I secured the author's permission to post this. Anyone else read this newsletter?
Info on how to subscribe is contained in the message, if you are interested.
=================================================================
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 33
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, again? America's only transcontinental
passenger train still only covers half of a continent. When will it
return? When will Amtrak keep its obligation to the American taxpayers
who are helping pay for this train, and resume running it? When will
Amtrak keep its obligation to its employees who worked to make this
train successful, but have been rewarded by being out of a job for over
a year, now?
Amtrak has offered excuse after excuse, to union leaders, its employees,
and others. Publications such as Trains magazine, which should be
monitoring this situation, have instead blithely accepted many excuses
including Amtrak's all-time-most-successful excuse: "The dog ate my
homework."
Here is what has been independently determined:
- Amtrak has blamed CSX for the delay, because the railroad hasn't
released the track for passenger service. Not true. The track was
restored (and improved) over its original pre-Hurricane Katrina
condition months ago. CSX is operating a full schedule of freight
service over the line, with no extraordinary restrictions. In an
impressive display of the will and might of private enterprise, CSX
restored a completely destroyed infrastructure in record time at
enormous cost to its shareholders to resume critical freight shipments
in and out of the devastated areas of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. No
public money was used to put the railroad back in place, which has
served as a vital artery for the flow of goods as Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama continue to heal from the wreckage of Hurricane
Katrina.
- Some have blamed the lack of qualified Train & Engine crew
availability, saying there is no one to operate the train. Not true.
Crews who were qualified when Katrina hit are still qualified until
August 26, 2006. To continue their qualification, Amtrak merely needs to
operate one single deadheading train (a locomotive and two coaches, as
an example, with no passengers) over the route between New Orleans and
Jacksonville, Florida with the crews aboard. Crews south of Jacksonville
to Orlando are already qualified since this route is used daily for the
Florida service trains.
- Amtrak has continually cited a lack of usable stations on the Gulf
Coast. Here is a rundown: While local officials in each of the towns are
eager to have Amtrak service return, there are some problems with
permanent structures. However, Amtrak's own undistinguished past has
proven that Amtrak has been more than willing and able to substitute
portable trailer stations when actual station structures become
unavailable due to decay or reconstruction, or new building
construction. Examples of this include Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis,
Missouri (the station there, a "portable" building for over a decade,
was referred to by it's old initials of ****, originally standing for
St. Louis Union Terminal, but it morphed into St. Louis Union Trailers);
Tampa, Florida; Rocky Mount, North Carolina; and a host of others. Many
Amtrak "unmanned" stations in remote parts of the country, such as on
the Empire Builder line or the western end of the Sunset Limited line,
are merely wide spots in the ballast of the tracks, some with, and some
without concrete or asphalt platforms.
The Bay St. Louis, Mississippi station is in excellent shape; it was
used as a temporary medical facility after the hurricane. The concrete
train platform is intact.
The Biloxi, Mississippi station never had a building for passengers. It
only consists of a concrete platform, platform roof, and parking lot,
all of which are in place and fully functional.
In Gulfport, Mississippi, perhaps the most badly damaged station
building, which is also a museum, on one side of the building part of
the roof is missing. However, the museum in the building is back open
and operating. So, the building is usable, and the concrete train
platform is intact.
The station building in Pascagoula, Mississippi (home of one of Amtrak's
best supporters in the United States Senate, Trent Lott, who certainly
must be wondering where his train is that he's fought so long to
preserve) has a long, wooden walkway. Some of the walkway is uneven, but
there is plenty of intact concrete platform, away from the damaged
station building, which is surrounded by a fence.
Mobile, Alabama is the most troublesome. CSX has abandoned the building
(perhaps, the world's ugliest building in all of its 1950s glory) and
the property has been sold to a condominium developer. However, city
officials are working on a solution to still provide a passenger train
station.
- In a recent letter to a union official answering a query as to why the
train is not running, Amtrak said the train has not been slated for
discontinuance.
- As said last week in TWA, even without the nocturnal Gulf Coast stops
of the Sunset Limited if it was restored on its previous schedule, there
is enough overhead traffic between New Orleans and Florida destinations,
particularly connecting traffic in Jacksonville with the two Florida
service trains, to justify running the train. Keeping the present
schedule out of Los Angeles, even allowing for a two or three hour dwell
time in New Orleans, a train east of New Orleans would stop at Gulf
Coast stations during the early and middle evening hours.
TWA readers will recall that exactly a year ago, during the 2005
hurricane season, Amtrak was cancelling trains for what was considered
hurricane conditions, but in reality, the railroad was simply cancelling
trains to save budget money and/or aggravation for the operating
department. This occurred both on the Texas Eagle and the Florida
service trains. Could this same sad situation be happening, again? Is
Amtrak not living up to its contract with the American people by leaving
this gaping hole in its national long distance train system just because
someone on a division level wants a higher personal performance bonus?
Is the money normally spent on the Sunset Limited being used to buy
diesel fuel for other trains because of the increase in fuel prices?
Much money was spent by the states on the Sunset Limited in 1992/93 when
the route east of New Orleans was created. Most of the money was spent
on track upgrades, such as in Florida, and station and parking
facilities. Never in its life, has the Sunset Limited been a state
supported train from an operations standpoint, so no argument can be
made that cash-strapped state governments are supporting any of the
train's operating costs. Did the dog really eat Amtrak's homework?
One very disturbing aspect of this is whether or not lower level Amtrak
managers and executives are providing senior executives and the board of
directors with accurate information. The right decisions can only be
made if the right information is provided to those making the decisions.
Amtrak has a proven, nearly unmovable bureaucracy which has thwarted
many good plans in the past. Are we experiencing this, again? Is the
company still that much out of control? Does this yet again point to the
need to almost completely clean house of many of Amtrak's long time
managers that are more interested in their personal comfort than what is
good for the company?
The cleanup after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina was a fascinating
look at corporate responsibility and how private companies respond to a
need of a devastated region. Norfolk Southern was the first railroad in
the heavily damaged area to have service restored to New Orleans, and
indeed, even helped by hosting CSX trains too, while CSX finished its
own track rehabilitation. CN crews raced to restore the former Illinois
Central line from the north. CSX took the longest simply because it
suffered the most damage. All of these railroads had one thing in common
- an urgent need to restore their businesses to good operating
condition, to get the assets in the damaged areas back into production
and back into a positive cash flow, and to serve their customers and the
public good by providing critically needed heavy transportation services.
Amtrak followed suit, at a much slower pace, allowing some of the pent
up freight congestion to clear before passenger service was restored.
Most passenger service is now restored, with the glaring omission of the
Sunset Limited east of New Orleans. Amtrak tries to make the case for
not enough business on the line. This is a senile marketing mentality
that forgets the real purpose of Amtrak is to provide passenger
transportation for all reasons, beyond business travelers in the
Northeast, or leisure travelers on the California Zephyr or Empire
Builder. People still have a great need to travel to and from the
devastated Gulf Coast towns and cities, which Amtrak is ignoring. Our
national passenger service is saying, "you're not important to us, we
have other things to do." While so many other railroads, corporations,
relief agencies, and private citizens all lend a hand to help in the
Gulf Coast, even one year after the hurricane hit, Amtrak is simply
ignoring the problem and demonstrating an arrogance that is unfit for a
quasi-governmental agency that has a federal handout of over $1.2
billion a year.
Inquiring minds still want to know when the Sunset Limited will operate
again east of New Orleans.
2) In another sign of some internal improvement at Amtrak, the company
has redesigned and renamed its employee newsletter, making it easier to
read as well as presenting better information. The relaunched
publication has been named Amtrak This Week. Clever name, don't you think?
3) Continuing his practice of communicating with employees, passengers,
and public officials in a calm, responsible, and professional manner,
Amtrak Acting President and CEO David Hughes wrote in the July 31, 2006
issue of Amtrak This Week about CSX on-time performance:
CSXT OTP
Dear Co-workers:
The on-time performance of the long-distance network is nowhere near
what it should be and steps to improve it are being taken. I'm writing
today to bring employees up to date on our effort, especially those who
personally shoulder the burden of late trains, like OBS and Mechanical -
I know what you've had to put up with.
Roughly speaking, we own 15% of the problems: locomotive failures, late
turns and the like. The rest of the troubles come from the host
railroad, such as freight congestion, failure to remove slow orders and
poor dispatching.
We can and will make improvements on our own, but much more must be done
by the freights.
Earlier this month a number of developments took place that may help
begin to turn the tide, especially with our poor performance over CSXT
between Florida and Washington, D.C. Senior Vice President/Operations
Bill Crosbie and I sat down to talk about the problems with CSXT's Chief
Operating Officer Tony Ingram and Chief Transportation Officer David
Brown. As you know, our trains operate mostly over CSXT track in the
Southeast and in New York state. We emerged from that meeting with a
commitment for change, but the proof, of course, will be in the results.
On-time performance has become a matter of concern to other interested
parties. The National Association of Railroad Passengers recently asked
the Surface Transportation Board to investigate why the host railroads
were not getting our trains over the road on time. Additionally, an
amendment was added to federal legislation working its way through
Congress directing the Department of Transportation Inspector General to
investigate this problem.
The host railroads must be our partners in operating an on-time
railroad. It's that simple, and I'd gladly trade all the investigating
and legislating for simply that. The bottom line is that Amtrak has an
obligation to its passengers to run an on-time railroad. In the coming
weeks, I will continue to update you on developments.
Sincerely,
David Hughes
Acting President and CEO
This brings up the problem of yet another summer, and yet more delays
due to main line track maintenance by a host railroad. Some railroads
today, such as CSX, do massive all-at-once maintenance projects where
short parts of the railroad are shut down either for a period of days,
or hours at a time so the track and bridge work can be done as quickly
as possible. When the track is reopened for service, either for a short
service window or overnight until work resumes the next day, a flood of
trains is uncorked, and the line becomes congested, trapping Amtrak
trains in the process. There is no easy solution to this problem. The
railroads, many of which are running at high capacity on their main
lines, must maintain their physical plant, or there will be no railroad
left, and conditions will revert to the way things were in the 1960s and
1970s on many freight lines. Yet, Amtrak must continue to operate its
trains as part of its obligation to passengers, especially in high
traffic summer months.
Railroads plan maintenance will in advance. Amtrak knows when this
maintenance will occur; it needs to have better planning to work around
these problems. Conversely, the host railroads also have an obligation
to serve paying customers, and both sides need to have some flexibility.
On the West Coast, socialist passenger groups are screaming about the
horrible timekeeping for the Coast Starlight, which operates between Los
Angeles and Seattle, Washington, mostly over Union Pacific tracks. There
is a modest campaign afoot to try and pressure West Coast state
governors to intervene in this problem, and try and force Union Pacific
to solve the problem.
The reality of the situation is that Union Pacific allowed some main
line track to deteriorate (which is what CSX is trying to prevent on the
East Coast), which resulted in multiple slow orders for train movements,
some derailments, and other adverse conditions. The Coast Starlight
quickly was re-labeled the Coast Starlate, with trains often running as
much as 12 or more hours behind schedule, causing havoc in every venue.
The odd thing is that Union Pacific, earlier this year both announced
and commenced a track rehabilitation program on the very piece of track
in question which causes so many delays on the Coast Starlight. The
railfan organizations began their public drum and breast beating AFTER
the commencement of the problem-solving track upgrading. They are
demanding of the governors to solve a problem that is already in the
process of being solved. It's true, that timing is everything.
4) Another hot topic addressed in Amtrak This Week is the United States
Department of Transportation Inspector General's report on the reform
initiatives which have resulted in the dismal Diner Lite program. Here
is the story, from Amtrak This Week:
August 7, 2006
DOT Inspector General Report on Reform Initiatives
While noting that Amtrak has achieved $46.3 million in savings from its
reforms this fiscal year through May, a report issued by the U.S.
Department of Transportation's Acting Inspector General Todd Zinser
added that "...Amtrak must continue to seek out and implement all
opportunities to reduce its costs."
Required by Congress, the report served as the DOT IG's third quarterly
assessment of the savings the company has achieved as a result of the
implementation of strategic reform initiatives. Congress requires the
DOT IG to certify that Amtrak has made operational savings by July 1, as
mandated in the FY '06 Appropriations Act. Operational reforms including
food and beverage initiatives, such as the long-distance dining service
model, and reductions in corporate overhead expenses were among those
that contributed to the DOT IG's analysis. Acknowledging that Amtrak's
financial performance through May of this fiscal year was better than
expected, it added that the company must build on that progress to make
it through the end of the fiscal year. Half of the improved performance
through May was attributed by the DOT IG to savings from strategic
initiatives.
Beyond this fiscal year, the DOT IG report cautioned that "sustained
reform over the next several years is needed to continue reducing
Amtrak's operating subsidy," citing changes needed in the areas of food
and beverage service, sleeper car service, route restructuring, state
payments, and labor contracts.
Zinser concluded his report by writing, "Incremental operating savings
over the next 5 or 6 years will not be sufficient to fund the
significant increases in capital investment required to return the
system to a state of good repair and promote corridor development. As we
have said in the past, the current system needs to be fundamentally
restructured. A new model for intercity passenger rail that ensures
greater cost effectiveness, responsiveness, and reliability is critical."
The entire report, which was issued on July 28, is posted on the DOT
Office of Inspector General site, www.oig.dot.gov.
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
Info on how to subscribe is contained in the message, if you are interested.
=================================================================
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 33
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, again? America's only transcontinental
passenger train still only covers half of a continent. When will it
return? When will Amtrak keep its obligation to the American taxpayers
who are helping pay for this train, and resume running it? When will
Amtrak keep its obligation to its employees who worked to make this
train successful, but have been rewarded by being out of a job for over
a year, now?
Amtrak has offered excuse after excuse, to union leaders, its employees,
and others. Publications such as Trains magazine, which should be
monitoring this situation, have instead blithely accepted many excuses
including Amtrak's all-time-most-successful excuse: "The dog ate my
homework."
Here is what has been independently determined:
- Amtrak has blamed CSX for the delay, because the railroad hasn't
released the track for passenger service. Not true. The track was
restored (and improved) over its original pre-Hurricane Katrina
condition months ago. CSX is operating a full schedule of freight
service over the line, with no extraordinary restrictions. In an
impressive display of the will and might of private enterprise, CSX
restored a completely destroyed infrastructure in record time at
enormous cost to its shareholders to resume critical freight shipments
in and out of the devastated areas of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. No
public money was used to put the railroad back in place, which has
served as a vital artery for the flow of goods as Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama continue to heal from the wreckage of Hurricane
Katrina.
- Some have blamed the lack of qualified Train & Engine crew
availability, saying there is no one to operate the train. Not true.
Crews who were qualified when Katrina hit are still qualified until
August 26, 2006. To continue their qualification, Amtrak merely needs to
operate one single deadheading train (a locomotive and two coaches, as
an example, with no passengers) over the route between New Orleans and
Jacksonville, Florida with the crews aboard. Crews south of Jacksonville
to Orlando are already qualified since this route is used daily for the
Florida service trains.
- Amtrak has continually cited a lack of usable stations on the Gulf
Coast. Here is a rundown: While local officials in each of the towns are
eager to have Amtrak service return, there are some problems with
permanent structures. However, Amtrak's own undistinguished past has
proven that Amtrak has been more than willing and able to substitute
portable trailer stations when actual station structures become
unavailable due to decay or reconstruction, or new building
construction. Examples of this include Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis,
Missouri (the station there, a "portable" building for over a decade,
was referred to by it's old initials of ****, originally standing for
St. Louis Union Terminal, but it morphed into St. Louis Union Trailers);
Tampa, Florida; Rocky Mount, North Carolina; and a host of others. Many
Amtrak "unmanned" stations in remote parts of the country, such as on
the Empire Builder line or the western end of the Sunset Limited line,
are merely wide spots in the ballast of the tracks, some with, and some
without concrete or asphalt platforms.
The Bay St. Louis, Mississippi station is in excellent shape; it was
used as a temporary medical facility after the hurricane. The concrete
train platform is intact.
The Biloxi, Mississippi station never had a building for passengers. It
only consists of a concrete platform, platform roof, and parking lot,
all of which are in place and fully functional.
In Gulfport, Mississippi, perhaps the most badly damaged station
building, which is also a museum, on one side of the building part of
the roof is missing. However, the museum in the building is back open
and operating. So, the building is usable, and the concrete train
platform is intact.
The station building in Pascagoula, Mississippi (home of one of Amtrak's
best supporters in the United States Senate, Trent Lott, who certainly
must be wondering where his train is that he's fought so long to
preserve) has a long, wooden walkway. Some of the walkway is uneven, but
there is plenty of intact concrete platform, away from the damaged
station building, which is surrounded by a fence.
Mobile, Alabama is the most troublesome. CSX has abandoned the building
(perhaps, the world's ugliest building in all of its 1950s glory) and
the property has been sold to a condominium developer. However, city
officials are working on a solution to still provide a passenger train
station.
- In a recent letter to a union official answering a query as to why the
train is not running, Amtrak said the train has not been slated for
discontinuance.
- As said last week in TWA, even without the nocturnal Gulf Coast stops
of the Sunset Limited if it was restored on its previous schedule, there
is enough overhead traffic between New Orleans and Florida destinations,
particularly connecting traffic in Jacksonville with the two Florida
service trains, to justify running the train. Keeping the present
schedule out of Los Angeles, even allowing for a two or three hour dwell
time in New Orleans, a train east of New Orleans would stop at Gulf
Coast stations during the early and middle evening hours.
TWA readers will recall that exactly a year ago, during the 2005
hurricane season, Amtrak was cancelling trains for what was considered
hurricane conditions, but in reality, the railroad was simply cancelling
trains to save budget money and/or aggravation for the operating
department. This occurred both on the Texas Eagle and the Florida
service trains. Could this same sad situation be happening, again? Is
Amtrak not living up to its contract with the American people by leaving
this gaping hole in its national long distance train system just because
someone on a division level wants a higher personal performance bonus?
Is the money normally spent on the Sunset Limited being used to buy
diesel fuel for other trains because of the increase in fuel prices?
Much money was spent by the states on the Sunset Limited in 1992/93 when
the route east of New Orleans was created. Most of the money was spent
on track upgrades, such as in Florida, and station and parking
facilities. Never in its life, has the Sunset Limited been a state
supported train from an operations standpoint, so no argument can be
made that cash-strapped state governments are supporting any of the
train's operating costs. Did the dog really eat Amtrak's homework?
One very disturbing aspect of this is whether or not lower level Amtrak
managers and executives are providing senior executives and the board of
directors with accurate information. The right decisions can only be
made if the right information is provided to those making the decisions.
Amtrak has a proven, nearly unmovable bureaucracy which has thwarted
many good plans in the past. Are we experiencing this, again? Is the
company still that much out of control? Does this yet again point to the
need to almost completely clean house of many of Amtrak's long time
managers that are more interested in their personal comfort than what is
good for the company?
The cleanup after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina was a fascinating
look at corporate responsibility and how private companies respond to a
need of a devastated region. Norfolk Southern was the first railroad in
the heavily damaged area to have service restored to New Orleans, and
indeed, even helped by hosting CSX trains too, while CSX finished its
own track rehabilitation. CN crews raced to restore the former Illinois
Central line from the north. CSX took the longest simply because it
suffered the most damage. All of these railroads had one thing in common
- an urgent need to restore their businesses to good operating
condition, to get the assets in the damaged areas back into production
and back into a positive cash flow, and to serve their customers and the
public good by providing critically needed heavy transportation services.
Amtrak followed suit, at a much slower pace, allowing some of the pent
up freight congestion to clear before passenger service was restored.
Most passenger service is now restored, with the glaring omission of the
Sunset Limited east of New Orleans. Amtrak tries to make the case for
not enough business on the line. This is a senile marketing mentality
that forgets the real purpose of Amtrak is to provide passenger
transportation for all reasons, beyond business travelers in the
Northeast, or leisure travelers on the California Zephyr or Empire
Builder. People still have a great need to travel to and from the
devastated Gulf Coast towns and cities, which Amtrak is ignoring. Our
national passenger service is saying, "you're not important to us, we
have other things to do." While so many other railroads, corporations,
relief agencies, and private citizens all lend a hand to help in the
Gulf Coast, even one year after the hurricane hit, Amtrak is simply
ignoring the problem and demonstrating an arrogance that is unfit for a
quasi-governmental agency that has a federal handout of over $1.2
billion a year.
Inquiring minds still want to know when the Sunset Limited will operate
again east of New Orleans.
2) In another sign of some internal improvement at Amtrak, the company
has redesigned and renamed its employee newsletter, making it easier to
read as well as presenting better information. The relaunched
publication has been named Amtrak This Week. Clever name, don't you think?
3) Continuing his practice of communicating with employees, passengers,
and public officials in a calm, responsible, and professional manner,
Amtrak Acting President and CEO David Hughes wrote in the July 31, 2006
issue of Amtrak This Week about CSX on-time performance:
CSXT OTP
Dear Co-workers:
The on-time performance of the long-distance network is nowhere near
what it should be and steps to improve it are being taken. I'm writing
today to bring employees up to date on our effort, especially those who
personally shoulder the burden of late trains, like OBS and Mechanical -
I know what you've had to put up with.
Roughly speaking, we own 15% of the problems: locomotive failures, late
turns and the like. The rest of the troubles come from the host
railroad, such as freight congestion, failure to remove slow orders and
poor dispatching.
We can and will make improvements on our own, but much more must be done
by the freights.
Earlier this month a number of developments took place that may help
begin to turn the tide, especially with our poor performance over CSXT
between Florida and Washington, D.C. Senior Vice President/Operations
Bill Crosbie and I sat down to talk about the problems with CSXT's Chief
Operating Officer Tony Ingram and Chief Transportation Officer David
Brown. As you know, our trains operate mostly over CSXT track in the
Southeast and in New York state. We emerged from that meeting with a
commitment for change, but the proof, of course, will be in the results.
On-time performance has become a matter of concern to other interested
parties. The National Association of Railroad Passengers recently asked
the Surface Transportation Board to investigate why the host railroads
were not getting our trains over the road on time. Additionally, an
amendment was added to federal legislation working its way through
Congress directing the Department of Transportation Inspector General to
investigate this problem.
The host railroads must be our partners in operating an on-time
railroad. It's that simple, and I'd gladly trade all the investigating
and legislating for simply that. The bottom line is that Amtrak has an
obligation to its passengers to run an on-time railroad. In the coming
weeks, I will continue to update you on developments.
Sincerely,
David Hughes
Acting President and CEO
This brings up the problem of yet another summer, and yet more delays
due to main line track maintenance by a host railroad. Some railroads
today, such as CSX, do massive all-at-once maintenance projects where
short parts of the railroad are shut down either for a period of days,
or hours at a time so the track and bridge work can be done as quickly
as possible. When the track is reopened for service, either for a short
service window or overnight until work resumes the next day, a flood of
trains is uncorked, and the line becomes congested, trapping Amtrak
trains in the process. There is no easy solution to this problem. The
railroads, many of which are running at high capacity on their main
lines, must maintain their physical plant, or there will be no railroad
left, and conditions will revert to the way things were in the 1960s and
1970s on many freight lines. Yet, Amtrak must continue to operate its
trains as part of its obligation to passengers, especially in high
traffic summer months.
Railroads plan maintenance will in advance. Amtrak knows when this
maintenance will occur; it needs to have better planning to work around
these problems. Conversely, the host railroads also have an obligation
to serve paying customers, and both sides need to have some flexibility.
On the West Coast, socialist passenger groups are screaming about the
horrible timekeeping for the Coast Starlight, which operates between Los
Angeles and Seattle, Washington, mostly over Union Pacific tracks. There
is a modest campaign afoot to try and pressure West Coast state
governors to intervene in this problem, and try and force Union Pacific
to solve the problem.
The reality of the situation is that Union Pacific allowed some main
line track to deteriorate (which is what CSX is trying to prevent on the
East Coast), which resulted in multiple slow orders for train movements,
some derailments, and other adverse conditions. The Coast Starlight
quickly was re-labeled the Coast Starlate, with trains often running as
much as 12 or more hours behind schedule, causing havoc in every venue.
The odd thing is that Union Pacific, earlier this year both announced
and commenced a track rehabilitation program on the very piece of track
in question which causes so many delays on the Coast Starlight. The
railfan organizations began their public drum and breast beating AFTER
the commencement of the problem-solving track upgrading. They are
demanding of the governors to solve a problem that is already in the
process of being solved. It's true, that timing is everything.
4) Another hot topic addressed in Amtrak This Week is the United States
Department of Transportation Inspector General's report on the reform
initiatives which have resulted in the dismal Diner Lite program. Here
is the story, from Amtrak This Week:
August 7, 2006
DOT Inspector General Report on Reform Initiatives
While noting that Amtrak has achieved $46.3 million in savings from its
reforms this fiscal year through May, a report issued by the U.S.
Department of Transportation's Acting Inspector General Todd Zinser
added that "...Amtrak must continue to seek out and implement all
opportunities to reduce its costs."
Required by Congress, the report served as the DOT IG's third quarterly
assessment of the savings the company has achieved as a result of the
implementation of strategic reform initiatives. Congress requires the
DOT IG to certify that Amtrak has made operational savings by July 1, as
mandated in the FY '06 Appropriations Act. Operational reforms including
food and beverage initiatives, such as the long-distance dining service
model, and reductions in corporate overhead expenses were among those
that contributed to the DOT IG's analysis. Acknowledging that Amtrak's
financial performance through May of this fiscal year was better than
expected, it added that the company must build on that progress to make
it through the end of the fiscal year. Half of the improved performance
through May was attributed by the DOT IG to savings from strategic
initiatives.
Beyond this fiscal year, the DOT IG report cautioned that "sustained
reform over the next several years is needed to continue reducing
Amtrak's operating subsidy," citing changes needed in the areas of food
and beverage service, sleeper car service, route restructuring, state
payments, and labor contracts.
Zinser concluded his report by writing, "Incremental operating savings
over the next 5 or 6 years will not be sufficient to fund the
significant increases in capital investment required to return the
system to a state of good repair and promote corridor development. As we
have said in the past, the current system needs to be fundamentally
restructured. A new model for intercity passenger rail that ensures
greater cost effectiveness, responsiveness, and reliability is critical."
The entire report, which was issued on July 28, is posted on the DOT
Office of Inspector General site, www.oig.dot.gov.
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