Good news from Washington and Oregon, not-so-good news from New York and Florida, and more subsidies for automobile use, both explicit and disguised.
Good news: The Canadian customs agency has cleared the way for the long-awaited second daily Amtrak round-trip from Seattle to Vancouver, a route with high ridership potential.
Bad news: Due to New York State’s severe budget shortfall, Amtrak’s Adirondack, one of the most scenic routes in the US, may be in jeopardy. Despite Amtrak’s stated interest in maintaining the service, the state (which provides $5 million each year for its operation) has only guaranteed enough funds to operate the train until Sept. 30 of this year. The Adirondack represents a crucial link in the national system, connecting one of Canada’s largest cities to Albany and New York City, and by connection, to Boston, Chicago, Washington and other points. It also shows a great potential for higher ridership with modest trip-time improvements. If you live in New York State, be sure that your legislators and Governor Paterson’s office know that keeping the Adirondack running is a priority, even with limited resources.
Vermont journalist Caroline Abels would like to take the train from Vermont to Florida, but the schedules don’t quite work for her, a sad condition experienced by even the staunchest rail advocates. But she remains hopeful: “Vice President Joe Biden, who used to commute ... on Amtrak, could be a real advocate for trains in Congress. But so must we.” She calls on readers to become activists and organize for expanded service, which is precisely NARP’s raison d’etre.
The United States isn’t the first country to offer its residents incentives to trade in older cars for new ones. European and Asian predecessors to our “cash-for-clunkers” program have given a significant boost to car markets (French new-car registrations went up by 7.1% in June), and many are pushing their respective governments to continue the incentive. Meanwhile, the US car scrappage plans amounts to a very generous subsidy to automakers (and, by extension, to car travel) with very little impact on overall fuel economy and emissions, given that an improvement of as little as 2 miles per gallon qualifies a consumer for $3,500 in taxpayer money. At least some of the other countries with such schemes are balancing them with significant outlays for alternatives to the automobile.
Another, largely-unreported, auto-related general-taxpayer subsidy looms, according to “independent pension consultant” John Ralfe. GM’s restructuring has left in place pension plans for both hourly workers and salaried employees. Thus, the “new [GM] is still liable to fund the huge pension deficit, so its pension problems will continue,” Ralfe writes in the Financial Times. “As long as GM’s pension plans continue, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) remains on the hook to insure them.” He calls GM’s government-backed pension plans “a hidden transfer of $3.5 billion a year from the federal government, backing the PBGC, to GM’s 670,000 plan members.”
While we mourn the loss of the monorail engineer who died on Sunday, it’s a good time to think about what it means that the Walt Disney World monorail is the ninth most-used “rapid transit system” in the country and how experience with it shapes people’s expectations about public transportation.
LCL: Transportation for America (and NARP) applaud the completion of the first rail transit vehicle in decades to be assembled in the US by an American-owned company and hope that the continued growth of rail and transit networks keeps generating American jobs; British Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes electrifying rail lines a key point in his green initiative; the sale of Amtrak’s 30-year-old Turboliners is symbolic of the company’s handicapped condition; and as Amtrak moves towards paperless ticketing, a reminder to be careful with your tickets.
Vermonters organize to lure riders, an express bus service goes under, airlines are still in trouble, gas prices race upwards, and other dispatches from across our infrastructurally-challenged country.
After winning the fight to save Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express from budget cuts, grassroots volunteers are coming together in Rutland, Vermont, in hopes of attracting more riders to the train. Friends of Rutland Rail has been formed to raise awareness about the service, coordinate volunteer train hosts (modeled after successful host programs in Maine and North Carolina), and make the Rutland station more inviting. TrainRiders/Northeast hopes to foster the coalescing of similar groups in several Vermont towns served by Amtrak’s Vermonter.
NARP Council member Kenneth Joseph’s testimony to Congress urging the reinstatement of the Three Rivers has generated discussion (see comments) about the implications of last week’s announcement [PDF] that the Pittsburgh-Harrisburg Steel City Flyer express business-class bus service will come to an end. Part of what doomed the service, which was designed to connect with Amtrak’s frequent Keystone service at Harrisburg, is the inability of buses to drop passengers at the Amtrak station due to the exclusive contract between the City of Harrisburg (which owns the station) and bus operator Capitol Trailways. Other factors include the inflexibility of many corporations’ auto-friendly travel policies as well as that trains are generally more desirable than buses. NARP believes that faster, more frequent train service along the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia corridor, beginning with the reinstatement of the Three Rivers will be more successful in luring both business and leisure travelers from their cars.
A new study by the Center for Clean Air Policy reconfirms the key role better transportation choices play in cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The paper [PDF] concludes “comprehensive application of smart growth best practices and improved transportation choices could significantly reduce transportation emissions at a net cost savings to society.” The provision of alternative forms of mobility and the improved planning of cities and towns would shave ten percent off the number of miles Americans drive at a net cost savings to society through avoided infrastructure costs, savings in fuel and insurance charges, and higher tax revenues from more valuable land development. NARP hopes that this timely report, prepared with the help of our friends at Transportation for America, will be read widely on Capitol Hill as the reauthorization bill is debated.
The recession, higher fares, service cuts and concerns about the H1N1 flu are driving declines in passenger air travel. In May, total passenger load on US airlines fell 9.5 percent and passenger revenue fell 26 percent, accompanying a 22 percent dip in air cargo traffic. These revenue drops, combined with cost hikes in labor and fuel, add up to an ongoing lack of profitability in the US airline industry.This week, US Airways Group said that it will cut 600 jobs this fall, including airport ticket and gate agents and baggage handlers, because of the economy. Though Amtrak ridership weathered the recession longer than most, it is also down, with May ridership and passenger-miles down 10% and passenger revenues down 13% from a year earlier.
At the same time, gas prices are once again on the rise, at the quickest rate since September 2005. This time, more expensive gas is a primary factor causing the Consumer Price Index to go up. If people had more travel choices, perhaps every gas price hike wouldn’t make such a big dent in people’s pocketbooks.
The director of IBM’s Global Rail Innovation Center in Beijing suggests that the US’s position of playing catch-up to the rest of the developed world in the passenger rail department may actually help us by providing many models of success and failure from which the American rail industry can learn. A valid point. Of course, the same could have been said twenty years ago…
LCL: A northeast Indiana columnist applauds the Midwest’s high-speed rail plans while a City Council member in Vicennes, IN, rebuts our loyal nemesis, CATO’s Randal O’Toole; the editors of the Illinois capital’s daily paper say that it’s fine to dream big about bullet trains, but boosting existing trains to 110 mph is more realistic and cost-effective in lean times; and a travel writer extols the National Park Service’s Trails and Rails program, which provides interpretive narration for many scenic and historic route segments.
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