Flag Stops: People in Motion

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Solid majorities of American voters think greater investment in trains and buses will be more effective at reducing congestion, pollution and oil dependence—and enhancing our quality of life—than building more roads, and are willing to pay higher taxes for it. These findings, based on a survey of 800 registered voters in all 50 states and DC, were released today by Transportation for America (T4A), a broad advocacy coalition of which NARP is a member. In another indication that train advocates’ goals are broadly shared, the sentiments respondents expressed cut fairly evenly across geographic, income and party lines. The main reason respondents gave for why they don’t use transit often, if at all, is that it is not available or convenient where they live, not because they are wedded to their cars or averse to using transit.

Also from T4A: Despite the higher sticker price on housing closer to city centers, urban living is actually more affordable than auto-oriented suburban living when transportation costs are factored in, according to a Center for Neighborhood Technology study [PDF]. This phenomenon, called location efficiency, doesn’t just occur in large cities: it can be realized in suburbs and small towns that are walkable and oriented around transit nodes. This reinforces the message from a 2000 Surface Transportation Policy Project report, “Driven to Spend: The Impact of Sprawl on Household Transportation Expenses.”

Following on the heels of West Virginia, Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson (D) signed into law a bill mandating the state’s Department of Transportation to begin a passenger rail program, giving Kansas a better competitive position in the scramble for future rounds of high-speed and intercity passenger rail (HSIPR) grants. Another enacted law creates the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact, formalizing cooperation between Kansas and its neighbors to advance passenger service. This, plus federal grant approval announced last week, is aimed at making the Northern Flyer a reality. NARP congratulates our newest Council Representative, Deborah Fischer Stout (President of the Northern Flyer Alliance) for her tireless efforts to make this happen!

In a sign of support for an expanded long-distance network, two of President Obama’s nominees for Amtrak’s Board of Directors wrote Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) indicating they would press for refined cost estimates for restoring the Salt Lake City-Portland Pioneer. The two nominees, plus a third pick, have been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee and are awaiting a confirmation vote in the full Senate.

New high-speed train service between the central Chinese cities of Zhengzhou and Xian is so popular that all airlines have ceased flights between the two locales. The train takes less than two hours to traverse 314 miles (comparable to a trip from Washington, DC to New Haven, CT). The Chinese government is steadily moving towards its goal of having more than 8,000 miles of new high-speed railroads built by two years from now, a feat often cited by President Obama and other leaders to show how far behind the US is in terms of modernizing the national rail network.

LCL: Support for a major rail freight mobility project—with potential benefits for passengers—is bringing the governors of some affected states together, 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats. * * * The gears have been set in motion for the electrification of the Caltrain commuter line from San Jose to San Francisco—meaning faster, greener trains in five years—upon the completion of ten years of study. * * * Amtrak ridership from the 4-month-old station in Leavenworth, Washington, is 11% higher than Amtrak’s original estimate, with visitors from the Puget Sound area opting to take the train rather than drive to the Bavarian resort town. * * * Despite a host of other budget cuts made in the same bill, an amendment to withdraw $8 million in state operating grants to Amtrak was thankfully defeated in the Missouri House of Representatives. * * * Amtrak stations in California will soon get new electronic displays showing real-time train departure information and announcements.

—Malcolm Kenton

Posted by Malcolm Kenton

Tags: affordability, amtrak, china, high-speed rail, housing, kansas, mark parkinson, opinion, passenger trains, pioneer, ron wyden, rural, survey, trains, transit, transportation, travel choices, urban, voters, west virginia,

Short-haul airlines in decline, and passenger rail is the solution

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Northeast Alabama Regional Airport

In his appearance before the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure today, NARP President Ross Capon made an important point about the state of the short-distance aviation market, and what industry trends mean for intercity travel.

With air carriers’ profit margins eroded by rising fuel prices, there has been a spate of stories in the past few weeks about airlines getting out of the business of short-haul flights. In his statement, Capon identified two such pieces:

The Associated Press reported on November 27 that “[t]he little planes that connect America’s small cities to the rest of the world are slowly being phased out. Airlines are getting rid of these planes — their least-efficient — in response to the high cost of fuel. Delta, United Continental, and other big airlines are expected to park, scrap or sell hundreds of jets with 50 seats or fewer in coming years. Small propeller planes are meeting the same fate. The loss of those planes is leaving some little cities with fewer flights or no flights at all… [Jet fuel prices are] at $3.16 per gallon today, up from 78 cents in 2000. That’s changed the economics of small planes…”
Two days later, the AP reported that “US Airways’ round-trip fare from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia will jump nearly 500 percent early next year once Southwest Airlines drops its nonstop service between the two cities. The nonrefundable round trip fare, not including taxes and fees, is now $118, but will jump to $698 after Southwest ends its service on Jan. 8, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday [Nov. 29]

The private sector is confirming something NARP has long warned of: rising fuel prices are irrevocably changing the way Americans travel. So think about this: Department of Energy statistics show that even undercapitalized Amtrak is 14% more energy efficient per passenger-mile than domestic airlines (Amtrak uses 2,435 British Thermal Units per passenger-mile, compared to airlines 2,826 BTUs). As Capon pointed out, these trends mean “unless passenger rail development is strangled by inadequate funding, demand for trains will continue to rise.”

Kevin Brubaker, Deputy Director at the Environmental Law & Policy Center, came to the same insight in a briefing he circulated. By piecing together a number of disconnected reports, Brubaker was able to provide an analysis of the vulnerability of small and mid-sized cities reliant upon a single airline’s bottom line:

Regional jets and turbo props are no longer economical, reported the Washington Post [on November 25]. “Airlines are getting rid of these planes—their least-efficient—in response to the high cost of fuel. Delta, United Continental, and other big airlines are expected to park, scrap or sell hundreds of jets with 50 seats or fewer in coming years. Small propeller planes are meeting the same fate. The loss of those planes is leaving some little cities with fewer flights or no flights at all.” [C]ities with strong passenger rail connections are far better equipped to deal with this trend.

Travelers on the Northeast Corridor can take Amtrak from cities like Providence, RI, Trenton, NJ, and Wilmington, DE to Baltimore-Washington or Newark International Airports for international and long distance flights.

Places like Springfield, IL, Bloomington/Normal, IL; and Kalamazoo, MI are less vulnerable, since they will soon have 110 mph higher speed service to major hub airports like Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis.

Capon and Brubaker are both identifying the same fact: overreliance upon a single mode creates inherent instability in a transportation network. There is a hard fact that critics of government investment in infrastructure fail to recognize: if transportation networks are left entirely to the free market, thousands of rural and suburban communities—lacking the population density to allow for profitable operation—will be stranded. That outcome would be a disaster for the Americans who make those towns their home, especially seniors and people with disabilities, who rely on intercity public transportation to a higher degree.

Posted by NARP

Tags: airlines, chicago, detroit, kevin brubaker, philadelphia, pittsburgh, ross capon, rural, short-distance, travel,

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