The Once And Future Amtrak

Over the next few weeks contributing editor and long time rail advocate David Peter Alan will wrap up his extensive Destination: Freedom series “Amtrak at 40: A Rider’s Perspective” which has recounted, often in great detail, the ground-level experience of an Amtrak rider whose use of the system is about as thorough as any human being’s could, or would even want, to be.

In telling the tale --- although the National Corridors Initiative was specifically founded in 1989 to help Amtrak get the long-embargoed Federal funding approved under President Jimmy Carter, but blocked by Presidents Reagan and Bush, that it needed to electrify the Northeast Corridor --- we have probably been seen as being too critical, especially by those who work at Amtrak under what are in fact very difficult, and often thankless, conditions.

In fact we do support, and will continue to support, the nation’s only national passenger rail system. But if David Peter Alan’s series has demonstrated anything, it is that no one, including Amtrak, can make bricks without straw.

That has been what Amtrak, for 40 years, has been asked to do, while competing transportation modes have received direct funding, and indirect subsidies, on a scale that dwarfs Amtrak’s annual pittance. Indeed, as virtually no one in America realizes or understands, Amtrak is one of the most cost-effectively run railroads in the world, recovering more of its total costs from the fare box than virtually any other nation’s rail system.

What Amtrak does not have, and must be given, is a new and reliable source of income to provide the capital for growth --- and the basic ability to do capital planning --- that has been denied the railroad even as, over the decades, Senators and Congressmen point fingers with one hand, while demanding that Amtrak service their respective districts, with the other.

Over the course of 2012 we will take a closer look at funding, and at all the ways we can discover that might better fund the national railroad passenger system. Your input is encouraged.

Amtrak At 40: A Rider’s Perspective

Passengers on today’s Amtrak Zephyr still pass the spot. In the summer, Donner Lake is a dark blue rectangular jewel in the middle of tan-colored desert land. In the winter, it can be an inhumanly cold and snowy place; many members of the infamous Donner Party of pioneers starved and froze to death there 105 years before the City of San Francisco’s ordeal.

Recounting the incident of 60 years ago serves as a reminder that anything can happen, on the railroad or anywhere else. When the forces of nature intervene, the best-laid human plans must be pushed aside. Trains can be delayed for reasons outside any human control, as many Amtrak riders know.

Still, people take Amtrak trains to go somewhere; the same reason why they use every other mode of transportation. Those passengers should have a reasonable expectation that they will get to their destination, on time or as quickly as possible, barring an unforeseeable emergency. Doing that will not usually require the monumental effort that Southern Pacific and the Army made sixty years ago to rescue the freezing passengers of Donner Lake! Nonetheless, it is an inherent part of the contract between a passenger and a transportation provider that the provider will get the passenger to his or her destination on schedule, or at least make a best effort to do so.

Amtrak usually fulfills that obligation, but not always. To be sure, Amtrak is not always at fault. This writer took an extended itinerary west of Chicago to North Dakota, Denver and other places last August. At that time, Devils Lake in North Dakota, the Missouri River and other waterways were flooding badly. The situation had a very disruptive effect on BNSF’s freight traffic, so Amtrak trains that used BSNF lines were also delayed, often for several hours. This writer rode Trains 3,4,5,6,7 and 8, and every train west of the Mississippi River ran anywhere from three to ten hours behind schedule. To Amtrak’s credit, the trains all eventually got to their destinations, even though this writer had to sacrifice a couple of stopovers. Amtrak later canceled the Zephyr train for an extended period, prompting criticism from this and other commentators.

While Amtrak should not be blamed when circumstances beyond its control interfere with the trains, we must look at the situation when trains were canceled, and what Amtrak could have done about it.

Hobbled By Big Dig Debts, Boston’s
‘T’ Needs New Sources Of Revenues 

AFL-CIO Calls For Transportation Investment
To Honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy

WASHINGTON, DC --- Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), has called for a renewed effort to fund major transportation projects across America, as one way of honoring the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“As we look back at the historic work of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who lifted the lives of so many hard-working Americans through his profound leadership and activism, we realize there is much work to be done to advance initiatives that put people to work and to stop federal and state anti-worker policies from taking root.

“While it is encouraging that the unemployment rate has eased a bit, we are faced with the reality that millions of Americans are out of work, and millions more struggle in part-time jobs.  As Dr. King stated:  ‘The Impact on our economy and our society from unemployment cannot be fully measured by these numbers. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,’ noted Wytkind.

“Neither can this nation sit idly by as many in Congress and state governments push anti-worker policies that roll-back the collective bargaining rights fought for over many decades.  These legislative assaults are all designed to accomplish a single objective: to erode the ability of working people to mobilize together and negotiate for good jobs and middle-class wages, warned Wytkind.

“We can never rest.  There is so much more to be done to make the case for billions in new investments in our transportation system – a sure recipe for job creation in an economy that is still teetering.  And we must use the inspiration of Dr. King to never stop protecting the livelihood and safety of American workers and the basic right to organize and join unions,” Wytkind concluded.

SunRail Needs Help To Soar,
U.S. Rep. John Mica Says

JANUARY 11 ---- U.S. Representative John Mica of Florida cut to the chase when he asked 200 people assembled at Leu Gardens last Wednesday how many had arrived by public transit. Not a single hand went up.

“Why didn't you take it? Because it's not convenient,” said Mica, R-Winter Park, who had called the group together to talk about attracting passengers and development to the planned $1.2 billion SunRail commuter train.

He spoke of the need for ready-to-go supplementary transportation at the station such as taxis and bus service to get people to their destination.

SunRail will run north and south, from DeLand in Volusia County through downtown Orlando to Poinciana in Osceola County. That means there will be a need for transportation going east and west for the most part, he said.

The first phase will run from DeBary in Volusia to Sand Lake Road in south Orange County. That 31-mile segment, with operations set for late 2014, is supposed to attract 4,300 riders daily.

Groundbreaking is set for Jan. 27 at the future site of the Altamonte Springs station on State Road 436, near City Hall. Altamonte Springs is joining with Longwood, Maitland and Casselberry to work with the Lynx bus company to devise a system of buses that would take riders to and from stops in those cities.

“The key to making SunRail a success is ensuring there are plenty of ways at each stop to get people to their final destination,” Mica said.

Local developer, Craig Ustler, is planning a multimillion-dollar development called Creative Village in downtown Orlando near the old Amway Arena. Ustler, who intends to build a hotel, education center and mixed-income housing, is banking on SunRail to bring students and shoppers to his venture.

His plan is for this mixed, diversified development to attract a critical mass for ridership, making both the rail service and the commercial center a success. “That's really where the multiplier effect is,” Ustler said. “It's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

Mica is confident ridership will be greater from Day 1.

“What we want is SunRail not to be a success in the future, but now,” he said.

SunRail supporters say more than $1 billion worth of development is being planned near the 17 stations along what would be a 61-mile corridor when it is completed in 2016.

Congressman Mica is chair of the powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Why Tokyo’s Privately Owned Rail Systems
Work So Well

There are mega-cities and then there’s Tokyo. With a metro-wide population of 35 million, it’s the undisputed king of mega-cities, comfortably beating even the closest competitors in mainland Asia and the Americas. For Americans, the term “mega-city” conjures up images of crowded slums in cities like Mumbai or São Paulo, with bare bones infrastructure and roads made impassible by the sheer mass of traffic. But in Tokyo, people move quite efficiently. Tallying up exactly how many people ride trains in the greater Tokyo region is difficult due to the proliferation of independent railways, but it’s safe to say that the number rivals the total population of many mid-sized mega-cities. 

Though crowded during rush hour, the rail networks of Japan’s three largest metropolitan areas – Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka – are perhaps the most efficient in the world. The country’s flagship high-speed line, the Tokaido Shinkansen, has operated for almost half a century without a single derailment or collision, and in 2007, its average departure delay was a mere 18 seconds along its 320-mile route. But high-speed rail only scratches the surface. The real marvel lies in the mesmerizing tangle of workaday metro and commuter lines, which no Osakan or Tokyoite would think of trying to cram all onto one map.

Beyond the astonishing size and quality of the networks, Japan’s three major metropolitan areas, sometimes called the Tokaido megalopolis, after its Edo-era road, are also home to a vibrant free market in transportation. Singapore and Hong Kong also have private companies, but competition is weak compared to Japan’s dizzying array of independent firms. Japan has by no means a completely free transportation market – even the private companies receive low-interest construction loans and are subject to price controls and rolling stock protectionism – but at the moment, it’s the closest thing this planet has.

Japan followed a similar path as the West before World War II, but afterwards diverged. As in the West, railroading started out very laissez-faire in the 19th century, but came under state control in the beginning of the 20th. But after World War II, while nearly all railways and intracity buses in Europe and North America were nationalized, Japan stayed its pre-war course, with the railway industry retaining its sizable minority of private firms. The country also maintained a much more urban character, a necessary complement to a healthy mass transit network. Sotaro Yukawa, a research associate at the University of Shiga Prefecture, notes that Japanese urban planners fed on the same anti-urban ideas as the West, but the devastation of the war hindered their ability to carry out their plans. Rail lost ground to buses and later cars in all parts of Japan, but not to the extent of the United States, or even Europe. And even today, in regional areas of Japan where fewer than one in ten use transit, residential neighborhoods are almost always walkable.

As the post-war years marched on, the private railways proved to be more efficient than those run by the state, which were hemorrhaging cash. It was understandable that lines outside the big cities might need subsidies, but there was no excuse for operating losses in the dense Tokaido megalopolis. So in 1987, the government privatized the Japanese National Railways (JNR), which operated every type of transit except trams and inner-city metros. JR East, JR Central, and JR West, the three spin-offs operating around Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, respectively, emerged healthy and profitable. They were able to pay back their construction debt and make capital improvements to their networks, reversing the stagnation and decline that JNR had seen over the previous decade.

Privatization was later applied to Tokyo Metro, the largest subway network in the city. And according to Tatsuhiko Suga, who has been active in Japanese railways for decades and now leads Japan’s Foundation for Transport Publications, the city’s other metro network, Toei, may also be thrown into the mix by the time the process is complete. (Privatization in Japan has been nothing if not slow, a strategy which seems to have paid off.) All railways now strive to emulate the private firms, but metro systems outside of Tokyo have not attempted privatization.

While JNR privatization was a success in the three large metropolitan regions, and especially Tokyo, the smaller cities and regional areas are another story. When JNR was broken up in 1987, the networks outside of Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka were not fully privatized, and the longer lines are still owned by the national government in the form of smaller “JR” companies. Shorter lines, called “third-sector” railways, have been devolved to local governments and private investors. Profit-making private firms exist outside of the three metropolitan areas just as there are third-sector railways within, but they are the exception to the norm. Many third-sector railways outside of the Tokaido megalopolis are now in peril as their stabilization funds dwindle and further subsidies become unsustainable.

In this way, the railroad finances reveal a deeper Japanese demographic trend: the countryside and many regional cities are emptying out. As are, for that matter, Osaka and Nagoya – something which is perhaps reflected in the fact that their metro systems are not considered to have profit-making potential. But unlike in America, barebones mass transit networks are expected public services, even in rural Japan, with its aging population. Access will never disappear completely, but fewer subsidies will force some regional lines to convert to bus operation, and others will shut down entirely.

The country’s centralization in the Tokaido megalopolis, and more recently in the Tokyo metropolis, has been resisted for decades, but to no avail. Public works projects and subsidies, from bridges to nuclear power plants to rice subsidies, were lavished on Japan’s rural areas in boom times, but these supports are becoming unsustainable. The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the reversal of Japanese nuclear policy after the Fukushima meltdowns are the latest blow, but Tohoku and regions like it were in decline even before the March disasters. At this point, it seems that the best that Japan’s small towns and villages can hope for is that the elderly who stay behind are looked after.

Privatization was a boon to railways in Japan’s dense metropolises, and especially Tokyo, but its revealed weaknesses elsewhere. As America also learned during its post-war urban exodus, declining populations and rising car ownerships are a recipe for disaster for private railways, and the government must step in if service is to be maintained. But for healthy cities like Tokyo, comprehensive privatization has proven to be a successful agent of revitalization for moribund public systems. Who knows – maybe if America’s urban renaissance advances far enough, the United States will one day return its rails to their free market roots.

Amtrak Pushes Aggressive Agenda For 2012

“With demand for intercity passenger rail service on the rise as demonstrated by yet another year of record ridership, Amtrak is moving forward with an aggressive agenda for 2012 and building for the future while strengthening current services.”

Electric locomotives, eTicketing, Northeast Corridor and HSR

The first units of 70 new electric locomotives and 130 new single-level long-distance cars are among key actions planned for 2012. Amtrak will also launch eTicketing for all trains, implement significant improvements to the Northeast Corridor (NEC) and develop a high-capacity, next-generation high-speed rail (NextGen HSR) system.

“Amtrak is building the equipment, infrastructure and organization needed to ensure our strong growth continues into the future,” said President and CEO Joe Boardman.  “We are investing in projects critical for enhancing the passenger experience, essential for supporting our national network of services and vital for the future of America's Railroad.”

Other significant projects in 2012 include: upgrading NEC tracks, bridges and other infrastructure; expanding Acela Express capacity; advancing the planning work for the Gateway Program to provide additional capacity into Manhattan for intercity, commuter and NextGen HSR services; improving station accessibility under requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and continuing the development of a next-generation reservation system.

Major achievements in the past year were a new all-time ridership record of nearly 30.2 million passengers and making Wi-Fi available to 75 percent of all its passengers. The railroad also reduced its debt for the eighth consecutive year.

Reader Advises Amtrak On Increased Passenger Volume:
Just Do It!

Dear Editor,

I was rather appalled by the innumeracy displayed by an Amtrak AVP as set out in David Peter Alan’s article in D-F for 9 January .[The company’s] Mr. Bennett is quoted as saying that Amtrak loses money on every passenger, so the more passengers they carry, the more money they lose. So if Amtrak carried only a handful of passengers, its loss would be less? I don’t think so!

If any reader knows Mr. Bennett, perhaps they could pass to him this simple example: Suppose you have a 250-seat train which costs you $20,000 to run, and the fare is $100. If you sell 120 tickets, your revenue is $12,000. You make a loss of $8,000: that’s a loss of $66.66 ($8000/120) on each passenger.

However, if you carry 30 more passengers, your revenue becomes $15,000. Your costs do not increase, so your loss comes down to $5,000. Your loss on each passenger drops to $33.33 ($5000/150).

And, of course, if you carry 200 passengers your revenue becomes $20,000 – the same as the cost. Zero loss!

Mr. Bennett’s hypothesis is only true if both costs and revenues increase when passenger numbers increase. They don’t. So it’s not. Carry more passengers at the same cost and you lose less money. Not more. Just do it!

Andrew Sharp
Director General
International Air Rail Organization
London
IARO promotes better inter-connection between air and rail travel modes, worldwide.  

[ Publisher’s note: both Mr. Sharp and Mr. Bennett are right --- but how can that be? Because marginal increases in passenger numbers do increase operational revenue without substantial impact on cost --- but when ridership increases to the point where more trainsets are needed and/or expansion of track capacity/infrastructure --- then the losses become enormous unless you have someone in the wings to put up the new capital. No good deed remains unpunished… ]