National Association of Railroad Passengers: www.narprail.org

To Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant

See NARP’s news release for more information.

February 12, 2008

Mr. Alex Kummant, President and CEO
Amtrak

Dear Alex:

The National Association of Railroad Passengers applauds Amtrak for reinstating service on the Coast Starlight route between Los Angeles and Sacramento.  Thank you! 

At the same time, we remain concerned about the impact of no service for an indefinite period north of Sacramento.  A prolonged Starlight service outage:

  • inconveniences passengers—likely working a severe hardship on many;
  • means continued loss of nearly 90% of the Starlight’s normal revenues,
  • depresses revenues on the rest of the system, since so many Starlight passengers connect with other Amtrak trains; and
  • harms the Thruway business partners that let the Starlight serve Vancouver, British Columbia, via bus to and from Seattle, and a number of Oregon communities via connections at Klamath Falls, Chemult and Eugene.

Since Amtrak has determined no service will operate north of Sacramento before March 4 and dealt with reservations accordingly, we strongly request Amtrak to:

(a) assure travelers that on March 4 service will resume over the entire “Starlight” route, even if buses remain necessary between Klamath Falls and Eugene; and
(b) immediately resume sale of Starlight tickets for all travel March 4 and beyond.

Some operational issues for Amtrak’s consideration:

  • A bus contract for a fixed period should cost substantially less than what Amtrak paid last month for buses on little or no advance notice.
  • The diner should be able to carry Los Angeles-Klamath round trip supplies.
  • Sleepers can carry a round trip supply of linen, using dormitory car space if necessary. 
  • The On Board Services crew can be used for most of the equipment cleaning.

If Amtrak finds March 4 too aggressive, we request a similar guarantee within the following two weeks (along with immediate restart of sales for travel after the chosen date), such that full service will be well established before spring break.  For the University of Oregon, spring break begins the weekend of March 22 with some students traveling a few days before that. The key is to set a “March date certain” now, so that Amtrak does not miss the spring break travel season for the many colleges that you serve, especially along this route.

With the limited service that Amtrak is currently providing, the only route between the Pacific Northwest and California is via Chicago, which is unacceptable.  Amtrak, as the nation’s only interstate passenger rail operator, has a responsibility to serve as much of this important rail route as possible.

Thank you again for the partial service restart, and for considering this request.

Sincerely,

Ross B. Capon
Executive Director