NARP Blog

Many of you have been wondering how my air travel fiasco last week resolved. Last Tuesday night, I slept for two uncomfortable hours on the cot at Midway, and awoke to the sights and sounds of early Wednesday morning travelers gawking at those of us who were living something out of The Terminal. (I also developed the first symptoms of a cold that night, and am just now getting over the bug.)

The Southwest Airlines flight I ultimately caught to LAX was smooth; I enjoyed an empty middle seat next to me, another hour of sleep, and a view of the morning light hitting the Grand Canyon. We arrived into LAX on-time, which is to say our 9:25 AM arrival made me 10 hours late—10 hours tardy on a trip that should have taken seven hours total. To my knowledge, no Amtrak delay is ever that severe and rarely that unpleasant.

Indeed, fortunately, Amtrak was the highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend. On Saturday, I took northbound Coast Starlight train 14 from LA to San Jose. The on-board service crew was a pure delight, and the turkey special dinner in the diner was one of my most memorable Amtrak meals in recent memory. We also arrived San Jose a very tolerable six minutes late.

Last night, I used the Amtrak Capitol Corridor to get from San Jose to Oakland Airport, to catch my return flight on ATA Airlines (OAK-MDW-DCA). The OAK-MDW flight departed slightly late, but schedule padding ensured that I comfortably made my 35-minute connection in Midway. The senior flight attendant on the MDW-DCA flight was the same as on my ill-fated flight the other direction last week. He immediately recognized me and asked how the connection to LA turned out! I gave him the bad news and he profusely apologized.

In any case, the captain announced that today is ATA’s final day of operations at Reagan National. As the New York Times noted over the weekend, margins on domestic economy tickets are razor-thin, and “financial challenges” at ATA have apparently doomed this service.

It is probably safe to say that much larger shifts are in store for the domestic airline industry as unrealistic public expectations for low fares further the degradation of service quality and threaten the viability of certain carriers. A more extensive passenger rail system would undoubtedly provide an attractive alternative in many markets. But horror stories like mine—situations that pillows and peanuts could not remedy—are bound to repeat as working folks traveling cross-country to visit family for the weekend continue to put up with the weather, ground congestion, and other issues plaguing an ailing system that make air travel unreliable and even downright nasty. A robust, well-maintained transportation system will still fail from time to time due to external factors.

There’s no doubt that the time to repair our nation’s transportation infrastructure was yesterday. It is our job as advocates to advance the expansion of passenger rail as a high-value investment and an attractive adjunct to any Band-Aid approaches that might not necessarily save our roads and air facilities from reaching the breaking point in the long run.

Posted by NARP | (5) Comments

Comments

I would say that my turkey dinner on the Southwest Chief was “institutional grade,” but the setting was pleasant. And I seem to catch fewer colds when traveling by train, that much is certain.

Comment by Chas S. Clifton on 12/05 at 04:42 PM

In Mr Melzer’s latest blog entry, which was a follow-up to his delayed ATA flight to the west coast, he said, “To my knowledge, no Amtrak delay is ever that severe and rarely that unpleasant.”

I have been tracking the performance of Train Numbers 21, 22, 821, 822, 1, and 2 since August 1st of this year. On August 30, 2007, Number 1 arrived in El Paso 11 hours and 49 minutes late. Moreover, as is often the case, things got worse. It was more than 14 hours late getting into Los Angles.

Late running is nothing new for the Sunset. In Texas Number 1 has been late, on average, by 88 minutes at Houston and 73 minutes at El Paso, while Number 2 has been late by an average of 128 minutes at El Paso and 115 minutes at San Antonio. Because of schedule padding, the end point numbers (New Orleans and LAX) for the Sunset look a bit better. But for Texas passengers waiting to catch the Sunset, it is the minutes late at their station that counts.

On December 31, 2005, The Silver Meteor was more than 28 hours late arriving in New York. It had been stuck in Jacksonville, Florida for half a day because of a derailed CSX freight train. Then it was stopped for a long period in Georgia waiting for the tracks to be cleared and numerous freight trains to be cleared. According to the newspaper reports, the passengers who stuck it out to New York were tired and angry upon their arrival at Penn Station.

Clearly, the airlines have their fair share of on-time performance problems. But they do better overall than the Amtrak trains that serve Texas.

NARP’s focus should be on what is right and wrong about America’s passenger rail system. There is little if anything to be gained by focusing on the other guy’s shortcomings.

Paul Smith
Georgetown, TX

Comment by Paul J. Smith, Jr. on 12/05 at 04:51 PM

Hello, this will be my first posting on this site. I have been traveling the rails for more than 10 years. I have to agree with paul. We can blame the airlines all we want. But the problem is not with Amtrak, it the problem that Amtrak has to give way to freight trains. Because the congress won’t give Amtrak the funding they need to give them their own rails where they need to be built. Yes I know it would cost billions to do something like this. But this nation helped re-build other nations rail systems. Why can’t they do it for this countries passenger rail system. But the fact is this, Even though I am new to riding the rails (compared to some), it seems no matter who is in office democrat or republican, the government won’t give the funding Amtrak needs. I remember when I first rode the rails. They had movies, real table cloths, real plates. and one attendent per coach. And the food was preped on the train. Now, no movies, plastic plates, and paper table cloths, even with all this, the employees on these trains try to make the riders as comfortable as possible. They say it is more cost effective. But it is because of no money. Also statistically isn’t it less expensive to travel the rails than it is to fly? I think for one year of funding te airlines, Amtrak can run for 5 years. Which makes more sense. Ridership is up on Amtrak, why can’t they see that in Washington? I just hope NARP keeps the presure on our reps. I am always bothering my congresswomen about making sure Amtrak gets funding to needs badly. I just hope she listens.

Comment by John Campbell on 12/05 at 10:54 PM

Mr. Smith’s point is well-taken; Amtrak and the host railroads need to tackle poor on-time performance on chronically late lines. There should be better mechanisms and incentives to address this if S. 294 becomes law. But in the long run, major capacity improvements will be needed across our transportation system, especially in the high-growth rail sector.

However, I stand by the spirit of my assertion: There are very few Amtrak long-distance runs where the delay is 143% of the total trip time, as I experienced with a 10-hour delay on what should have been a 7-hour trip by air. It is also not unfair to point out that even my worst delays on Amtrak have never involved having to sleep on the floor of a terminal. Train travel is simply more humane.

Matt Melzer

Comment by NARP on 12/06 at 12:48 PM

Hello again. I hope all memebers are looking forward to a very safe holiday season. Matt agreed. The southwest chief was running extremely late on its’ departure from LA. Unfortunately I could not get to my contecting train in time. The Amtrak people were regretful at the missed train. Unlike the airline, Amtrak put myself and the other passengers in a nice hotel, and gave us food money for the nite. Now that is class. unlike you, at least I was not put on a cot in the middle of an airport.

Comment by John Campbell on 12/06 at 12:55 PM

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NARP blog

Thanksgiving Travel Postmortem: Amtrak Sets the Bar

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Posted by NARP | (5) Comments

Comments

Comment by Chas S. Clifton on 12/05 at 04:42 PM

Comment by Paul J. Smith, Jr. on 12/05 at 04:51 PM

Comment by John Campbell on 12/05 at 10:54 PM

Comment by NARP on 12/06 at 12:48 PM

Comment by John Campbell on 12/06 at 12:55 PM

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