent of that figure, a small investment which has proven to

bring big results.

7) One resource that Amtrak often ignores is the excitement and

willingness of its own people to speak and make presentations of the

company's behalf. From conductors to ticket agents to office clerks,

there are thousands of Amtrak employees who are comfortable speaking in

front of groups and like promoting the work of their employer. Another

similar area is an Amtrak speakers bureau. Most large corporations have

corporate spokespersons who are available as professional speakers for

gatherings of all sizes and interests. This is another relatively small

budget area that provides large amounts of goodwill for the company.

8) Amtrak, as it moves forward under the board of directors and new

president and chief executive officer, needs to strongly examine its

options to stop being the best kept secret in America.

If you are reading someone else's copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state

where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet

connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from

[email protected]; we are unable to go through any

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.orgmailto:[email protected]
 
2) For all of the things Amtrak is doing, it's what Amtrak is not doingthat is making a negative difference.

For too long, Amtrak has considered marketing and related activities

beyond the Northeast Corridor (or, here in bow and arrow country, which

means anywhere west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and south of Washington,

D.C.) as unimportant. At best, Amtrak has paid lip service to marketing

the national system, but the bulk of the marketing and advertising

dollars have gone into trying to bolster the sagging NEC.
Wow. Cousin Bruce has apparently read some of my posts concerning Amtrak's marketing (or lack thereof). I'm duly impressed. :D
 
No, he's looking for a consulting job. All the mentions he makes of the former Gulf Coast group being so successful, is because they had hired him to do some consulting and he made a ton of money from them. All he did was become the "master of the obvious" and recommend actions that the Gulf Coast had already planned or suggested. I wouldn't read any more into his comments than that.
 
I wouldn't read any more into his comments than that.
Now, now. That's not all he's after. Prior to Alex Kummant's hiring, many of his posts were somehow written under the delusion that his "Guiding Light" Andrew Selden would become president of Amtrak.
 
Anyone who is a road warrior for business knows

every good hotel has a services directory in each room. In almost every

instance, there are telephone numbers for all of the local airlines, but

not a single number for Amtrak. Many hotels provide a shuttle service to

local airports, often miles away. Ask if you can get a shuttle ride to

the local Amtrak station. "Where? What? No, we don't go there." "But,

it's on the way to the airport!" "Sorry, we don't go there."

______________________________________________________________

By my own reckoning, I would point out that J. Bruce Richardson is wrong, as the last 3 times I

have checked the Hotel directories(in places where I have stayed), each have had Amtraks 800 number in them and the address of the local train station. And since his opinion is a large part of this newsletter, I tend to take the whole thing "with a grain of salt."
 
Anyone who is a road warrior for business knowsevery good hotel has a services directory in each room. In almost every

instance, there are telephone numbers for all of the local airlines, but

not a single number for Amtrak. Many hotels provide a shuttle service to

local airports, often miles away. Ask if you can get a shuttle ride to

the local Amtrak station. "Where? What? No, we don't go there." "But,

it's on the way to the airport!" "Sorry, we don't go there."

______________________________________________________________

By my own reckoning, I would point out that J. Bruce Richardson is wrong, as the last 3 times I

have checked the Hotel directories(in places where I have stayed), each have had Amtrak's 800 number in them and the address of the local train station. And since his opinion is a large part of this newsletter, I tend to take the whole thing "with a grain of salt."
When I stayed at the Courtyard in Portland last, they picked me up at the Amtrak station and would have taken me back if I had needed to go. Some hotels provide the service, but you're right, not many!
 
Some hotels provide the service, but you're right, not many!
Aloha

Your right, and it hasn't changed. Think it was 81 or 82 and the Miami Fountainblue insisted there was NO rail service, would not even call the number on the ticket, which is what I did, Amtrak sent a station van to the hotel to pick me up, No Charge no less.

Wish I could Get a train here in Las Vegas, I can see the tracks from my Hotel room and nary a passenger train on them :angry:
 
This Week at Amtrak; October 12, 2006

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 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 41

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Tennessee. 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) When you think of Amtrak, in what context do you think of Amtrak? To

you, is Amtrak your local commuter carrier in the Northeast or in

California? Is Amtrak your provider of long distance train service when

you go to visit your grandchildren? Is Amtrak your substitute for an

interstate highway for a short business trip?

Amtrak is many things to many people. One common thread is that Amtrak

often does not live up to peoples expectations.

Those of us who are old (and perhaps wise, too) enough to remember

private passenger rail service, depending on the era we remember, recall

trains full of well-dressed travelers, Pullman dining cars with gleaming

silver and china, and full meals freshly prepared.

Those of us who have traveled abroad, know of other state-run passenger

railroads; some, such as VIA Rail Canada, which provide a morally

admirable level of consistent service, and others, such as in Europe that

provide something between routine and exceptional service, but almost

always punctual, with clean and well maintained equipment.

Because private railroads in the United States lost a war for passengers

in the mid 20th Century with Detroit and interstate highways, Amtrak was

euphemistically formed as a replacement. A mindset was erroneously formed

by many that because of this, passenger railroads MUST be a child of

government. These same well-intentioned but ill-informed people point

their collective fingers at Europe and Japan and say "Aha! Their

passenger railroads are government owned, too, so that must be the

correct model to follow."

The United States was the only major industrialized nation in the world

to emerge from World War II with its internal infrastructure unscathed.

Private enterprise was the basis of this countrys wealth and power, and

government assistance wasn't needed to help rebuild war torn railroad

infrastructure as in most of the rest of the world. The reality is, it

was American foreign aid which rebuilt the railroads of the world after

WW II. Here at home, a number of factors were coming into play which made

for a fascinating time to be a railroader.

Physical plants were being rebuilt and upgraded after the rigors of war

time traffic. New equipment was being developed to carry larger and

longer loads. Necessary highways and roads were being built that made

expensive and lightly used railroad branch lines unnecessary. American

railroads after WW II began the long and correct journey from serving

every small town and burg to becoming streamlined trunk railroads which

concentrate on what railroads do best: hauling heavy traffic over long

distances efficiently and cheaply. Since the early days of steam and

wagons placed on steel wheels, nothing has come along that has

accomplished what the railroad can do as efficiently and for less cost.

All of this brings us to the 21st Century. Dozens of American main line

railroads have been consolidated into seven Class I railroads, two of

which are Canadian owned. Corporate fist fights between competing

railroads have evolved into occasional snits which are mostly resolved

either in courts or by regulatory bodies.

For the most part, government has mercifully gotten out of the railroad

regulation business (as compared to the first three quarters of the 20th

Century). Railroad unions, once the titans of the organized labor world,

are shadows of themselves, as are the ranks of unionized employees.

Progress has been made everywhere in the North American railroad world

... except at Amtrak.

Amtrak, in 2006, is still a Washington political football, and a highly

monitored child of government. It can't even fire a misbehaving CEO

without someone calling Congressional hearings.

While all of the private freight railroads, and most of the government

controlled regional commuter railroads continue to grow and prosper,

Amtrak is able to do nothing to add to its route structure and service

levels without a state government coughing up funds to pay for localized

trains.

Even something as mundane and necessary as restoring the Sunset Limited

east of New Orleans can't seem to happen until some politico probably

lights a fire under Amtrak.

Amtrak has a new president and chief executive officer, who, as of today,

has been working for a month and a day. Already, some impatient people on

the Left Coast are wondering why he hasn't said anything new and exciting

and is continuing to spout the company line.

What can a new CEO do in just a month? Has his staff even finished

gathering all of the information he has probably requested so he can

start making decisions? Has he even had a chance to fully evaluate his

staff so he knows who he is going to keep, and who is shown the door?

Amtrak is woefully behind the times in terms of passenger railroads of

the world, and freight railroads in North America. Amtraks under-sized

board of directors (the Senate still has not acted on the new nominees,

lo these many weeks since their nominations) has taken a greater interest

in the well-being of a national system than any other previous board.

There is a chief steward of Amtrak who owes nothing to the Northeast

Corridor, and gratefully knows little about transit and commuter

operations.

Patience is the order of the day. There is a lot to do. Everyone knows

Amtrak cannot continue as it is today, and has been for the past 35

years.

Amtrak has great potential, and is full of assets. Someone has to have

the will to catalog those assets and determine how best to use them,

without constantly relying on someone from Congress or the United States

Department of Transportation telling them how to allegedly run a

successful passenger railroad.

We're all waiting, some of us more patiently than others.

2) Wondering what new Amtrak President Alex Kummant is facing as he

enters his second month of service? Heres a narrative that points out so

very many wrong things about the way Amtrak does business.

[begin quote]

This goes back to last Saturday [October 7th], but it's taken this long

to ferret out some details.

At around 6:00 P.M. on October 7th, Amtrak Wolverine Train 352 (7),

originating in Chicago, with NPCU AMTK 90222 and AMTK 128 [locomotives]

struck a trespasser three miles west of Jackson Michigan. Track speed is

75 mph and the train was operating at 70-75 mph. The trespasser was on

the right-of-way outside of a grade crossing and was dead at the scene.

Train 352 was held at the location 2 hours and 53 minutes for

investigation of the incident.

Train 355, coming in the opposite direction and headed for Chicago, was

held at Jackson, then released and held short of the location for open

track. But its final arrival into Chicago was over six hours late. What

happened?

The Chicago engineer on Train 352 usually works to Battle Creek,

Michigan, then works back home on Train 355. But (1) the coroner was

going to hold Train 352 for the investigation anyway, and (2) the

engineer on Train 352 requested relief [as is often the correct choice

when a fatality occurs]; so there was no engineer to take over 355, and

even if the engineer hadn't requested relief, the delay to both trains

would mean that even had the swap been made right there, he would run out

on Hours of Service before reaching Chicago (the normal run is 10 hours

and this wasn't exactly a "normal" day).

Amtrak's crew caller in far-off Wilmington, Delaware apparently thought

otherwise, estimating that after all was done, Train 355 would just

barely squeak into Chicago before the engineer's time ran out. Then

somebody changed his mind for him, and a frantic call went out for a

relief engineer.

All MIGHT have gone well, but the crew van which is supposed to take the

engineer to the train couldn't be located, and the engineer has to try

and bum a ride from a manager instead. That doesn't work and the van

finally shows up just as Train 355 stops and is held at Porter; its power

had cab signals not in a STATE OF GOOD REPAIR so it wasn't allowed to run

at normal speed. With 355 running so late, its engineer's hours would

have run out prior to reaching Hammond, Indiana, leaving the train

blocking a main track on Norfolk Southern's busy line; so NS did not

allow it onto their property.

Meanwhile the crew van finally gets underway. The van driver claims he

has no money and the van doesn't have EZ-Pass, and thus can't use the

toll road, so he goes by the Dan Ryan Expressway, which on weekend nights

has only one lane open, with the resulting multi-mile traffic jam. It

took 1 hour and 37 minutes for the relief engineer to get to the train.

OOPS! The crew caller forgot: the conductor, who came on at Pontiac,

Michigan, now has 15 minutes less time to go on his Hours of Service than

the trip to Chicago will take, even under the best circumstances. The

train gets underway anyway and reaches Hammond with some further delays

due to heavy freight traffic. When the train reaches Hammond, there is

still no relief conductor.

Train 355's crew contacts Amtrak and advises that the conductor will run

out on Hours before reaching Chicago Union Station ... in fact, before

leaving Norfolk Southern territory. Amtrak tells them to proceed; when

the conductor's time runs out, the engineer is to continue by himself on

the authority of Amtrak management.

What's wrong here? IT'S NOT AMTRAK'S RAILROAD! When Norfolk Southern

hears this, their dispatcher makes no bones about it: "NOT ON MY WATCH,

NOT ON MY RAILROAD!" The signals stay red and Train 355 sits and waits

most of another hour, until a yard conductor was sent out to the train to

take over. Train 355 (7) finally arrived in Chicago at approximately 4:00

A.M. on October 8th. It was due in Chicago at 9:54 P.M.

[End quote]

And, thats what happens when a major railroad, such as Amtrak, tries to

save a few bucks of the budget by not having enough extra board employees

to cover contingency situations.

Does everyone reading this know, or have known, someone who always seems

on the verge of crisis? Someone who the least little incident causes a

major disruption in their lives because they live from paycheck to

paycheck, with never any savings, an old car, and no ability to get

ahead?

That is the situation Amtrak has placed itself because of a host of poor

business decisions through the years, and the disastrous policies

instituted by the Transit Trio of bad chief executive officers of Tom

Downs, George Warrington, and David Gunn.

When Amtrak stopped under the Transit Trios tenure behaving like a

responsible railroad, and started acting like a transit organization that

only focused on short corridors, is when Amtrak got into deep hot water.

Time and again, it has been proven that Amtraks future is in

money-making long distance trains which are cheap to run and have the

highest earning potential versus short corridor trains. (For further

details, see the URPA website at http://www.unitedrail.org.)

When Amtrak realizes what resources are important to invest in (such as

adequate crews), and what is required for good passenger satisfaction,

then horror stories like the one above will stop.

Until then, Amtrak is going to be like the poor soul we all know that

just can't seem to get ahead and every little incident is a crisis.

If you are reading someone elses copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state

where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet

connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from

[email protected]; we are unable to go through any

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.orgmailto:[email protected]
 
And, that’s what happens when a major railroad, such as Amtrak, tries tosave a few bucks of the budget by not having enough extra board employees

to cover contingency situations.

Does everyone reading this know, or have known, someone who always seems

on the verge of crisis? Someone who the least little incident causes a

major disruption in their lives because they live from paycheck to

paycheck, with never any savings, an old car, and no ability to get

ahead?

That is the situation Amtrak has placed itself because of a host of poor

business decisions through the years, and the disastrous policies

instituted by the Transit Trio of bad chief executive officers of Tom

Downs, George Warrington, and David Gunn.

When Amtrak stopped under the Transit Trio’s tenure behaving like a

responsible railroad, and started acting like a transit organization that

only focused on short corridors, is when Amtrak got into deep hot water.

Time and again, it has been proven that Amtrak’s future is in

money-making long distance trains which are cheap to run and have the

highest earning potential versus short corridor trains. (For further

details, see the URPA website at http://www.unitedrail.org.)

When Amtrak realizes what resources are important to invest in (such as

adequate crews), and what is required for good passenger satisfaction,

then horror stories like the one above will stop.

Until then, Amtrak is going to be like the poor soul we all know that

just can't seem to get ahead and every little incident is a crisis.
I read all of URPA's newsletters posted here with interest, as there often are some interesting things to learn even though I don't always agree with all of Bruce's conclusions and opinions. In particular I don't agree with his conclusions about David Gunn, even though I do agree with his assesment of Warrington.

However in this case Bruce really didn't do his homework here. He wrote the above piece criticizing Amtrak for concentrating it's resources under "Transit Trio" on short corridor resources instead of in his words "the profitable long distance trains. According to him, it's because Amtrak has concentrated on short corridor trains that lead to the delays of train #355, yet train #355 is a short corridor train. So if he is correct, that Amtrak has concentrated on short corridor trains, then the delays should not have occured. It would seem that he is claiming that 355 is a long distance train, which is why it met with the fate that it did. But it is not a long distance train, train #355 is a short corridor train

Something just doesn't add up here and it would appear that Bruce didn't think this one out very carefully.
 
This Week at Amtrak; October 20, 2006

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 904-636-6760, Electronic Mail [email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 3, Number 42

Founded three decades ago in 1976 by Austin M. Coates, Jr., 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, the District of Columbia, Texas, New York, and Tennessee. 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) As those of us living east of New Orleans are still helplessly peering

down the tracks hoping to see an oncoming Sunset Limited, it seems things

are not well in the Sunset’s onboard crew base in Los Angeles.

Chefs and Lead Service Attendants for dining and lounge cars are

deserting the Amtrak ship at a fast rate. There are dozens of LSA

vacancies just in Los Angeles alone, thanks to Diner Lite, or what is

otherwise known as Amtrak’s Simplified Dining Service. Since the great

majority of crew members for all areas of dining cars - both the kitchen

and service staff - have been laid off allegedly because they are not

needed with the new menu, those remaining are working much harder than

before, and are simply wearing out faster. The bottom line is that for

these onboard employees, the pay and benefits are just not enough to

justify the level of work that is required to keep the dining cars

running without adequate staff.

2) On October 17th, Progressive Railroading magazine reported in a daily

news digest on its web site:

[begin quote]

National intercity passenger railroad registers FY06 ridership, revenue

gains

Amtrak's streak of record-breaking years now stands at four. In FY2006,

the national intercity passenger railroad's ridership and ticket revenue

exceeded FY2005's figures and FY2006 projections, according to the

October issue of employee newsletter "Amtrak Ink."

During the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, Amtrak carried 24.3 million

passengers, up 1.3 percent compared with FY2005's adjusted figure of 24

million and 3 percent compared with the FY2006 projection. Amtrak

adjusted FY2005 ridership from a record 25.4 million to reflect an

October 2005 agreement to transfer operations of its "Clocker" service to

New Jersey Transit.

"We wanted to compare apples to apples," says Amtrak spokesperson Karina

Romero.

Also in FY2006, the railroad posted its highest-ever ticket revenue at

$1.37 billion - $132 million more than FY2005 and $28 million higher than

Amtrak's projection.

Short-corridor and state-supported routes increased ridership 6 percent

and boosted ticket revenue 8 percent compared with budgeted figures.

However, ridership on long-distance routes was 2 percent lower than

projected. The Silver Star, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight and Sunset

Limited posted ridership and revenue losses compared with budgeted

figures, while the Empire Builder and Lake Shore Limited exceeded

projections.

In the Northeast Corridor, ridership and revenue on regional trains rose

3 percent and 9 percent, respectively, compared with projections. The

Acela Express carried 2 percent more passengers than expected, but ticket

revenue dropped 6 percent.

- Angela Cotey/progressiverailroading.com

3) Frederick K. Plous of Chicago, who often provides interesting analysis

of passenger rail issues, added his thoughts about the above story:

[begin quote]

Note that long-distance trains that lost ridership are the ones that

encounter substantial timekeeping problems on CSX or UP.

The popularity of the Lake Shore is one of the great wonders of the age.

When we rode it from Albany to Chicago August 26th and 27th we found it

bulging with passengers, including three sold-out sleeping cars and four

sold-out coaches. I thought this was simply the end-of-summer-vacation

peak, but at the Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads conference Monday

and Tuesday [in Washington], three different speakers mentioned they had

been on the Lake Shore during September or October and it is still

running with three full sleepers. One wonders how many sleepers it would

be carrying if Amtrak had more. Unfortunately, Amtrak does not release

train-by-train or day-by-day figures for numbers of passenger turned away

for lack of space, so we have no idea what level of demand is out there.

The night we traveled we got a beautiful, freshly restored Heritage

dining car in which a really good staff served excellent food. However, I

understand that there are not enough of these diners to go around and

that on many nights an unrestored diner is operated and the competence

and attitude of the service staff is pretty much the luck of the draw.

The Amfleet lounge car was a slime pit - aging plastic surfaces from

which the color had actually faded, unimaginative seating space, weary

plumbing, noisy and generally unappealing either as a place from which to

sightsee or in which to socialize. The Amfleet II coaches were okay, but

no more. They'd seen a lot of hard riding.

One has to wonder how many passengers the Lake Shore would be carrying

if: a) Amtrak had a big enough fleet to meet demand; B ) all rolling stock

was new or rebuilt and were designed for an actual overnight assignment

rather than simply re-assigned, as the lounge car was, from daytime

corridor service; c) the train ran on time; d) all the stations were

attractive, accessible and functional, and the larger ones manned and

able to support checked-baggage service; and, d) Amtrak had a budget for

promotion that could actually draw people to this service.

Item "c," of course, cannot be accomplished unless federal funds are made

available to restore at least one of the two main tracks that were

removed from the 4-track Water Level Route during the 50s and 60s when

the New York Central was eliminating its passenger trains and the New

York, Ohio and Indiana toll roads were stealing its highest-rated freight

traffic. Now that the railroad is full of fast freight trains again, it

needs at least one of those tracks back.

My sense is that if these amenities were in place the Lake Shore not only

would run with 5 or six sleepers and six or seven coaches every night,

but that it actually could be split into two or more separate frequencies

so that cities from Toledo to Buffalo could receive service at a more

convenient hour. If you look at the map now you find that about one third

of the population along the Water Level Route simply has no inducement to

use the Lake Shore, now matter how fast the trains go or how pretty they

are.

[End quote]

4) The comments of Mr. Plous provoked these thoughts from one Heartland

wag:

[begin quote]

Interesting report by Fritz [Mr. Plous].

The overflowing Lake Shore sends the same message that Amtrak has been

ignoring for 30+ years – there is a large, untapped market for long

distance rail passenger service.

Amtrak has chosen to invest the vast majority of its resources in the

NEC; therefore:

a) The long distance trains run with mostly rundown equipment,

B ) And there is not enough equipment to meet demand,

c) Which depresses ridership,

d) Which holds down revenue,

e) Which creates the false impression that long distance trains are huge

money losers,

f) Which justifies pouring more money into the NEC,

g) Which starts the cycle all over again.

[End quote]

5) Further discussion about the Progressive Railroading story ensued,

including much of the usual rhetoric and modal envy about the alleged

unfairness of it all and how some people believe airlines and trucks and

cars have a "free ride."

[begin quote]

NEC costs consist of two parts. First, the cost of maintaining/upgrading

the infrastructure. Second, the cost of running and maintaining the

trains.

... a firm believer that the NEC trains themselves make money. It’s the

infrastructure cost, which for the most part the long distance trains

don't bear, that drive the NEC numbers so far into the red. If Amtrak

were an airline, the Federal, state and local governments would be

providing the entire infrastructure to Amtrak (and commuter rail

agencies) for a fraction of the true cost of maintaining/upgrading it ...

... Some folks claim the NEC trains themselves lose money. However, they

determine this assertion using Amtrak's accounting numbers.

Unfortunately, Amtrak includes as part of the trains' cost, some costs

that others in other modes of transportation would consider

infrastructure or non-operating costs. (For example, the airlines receive

air traffic control for free from the federal government, and nowhere

does the cost of all of the radars, computers, facilities show up on

airline balance sheets. ... The railroad equivalent of air traffic

control is called "dispatching." Amtrak funds its own dispatching and

allocates these costs to train operations.) This is not a ding on Amtrak

since from what I have heard, they use standard railroad accounting

rules. However, I do know that railroad accounting rules differ from

those of other modes of transportation, thus making it impossible to

properly compare the cost of operating a train to that of operating say,

a plane. So if one were to apply airline accounting rules to NEC trains

(eliminating those non-operating costs that Amtrak attributes to train

operation), I strongly believe these trains would be money makers.

... The freight railroads maintain their own track - upon which the long

distance trains make the majority of their trips. The freight railroads

do maintain their tracks (albeit to varying standards) allowing Amtrak to

physically run on them, so other than track access fees, Amtrak has no

need to spend additional money on these routes. However, it is Amtrak

that owns the NEC. If Amtrak does not maintain it, its trains can't run

on it. Since the majority of Amtrak passengers ride the NEC, Amtrak must

maintain it. Seeing losses in the NEC simply shows how expensive

maintaining infrastructure is compared to simply running a train. By

extension, this should be an indicator to the public of how large a

subsidy the government provides to the airlines, maritime and highway

users who shoulder little of the cost of maintaining their

infrastructure.

... The long distance trains supposedly ... lose money. But note that

each long distance route hosts at best one train in each direction per

day. These two daily trains shoulder all of the fixed costs of that

route. Tying in what [Mr. Plous] mentions ... about the popularity of

long distance trains, and applying economies of scale, if Amtrak were to

increase long distance frequencies, carry more passengers and distribute

these overhead costs to more trains, its per train losses would decrease.

[End quote]

6) And, a final word on the Progressive Railroading story and the subject

of finances on the Northeast Corridor from Andrew Selden, URPA Vice

President of Law and Policy:

[begin quote]

The great charade goes on.

The classification of costs by Amtrak as "capital" and "operating" is

arbitrary, inconstant among reporting periods, inconsistent among

divisions, and highly manipulable by management.

The passenger service is the incremental user on 99% of the route system,

and should pay towards leased infrastructure on that basis: 100% of

documented and traced incremental costs, plus a fair share of other

costs, measured by SFGTM formulas for facilities, and documented costs of

people and systems for other functions (What is the documented, traced,

actual "additional" dispatching or signals maintenance cost to the UP or

CSX CAUSED BY Amtrak trains on any given district?).

On 1% of the route system, Amtrak is the base user. The infrastructure

exists solely or predominantly for its use and benefit. Upkeep of the

infrastructure is (1) necessary to produce the revenue stream, (2) solely

associated with and caused by the activities (i.e., train-miles, or

SFGTMs) that generate the revenue stream, and (3) regularly recurring on

a daily or monthly basis. Replacing a bridge is different from regular

maintenance of way in the NEC, but that doesn't mean that the trains'

performance shouldn't be charged with an amortization of the

non-recurring capital item.

I challenge ANYONE to point out one penny of depreciation of any new or

improved bridge or substation that is being charged against Acela

revenues on any external Amtrak report of Acela financial results of

operations. I am dubious that even the routine, recurring maintenance of

way and other "infrastructure" costs are being charged against Acela

revenues on its own income statements, or that if they are they are being

allocated on the basis of SPEED-FACTORED gross ton miles.

If anyone thinks otherwise, produce the Amtrak or NEC or Acela income

statement that shows it, plus a statement from Amtrak’s CPA or its CFO

attesting that depreciation of ALL such assets, and allocations of ALL

such recurring costs based on SFGTM or other appropriate algorithms,

consistently applied, have been reflected. Otherwise, I assert that the

NEC is deep under water ON TRAIN OPERATIONS on a monthly and annual

basis, to the tune of tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year,

as well on a fully-allocated basis, to the tune of about three-quarters

of a billion dollars a year.

[End quote]

If you are reading someone else’s copy of This Week at Amtrak, you can

receive your own free copy each week by sending your e-mail address to

[email protected]

You MUST include your name, preferred e-mail address, and city and state

where you live. If you have filters or firewalls placed on your Internet

connection, set your e-mail to receive incoming mail from

[email protected]; we are unable to go through any

individual approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept

strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other

than the distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.

All other correspondence should be addressed to

[email protected]

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-6760

[email protected]

http://www.unitedrail.org

mailto:[email protected]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If Number 1 above, is correct, that sounds very disheartening to me and probably to those who work the trains. Does anyone have any way of knowing if this is really happening? Sorry I can't just accept one person's word for it.
 
If Number 1 above, is correct, that sounds very disheartening to me and probably to those who work the trains. Does anyone have any way of knowing if this is really happening? Sorry I can't just accept one person's word for it.
Well I can't speak to the validity of workers in the LA crew base quiting, but the rest of the paragraph is true. The reduction in staff has definately increased the pressure on the remaining crew members to work harder to serve everyone. Even with the greatly reduced amount of passengers now being served in the diner, it is still much harder to deal with.

This is especially true when you have a meal that is rushed because it's close to a final destination or it's right after departure. For example on the Lake Shore out of Chicago, there is simply no way to use the 15 minute interval seating plan. If everything works perfectly, the sleeping car passengers board the train between 7:00 PM and 7:15 PM. In order to get everyone in the sleepers who wants a meal, and they are entitled to a meal, they have to fill up the dining car to it's capacity right away. That means that 40 people could potentially be seated all at once.

40 people for 1 cook, 2 waiters, and 1 LSA! That easily overwhelms the staff, but especially the cook.

The other area where problems occur, and quite possibly the reason that so many LSA's are quitting (assuming that's true), is that the LSA's are now in effect being asked to be waiters. They are now working harder than before and having to do a job that they were never originally hired to do. On my recent round the country trip, I did meet one LSA who basically refused to be a waiter. He by and large did his original job and left the SA's to deal with the customers.

Now all that said, I'm not suggesting that it's always true that the crew is working hard. There are times when the load is light and of course there are some crews that simply don't wish to put their best foot forward for their customers. I also am a firm believer that they need to get over this craft line issue where one craft can't do the duties of another craft. The Auto Train doesn't have those rules and things tend to run much more smoothly and I find that far more employees there seem to put their best foot forward when dealing with the passengers.
 
it just not LA (where LSAs are quitting) its every where. I work out of Washington and just as bad. In January we are going to be the 1st crew base to go over with new combin diner/lounge and it suppose to be getting rid of another job.

Amtrak wants to this fail . They want to outsource food service jobs so they hired folks who willing to make less 18.76 hour with no benefits.

If Number 1 above, is correct, that sounds very disheartening to me and probably to those who work the trains. Does anyone have any way of knowing if this is really happening? Sorry I can't just accept one person's word for it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top