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Thanksgiving Travel Postmortem: Amtrak Sets the Bar
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
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.
—Matthew Melzer
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Liveblogging Air Travel Misery: My Night at Chicago Midway
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Please indulge me for a moment to share an anecdote that embodies everything that’s wrong with domestic air travel in America today and the powerlessness that can overcome even the most seasoned traveler when things go wrong.
Tonight I was scheduled to fly from Reagan National (DCA) to Chicago Midway (MDW) on ATA Airlines (as a Southwest Airlines codeshare), connecting to a Southwest flight to Los Angeles International (LAX) for the Thanksgiving holiday. I arrived at DCA two-and-a-half hours in advance of my flight, and was told even at that time that my 7:05 PM flight would be at least 40 minutes late due to fog and rain in Chicago. The late inbound flight ultimately made us an hour-and-a-half late.
I was supposed to have an hourlong connection at MDW (arriving 8 PM for a 9 PM flight). ATA gate agents claimed to have been coordinating with Southwest here in Chicago, and the lead flight attendant insisted that the cascade effect of delays would make my flight late as well and that Southwest would take care of us.
Such assurances do not mean much in the current airline regulatory environment. By the time we got to MDW at 9:39 PM, the flight for LAX had already pushed back at 9:16 PM. A helpful Southwest gate agent rebooked me on the first flight tomorrow morning, at 6:55 AM, but let me know that I would not be due hotel or meal vouchers or any other form of compensation. That’s because the official reason for my flight’s delay was weather, and, according to US Department of Transportation regulations, passengers affected by weather delays are entitled only to onward passage but nothing else.
So I’ll be spending the night on a cot, provided to weather-delayed passengers courtesy of the City of Chicago. (I even get a pillow and a blanket!)
Due to the incompatability of the reservations systems of ATA and Southwest, the Southwest agent here could not print my boarding pass for the morning, but said I could go to the ticket counter to attempt to do so. All I had was a card summarizing my reservation and the events of my misconnect. The ticket agent also could not check me in, meaning I will still have to obtain my boarding pass in the morning.
But the agent also could not guarantee I would be allowed back through the security checkpoint to get to the cots, since I was not in possession of a boarding pass nor an authorizing security document (which she was unable to print as well). She personally escorted me to the checkpoint, where the screener checking boarding passes and IDs called for a supervisor. Several minutes later, I was cleared to go back into the sterile area. But for training purposes, the screeners nearby wanted to study my Southwest-issued “misconnect rap sheet!” Of course I obliged in the name of national security.
I must extend major kudos to the Southwest and Transportation Security Administration employees who did everything in their capacity to make me a little more comfortable tonight.
Now I sit, alone in the din of piped-in holiday carols singing to no one in particular, cleaning crews meticulously erasing the detritus from a busy travel day, and other stranded passengers staking out places to camp.
If anything, this episode makes me extremely grateful for the shelter that awaits at home.
It also illustrates the dysfunction that can plague any transportation system during irregular operations, especially when the standard contingency plan is Fend for Yourself. This situation would be an even worse burden for a family than for a single passenger. All I know is that I won’t have to go through this particular episode again: ATA is pulling out of DCA altogether, abandoning the Washington, DC market the very day I fly back next week.
I also know I’d much rather endure a long delay from the comfort of an Amtrak train or in accommodations that Amtrak reliably provides in the event a guaranteed connection is missed. Wouldn’t you?
Goodnight from Midway, and a happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Stay safe out there.
—Matthew Melzer
NARP Communications Associate
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Trains Help Revitalize America’s Cities and Towns
Monday, November 12, 2007
I recently took Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner train from San Diego to Los Angeles Union Station, one of America’s great scenic train rides and Amtrak’s busiest route outside of Boston to New York and Washington, D.C.
During the trip into Los Angeles, I discovered that there was a large contingent on the train heading to a concert at the recently opened Nokia Theater at the new
L.A. Live
center in Downtown Los Angeles, which is just a short distance from Union Station via the Metro Rail. Before the Nokia Theater opened, these folks taking the train would have had to drive to non Metro Rail accessible concert venues scattered across the Los Angeles area. Whether they came from San Diego or San Luis Obispo or the many suburban and rural communities along the route of the Surfliner, the train allowed them to avoid traffic and ride in comfort.Downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a renaissance of residential, entertainment, and commercial development. Thousands of new residences are being built in Los Angeles’ long neglected center.
Planners now realize that America’s neglected city and town centers should revitalized as a sustainable strategy to accommodate growth into the future. This pattern, emulated around the country, is usually called smart growth or transit oriented development. Intercity rail and rail transit play a large role in this. Those that have access to trains put out much less climate changing carbon emissions than people who have to drive more.
And as anyone who can take the train regularly for work or pleasure can attest, train travel leads to much better quality-of-life than driving and flying exclusively. Whether you’re taking a commuter train or the spectacular Empire Builder across Montana, train travel is a much more civilized, sensitive way to experience our great country.
Recently our Executive Director Ross Capon was interviewed on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show to discuss Senate Bill 294, Amtrak, and other passenger rail issues. One caller to the show lamented that, while she would like to take the train to Cleveland, Ohio, the early morning time of the train’s arrival combined with the economically distressed state of downtown Cleveland dissuades her.
Trains thrive especially on vibrant destinations in America’s cities and small towns. Recently our board of directors traveled to North Carolina and took the state supported Amtrak route The Piedmont. North Carolina’s DOT over the past few years has undertaken renovations at many of the region’s old railroad stations. Once run down stations are now assets to their communities and focal points for the revitalization of their host communities, from cities to small towns.
What can you do to help? Call your member of the House of Representatives and let them know that you support Senate Bill 294, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act. This bipartisan reauthorization of Amtrak recently passed the Senate by a resounding 70 votes to just 22 against. It must now be introduced in the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and voted out for consideration by the House Rules Committee and, eventually, the full House. It’s important that this vital piece of legislation get to the President soon.
By increasing investment in Amtrak in partnership with the states, S.294 will help Amtrak connect communities and improve them – just as it is already doing along The Piedmont in North Carolina and along the Pacific Surfliner route in Southern California.
—Dennis Lytton
NARP Board Member
Los Angeles, California