Showing posts with label Amtrak Board of Directors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amtrak Board of Directors. Show all posts

Thursday, January 07, 2010

This Week in Amtrak

Amtrak ChilledImage by ahockley via Flickr


This Week at Amtrak; January 5, 2010



A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from



United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute



1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org • http://www.unitedrail.org





Volume 7, Number 1



Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which 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, New York, and other cities. 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) Welcome to the seventh year of This Week at Amtrak, where there is always the hope, dream, and desire Amtrak will become a responsible part of our nation’s domestic transportation network.



Hope always springs eternal. Reality always disappoints.



Where are we this January that we weren’t last January?



We still do not have a permanent president of Amtrak (see the next item below).



We still do not have an expected passenger equipment order which will expand the fleet.



We still do not have a funded marketing plan which will increase ridership nationwide.



We still do not have every train in the system operating on a daily schedule.



We still do not have anything but a bare, inadequate, skeletal national system.



We still do not have anyone publicly leading the company with a future vision or growth plan.



We do have a plan to take the Sunset Limited west of New Orleans to a daily operation, but we don’t have a plan to restore the illegally stopped service east of New Orleans.



We do have some executives at Amtrak who are anxious to make the company perform better and provide better service, but they are hamstrung by the cadre of executives who seem to be there mostly for the retirement package.



We do have a desire on the part of many Americans of all ages to ride trains, but there are not many trains to ride.



We do have other competent passenger train operators in this country waiting for the opportunity to move beyond providing commuter services to real intercity services.



We do now exist in the era of anticipating coming high speed rail, but it’s going to be a long, long process getting there.



We do have visionaries like former Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Gil Carmichael who have developed realistic plans for the future, but often these learned and inspiring voices seem to be talking in the wilderness more than to receptive audiences in Washington, no matter how long and hard they talk and make a great deal of sense.



We do have people like Andrew Selden of Minneapolis, Minnesota who not only understand the business of passenger railroading, but are willing to create a vision and plan for the future.



Where are we in January 2010 versus January 2009? Another year has gone by without much major happening in the world of Amtrak.



Keep in mind, that has occurred intentionally on the part of Amtrak; it has had a plethora of opportunities, and it has chosen to focus on planning for the expected panacea of high speed rail and ignore its core business of 79 M.P.H. conventional trains. Maybe that’s why so many foreign passenger rail operators, from across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have expressed an interest in developing high speed rail in the United States. These astute businessmen have looked at Amtrak and found it wanting in so many ways; they must figure competing for Amtrak for a chunk of business is like shooting fish in a barrel.





2) There is always someone in a company who has the zest and drive to make things happen. Eh, not so much at Amtrak.



The Amtrak Board of Directors, which will never be mistaken for a body which takes bold action, has extended indefinitely the tenure of interim President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman.



The Amtrak board currently consists of five voting members, one being Mr. Boardman. There are four vacant seats on the board, two of which have nominees awaiting Senate confirmation. Two seats have no announced appointees; apparently the White House and various and sundry Members of Congress haven’t agreed upon who gets those seats (If anybody asks, we can recommend a cadre of highly competent potential board members, none of which have the type of conflicts the two current nominees have, and each would be a stellar addition to the board.).



So, in a fit of bold caution, the Amtrak board extended Mr. Boardman’s contract and made a statement saying a permanent president of Amtrak would not be announced until the board is more fully populated.



Hmmmm, let’s see. When was the last time the Amtrak Board of Directors was fully populated?



Seriously, anybody know?



You have to go all the way back to the end of the Clinton Administration to find a legal quorum of board members.



In the interim during the Bush years, stars like former board chairman David Laney and some others held things together and worked through a number of problems while the White House dithered and the Senate obfuscated about appointing qualified board members.



So, Mr. Boardman gets to keep his job a while longer.



Okay, let’s get to the bottom line. There is certainly a rational argument to be made about a board of directors hiring a chief executive, and then new members of the board arrive and find the chief executive not to their liking. We’ve already seen that scenario play out with the unlamented departure of former Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant. Even though Mr. Kummant departed over disagreements about a number of issues, it was never an ideal situation to have a CEO hired by a departed board expected to meet the needs of a new board.



The big complaint really centers around the White House. Guys, it’s been a full year, now. That is more than enough time to find and screen political appointees to the Amtrak board. There are a number of qualified people just waiting in the wings, hoping for a chance to lead Amtrak into a better era and a more prosperous time. But, the Amtrak board, always a bottom of the barrel issue for any White House administration, remains a sideshow, and – highly regrettably – business as usual reigns.



In the interim, how about some leadership from the United States Department of Transportation and/or the Federal Railroad Administration? How about setting some goals for Amtrak and creating a true surface transportation policy?



How about SOMEONE doing SOMETHING? Doing ANYTHING? Dan Pardue of Raleigh, North Carolina, when trying to do problem solving with non-cooperative equipment or non-cooperative clients, always says “Do something, even if it’s wrong. At least some action is being taken, and perhaps the right answer will come along by starting some sort of process.”



Amtrak, here at This Week at Amtrak we will gladly provide you with Mr. Pardue’s telephone number so you can call him for some tutoring. Please, start some sort of process to start doing something – anything, please.



In 2009, a year which will go down in the annuals of history as a truly misbegotten year, Amtrak received record amounts of free federal monies. Stimulus money flowed, and regular budget money flowed.



While Amtrak did start whittling away at a backlog of projects which are nice to have completed, most of those projects (with the stark exception of rolling stock rehabs) will not generate any additional revenues for Amtrak. Most of the projects are just things which needed to be done, and had been neglected; some for decades.



Again, Amtrak has an unprecedented opportunity for change and upgrading itself as a company and our nation’s domestic passenger railroad.



But, Amtrak seems to be doing a bang up job of wasting that opportunity, instead of taking advantage of so much manna from the federal treasury.



We give Mr. Boardman credit for stabilizing some things, and he gets a huge “attaboy” for leading the company to accepting Brian Rosenwald’s excellent work of starting the process of converting the Sunset Limited west of New Orleans into a daily – yet, still a bit flawed – operation. We’re waiting for some leadership on what will happen east of New Orleans, and we keep hearing whispers the Cardinal, perhaps one of Amtrak’s most scenic routes, will be lifted from the doldrums and waste of a tri-weekly operation.



But, Mr. Boardman, in his interim post, is still head of the company, and he still sets the daily tone and pace of the company. We do expect some sort of future vision, even if it’s just a building block to be used by a permanent CEO. We do expect some sort of growth plan, and we do expect an equipment order beyond the rather paltry announcements which have been made for replacement equipment, only.



In short, even if it’s interim leadership, we do expect leadership.



Amtrak is an ongoing enterprise, with a long-forgotten mandate and mission to provide the United States of America with a national passenger train service. Keeping Amtrak in a state of suspense because the White House and Members of Congress can’t decide on political appointees for the board of directors is not only wasteful, it’s sinister and displays an outright prejudice against all of us who understand and cherish passenger rail travel.



Mr. Boardman, please start the process. The Obama White House, please do your duty and populate the Amtrak Board of Directors. United States Senate, please fulfill your advise and consent duties as outlined in the constitution so the Amtrak board seats can be filled in an expeditious manner.



Somebody, somewhere, please, don’t leave us all hanging.



3) Amtrak ended 2009 battling the late fall/early winter Blizzard of 2009, with a pretty good record. Chicago got penalized by one of its host railroads dumping a freight train off the tracks, causing a huge traffic jam, and it took a while to get things back to normal. No penalty to Amtrak. On the Northeast Corridor, while the airlines just threw up their collective hands and said they weren’t flying in the bad weather (it’s kind of tough to blame them when the weather is that nasty), Amtrak did mostly fulfill its duty as the all-weather common carrier and kept a lot of trains running, as did its host railroads south of Washington, even though trains were woefully late. Too many trains were cancelled during the busy holiday period (it’s especially vexing Amtrak chose to cancel the Palmetto, even though the majority of its run was south of the destruction of the storm), but transportation still was available.



There were too many mechanical malfunction reports of Amfleet cars on the NEC with doors which were frozen open. Gosh, those cars have only been around for a bit more than three decades now, in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, one has to believe someone in that vast period of time could figure out how to overcome Budd’s design flaws of the vestibule doors freezing in the open position when the car is full of passengers traveling at 100 M.P.H. and the icy wind is tearing through the interior of the car and passengers.



Going further into winter, Amtrak has been battling more weather-related problems and the country has been battling record cold temperatures and storms. (It MUST be all of that global warming; what other explanation could there be for such a cold and cruel start of what most likely is going to be a long, cold, bitter winter?) Some trains are running more than a dozen hours late, other trains just seem to be disappearing off of the schedule, and are never being launched out of their terminals.



This is when Amtrak’s too thin fleet reserves come back to bite it. Inbound equipment that normally turns for the next day’s outbound train suddenly is stranded on a siding somewhere on the far side of nowhere, and there’s no spare equipment to put on the road. Passengers and crews are stranded; things spin more and more out of control, and eventually system gridlock occurs. Remember all of that old equipment that used to sit around, but is gone, now? Wouldn’t it be nice to have that for occasions just such as this winter?



Before the Age of Amtrak, the private passenger railroads always kept a slice of their old equipment fleets around for use in emergencies. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t the most efficient stuff in the world, but it got passengers to a destination when nothing else could. Amtrak has scrapped or sold all of its old equipment; after all, since it gets lots of free federal monies from the government treasury it doesn’t have to worry about keeping passengers happy by providing them the transportation they paid for in advance. Amtrak can just annul as many trains as it wants, and say “so sorry, so sad” to its stranded passengers, and keep totaling up the tab to be paid for by Congress next budget year.



What a way to run a railroad.







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



freetwa@unitedrail.org



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 twa@unitedrail.org; we are unable to go through any approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.



All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe should be addressed to



brucerichardson@unitedrail.org



Copies of This Week at Amtrak are archived on URPA’s web site, www.unitedrail.org and also on www.todaywithjb.blogspot.com where other rail-related writings of Bruce Richardson may also be found.



URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.



J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

brucerichardson@unitedrail.org

http://www.unitedrail.org





Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Thursday, August 06, 2009

This Week in Amtrak

CHICAGO - MARCH 13:  An Amtrak engine moves th...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This Week at Amtrak; July 31, 2009



A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from



United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute



1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org • http://www.unitedrail.org





Volume 6, Number 26



Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which 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, New York, and other cities. 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) And, the hits just keep on coming. Here’s a Congressional, bipartisan press release from earlier this week.



[Begin quote]



Wednesday, July 29, 2009



Chairman Towns, Ranking Member Issa Call for Replacement of Amtrak’s ‘Interim’ IG



For immediate release: Wednesday, July 29, 2009



Contact: Oversight and Government Reform Press Office, 202-225-5051



Chairman Towns, Ranking Member Issa Call for Replacement of Amtrak’s ‘Interim’ IG



Lawmakers Question Amtrak’s Motives and Legal Basis for Appointing Temporary IG



WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today in a letter to Amtrak Chairman Thomas C. Carper called for the immediate replacement of Amtrak “Interim” Inspector General Lorraine Green – a 12-year member of Amtrak management who intends to return to her former position when a new IG is appointed.

“We believe that the selection of a senior member of Amtrak management as Interim Inspector General undermines the statutory independence of the Office of Inspector General,” wrote the two oversight leaders. “Ms. Green’s actions during the time she has been serving as Interim Inspector General raise questions about her actual independence.”



The letter follows the June 18, 2009, forced retirement of former Amtrak Inspector General Fred E. Weiderhold, Jr. who had aggressively investigated and questioned the Amtrak General Counsel’s office for spending tens of millions of dollars on outside law firms. A bipartisan investigation by the committee has revealed longstanding and serious conflicts between Amtrak management and the Inspector General and major disputes about the role of the Inspector General within Amtrak.



“The independence of Amtrak’s Inspector General is critical to effectively weed out waste and fraud, especially now with increased stimulus spending at Amtrak,” said Chairman Towns. “By installing one of their own as Inspector General, it looks like Amtrak management is trying to take the teeth out of the watchdog.” “Amtrak has flagrantly disregarded the rules and expectations set forth by Congress to protect the independence of Inspectors General,” said Rep. Issa. “The brazen appointment of an ‘Interim’ IG confirms the existence of a problem within management that must be investigated.”



Chairman Towns and Ranking Member Issa note the interim Inspector General has quickly taken actions that may erode the institutional independence of the Amtrak IG office in demanding a response by July 31.



[End quote]



Where to begin on this one? First and foremost, Amtrak – even though it has pretended to be through the years – is not above the law. Amtrak is no longer flying below the radar, and everyone is expecting much, much better out of Amtrak than a stunt like this.



Second, it’s incredible to think Amtrak, which depends on Congress for its very existence, not to mention ongoing funding, and protection against everyone, would want to so annoy an important Congressional committee that this type of press release and related action would take place.



Third, what in the world has Amtrak’s Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary Eleanor D. Acheson gotten the Amtrak Board of Directors into? She is supposed to be the legal eagle who stops nonsense such as this and provides allegedly sage advice to the company management and Board of Directors. This, however, seems like a major mistake which appears to be grounds for selecting a new general counsel who may be more familiar with the law as written. Also, what does the press release mean when it questions Ms. Acheson and the way the Amtrak General Counsel’s office has spent money on outside counsel like a drunk sailor? Does Amtrak have all sorts of money to throw around on buying outside talent for things which are supposed to be handled inhouse?



Amtrak is entering into a time of unprecedented spending systemwide. Now is not the time to relax the vigilance of the Inspector General’s office. If Amtrak is going to play with the big boys, then Amtrak is going to have to act like one of the big boys. The Board of Directors needs to move quickly to solve this problem and find themselves better legal advice and a new, robust, permanent Inspector General.



2) Andrew Selden of Minneapolis, Vice President of Law and Policy for United Rail Passenger Alliance, and President of the Minnesota Association of Railroad Passengers has some cogent thoughts on the delights and potential profits of first class service on passenger trains.



[Begin quote]



There is more to train travel than coach seats and utility transportation



By Andrew Selden



Something to which almost any passenger rail observer would agree is Amtrak hasn't done very much to cultivate the first class dimension to its high revenue long distance services, and what it has done it hasn't done terribly well. One need think only of the sorry state of Amtrak’s dining car services, or the paucity and dismal condition of sleeping car accommodations, or even the complete absence of a family-oriented intermediate class of high-end coach service, to grasp that management does not value this business opportunity. Coach seats and utility transportation is about as far as Amtrak's vision extends.



The highly inconsistent character of service delivery in sleeping cars and diners, and the frequent service disasters occasioned by Amtrak's notorious equipment maintenance practices, undermine whatever chance might have existed for the brand "Amtrak" to denote a quality travel experience. Contrast your – or the public's – visceral reaction to the brand "Carnival" or "Hyatt" or "Disney" to the customary reaction to "Amtrak" to get a sense of the depth of the problem.



But this sad history need not doom the future of quality rail transportation.



Companies which prosper are usually ones focusing intensely on a core competency. Amtrak has competencies, but operating a consistently good-to-high quality rolling hotel or land-cruise experience, whether for experience-oriented travelers, or just serious business or middle-class personal travelers, would not be among them. That does not mean such rail services cannot be fielded on commercially successful terms. It suggests only Amtrak may not be the right entity to provide them.



We are not talking about replicating the famous world-class service of South African Railway's Blue Train, or the analogous effort by the now-defunct American Orient Express to provide a roving five-star cruise train.



What we have in mind is fielding a daily, regular route, and consistently good quality and reliable "Marriott" or "Hilton" level of rail service, not necessarily a "Four Seasons" or "Ritz Carlton." This would be a service which consistently hits the needs and expectations of the American middle class, especially families and business travelers.



But, Amtrak need not be the entity which owns, markets or operates the service, even if it would continue to be the company which owns the relationship with the host railroads and operates the trains.



Amtrak can leverage those de facto monopoly rights to develop an entirely new haulage business where about all it has to do is run the train and collect the fees from someone else whose core competency is providing consistently good quality hospitality services which appeal to American middle class needs and expectations.



Who might that be, and what would the relationship to Amtrak be?



Well, who does that sort of thing now? It's a surprisingly long list which includes such great hospitality providers as Marriott, Carnival, and Disney, and foreign companies such as Veolia (France) and Forte (UK). That is what they do – provide consistent and consistently good quality hospitality services, all in a travel and transportation environment.



History even offers us a well-proven model for what the relationship with Amtrak might look like: the Pullman Company, which operated its own sleeping, dining and parlor cars which were attached to trains owned and operated by a host railroad. They did what the host railroad could not do, or at least could not do as well: offer a predictable and good quality hospitality service associated with getting somewhere by rail.



But we do not propose re-inventing the Pullman Company. This is emphatically not "Back to the Future" in the 19th Century.



Rather, what we envision is a relationship founded on a much more sophisticated modern business relationship modeled after modern business franchise principles. Big-name companies today franchise concepts and capabilities to each other all the time. A brand name hotel company may own franchised restaurants to add food service that the hotel company is ill-suited to offer its guests. Airports and airport food service providers do the same. A resort developer will acquire a franchise from a well-known hotel chain to put lodging into the resort development. Trunk airlines in effect franchise their brands and reservation systems to regional carriers to operate feeder routes into the big carrier's hubs.



So, what we envision is for Amtrak to enter into a franchise in which an outside company would contract to provide the onboard service experience in the sleeping and dining cars on Amtrak's overnight trains.



An experiment is called for to test the viability of the idea. To do that, we would enter into similar arrangements on two long distance routes, one of which would have the outside provider operate the service under its own brand identification, and another where the provider (which could be the same company, or someone else) would operate the service, but do so under the Amtrak brand (or, maybe a slightly different brand such as "Amtrak Premier"). These operating contracts would be negotiated and awarded on a basis unfamiliar to Amtrak – genuine competitive bidding. The experimental contracts would be for a short period of time, perhaps 18 to 24 months.



The "control" for the experiment would be a similar long distance train that continued to operate under traditional Amtrak stewardship. Then, we examine the results.



For example, we could contract the sleeper and diner services on the Silver Meteor to Carnival; on the Southwest Chief perhaps to Marriott. The Empire Builder – currently Amtrak's best and by far its highest revenue train – would serve as the "control."



These experiments would not breach any legal or contractual constraints. The contractors can use Amtrak labor, as long as they have administrative authority over them. And, the franchise relationship would keep the contracted service squarely under Amtrak's ultimate responsibility for purposes of statutory requirements, and the comfort of the host railroads.



Staying on the current arrangement is plainly insane – one simply cannot continue endlessly repeating the same actions, yet, expect different, and better, results. So, the cost and risk of not experimenting with a promising alternative is greater than the lost opportunity value of the status quo. In short ... it's worth a try.



[End quote]



3) There were several good responses to William Lindley’s stations article in the last edition of This Week at Amtrak. A gentleman from the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division directed us to that state’s web site (www.bytrain.org) which has an extensive section on station improvements. North Carolina has been living the dream of both restoring historic, and building new and improved stations, throughout the state.



We also heard from a longtime TWA reader about the atrocities committed against Cleveland’s Terminal Tower and Cleveland Union Station. This landmark monument to the glory of passenger railroading in the early 20th Century has been permanently disabled as a passenger station by the erection of a federal office building on a piece of land where station tracks used to be, similar to the unforgivable situation in Kansas City.



Mr. Lindley also touched on the calamities happening in Denver, and we will have more on that later.



4) We have also had a pleasant response to our TWA contest to name as many stations as possible in the Amtrak system where local or state monies have gone to fix up or build local stations, only to have Amtrak either completely stop passenger service to those stations, or severely curtail service after huge amounts of non-Amtrak monies were spent. Please, continue to send in your contributions to this list to info@unitedrail.org so we may complete the list of stations.

5) The furor over Amtrak’s Gulf Coast Service Report doesn’t seem to be going away. Instead, many who benignly accepted whatever Amtrak had to say on any given subject seem to be understanding differently. It’s just possible Amtrak went one step too far in this instance.



Many former Amtrak True Believers are girding themselves for the upcoming Pioneer route restoration and North Coast Limited route restoration reports coming soon, wondering if the same type of illiterate conclusions will be drawn by Amtrak in those reports as the Gulf Coast report.



One interesting note has come up: Amtrak apparently isn’t in a hurry to help itself. A report on restoration of some Midwest service has been postponed for a year; Amtrak says it’s just too busy to get the report out. Gee, it must be nice to have so much to do it can’t produce reports on restoring or creating new service, especially since someone else is usually paying for these reports. But, hey, we wouldn’t want those hard working folks in Amtrak’s planning department to have to lose any sleep or work late on a Friday evening. After all, it’s just public money we’re talking about here and fulfilling Amtrak’s mission of being a national passenger railroad, nothing really important in the world of Amtrak.



6) No good deed goes unpunished, even in Canada. VIA Rail Canada went through a short, two day strike by some of its union employees last week, and the company felt so bad about the adverse publicity and inconvenienced passengers, it decided to do something nice and offer huge discounts to lure passengers back. VIA offered up to a 60% discount on regular-fare tickets throughout the country.



It seems the response is so huge, all of VIA’s telephone lines into its reservations centers have been jammed for days, and VIA’s Internet res system has practically broken down under the demand. Enterprising Canadians have been lining up at VIA’s station ticket counters, with some lines in major cities such as Toronto blocks long.



Who says nobody wants to ride a train?





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



freetwa@unitedrail.org



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 twa@unitedrail.org; we are unable to go through any approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.



All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe should be addressed to



brucerichardson@unitedrail.org



Copies of This Week at Amtrak are archived on URPA’s web site, www.unitedrail.org and also on www.todaywithjb.blogspot.com where other rail-related writings of Bruce Richardson may also be found.



URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.



J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

brucerichardson@unitedrail.org

http://www.unitedrail.org

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Monday, July 20, 2009

This Week in Amtrak

Sunset LimitedImage by °Florian via Flickr

This Week at Amtrak; July 20, 2009



A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from



United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute



1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org • http://www.unitedrail.org





Volume 6, Number 23



Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which 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, New York, and other cities. 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 Amtrak Board of Directors should be furious about this document. Amtrak Interim President and CEO Joseph Boardman, since this document was issued during his stewardship, should be fired immediately. The Amtrak planning department should be outright ashamed of themselves and simply die of embarrassment they took a paycheck for producing such an untoward piece of drivel and written chicanery.



We can only be discussing the July 16, 2009 issuance of Amtrak’s P.R.I.I.A. Section 226 Gulf Coast Service Plan Report, mandated last year by the Amtrak reauthorization. Congresswoman Corrine Brown, who placed a million dollars into Amtrak’s free federal money handout last year deserves a refund for her efforts. At 77 pages long, plus the cover, $12,820.51 for each page will long be noted by government watchdogs as one of the greatest misuses of money in the modern history of the United States government. Certainly, when Congresswoman Brown threw Amtrak this generous bone she most likely never dreamed Amtrak would come back with such an insulting document to her, her constituents, and American taxpayers.



The report is an outright disgrace and complete misrepresentation of facts to restore service east of New Orleans to Orlando, Florida after the Sunset Limited was “temporarily” discontinued in August of 2005 because of the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. Four years later, Amtrak’s planning department and Joe Boardman expect us to believe their fantasy document provides any credence whatsoever as to what it will take to restore service over the Sunset Limited route along the Gulf Coast.



2) Here’s a summary of the document by one interested observer who has contributed accurate reporting to this space in the past. Then, we’ll take a close look at the nuts and bolts of this written travesty that one other commentator who exposed his complete lack of knowledge of the railroad world incorrectly called “a realistic assessment of existing difficulties.”



First, the correct summary.



[Begin quote]



After reading the Amtrak report I basically held my thoughts and comments until I had a chance to see the input from people within the group who are much more knowledgeable about running a rail passenger system than am I. I believe I can say without exception none of the reports I've read are optimistic or approving of Amtrak's report which is precisely my opinion from the minute I finished reading it.



With the single exception of the report indicating that regardless of which option was selected it would include sleepers between New Orleans and Orlando this was a disheartening report. This inclusion of sleepers was not intimated in the oral reports given to this point concerning the "new train" (Option 3).



Option 1 (tri-weekly Sunset Limited) seemed to be the least desirable based on oral comments simply because of the odd arrangement of having a daily "stub" train arriving in New Orleans (this stub train was made to sound like all but a certainty), but continuing to Orlando only with a tri-weekly schedule. This naturally meant playing havoc with anyone trying to travel through New Orleans to points East. Yet the written report makes Option 1 appear as the best option based on several points. Option 2 (City of New Orleans) appeared to possibly be the best option based on early reports, but the written report makes it sound undesirable on several points.



It's obvious to even the most casual reader that the primary recurring theme from Amtrak is that they don't want to reinstate any service between New Orleans and Orlando. They do not say that specifically, but by any interpretation of the facts they've done everything they can to make the return of the route as difficult as possible from inflated costs to inflated time frames and convoluted passenger counts and miles. I would love to know the real reason Amtrak absolutely is not interested in running a New Orleans-Orlando train. Might be interesting.



There is little doubt that there has been for years strong opponents of Amtrak (with the Sunset being the punching bag). However, many of those voices of dissent have been silenced or at least muffled to a large extent. We have a president and Congress professing strong support for passenger rail, and actually providing funding. It would seem if ever there was a good time to push expansion and improvement of Amtrak it would be now.



Yet Amtrak seems to still be on the wrong track as usual. I've never seen a company run only for the benefit of the management and employees instead of the customers as is Amtrak. This is what comes from a government-funded company I guess. Their goal seems to be to get more and more government money, but they don't seem to know what to do with it. Amtrak management does not seem to have a plan. They can't even decide whether they want to have long-distance trains. They can't decide the best way to manage the Northeast Corridor. They can't decide how to manage dining car concepts. They can't decide what kinds of cars to order. They can't decide what routes to operate. They can't decide whether to have High Speed Rail or even what HSR is.



If Amtrak were a private company they would have gone bankrupt a long time ago. However, American management can't seem to operate auto companies, banks or insurance companies either. Maybe we shouldn't expect them to be able to operate a rail-passenger corporation. Possibly we should replace the entire Amtrak management team with Japanese rail executives. They seem to have no trouble running passenger rail. I cannot possibly see how it couldn't help but be an improvement.



I for one am fed up with Amtrak's lack of leadership, vision, planning, and just general inability to function effectively. If I remember correctly we paid $1 million for this "informative" report which basically tells us all the reasons Amtrak doesn't want to reinstate service to Orlando. We already knew that. I'm tired of seeing my tax money being wasted by an incompetent company.



If they had just reinstated the train when CSX opened the route all of this could have been avoided. Instead of telling us why they can't reinstate it now we'd be talking about how best to improve service on the route. You don't have to be a rail expert to know this is a snow job which is the one thing Amtrak has perfected during their existence. I've waited four years to catch a train in Pensacola, and now the best they can tell me is that it likely will be four more years if ever. Enough is enough. What a crock. I've no more patience with this nonsense.



Our only hope is if Congress puts their collective foot up Amtrak's posterior, and tells them to make things happen or they'll find people who can. Without that it's going to be business (or no business) as usual for years to come.



[End quote]



3) Amtrak says the dog ate its homework, so it can only do so much to restore service between New Orleans and Orlando. It lists three options, two of which are pretty reasonable.



The first option is to restore the service as it was before, re-extending the Sunset Limited (or it’s named replacement service) from New Orleans to Orlando on a tri-weekly basis, using the same maintenance facility at Sanford, Florida, a suburb of Orlando, as it previously successfully used for a decade.



The second option is to extend the City of New Orleans, operating from Chicago to New Orleans via Memphis, Tennessee, to Orlando, an option long sought by United Rail Passenger Alliance. This option would – for the first time since 1979 – provide single train service between Chicago and Florida, with a schedule which feeds all of the western transcontinental trains eastbound into Chicago to cross-platform travelers to the City and to Florida.

The third option is to recreate the old Seaboard Air Line/Louisville & Nashville joint train, the Gulf Wind, as a stand-alone train between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida, and extend it down to Orlando. The Gulf Wind was discontinued on Amtrak Day in 1971, and the service was eventually replaced by the Sunset Limited’s tri-weekly schedule in 1993 until Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.



4) Amtrak’s report has such blatantly false numbers as a basis for the document, and the assumptions use such discredited junk science in the transportation industry, that it’s tough to zero in on a starting point. So, the most understandable thing to do is to go through the report as presented and point out the numerous inaccuracies – and, frankly, outright lies – as stated.



Here’s the first laugh: “The service remains suspended today because of the cost and challenges associated with restoring service to this route.” Really? CSX, the primary host railroad of the route, which suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Katrina, had the track up and running and available to Amtrak on April 1, 2006. The CSX efforts included replacing huge stretches of track, bridges, signaling, switches, and every type of railroad infrastructure in the wake of Katrina. Amtrak’s relatively small challenges of rehabbing stations (many of which are municipally owned) pale in comparison to what CSX (and Norfolk Southern on its Crescent line into New Orleans just to the north of the CSX line along the Gulf Coast) had to accomplish, and was able to accomplish in seven months. Of course, the difference is CSX is a private, for-profit company, and every hour the railroad was out of service was an hour of revenue lost. In the case of Amtrak, it could blow off the service and still turn to Congress for more money with yet another, ongoing sob story. When there is no accountability, there is no progress.



The report notes a $10.7 million cost for restoring stations along the route, including $3.2 million for the demolition and reconstruction of the Sanford, Florida station, which was damaged from other hurricane preceding Katrina.



Whoops! The Sanford station is also on the route of the Silver Meteor and Silver Star. The reasons Amtrak gave for closing the station initially had absolutely nothing to do with the Sunset Limited, but rather because Amtrak said there were enough other stations in the area (DeLand, Winter Park, Orlando, and Kissimmee), and Sanford served no useful purpose, plus eliminating the Sanford station stop sped up train schedules.



Also, on an adjoining piece of property to the old Atlantic Coast Line Sanford station and division office building, Amtrak is using stimulus money to build a brand new Auto Train station and terminal.



Now, Amtrak is telling us it wants another $3.2 million – charged directly to the restoration of the Sunset Limited route – to build another new Sanford station that will also serve the Silver Meteor and Silver Star? If this station is built for the restored service, will the Meteor and Star also use it? If this station is important enough to the overall financial health of this route, why wait for this service to be restored; why isn’t the station in some other vision plan for the future? And, better yet, why wasn’t the Auto Train’s new terminal planned and constructed so it could serve both the mainline trains and the Auto Train, too?

The other $7.5 million will be used to upgrade a relatively new station in Pensacola, Florida, and the old Seaboard Air Line station in Tallahassee, which was well out of the way of Katrina. Amtrak said in the report this money would be used to add American With Disabilities Act requirements to the stations, which, most when built or reconfigured for service in 1993 met most of those requirements.



The one major station project to be undertaken is a completely new station in Mobile, Alabama. That building was severely damaged by Katrina to the point CSX sold the damaged building to a real estate developer since it was in such bad shape. A completely new facility will have to be created in Mobile. However, as anyone who has ever traveled around the country on Amtrak knows, there have been many stations in large cities and small hamlets which have functioned well using an Amshack trailer for a building, and later permanent construction considered. St. Louis Union Trailers is perhaps the most famous of these stations, with new construction coming after decades of “temporary” shelter. A single station in Mobile should not be enough to hold up this project; most of the passenger platforms in Mobile are still in place and serviceable.



The report states a cost of $600,000 for improvements at Amtrak’s Sanford maintenance facility. Well, prior to Katrina, the Sunset’s equipment base was in Sanford, and the maintenance crews there did an exemplary job of maintaining the train. Why, now, more than half a million dollars for upgrades? Is it just because as long as Amtrak is making a wish list or a discouragement list, this $600,000 of Other Peoples Money is necessary?



Amtrak’s report makes an assumption $20 million will be necessary to install Positive Train Control (PTC), as required by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 by 2015 on portions of the route solely because of restoration of passenger service. This is an issue we will delve into in a very soon future issue of This Week at Amtrak. CSX had indicated some of the current route may be downgraded because it can route some of its hazmat and other trains requiring the use of PTC on a similar route via Montgomery, Alabama.



5) One of the biggest ticket items in the report is alleged additional passenger rolling stock which would be required to operate either an extended City of New Orleans (two train sets) or a new overnight Gulf Wind (the same number of new cars). Amtrak estimates the need of between six and 14 new passenger cars, at a cost of $24 million to $63 million.



This is perhaps one of the most incredible and ludicrous parts of the report. Amtrak says it could take up to four years (yes, you read that right) to get either of these trains running because that is the time to design, plan, order, and build new passenger cars specifically for this route. Such hogwash.



A review of Amtrak’s current System Fleet Pan for Fiscal Year 2009 indicates after the few Superliners which will be taken out of the wreck line and restored with stimulus funds monies, 32 Superliners of every description, including coaches, diners, lounges, and sleepers will still be available to be taken out of storage and rebuilt for service. Even if Amtrak needs the maximum number of 14 cars it says it does, that still leave another 18 Superliners to be restored for other uses. New cars, designed and built specifically for this service? Why? Amtrak already owns all of the cars it needs; it’s a question of using existing assets through rebuilds and rehabilitation instead of the lengthy and expensive process of creating a new fleet of cars. In the report, Amtrak says it could cost up to $63 million to buy these new cars. If every car to be rebuilt cost as much as $1.5 million to rebuild (that follows what Amtrak is spending in stimulus funds currently for rebuilding Superliner cars), that a tab of only $21 million, not up to $63 million. It must be wonderful to plan and spend Other Peoples Money with great abandon when you have no accountability.



But, wait! you implore. Some of those Superliners are slated to be used IF the Pioneer is restored or IF the North Coast Limited is restored. Yes, that may be so. First come, first served. If the restoration of the Sunset’s route can fill that crucial gap before the gaps of the Pioneer and the North Coast Limited are ready to be filled, get in line, folks.



6) When we start delving into the financial aspects of this report, things become more complicated. Amtrak makes several wrong assumptions.



The report says ridership was a primary consideration in selecting the three preferred route options. Amtrak says if option one is used, and a tri-weekly Sunset Limited is restored, ridership will be 53,300 a year. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, an average of 45% of the Sunset’s ridership and revenues came from east of New Orleans. In FY 08, the Sunset, operating only west of New Orleans, had ridership of 71,700 passengers. A projection of 53,300 (171 passengers per trip) is probably the closest thing to a legitimate number in the entire report, although that figure could probably be altered up by 25% and still be a legitimate figure.



Everyone knows in the real, non-Amtrak world, business plan forecasts always figure revenue low and expenses high. Amtrak, of course, being Amtrak, has taken this to heart and grossly distorted its numbers for ridership, revenue, and expenses.



Option two, the extension of the City of New Orleans, creating a single train route from Chicago to Orlando, has the greatest chance of success, and Amtrak terribly underestimates its potential. Today’s City of New Orleans has ridership of 197,400 per year (FY 08), and Amtrak says an extended version of that will only bring in an additional 96,100 passengers on the haul to Orlando.



They are saying the system’s only Chicago-Florida train, with the Empire Builder, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Lake Shore Limited, and all of the Chicago regional trains feeding into the City would only generate additional business to Florida, projected to be less than half of what the City carries today between Chicago and New Orleans via Memphis. One has to wonder exactly what Amtrak’s planning department is smoking on their lunch breaks. It’s unlikely enough equipment could be found on this train to make it 18 cars which would serve as a replacement for the long, lost Floridian, gone since 1979.



Option three, a reconstituted and stretched Gulf Wind, running as a stand-alone train between New Orleans and Orlando on an overnight schedule is, according to Amtrak, the most expensive to operate and not very productive, with a predicted ridership of 79,900, because, as Amtrak says, the train would have to have connecting passengers from the eastbound Sunset Limited successor, and the southbound City of New Orleans. Amtrak uses old and discredited junk science to say passengers will not want to detrain at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, spend a few hours in the Crescent City, and entrain for a late afternoon departure and midday arrival in Orlando.



Uh, lessee, well, airlines create their entire route systems around hubs, and passengers hub for bus travel, too. Amtrak expects all of its passengers north of New York City to hub in Washington for Florida trains and the Crescent, after arriving there on Northeast Corridor trains. Lots and lots and lots of passengers hub every day in Chicago for destinations all over the country, and Los Angeles is a big hub, too, not to mention Seattle and Portland, Oregon, and a half a dozen other hubs in the Amtrak system.



So, why is there a dire prediction about hubbing in New Orleans? Is this just another use of discredited junk science to make the report read badly so no service will be restored east of New Orleans? What is the prejudice the Amtrak planners have about those of us living in Florida or along the Gulf Coast? Is there some sort of genetic trait we have that makes us unworthy of passenger train travel? Do these people think all we do is marry our cousins and drink beer and never want to travel?



Here’s something else to put a smile on your face. Amtrak’s planners say the route between New Orleans and Orlando is adversely impacted by the circuitry of the rail route, a passenger train having to travel 769 miles versus 639 miles by automobile, and what it calls slow speeds which result in a trip time of 18.5 hours versus 9.6 by automobile.



Well. If that’s the case, why doesn’t Amtrak just turn out the lights and go home? It’s also much faster to travel from Jacksonville, Florida to Richmond, Virginia by automobile (less than 10 hours) than by Amtrak (12 and a half hours). But, that doesn’t mean everyone wants – or is able – to drive. It’s also much, much quicker to take a jet airplane, but that’s not always comfortable or easy or desirable for everyone, either.



The point of travel by train is just that – travel by train. Every individual train in Amtrak’s system to connected to every other train in the system through the matrix theory. Everything connects with everything (although, sometimes inconveniently), and every train feeds other trains.



Amtrak’s rather boorish presumption a new Gulf wind will only haul local business, and only haul those who want to avoid driving is hogwash. Amtrak provides a viable travel choice. Most likely, the Amtrak planning department denizens would be shocked to know someone from Washington State or Oregon may have an interest in riding a new Gulf Wind between New Orleans and Tallahassee or Jacksonville, or Palatka or DeLand or Orlando. That’s the beauty of the matrix theory. To presume little or no traffic from connecting trains, especially strong feeders like the City of New Orleans and a daily Sunset Limited (or replacement of that named train) west of New Orleans is like saying a gas station on an Interstate highway exit will only sell gas to local residents, and no travelers from other areas will ever stop at the station.



7) Let’s use the existing City of New Orleans as a model for this route. The City’s route is similar in length, 926 miles versus the projected length of 769 miles. The City begins in Chicago and ends in New Orleans, and has only one other major city on its route – Memphis, Tennessee. It has a number of smaller cities and state capitals along its route, such as Jackson, Mississippi. Much of the route of the City is rural, such as the route between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida. Since the southern terminal for the proposed Gulf Wind is Orlando, one of the world’s largest vacation destinations, the travel data for that city equals – if not exceeds – that of Chicago.



Let’s look at the characteristics of the City of New Orleans for FY 2008.



Total Revenue – $14,864,600

Passenger Miles – 93,433,000

Ridership – 197,400

Average Length of Trip – 473.3 miles

Train Miles – 666,000

Passengers per Train Mile – 140.3

Revenue per Passenger Mile – 15.91 cents

Load Factor – 63.8%

Available Seat Miles – 146,375,952



Here’s what Amtrak estimates for the three options east of New Orleans to Orlando.



Option One, Tri-Weekly extension of the Sunset Limited (or named replacement service)

Ridership – 53,300



Option Two, Extension of the City of New Orleans from New Orleans to Orlando

Ridership – 96,100



Option Three, Creation of a new stand-alone, connecting train, labeled the Gulf Wind by Amtrak

Ridership – 79,900



Amtrak says it used its normal methods to determine ridership, including “Ridership and revenue impacts for each alternative were estimated utilizing models and data Amtrak has developed to measure the impact of now or changed services. The inputs included surveys of Amtrak’s long distance passengers; socio-economic data; and forecasts of population and income in the areas served by each station.” Amtrak goes on correctly to say it includes data between Jacksonville and Orlando where a third frequency would increase travel opportunities for the Silver Meteor and Silver Star, and therefore, that ridership would grow, too.



What Amtrak did not bother to measure is overall passenger traffic along the line. Using Amtrak’s data, it is all based on population, and only the desire of the local population to travel. It does not account for incoming traffic from other routes or other parts of the country, and it does not account for Amtrak’s typical one tenth of one percent of the domestic transportation output Amtrak commands.



When using real data, we discover Interstate 10 parallels the route between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida, and on any given day at any given intermediate rural point (outside of local traffic using the Interstate in such places as Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, etc.), an average of 36,000 to 70,000 passenger vehicles (excluding trucks hauling freight) pass a measuring point on the Interstate. What Amtrak is projecting a year for ridership, the Interstate hosts in a day, and we are unable to measure how many occupants are in each vehicle.



The same holds true for air transportation. When culling city pair information from the government’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, we learn travelers between Chicago and Orlando are measured in six and seven figure numbers, not counting other intermediate city pairs along this route.



As previously stated, Amtrak also eschews any real cross-platform business in New Orleans to bolster its numbers. It presumes people will not intentionally schedule connections from one train route to another. Apparently, Amtrak’s planning department, located in Washington, never bothers to stroll through Washington Union Station to see the millions of annual riders who make train connections there, or the millions who connect through Chicago or other points.



Therefore, Amtrak’s numbers for ridership, expenses, and every other category beyond basic diesel fuel are not credible.



Looking at the ridership and revenue passenger mile figures for the present City of New Orleans we see numbers which are double what Amtrak projects for east of New Orleans. These numbers are a more accurate barometer than Amtrak’s report numbers.



8) One final point. Amtrak’s report says the company wants an incredible 20 months or more to recruit and train operating personnel for this route.



Why?



Back in 1993 (before HD television), it took Amtrak substantially less than a year to – from scratch – create this service on a tri-weekly basis east of New Orleans. Apparently, the “can do” people who were running Amtrak at that time must be long gone, replaced by a group comfortable in their government-subsidized paychecks with no worries in the world, and no hurry to fulfill Amtrak’s national mission of providing passenger service to the lower 48 states.



Twenty months? Even if it has been four years since the Sunset last operated east of New Orleans, many of the train and engine crew members are still employees of Amtrak, just working other routes



9) There is much more ground to cover, but you get the idea. Amtrak fraudulently wasted $1 million of taxpayer money creating a worthless document with false data, incorrect assumptions, and incomplete conclusions.



This type of fiasco has been going on for far too long at Amtrak. Interim President and CEO Joseph Boardman has been in office for nine months now, and this was created under his stewardship. He is ultimately responsible. He needs to be gone, at the earliest moment.



It’s worth noting a phrase from the last edition of TWA, taken from the Amtrak This Week employee publication story about the first restored passenger car coming out of the shops.



[Begin quote]



“An expanded fleet is a critical part of our ability to grow,” said Vice President of Policy and Development Stephen Gardner. “We need these cars as we pursue new service in partnership with states and also to increase capacity along existing routes where demand exceeds what we can currently offer.”



[End quote]



Still no future vision, still no business plan better than gouging individual states for money for short distance trains. If Mr. Gardner’s statement holds true, then Amtrak truly isn’t interested in expanding the long distance system and the entire $1 million exercise was just done to appease a Member of Congress.



So, at this point, is Amtrak worth saving? Or, is it time for a complete make over with an entire new leadership team which will have the ability to unleash the power and potential of Amtrak and allow many of the good managers and executives there to do their jobs properly and with some enthusiasm?







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



freetwa@unitedrail.org



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 twa@unitedrail.org; we are unable to go through any approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.



All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe should be addressed to



brucerichardson@unitedrail.org



Copies of This Week at Amtrak are archived on URPA’s web site, www.unitedrail.org and also on www.todaywithjb.blogspot.com where other rail-related writings of Bruce Richardson may also be found.



URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.



J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

brucerichardson@unitedrail.org

http://www.unitedrail.org

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Saturday, June 27, 2009

This Week in Amtrak

CHICAGO - MARCH 13:  A worker stands at the fr...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This Week at Amtrak; June 27, 2009



A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from



United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute



1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org • http://www.unitedrail.org





Volume 6, Number 19



Founded over three decades ago in 1976, URPA is a nationally known policy institute which 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, New York, and other cities. 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) Things are getting interesting regarding the sudden departure by retirement of Amtrak’s well-respected Inspector General, Fred Weiderhold.



No one seems to know where this is going, but, fortunately for Amtrak and the American taxpayers, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa has taken a strong interest in this situation.



It’s important to note throughout Amtrak’s decades-long corporate life, Amtrak has often been remiss in following normal rules and procedures and courtesies (Not to mention settled law.) in Washington.



Back in the late 1980s, this was the identical case with VIA Rail Canada, run by our cousins in the cold north. Since the Canadian federal government is a parliamentary system of government, things can happen more quickly and dramatically there versus what happens in the United States. The bottom line for VIA at the end of the 1980s was the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney felts it was constantly being submarined by the board of directors and management of VIA, and, in a meeting of just a handful of members of the Prime Minister’s cabinet, suddenly, half of VIA Rail Canada disappeared due to a tremendous slash in VIA’s government funding.



That one cut cost the original Canadian on Canadian Pacific Railway lines to be gone, and the lesser route of the Super Continental on Canadian National Railroad lines to become the premier train of the system (With the “Canadian” moniker.), but to this day only operating a tepid tri-weekly service between Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia via Edmonton and Jasper, Alberta. Also soon gone was the Atlantic, which operated between Montreal, Quebec and Halifax, Nova Scotia via St. John, New Brunswick.



The tourist service VIA Rail Rocky Mountaineer survived, but was transferred to private ownership where it has flourished and grown by being freed of the oppression of government ownership.



Several other routes, such as service to Sudbury, Ontario, also disappeared.



Amtrak for decades has played – like VIA Rail Canada – fast and loose with federal law, mostly often obeying federal statutes and mandates when convenient and otherwise doing as it pleased, often ignoring propriety.



Understand, it really didn’t matter who was on the Amtrak Board of Directors at the time or who was running the White House at the time, these games have continued unabated for decades.



Perhaps, a century from now, when a true and deep history of Amtrak is compiled and written by a neutral historian, there will be an understanding of why so many directors of Amtrak chose to either look the other way or did what they did for the sake of expediency.



Maybe, some of what was done was done to get around the vagaries of attempting to run a business in a cesspool like Washington.



But, for whatever reasons things have happened in the past, it looks like a day is dawning when business as usual at Amtrak may have to be radically changed. We saw the many great efforts of departed Chairman of the Board David Laney to put Amtrak on a more transparent and businesslike track. We saw a reduced board after his departure struggle to get through the wrong hiring of Alex Kummant and his subsequent merciful departure. And, we now see a continuing reduced board with buckets of free federal money and lots of extraneous infrastructure projects going on, but without a clear vision of what Amtrak will be later this year or next year.



Here’s hoping Senator Grassley will continue to work to bring the light what is really going on at Amtrak.



Amtrak Interim President and CEO Joseph Boardman, a creature of government and not accustomed to working within or for private sector boundaries needs to take the lead with Senator Grassley and reveal what his management team is doing to solve any problems being identified as holding Amtrak back from greatness.



2) This is a press release, published in full, from Senator Grassley’s office. Keep in mind this is a press release from a politician, not a news story.



[Begin quote]



For Immediate Release

June 25, 2009



Grassley asks Amtrak to respond to report describing interference with IG work



WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley has asked Amtrak about the circumstances of the Inspector General's unexpected retirement seven days ago and invited Amtrak to provide information about the interference by Amtrak in the work of the Inspector General described in a report prepared at the request of the retired watchdog.



Grassley said the report indicates that Amtrak's policies and procedures have systematically violated the letter and spirit of the Inspector General Act.



"As I continue my investigation into whether the independence of the Inspector General was undermined by Amtrak officials, I want to make sure I have any and all information Amtrak wants to provide," Grassley said. "The allegations are serious, including third parties being told to first send documents under subpoena by the Inspector General to Amtrak for review, and the Inspector General being chastised for communicating directly with congressional appropriations and authorizing committees,"



Grassley asked the Office of the Inspector General last week for a copy of the report, which was prepared by the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Grassley said his office had been in communication with former Inspector General Fred Weiderhold about the issues before Weiderhold's retirement on June 18, 2009.



Also this month, Grassley has been investigating the President's decision to fire the AmeriCorps Inspector General, after the Inspector General issued two reports of mismanagement and abusive spending by AmeriCorps grantees. Grassley also has asked the International Trade Commission to account for its termination of its Inspector General who had been repeatedly hired for six-month increments and been given outstanding performance reviews. In both cases, Grassley said the administration failed to comply with a law enacted last year requiring Congress to be notified 30 days in advance of the dismissal of an Inspector General and given the reasons for the firing. Then-Senator Barack Obama co-sponsored the legislation along with Grassley.



"Inspectors general are watchdogs over the federal bureaucracy, and the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 is supposed to better safeguard their independence so they can do their jobs for taxpayers and program stakeholders," Grassley said. "The President has said he wants more accountable government, and keeping good watchdogs on the job is fundamental to that goal. Inspectors general need to be strengthened, not undermined."



Last week, Grassley asked the Treasury Secretary to put an end to documented resistance from the Treasury Department to requests for information from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Senator Grassley was an advocate for creating a Special IG for TARP to try to hold the program accountable and co-sponsored legislation to strengthen the ability of the Special IG to conduct oversight after the TARP program changed its original mission. Earlier this year, Senator Grassley also battled the White House after it tried to subject requests of the Special IG to the red tape of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Grassley subsequently introduced legislation to exempt the Special IG from the Paperwork Reduction Act.



Grassley has long worked to empower inspectors general to conduct effective oversight of the federal bureaucracy and he has held inspectors general themselves accountable for meeting the requirements of the jobs.



The text of Grassley's letter to Amtrak is below, along with his letter of last week to the Amtrak Office of the Inspector General, which sought a copy of the report. The attachment to today's letter, including the "Report on Matters Impairing the Effectiveness and Independence of the Office of Inspector General," are posted here.



June 25, 2009



The Honorable Thomas C. Carper

Chairman of the Board

Amtrak

National Railroad Passenger Corporation

10 G Street, NE

Washington, DC 20525



The Honorable Lorraine A. Green

Interim Inspector General

Amtrak

Office of Inspector General

National Railroad Passenger Corporation

10 G Street, NE

Washington, DC 20525



Dear Chairman Carper and Interim Inspector General Green:



Thank you for your response dated June 23, 2009. My staff is currently in the process of reviewing information from various sources concerning the Amtrak Office of Inspector General (OIG). I am interested in the facts regarding former Inspector General Fred Weiderhold's (IG) retirement. Interestingly, he retired on the same date that the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, LLP completed a "Report on Matters Impairing the Effectiveness and Independence of the Office of Inspector General" ("Report"). I understand that there was a meeting with Mr. Weiderhold and the Board of Directors on that same date as well, and that his decision to retire was made during that meeting. Accordingly, please:



1) provide a description of the circumstances surrounding former IG Weiderhold's unexpected retirement, specifically the relationship between the timing of his retirement and the Report;



2) produce any and all internal as well as personal materials relating to: (a) the former IG's departure; and (b) the Report; and



3) produce any and all materials cited in footnote 7 of the Report.



For definitions related to this request and all future requests, please refer to Attachment 1.



The Report prepared by Willkie Farr & Gallagher, LLP and Attachment 2 suggests a long-term and unrelenting interference with the activities and operation of the OIG. The Report seems to indicate that Amtrak's policies and procedures have systematically violated the letter and the spirit of the Inspector General Act, as amended. However, in order to ensure that Amtrak has an opportunity to respond, please identify any factual representations with which you disagree, or about which you wish to provide additional information. Please be sure to provide documentation in support of your position(s).



I also want to thank you both for offering to "maintain an open line of communication" with my office, and look forward to my staff receiving a briefing from you. In addition, I would appreciate your making the following individuals immediately available for interviews:



1) D. Hamilton Peterson, Deputy Counsel to the Inspector General;

2) Edward Puccerella, Director of Congressional & External Affairs;

3) Colin C. Carriere, Counsel to the Inspector General; and

4) E. Bret Coulson, Deputy Inspector General.



It was also reported to my staff that some OIG staff members may be fearful of retaliation if they were to discuss the matters set forth in this letter with anyone, including Congress. As you may be aware, 18 U.S.C. § 1505 prohibits obstruction of Congressional inquiries. Denying or interfering with employees' rights to furnish information to Congress in any way will be considered an obstruction of our inquiry. Amtrak and Amtrak OIG employees should be free from fear of retaliation or reprisal, and authorized to freely answer questions from Congress without representatives from Amtrak present, if they so desire. Accordingly, I would appreciate your advising the OIG and all full-time, part-time and contractor employees at Amtrak of the fact that they are free to contact Congress without advising Amtrak management or their respective supervisors.



Thank you again for your continued cooperation and assistance in this matter. As you know, in cooperating with the Committee's review, no documents, records, data or information related to these matters shall be destroyed, modified, removed or otherwise made inaccessible to the Committee.



Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley

Ranking Member



Attachment





June 18, 2009



E. Bret Coulson

Deputy Inspector General Management & Policy

Office of Inspector General

Amtrak

National Railroad Passenger Corporation

10 G Street, NE

Washington, DC 20525



Dear Mr. Coulson:



As a senior member of the United States Senate and as the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance (Committee), it is my duty under the Constitution to ensure that Inspectors General, which were created by Congress, are permitted to operate without political pressure or interference from their respective agencies. Inspectors General were designed for the express purpose of combating waste, fraud, and abuse and to be independent watchdogs ensuring that federal agencies were held accountable for their actions. I understand that Inspector General Fred Weiderhold, Jr. has retired today.



Based on contacts that my staff had with Mr. Weiderhold on two recent occasions (April 2, 2009 and June 4, 2009), I understand that the OIG has suffered from repeated and continuous interference from the agency. After the most recent discussion, it was agreed that the OIG would provide, among other things, a White Paper and specific examples of agency interference with OIG audits and/or investigations. To date, the OIG has not yet provided any documents. As you know, any interference such as that was described in these previous discussions is a direct violation of the Inspector General Act of 1978.



In light of Mr. Weiderhold's unexpected retirement, please provide the previously requested documentation immediately. I am deeply troubled that these aforementioned meetings with my staff and discussions of the OIG's independence concerns predicated this personnel action with IG Weiderhold. Furthermore, I am even more concerned that there is a lack of accountability, based on the OIG's reported lack of independence, for the $1.3 billion in stimulus funds that Amtrak has received from American taxpayers.



Due to these recent events, I specifically request all materials at the IG's office be preserved immediately.



In addition to providing the requested documentation, please provide an immediate briefing to my staff on the level of proper oversight the OIG has over of the $1.3 billion dollars of American taxpayer money, and what role the previously discussed independence issues with the agency played in the elimination of former IG Weiderhold.



Thank you in advance for your assistance and I would appreciate a response to this inquiry by June 19, 2009.



Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley

Ranking Member of the

Committee on Finance



cc: The Honorable Thomas C. Carper

Chairman

Amtrak

National Railroad Passenger Corporation



Joseph H. Boardman

President and Chief Executive Officer

Amtrak

National Railroad Passenger Corporation



[End quote]





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



freetwa@unitedrail.org



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 twa@unitedrail.org; we are unable to go through any approvals processes for individuals. This mailing list is kept strictly confidential and is not shared or used for any purposes other than distribution of This Week at Amtrak or related URPA materials.



All other correspondence, including requests to unsubscribe should be addressed to



brucerichardson@unitedrail.org



Copies of This Week at Amtrak are archived on URPA’s web site, www.unitedrail.org and also on www.todaywithjb.blogspot.com where other rail-related writings of Bruce Richardson may also be found.



URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.



J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

brucerichardson@unitedrail.org

http://www.unitedrail.org

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Inside the Silver Meteor trainImage via Wikipedia

This Week at Amtrak; March 11, 2009

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

America’s foremost passenger rail policy institute

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203 • Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.orghttp://www.unitedrail.org

Volume 6, Number 8

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) The combined arrogance and hubris of these people is incredible; maybe some enterprising staffer on Capitol Hill will start looking into this and have someone in the House or Senate start demanding some answers. It’s a good thing former Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant is gone, but that doesn’t take the Amtrak Board of Directors off the hook for not doing their lawful duty and asking more questions and demanding better of Amtrak.

Brandweek.com has reported Amtrak spent $15.3 million on U.S. media in 2008, not including online expenditures, up from $14.8 million in 2007, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

If you think that’s a lot of money in today’s world of paid media, you’re very wrong. It’s more like a half a drop in the bucket.

Last year, Amtrak spent $98.1 million on what it categorizes as advertising and sales according to its year end figures. That $98.1 million generated ticket revenue of $1,699,300,000. Most successful companies the size of Amtrak spend about 10% of revenues on advertising and marketing costs; Amtrak spent just slightly less than six percent. Even worse, on actual media the public sees, Amtrak spent only .009 – less than a single percent – on advertising.

No wonder Amtrak perpetually remains America’s Best Kept Secret.

To no one’s surprise, the biggest slice of the advertising and sales money was spent on the Northeast Corridor, instead of the long distance national network where the most good for total transportation output could be achieved.

At this point you may be wondering, what’s all the fuss about?

All the fuss is about how Amtrak positions itself with its customers, which, obviously is not its passengers in the minds of Amtrak executives. Amtrak’s true customers, where all of its efforts are spent, are the various public treasuries of the federal and state governments which constantly have to feed the voracious Amtrak bottomless financial pit.

Amtrak’s decision to spend so very little money on national or local media clearly demonstrates how little it cares about being a successful company.

Is Amtrak afraid of success?

Good heavens, what would Amtrak actually do if a lot of people showed up and wanted to ride its trains?

As always, this isn’t an argument about how much free federal monies Amtrak receives as a result of its annual begfest on Capitol Hill, it’s an argument over unsound management decisions and mis-allocation of resources and poor priorities.

During the same year Amtrak spent less than one percent of its ticket revenues on paid advertising, it received about $1.2 billion in free federal monies, of which less than $500 million was for nationwide/systemwide operating assistance.

Let’s be radical and say Amtrak suddenly saw the light and reoriented its priorities and (Gasp!) tripled its annual expenditures on advertising to less than three percent (Still woefully below any national averages for companies in the real world.) What would happen? Amtrak’s load factors would soar, wiping out at least half, if not more, of the annual operating subsidy requirement.

This also directly goes to the debunked lie no passenger railroad system in the world makes money, when we know factually systems in Japan, Germany, The Netherlands and elsewhere do, in fact, make money.

If, like Amtrak, you run a passenger railroad and don’t bother to tell anyone you’re running trains, well, yes, it’s not going to make money, or even come close to breaking even because no one knows there are trains to ride.

2) Let’s revisit some familiar territory, Amtrak’s load factors. We know a load factor of 65% technically makes a long distance train sold out, because allowances have to be made for entraining/detraining passengers at intermediate station stops. When a passenger on the Silver Meteor boards in Miami at the train’s originating terminal, and detrains in Palatka, leaving a vacant seat, that seat may not be filled again until Savannah, 206 route miles to the north. However, that Savannah passenger stays in that seat all the way to Philadelphia, just 101 miles short of the Meteor’s final terminal in New York City. So, that coach seat on the Meteor (which probably needed new upholstery) was occupied for 1,082 miles out of the total route length of 1,389 miles. The magic of trains is when one passenger detrains, most of the time another passenger entrains.

Those with endpoint mentalities or airline mentalities where there are no intermediate stops on a route, often have difficulty grasping this concept. It’s true, once an airplane pushes out from the gate at its originating terminal, any vacant seat on the plane has no other opportunity to be sold/filled. However, once the Silver Meteor departs Miami on its northward journey, that are still 25 more opportunities for passengers to board the train before it reaches the silly "discharge only" territory of the Northeast Corridor, where long distance trains are banned from picking up passengers between Alexandria, Virginia and New York City so Amtrak can falsely prop up NEC numbers without interference from those pesky, money-making long distance trains.

Look at Amtrak’s load factors for last year:

Long Distance Routes

Silver Star – 58.9%

Cardinal – 55.5%

Silver Meteor – 62.5%

Empire Builder – 63.4%

Capitol Limited – 66.9%

California Zephyr – 52.3%

Southwest Chief – 63.8%

City of New Orleans – 63.8%

Texas Eagle – 53.4%

Sunset Limited – 56.7%

Coast Starlight – 62.4%

Lake Shore Limited – 64.1%

Palmetto – 51.3%

Crescent – 51.6%

Auto Train – 63.6%

Average Long Distance Routes Load Factor – 59.7%

State Corridors and Short Distance Routes

Ethan Allen – 40.8%

Vermonter – 45.8%

Maple Leaf – 54.0%

Downeaster – 31.8%

New Haven-Springfield – 47.1%

Keystone – 35.5%

Empire Service – 35.0%

Chicago-St. Louis – 46.6%

Hiawathas – 40.4%

Wolverines – 54.9%

Illini – 50.0%

Illinois Zephyr – 43.1%

Heartland Flyer – 43.0%

Surfliners – 36.5%

Cascades – 56.6%

Capitols – 29.1%

San Joaquins – 39.1%

Adirondack – 69.4%

Blue Water – 78.7%

Washington, D.C.-Newport News – 60.2%

Hoosier State – 35.4%

Kansas City-St. Louis – 37.4%

Pennsylvanian – 74.3%

Pere Marquette – 67.3%

Carolinian – 77.9%

Piedmont – 44.6%

Average State Corridors and Short Distance Routes Load Factor – 43.5%

Northeast Corridor Routes

Acela – 62.6%

Northeast Regional – 48.1%

Average Northeast Corridor Routes Load Factor – 52.9%

These figures show Amtrak has plenty of room for more passengers without adding a single piece of equipment to its far-too-short existing consists.

Look at the numbers above, realizing the sad state of Amtrak’s skeletal national system, lack of operable locomotives and passenger cars, and lack of rational business plan, and think what a combination of advertising, getting bad-ordered and wrecked cars back on trains, and lengthening consists could accomplish. Close your eyes and start thinking about second and third frequencies, and, suddenly you have the beginnings of a robust, healthy system. Go one step further and start implementing Gil Carmichael’s Interstate II vision, and, astonishingly, you have a real railroad, not a shadow of a ghost of railroads past.

2) We’re talking chump change here in the overall Amtrak universe to begin to get Amtrak up to acceptable levels of advertising expenditures. One cannot help but question Emmet Fremaux, Amtrak’s Vice President who handles marketing, as to why he has allowed these advertising numbers to be so low. Has this been intentional, or a result of more senior managers only allocating so little for his total budget?

Where was the board of directors on this? Oh, wait, they were here, but, consider that of the five board members who constituted the Amtrak board last year, not a single one has corporate background experience; each and every one is either a creature of government service, or a Washington lobbyist or Washington attorney. After David Laney, Enrique Sosa, and Floyd Hall all left the board, not a single member replacing them or remaining has any real world, corporate experience, and would automatically know Amtrak’s abysmally low advertising expenditures amount to corporate malfeasance, and, at best, poor stewardship of public funds when the company willingly asks for billions in government subsidies, and then does nothing to promote the company and try and actually attract paying passengers who would replace the need for government subsidies.

3) Well-respected Washington Post Writers Group syndicated columnist Neal Peirce has been writing about Washington for decades, and often strays to the subject of Amtrak. Mr. Peirce again recently wrote about Amtrak and our new President Obama’s spending on passenger rail. One quote from Mr. Peirce’s column bears repeating, for it demonstrates how Amtrak has gotten away for so long with being America’s Best Kept Secret and nobody seems to care.

[Begin quote]

Asserts James RePass, founder-leader of the 20-year-old National Corridors Initiative; "Suddenly, by the grace of God, we have a president who absolutely, positively gets it." This signifies, he adds, an end of the reign of "the ideological libertarians out to destroy the transportation system by saying ‘the market’ will take care of it, that Amtrak should make a profit – which is nuts!"

[End quote]

It’s this type of clearly wrong thinking that has been pervasive throughout America, bolstered by Amtrak’s bad behavior and not spending near enough on advertising to the public that makes Amtrak such a mess today.

Only when this type of wrong opinion is no longer considered gospel will Amtrak stop being enabled and start working towards being more self-sufficient. There’s nothing in our national government constitution that says every government entity has to lose money. There is nothing unpatriotic about Amtrak being self-sufficient. This is something grossly unpatriotic about Amtrak being such a poor steward of the public’s money and doing such disagreeable and arrogant things like taking public money and then not spending it wisely or in such a way which creates more business, more revenue, and more self-sufficiency.

Joe Boardman, as Amtrak’s Interim President and CEO, what steps are you taking to solve this problem and stop keeping Amtrak as America’s Best Kept Secret?

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

freetwa@unitedrail.org

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 twa@unitedrail.org; 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, including requests to unsubscribe, should be addressed to

brucerichardson@unitedrail.org

Copies of This Week at Amtrak are archived on URPA’s web site, www.unitedrail.org and also on www.todaywithjb.blogspot.com where other rail-related writings of Bruce Richardson may also be found.

URPA leadership members are available for speaking engagements.

J. Bruce Richardson

President

United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.

1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203

Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA

Telephone 904-636-7739

brucerichardson@unitedrail.org

http://www.unitedrail.org


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]