This Week at Amtrak; June 9, 2008
A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from
United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203
Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA
Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail
[email protected]
http://www.unitedrail.org
Volume 5, Number 17
Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy
institute that focuses on solutions and plans for passenger rail systems
in North America. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, URPA has
professional associates in Minnesota, California, Arizona, New Mexico,
the District of Columbia, Texas, and New York. For more detailed
information, along with a variety of position papers and other documents,
visit the URPA web site at
http://www.unitedrail.org.
URPA is not a membership organization, and does not accept funding from
any outside sources.
1) When the telephone rings here at URPA World Headquarters, one never
knows who could be on the other end of the line. These days, it's often a
reporter, looking for a quote about the correlation between high gas
prices and Amtrak ridership. (If you believe all reporters call with an
open mind about a story, and are not looking for a specific quote to back
up what they believe, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you
while the price is still cheap.)
Other telephone calls received here at World Headquarters (that sounds so
much better than just saying "our office in Jacksonville") come from
excited Greens, all agog and smug over how they LOVE to ride the train
because it's so very good for the environment, and don't we think so,
too? (The answer to that is an emphatic "no," because we believe
passenger rail makes more sense from a true business perspective than
from a current environmental fad.)
Other communiques arrive on a myriad of topics, from praising Amtrak to
damning Amtrak, but most hoping for a successful passenger rail system in
our country.
Oops! Amtrak has been caught with its corporate pants down this time. For
whatever reason potential riders are looking at Amtrak, or the media is
finally realizing there is something of a skeletal passenger rail system
in North America (VIA Rail Canada, on a percentage basis, isn't much
better than Amtrak when it comes to serving Canada's population base.),
Amtrak has no prayer in being able to meet demand. There is too much
equipment sitting idle and unloved in coach yards, too much motive power
that's been leased to other railroads, and too few frequencies to make
people truly interested in riding a train for a convenient schedule.
Yes, every star in the passenger travel sky has aligned in Amtrak's
favor, including the implosion of good customer service and convenience
in the airline industry, and Amtrak is still focusing on non-profitable
and expensive to operate short corridors, while its long distance
national system languishes with few frequencies, short train consists, a
complete lack of onboard staff, and a willingness to continue as
America's best kept secret outside of the Northeast Corridor.
Here's a recent communique which recently flew over the URPA e-mail
transom.
[begin quote]
For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to use
AMTRAK. Commuter lines, yes, but national, I can't see it. I live near an
AMTRAK station. I work near an AMTRAK station. I should be a prime
candidate for a user. However, I can't even commute because the fares are
so high, the scheduling is so sparse and inconvenient. So I drive
instead. I live near Detroit. If I want to go anywhere in the country, I
can fly and it's a lot cheaper and faster. What is the rationale? I don't
get it. Even if were to do a short trip i.e. 100 miles or less, I can
drive it for less than half the cost and it's more convenient. The only
people AMTRAK is good for are those who live in central cities and don't
have cars, and are doing short trips that make the hassle of going to the
airport not worthwhile. The only others would be people who live in rural
areas who aren't served by nearby airports, those who for some reason
actually have a preference for train travel despite the higher cost and
inconvenience, or those on vacation. Otherwise, I just don't see it and
I'll actually go out of my way to use public transportation e.g. bus or
rail even if I could drive myself, and more cheaply, as long as it's not
a major inconvenience. It is not worth the federal subsidies. Get rid of
it, once and forever.
Sincerely
David Muscat
Troy, Michigan
[End quote]
Do you think is an unusual attitude? Think, again. This is a result of
Amtrak's corporate lifelong policies resulting from continuing
mismanagement and Amtrak's refusal to make its case to the American
public and owners in Congress and whatever White House administration is
in power at the moment.
Amtrak does have the ability to be useful and beneficial as part of our
domestic transportation network. But, as long as Amtrak primarily
operates trains for the benefit of its operating department and not the
passengers it's supposed to serve, this type of attitude displayed above
will constantly have to be dealt with by anyone supporting Amtrak.
2) Here is how Amtrak can make some "quick fixes" to meet the challenge
of becoming relevant in today's travel climate.
- Understand that equipment running on trains equals revenue. Many pieces
of equipment are sitting on sidings and in yards because of out of date
inspections or the need for minor repairs. Make those fixes now, and put
that equipment to immediate use, which equals generating revenue to cover
the cost of the fixes.
- Stop putting all of Amtrak's advertising budget into the Northeast
Corridor and splash a little money around the rest of the country. It
won't take much to tell a hungry traveling public passenger train service
is available.
- Start using smart and proven public relations techniques to drum up
more business. Instead of putting press releases on its web site and
issuing them to just a few paid business wires, actually send press
releases about train travel to large and small media outlets, generating
interest in stories. Reestablish route promotional offices, which
operated inexpensively, but concentrated on building specific routes
through a variety of public relations techniques and personalized,
regional service for media, groups, and local events.
- Establish a schedule of equipment displays at any station around the
country which has a house track. The weak efforts around the country
outside of the major metropolitan areas on National Train Day last month
demonstrated a desire by the public to view and visit Amtrak equipment to
have a better understanding of riding the train.
- Stop the "woe is me" attitude that so often pervades Amtrak and
everything it touches, and offer a positive image to the traveling
public. Another round of alleged "crisis" stories in the news media about
Amtrak's annual beg-fest on Capitol Hill will continue to drive
passengers away instead of attracting them to the railroad.
- Announce to the world, "we are here, we are ready" to move America's
passengers. Maybe some passengers will actually believe the highly
inadequate Amtrak skeletal system may be beneficial for their travel
plans.
- Train the reservations agents in the national res centers to actually
tell the truth when passengers ask questions Amtrak doesn't want to
answer. TWA has been collecting bogus answers to questions asked res
agents about the missing Sunset Limited east of New Orleans. So far,
answers include "CSX won't let us have the track," to "bridges are still
out from Hurricane Katrina, and we can't run trains there." For the
record, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August of 2005, and
CSX had its mainline between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida
reopened in short order, and was able to release the track to Amtrak for
use by the Sunset Limited on April 1, 2006, over two years and two months
ago. The Sunset Limited is not running solely because of decisions made
by Amtrak, not any other factor.
3) Speaking of the late, lamented Sunset Limited on the east end, between
New Orleans and Jacksonville, two rather interesting events have taken
place, both pretty absurd.
First, the latest issue of Passenger Train Journal, No. 2008:2, Issue
235, hit mailboxes and newsstands in the last few days. This superb
magazine features a long and inquiring interview by journalist Karl
Zimmerman with Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant, which took place in
April. Mr. Zimmerman and Mr. Kummant covered a number of interesting
topics, and there are a number of positive aspects of the interview.
However, this exchange took place.
[begin quote]
Karl Zimmerman: Probably the most contentious issue around is the
restoration of the Sunset Limited [After the loss of the service due to
Hurricane Katrina in 2005.]. Is there anything you could say about this?
Alex Kummant: The east (end) can't really come back. We have to finish
the final accounting there, but the resources are gone, the funding is
gone, and it was never very good service, though people have very rosy
memories. It came through three times a week, at night in many cases,
with horrible on-time performance. It's just time for everyone to get
over it.
Karl Zimmerman: Is there any part of the route that might be viable?
Alex Kummant: Yes, we've had a lot of robust discussions with Florida on
corridors, and I think we have to look at Mobile to New Orleans.
[End quote]
(Harrumph) Okay, that's it. Mr. Kummant is either badly misinformed by
his staff of "yes men" minions, or he just chooses not to tell the truth.
Resources gone? What resources? CSX released a fully rehabilitated and
shiny new mainline track to Amtrak on April 1, 2006 for passenger service
use. At this moment, there is no better maintained and serviceable
mainline track in America.
While a few stations west of Pensacola were damaged by Hurricane Katrina,
none of them were owned by Amtrak, and, with the exception of Mobile,
Alabama, every necessary train platform at stations is still in place and
ready for use. The Mobile station was damaged so badly the building was
torn down and owner CSX sold the building for commercial development.
Since Mr. Kummant says there is interest in New Orleans-Mobile service,
one can only surmise there must be some sort of plan for a station
platform and parking in that area. The Pensacola station, also not owned
by Amtrak, was damaged, too, but, again, the platform is still there.
Most of the Sunset Limited train and engine crews are still with the
company, and requalifying them on this route is really nothing more than
a couple of refamiliarization trips and paperwork shuffling. Those who
have left due to retirement or other jobs can be replaced.
Fueling of locomotives on the east end was done by contractors backing up
fuel trucks to thirsty locomotives at small town stops in Florida's
panhandle because the fuel was cheaper there.
The funding is gone? Why? The simple answer is because Amtrak apparently
chose to not include a funding request for the route on its own volition.
That is a problem which can quickly be fixed almost immediately (See
below).
"[A]nd it was never very good service, though people have very rosy
memories. It came through three times a week, at night in many cases,
with horrible on-time performance." That statement by Mr. Kummant is
simply an ignorant lie, and eagerly makes some of us question why he is
attempting to lead Amtrak as its president and CEO.
If you were to ask someone who was intimately involved with marketing
this service and worked on improving onboard service - Wait! That was Me!
This writer was paid by Amtrak to do that on the east end of the Sunset
Limited by operating under contract to Amtrak the Sunset Limited and City
of New Orleans Promotional Office! - the answer would be that the service
was, indeed, good service, and in the years before the train was handed
over from the intensely caring Gulf Coast Business Group in New Orleans
to the hacks at the Southwest Business Group in Texas, everything
possible was done to operate this train in as much of a professional
manner as possible. Yes, the train did often run horribly late due to the
many problems of the Union Pacific's indigestion of the purchase of the
Southern Pacific. However, the lateness on the east end was no worse than
the lateness on the west end. Why mention this? Also, the Sunset operated
on a number of different schedules to accommodate the problems of first
the Southern Pacific Railroad and then its successor Union Pacific
Railroad. When CSX originated the west bound train from Orlando to New
Orleans, with the exception of times when track maintenance was being
done, the service usually ran close to, if not exactly, on time. When CSX
was handed the train from Union Pacific in New Orleans headed eastbound,
it was often so late CSX had difficulty working it into its dispatching
matrix. However, CSX did everything it could to run this train on time.
The onboard service was often better than on any of the other trains in
and out of Florida - again, because of the difference between the
business groups which operated the trains. Once the equipment got out of
the horrors of the Los Angeles equipment maintenance yards and into the
caring hands of the Auto Train folks' maintenance base in Sanford, the
SuperLiners on the Sunset were as good as any in the fleet.
As to the fact this train operated only three times a week, we can't help
but notice the same train on the west end STILL operates three times a
week, and the other train with huge, unrealized potential - the Cardinal
- also only operates three times a week. The obvious answer is to take
these trains daily, like a normal passenger railroad.
>From the marketing perspective, as long as we had some meager resources
(and, in the grand scheme of things, that's being optimistic calling
those resources even meager, they were so very small) to work with,
revenue passenger miles were nearly always increasing on the Sunset
Limited. Only when Amtrak completely slashed - by its own decision - any
type of specific route marketing or promotion, did the revenue passenger
miles remain stagnant.
Since the ill-informed Mr. Kummant wants to talk about finances on the
route, how about the fact the east end generated 46% of the revenue for
the Sunset Limited's overall route? In most cases, that's close to half,
for anyone keeping score. Did Amtrak's Board of Directors under the
departed Chairman David Laney, which did so many things so very good to
stabilize the company, make such an unforgivable, horrible mistake when
it hired Alex Kummant to take Amtrak into the future? Did it hire someone
who is an empty suit, apparently unable to capably think for himself and
make rational decisions? Did the board hire someone who is just putting
another notch on the bedpost of his resume so he can move along to
another company and make continuing bad decisions for more monetary
compensation? If this type of statement and sentiment remains coming from
Mr. Kummant, apparently so.
4) Here's the other shoe dropping about the Sunset Limited. In the last
few weeks, the Democrats in Congress, with the blessing of many minority
Republicans, have introduced an Amtrak reauthorization bill in the House
of Representatives. Instead of taking up the Lautenberg-Lott Senate
version of Amtrak's reauthorization, the House came up with its own
proposals.
Part of the reauthorization package is the commitment by Congress to
Amtrak to provide $1 million for a study to restore the Sunset Limited
between New Orleans and Sanford (Orlando), Florida, it's previous
east-end terminal.
Hoo-boy! A million bucks! Just for Amtrak to delve into its file cabinets
to pull up existing information and put it into a nice format for
Congress to look at and approve more money than is probably necessary to
restore the service Amtrak never should have suspended in the first
place. What will this fabled million bucks pay for? How many pictures
need to be taken of existing platforms next to tracks? How many building
contractors need to be contacted for providing quotes to fix up
buildings? HOW MUCH OF THIS MILLION BUCKS WILL AMTRAK TAKE AND USE FOR
SOMETHING ELSE AND NOT TELL ANYONE?
For all of the absurd things about Amtrak through the years, to commit $1
million dollars to study restoring an existing route is probably about
the most absurd notion ever put forth. If it's the "cost of doing
business," well, it's beginning to look like some of Al Capone's business
practices were pretty reasonable, too.
Here's the Capitol Hill press release telling the story.
[begin quote]
Press Release
Opening comments of Chairman Oberstar and Chairwoman Brown from today's
Markup for the "Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008"
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, And Hazardous Materials
May 22, 2008
By Mary Kerr (202) 225-6260
Statement of The Honorable James L. Oberstar
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, And Hazardous Materials
Markup For "Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008"
I am pleased that we are marking up H.R. 6003, the "Passenger Rail
Investment and Improvement Act of 2008". This bill will reauthorize
Amtrak and improve intercity passenger rail.
This legislation is long overdue. Amtrak's last reauthorization, the
Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997, expired in 2002. Since
1997, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has held 17
hearings on Amtrak and intercity passenger rail. The Committee has
reported two reauthorization proposals in the 108th and 109th Congresses.
However, the Republican leadership would never allow the Committee to
bring these bills to the House Floor. Following four hearings in the
110th Congress, we are ready to move forward with this legislation. I am
confident that our leadership will be eager to have this legislation
considered on the Floor.
Today, we are in the midst of a national "renaissance" for intercity
passenger rail. Amtrak's FY2007 ridership was at record levels for the
fifth year in a row, exceeding 25.8 million passengers. Ticket revenues
rose 11% to more than $1.5 billion, the third straight year of revenue
growth. This record of achievement is even more impressive considering
that for the past eight years Amtrak has contended with an Administration
committed to its bankruptcy and Congressional action that has been
inconsistent, largely keeping it on life support.
Yet, there is a greater need than ever for intercity passenger rail. The
Department of Transportation states that congestion on our highways and
in the air is "chronic," while the Texas Transportation Institute reports
that each year we waste 3.5 billion hours of extra travel time due to
traffic congestion. The total annual cost of congestion has risen to
nearly $70 billion, a rise of $4.5 billion more than the previous year.
Improving our intercity passenger rail system is an important tool to
address these problems. For example, Amtrak removes almost eight million
cars from the road annually. Amtrak also eases air congestion by
eliminating the need for 50,000 fully loaded airplanes each year.
However, we must provide Amtrak and the States with the opportunity and
ability to grow their passenger rail services if we want to supplant
"vehicle miles traveled" on our highways and give Americans more
affordable, sustainable choices in light of higher fuel prices, growing
transportation congestion and related environmental concerns. That is why
Ranking Member Mica, Chairwoman Brown, Ranking Member Shuster, and I
introduced the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act to
reauthorize Amtrak. This legislation provides a total of $14.4 billion
for Amtrak and for States to develop intercity passenger rail systems and
high speed rail systems. It will go a long way to meet growing demand for
intercity passenger rail and help address concerns due to the growth of
ridership on our rail network.
This bill provides $4.2 billion to Amtrak in capital grants. Inconsistent
Federal support has forced Amtrak to delay many important maintenance and
legacy projects. This bill provides Amtrak with the funding necessary to
end these delays and bring its infrastructure to a state-of-good-repair
in 15 years. It enables Amtrak to replace the catenary on the Northeast
Corridor, complete its replacement of the Thames River Bridge in
Connecticut, and replace wood ties with concrete ties on its track. This
bill also allows Amtrak to begin a much needed equipment procurement
process to replace much of its aging rolling stock. This will mean better
service reliability and on-time performance for Amtrak, reduced trip
times, added capacity and lower maintenance costs, which will allow
Amtrak to better attract and retain ridership.
Further, this bill provides Amtrak with $3 billion in operating grants,
which will help Amtrak pay salaries, health care costs, overtime pay,
fuel costs, facilities, and train maintenance and operations.
In addition, this bill creates a new State Capital Grant program for
intercity passenger rail capital projects to encourage State investment.
States are uniquely qualified to understand their own mobility needs and
connectivity requirements through statewide and metropolitan area
intermodal and multimodal transportation planning. Indeed, over the past
10 years, ridership on intercity passenger rail routes that benefitted
from State support grew by 73 percent. California has invested $1.9
billion since 1991 and has seen its Amtrak ridership increase 128 percent
since that time.
However, over the past ten years, ridership on Amtrak routes without
state support increased only seven percent. The Department of
Transportation reports that the greatest single impediment to encouraging
State support is the lack of a Federal/State partnership - similar to
what exists for highways and transit - for investing in the capital needs
of intercity passenger rail. This bill creates that partnership and
provides $500 million per year through FY 2013 in grants to a state, or a
group of states, to pay for the capital costs of facilities and equipment
necessary to provide new or improved intercity passenger rail at an up to
80 percent Federal match, the same as for highways and for transit.
This legislation also demonstrates Congress' commitment to high-speed
rail in this country. The bill provides $350 million per year in grants
to States and to Amtrak to fund high speed rail projects that will
operate at speeds of at least 110 mph along federally-designated
high-speed rail corridors. In the Midwest, this funding will help finance
the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, a nine-state compact to design,
engineer, and construct a "hub-and-spoke" system of intercity passenger
rail service connecting Chicago, Illinois, and surrounding metropolitan
and regional communities, including St. Paul, Minnesota, Detroit,
Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, and Cincinnati, Ohio, among other cities.
This system will provide train service at speeds up to 110 mph, utilize
multi-modal connections to improve interconnectivity across the region,
and improve Amtrak's reliability and on-time performance. These States
have already invested more than $100 million to this project, and funding
from the high-speed rail grants of this bill will help jump-start these
efforts. This funding will also help California develop a
Shinkansen-style high-speed rail system running from Sacramento to San
Diego, and the Southeast develop high-speed rail from Washington, D.C.,
to Charlotte, North Carolina.
This bipartisan legislation will address the nation's pent up demand for
intercity passenger rail by providing the capital and resources necessary
to bring our system into the 21st Century. I look forward to working with
my colleagues in the House to move this legislation forward, and I look
forward to conferencing with the Senate to pass the first Amtrak
reauthorization in almost 11 years.
-end-
Statement of The Honorable Corrine Brown
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
Markup for "Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008"
I am pleased that the Subcommittee is meeting today to mark up H.R. 6003,
the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act. Chairman Oberstar,
Ranking Member Mica, Subcommittee Ranking Member Shuster, and I
introduced this legislation to bring our nation's intercity passenger
rail system into the 21st Century.
H.R. 6003 makes many important contributions to expand intercity
passenger rail's viability in this country. It authorizes a total of
$14.4 billion for Amtrak and for intercity passenger rail. This
legislation will increase capital and operating grants to Amtrak to help
bring its infrastructure and equipment to a state of good repair and
expand its services to meet growing demand. It provides $2.5 billion in
grants to help States develop intercity passenger rail corridors through
an 80-20 federal partnership, which will help States plan intercity
passenger rail to meet their needs. It also provides $1.725 billion to
help States develop high-speed rail corridors, which will help bring the
level of rail service enjoyed by Europe and Asia to this country.
Finally, it requires Amtrak to report on how to restore service to the
Sunset Limited line from New Orleans to Sanford, Florida.
In fiscal year 2007, Amtrak carried more than 25.8 million passengers,
the fifth straight fiscal year of record ridership. Like its ridership
gains, Amtrak's financial performance has improved in recent years as the
railroad improves its service operations. In 2007, the railroad posted
approximately $1.5 billion in ticket revenue, a gain of 10.8 percent over
2006 ticket revenues and the third consecutive year that ticket revenues
increased.
Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower created the National Highway
System, which drastically changed the way we travel in this country.
Today we need to do the same thing with passenger rail, and make the
level of investment necessary for it to become even more successful in
the future. Passage of H.R. 6003 will be the first major step in this
direction and I encourage all my colleagues to support this legislation.
-end-
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Republicans John L. Mica,
Ranking Republican
Committee Approves Historic High Speed Rail Initiative
May 22, 2008
Washington, D.C. - The House Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure today approved a proposal by the Committee's Republican
Leader John L. Mica (R-FL) that will revolutionize passenger rail
transportation in the United States by taking the first real steps
towards bringing true high speed rail to the nation.
The Committee considered and unanimously approved the bipartisan
"Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008" (H.R. 6003). The
bill includes Mica's initiative to require the U.S. Department of
Transportation to solicit proposals for developing high speed rail in the
Northeast Corridor, with a maximum trip time of two hours between
Washington, D.C. to New York City, followed by development of similar
high speed projects across the United States.
"This bill represents the first step towards a new era in
transportation," said Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Republican Leader John L. Mica (R-FL).
"With gas prices reaching $4 per gallon, passage of legislation to bring
high speed rail and a viable transportation alternative to this country
is a historic occasion. High speed rail can reduce our growing highway
and aviation congestion and lessen transportation's impact on the
environment. This bill will also provide jobs and guarantee labor
protections.
This proposal will unleash the investment potential of the private
sector, essential to addressing how this nation is going to finance our
tremendous infrastructure needs.
"The Northeast Corridor is a tremendous but underutilized property," Mica
continued. "We've got to stop sitting on our assets, and this legislation
can help us make the most of that corridor. But this proposal isn't just
for the Northeast Corridor, it's for the entire country. If we can get
this working in one or two models, we can replicate it throughout the
nation."
"Traffic on our nation's roads has grown exponentially worse in the past
decade," said U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), Railroads, Pipelines and
Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Ranking Member. "Road congestion is not
only an aggravation to commuters, it is a drag on the entire economy. One
study cited in a recent Washington Post article estimates that traffic
jams in New York City alone cost $13 billion in lost productivity
annually. One way to address road and air congestion is by expanding our
passenger rail system - especially high speed rail."
In addition to approving the "Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement
Act of 2008", the Committee also passed the "Pre-Disaster Mitigation Act
of 2008" (H.R. 6109) and the "Old Post Office Building Redevelopment Act
of 2008" (H.R. 5001).
Next week, Mica will travel throughout the Northeast Corridor to meet
with other federal and local transportation leaders, including New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to discuss the benefits of a world-class
high speed passenger rail system.
[End quotes]
5) Here's the latest silliness here in Florida about the coming commuter
rail in Central Florida. Republican State Senator Paula Dockery of
Lakeland, who led the charge against her neighbors to the Northeast in
Orlando and surrounding communities having commuter rail because she was
annoyed her husband's fantasy about high speed rail in Florida was
thankfully destroyed, now has a group saying - of all the bad choices
that could have been made - that Amtrak should be brought into the
picture to make a proposal to create and operate commuter rail in all of
Central Florida, starting in Tampa on the West Coast, extending northeast
to Lakeland, and continuing northeast to encompass the original plan of
the Orlando area and continuing northeast to Daytona Beach, where no
tracks exist to connect the city with the CSX mainline from Tampa to
Orlando and DeLand.
And, people wonder why so many have no confidence in the ability of
government to get in out of the pouring rain.
- Rational minds will tell you in every other instance in the country,
Amtrak is the most expensive operator of regional service. Amtrak also
has the greatest reputation of any commuter or regional service operators
for providing poor levels of service with badly maintained equipment.
- The thinking of Mrs. Dockery and cronies is that since Amtrak has the
right to operate over all freight tracks in America, that a new regional
service in Florida can be created without doing anything to help
infrastructure owner CSX accommodate any new trains. CSX may have
something else to say about that.
- Also, these alleged geniuses of modern day passenger rail also point
out that since Amtrak can operate over the tracks of freight railroad
without any new liability contracts with the host railroads to cover
accidents, derailments, or other disasters, the State of Florida will
save bundles of money on insurance.
Ignorance is quickly reaching the high tide mark, and may set new records
here in Florida.
Hopefully, this really awful and foolish idea will simply go away and
become a bad memory, and the original, excellent plans to earnestly begin
commuter rail in Central Florida will commence.
Yes, it would be wonderful to have commuter rail in many parts of
Florida. URPA published in this space earlier this year a rational
blueprint for considering regional rail throughout Florida. However,
rational plans to do so do not ignore all of the realities as Mrs.
Dockery chooses to do, and do not try and start something that is doomed
to failure from the outset.
6) The bananas have hit the fan. A lawsuit has been filed in Cincinnati,
Ohio over the value of a class of Amtrak stock still in private hands.
Due to the length of this TWA, this topic will be discussed in a future
issue.
7) There has been a local tragedy here in Jacksonville, which the daily
newspaper, The Florida Times-Union, and local broadcast media have milked
for days in the last few weeks. In a neighboring county to Jacksonville,
a 17 year old high school junior and football star decided to go fishing
with his buddies on a CSX (and Amtrak) mainline trestle one afternoon.
This is a typical trestle over a small river; the trestle is only as wide
as one railroad track, and has no walkways. There are appropriate side
areas with railings for inspectors or maintenance workers to use when a
train approaches; these side areas are only large enough for one man
each.
The three boys were illegally on the trestle fishing, and a CSX freight
train approached. Too late, the boys realized the train, traveling at
speed in a thinly populated area, was almost on top of them. The boys
ran, but the one football player didn't make it, and was killed by the
impact of the train.
The wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the alleged community sense of
loss has been played again and again by the news media. Yes, it was a
tragic loss when a promising young man lost his life.
So, where in the coverage was the reality of the situation? Did anyone
cover the horror the T&E crew on the train felt when their train, solely
under their control, barreled down on this young man and all they could
do was helplessly sit in the locomotive cab and watch the young man die?
Did anyone cover the fact three boys were trespassing (and breaking the
law by doing so) on private property, and not only placing themselves at
risk, but all of the equipment of the railroad and the infrastructure of
the mainline should a train have derailed in an emergency stop while
trying to save these boys?
Has anyone asked why three separate sets of parents were irresponsible
enough not to teach their sons to fish from an active railroad trestle
(the boys had a history of fishing from the trestle)?
The news media loves this type of "human interest" story and all of the
sobbing bystanders which go with it. Someone - anyone - in the news media
needs to stop covering these stories from one perspective, and give full
coverage of EVERYONE which is part of this tragedy.
8) The month of May also brought the usual coverage of Amtrak trains and
motor vehicles colliding at grade crossings with a resulting mess and
injuries.
There was a collision is in Mississippi, with Amtrak's City of New
Orleans colliding with a garbage truck, and seven injuries as a result.
And, just last week, the same train, on the same route, had two grade
crossing accidents in a single run between Chicago and New Orleans on the
same day.
Most of us remember the colossal wreck of the City of New Orleans in
Bourbannais, where the train struck a flatbed truck filled with steel.
When is our society going to do two things: First, hold drivers
accountable for their actions, especially drivers of trucks and busses.
If they caused the accident, they should pay the damages, as well as face
huge fines for putting so much at risk to beat a train and not have to
stop for a few moments. Second, when is our society going to demand we
have better trained drivers of all types of motor vehicles? Applying for
a driver's license is one of the easiest things to do in our society, and
the operation of a motor vehicle can usually cause more damage more
quickly than just about any other routine activity. Most states take a
scant moment to remind drivers that driving is a privilege, not a right
as a member of society. More privileges need to be withheld from more
people before more lives will be saved.
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