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Dec 01, 2006: Hotline #478December 1, 2006 “Amtrak ridership up in USA” was USA Today’s lead headline on November 29; the subhead line was “South, Midwest Gain; Short Routes Prosper.” The article began, “Tighter airport security and higher gas prices appear to be boosting Amtrak ridership in the Northeast, the South and Midwest. Trains in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New England saw double-digit jumps in ridership. Routes in the West saw the smallest increases, and trains in the Louisiana area had drops because of Hurricane Katrina.” The article noted that ridership overall rose 1%. That nationwide ridership rose at all is impressive in light of the 20% or 1.7 million ridership drop on Northeast Corridor Regionals as Amtrak dramatically increased prices of its Northeast Corridor monthly passes, transferred remaining Clocker trains to New Jersey Transit, and ceased honoring NJT tickets. Also from the article: “Robert Mann, an airline industry analyst, says airlines drove passengers to the train by reducing the number of seats available for shorter trips and raising the ‘walk-up price’ of tickets on their shuttles.” Finally, USA Today said: “Ridership on long routes dropped 1.3% mostly because of ‘less-than-acceptable on-time performance,’ [Amtrak spokesperson Karina] Romero said. Worst was the Sunset Limited, from Orlando to Los Angeles, with a 36% drop after damages from Katrina and Rita.” They could have noted that the Empire Builder was up 4% and the Cardinal and Silver Star both rose 5%. The article also contained a suggestion that ridership was up because of low fares. In fact, however, the yield (average fare paid per mile of travel) was up a whopping 11.1% overall, with the Northeast Corridor up 16%, Overnight trains up 10%, and non-NEC state corridors up 7%. Amtrak also looked good in a Detroit Free Press Nov. 24 editorial which began, “Amtrak is enjoying surprising success in Michigan and elsewhere.” The editorial was headlined, “Amtrak Rolls, Now Speed It Up,” and decried lack of federal funding for rail corridor development. Congress reconvenes next week for what appears to be a very brief lame-duck session. It appears that there will be yet another continuing resolution, this one funding the government through February 15. This means that it will fall to the new Democratic-majority House and Senate to set final funding levels and determine what if any micromanaging language should apply to Amtrak. The focus now shifts to new members of Congress and those who are staying. Tell them to support passage of the Senate committee’s level of Amtrak funding ($1.4 billion), but without damaging language about on-board food and sleeping-car services. Go to our Action Alert Center for full details. Amtrak has agreed to clean up its property around the Trenton station. In exchange for the $200,000 project, the City of Trenton has pledge to increase patrols along the Amtrak right of way in an effort to discourage the illegal dumping that caused the trash problem. The project also includes Amtrak installing security fencing to discourage illegal dumping and trespassing. Eurotunnel, the operator of the England-France Channel Tunnel rail link, has received offers for refinancing its debt and is likely to avoid the European equivalent of Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy. Many creditors would receive full cash payments; others would receive cash and futures bonds. The process to restructure Eurotunnel’s debt began in July, when the company applied for and received the European equivalent of Chapter 11 (creditor protection) bankruptcy. A study by the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, released Nov. 28 at a Newark media event, proposed transferring ownership of Amtrak’s parts of the Northeast Corridor to the federal government and calls for a partnership between the state and federal governments, which would have policy control over the line. The report envisions a powerful NEC Corporation that would, among other things, set protocols for scheduling and dispatching. Half the voting rights on the Corporation’s board would belong to the federal government, half to on-line governors (and mayor of Washington), and none to Amtrak. This, to put it mildly, raises doubts about what kind of intercity schedules could be operated if this idea were to “get legs.” Amtrak indicates its Crescent will not operate between Atlanta and New Orleans for 16 trips in each direction in January and February due to Norfolk Southern track and bridge work. Train #19 departing New York City Sundays through Wednesdays, January 21-24 and 28-31 and February 4-7 and 11-14 terminates in Atlanta; Train #20 that depart New Orleans Mondays through Thursdays, January 22-25, January 29-February 1, February 5-8 and February 12-15 originates in Atlanta. NARP has asked Amtrak to reconsider the ill-advised decision to provide no alternate transportation on these 16 days. NARP noted that four consecutive days of no service is much worse than existing tri-weekly routes experience, and that the cancellations affect four Sunday departures from Northeast points, and four Friday arrivals there, including the Friday of President’s Day weekend. Due to slow orders caused by bad ties on Union Pacific in Nevada, the California Zephyr is routinely very late and Amtrak temporarily has eliminated the Thruway Bus connection from the eastbound California Zephyr (train 6) at Galesburg to Springfield, IL and the southbound Texas Eagle. The westbound Thruway connection still works, and the Galesburg-Springfield Thruways still work in both directions for the Southwest Chief. Dec 08, 2006: Hotline #479December 8, 2006 The 109th Congress likely will adjourn either today or this weekend without completing work on most Fiscal 2007 funding bills. A continuing resolution to fund the government through February 15, 2007 is expected prior to adjournment. This “punts” the many challenges of completing the Fiscal 2007 funding process onto the 110th Congress, which convenes in January, and new Democratic leadership. Now is the time—especially if your House or Senate member is a freshman—to tell your legislators to support full Amtrak funding for both Fiscal 2007 and 2008. Go to our Action Alert Center for more details. Despite the more positive outlook for an Amtrak reauthorization under Democratic leadership, those efforts are somewhat cloudier now with the appointment of Rep. John Mica (R-FL) to be the ranking minority member on the full House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN), a strong Amtrak supporter, will chair the committee. Mica has long been known as one of the most outspoken critics of Amtrak, referring to it as a “Soviet-style railroad” and in a bizarre series of questions at a November 2005 hearing criticized former CEO David Gunn for cutting headcount and making the railroad more efficient. Amtrak Chairman David Laney addressed the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University on Tuesday. His wide ranging speech was arranged prior to the release of the Center’s Northeast Corridor Action Plan, although Laney did comment on it. He strongly emphasized that “there is nothing healthier than open, honest, competent discussion.” However, he did express skepticism that all eight states could reach consensus on how best to run the railroad. He said that “the plan raises issues of governance, planning, and shared operations control.” Among other comments, Laney pointed out very positive financial numbers from Amtrak and emphasized that the railroad has to get its own house in order before people believe it to be a competent, trustworthy organization; in his words, “good basic corporate ‘blocking and tackling’”. Responding to a question at the forum, Laney said that a report on the Northeast Corridor power failure last May will be released soon. He said that he could not go into specific details prior to the release of the report and that some details will not be released to the public due to security concerns, but that the failure “was not an outage due to aging power systems, nor was it an issue of lack of capacity in the electrical system.” Sacramento opened a branch of its light rail system to serve the Amtrak station. The 0.6 mile branch travels from the existing light rail line along the K Street Mall to the station. The project has been delayed several times, most recently due to security concerns (the line passes in front of the Federal Building) and the discovery of archeological artifacts during construction. Regional Transit board Chairman Roger Dickinson told the Sacramento Bee, “This is a short extension in distance, but huge in terms of its symbolism.” The newly expanded Keystone Corridor service has been experiencing operational challenges since new services began on October 31. Problems have included the fact that all the trackwork to support the upgrade was not completed prior to this date, necessitating extensive single track operation, and that some of the time used to “speed up” the schedule was recovery time. The trains suffered from an on-time performance as low as 41%, however, last week the trains were on time over 80% of the time. Commuters also are complaining that Amtrak eliminated several trains’ stops at Ardmore. Amtrak suffered a black eye last Friday in Illinois. The ice storm in central Illinois caused extensive problems for Amtrak’s Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle. Because the Union Pacific’s Joliet-St. Louis line was largely paralyzed, northbound trains ended at Carlinville, southbound trains near Lincoln. Complaints have centered on Amtrak dispatching trains later in the day onto a line that they should have known was crippled. There have also been reports of crew members handling the situation poorly. Amtrak has launched a full investigation into what went wrong and why. “We want to make it clear to passengers that we’re greatly concerned about what they experienced that night,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told the Springfield. “We’re carrying out a series of debriefings to come up with lessons learned from this experience.” Full coverage of the incident was in today’s Springfield Journal Register, along with a response from Amtrak. The MBTA and Commonwealth of Massachusetts have agreed to begin design work on a long-planned link between the Blue and Red Lines. The tunnel would run roughly between the Blue Line Government Center station and Red Line Charles-MGH stop and was initially on a list of Big Dig pollution remediation projects. However, its removal last year prompted a lawsuit from the Conservation Law Foundation and threats of similar action from Massachusetts General Hospital. The settlement also ensures that several other transit projects in Boston will move forward. Amtrak and its partners are offering several discounts for rail travel:
Capitol Corridor trains 536 (weekday) and 746 (weekend) will no longer serve Oakland Coliseum station, rather they will originate at Jack London Square. This change did not make it in time for the October 30 National Timetable, but is included in the December 1 Capitol Corridor timetable. Dec 15, 2006: Hotline #480December 15, 2006 Prior to its adjournment early last Saturday morning, Congress passed another continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through February 15. Thus, the 109th Congress “punted” the responsibility for virtually all Fiscal 2007 spending to the 110th Congress. To that effect, incoming Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) and House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-MA) jointly announced that they will very likely pass a year-long CR for Fiscal 2007 and immediately begin work on Fiscal 2008 spending bills. The news for Amtrak is mixed: the positive is that a CR is unlikely to contain either the differing House-passed or the Senate committee’s unworkable micromanaging language. However, funding at best will be frozen at the Fiscal 2006 level of $1.29 billion and could be cut to $1.1 billion (the level in the current CR). Your members of Congress need to hear strong support for both a high level of Amtrak funding in a 2007 CR and for Amtrak reauthorization. Go to our Action Alert Center for more details. Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor celebrated 15 years of service on Tuesday. What began as a small corridor operation that carried only 273,000 passengers a year has grown into Amtrak’s third largest corridor (behind only the Northeast Corridor and Pacific Surfliners) carrying 1.3 million passengers a year. Train frequencies between Oakland and Martinez are the heaviest density outside of the NEC. Capitol Corridor Managing Director Gene Skoropowski told the San Francisco Chronicle, “Anyone who says people won`t ride trains in America need to look at us. We have a real success here in California—the capital of American car culture.” The Downeaster also had a celebration today: its fifth anniversary. It is yet another success story: nearly 1.5 million passengers have been carried and ridership is up 31% in the past year. Expansion beyond Portland to Brunswick, Maine is being considered and a fifth train frequency will begin as soon as track work is complete (this frequency is currently being operated with busses). The new state-supported Amtrak service in Illinois is off to a very strong start, with ridership up as much as 91% versus the same time period last year. The new services, which began on October 31, are not drawing passengers away from trains that existed prior to the expansion. “This was what we’ve been trying to say all along—there is a pent-up demand for inter-city passenger rail, and increased frequencies raise ridership exponentially,” said UTU Illinois Legislative Director Joseph C. Szabo. Acela Express First Class meal service has been upgraded, restoring a hot entrée option at all three meals. The hot entrees were removed during the 2005 brake problems that sidelined the fleet and caused temporary re-introduction of Metroliners. Passengers—and NARP—protested the fact that the meals were not reintroduced. Amtrak Food and Beverage Director Pete Humphries told Travel Weekly magazine, “Our passengers and employees told us clearly that they wanted to see the Acela first class meal service returned to its previous levels that distinguished the service in the early days of Acela`s introduction.” Menus will rotate on a four week cycle, changing every other Wednesday. New Jersey Transit announced plans to upgrade the Metropark station (in Iselin, NJ) this week. The facility was built in 1971. The overhaul will replace virtually the entire facility, including new platforms, waiting areas, and elevators. The station will remain open throughout the $49 million project, thus it will take until 2010 to complete. The station is very popular, with over 7,200 riders a day, thanks to its direct access to the Garden State Parkway and close proximity to many other major roads. Also this week, New Jersey Transit ran its first train of bi-level cars on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between Trenton and New York City. The cars are similar in design to cars operated by the Long Island Rail Road, which do fit into New York Penn Station. The cars feature 2-and-2 seating versus the ever-unpopular 3-and-2 seating, while still carrying 20% more people. A demonstration commuter rail operation between Saratoga Springs, Schenectady, and Albany using Colorado Railcar DMU equipment is closer to reality. The New York State High Speed Rail Task Force may take advantage of a Federal Railroad Administration demo project of the DMU technology. The car will operate in Miami for the Tri Rail commuter service; however, the FRA project requires some winter weather operation. To get the service going quickly, existing Amtrak stations would be used, with a shuttle service to and from downtown Albany. Elected officials and rail advocates met in Tulsa, OK this week to chart a course toward bringing passenger rail to Tulsa. Amtrak has never served Tulsa and very much wants to, according to Ray Lang of Amtrak’s Government Relations Office. He told the audience that he felt that the best way to get Tulsa service and to see the Heartland Flyer grow was to extend the Flyer to Tulsa. That does come with a significant price tag, since the state-owned right of way between Oklahoma City and Tulsa needs significant work. Attendees also discussed another option: extending the proposed St. Louis-Springfield, Missouri service from Springfield to Tulsa. The results of the first stage of a study of starting service between St. Louis and Springfield, requested by Missouri DOT, should be ready in the New Year. The Seattle City Council has purchased King Street Station from BNSF Railway for $1, which is crucial to facilitating a full restoration of the 100 year old building. Work on the platforms and canopies was completed in 2000, however work on the station itself has stalled due to the ownership issue. The state and city have funds ready to begin the work, which should be completed in 2009. Commuter rail in Atlanta may finally come to reality. An agreement has been reached between the Georgia Department of Transportation and Norfolk Southern for the Atlanta-Lovejoy service to use NS’s tracks. The recent closing of a Ford assembly plant along the route reduced NS’s request for capacity investment along the route and has made moving the project forward possible. The first trains could be running in two years. This project has faced several stops-and-starts over the years, the most recent being a legislative battle over language quietly inserted into legislation last year that forbade the DOT from spending money on commuter rail unless specifically appropriated by the Georgia Legislature. Also in Atlanta, MARTA announced that light rail has been chosen as the preferred mode for the proposed Atlanta Beltline transit system, beating out a bus rapid transit proposal. Although rail would cost more to construct, MARTA said that public opinion strongly favored rail. MARTA board chairman Ed Wall told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “If we’re going to get people to use transit rather than their cars, then we’ve got to give them what they want.” There is no timeline for completion of the 22 mile project. Since the life cycle for rail cars is longer than for buses, the long-term cost of rail should be competitive with, perhaps lower, than buses. Amtrak’s Diner Lounge Prototype goes into regular service on the Capitol Limited starting with tomorrow’s Washington departure and concluding with departure from Chicago Monday, January 29. More details can be found here on our website. Amtrak has announced minor schedule changes to the Keystone Corridor (Harrisburg-Philadelphia) and Lincoln Service (Chicago-St. Louis) to improve operational reliability. Check with Amtrak prior to travel to verify train departure times. The Amtrak Thruway bus stop in Norfolk, VA will relocate to the York Street Parking Garage at the corner of West Brambleton and Bousch Streets on January 1, 2007. The new location, replacing a stop at a city parking lot, will provide for overnight parking ($4.50 a day) and a better waiting place for the bus. Due to continued heavy rainfall in the Pacific Northwest, all Cascades service between Seattle and Portland is cancelled today. Some alternate motorcoach service will be offered. If you plan to travel, call Amtrak prior to leaving for the station to check the status of service. Limited service is operating between Portland and Eugene. During this holiday season everyone is rushed; there’s so much to do and so little time to do it. However, please remember to Stop, Look, and Listen at all highway-rail grade crossings. If you plan on giving a teenager a car as a holiday gift, please remind them of this life-saving safety message! More educational resources are available on the website of Operation Lifesaver. Next week’s NARP Hotline will be posted on Thursday, December 21; we plan no hotline the following week. Dec 21, 2006: Hotline #481Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant announced changes in Amtrak’s senior management this week. According to a message Kummant sent to Amtrak employees, “the restructuring and personnel changes put in place the team that will drive the vision and the future of our company.” Emmett Fremaux, who has been Vice President—Customer Service reporting to the executive VP of operations, gains responsibility for marketing and sales and will report directly to Kummant, with his department named “Marketing and Product Management.” Eleanor Acheson will become general counsel in mid-January, succeeding Alicia Serfaty who “will continue…as counsel to the President to assist in the transition period.” Ms. Acheson was Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Policy Development in the Clinton Administration. A distinguished attorney, she was one of two experts interviewed on the NewsHour in October 2004 about prospects that the next U.S. President would get the chance to nominate more than one new justice to the Supreme Court. She is Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She is the grand-daughter of Dean Acheson, President Truman’s famous secretary of state. Until her arrival, Joe Bress (VP—Labor Relations) is acting general counsel. Dale Stein, previously Amtrak’s treasurer, is acting Chief Financial Officer “until a permanent selection is made, following the departure of David Smith.” In response to questions from Bloomberg News, Executive Director Ross B. Capon said, “There are some good changes here, especially naming Emmett Fremaux as the new head of marketing and product management…(Fremaux is) a service-oriented person, so it’s good to have some who understands service issues and places a high value on them in that post.” NARP also particularly respects McHugh’s work and thus finds his additional responsibilities encouraging. Proposed new guidelines on the transportation of hazardous cargo have been released by the Department of Homeland Security. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) covers the methods in which toxic inhalation hazard chemicals, such as chlorine or anhydrous ammonia, are transported—namely in urban areas. It will also require each railroad to have an official liaison to DHS and the Department will also set up a tracking system for all such shipments. The Association of American Railroads responded cautiously to the proposed regulations saying that, among other concerns, “Railroads…do not own the tank cars used to ship highly hazardous chemicals. Tank car owners, chemical shippers, chemical users and railroads each play a critical role in the transportation of hazardous materials.” Colorado has been hit by a powerful blizzard. Snowfall totals have topped three feet in some locations. Transportation has ground to a halt as most roads (both interstate and local) and Denver International Airport are closed. However, Amtrak’s California Zephyr is running with some delays. A colleague of the NARP office got “the last ticket” on yesterday evening’s California Zephyr and reported in a phone call to the office this morning that despite the train’s tardiness (about nine hours late), passengers are thrilled to be moving and that the train is packed. Indeed, both today and tomorrow’s east and westbound Zephyrs are sold out. While the Zephyr is running, due to the closure of interstates, the Denver-Raton, Denver-Vail, and Denver-Cheyenne-Casper Thruway Buses are not operating. The environmental costs and impact on global warming of ever-increasing aviation traffic, a common subject in Europe in recent months, is starting to get notice in the U.S. Financial Times today criticized the EU for taking on the U.S., in an editorial headed “Other people’s carbon: EU-green taxes on foreign goods and aircraft will not work.” “It can be frustrating for a tidy person to live with messy flatmates…But if you are the only tidy person in a messy household, punishments will do nothing but make you unpopular. The EU’s best hope is to act on its own carbon emissions and wait for political change in the U.S.” For now, FT urged the EU instead to take on European private aviation (exempt under the current EU plan). Meanwhile, the Air Transport Association in the U.S., issued two defensive releases this month—December 13 touting the fuel-saving advantages of modernizing the air traffic control system, and December 20 attacking the European Commission for including aviation in its emissions trading scheme at all. A report by Energy Security Leadership Council, a think-tank of US executives and military leaders, “urged Mr. Bush and the new…Congress to set up a plan to halve the economy’s dependence on oil by 2030…The report poured cold water on the administration’s goal of reducing dependence on foreign oil rather than on oil in general” (quotes from front-page Financial Times story December 14). Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMTs) rose a mere 0.9% in 2005 compared with 2004, according to the newly released Highway Statistics, an annual U.S. DOT report. For the first time, VMT per capita actually fell. These numbers signal a break in the widely-assumed link between VMTs and economic growth (GNP). Highway interests are trying to spin this otherwise. A DOT release took the decade-long view, citing a “nearly 25%” increase since 1995, while merely referring to a “27.4 billion mile increase” from 2004 [sounds better than 0.9%]. The AASHTO Journal, a weekly from the association of state highway departments (excuse us, state DOTs), made a wild misstatement, saying the 2005 number was “eight percent over 2004” rather than 0.9%. Initial reports on 2006 show that VMT is trending well below the 0.9% rate of 2005. Amtrak has come to a new five year labor agreement with the Transportation Communications Union, who represents Amtrak’s call center employees. The agreement calls for Amtrak to abandon efforts to outsource call center jobs, but lowers the pay rate of new hire employees. The agreement is seen as a positive sign for further progress in labor negotiations at Amtrak; many of the railroad’s unions have been without contracts for up to five years. Eurotunnel will receive a decision from a French court in January regarding its debt restructuring proposal. The company was placed under “Safeguard Procedure” in France, similar to the United States’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to Reuters, The Eurotunnel board selected a consortium of Goldman Sachs and Deutsch Bank to underwrite a £2.84 billion loan and £1.28 billion convertible bond Taiwan’s new high speed rail line, linking Taipei and Kaohsiung (214 miles), is due to open by Christmas. The line will cut travel time between the two cities from five hours to 90 minutes. Top speeds will be 315 kilometers per hour, as fast as the Japanese Shinkashen. A one-way ticket will cost $1,490 Taiwan New Dollars or about $45 US. This is 30% less than a comparable airline ticket. There were several entries posted to NARP’s Blog this week. You can visit it by clicking here. There will be no hotline next week; Hotline #482 will be posted on January 5, 2007. NARP wishes you and your families a Happy Holiday Season and prosperous New Year. |
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